“Morning, kiddo. Are you all set?”
***
“I feel terrible for ditching you like this, especially after that!” Arthur sighs as he slumps forward in his seat.
I shrug noncommittally, but when he tilts his head to look at me, I manage to put on a small smile. “It’s fine, really…”
Arthur sighs again and pats me on the back awkwardly. We just met with the principal while Arthur filled out all of my enrollment paperwork. The principal looked at my transcripts for all of two minutes before starting in on a stern lecture about how violence will not be tolerated in his school and how he and the staff will be keeping an eye on me. Arthur got super defensive, but that didn’t stop the guy from giving me harsh and judgmental looks the whole time we were in his office.
We’re waiting to see the school counselor now so she can sign me up for my classes. Arthur wants to talk to her for a minute before he leaves to go to his meeting at work. I know I shut down in the principal’s office and barely said a word, but that’s how I am around most people. I want him to know I really am okay.
The door to the office we’re waiting outside of finally opens, and a young woman rushes out carrying a small stack of files in her arms.
“I’m so sorry I kept you waiting.” She laughs nervously.
She’s short and curvy with frizzy red hair pulled back in a messy bun with a few loose strands hanging around her face. I smile at her, but Arthur gets a pissed off look on his face when he stands up to address her.
“I’m running late for a meeting, so I’ve got to leave in a second. I just want to be very clear with you. Charlotte does not need to be put in any remedial classes or anywhere stupid you guys shove ‘troubled teens’ like that damned principal was talking about.”
The counselor stares at him in shock before giggling nervously again. “Right, absolutely! I’m Rachel, I mean, Ms. Kinsley.”
She steps forward with her hand held out for him to shake, but she trips over her feet, causing her to drop the files she’s holding. While she bends down to pick them up, more of her hair falls into her face. When she stands back up, blushing brightly now, she spends a few seconds frantically brushing the hair back. A piece of it gets stuck in her mouth somehow, and I’m trying really hard to keep my face blank to avoid laughing at her.
Arthur loses some of his nerve after this, but he still tries to sound tough when he finally shakes her hand. “I’m Arthur Reynolds, Charlotte’s uncle. Just, um, yeah. I don’t want her to be put in classes that are going to hold her back. She’s a really smart kid.”
Ms. Kinsley nods her head vigorously. “I understand. I went over her transcripts earlier, and it’s clear she’s very bright.”
Arthur’s harsh façade finally breaks, and he smiles slightly. “Okay, good.” He turns to me. “You swear you’re gonna be alright if I leave?”
I nod, but he still looks worried. “Yes, I promise. And I’ll text Sebastian as soon as I’m all finished here.”
Arthur pats me on the back awkwardly again and sighs. “Okay.”
He says goodbye to us, looking back over his shoulder a couple of times as he walks down the hallway and out of the office. Ms. Kinsley turns to smile at me. “Alright, do you want to step into my office?”
Elliot
I’m counting in my head while I finish my second set of bench presses. Normally, I’m completely zoned out at this point, but today I’m pretty distracted.
“It was seriously fucking cute, dude.” Sebastian chuckles while he spots me.
The mental image he’s given me of Charlotte sitting in the bathroom sink because she’s too short to reach the mirror is definitely a welcome distraction, but a distraction nonetheless.
I manage to finish the set and laugh while I lie back for a second. I give him a cheesy grin once I sit up and say, “I really don’t know if I’m jealous of you or if I feel sorry for you.”
“Why’s that?” He raises his eyebrows.
“Because she’s living in your house, so you’re bound to walk in on her naked or changing or something at some point.” Sebastian scowls and flings a towel at me, making me laugh. “What? I’m just saying…”
He grumbles. “Whatever. I’m not going to creep around outside her bedroom or the bathroom hoping to catch her like some fucked up pervert.”
I laugh even harder and stand up from the bench. “Holy shit, calm down! It was a joke!”
