I don't go downstairs the next morning when I smell breakfast. I'm not hungry and I don't really feel like talking to anyone today. I'm not sure why, but I feel sad and a bit depressed. Maybe it's because of what Jason said to me last night, but I shouldn't be this upset about that. I mean, I just met him a mere three days ago.

So now, I'm laying on my bed re-reading City of Glass. I recently read the first two books in the Mortal Instruments series again, so why not read this one, too?

"Charlie?" I don't have to look up to know that it's Jared in the doorway. "Breakfast is ready."

"I'm not hungry," I say, my voice devoid of any emotion. I keep my eyes locked on the book in front of me instead of looking up at Jared. I'm not even one hundred percent sure why I'm feeling like this today, I have absolutely no excuse for it. But most days I can't explain my feelings, so I'm not surprised.

"Okay, well, we're going to be gone all day." This caught my attention, so I look up at him curiously. "We're going to a friend's house, for a birthday party. Do you want to come?"

"No," I say simply, because I am not in the mood to meet other people and have them judge me before they even know me, because that is what happens every time I step foot outside.

"Okay," he responds, and then he shuts the door, and I hear him walking down the stairs. I spend the next half hour reading, then I hear the car start outside, so I shut my book and bring it downstairs with me. Seeing that no one is in the house, I plant myself on the couch and open my book again, returning to the spot I was at.

I look up as I hear the door open again, and see Gen come in, holding a credit card or something.

"Here," she says, holding it out to me. I look at it in confusion and furrow my eyebrows, looking up at her. "I don't want you to sit in the house all day, so go buy yourself some clothes." I raise my eyebrows and shake my head.

"I don't need any clothes."

"Come on, Charlie," she tries. "There's five thousand dollars on this card. Just please go out and do something." With that, she leaves the house, also leaving me very confused. What the hell am I supposed to do with five thousand dollars?

I mean, I know a lot of things I could do with it, but it's not my money, so I'll probably only end up spending around two hundred of it. Then again, I might not go out at all, considering I absolutely hate shopping, and if I was to go, I would hate to go alone.

I get up off the couch, marking my page in the book and leaving it on the table as I go outside and walk around the huge driveway. Since the first time I saw it, I've been wondering why it doesn't have a basketball hoop.

Suddenly, an idea comes to my mind. I pull out my phone and call Haley, praying to God that she will answer because she is my only friend here besides Jason, and I'm pretty sure he won't want to talk to me right now.

"Hey," she answers.

"Hey, you want to go shopping?"

______________

"Why in hell did she just give you five thousand dollars?!?" Haley asks as we look for a decent-looking, cheap basketball hoop. "You are a sixteen year old fangirl! Does she have any idea how quickly you could go through all of that?" I laugh.

"Well, this morning when Jared came in my room, I was kind of depressed and distant, and I'm pretty sure he noticed."

"Aww," she says, to show some sympathy for my negative feelings. "What were you depressed about? Jason?"

"I don't know," I murmur as I spot a very nice looking basketball hoop. It's black and green and it's only eighty five dollars. "It's everything, I think. A new house, new people, losing my mom, that tiny little thing with Jason..." my voice trails off as I continue checking out the hoop. "By the way, why didn't you tell me he was seeing someone else?"

"I didn't know," she says. I look up at her and raise an eyebrow. "Seriously. I know absolutely nothing about his love life." I purse my lips together, deciding to believe her. "But I do know that he was upset last night and this morning. I'm not sure if it's because of last night, though." I just nod a little.

"Okay, let's get this one," I say, momentarily forgetting about the whole Jason thing.

______________

After about two hours in the store, we head back to Jared's house. In total, I spent a little over two hundred dollars. I bought a basketball hoop, two basketballs, a small bucket of baseballs, three baseball gloves, and a blue Ripstik skateboard for myself.

"You know, I'm quite surprised," Haley says as we drive down the road, only under a mile left until we reach Jared's house. I furrow my eyebrows at her, signaling for her to continue. "Yeah, most teenage girls would've spent that money on clothes and makeup. But you bought sport-related things."

"Is that bad?"

"Oh, no," she says, sounding a bit defensive. "No, I think that's cool. I think girls like you are rare." I roll my eyes and stare out the window. I don't want to have a heart-to-heart chat right now.

"Oh, god," I murmur, fed up with people talking about feelings and stuff. I sigh in relief when Jared's house comes into my view.

"Hey, can I get a shower before we start on putting this up? I'm all sweaty and gross." I furrow my eyebrows as I get out of her car.

"Well, you're going to get even more sweaty and gross when we're working on this," I mumble. She rolls her eyes and gets out of the car, heading for the front door of the house. I groan in frustration.

"I'm just going to wash up. I'll be right back."

Right back, my ass.

