Ditching The Ponytail

I was able to successfully avoid Charlotte for the rest of the school day, so she hasn't been able to seen my cheek.

I look at myself in the mirror behind the front door and notice that I look exhausted. I move the hair away from my cheek and notice that it's a light purple shade.

Great, now I have to hide it until it heals.

I walk into the kitchen only to stop in front of the freezer so that I can grab an ice pack.
I place the ice pack on my cheek before I jog upstairs so that I can start on my homework.

As soon as I walk into my room I throw my backpack on the bed and walk into my closet so that I could change into a pair of comfy clothes.

I decide on an oversized black hoodie paired with white night shorts. I find a pair of white knee length varsity sock and put them on.

When I walk out of my closet I hear my phone buzzing on my nightstand. As I walk towards it I see Charlotte's name flashing across the street.

I grab the phone and swipe right before I place the phone near my ear and speak into it.

"Hello?" I ask in a weird voice since I forgot that I have a bruise on my face and accidentally touched the phone to my face

"I'm coming over" Charlotte says which causes me to roll my eyes

Usually she just comes over without saying anything.

"You can't" I say as I sit on the bed and start to pull out my homework and textbooks

"And why is that?" She asks with a curious voice

"One, because it's my house" I say matter of factly "and two, because my mom just went to work so I doubt she'd be pleased to find out that you slept over" I say

"You make it seem like we've never had hangouts while your mom wasn't there," she says in a confused voice

"I know that you're hiding something from me, but I don't understand why" she says with obvious disappointment which causes me to sigh

"I'm just not feeling well, I'll talk to you tomorrow" I say before I hang up and stare at the wall with a frown

I get snapped out of my thoughts by my phone singing from three text messages.

I immediately frown when I see who they're from.

Maddie- I hope you learned your lesson today

Maddie- I see you've made a new friend, that's great.

Maddie- Now you can leave MY Charlotte alone

She's been cyber bullying me ever since a month ago when she caught me and Charlotte hugging.

I honestly think it's crazy how obsessed she is with Charlotte, which is why I'm scared of what she might do if I tell someone about what she's been doing to me.

I hear a knock on the door downstairs which causes me to groan in annoyance.

Why does everyone want to bother me today.

I fix my hair so that it's covering my cheek before I pull my hood up and onto my head. I quickly make my way downstairs before opening the door only to be met with Charlotte holding a tub of ice cream.

I sigh which makes her sadly smile.

"I know that you don't want to see me right now, but I really don't feel comfortable being alone right now" she says which makes me pout as I see a tear roll down her cheek

If she started with that on the phone then maybe the call would've went a little bit differently.

I wipe her tear away before I pull her into a hug.

"It's okay, I'm here for you" I say as I walk her inside and close the door

Charlotte has separation anxiety.

Her parents neglected her when she was eleven and went on a trip when she was twelve.

They left her with my mom and I before they got on a plane so that they could fly to Hawaii.

They told her that they would be back whenever they felt like it and barely acknowledged us when they dropped her off.

Long story short, they never came back.

We have no clue where they are nor do we care, but when Charlotte is left alone for too long she either gets panic attacks or she breaks down and wrecks things.

A couple of times when she's spent the night she gets very bad nightmares. There has been countless times where I had to wake her up and calm her down.

She's been through a lot, but even through it all she tolerates hate from nobody.

"I have to do homework, I can put on a movie for you" I suggest as we walk up the stairs and towards my bedroom

"No, I'll help you" she says in a small, fragile voice. I nod as she removes her shoes and climbs onto my bed.

I sit beside her and place my textbooks on my lap along with a couple of papers. She lays her head on my shoulder which makes me smile.

I'm so happy that I'm able to comfort her in these moments.

-

"Question five is wrong" she says as she continues to massage my shoulders.

I've been doing homework for two hours now. I finished everything else so now I'm working on math, which is one of my worst subjects.