The truth is, I’m jealous that he gets to spend so much time alone with her. Hanging out with Charlotte and the guys yesterday was a ton of fun, and it felt like that’s how things were meant to be all along with all six of us. But I could never say anything that corny to the guys without them making fun of me or thinking I was making a joke. I really can’t even explain it, but I want to be friends with her so fucking badly. I wanted to before, but after yesterday, I definitely want us to be close, more than ever now. She’s sweet, charming, and surprisingly funny as shit. I want to keep getting to know her better, but it’s difficult when the other guys are vying for her attention too. Texting her late last night had been great, but it’s not the same as hanging out one-on-one. And I don’t know how to ask her to hang out alone with me without making her or the guys think I want to date her.
Because I don’t want to date her. Yes, she’s awesome and ridiculously beautiful, but I want her to stick around and I want her to be close with Sebastian, Liam, Remy, and Grayson too. If any one of us tried dating her, especially so soon after meeting her, it would make things so weird and awkward.
Sebastian takes some of the weights off for his own bench presses. I walk around the bench to spot him and he asks, “Why do you feel bad for me?”
I grin stupidly and wiggle my eyebrows at him. “Because you want to bang her and Arthur said you’re not allowed!”
Sebastian steps closer and shoves me angrily. “Why do you have to be such a fucking asshole sometimes?”
I laugh again, only shoving him half-heartedly. I didn’t really mean what I said. I just know that Sebastian likes Charlotte already, and I know he was embarrassed when Arthur had a talk with them last night. Plus, I knew he would react this way and I’m in the mood for a fight.
When he shoves me again, I tackle him onto the ground. I only have to punch him once for him to let go and start giving the fight his all. I may be stronger than Sebastian, but he’s definitely a better fighter than I am. We’re only fighting for a couple of minutes before I’m roughly yanked away from him.
“How many goddamn times do I need to tell you guys? If you’re going to beat the shit out of each other, do it in the sparring ring!”
I laugh and wipe my hand over my mouth. My lip is bleeding. Sebastian stands up, still scowling at me when he turns to Adrian. “Sorry…”
Adrian used to be our trainer when we first started coming here a couple of years ago, but now he’s more like our friend. He helps run the gym too, and I know he’s hoping to take it over when the owner retires.
He stares back and forth between us and crosses his arms with a stern look on his face. “Well? What’s wrong this time?”
Sebastian completely gives himself away by breaking eye contact with us and mumbling, “It’s nothing.”
Adrian raises his eyebrows and laughs out in surprise. “Holy shit, you’re kidding, right? You guys are fighting over a girl?”
I’m already grinning like an idiot before Sebastian starts sputtering defensively. “What? No! I didn’t say that. And it’s not even like that anyways. We’re not fighting over her.”
Adrian laughs even more and grins at us. “No way. You guys never talk about girls. Who is she? What does she look like?” His grin slowly changes into a smirk and he turns to Sebastian. “Have you hooked up with her yet?”
The look on Sebastian’s face is priceless, and I can’t help laughing. He looks like he wants to punch me and Adrian now! “No, I haven’t! And I never said I wanted to hook up with her either. Elliot is just being an asshole for literall
y no reason.”
Now that our fight has been broken up, it’s not really fun to keep teasing him. So, I groan and shrug at him. “Come on, you know I was joking. And seriously, if we’re going to be friends with her, I don’t think it’s a good idea for any of us to try hooking up with her or dating her.”
Assuming she’d even be into any of us like that. I think she likes us and wants to be friends with us, for sure, but we are still a bunch of geeky losers. It’s probably not anything to worry about anyways.
Sebastian brushes his hand through his hair and sighs. “Yeah, I know you’re probably right.”
Adrian waves his hand in front of us. “Okay, hell no. If you twats are going to break my rule and spar outside of the ring, you can at least explain this bullshit to me. Who’s the girl?”
Sebastian’s keeping his mouth shut, so I grin like a jackass again. “Sebastian’s step-cousin just moved in with him and Arthur, and she’s insanely hot.”
