Charlotte Russo, casted by Hailee Steinfield :).

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I decided to not call Chase on his bluff and stayed away from Olivia.

It'd been almost a week. My birthday was tomorrow, and Olivia and I had yet to make up. Olivia and I always spent our birthdays together no matter what. This year would be different.

I had spent the entire weekend bonding with Brett. Besides, he was my boyfriend.

"I got you something," Brett said. We had just eaten lunch at a local diner and were sitting in his red Jeep.

"My birthday isn't until tomorrow, Daniels."

"I know, I just wanted to spoil you. And I know you promised, but there's no way you can spend your birthday apart from your best friend."

"I beg to differ.." I mumbled.

"You'll make up," He reassured me, now pulling two white boxes from his backseat, one bigger than the other. He opened the bigger one first.

"I know you've been feeling upset about you and Olivia lately, so I wanted to make you feel better."

"Brett," I said. In the box was a collection of open when letters. I'd always wanted to do this for someone, but I never had the skills to do it.

"I didn't know you were an arts and crafts person," I joked.

"My sister helped me make them," he smiled. "But you can't open them today."

I didn't know he had a sister. In fact, I didn't know a lot about Brett.

"Sister?" I asked.

"Yeah. She's in elementary school," he said.

"I've always wanted a sister," I smiled.

"Maybe sometime you can come over and meet her," he insisted.

I hadn't ever been to his house either.

"Maybe."

"Anyway, I got you something else, too." He pulled out a smaller box, clearly a piece of jewelry. When he opened it, my jaw dropped. It was a a gold necklace, clearly not the cheap kind, and 'charlie' was engraved on a circle.

"I love it," I said.

"I love you."

He completely caught me off guard. Truthfully, I didn't think we were even at that stage yet. We'd only been official for about a week, and I somehow felt I was betraying Olivia.

How was he so quick to say he loved me? He didn't even know me. I didn't even know him. This felt like a middle school relationship where they said I love you after two hours of texting.

I just smiled, and only made the situation more awkward.

"I should take you home," Brett said. I nodded.

The entire car ride was silent. The music was distant, so we could only hear the faint noise from outside the car. I decided to look out the window to avoid eye contact until we finally reached my house.

"Thank you for today, Brett," I said.

"Yeah, no problem. And about what I said—" he began to apologize.

"Don't worry about it," I convinced him. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay."

I'd been riding with Brett ever since my last encounter with Chase. There was no way I could sit in the car with my brother and not tell him about how his best friend threatened me. Chase had always been a family friend. There's no way I could have a conversation with Henry without him talking about himself.

In fact, I'd been avoiding Henry all weekend. The thought of mentioning Chase gave me chills.

Hey big bro, your best friend wants to expose your little sister for being in love with his girlfriend! Not that I was, but that's the only way I could think of the conversation going down.

I attempted to rush into my house and up the stairs, but Henry immediately spotted me.

"Charlotte!" He shouted. I was already halfway up the stairs, but nervously turned around.

"Yeah?" My voiced cracked.

"You're ignoring me more than usual. Is something going on?" He asked.

"Why are you all of a sudden concerned? You've never been the big brother type," I snapped back.

"I don't know.. I just haven't seen you lately," He said, still maintaining a calm voice as he rubbed the back of his neck.

I made my way back down the stairs to reach his level.

"Nothing is going on, so just mind your business."

"Sheesh, okay," He said.

I headed back up the stairs and slammed my door.

As long as I stayed away from Olivia, Chase would leave me off the hook, so I could make up with Henry later. Right?

I went to bed earlier than usual, and it felt different not having Olivia's company. Who else would slap my face and kick me in the middle of the night?

Get it together, Charlotte. This is how it's going to be from now on. Tomorrow's your birthday, so there's no way it can go bad.

Despite the awkward status of our relationship, I still took a ride from Brett to school.

"Happy Birthday, Charlie," He said as I got in the car. He had called me earlier that morning, but still was eager to say it in person.

"I got you birthday breakfast," he said, handing me a bag of fresh bagels and juice.

"Thank you," I said, kissing him on the cheek. "Now c'mon, even though it's my birthday I still have to go to school," I rushed him.

Some part of me hoped that I would see Olivia, but I hadn't. Instead, I got her other half.

"Morning, Russo," Chase said as I took my seat next to him in our first period. I should've just skipped.

"I said good morning," he said after I ignored him.

"Good morning, Chase."

That was the only exchange we made the entire class period, thank God.

The day had went by extremely slow, and my lunch hour was lonelier than ever. It was only me and Brett, and we had still yet to talk about what happened yesterday.

"So," he started the conversation. "I wanted to talk about yesterday."

I completely spaced out.

"Charlie?" He asked, noticing my attention was focused somewhere else.

I was too distracted. Distracted by Chase Morgan. Here he was coming towards our table, along with his entourage.

"Russo!" He shouted on his way over, gathering the attention of the entire cafeteria.

"What do you want, Chase?" I asked. He took his seat next to me, pushing Brett out the way while his friends stood around us. God, where was Henry?

"You know, I promised myself I'd let you have a good birthday today because it's so important to my girlfriend. Oh, happy birthday by the way."

"What's your point?" Brett chimed in.

"I just haven't been able to hold this secret between us in, ya know? It's just been eating away at me."

Brett and I both knew what he was talking about.

"Chase, please don't do this," I said. "I've done what you asked, I've stayed away from Olivia."

"That's just it, Russo. You haven't. You know, my girlfriend cannot stop talking about you."

"Chase, we're best friends what do you expect?" I argued.

"That's exactly what I thought, but then I realized I know exactly how to solve this situation."

"Please."

"Charlotte, it's just some dumb rumor by some airhead, it's okay," Brett said trying to calm me down.

But deep down, I knew this wasn't just some rumor. For some reason, I was deeply offended by Chase's accusation.

"Chase, why don't you get the hell away from us?" Brett said.

"Between you and me man, you're just a beard," he fake whispered as he began to get up.

"Hey!" Brett shouted, grabbing Chase's attention before he punched him right in the face.

The hit barely impacted Chase, perhaps just a little bruise.

"What was that?" Chase asked hysterically.

"Brett, just leave it!" I shouted.

Chase was much bigger, and muscular than Brett. And just like that, his punch knocked Brett to the ground.

"It's not my fault your girlfriend's a homo, man," Chase shouted with a laugh, loud enough for the entire cafeteria to hear. I could see a bunch of kids turning and whispering, while some cheered on Chase in the fight.

"Chase, stop it!" I shouted as he began to kick on Brett, the rest of his friends following his footsteps.

Brett held onto his face, curled into a ball taking the hits.

"Whatever you say," Chase grinned after one last kick.

Where the hell were the teachers? Where the hell was Olivia?

I hovered over Brett as Chase and his friends began to leave.

They never had the chance to leave the cafeteria, because there was Henry waiting as they turned around from Brett and me.

"What the hell!" Henry shouted before giving his fist to Chase.

He landed a few punches on Chase, enough to make him bleed. But just our timing, a teacher finally intervened to stop him. He grabbed Henry by the collar and yanked him off of Chase while Chase held onto his nose on the ground.

"ALL OF YOU, TO THE OFFICE!"

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