Chapter Fourteen - Knuckle Sandwich

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"Collins!" I shout across the cafeteria. The blonde haired boy spins around and once he's located me, offers me a grin, throwing a lazy arm over my shoulders to pull me into a chaste hug.

"Hey Chaps." He muses, joining me in unison to walk over towards an empty table. I have Ellie in one arm, a smoothie, despite our troubled history, in the other. "What's up?" He asks as we sit.

"Oh, nothing!" I chime, an obnoxiously large grin on my face. It's not been for lack of trying, but both Collins and Alena are yet to admit the new foundations of their relationship. I don't want to force it, but I'm just trying to offer them as much opportunity as possible to tell me. "How are things with you?" I ask him innocently. He narrows his eyes at me but the suspicion fades quickly and he shrugs, taking a bite from his panini.

"Good. Had a cricket match this weekend. It was good." He tells me. I pull a disgruntled face at the pointless information but quickly plaster over it with a wide smile when he looks at me.

"Good, good." I say, tight lipped, slightly despondent that he finds cricket that much more important than his canoodling with my best friend. "You looking forward to Halloween?"

He nods emphatically before ripping off an end to his panini and handing it to me. I accept graciously with a grin that flashes all my teeth. "Oh yeah. Can't believe it's less than three weeks away. I just hope Nat doesn't get as wasted this year." He says through a laugh.

I shove the food in my mouth and shake my head. "I think we've more chance of being blessed by the Pope." I tell him, sending us both into a tumble of laughter. At the same time, Alena and Seb join us, both probing for an explanation. "Just talking about Nat's inability to moderate her alcohol intake." I tell the pair. Seb snorts and tumbles into a tale of one of her drunken escapades with Collins, while Lena turns to me with a pointed expression.

"I haven't heard from her recently." Alena says. "Have you?" I think back and suddenly feel awful when I realise, I haven't heard from my friend in a week. I shake my head and Alena nods as though that's what she suspected. "She's hiding something." She tells me, pointing a fork at me which has a piece of lettuce and half a tomato impaled on its prongs.

"Seems a couple of us are." I mumble under my breath, thrusting the baby into Collin's arms while I begin to rifle through my bag for my phone.

Chaps: Hey Nat Nat, how you doing? Missing you this week xx

Not too long after, I receive a reply.

Nat: All good sugar tits ;). I miss you too. We'll catch up soon, promise. Love you xx

With a long hum of dissatisfaction, I let Lena know. She seems as conflicted as me, reiterating that she's convinced Nat has something private going on that she plans to uncover. Slightly put off by her insistence to figuring it out, I use Nat's own words to defend her.

"I'm sure she'll tell us in her own time. She's probably figuring it out." I'm not sure if my look was too pointed, but she almost looks stunned and flushes slightly, quick to distract herself by eating her salad with far too much enthusiasm.

"Can you take your child back now," Collins asks. "It doesn't feel right sitting and holding a doll." I frown at him but accept Ellie as she is returned to me. Last night she was an angel, sleeping soundly, and I'm hoping tonight will be the same. Then, she'll be returned to her father and I'll have two days peace and quiet before I have to pick up the mother role once more over the weekend. "How's it going anyway? You and Eli seem to be getting on pretty well."

I nod in agreement and shrug. Anything - even the avoidance we've committed to since our rather obscure exchange following my catnap at Elijah's house - is better than us fighting with every breath. Neither of us have spoken since, simply exchanged a mumble when he handed back responsibly of Ellie over to me yesterday. I think it's safe to say the pair of us are uncomfortable. I mean, an expression of gratitude and an apology to par? It's perhaps the biggest evolution of our hate-ship in all the thirteen years we've known one another. So yes, things are weird now.

"We're alright, if you discount the fact that I punched him in the face on Friday." Out of habit, I lift my hand to check the damage. The swelling has gone down considerably, but my middle knuckle is sporting a subtle purple hue. I'm convinced I fractured it, especially since it still hurts to clench my fist, when I actually can.

"Only once?" I nod again and take a slurp of my smoothie. "Where is he now?" Collins asks.

"Don't know, don't care. Frankly, I'm glad to have some breathing space. It's already becoming unbearable." I tell the group, but something on their faces tells me they don't believe me. If I'm really honest, I don't entirely believe myself. Though I'd hardly go so far as to say Hendrix and I could walk arm in arm, being in his presence is becoming marginally more tolerable. Yes, we aren't exactly talking, but put it this way, I seem to laugh a little bit more and have the urge to claw out his eyeballs fewer times daily.

That said, I'm not holding out. We've had episodes before where we haven't had the unbudging desire to kill one another, but it always returns. Besides, Ellie has only been around for six days, a lot could change in the five weeks that remain. One day of unusual amicably is really nothing to write home about.

"What are you doing tonight?" Seb asks me. I shrug and tilt my head slightly with a big grin.

"Why? You want to come and have some Chapstick cuddles?" He rolls his eyes at me and throws a chip at my head.

"I was gonna come over, but if you're going to make it weird." He says with a grimace. I laugh and throw the discarded chip in my mouth.

"You do know I have the baby, right?" I tell him. He grimaces further and then shakes his head.

"On second thoughts, I think I'll pass." I can't help but laugh, pretending to cover Ellie's ear to save her from the disrespect. "But I need to come and see Craig soon. We haven't had a burping contest in too long."

