She Was His First

6

Charlie had dinner with her family. She ate on the edge of her seat, ready to dash back out to her new friends. She told her mom about Amy and Sarah. Greta said that they were good kids. Then she told them about Jack.

"That whole family is bad news," Isaac said.

Charlie's smile fell.

"We've complained about them numerous times. All the noise and the kid destroying things," Greta said. "Just last week he smashed all the windows in our renter house next door. We couldn't press charges, because we couldn't prove it was him, but we know it was. It's not the first time he's done things like that."

So that's it, Charlie thought. That's the bad thing that Jack did. He just likes to break things. Charlie accidentally breaks things sometimes. She understands how that's bad, but Amy shouldn't be so mean to him because of it.

Maybe Amy is the not-so-nice one, thought Charlie.

Maybe she shouldn't play with Amy, in that case. But Charlie felt bad for even thinking that. She isn't like that. She's not a mean kid, so she'd never turn someone away from being her friend. She would play with Amy, Sarah, or even Jack--if he wanted to play. Amy was her friend. Amy had befriended Charlie as soon as they met and was nice to her, and so was Sarah. Maybe they didn't like Jack, but they did like Charlie. Maybe it was just because he was a boy. Charlie was friends with boys back home, but she knew lots of girls that didn't like to play with boys because they liked bugs, dirt, and things like that.

That's probably it, she thought.

She couldn't wait to go back out and play with Amy and Sarah, regardless of their reasons for not liking Jack. She couldn't swallow her food fast enough. Finally, it was all gone and she was free to go back outside.

She walked out and saw Amy and Sarah a few houses down and across the street. She was about to go over when Jack came up to her side.

"Come on, hurry," he said urgently.

Charlie screwed her face up. "Where?" she asked.

"You have to hide," he said. "They're mad at you."

Charlie looked aver at Amy and Sarah. "Why? I didn't do anything."

"I know, come on," he said.

"But I didn't do anything," she said. "They don't have any reason to be mad."

He tugged her arm anxiously. "I know, but they think you said something mean about them. They'll hurt you. Hurry, you have to hide!"

"I didn't say anything about them," Charlie said, confused. Her hands were getting sweaty.

"I know, I'll talk to them for you," he said. "But first you have to hide, so you'll be safe."

Charlie was in a panic. Her new friends were mad at her and wanted to hurt her. Her tummy, full of fried chicken from dinner, felt sick. She should have gone back inside. She shouldn't have followed Jack, even if she thought he was misunderstood. But she found herself letting him lead her away.

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A/N: I'm kind of getting bad anxiety right now, because this part is all entirely true--not embellished at all for drama. He seriously devised this devious plan to lure me away into a private area. How? He's only an 8-9 year old kid. Still freaks me out to this day how cruel and calculating he was.