Page 9 of Charlie Sunshine (Close Proximity #2)

“ No, ” she says, slinging herself into the chair and giving me a look that suggests I am the stupidest person in the world. “Why?”

“Because you’re huffing so hard it sounds like you need an inhaler.”

“ Misha, ” she whines. “Do we have to do this?”

I lean back and cross my arms. “Well, no. We can totally leave off the discussion of your health and focus on the topic of railing bondage at senior school. In fact, let’s have a debate about that. What are your views, Anya?”

“No, I don’t need an inhaler,” she says quickly, and I can’t entirely hide my smile.

She’s always amused me even though at times I’d like to lock her in her room for the rest of her life and board up the windows.

My mum insists it’s because we’re both headstrong and very similar, but I’m nothing like this spawn of Satan.

“Nice try,” I say. I tap the table consideringly and then push the toy towards her. “Meeting is called to order. The floor is yours, Anya. Let us sit and play soft music and discuss the ins and outs of handcuffing yourself to railings.”

She glares at me. “It was totally justified.”

I groan. “That invariably means it wasn’t.”

“Misha, you don’t understand,” she says passionately. “Your generation have fucked up the world, and now it’s our turn to fight for what’s right.”

“My generation. I’m twenty-seven. My fossil fuel days are still a ways ahead of me. I haven’t finished being flippant about alcohol consumption yet.”

“Mum, Misha is being sarcastic,” Anya immediately says.

“Mum, Anya is being belligerent,” I counter .

Charlie snorts, and I shake my head to clear it of childish retorts.

“So, how many other people got suspended with you, Anya? Please tell me it was your entire school year.” She mumbles something and I put my hand to my ear.

“I’m sorry. I’m sure you said it was just you and Laura Saunders. Where were all the other eco warriors?”

“It was drama class,” she says sulkily. “And they were casting for the end-of-year play.”

“Well, what about Laura Saunders? Doesn’t she do drama?” my mum asks.

“She had PE but she’s on her period and didn’t want to go swimming.”

“Oh, the young and their social conscience,” I mutter.

Anya throws her hands up. “I knew you wouldn’t understand. It’s such a shame that you’re not like Charlie.”

My mum sighs almost mournfully, and I narrow my eyes at her. “Wait. Are you agreeing with her?”

“Not at all,” my mum says quickly and entirely unconvincingly. I stare at her and she folds. “Charlie is lovely though. You have to admit it. And you’re very sardonic at the best of times.”

I shoot Charlie a look and he winks cheekily which makes me smile even though I don’t want to.

I turn back to the table to find all three of them smiling at me. “What?” I say defensively.

“Nothing,” Teddy says and they all nod as if they’re synchronising themselves for the idiot Olympics.

I knock on the table. “So, you’re suspended for two days. How lovely, Anya. What will you do with yourself? Maybe you could go and harvest some rare owl semen to save them from extinction or, I don’t know, maybe do your homework.”

She huffs. “Of course you’d mention homework. That’s all you think about.”

“Well, I certainly hope you’re not thinking that you’re going to enjoy yourself,” my mum says. “Not while you’re suspended. When you’ve finished your homework, you can help me around the house and cook dinner. ”

“Thereby ensuring that nobody else enjoys themselves either,” I say. “Even homework looks attractive next to Anya’s cooking.”

Teddy winces at the thought, but Anya ignores my jibe.

“Homework’s not important when the world is being starved, Misha.”

“Well, it’ll be a bit important if you’re the one who’s going to starve because you didn’t get your GCSEs,” I say mildly.

“But then you won’t be able to cook much if you’re going to spend your days handcuffing yourself to other people’s property.

” I pause. “Hang on,” I say slowly. “Where did you get the handcuffs from anyway?”

Anya shrugs. “Mum’s room. They were under her pillow.”

My mum gasps and turns bright red. “Oh my God,” she says faintly.

“Oh, sweet baby Jesus.” I sigh. The table bursts into bedlam as all three women in my family start to talk very loudly.

Over the shrieky sound of my mum talking about respect and personal privacy, I slowly lower my head to the table where I bang it against the wood gently. “Have I gone deaf yet?” I say to no one. “Please, dear Lord, let it happen soon, or at least give me amnesia.”

