Chapter 4

Chapter 4 

Charlotte's POV: My online girlfriend 

She didn’t see me or maybe she did and didn’t recognize me because why would she?

I could breathe normally again or sort of. I always thought transfer students were supposed to look confused or maybe holding a map upside down.

But the girl walking through the hallway right now? Yeah, no. She looked like she walked out of a dramatic anime intro with theme music blasting behind her.

She had dark messy wolf cut hair and people actually slowed down to stare. Someone bumped into a locker because they weren’t looking and a group of girls whispered, “Who is she??” like she was a celebrity.

Max saw her and immediately stopped laughing mid sentence, his whole face rearranged itself like someone punched him. His smile dropped and his grip on his backpack strap tightened.

Charles leaned in, whispered something to him, and Max shoved him lightly, but his eyes didn’t move from her.

Before I could even process any of that, Maya came sprinting toward me.

“Charlotte!” She grabbed my arm dramatically. “Have you seen the new girl? Why is she that hot? Why is my school allergic to transferring ugly girls?”

“Maya…”

“Oh my gosh, you think she’s cute too, don’t you? Wait Piper from the LGBTQ group just texted me.” She shoved her phone in my eyeballs. “They said she looks like she escaped a biker gang, I’m scared but also emotionally attached already.”

Someone behind her said, “She looks like she beats people up for fun,” and Maya gasped and said that is so romantic.

Classic Maya, she always lived loudly inside her own rainbow universe.

“Maya, please breathe,” I whispered.

“I can’t breathe,” she whispered back. “Can you see her? She looks like a cartoon character.”

I rubbed my forehead, ready to tell her to calm down, when Max suddenly stood way too close to me, too close for normal Max behavior.

His hands slipped to my waist like he was trying to claim me or protect me, honestly I had no idea.

He never touched me like that in public.

“Don’t stare too much,” he muttered.

Excuse me??

Why is he acting weird?

I turned to look at him, but he avoided my eyes while Charles crossed his arms behind him, nodding like he was watching a live episode of drama.

“Interesting!” Charles whispered.

What is interesting??

Someone explain something to me.

Whispers started popping up around the hallway like popcorn.

“Is she a model?”

“Bro she looks dangerous.”

“No way she’s our age.”

“I bet she has tattoos.”

Someone even said, “I heard she got expelled from two schools,” which was physically impossible because she arrived literally ten minutes ago but this school loves drama more than oxygen.

A group of year eights ran past screaming,

“The new girl is so cool, I'm scared of her ”

Great, perfect, lovely, exactly what my heart needed while I was internally combusting.

Before I could interrogate anyone, my phone buzzed.

“Lottie guess who’s at Bridgehall Academy.”

My whole soul collapsed, Sophie was texting me while I stood ten steps away from her.

I looked up again, and Sophie wasn’t staring at me, she was staring at Max.

My stomach dropped straight to my ankles.

Why him? Why that look?

My brain ran through every single possible nightmare scenario in two seconds:

Do they know each other? Did she recognize him before me? Does Max know her? Does Sophie know that I know him? Does anyone know anything about anything??

I felt like a character in a movie who suddenly realizes she is not the main character in the movie anymore.

Max stiffened like someone punched him with air, but before I could even ask what was wrong, he suddenly leaned in and kissed me.

It wasn’t romantic, It wasn’t sweet and it felt like a shield, a cover to hide behind.

People gasped and someone yelled, “Damn”

I think I heard a phone camera shutter.

Max pulled back, but didn’t look at me even for a second. His eyes snapped straight back to Sophie and Sophie didn’t look away.

My heart was beating like it was trying to run out of my body, everything felt so unreal and I was panicking 

So I did the only thing my brain could think of: stick to Max’s side like glue. If I acted normal, maybe nobody would see the emotional fire burning inside me.

“Charlotte? Are you okay?” Maya asked, her eyebrow raised like she already knew I was lying.

“I’m fine,” I said too fast, “I’m perfect.”

She stared at me,“Why are you holding Max’s sleeve like that?”

I looked down and I was, I dropped it immediately and laughed, a laugh that sounded like a dying cow.

“I’m just tired.”

Her jaw tightened in that tiny way she does, when she’s pretending to be unbothered.

Her arms crossed, then uncrossed, then crossed again.

She bit her lip, glanced at Sophie, then at me like she was trying to solve an equation she didn’t like.

Maya wasn’t dramatic anymore, she was quiet,

too quiet and that scared me more than anything.

Then Sophie stepped closer, Her boots echoed on the floor in that slow, dramatic way villains walk in movies, Max looked tense beside me and Maya’s entire vibe shifted fully from rainbow to storm cloud.

“I’ll see you later,” Maya said, oddly quiet and walked past us without looking back.

My chest hurt a little at how cold that sounded, but I didn’t have time to think about it because a soft voice spoke behind me.

“Hey, excuse me.”

My whole heart slammed into my ribs.

I turned around and her eyes met mine. There was something about the way she looked at me, like she recognized me but didn’t want to say it out loud.

Her eyebrows lifted just a little, and her eyes did this tiny shine thing that made my

brain go blank.

It felt like she was reading me before even speaking.

Then she said, slowly:

“Do I know you?”