Me: UGH.
I couldn’t imagine getting dumped for someone else; it was bad enough just seeing Zack with someone else after our breakup.
Charlie: Right? Like it wasn’t about me, but just how hard she vibrated around someone or something. Bullshit answer.
I agreed, although a tiny part of me wondered if she’d been letting him down easy by saying that and the truth was actually that she’d hit her limit of Mr. Nothing’s dark sarcasm. Still, I was supportive and texted: Total bullshit answer.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN Bailey
The next few weeks fell into a pattern that pretty much just rotated between school, work, and Charlie. Charlie and I seemed to get scheduled every Tuesday and Thursday night, whereas Nekesa and Theo were the Monday/Wednesday team. The four of us worked together on weekends, which meant that Charlie pretty much texted me throughout the entire weekend shift about the Nekesa/Theo vibe.
Charlie: That is the TWELFTH time she’s touched his arm since we started.
Me: You’re a psycho.
Charlie: You need to count HIS touches, Glasses.
Me: Why would I do that?
Charlie: Data. It’s all about the data.
Me: What does that mean?
Charlie: If you don’t know, I’m not going to tell you. Just start counting.
And I did. Charlie always had me doing stupid things that were pointless and silly, things I never would’ve done and should’ve said no to, but it was easier to just play along with Charlie’s games.
“Salted Nut Roll,” Charlie said, staring at the shirtless man in swim trunks who was approaching the vending machine.
“Nope.” I looked at the dude’s chest hair and knew I was going to win this time. “He’s all about the Funyuns.”
I leaned on the counter of the registration desk, beside Charlie, straining to see.
Charlie had come up with a game—Vending Machine Bet—where we wagered on what the guests were going to purchase when we saw them approaching the machine.
It was just one of multiple games Charlie would come up with that helped us pass the time at the front desk. I wondered if Charlie hated being bored, the quiet that came with being bored, or the idea of having it just be him and his thoughts, because he sure put a lot of effort into making up things to do to avoid whatever it was he wanted to avoid.
“Do you think a guy that serious about manscaping,” Charlie said quietly, out of the side of his mouth, “would ever introduce Funyun dust into his chestal thatch?”
I snorted. “Be nice.”
“I am,” he said, still watching the guy. “I have mad respect for anyone who chooses to keep it bear-thick on top and nonexistent on the bottom. He marches to his own drum.”
“Shhhh,” I said, watching intently as the man fed dollar bills into the machine.
Charlie shifted the weight of his body to lean fully on me and make me stumble. “You shhh.”
“Stop it,” I said, but we both froze as the man pressed his selection.
“Yes.” Charlie pumped a fist in the air. He leaned his face down closer to mine and said, “Who’s the winner, Bay? Is it you or me?”
“Has anyone ever told you you’re insufferable when you’re winning?” I asked, unable to hold in the smile as he acted like a child.
“Then I must be insufferable all the time,” he said, his grin wide and cocky.
“You actually are. That is the perfect way to describe you. Constantly insufferable.”
When we weren’t working together, I was pretty much just begging him to come over because one of two things happened when he did. Either he came over and it made Scott quiet, which made me feel like Charlie was buying me time by slowing their relationship progression, or he came over before Scott got there, and magically, Scott never showed up.
Almost as if he doesn’t want to come over when Charlie is there.
That being said, my mom still seemed happy with Scott and things weren’t falling apart. But for someone dealing with their relationship on a day-to-day basis, anytime Scott wasn’t there, I considered a win.
Which was how I ended up owing Charlie a favor.
I was studying in my room on a random Wednesday night, with music cranked in my AirPods so I couldn’t hear Scott and my mom in the living room, when Charlie texted.
I need a favor, Glasses.
I texted: What’s the favor?
Charlie: I want you to go with me to a party Friday night.
What? That made me hit pause on the song. He wanted me to go to a party with him? With him? We didn’t really do things like that; we only hung out at work and at my house. Why would he want me to go to a party with him? I texted: What????
Instead of him texting back, my phone started ringing. Which, to be fair, was something Charlie did all the time. If something required explanation, he almost always bailed for the phone call.
I answered with, “What kind of a party? Like a child’s birthday party?”
I wanted him to say yes to that, because I didn’t want this to be something that made things weird with us.
“Like I’d subject you to that kind of torture,” he said, his voice quiet and a little hoarse, like he’d been sleeping. “It’s just a small party at one of my friends’ houses.”
A small party at one of his friends’ houses?
Without thinking, I said, “Okay, but we don’t do that.”
I walked over to the window and closed my blinds, trying to explain without sounding like I thought he was into me. “We’ve never crossed school and friend lines.”
“That’s why this is called a favor,” he said, and he cleared his throat. “My ex and her douche will be there—and I so do not care about that—but I also don’t want to seem pathetic. If you go with me, I can relax and have fun without worrying about looking sad.”
Okay, that didn’t sound bad. I was relieved he wasn’t asking me out, even though for some reason a tiny knot of something was in my stomach. “Will I have fun?”
“Of course you will—you’ll be with me.”
“That isn’t the reassurance you think it is,” I said, wondering what his friends were like. “I’m fairly certain you’re the most obnoxious person I’ve ever met.”
“Wrong,” he said, and I thought I heard a dog bark in the background. “It’s a known fact that repressed people mistake ‘fun’ for ‘obnoxious’ all the time.”
“Obnoxious people mistake ‘normal’ for ‘repressed’ all the time,” I replied. “Get it right.”
“Oh, Glasses, you’re adorable when you’re in a huff.”
That made me smile, which I was glad he couldn’t see. The boy did not need to know that his sarcastic boobishness was amusing at times. I said, “It’s like you’re trying to make me say no.”
“Pleeeeeeeeeease say yes,” he begged. “Please, please, please, please, please.”
“Are your friends, like, keg-stand party people,” I asked, my mind switching over to the idea of the party itself, “or are they more of the playing-board-games party people?”