Charlotte noticed that I was stressed a couple of minutes ago so she started to give me a massage which is proving to helpful since I feel more relaxed than I did an hour ago.

"Ugh, I give up. I've redone it three times already" I say which makes her laugh before she grabs my paper and finishes the rest of the equations in four minutes.

I stare at her gobsmacked when she hands me back the paper with a smile on her face.

"Beauty and Brains," I say which causes her to look away from me as the tips of her ears turn pink

"You're going to make one lucky guy or girl happy" I say since I don't know what team she swings for

I place all of my books and supplies inside of my backpack before I place it beside my bed and get comfortable under the covers.

"Oh wait, I forgot to offer you clothes to sleep in" I say as I remove the covers from my body which causes her to grab my arm so that she can gain my attention

"It's fine, I can sleep in my clothes" she says with a reassuring smile but I just shake my head

"No, I'm getting you some comfortable clothes. You can't object" I say with determination which makes her smile as I get up a walk towards my closet

I pick out a pair of black leggings and a white oversized sweatshirt for her.

I walk out of my closet with the clothes only to see her removing her shirt which causes me to blush as my eyes widen.

We've never changed in front of each other.

Oh god, I shouldn't be looking at this.

When her shirt is over her head she turns towards me and looks at the clothes in my hand with a smile.

I look down and see her perfectly toned stomach which she's gotten from going to the gym every week.

I look up and trace the contours with my eyes before they land on her beautifully sculpted chest.

Her breasts are covered by a maroon lace bra. She appears to be a B-cup maybe a C-cup.

"Hey Aspen, my eyes are up here" Charlotte say with an amused tone which causes me to blush and look down as I hand her the clothes

She accepts them before walking into my bathroom and closing the door behind her.

I feel something wet on the corner of my lip so I reach my hand up and touch it.

Great, I drooled over her body.

Now she probably thinks that I'm weird.

Wait a minute, I've never had this reaction to someone before.

I shake my head to rid myself of the crazy thoughts, I'm obviously just admiring something that I though looked good.

It's no big deal.

I'm not attracted to my best friend.

I walk to my bed and place the covers over my shivering body. I lay on my back and just stare at the ceiling as I think about the day.

It feels like Maddie has been bullying me more and more each day.

At least one good this came out of today.

I met Kayden and it seems like he hasn't heard the names that everyone made up for me.

"Hey, are you okay?" Charlotte asks as she lays beside me and turns off my bedside lamp

I turn onto my side so that I'm facing her before I give her a smile, which causes her to look at me with an unreadable emotion as she tucks a strand of hair behind my ear.

Thank the heavens that it's my unbruised cheek.

She rests her hand on my cheek and just continues to look me in the eyes with an unreadable expression.

I'm about to ask her what she's doing when she suddenly says something that catches me off guard

"You know that I care about you, right?"

"Yes, of course" I say which makes her smile before she places a kiss on my forehead

I move my head so that it's laying on her chest which causes her to wrap her arms around my waist

"Goodnight Aspen"

"Goodnight Charlotte"

-

I am awoken by my alarm clock blaring out an annoying ringtone.

I reach over and turn off the alarm before I stretch my arms over my head. As I go to put my arms down a pair of arms tighten around my waist which causes my breath to hitch in surprise.

I slowly look up only to see Charlotte's relaxed facial features.

Oh, that's right. She slept over.

Wait a second...

She didn't wake up in the middle of the night screaming from a nightmare.

That's a first.

I try to gently pry her arms off of me so that I can shower which ends up failing since she ends up tightening her arms.

I'm surprised I can still breathe since she's squeezing me really hard.

"Charlotte, let go. I need to take a shower" I say in a whiny voice since I'm becoming frustrated

It's seven in the morning and I haven't had coffee yet. She's lucky that I'm not yelling at her right now.

"Five more minutes" She grunts out before she rolls onto her back which causes me to end up straddling her waist as my head rests in between her breasts.

