Chapter 18

On Wednesday, Charles had spent the entire day at home. His mom told him to stay at home and not to go out. He did not leave his house. He was watching the television the whole day, eating cereals in bowls, with milk poured over them. Charles enjoyed cereal since he was a little boy.

By the time it was 2PM in the afternoon, Charles had gone back to his bedroom. He wanted to go online in his PC. He picked up his cell phone, curious if Ivy had sent him any text messages as he did not respond to her phone call yesterday or her text message last night. He checked the screen. He had five unread messages. All of them from Ivy.

I better read them and respond before she does something I am going to regret, Charles thought.

A part of him was already in panic mode, despite the fact that he still wasn't feeling well. Before he could open up the first one, he heard his door bell ringing.

DING DONG

I have a guest, Charles thought.

His heart was pounding. Maybe it was Ivy, outside his front door. Charles gulped.

Oh no. She has taken the battle to my doorstep, Charles panicked.

Charles waited inside his bedroom. He thought of not going downstairs and checking who it was. There was a window next to his front door and if he went out to peek through, the person at the door would see him. It would be worst if it was Ivy as she would demand he let her in his house.

After three minutes of the bell ringing and the door knocking, the noises by the door stopped. Charles sighed. Then all of a sudden his cell phone was buzzing. He had an incoming call. It was from Thomas. Charles quickly answered it.

"Hi what's up?" Charles asked.

"Charles are you at home? Your mom said that you were sick. I thought of stopping by to see how you were doing," Thomas said.

"Oh you were the one ringing the doorbell earlier. Alright I am coming down now and I am gonna let you in. Bye!" Charles hung up.

Charles decided he was going to check Ivy's text messages later. When he was alone. All alone.

Charles let Thomas through the front door and the two boys spent the whole day at the dining hall. They sat down at the dining table while eating and drinking. Thomas made them sliced ham sandwiches with mayonnaise and cucumber in them. As for drinks, it was orange juice and tea.

"So Charles you still joining us Friday night for Green Lantern?!" Thomas asked and spoke.

"Yeah I guess so. I mean I need to spend more time with you guys and I need to chill out," Charles smiled.

Charles enjoyed Thomas's company. Thomas was such a good friend, coming all the way to his house to check up on him. Charles picked up his orange juice drink and sipped from it.

"Charles out of curiosity, what is it that you really do in the evening??" asked Thomas.

This was a question Charles dreaded.

"Well I told you guys before. I go online and chat with my school friends from Manchester. Sometimes I play video games," Charles responded.

Charles realized that he had just sounded a bit irritated. A bad move indeed.

"Well just wanted to let you know that at some nights, the rest of hang out together. Sometimes we spend the night at Brady's, watching horror flicks or even telling ghost stories. You should come and join us. My goodness. Seven years ago you were the gang leader. Now you are behaving more like Wolverine than like Cyclops. If you had remained in town for the last seven years, it would be us spending the night here, watching horror flicks at your lounge every Friday or Saturday night," Thomas commented.

Wolverine and Cyclops were comic book characters from a comic book series titled Uncanny X Men. Wolverine was the loner who sometimes played with the team and Cyclops was the team leader.