CHAPTER 18

THE FREAK OUT

Brandon

Charlie was freaking out. I could see it in her eyes. It didn’t matter how good of a front she was putting up. That slight shift in her was so obvious, so real.

I didn’t know what the hell I was thinking. I had no intentions of going into that laser tag arena and changing everything between us.

But then I saw her.

She was yelling at the smallest kid in the game, and she was holding her hand over her chest to keep herself hidden. But she couldn’t hide. She was so damn beautiful. So much more than I deserved.

And when her eyes met mine, I was lost.

There was no turning back. The only thing that could have stopped me was her. I just needed her to tell me to stop. To tell me she didn’t want it.

But she didn’t. She just stared up at me, and she looked as desperate as I felt. As desperate as I had felt since the moment I met her.

But I fucked up. She was here with David.

Sure, the guy was pissing me off, but this wasn’t who I was. And it sure as hell wasn’t who Charlie was.

But I did that to her.

Now she was walking up to David, and he reached out to help her out of her equipment. I wanted to punch him in the face for touching her. I wanted to kill him.

Instead, I jerked my own equipment off and threw it in the box. I was being irrational. I knew that she came here with him. What did I expect? That she would come outside and confess her undying love for him and refuse to even talk to David?

She didn’t deserve that. She didn’t deserve to be put in this position.

But she was in it, regardless, and I felt like a complete and total asshole.

“Don’t be so sour because an eight-year-old got more kills than you.” Livy bumped into my side, and I tried to force myself to give her an easy smile.

Livy could see straight through me.

She opened her mouth to ask me what was wrong, but I quickly shook my head before she could ask. Now was not the time.

Livy’s eyes jerked in Charlie’s direction as if she knew the exact reason for my mood, but by the pity in her eyes, I knew she thought it was because Charlie was here with David.

She didn’t even consider that her best friend was a dirtbag. The thought didn’t even cross her mind.

“Are we going to eat now?” Staci asked where anyone around us could hear her.

There was no way in hell I was going to be able to sit around a dinner table and watch David touch her. I couldn’t do it.

“I think I’m actually going to head home.” I clicked on my phone to appear like I was checking something important, but I really just needed something to do with my hands. Something to distract me.

“That’s lame,” Staci said, but quickly moved on to asking Charlie and David where they wanted to go to eat.

I risked a quick glance at Charlie, and she was staring straight at me. She wasn’t paying one bit of attention to the conversation Staci and David were having, and I wanted to march right up to her and pull her into my arms. I wanted to take her home with me so I could continue to look at her, to kiss her, to feel her.

But that wasn’t going to happen.

It took everything in me to pull my gaze away from hers.

“I’ll catch you all later.” I patted Parker on the back, and he narrowed his eyes on me.

I looked back at Charlie one last time as I made my way out the door, but she was no longer looking at me. She was staring straight up at David.