A year after losing her older sister in a tragic accident, Charlie's Mom marries the father of the most popular boys in school. Still grieving, Charlie struggles to accept her new family and gets involved with her stepbrothers worst enemy, the capta...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
• CHAPTER THIRTY •
CHARLIE
The kitchen was quiet when I entered.
I saw Peter first, working away in the kitchen, prepping the food. Then I saw Sebastian, Harry and Tommy were also in the room. They were all silently completing some chores our parents had given them before the guests arrive. Sebastian was tidying our lounge area near the backdoors, Harry was setting the table and Tommy was unloading the dishwasher.
As soon as I entered the room, my presence was noticed by everyone. Peter was the first to greet me, offering me a warm smile and asked me how I was. I was polite and told him I was fine before heading straight to the dishwasher as my Mom had asked me to stack it.
My Mom was right on my tail and followed me into the kitchen area. I heard her ask Peter if they could go and talk about something. I realised she was going to fill him in on everything I had told her upstairs. She offered me a warm smile of reassurance when she noticed I had picked up on what was going on. Then she nodded to Tommy before my Mom and Peter left the room, leaving me alone with them.
I bit my lip when they were gone and started filling the cultery container of the dishwasher with knives and forks that had been left on top of a stack of dirty plates. Tommy ignored me and continued to empty clean wine glasses out of the dishwasher.
"Tommy? Can we talk?" I questioned.
Tommy put a couple of glasses away in the cupboard, barely even being able to look at me. "Not now, Charlotte. I'm not in the mood."
Tommy's comment made my rage come back. The last thing I care about is what he wants right now.
"And? I wasn't In the mood to be slut shamed!" I snapped, resisting the urge inside of me to raise my voice.
Tommy turned to look at me, confusion coming over his features. "Slut shamed? I didn't call you a slut." Tommy denied.
"No, but you stood by on the sidelines and let those two ridicule me." I argued, nodding at Harry and Sebastian.
I shouldn't have brought them into the conversation. The mention of their names made their heads snap in my direction. I felt my jaw tightened as I realised I had just opened myself up to be ganged up on.
"We did that because you betrayed us." Harry butted in, his seething anger from earlier returning.
"Betrayed you?" I reiterated.
Sure, Billy was their enemy, but the real betrayal here was the way they'd treated me.
"Charlotte you're going out with our enemy." Tommy sighed.
I rolled my eyes. "But I like him. It's not about you guys."