Adrian doesn’t react right away, like he’s expecting me to say I’m joking. Sebastian looks extremely pissed and flips me off. “Would you please stop calling her that? We are not related, you dick.”
Adrian chuckles and I drop my asshole-grin and smile more genuinely.
“Her name is Charlotte. She’s really fucking cool and she’s kinda messed up like we are, you know? I want her to hang out with us, but Sebastian and the other guys are being stupid about the whole thing because she is really pretty.”
Sebastian finally loses the pissed off expression and smiles excitedly at Adrian. “Yeah, she is really cool. I actually want to bring her here.”
The thought hadn’t even crossed my mind, but I’m definitely all for the idea. “Yeah, she’s kind of a badass! Plus, she’s so fucking small she could use some muscle.”
“Do you think you could train her? I mean, we can help and everything.” Sebastian asks Adrian hopefully.
Adrian crosses his arms and gives us a lopsided smile. “I won’t go easy on her just because she’s a girl. The first time you bring her here, I’m going to pretend to be a huge asshole the same way I was for you guys at first.”
Sebastian and I stare at each other. I feel uneasy at the idea. Not going to lie, I cried when I got home after the first time I trained with Adrian. I never told the guys that. If I’m feeling anxious about Charlotte dealing with it, I know Sebastian definitely does too.
Sebastian brushes his fingers through his hair and furrows his eyebrows at Adrian. “Why though? I mean, she’s been through a lot.”
“And you guys haven’t?” Adrian deadpans. “You know my rule. I’m not going to waste my time on somebody that doesn’t really want to be here. If she wants to learn to fight or let her aggression out here like you guys do, she’s going to have to prove it.”
I mean, I guess that’s fair. I think Charlotte will be okay. I still don’t know exactly what happened to her, but I know she’s stronger than she looks. Sebastian and Arthur keep talking to her and treating her like she’s some delicate flower, but I saw the look in her eyes when she started throwing punches at the arcade yesterday.
My mouth quirks up in a smile and I raise my eyebrows at Sebastian. “Twenty bucks says she’s going to kick Adrian’s ass when we do bring her in.”
Adrian’s eyes crinkle in amusement, but Sebastian hesitates to take the bet. “I don’t think I want to bet. I actually think you might be right.”
“What?” Adrian hollers. “You’re shitting me. Okay, I’ve gotta see what this girl looks like.”
I pull out my phone and bring up the selfies I took with her yesterday. I hold my phone out to them, and Sebastian only looks at one of the pictures for a second before glaring at me in outrage.
“What the fuck? When did you take these?”
I shrug, unable to hide my smirk. Adrian knows how Sebastian feels about selfies and phone pictures, so he simply ignores him and swipes through the photos I saved. “Huh, she is pretty cute.” Then he chuckles, “You guys are totally screwed.”
“Who’s screwed?”
Sebastian, Adrian and I turn around to see Grayson walking up to our group. I’m surprised to see him. He had an appointment with his therapist this morning, and he usually doesn’t come to the gym right afterwards. I figured we’d see him at home later after Remy and Liam get off work.
“Hey, what are you doing here?” I ask, smiling.
He shrugs and cracks his knuckles. “My mom had to go into work after my appointment, and I didn’t wanna sit at home by myself waiting for you guys to come over later.”
Adrian smirks at him. “What about Charlotte? Don’t wanna hang out with her?”
Grayson doesn’t even blink at Adrian’s teasing, and he shrugs. “She’s not home. She’s at the doctor right now, and then she’s going to sign up for classes at school.”
I knew she was going to the school today, but Charlotte didn’t tell me anything about going to the doctor. My stomach clenches in panic and I worriedly blurt out, “Why is she at the doctor? Is she okay?”
Sebastian and Grayson look at each other with stupid smiles on their faces and Adrian snorts in amusement. Grayson looks way too fucking satisfied with himself when he answers, “She hasn’t been in a while, so she’s just getting a regular check-up and shit. Plus, she needs a referral before she can start seeing a therapist. I think Arthur’s trying to get her in with Dr. Collins.”
