Chapter 34

Second week of October – Wednesday afternoon

Charles was having lunch with Brady and company at The Elvis. He and the guys were talking about their usual day at work and other things they did. Charles tried his best trying to hide his feelings about Thursday and Saturday from last week. Unfortunately because he had such good caring friends, they could see something was troubling him. He lied about what was bothering him, lying that a friend of his from Manchester was having serious trouble with the police and how bad he feels that he could not be there for his mate.

"Well to be honest Charles. He shouldn't have stolen that car! The law is the law!! He brought it on himself!!" Alex commented.

"Well he is still my friend!!" Charles making his false comment.

Charles dug into his fries, eating and thinking about Ivy. He had not seen her since Saturday. She never even sent him any text messages. He prayed that she never decides to send videos of his tattoos to anyone in town or telling the truth that he vowed to be the town outcast's slave.

"Charles man, don't let that bottle you up!! Let it go!! He is not worth it. If this guy who was supposedly your friend was a thief, he is not your friend from the beginning. He is not a good character. Forget him. Your real friends would think about their actions before doing something like this!!" Brady remarked.

"Well Brade, many city kids do stuff like this all the time. Stealing is no big thing to them!!" commented Alex.

"Yeah but still. Stealing is a serious criminal offence!!" remarked Pete.

"Yeah you guys are right!! This guy is not something worth worrying over," Charles said, making a sighing sound.

Brady grabbed his hamburger and took a chunk out of it. The way Brady was eating, Charles could tell that he was enjoying his food very much.

"Charles you ever going back to the big city??" asked Alex.

"Well I never thought about it! I supposed maybe one day I might," Charles responded.

"Good 'cos if you are, take me with you," Alex said.

"That is our Alex, always wanting to find an excuse to run away from our peaceful little town," chuckled Pete.

Charles, Bray and Thomas broke out into small laughter at Pete's joke.

"I sometimes think he doesn't love us anymore. That is why he wants to leave us," Pete said.

Pete looked at Charles, winking his left eye. He then looked back at Alex.

"Ain't that right Alex," Pete said to Alex.

"Oh I will always love you guys," Alex joked back.

Alex chuckled warm-heartedly.

"Any of you guys have girlfriends??" Charles asked, still laughing.

"Well everyone is seeing someone except me!!" commented Alex.

"I can understand now why you wanna leave town," Charles said, in a joking tone.

As far as Charles knew none of his friends had girlfriends. This was something they would not keep from each other. Unless they were dating girls like Megan or Katherine or girls like that, behind their friends' backs.