Nowhere Fast
Chapter 17 - The Trustworthy Ones
Pacey Witter
“What could you possibly want?” Joey demanded. You wouldn’t have even known what had transpired not a minute earlier with that attitude. I stretched my neck as far as I could to find out who was there.
It was Charlie, looking completely worn out from a long day of classes. “I told you I’d report back if I knew any information. Mind if I enter?”
“Yes, actually, I do mind.”
He looked over her shoulder and spotted me. “Sorry. Did I interrupt something important?”
She responded hastily, “No, of course not.” No, of course it’s not important that I had just kissed you and you refused to answer my question. That you’d rather talk to a person you’ve never wanted to talk to before than to me.
Charlie let out a sigh of relief and glanced back and forth down the hall. “I can’t explain it here. That’s part of the problem.”
“So where do you want to discuss this? There is no possibility you’re entering my room.” I’m sure she would have preferred abandoning me here.
“Um, tell you what. I’d be willing to take both of you out to dinner off-campus. Anywhere you want. My treat.”
Joey rested a hand on her hip and tapped her foot on the ground impatiently. “Why would I agree to this?”
“Because you’re desperate to know the truth.” Even though Joey’s back was to me, I could tell she must have rolled her eyes at him. Charlie then thought of a different tactic, “Fine, Joey, don’t agree.” He called out over Joey’s shoulder, “Hey, Pacey. You interested in having food in a restaurant? Free food?”
I joked, “You said the magic word.”
Joey muttered, “Such a college student.” Louder, she replied, “Okay, if he’s going, I suppose I will as well.” Personally, I would have preferred not having to see her right now.
Charlie said, “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, um, why should the information be given second-hand? I’d feel better about doubting you right away, as opposed to through Witter.” I suppose that’s a relief for her. That way, she wouldn’t have to talk to me alone. “Come on, Pacey.” She practically pushed me out of her room as she said, “I just need a couple of minutes.” Joey shut the door shut, leaving us guys in the hallway.
Charlie looked quickly at me, then glanced down the hallway again. He whispered, “I didn’t mean to interrupt something significant.”
I spat out quickly, “It wasn’t important.” He didn’t need to know that the most important conversation Joey and I would have had been interrupted.
He laughed, “Right. You were just exchanging makeup tips. You’d have thought Joey would’ve taught you how to put on lipstick.”
“Fuck,” I muttered as I wiped off my face. I’m certain that would’ve pissed Joey off. She felt Charlie was as evil as Abby. I was always doubtful of Charlie’s role in the journal. I suspected that this dinner would be the proof. “You don’t mention this in that little bet going around the building.”
“If you want to be technical, the bet was over the day Joey and Jack kissed.”
“How did you know…”
I stopped talking as the door opened and an irritated Joey popped out. She looked first at me, then at Charlie, knowing full well that we’d been talking about her. She snapped, “Weren’t we heading out?” Charlie nodded quickly and led us out of the building.
It was a very awkward ride to the diner, as nobody really wanted to talk. Well, Joey didn’t want to talk to me and she’d cut off Charlie whenever he tried to say anything.
It wasn’t until we’d ordered our food that Joey finally spoke. “Now that we’ve got our food ordered, I want to hear this. What’s this about?”
“Jack’s not involved.”
She sighed, “I knew that.”
“Maybe you know but he doesn’t know you know.”
“Well of course he should know that I…” Joey shook her head and stopped herself from a possible tongue twister. “Why is this any of your business?”
“He lied about Friday night. I don’t know why he lied since I said nothing about…”
“ You said?” Now I was as confused as Joey.
Charlie sighed, “Okay, I’m gonna have to back up a little more. Remember I told you I’d help you discover the true story?”
She replied, not at all convinced he would be helpful, “Yeah?”
“I had found out several days ago. I left a note at Pacey’s door, because, well, you kind of scare me. Jack found the note and came over. I gave him the journal I stole from Abby’s room.”
Abby’s room! Finally, the proof that Joey and I had been seeking. “So she’s guilty!” I cheered.
Joey pointed out, “I thought that was already common knowledge.”
“Maybe so, but this is the testimony we needed.” She looked not at all convinced that was the end of the story.
Charlie continued, “If you want the true perpetrators, that would be her and Chris. He swiped one of those forms for Abby to forge. She left the form at the main office. When the electrician came to work on your light, Chris made sure to distract him while Abby searched for something incriminating. I’m not quite sure Chris even knows why she did this.”
