10 Meeting Charlie

It has been about a week since our first day at school. Olivia and I had to turned down so many dates it was insane. Now I know what the Cullen's felt like. But the funny thing is my relationship with Alice had taken a drastic turn from the first day onward.

She's always near me. At lunch time she's always sitting next to me. This one time I decided to skip class and sleep in the woods. I woke up with my head resting on her lap while she played with my hair. My sister is kinda jealous, cause her interactions with jasper have been extremely neutral.

This entire week has been quite nice. One thing we haven't done yet is meet our neighbor Charlie Swan. So that is what we are doing today. It is around 8 o'clock right now and the police cruiser is outside his house. So my sister went over to invite hi to dinner.

My mom made lasagna tonight. Even though our senses have been dulled we still enjoy eating from time to time. My mom is sitting at the head of the table, me to her right, Olivia to her left and Charlie is siting at the other end of the table. We decided to get the ideal chit chat going.

"So Charlie, tell me do you have any kids." My mother asked him. She knew the answer but we have to pretend like we don't.

"Yes, I have a daughter. She lives with her mother down in Phoenix." He tells my mother. He seems kind of uncomfortable with this whole situation.

"Ooh, are you married." My mother asked. I swear I can hear anticipation in her voice. What could possible be the reason for that.

"No, I'm divorced." He says

"Well that is unfortunate. You seem like a great guy." My mother says in her usual sweet tone.

"I'm really sorry, I know this is very rude, but I have to ask how old are you. Cause if you are as old as you look I find it hard to believe that you have two children." Charlie asked. There was so much curiosity in his tone of voice.

"Well if you must know I'm 38 eight years old. I had Percy by accident when me and my husband were having one of our more adventurous nights, when I was younger." I felt absolutely mortified at what she was saying. I couldn't believe she was telling this to a stranger. "He and I got married the moment we knew I was pregnant. Olivia came a year after Percy. Those were the happiest moments of my life." She tells us with the sweetest smile on her face. So I find it quite impossible to stay mad at her.

"So your married." Charlie asks with the slightest hint of disappointment. It was so slight that I believe even Jasper would have a problem detecting it. I'm getting a foreboding feeling from this whole thing. Why are they acting this way.

"Not anymore no. My husband passed away a few years ago. He was a soldier in the navy." My mother says hiding her sadness with her smile.

"Well my condolences. May he rest in peace." Charlie says.

Through out this entire dinner neither Olivia or I have said anything. We were just watching things play out. When I turned to look at her she had that same look in her eyes. We knew that there was a large chance that Charlie might become part of the family.