I blinked open my eyes and gave a rough chuckle at Charley’s groaned, “Not again, dude!” and half-hearted shove.
“What?” I shrugged as she tried to untangled herself from me. “Good morning to you, too.”
“You have got to leave a toothbrush here, man. That morning breath would kill a cockroach.”
“I take it that’d be a no on the good morning kiss then?” I teased, puckering up and leaning towards her.
“Ew!” she grumbled, trying hard not to laugh. “Get off my bed, Zane.”
She more enthusiastically started trying to shove me off the bed, but I did my best giant boulder impression.
“Zane!” Charley tried to snap between giggles.
“Charley!” I responded in kind.
“Fine.” She gave up. “But don’t go thinking you get to–”
“Morning, kids,” Charley’s mum said as she walked in.
“Morning, Kate,” I sang sweetly.
But Kate knew me better. She grinned ruefully. “Nice try, Zane. You’d better get home quick-smart. They two of you are probably going to be late as it is.”
Charley groaned in annoyance and rolled herself unenthusiastically out of the bed, arms and legs flailing as wildly as possible in protest. Her brown hair was messily escaping what had been a tidy plait the night before like some sort of attempted bird’s nest. Her light brown eyes were bright and alert as they always were when she woke up.
“Why didn’t you wake us up earlier?” she asked Kate.
“Because you’re on the cusp of adulthood and shouldn’t need Mummy getting you out of bed–”
“Mum.” Charley interrupted evenly, mock-glaring at Kate. “Were you ever actually a teenager?”
Kate laughed. “Oh, didn’t you know? As soon as you have a baby, you just forget who you were before it.”
“Har har,” Charley muttered as she rifled in her wardrobe for her school shirt. “You still could have got us up.”
Kate shrugged as she waved her hand aimlessly. “I fell in that vortex between the bathroom and the kitchen and lost two hours. You guys are on your own.”
“Was it the beauty vortex?” I asked, “Because you–”
“Finish that sentence, man, and I’ll kill you myself,” Charley warned.
I shared a smile with Kate. “No harm in reminding your mum she’s pretty.”
Kate smiled. “Thank you, Zane. This is why you’re my favourite.”
“Mum!” Charley snapped.
“What?” Kate asked, primping her hair. “Vanity will take hold of you one day, my girl. Then you’ll take it anywhere you can get it.”
“You want to rethink that sentence?” Charley asked her mum with a fake gag.
“Really no need,” I told her with a wide grin.
Kate grimaced. “You guys know what I mean. Ugh, teenagers!” she called as she walked out.
I turned to Charley. “Your mum–”
“One. More. Word,” Charley said, brandishing the baseball bat Brendan had got her for her ninth birthday – she’d promptly stopped playing baseball at nine years and two months old. Now the bat was only used to threaten me. Frequently.
I headed for Charley’s window. “You know you love me,” I reminded her as I clambered back out.
“I’ll deny it to anyone who asks!” she hissed before she shut the window behind me.
It was the closest she got to admitting it these days, so I’d take it. Charley and I had been part of each other’s lives as long as I could remember. I’d found an old, broken board in the fence at four and there she was; instant playmate. We knew each other’s deepest, darkest secrets. We knew every part of each other – the good and the bad. She’d always been so easy to be around. I’d never had to pretend to be anyone else with Charley. We seemed to argue a lot lately, but I couldn’t imagine my life without her. Kind of like your favourite chair in the living room or your phone, she was a fixture of my world.
I was grinning goofily to myself as I squeezed my way through to my side of the fence. But I couldn’t help it, Charley just had that effect on me.
****
I drove Charley to school, with the obligatory duets at our loudest approximation of singing, and it all changed the moment I turned the car off.
It was like, as soon as she stepped onto school property, that there was this invisible line drawn between us and woe to the one who tried to step over it. I never knew what caused it. I mean, I knew Charley and my friends didn’t get on. And her friends were serious dweebs. But I didn’t know why that had to mean we didn’t get along at school.
Although, it wasn’t like I didn’t enjoy our terribly witty banter. Charley had won our insult trade-offs for as long as I could remember. It was a sore point to my pride, but one day I was going to make my epic comeback. Or just accept her winning because I liked it.
Thoughts of Charley waned as I went about my day and barely saw her, as they did most days. Particularly when my girlfriend Thea pulled away from me at Recess as we went to meet our friends and sighed heavily.
“You okay, babe?” I asked her.
“I just don’t think this is working out, Zane,” Thea said with a shrug.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I was sort of devastated – who likes being dumped? But I was also kind ‘eh’ about the whole thing. We’d only been dating a month or two anyway. It was this odd contradiction inside me I wasn’t used to.
“Uh… Okay,” I said slowly. It came out more of a question as I tried to sort my feelings.
Thea’s face fell into sympathetic pity and my stomach twisted uncomfortably. “I’m sorry, Zane. I didn’t want to hurt you. But I just thought I shouldn’t string you along anymore, or whatever.”
I blinked. That last bit had me feeling a little more miffed about the whole thing. “Oh, isn’t that nice of you?”
Thea beamed. “See? You get it.”
I nodded. I did get it. I got that, after everything, Thea was dumping me. Me. I was being dumped. I didn’t get dumped. I did the dumping.
“‘Course,” came out a strangled imitation of my usual confidence.
What was happening to me?
I cleared my throat. “Yeah, no. I get it. No sweat.”
She smiled. “Great. Come on. The others will be wondering where we are!”
I nodded as she started off. As I followed, I muttered, “Sure. Of course. Because we’re just friends now?”
I played it cool through Recess. It wasn’t like I was in love with Thea or anything.
When Bleeker clapped me on the back and asked, “Who’s next, my man?” I grinned.
“I’m thinking…Abby?” I waggled my eyebrows. “Huh?”
“Clarke?” Jory asked.
“Who else?” I scoffed. Like it was a contest. Pfft.