“Of course, you arrange it so you’re completely in the clear. Do you really expect…” Joey said sarcastically.
I stopped her from continuing. “And Jack?”
“I told him not to tell Abby that we’d become friends even before the journal situation. I said nothing about what to say to you two but it’s clear that he opted not the mention anything to you. So when he thought he was being accused, it would have sounded even worse if he’d said where he really was that night.”
“Oh my god.” Joey exclaimed, “This just gets more annoying. You’re telling me that you were hanging out with Jack Friday night?”
“Yeah. We went to this party over by the Richmond Quad.”
She replied skeptically, “You and Jack as a couple went to that party?”
“Of course not as a couple!” Charlie exclaimed. “I just introduced him to the gay scene. Well, sort of. We got into a fight before we got there. I did see him there; he didn’t back out even though I was sure he would after that.” I tried hard not to laugh at that news. After all, Jen and I had been convinced there was no way Jack would agree to heading to a gay club back in New York City. Jen had talked to him since that night and thought she’d made some progress.
She was trying not to look convinced. “Okay, maybe you two know each other. But why tell us all this?”
“If Jack hasn’t said a word yet, he probably wouldn’t until he got caught in a bigger lie. That means that he probably would think that you blame him. If I were in your position, Joey, I’d question him as well. Since he feels he’s being accused, he’d probably pull away from you. That’s a problem because that was the beginning of Abby’s plan. There’s no way I’d want her to succeed. You’re too important to him for a bitter schemer to win some stupid game. Believe it or not, I do care about Jack and there are very few people I would say that about. That is taking precedence over whatever hatred he feels toward me right now.”
Joey glared at me as she asked, “Didn’t this have something to do with pulling me and,” pointing to me, “him together?” Uh oh, Abby did say something stupid like that at the party.
“Kind of. Actually, she wanted you two to hook up then use contents from the journal to infuriate Pacey enough to cause a fight. By that time, you would think that Abby had no intention of reading it so it’d be easier to ruin everything.” Damn it. Joey would think this was part of the game. I didn’t act as a result of Abby’s manipulations! Charlie glanced in my direction apologetically, realizing too late it was a mistake to have mentioned that.
“Speaking of the journal, how can I be sure neither you nor Abby would tell everyone what I wrote? I would be correct to assume you know what’s in there, right?” This was the one point that I couldn’t dispute was still a problem. He could reveal the way it happened but it still didn’t change the fact that nobody could change what information Abby must have already known. He’d already brought up a kiss that he couldn’t have known about without reading that thing.
“There are ways to shut her up. She could easily get busted for something illegal. I’m sure Pacey could think of something.”
I pointed out, “You mean like the smuggled beer?”
“Yeah, something like that. She also has a microwave in her room, which is blatantly illegal.” Damn, I wish I were aware of that before. I could have used someone like her for heating up food. Maybe I still could… Joey and I smiled at that discovery. He continued, “As for me, I’m giving you a special treat.” He pulled out a small notebook from his jacket pocket and handed it to Joey. “Pick a page, any page.”
Joey seemed completely confused as she flipped pages of the book. Once she realized what she was holding, her jaw dropped in disbelief. “You are not serious! This is your journal!”
“I told you I understood clearly why you were upset. Go ahead, Joey.”
Reluctantly, she turned sheets until she settled on a page in the back of the book. She stopped there and began reading. As she read, her forehead scrunched up more and more.
Joey looked up at him, a trace of sorrow evident in her eyes. As soon as he caught her gaze, Charlie snatched the book away from her and put it back in his pocket. “I’m sorry, I can’t do this.”
“Don’t you want to talk about what I read?” She was definitely concerned about whatever he’d written.
He shook his head. “If you want to let them in, it’s up to you. Just please don’t say it in front of me right now. I’d prefer to be in the dark.” At that moment, the waiter had come by with plates of food, allowing a way out of the situation.
* * * * *
Joey Potter
When Pacey and I returned to his room, I was disappointed to see that Jack wasn’t around. He must have gone to dinner after class. I sat down in Jack’s chair while Pacey grabbed a textbook from his desk and brought it over to his bed. He began reading, acting as though he was alone in the room.
He hadn’t said a word to me since we left the restaurant. The trip home consisted of Pacey and Charlie debating over which was the best restaurant in New York City - basically, an excuse to exclude me from the conversation.