“Okay,” my mum says loudly. “Maybe it’s time that we move on and discuss item two on the agenda.”

“Yes,” I say faintly. “I’m all for moving on from the handcuffs. What is item two?”

“Jim asked me to marry him last week and I said yes. We want to do it in the spring.”

Anya and Teddy immediately exclaim in excitement and throw themselves on my mum, covering her with hugs, while Charlie stands up and busies himself at the stove.

I wince, hopefully unobtrusively. “Can we go back to the handcuffs?” I whisper, but luckily they don’t hear me.

A tiny corner of my mind knew this was coming.

When Jim moved in with my mum, he took me out for a pint and earnestly assured me that he loved my mum and the girls and would always look after them.

It doesn’t make this any easier though. I listen to them talk excitedly about dresses and flowers and honeymoon destinations and hope that my quietness goes unnoticed .

Charlie wanders over with his hands full of mugs of hot chocolate.

He puts them down on the table and squeezes my shoulder.

“Seems like this is the time for hot chocolate,” he says with his special warm smile that always, without fail, makes me happy.

I look up at him and something in his face lets me know that he understands my quietness, that I’m not alone.

And some of my ennui slides away. It never stays long when Charlie is around.

He puts my mum’s mug in front of her and hugs her, murmuring something softly into her ear. She smiles radiantly, looking at Charlie as if he hangs the moon. It’s a Lebedinsky family trait.

I squeeze his hand in thanks and pull him to sit at the table. “Don’t sit over there,” I grumble. “You belong here.” He grins and slides into the chair next to me.

An hour later we climb into the car and I suppress the urge to heave a sigh of relief. The first few minutes of the drive home is silent, but I know Charlie won’t be able to keep that up for long. Sure enough, he stirs as we pull up to some traffic lights.

“So, how do you feel?” he asks. It’s a quiet question, but I hear his expectation that I’ll answer him honestly.

I stare straight ahead. “About what? Climate change, the ups and downs of the royal family?”

“No silly, much more important. What do you think about your mum getting married?”

I shrug. “I’m fine. Why?” I give in and look to my side to find him eyeing me knowingly.

“I hope you don’t think that you’re going to lose her, Misha. She’ll still be your mum.”

“Charlie, are you under the impression that I’m seven? Of course I know that.”

He nods. “Hmm, and what about the bit about her taking another man’s name?

Are you okay with that too?” I can’t help my flinch this time, and he immediately grabs my hand, squeezing it tightly.

“Misha, it’s perfectly okay to feel sad about that,” he says softly.

“I know it feels like she’s letting go of your dad, but it’s just a name at the end of the day.

She’ll always have your dad in her heart just the way you and the girls do.

Nothing and nobody will ever change that. ”

I sigh, looking down at the clasp of our hands before bringing them up and kissing his fingers. “I know,” I say quietly. “It was just a bit of a shock at first. It threw me and sort of reinforced the fact that I’m the last Mr Lebedinsky. Made me feel a bit sad.”

I wouldn’t admit that to anyone but Charlie. I can’t tell my mum because it would hurt her feelings, and I’m not good with sharing emotions. But somehow it’s okay with Charlie. It’s safe.

He smiles at me. “Your mum noticed how quiet you were.”

I sigh. “I know. I’ll call her in a bit and have a chat.”

He gives a murmur of approval and reaches over to draw me into a hug.

I hug him back, tightening my grip and sniffing the warm vanilla scent of him.

We’ve done this so many times, and I’ve felt nothing except contentment, but now that odd awareness stirs inside me again.

I can feel the broadness of his shoulders and the silkiness of his hair brushing against my face.

He shifts and his lips press for a second against my cheek.

It sends a warning trill down my spine, and to my horror I can feel my cock stiffening, the way it did yesterday in the hallway when he stared at my body and licked his lips.

I jump as a car horn blares behind me and someone behind us shouts, “The light’s been on green for two minutes, you fucking muppet.”

Ordinarily, I’d shout something back, but I’m actually relieved that the stranger has broken my moment of incredible stupidity.

I stick my middle finger up at him anyway just to reassert my sense of self, and then put the car in gear and pull away, hopefully leaving that mad moment with Charlie far behind.