Promises (Jack Gilinsky)

Chapter 12

Jack's POV:

As I was driving Charlotte home, I noticed how quiet she was being. She isn't usually super loud, but it's not like her to be quiet, either. We pull up to her house and she opens the door. Right as she was about to close it, I speak up. "Hey, Charlotte."

"Yeah?" She says, ducking her head in the car.

"We were gonna go over to Matt's house later. Do you wanna come?"

"I don't think so. I have to study. And I'm just not really feeling well right now."

"Oh, well then, see ya tomorrow."

"See ya."

As Charlotte walks up to her front door, Sam gets in the front. A minute later, we're at Sam's house. I expect Sam to get out, but all he does is look at me like I'm hiding something. I look at Johnson and he's giving me the same look. They must know that something happened. "So, are you going to tell us?" Sam asks.

"Tell you what?" I'm hoping that if I act like I don't know what they're talking about, then they'll let it go. But they don't.

"Dude," Johnson starts. "How many times are you gonna do this. You know I know when something happens. And you're going to tell us what happened after you left practice." He's right. Johnson always seems to know when something happened. Even if I don't act different, he can just tell.

"Well," I say taking a deep breath. "I was walking to my car, when I saw Tony and Charlotte. Tony had his hands on both sides of her so she was practically pinned against the car. He had this evil look on his face. She was fighting back, but I could tell she was scared. So, I did the only thing I could think of. I tackled him. Then we just started yelling at eachother. I was honestly about to walk away, when he said something that pushed me over the edge."

"What did he say?"

"He called Charlotte a whore and told me to stop trying to protect her because I'm no better than him."

"Seriously?" Sam asked, a little surprised.

"Yeah. I couldn't have cared less about what he had to say about me. But the fact the he said that about Charlotte made me angry, so I punched him." Both Johnson and Sam stare at me with wide eyes. They know it's not like me to do that. It's not like any of us to do that. But, I wasn't going to let him get away with that.

"What did Tony do?"

"Well, his nose was bleeding pretty bad, so he turned to leave. But, right before he did, he told me that I shouldn't have done that." I didn't know how to feel about what Tony said. I'm not scared of him, I'm just scared of what he might do to Charlotte.

"Dude, something really bad is going to happen." Johnson says. I know he's right. He's always right about this stuff, but the only thing I can do now is ignore it.

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About an hour later, Sam pulled into my driveway with Johnson in the passenger seat. I got in the back and we started driving to Matt's house.

I didn't really do anything in the hour I had after basketball. I just did some thinking. The whole time, I thought about Charlotte. At first, I thought about what Tony had planned to do next. But, I eventually thought about Charlotte and I. What our future had in store for our friendship, what would happen after we went to college, and so much more. Lately, I've been thinking about that sort of thing a lot. I don't want to leave all of my friends behind when I go to college. Me and Johnson are both planning on going to the same college, but what about the rest of the guys? I know that I'm still a junior, but I can't help but think about it.

We got to Matt's house and went around the back to find the guys playing football. Mahogany was sitting on the porch watching them. Because there was an uneven number of people, I volunteered to sit out first. I just wasn't really in the mood to play.

I went and sat down beside Mahogany on the porch. "Charlotte didn't come?" She asked.

"No, she said she wasn't feeling good, and she had to study." I said. Mahogany nodded her head. We kind of just watched the guys play for a few minutes.

"Hey Jack?" Mahogany says, taking my attention away from the game.

"Hmm?"

"Can I ask you a question about Charlotte?"

"Depends, what's the question?" I ask with a confused look.

"Do you have feelings for her?" Her question comes as a bit of a surprise. Mahogany knows that me and Charlotte are just friends, so there must be something going on.

"Why?"

"Well, if I tell you this, you can't tell Charlotte that I told you, and you can't tell the guys either." I nod my head, anxious to find out what she has to say.

"Well," Mahogany says kind of hesitantly. "Charlotte and I were at the mall last weekend and we were at the food court. We started talking and we somehow started talking about guys. I asked her if she thought any of the guys at our school were cute."

"What did she say?" I ask, a little more demanding than I mean to.

"She said she didn't know, but she wouldn't really feel comfortable dating right now. I asked her why and she said that she was scared to see how you would feel about it.

"After thinking about what she said, I asked her if she had feelings for you." She pauses for a minute, no doubt deciding whether or not to tell me what happened next.

"Well?" I ask, waiting for her to continue.

"She said that she was really confused about your relationship. She knows you guys are just friends, but she's not sure how she feels about it. She said that she didn't want to take chances in a relationship with you, especially because she doesn't think you like her that way."

It takes me a minute to contemplate what Mahogany just said. Charlotte might have feelings for me. I'm not sure how to feel about this.

"Well, do you?" Mahogany says, interrupting my thoughts.

"Do I what?"

"Do you like her?"

Do I like Charlotte? I'm not sure that I can answer that. I know at one point I thought I might, but I don't know anymore.

Every time I'm around Charlotte I can't help but smile. When she laughs, I get butterflies in my stomach. I love the way her eyes light up and she blushes whenever someone compliments her. Wow, maybe I do like Charlotte.

"Mahogany, I don't know. I wanna say yes, but I'm not sure."

Mahogany nods. She understands relationships more than any of the guys ever will. She probably thinks that Charlotte does like me. But, now isn't a good time for all of this. I have the last basketball game of the season a week from today. I can't have any distractions right now, especially considering this is the biggest game of the season. If Charlotte does like me, then it will have to wait. I can't deal with all of this right now.