Now what? I was now alone with Pacey and I still didn’t know how to handle him. Why the hell is this so difficult? I should be able to tell him that it was a mistake and just move on.
Was it a mistake? It certainly seemed like a mistake. And yet…why was there a part of me that wanted to experience a sequel to that kiss? No, of course that wasn’t what wanted. You see the problem? How could I face him right now when I wasn’t even sure what I wanted? After all, look at how vacillating I was regarding Dawson, even though the answer in that circumstance was perfectly obvious. Anything would have been better than the silence. That’s not quite true - saying exactly the wrong thing was a definite possibility. I knew there was nothing that Pacey could say at the moment - the ball was in my court right now.
Now, here’s where the mess got a little dicey. What I really wanted to do was talk to Jack - preferably in front of Pacey - regarding the tension that’s been evident for the last two weeks. To me, the friendships among the three of us should be taking precedence over the implications of a kiss. We were sort of a family and I felt that element was gradually slipping away.
After fifteen minutes of studying, Pacey finally spoke up, “You have no idea what to say to me anymore.”
“You’re not making it any easier with your nose in that book.”
He slammed the textbook shut. “What would you prefer I do? Sit here and watch you? Have some meaningless conversation about how my day was? I’m sorry, Potter, I can’t do that.”
“Fine, what about what we say to Jack?”
“I wasn’t the one who started this mess.”
“You don’t think there’s anything worth fixing.”
“Between me and Jack?” Pacey raised an eyebrow. “I’m not even sure how anything, other than time, can mend anything among us roommates.”
“I get it, you don’t care about the family.”
“Um, excuse me, what? Family? Where the hell did that come from? I thought the three of us just happened to be friends” He shook his head in disgust. “So what does that make me, your brother?”
Oh shit. I was only referring to something in Charlie’s journal - part of the entry involved the lack of family in his life - and Pacey has to use this very moment to confront me. Okay, so he wasn’t aware of that part yet but it wasn’t as if I was able to talk to Pacey yet about why I was really waiting around in his room.
“No!” I sputtered out as I got up and headed toward him. “That’s not the way I meant it. Look, I wasn’t taking about…um, what happened earlier tonight.”
“You can’t even say what happened!” Pacey exclaimed as he bolted up from his seat. He grabbed his coat, retreated back to gather his books and headed toward the door. “That’s a better answer than any possible speech you could conjure up.”
“Pacey!” I chased after him, realizing I had to at least try to reason with him. I leaned against the door to block his lone exit. “Would you please just deal with this? I admit that right now my priority is in clearing up any possible misunderstandings. That includes any between us as well.”
He turned to face me, all warmth missing in those blue eyes. “I understand what that ‘possible misunderstanding’ is regarding us. I apparently misunderstood that there was anything resembling a possible ‘us’. There, see, it’s on the table. No need to delve any further into that issue. Now I’m gonna find a lounge to study in. This is not the best environment for that type of activity.” I stepped out of his way to allow him to leave the room.
Five minutes later, I couldn’t believe I had done something so stupid. How could I have let him leave like that? I slumped down on Pacey’s bed. Why was everything so difficult?
With Dawson, there was months of planning going into the event. In this case, ‘event’ meaning originally our first kiss, then most recently, the breakup. Everything in that relationship involved a lot of analysis - either via directly speaking out to Dawson or, later on, self-analysis using the journal.
Pacey was not that methodical. That was normally one of his better qualities, but as with any positive quality, there are times when it could drive a person crazy. That kiss, and his resulting reaction, was definitely ranking as an example of the more annoying aspect - when impulsiveness turns into irresponsibility.
I rested down on Pacey’s pillow, placing my hand to my forehead. Goddamn headache.
I heard the lock turning. Partially hoping that Pacey was returning, the other part praying that he’d really study somewhere else.
“Joey? Should I have stayed out longer?” That was a sigh of relief as I realized it was Jack who’d returned.
“Hmm? What do you mean?” I tilted my head back to look at him. Well, an upside-down version of him, anyway.
“I see you laid out on Pacey’s bed and you ask me that?” I shot up quickly upon realizing how I must have appeared to him. He shook his head, slightly disappointed, “Never mind, forget what I said.”
“Jack, if you had any clue how this evening has been, you really wouldn’t say anything more on the subject.” I sighed.
“So you’re not waiting for Pacey to return?”
Okay, that sounded as good of a lead-in to why I was here as I’m getting. “He let me stay here to wait for you to return. Where were you anyway?”