Dr. Collins is the same therapist Grayson and Remy see. Sebastian saw her for a while too after his mom died. But some tiny messed up part of me is pissed off that Grayson knows about all of this before I do.
Adrian laughs again and playfully punches Grayson in the arm. “Your boys want to bring this chick in here to train with me. They think she’s gonna be able to kick my ass.”
Grayson smiles brightly and laughs. “Fuck yeah, she totally will.”
Adrian ends up making a bet with us over it and asks us to bring her in sometime in the next week. I’m secretly worried Charlotte might not be into the idea, but Sebastian and Grayson seem confident she’ll want to come to the gym with us. I’m glad to hear that Sebastian’s gotten over his fear of talking to her after only hanging out one time, but I honestly feel a little jealous of Grayson now too.
Chapter Fourteen
Ms. Kinsley’s office is small, and there are stacks and piles of paperwork everywhere. I can’t help looking around with my eyebrows raised as I take a seat in front of the desk across from her.
“I’m so sorry about this.” She giggles and waves her arms animatedly around the room. “I actually just started here this week, and holy cow, the counselor before me did not know how to organize! I’m trying to redo everything and go through all of the files for the junior and senior classes before school starts up again in August.”
“It’s okay.”
She opens up my file and starts clicking on her computer screen. “So, you’re a newbie too, huh?”
I nod my head, but when she doesn’t look up from the computer, I clear my throat to answer her question. “Yeah, I just moved in with my uncle, like, a week ago.”
Ms. Kinsley giggles again. “Your uncle seems very protective of you. I always get so nervous around strong, rugged men like that.” She turns to me with a wide-eyed expression. “Oh god, I totally didn’t mean to say that.”
I have no idea what to say. She thinks Arthur is strong and rugged? When she keeps staring at me in horror, I let out an awkward laugh. She starts laughing too, which honestly makes it even more awkward!
“So, um, are you excited to start school here? I know you switched back and forth between schools a lot last year because of your, uh, circumstances? But other than that, it looks like your grades have always been fairly decent.” When I don’t say anything, she raises her eyebrows at me and asks, “Have you thought about what you want to do after high school?”
Ugh, why can’t she just keep asking me yes or no questions? I really thought I was getting over this whole talking-in-front-of-people thi
ng. I still end up hesitating, so I probably look like a total moron.
“Not really.” She looks so earnest and eager to get me talking, so I force myself to stop thinking about what I’m saying. “Before I went to juvie, I always used to dream about going to New York City and working in publishing, or like, in a huge fancy library somewhere.”
“That’s great!” She exclaims and starts typing enthusiastically into her computer. “I’ll try to squeeze you into one of the Honors English classes, and if you do well enough, I’m sure we can aim for an AP class in English next year. And we’ll focus on universities with excellent English Lit programs, and maybe some other schools in the New York metropolitan area.”
She makes it sound so possible. Like, I guess in the back of my mind, I always thought going to juvie and everything that I’ve done to get myself into trouble would screw up any kind of serious future I had. But she seems so positive! She starts talking about some of the other required core classes I need and it doesn’t take long to get most of my schedule filled up.
“Alright, we’ve got two open periods left for electives.” She scrolls through the page up on the screen for a moment before sighing. “Unfortunately, it looks like the only things left are Public Speaking and Debate.”
My heart freezes and I gasp in panicked horror. “No, please god, no!”
Ms. Kinsley cracks up, and it takes her several seconds before she’s finally able to form words. “Oh my god, you poor thing! I was joking, I swear. I read in your file where some of your old teachers commented that you had difficulty speaking up in class. Don’t worry. There are still a few different options available for electives.”
I stare at her incredulously before giving in and giggling hysterically. She looks really proud of herself for making me laugh, and it only takes a couple of minutes to finish up on my schedule.
There’s a knock on the door, so we look up to see a girl my age poke her head in. “Hi, Ms. Kinsley. I’m here to give Charlotte her tour?”
Smile Like You Mean It (Charlotte Reynolds Book 1) Page 14