"Hey, what's up?" The man said, pushing past Charlie and standing in the doorway, thus trapping my sister inside the house.

"There was an emergency, we need to take Charlie home." Jesse said with an edge to his voice that was hardly detectable.

"Are you her parents?" He asked.

"No, I'm her sister." I said, raising an auburn brow.

"Then I'm sorry," he said with a seemingly gleeful look behind his eyes. "But I can't just hand you a minor. She needs to go home with her legal guardian, and I know that her father isn't coming by any time soon." This is what tipped Jesse over the edge. From this point forward, he had an argument in mind.

"Listen man, just give me my sister." I said, growing irritated as well.

"Gayle would be disappointed if Charlie left early, she was really excited for this." Lucas said with a quick shake of his head.

"Gayle will understand." Jesse said firmly. "Come here, Charlie." My sister listened to Jesse and squeezed past the man, but he grabbed her shoulder and held her in place. At this, Jesse grabbed my sister's hand.

"Charlie is not leaving until Gayle gets back." Lucas said, digging his fingers into my sister's shoulder, causing her to wince in pain.

"Charlie is going home, you psychopath." Jesse said sharply as he tightened his grip on Charlie's hand.

"I disagree." Lucas said. He made a face that suggested Jesse had said something unorthodox.

"Let her go." Jesse said, voice more threatening than I had ever heard it. Charlie was standing very stiffly.

"No." The man said. He had huge blue eyes that looked like they held the demented answers to the questions asked by great philosophers. He was very tall and lanky, whereas Jesse was sort of stocky. There was no doubt in my mind that Jesse would be able to fight him if the time came.

"Let my sister go." I said. He didn't even bothered to say 'no.' Rather, he simply mouthed the word like Tate Langdon mouthed 'boom' in the first season of American Horror Story. I then wound up and struck him in the face, sending him reeling back into the house. Charlie took her chance to dart behind Jesse and I.

"You asshole." The man said, grabbing my arm and yanking me toward him. My heart skipped about three beats and I stumbled, caught off guard and unable to throw a decent punch. And at this point, the time had come and Jesse's fist connected with the very base of the man's throat, causing strangled coughs to escape his thin, cracked lips. Charlie and I backed up several paces. The man recovered very fast, so Jesse didn't see it coming when a hard blow landed on his jaw. His face twisted in pain and he delivered the punch that ended up with the man on the floor of his house, doubled over and coughing.

"Let's go," Jesse said quickly, his goofy smile flashing back across his face as he shut the door to create a threshold between us and the man. The three of us then raced back to the car. Despite the circumstances, he still managed to open my door, wait for me to get in, then close it before getting into the driver's seat, rubbing a painful looking bruise on his jaw. "Crisis averted."

"Thank you." Charlie said.

"No problem." Jesse said as he began driving. Charlie then started telling us why she thought he was being creepy.

"I went to use the restroom and he waited outside the door the entire time." She said, shuddering. "And he kept sitting really close to me, and he looked at me a lot."

"Those are all some pretty vibrant red flags." Jesse said in agreement.

"Then he locked me in Gayle's room and told them that I wanted to stay while they went to the store." She continued.

"Let's not go to Gayle's house anymore." I said, looking to the backseat to see Charlie nodding grimly.

"Let's go to a park." Jesse said with an excited glimmer in his eyes.

"Yeah!" Charlie said. Jesse grinned and rerouted his internal direction system to Garvin Park. The very instant he parked, he opened both mine and my sister's door. Charlie shot him a quick glanced before winking at me teasingly.

"So," She asked in a hushed tone, ensuring that only I would hear. "How are things with good ol' Jesse?"

"Normally." I said. "We are friends."

"Yeah, those little hearts in your eyes say otherwise." She said. Jesse took a football out of the trunk and rejoined us.

"You both probably know how to throw a football." He said. We both nodded. Before I knew it, the football was in my hands and the four of us were on the field. I threw it to Charlie, who stumbled but caught it. She threw it to Jesse, who threw it back to me.

We continued throwing the football and playing games for a few hours. By this time, it was evident that the sun would be setting soon.

"Okay, I think it's time we get you home." Jesse said, catching the football one more time. Charlie and I nodded in agreement and we got back in the car. After a moment of driving, Gayle called Charlie.

"Hey, Gayle!" Charlie said upon answering, putting the call on speaker.

"Why did you leave?" Gayle asked.

"There was an emergency at home, Mom's bird got outside." Charlie fibbed.

"Couldn't you have stayed a little bit longer?" Gayle asked in a whiney tone.

"No,"

"Lucas thinks you were rude for leaving so abruptly." Gayle said. "But it's okay."

"That sucks." Charlie said dryly. "I gotta go."

"But you're in the car!" Gayle objected.

"Looking for Harper." My sister said before hanging up.

"Lucas said that you were rude?" I said in a surprised tone, pulling my auburn hair over my shoulder.

"That's so stupid." Jesse said, face devoid of expression as he turned into our neighborhood.

"He's going back to college soon." Charlie shrugged. "That's in Denver."

"Are colleges just taking anyone now?" I said, brows furrowed.

"It was one of the very few that accepted him." Charlie said with a grin plastered across her face. When we got to the house, Jesse parked on the side of the road like he always did. He walked the two of us to our front door, blond hair turning almost red in the sunset. His hazel eyes were lit up and reminded me of honey. He noticed me gazing at him and grinned, looking at the floor.

"Bye!" Jesse said.

"Bye!" Charlie said, squeezing Jesse in a hug that did not really envelope him, since he was about three times my sister's size. I gave my Friend a quick hug before following my sister inside. She was filling Harper's food.

"You know what, Mom did theatre in high-school." Charlie said almost absentmindedly. "I don't think that trait passed down to you."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, sweet Whitney," My sister sighed dramatically, placing the food bag down on the counter and looked at me like a boss would a snazzy subordinate. "You want him so badly, you look stupid."

"Charlie, please." I said as I closed the bird's cage door.

"What?" She glanced up at me again. "I'm not wrong. I mean, Jesse obviously likes you, so I don't see the problem. Your love is the kind that sad sixteen year-olds would write fanfictions about online. He's your partner in crime."