Charli grabbed her phone off her bed, and struggling to see through her tears, managed to find Bobby’s contact and called him. She heard his voice on the other end.
“Hey Charli, what’s up?” He sounded relaxed.
Sobbing, Charli responded. “Josh broke up with me.” There was silence on the other end, then noises like the phone was being moved around a bunch.
“I’m on my way over, hang on. It’ll be just a few minutes, because my mom is gone, so I’ll have to just run…See you soon hang in there.” He hung up.
Charli threw her phone away, and curled up on her bed, trying to bury her sadness in her blankets. It would probably take around a half hour or so for Bobby to get there, half an hour of despair, she thought. But only around fifteen minutes later, she heard the doorbell, followed by her little sister and Bobby’s muffled voices. Then her door opening and shutting. And then weight on her bed as Bobby reached over to give her a hug.
Being much taller and stronger than her, he was able to scoop her into his lap with no problem.
“You are the best sweetest friend ever.” She hid her face in his shirt.
“Well, I couldn’t just leave you here alone. Not my best friend.” They stayed that way, cuddled up, for what felt like hours but was probably only a few minutes. “Do you want to talk about it yet? I’m wondering what happened, you guys seemed really into each other.”
“Um…” Charli sniffed, loudly. “You know Liz Macintyre?”
“You mean that popular snob rat?” Bobby frowned. “She looks so botoxed.”
Charli giggled. “She is a botoxed rat, but somehow Josh fell for her. They went out last week, and Josh decided he liked her more than he likes me I guess…”
“Wait he cheated on you, and then ditched you, and you are actually still sad that you don’t have to deal with that crap anymore?” Bobby pulled Charli away, and wrinkled his nose at the tear stains all over his shirt.
“But Bobby, I thought Josh was the one.” She insisted.
“You are seventeen.”
“Whatever! You aren’t helping much.” She sighed, and grabbed a box of tissues of her nightstand, rubbing her watery eyes and dripping nose. Bobby’s gaze softened.
“I’m sorry.” He grinned. “But hey, you are single now! You can date whoever you want! Go out with better guys and make him realize how much he’s lost.”
“That’s an idea…” She sat up straighter. “Bobby, will you help me find a date? Maybe if I make Josh jealous, I’ll feel better.”
“Um, that’s not what I meant at all…maybe this is not that good of an idea…” He looked slightly worried for her sanity.
“No no no it’s a great idea. Will you help me? Please?” She begged.
He hesitated, before giving in. “How could I say no to that face? Fine, I’ll help you. But I’m going to regret this later.” He shook his head.
“Great! Thanks so much.” She grabbed a piece of scrap paper and a pen. “Alright, who do we know who is cute, single, and not a total crap head?” They laughed, and then sat in silence. Charli imagined cricket sounds filling the awkwardness as they both realized they didn’t know anyone who met that description.
“This could take a while.” Bobby poked her side. “Do you have any food? Being full helps thinking power, I’m 63% positive.”
“63%, huh? Must be true then. Come on, we have some chimichangas in the freezer.” She climbed off her bed, pulling him along with her. She couldn’t really pull him anywhere, her tiny muscles and some health problems limited a lot of her movement, but he always let her lead him around anyways.
They ran down the stairs, and Charli’s little sister, Avalon, shouted at them to be quiet so she could focus on her homework.
“Nerd!” Charli yelled back, before turning into the kitchen. Bobby laughed and opened the freezer. He tossed three chimis at Charli, who was pulling out plates.
“Why three? There’s only two of us.”
“Ya well, I want two for myself.” He grabbed a couple of cups out of the cupboard.
“Oh that’s a good idea, hand me another one, we can eat two each and be fat together.” He chucked another one at her and it landed on the counter next to the microwave where she was already heating one up.
When they had finished ‘cooking’ and had gotten some fruit snacks to go with, they ran back up the stairs, Avalon shouting at them, and Bobby sat in Charli’s directors chair while she layed back on her bed.
“So, back to business. Who should I ask out now?”
“Um. What about Jacob? Is he still single?” Bobby asked, mouth still half full.
“No, he and Demi are a thing now right? You know, Demi and Emi, with Jacob and Peter, the twin sets.”
“Oh that’s cool, I always said they’d be a cute couple, Demi and Jacob.” He nodded knowingly.
“Sure, you always said that. But what about Dave? From science?” Charli wondered.
“He’s gay, sorry.”
“Oh okay. Then that’s a no.” She marked his name off of her list. “So do we still not know anyone I could go out with? Except crap heads like Trevor, but I’d rather die than go out with him.”
“Yep, just crap heads left.” He shrugged.
“Well, there is you, but that would be awkward.” She frowned down at her list, slowly checking off every name on there.
Bobby stopped. “Why would it be awkward? I’m not that creepy, am I?”
Charli laughed. “No, you aren’t creepy, but everyone would tease us. You know they always say we should hook up, we would never get a quiet second after that.”
“I guess so…” He took a drink of water then almost choked, saying, “Wait, but what if we used that to get Josh to be jealous?”
“What are you talking about?” She asked exasperatedly.
“I mean, everyone would talk so much, he would be sure to hear, we could play it up, act like we actually like each other, and bam, he realizes that he really is missing out, since he’s dumped you. Ya?”
Charli stared at him. Then jumped up and gave him a huge hug. “You absolute genius! Of course, that’s perfect! We could be fake lovers.”
“Fake lovers…I like the sound of that.” Bobby smiled, and Charli gave him another hug. “Let’s do this thing.”
To Be Continued…
battcave 