I scoff and furrow my brows at him. "So, it's not that you're missing my company, it's that you're missing my dad's?"

He looks at me as if I'm deluded. "Well, duh."

~

"I'm taking the boys shopping. They still haven't got their Halloween costumes sorted." Alena tells me, resulting in me playfully tutting and slapping the back of my hand.

"You should know better." I tell them both. They widen their eyes at me with a look of exasperation but quickly lose it when Lena gives the pair of them a glare. "Right, I'll catch up with you tomorrow then." I tap Seb on the cheek, give Lena a quick kiss and ruffle Collins hair before I leave the building, Ellie and her car seat hung from the crease of my elbow.

Just as I begin to fiddle with my ear phones, I fall short, noticing a certain mousy haired boy that doesn't seem to be getting the idea. Coming to my school Adam, I think that's a crime.

He leans against the bonnet of his car, actively searching for me I imagine, because when he does notice me, his eyes never leave mine. Technically, I should just walk away, but this is getting completely out of hand. I'm going over there and I'm punching him in the face. Possibly.

"Adam, what are you doing?" I say, my tone short and uninviting.

He stands up straight, playing awkwardly with his car keys as he looks in confusion at the car seat. "What's that?"

"Not important." I look at him, swallowing his features. His hair that's neither blonde nor brown but a comfortable in between, falling messily to just above his ears. His eyes, pools of honey so warm and sweet, a complete façade to the reality behind them, cold and sour. His skin, flawless, a constantly tanned shade that lets him glow as though freshly touched by the sun. God, I hate that he still looks so perfect. I'd hoped that he'd have transformed into the crocodile man from Suicide Squad. "What are you doing here?" I ask again.

"I needed to see you." He responds simply. I shake my head at him and look around, very aware that we're getting some odd looks from passer-by. People that know Adam, know me, know the both of us. More so, I'm looking for any of my friends, because I really need them to not get involved. Not here on school grounds.

"Can't you see how weird this? You wouldn't roll up to my house and just expect me to come and talk to you." I say, but quickly realise that he's already tried that, and it was only a failure because Ezra scared him off and I had the saving grace of detention.

"It's hardly the same. This used to be my school too." He tells me with a lifted brow.

"Yeah, used to be. It's super weird and creepy and you're lucky I don't have my rape whistle on me because I'd totally be blowing right now if I did." Perhaps not the best sentence ever Charlotte, but at least you're standing your ground and not crying yet.

That said, a lump finds my throat when his hand finds my arm, squeezing it in a pleading manner. "Please Charlie. Let's just talk. Come with me. We have some stuff to figure out." I pull myself away from him, avoiding him theatrically as he reaches for me again.

"You need to leave and stop doing this. I don't want to see you; I don't want to hear from you. Just go." I stress to him before turning on my heels and stalking off. Only, I don't get far before he grabs me again, this time painfully. "Adam!" I cry out as I tear myself from his restraint.

"You're not even giving me a chance to explain!" He retorts, his voice as loud as mine. We're drawing a crowd now and I'm officially uncomfortable.

"Because I don't want to hear your excuses! I'm done with this now. I'm happy and I've moved on and you need to live with your karma. I'm not going to pick up the pieces just because your girlfriend left you." I snap at him. He goes to reach me again, but I smack him, hard. "Touch me again and I'll kick you so hard that your mother feels it." I sneer.

"Osborne!" I spin around to see Hendrix approaching, concern etched into his expression. "All good?" He asks as he reaches us.

"Fine. Thanks." I say, slightly breathlessly, adrenaline coursing through my veins.

Adam scoffs and looks Hendrix up and down. "Here again? What happened to you both hating each other?" He turns to me then, an awful sneer twisted on to his face. "Seems we both weren't exactly honest with each other during our relationship."

For someone that cares so much about my friends staying out of trouble, I really don't give myself enough consideration.

"Holy Fuck!" I yelp, clutching at my hand which is now searing in agony after colliding with Adam's face. I don't dare touch it, but my other hand cradles it from beneath as it spasms with pain. Yep; 1 million percent fractured. "Jesus. Fuck!" I hold my breath, biting down hard on my bottom lip to keep the tears at bay.

Now the baby is crying and I'm nearly crying and Adam is practically crying and oh god, the pain!

"Come on." Hendrix says, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and taking Ellie's car seat from me. He pauses and turns slightly to face Adam who's groaning and clutching at his bloody nose. "You didn't listen to me, so listen to her; back, the fuck, off." He says venomously before steering me away towards his car. "Are you alright?" He asks me in a low whisper.

"I really need to stop punching people in the face." I say through gritted teeth, tears heavy in my eyes.

"Two for two, Osborne. You know how to knock 'em out." He tries to console. A miserable attempt, which I think he gathers through my glare. He puts Ellie in the back of his car and the pair of us climb in the front. "Seriously, is it that bad?"

I nod and gulp back around round of tears as I try to flex my hand. "You're going to have to drive me to hospital. I've completely fucked it." He sighs, but before he takes off driving, I ask him to help me look for my phone in my bag. "It's important!" I urge.

After a sigh and plenty of grumbling, he begins digging around in my bag. Once located, I ring Nat and add Lena to the call. "Guys, guess what? I just totally just punched Adam in the face."

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