Our current position and proximity causes me to blush and look away.

Why have I been so awkward around her lately.

Maybe I'm just catching a cold.

I try to pry her arms off of me again which ends up being a success as I roll off of her and walk towards my bathroom.

As soon as I close the bathroom door I move my hair behind my ear so that I can look at my cheek.

It's still the same light purple color but now it has splashes of yellow and an undertone of grey.

I hope that this fades soon.

I quickly strip out of my clothes before stepping into the shower and turning it to the hot side.

-

When I'm finished with my shower I quickly blow dry my hair before plugging up my curling iron.

If I'm forced to hide my bruise I might as well have a little fun with it.

I pull out a tube of concealer and dab some on my bruise before spreading it over the section until it's covered.

You can still see the slight discoloration but that's only if you stare at it for a certain amount of time.

I begin to curl my hair in tight spirals so that when I brush them out they're softer but still defined.

-

Forty-Five minutes later I finally finish curling my hair, I unplug the curling iron before I lightly brush my curls together and spray hairspray over them.

When I walk out of the bathroom I see Charlotte leaning against my desk while scrolling through Instagram.

While she's not paying attention I subtly check out her outfit. She's wearing a white cropped tee with black skinny jeans that have a slit in the knees. She has an unbuttoned red and black flannel covering the shirt and a pair of red and black converse. Her hair is in a cute messy bun.

Wow, she can pull off any outfit.

"Aspen? Is that you?" I hear Charlotte ask in a tone of disbelief as her eyes check me out

"Like what you see?" I joke with a small laugh which causes her Adams apple to bob up and down

"Well, I'm going to get dressed. I promise I won't be long" I say which causes her nose and the tips of her ears to turn red as she looks down at her feet

I adjust the short white towel that's wrapped around my body before I walk into my closet and shut the door.

She was acting weird.

Maybe she's catching something too.

For my outfit I decide on a white ruffled tank top and a pair of denim ripped jeans. I chose a pair of white low cut converse and gold hoop earrings.

When I'm finished getting dressed I open my closet door and walk towards my nightstand so that I can put on my glasses.

"I thought you had contacts" Charlotte says from behind me which causes me to turn around and face her

"No, Why? Should I get some?" I ask since I've been thinking of buying some for awhile now but never went through with it since I'm afraid of what Maddie will do

She might accuse me of trying to fit into her social group and continue to beat me up.

"You look good in everything, so that's your choice" she says with a smile which causes me to blush and look down.

"Let's go downstairs for breakfast" I say before I walk out of my room and down towards the kitchen where I see my mom preparing omelettes

"Oh my goodness, that smells so good" I say as I sit on a barstool with Charlotte following not that far behind

My mom laughs at me before greeting Charlotte and placing down two plates that have the most aesthetically pleasing omelettes on them.

As soon as the bite of the omelette touches my tastebuds I immediately moan in delight.

"That good, huh?" My mom says jokingly which causes Charlotte to smirk

"Mom" I say with wide eyes and blushing cheeks.

As I'm finishing my breakfast my phone goes off alerting me of a text message. I look down at my screen which causes my stomach to instantly drop when I see the message.

Maddie- You better watch your back today

Seriously?!

She has to threaten me in the morning too?!

"Who's that?" Charlotte asks as she tries to take a look at my phone but I quickly turn it off before she can

"It's just my phone carrier sending me one of those random texts" I say with a nervous laugh before I get up and place my plate in the kitchen sink

I feel someone's eyes on me as I rinse my plate. When I turn around I see Charlotte looking at me with a look of suspicion.

I quickly look away before she can read my emotions.

She's always been able to read me like an open book.

"If we don't leave now then we'll be late," I say as I walk to my mom and give her a quick hug "love you, mom" I say before I grab Charlotte's wrist and drag her towards her car.

I have a feeling that today is going to be a long day.