Since I'm pretty sure Haley will take a lot longer in the house than she thinks, I decide to start on putting the basketball hoop together.

"Hey, Charlie, sorry I— woah!"

I stand below the basketball hoop, trying to readjust a few things on the bottom of it. It's a lot taller than I thought it would be, probably about seven and a half feet tall.

"You already got it?" She asks in a surprised tone. I glance up for a second as she steps off the front steps and walks around the driveway, admiring my work. It honestly wasn't very hard. "How the hell did you get it up this fast by yourself?"

"I read the directions," I mumble sarcastically. "Also, when I'm doing something I enjoy, I usually don't procrastinate." I stand up alongside Haley, looking at the basketball hoop that is now in Jared's driveway. I really hope he doesn't mind that I put it up here. I made sure to get it out of the way as much as possible. I purse my lips together. "Not bad." Haley scoffs.

"Not bad?" She asks in disbelief as I walk over to her car to get the rest of the stuff out. "You need to give yourself some more credit, Charlie. It's fucking awesome!" I roll my eyes and throw a basketball to her.

"Try it out," I say, and watch as she moves closer to the hoop and tosses the basketball in, easily making it.

"Hey, where did that come from?" Haley and I both look to our right as Misha and his family come over to see what's going on. I completely forgot that he lives next door.

"I bought it," I say simply, not wanting to explain my whole entire day to them, because honestly it takes too much work. "This is my friend Haley." I introduce her to everyone.

The familiar silver car pulls in to the driveway, and I suddenly realize how late it is getting already. "When do you have to go home?" I turn to Haley, asking her the question that I've been dreading to ask. She scoffs.

"Considering that I'm an adult, probably whenever the hell I want," she replies. I smile as I see Gen and Jared get out of the car and they immediately spot the basketball hoop. Gen furrows her eyebrows as she walks up to me, holding little Shepherd in her arms.

"You bought a basketball hoop?" She questions, raising her eyebrows. I nod slowly, a little afraid of what he reaction is going to be.

"Uh, yeah," I start. "I was going to call and ask, but I thought it would be okay because it only cost like, eighty bucks and it doesn't take up that much room—" I continue to ramble on, until Jared cuts me off.

"Charlie, it's fine." I exhale in relief, a breath I didn't even know I was holding.

"Yeah," Gen adds. "I mean, I guess we're a little surprised. I gave you a card with five thousand dollars on it and you only bought this?" I raise my eyebrows.

"Well, I also got two basketballs and some baseball stuff and a skateboard. It was like two hundred bucks."

"Still, most teenagers would have spent way more than that," Jared says as he helps Thomas out of the car.

"Okay, 1) I'm not like most teenagers, 2) it's not even my money, and 3) I was being all moody this morning and I felt bad that you had to see that, so..." my voice trails off and Gen laughs a little

"Hey, who's this?" Jared asks, pointing to Haley.

"That's Haley," I reply as they say hi to each other, before Jared and Gen go inside with Shepherd. "Hey, can she spend the night?" I call after them, and shortly later I hear 'sure'. Haley and I give each other looks.

I go over to her car and grab the small bucket of baseballs and the baseball gloves. She grabs my Ripstik and then shuts the car door, following me over to the basketball hoop and setting the stuff down.

I happen to glance over at Thomas, who is sitting in the grass of the front lawn and looking very upset. I lower my eyebrows and walk over to where he is sitting, and sit right in front of him.

"You okay, bub?" I ask. He just shakes his head a little, picking at the grass with his fingers. "What's the matter?" I ask, deeply concerned with why he is acting so sad. It makes me want to go pay whoever made him feel like this a little visit and hit them in the face with a bus.

"They were playing catch at the party and they didn't let me play," he replies.

"Why not?" I ask, furrowing eyebrows.

"'Cause I don't know how." I look over at the basketball hoop, and spot the baseball gloves. I smile and then look at Thomas.

"You want to play catch with me?" I ask. He shrugs. "Please? I can't play by myself." I fake crying, which causes him to smile a little. I stand up and pull him up with me. "Okay, which hand do you write with at school?" I ask, and he holds up his right hand. I nod. "Then that's the hand you throw the ball with, okay? And you're other hand is you're catching hand. So you need a glove on that one." I help him get the glove on his left hand, since he's never worn one before and he's having trouble with it.

After that, I put my own glove on and pick up a baseball, standing about five or six feet away from Thomas. "Now, just keep your eyes on the ball and try your best to catch it okay?" He nods a little, preparing himself for the first throw. "You ready?" I ask. He nods again. I toss the ball to him underhand, being sure to make it easy for him.

He laughs in victory as the baseball lands in his mitt. I smile at the adorableness.

At that moment, I happen to look over and see Jared and Gen standing in the doorway watching us, with huge, warm smiles on their faces.