“I know what you’re going to tell me.” He interrupts me, looking slightly defeated, the light dimmed from his eyes. “I don’t own Charlotte and I can’t tell her who she can and can’t have sex with, but still. It had to be my best friend?”
I was thinki
ng that, but I didn’t have the heart to say that to him. He’s hurting—it sucks to see the person you love with someone else, and Chase had to walk in on that firsthand without any warning.
“I just wish I could go back and tell Charlotte how I feel. I know I could make her happy if I just had the balls to say something to her. But now it’s too late. She’s with him now.”
It hurts me to notice that he keeps referring to her as Charlotte instead of Charlie, his pet name for her, which she hates so much. Have things shifted so much that he doesn’t see her as the same person anymore?
“Char isn’t with anyone,” I tell him. “She’s her own person and can make her own decisions. But she doesn’t know how she feels. It could’ve just been an in the moment thing. It’s not too late to tell her how you feel. You’re going to have to have a real conversation with her.”
“It wouldn’t mean anything.” He sighs. “If she wanted to be with me, she wouldn’t have been with him.”
That slightly angers me. Chase, like Mason, goes around hooking up with random girls all the time, then doesn’t understand when the girl he loves doesn’t realize that he loves her!
“If you wanted to be with her, you wouldn’t confuse her by hooking up with other girls.”
“I told you why—”
“I know you told me why,” I interrupt, sitting up straighter as I shift into talk some sense into him mode. “‘You’re not good enough for her and it’ll ruin your friendship and you’re trying to move on,’ blah, blah, blah. It’s too late to go back and change anything, but it’s not too late to fix your friendship with Char. And Noah.”
“But—”
“No.” I wasn’t done yet. “You already walked in on her and probably scarred her for life; you’re going to have to talk things out anyway. Telling her how you feel can’t possibly make things any worse or more awkward than they’re going to be now.”
“What if she chooses Noah?”
“First of all, we don’t even know if Noah likes her, or if she likes him.”
He opens his mouth to say something, but I continue anyway, deciding to be brutally honest because he needs to hear it. “But if she happens to choose him and they decide to give it a try, be happy for her. Charlotte doesn’t owe you anything, Chase, but you’re her best friend and I know she wouldn’t want to lose you, just like you wouldn’t want to lose her.”
Chase looks down at his hands in his lap. “I don’t know. I’ll think about telling her, I guess.”
“Good. And you owe Noah an apology. But think about what you’re going to tell Char while you’re in the shower. You smell like booze and barbeque.”
The corners of his mouth turn up slightly in a small smile. “That you’re right about.”
He stands up and the pillow that was keeping him decent falls to the floor, along with whatever Froot Loops weren’t glued to him. I throw my hands over my face.
“Chase!”
“Oh, sorry.” He laughs, picks up the pillow, and covers his behind as he walks up the stairs.
“And burn the pillow!” I call after him, hearing his answering chuckle.
“Amelia?” A different voice calls, one that sends a warmth throughout my body.
Aiden comes out of his room, looking freshly showered.
“Shit, sorry. Did I wake you with the yelling?”
His room, Noah’s room, and Annalisa and Julian’s room are on the main floor, but Aiden’s is the closest to the living room.
“No. It’s eight thirty, I was already up. Who were you talking to? And what happened to the couch?”
I look at the couch and can’t help but smile. “I was talking to Chase. He slept on the couch. It’s kind of a long story.”
“Ah. He was drinking last night.”