Blood Night

Chapter 5

Sleep evaded Charlie the whole night, much to her dismay. She couldn't even say she was surprised- there was too much to occupy her mind and keep it reeling and restless. The news that Ed had brought her about Jerry being possibly a murder or what he said vampire would have been more than enough on its own to make her lose sleep, but after what happened with Ed- and after he'd told Ed being better when they stopped being friends- she knew there wasn't a chance of her getting any rest.

She couldn't let herself think about Ed's accusation about Jerry- couldn't, she insisted whenever her thoughts began to stray in that direction. If she allowed himself to start obsessing over what-if scenarios, she would end up waking up the town, calling them all to arms at four in the morning just to ease her anxious thoughts, and have Jerry being innocent but not happy with her. Instead, as she lay curled on her side on the bed, staring out the window at the morning sky, the only thing she let herself think about was Ed.

She missed him. There was a part of her- a very large part of her, in fact- that wanted nothing more than to make her way downstairs and go to Ed again. But she didn't- felt like she couldn't because all of the sweetness and safety that she felt in the other man's presence was now confused by the glaring, obvious factor that Charlie had managed to completely forget about in her pursuit of the other man: friendship.

It's the weekend and Charlie didn't feel like going out in the sun to help her mom for groceries or hanging out with Lucas as Jamie is shopping with her friends. Opening her laptop, she watches a video her, Ed, and Samuel made. All at a young age, wearing tight spandex clothes and styrofoam swords and shields. Each played characters- Charlie always played a male character of Squid-man as the anti-hero of the story. In the video, Ed played Kid-comeback, the villain of the story who killed Gladiator-man (Samuel) in a gladiator playground. She chuckled not just on the bad acting, the fake ketchup blood spilled over Charlie's mouth when she is stabbed or the fake slashing sound effects of swords being played as she stabs Ed in the back, she laughs at the memories. How she wasn't afraid of being herself as a weird tomboy, not the cool now asshole tomboy.

For a moment, Charlie wondered if that part of her was just gone entirely now- if there would ever be a way for her to enjoy herself to be the funny person that wasn't afraid to be weird and not like normal people and another person like that without the memory of Mark and Allen's assault creeping in to taint it. She abhorred the thought that the popularity could still hold that much power over her even when Charlie just wants to be respected in school and be disgraced by the two boys she hangs out with. She wanted more than that- she wanted to want Ed still as a friend, maybe sometimes have her finally realize what she is doing in her last two years in school. Charlie watched the bright sun start to crack her windows, now closing into the afternoon now, she knew that she had to at least talk to Ed again when she is back on Monday. She couldn't take another night of being alone and unsure in her bed for tonight. Even if she couldn't do it- even if Charlie left Ed because of it, he needed to know.

-:-:-:-:-

Sunset is near, the sun catching down the ground and the moon is rising. Charlie finished eating supper and cleaning the dishes, and get outside to see if there is any mail.

Checking the mail Charlie stiffened. She could feel eyes burning into her skin, into her everything. Shivering she glanced to the side to see the new neighbor Jerry staring at her.

Jerry stood in all his glory in the open garage watching the teenager every move. "Hey girl," he called.

Charlie felt the heat rushing to her face as she gathered her mail quicker and walked over to his house.

"H-hey."

"You got your bike with you?"

The confusion was her first thought before she realized what he meant. She completely forgot about her bike and Jerry's assistance. "Oh, yeah. Just give me a second. Uh, how much would it cost?"