“I ran into a friend at the pizzeria and I guess I lost track of time. I didn’t think it would matter so much to you.”
“Why, would you have lied about it if I wasn’t waiting?”
“Did you wait around just to say that?” Jack challenged. “Okay, let’s get this over with. I had nothing to do with…”
I continued, “It would have been so much easier if you just gave me the journal. Abby wouldn’t have any reason to think she’s succeeding in ruining any friendships. I could have been prepared for her trash talking. I could have even laughed at her at how remarkably blind she is. After all, the person who supposedly should be on her side is actually aiding the adversary.” Jack crossed his arms over his chest, trying not to react to that information. I snickered at his defensive stance, “Her case couldn’t have been weaker. Instead, you think that I accuse you of arranging a relationship with Pacey. He thinks I’m disgusted by him kissing me…”
Jack interrupted, “Hold on, are you trying to confuse me? Pacey kissed you and has reason to think you object? How could that have possibly occurred?”
“Charlie mentioned something about Abby trying to pair us off. So there’s this element regarding how much was her playing puppeteer and how much was about us as people.”
“Now you’re going to have to explain. Why would you possibly take something Charlie said seriously? I thought he had zero credibility for you. Rightfully so.”
I smiled, “He agreed to pay to take Pacey and I to dinner if we’d listen.” I then assured him, “He wasn’t trying to set you up. Charlie was actually being a friend.”
“Charlie is nobody’s friend. He was probably just using you to ease your concerns. See, that’s what he does. He pretends that he’s on your side, then suddenly blindsides you.”
“Is this about the journal or something else?”
Jack settled into his chair, somewhat surprised by the question. “It’s about everything. Are you claiming that he wasn’t just pretending to be a friend? You’ve apparently been suckered in. Although I’m shocked that he could have done something so profound that you changed your mind.”
“If he was trying to make a statement, I seriously doubt he would have supplied his own journal.”
Jack rolled his eyes in skepticism, as he rummaged through papers on his desk. “He could have written a bunch of random crap to get you to swoon.”
“You weren’t there. I could tell that he really hated the ‘eye for an eye’ method as soon as he saw me read a page. If it was really all a setup, he would never have written about how pissed off he was after talking to his sister but trying, ultimately unsuccessfully, to cover it up for your benefit.” That stopped Jack dead in his tracks, ever so slowly turning to face me. He covered his mouth with his hand in disbelief as I maintained, “Charlie was hurt that you really thought he was doing everything because of Abby. Actually, if anything, it was triggered by him despising Abby’s actions.”
“His sister?” was all that Jack could muster as a reply.
“Yeah, his sister was calling on his mother’s behalf. Apparently, for some reason, she doesn’t want to have contact with him so the sister was used as a relay. The sister didn’t really want to talk to him, I suspect, because he then wrote that the conversation turned in the sister throwing a guilt trip about choices he’s made and how their mother is still hurt by the divide.” If Pacey had heard that, he probably wouldn’t have reacted as harshly as he did earlier - but it wasn’t truly his business either.
“He’s letting you discuss his journal?” He finally asked.
“Sort of. I thought there was a better chance for you to talk to him than myself. I doubt he’d have a problem with the fact I did that. Besides, once I figured out that fight probably played a role in the way you acted, it made more sense to tell you his side.”
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that he’s usually blunt. I didn’t really think there was anything more than Charlie being himself.”
“Yeah,” I chuckled, “I could see there being a problem with the distinction.”
* * * * *
Jack McPhee
When Joey retreated back to her room, still confused as to actually handle Pacey, I immediately checked my watch. 1:12 am.
Damn, that girl was a bundle of neuroses right now. How hard would it be for Joey to back down and admit she made a mistake! The mistake being that she didn’t want to admit enjoying kissing Pacey. The fact that it bothered her so much that she was being driven in so many directions seemed proof of that.
Then again, she had to admit she was wrong once tonight. I guess it would be a crime for that to happen twice in the span of a couple of hours. Speaking of that offense… I got up and headed out of the room. For some reason, I felt compelled to talk to Charlie right at that moment. I knew this seemed a little late for many people, but college students live by different time. In this case, being a junior allowed him to set up his schedule so that he didn’t have morning classes. Which meant that he would probably be awake.
I didn’t have a chance to knock on the door when it swung open. A dark-haired guy stood there surprised to find someone on the other side.
