Thin Line- Charlie Dalton Love Story

Chapter 3: English

{Valerie's POV}

My life motto has always been 'do now, think later'.

And now I actually was thinking later. The bet I made with the girls was one of the greatest mistakes I have ever made. I mean a friendly game of Dare or Dare escalated into Lily, Stacey, and Tracy all making bets on me making Charlie fall in love with me. Each put down a $100. I don't know what type of drug I was on that evening but I'm certainly all sobered up now.

I had a plan though so I still had a chance of winning $300.

As soon as I had gotten back to my room that night I told Rebecca everything about the bet. "Oh my God. You're obviously not gonna go through with it right? I mean that's a person you know. You can't be playing with someone's feelings like some sick game!" She said as she was organizing her sticky notes collection on her desk.

"Why not? It's Charlie we're talking about! He's the reason why we're even in this school to begin with. Plus I already agreed to it and $300 is at stake." I said as I was doing my night time routine.

"Just think. What if he does fall in love with you, then how are you gonna break the news to him?" Asked Rebecca genuinely concerned.

I had not thought of that yet. As soon as I opened my mouth to explain myself, a girl barged into our room, " Valerie, It's for you. It's your father."

Oh God please shoot me now. Phone calls with my parents were dreadful, especially with my father. I think my father is the first man to discover a way to physically assault someone else through a phone call. My insides did a somersault as I reluctantly walked over to the phone booth. I held the phone up to my ear and could sense the cold air of disappointment and anger.

"Valerie Jean Chase!" He yelled.

I held the phone about an inch or two away from my face after he had begun yelling. My father yelled at me for a long long time and when he was finally done my mother tapped in and said her own set of hurtful words. Can you imagine all this bullshit just for one single detention? The thing with my father was that he would say things that would hurt you on a personal level and whenever he sensed that it wasn't affecting you anymore he would find new things, new flaws and point them out without sparing any details. Today was one of those days where he pointed out new flaws in me. Tonight's topic: I was a whore. Apparently to him, I purposely made myself get detention to attract boys attention.

"If you're so worried about me being a whore," I yelled into the phone, "Why did you send me to an all boys school?"

Aside from my extreme narcissism, my other toxic trait was that I always talked back to my parents. I find it very difficult to just sit and listen to my parents going on and on about how I'm not good enough so once in a while I relieve my anger by shouting back at them.

Thankfully, The girl came back with an urgent need to call her boyfriend. I hung up on my parents. It was almost 11pm. I needed some time to be alone so I couldn't go back to my room, and the bathroom was not an option. I snuck outside and took refuge under a tree that outlooked a dark forest. I lay down on the grass in a star-like position and gazed at the stars. After a minute or so, I began to cry uncontrollably. I always had to cry after any type of conversation with my parents. You'd think after all these years I would get used to it, but nope. I stomped my feet and punched the ground as dirt flew in the air and my tears sank deep underground.

I closed my eyes to rest them for a while.

{Charlie's POV}

The guys and I wrapped up our Dead's society early for today because it had gotten really cold in the cave. As we were emerging to the school, Knox pointed out that he saw someone or something on the ground under a tree. We ducked our heads at the same time, thinking it might be one of the teachers. After a couple seconds of no movement, we walked towards the thing slowly. Turns out it was a body. A girl.