“Hey man, whatcha want?” Now the first thing I would think of was that he was a friend of Charlie and it was the end of a night. For some reason, that idea was very unsettling.
“Um, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt, or whatever was happening…” I closed my eyes, willing myself to block out that thought.
“Doncha live a couple of doors down? Sorry I don’t know the neighbors that well.”
“Yeah, I do. How’d you know that?”
He chuckled, “I guess I really haven’t been around.” Pointing behind him, “I guess you want the bookworm, right? Come on in. I was just getting clean clothes and heading back to my girl’s place.” As I entered, I saw Charlie sitting at his desk, reading what appeared to be a script. “Hey, Chuck, I’m out.”
“Later,” he called out absentmindedly. Once the door shut, he glanced toward me, then resumed reading. “You had no idea that was my roommate.”
“I’ve never seen him before.”
“It’s a rare treat when Marco stops by. Usually, it’s because he had a fight with his girlfriend Valerie. In this case, she got fed up with doing the laundry. In an hour, they’ll be back to their normal humping activities.”
“Lovely living situation,” I drolly replied.
“Actually, it is. I’m basically living alone in a double. Who am I to say that he should stop paying for room and board and just move in with her already?” He stopped reading and turned completely around to face me, “So what do you want?”
“We really need to talk.” I insisted.
“Isn’t that what we’re doing?” At my annoyed reaction, he added, “First, you never want to speak to me again. Now, it’s absolutely imperative?”
“Joey told me about dinner.”
“Wow, she actually trusted you enough to do that?” Charlie exclaimed, “You were willing to pass that information around? Because I will just go tell Abby that you’re exactly where I want you.”
“Fine, I deserve that.” I sat down on the other chair. “I didn’t know what to believe after everything that happened that night. You rag on Pacey and Joey, then Gary tells me about this cold-hearted person and then Abby said all this shit about my agenda, which was verbatim what you told me. It just seemed like a trap.”
“Gary thinks I’m a con artist because I wanted to get the hell away from him. I can already guess what he must have said. So, what made you suddenly want to speak to me again?”
“Your journal. I can’t believe you did that. More importantly, I can’t believe that happened that night.”
“Oh.” He leaned down and ran his fingers through his hair, probably thinking back to dinner. He stopped that and looked back at me. “I have no idea what she actually read. I told her I didn’t want to know at that moment.”
“Well, she thought it was important enough to tell me. You were on the phone with your sister when I arrived for the party.”
“Oh, that. I thought she’d hit upon my porn stuff. That would’ve worried anybody.” I raised an eyebrow, to which he chuckled, “I was kidding, Jack. Damn, tough room. Anyway, so you heard about Lorena’s ‘festive’ personality.” He twirled back to his reading.
“I know there was some tension. Joey wasn’t able to read enough to figure out what was wrong.”
“I see. What is there to say? Lorena’s uptight about everything. That’s a popular trait in my family. Every little detail is meticulously planned out in that house. I’m not exactly like that so I’m screwed.” He grabbed a foam ball from the corner of his desk and began bouncing it.
Now, saying it like that would lead one to believe that he was talking about somebody like my sister. That certainly wouldn’t be enough to warrant Joey’s concern. I wasn’t in the mood for some bullshit reason right now - after all, I’d been hearing Joey talking in circles for several hours - so I sniped, “I’m so sorry to hear that. Poor, poor guy.”
He played along, in a similar tone, “Yeah, I’m sure you are. Any damn boohoo story to get your mind off yourself.”
Okay, I realized that this could turn into a rather nasty repeat of the last couple of ‘talks’ so I snapped, “We could do without the snide remarks. Or,” pointing to the ball, “objects flying around the room.”
“Huh?” He then noticed the ball he’d been tossing and caught it. “It’s a bad habit.”
The pen on Pacey’s desk, the notepad, now the foam ball… I pointed out, “You do that whenever we get to the subject of your family.”
“I do?” I nodded. He chuckled nervously, “I guess I can’t say you’re not observant.”
“How about you put that back on the desk and tell me what’s going on instead?” I reminded him, “Besides, you kind of owe me.”
Charlie returned the ball to its original position. “I never want to hear those words again regarding Joey’s journal, okay?”
“Deal.” Even though I wasn’t actually referring to that in this particular case.
“My family runs a couple of restaurants in the city. Practically every relative is somehow connected to the business. Whether as a waiter, chef, janitor, electrician, whatever. My dad pegged me to be the next chef. I remember when I mentioned plans to go to college, the first thing he thought of was culinary schools. Ignore the fact that I got pretty good grades and that I never wanted to be a cook. I was always interested in theatre.” He held up the script he’d been reading.
I couldn’t resist chuckling a little at that information as I blurted out, “You’re a theatre major?” It sounded like a stereotype.
“Go ahead, enjoy yourself with that. Even though I changed my major to American Studies last year, I still am minoring in theatre and am more likely to use that information in the future. Anyway, my dad considered this a phase, since I’d probably get sick of working around all those queens.”
“You mean queens as in drama queen actresses, right?” I had a sickening feeling that’s not what he meant.
“Nope, he’s one of those who thinks half of Hollywood men are gay. This was obviously before I came out of the closet. I mean, I had admitted it to myself and a couple of friends at the time but not my family yet. My dad was set in denial about the college decision and managed to make it even harder for me to say those two words to him. I guess I wasn’t quite accepting of being gay either because I started dating one of my friends, Emily.”
“Was this the same girl that you told…”
“Yup, she’s the prom date I told you about that I suddenly told I was gay. Of course, word spread around about that and my parents eventually found out through a ‘concerned’ gossip. My mom would say that I should talk to our priest, which was certainly more than what my dad said. He managed not to acknowledge me that whole summer. Not to say that he was pissed, disappointed, shocked, nothing.” I saw that foam ball was back in his hand, tossing it from one hand to the other. “When he finally spoke, it was to tell me that the day I left for college would be the last time I’d be allowed under his roof. That was the last day I’ve been home.”
I wasn’t sure exactly what to say to that news. Through all the times that I’d wanted to get away from the chaos at home, I didn’t quite think I’d hold out long enough to stay away permanently. “That was three years ago. I’m sure if you went there, he’d be accepting.”
He exclaimed, “Do you really think I haven’t made an effort?” He turned back to his desk, focusing more on the object in hand. “That Christmas Eve, I decided to go home. After all, people are usually more forgiving for the holidays. Well, I don’t think it’s possible to have any communication when the other party tells the person answering the door to ‘keep the beggars out’. I stayed out there for a half hour, hoping somebody would come outside. Nobody was willing to stand up to my dad.”
I dragged the chair over to his side of the room and was watching him carefully. He’d been able to keep a jovial, or at least sarcastic, tone up until he mentioned the holidays. If there was that wall that Gary referred to regarding Charlie, the structure was about to topple over.
Charlie hadn’t yet noticed I was sitting next to him as he continued, “My mom is a little bit better about it. Except she uses my siblings for correspondence. That’s what happened that night - Lorena was wormed into the duty, even though we’ve never gotten along. She said something about leaving fruitcake rotting for the holidays and how she’s relieved her 2-year-old son has no idea who I am. You’d think I was a Manson the way she acts. Charles or Marilyn.”
He took that ball and threw it hard against the wall. I grabbed it before it could get back to his hand. He was startled by my hand suddenly being in front of his face as he turned quickly to face me. I set the ball down under my chair, keeping my eyes on him the whole time.
Once Charlie realized that I wasn’t stepping away, he did what I suspected - he tried to avoid it. In some weird way, I was relieved about that return to form. “I can just see you working this through your head, thinking that experience was good fodder to stay in the closet.”
He either was kidding or really had no clue what I could possibly be thinking. I replied softly, “Stop changing the subject. This has nothing to do with my family or the way I see my family. That’s a very different issue. This is about releasing those demons, because, I’m sure you’ll deny this, you’ll probably be running those words through your head all night.”
He considered that, then said, “You’re probably right. Either that or just get drunk and block it out. You might not realize it, but that sometimes works.”
I rolled my eyes as I drolly replied, “I somehow don’t believe you.”
“Maybe not, but it’s certainly a nice temporary fix. Not that I have a drop of alcohol around, but if I was really desperate, I’m sure Abby could weasel some out of another unsuspecting freshman.”
I laughed as I stood up, “I think both of us have had a long enough day. Joey completely tired me out before I got here.”
“I have to memorize these lines for drama class but it’s a more healthy distraction than booze.”
“That, I agree with. Good night.”
As I headed to the door, I heard Charlie murmur, “Thanks for everything. I kind of forgive you as well.”
I bit my lip to hold back a laugh. “No problem and I’m kind of glad you accepted.”
Chapter 18 - If It's Happening You'll Know It
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