KIDNAPPING CHARLOTTE 3

         Charlotte screamed at top of her lungs as Nora's car moved forward. She and Faith kept singing a song and dancing to it. Charlotte however was feeling that she was breathing her last but she didn't want any of them to notice. She had felt her breath and strength leaving her since yesterday after her birthday and she was surprised that she woke up alive that day. 

      Faith's phone started ringing and she took it from her lap and looked at the screen, it was Ethan, she showed it to Nora who was also singing but was concentrating on the road. Nora nodded for her to answer the phone and she turned down the volume of the music and slid to the green icon, putting the phone on speaker.

        "Hello, Mr Floyd..." 

         "Faith, have you seen Charlotte?" 

    Faith looked at Charlotte, Charlotte shook her head, mouthing that she doesn't want to go back to the hospital. 

       "No, why?" 

       "Where are you? Where is Nora?" 

      "Why are you asking about Charlotte, Nora and me?" 

      "If you know Charlotte's whereabouts can you let me know, please?" 

     Faith glanced back at Charlotte and Nora and Charlotte shook her head. 

         "Well, I don't know about her whereabouts. Why don't you call her phone directly?" 

        "Since you are not with her and she didn't leave with her phone, I guess she had been kidnapped and kidnapping is a very serious offence. I am heading to the cops now to report a missing person." 

      Faith looked alarmed at Charlotte and Nora. Nora grabbed the phone from Faith. 

       "Hey, Ethan! Do you just have enough money to throw around? Who would want to kidnap Charlotte and for what?" 

       "So where in God's name is she?" 

       "We don't want you to interfere. We are going to have all the fun we want to have, please don't call again, we won't answer your calls. Thank you." 

        "What time...?" Nora hung up. He removed the phone from his ear and stared at it. Then he smiled. 

        "Can you turn up the volume please!" Charlotte pleaded. 

        "Of course." Faith turned up the volume of the car. 

       "So, what do you want to do today?" Nora asked Charlotte. 

        "I want to take a lot of risks today with my life. I want to race in a sports car, I want to climb the mountains and rocks, I want to sing my favourite song in karaoke, I want to do a lot of things that I can't finish today." 

        "Well, there is always tomorrow. So let's head to the place we could hire a race car, will you race with me or Faith?" 

       "I will race with you two. Take me to the club, I want to do my last dance." 

        "Last dance?" Faith asked looking behind. 

       "Well, I'm never going to be at the club again even if I wanted to," Charlotte replied enthusiastically. 

         "You should stop saying last days, last dance, last everything, it gives me the creepers," Faith remarked. 

        "You don't need to be scared for me, we would all die." 

         "Stop saying death like it is one easy or funny thing, alright?" 

         "Aye, ma!" Charlotte saluted Faith.   "Can you give me the music?" 

            In a few minutes, they were at the racing track. Nora killed the engine and they kept mute looking around. 

    "We are here," Nora announced. 

   They went down from the car and headed towards the Paddock. Faith stopped short after a while. 

       "Can I just be your spectator? I don't want to race." 

   Nora glanced at her.  "No way, we would be our own spectators. Can you stop whining and take risks for once?" 

       "It's not about taking risks for me. I don't feel too well," Faith lied and placed her palm on her stomach.  "I feel my stomach burning." 

      Nora eyed her.  "You are using your ulcer as an excuse now? Tsk, so unbelievable." 

      "You have an ulcer?" Charlotte asked looking at Faith. 

      "Didn't I tell you? Gastric ulcer." 

       "No, you didn't." 

       "I'm sorry then." 

      After so much persuasion from Nora, they were able to get sports cars. They started the race, Nora shot off like a thunderbolt, Faith was so scared to move that she moved slowly, and Charlotte was trying her best to catch up with Nora. It was Nora and Charlotte that were in the race, Faith was too scared to shoot off. But with time, she picked up courage and stepped on the accelerator. 

        They raced a couple of times, with Charlotte or Nora coming first, Faith was always the last. They raced until it was noon. Charlotte requested a marker, they got her one and she wrote on the rails. 

      'Charlotte was here with Faith and Nora on her last race' 

        Faith couldn't help it. She had to wipe away her tears when the marker was given to her to write. She didn't know why Charlotte's speaking of her death shook her up like that. They went to a waffle place and ate a lot of waffles, they bought pizza and went to the iconic Hollywood sign. 

       Charlotte screamed at top of her voice once they went up the hills. Faith and Nora sat down to eat the pizza. 

       "Strike a pose for the camera," Faith said after a while as she took out her phone to take Charlotte's pictures. 

      Charlotte struck a pose and Faith took a shot of her, she struck different poses and Charlotte took different pictures of her. She gave Nora to take pictures of her and Charlotte.

       "Take the picture of us together," Nora said and stood to go over to her. She went to Charlotte and hung her arms on her shoulders.  "So, Charlotte, do you not have a bucket list or something? I know that cancer patients always have things written down they want to do before they die." 

      "Get ready...1…2…3…" Faith snapped while Nora was still talking. She looked at the picture and scowled.  "Nora, you talk a lot, just take a look at this beautiful picture." 

        "Whatever, that's why you love me."  She turned to Charlotte.  "Isn't that why we are rivals?" 

     Charlotte laughed out loud and her head jerked back.  "You still wanna compete with me even after knowing my condition? You must be heartless." 

      Nora locked her arms with Charlotte's.  "Cancer or not, you are my rival, so you should also compete to stay alive with me too." 

      Charlotte looked into her eyes. Her large blue eyes held a smile that Nora felt was a smile of gratitude. "Each time I feel like giving up now, I will remember I have someone to compete with and I will come out strong again." 

      Faith wiped a lone tear that was trekking down her left cheek.  "I'm such a cry baby, you should stop talking this way in my presence." 

        "I'm glad I met you girls. I have never been this happy." 

         "So what do you want to do?" Nora asked, the air blowing her around. 

       "My life did not turn out exactly how I wanted it to. I mean, what I planned, but I guess it turned out better than I imagined." 

        "How did you imagine and how did it turn out?" Faith asked. 

        Charlotte made to sit, and Nora helped her to sit. They sat together beside each other, holding hands, Charlotte in their middle. 

        Charlotte exhaled deeply.  "I planned that I would get a rich man and fall in love with him to make my last days memorable, you know, do the things that I have not done before. When I met Ethan, I knew his heart already belongs to someone else, but I wanted to feel what it would feel like to be taken care of. I became a little selfish and I kind of worked myself into his life. " She looked at Faith. "I'm sorry for that." 

      "I don't understand you. Why are you apologizing to me?" Faith asked confused. 

     Charlotte chuckled lightly.  "Do you pretend not to notice the chemistry between you two or you are just being ignorant?" 

      Faith glanced back at Nora and looked back at Charlotte.  "I don't think you get it. We are just roommates... We have kissed a couple of times, I get it, but, I'll like to blame alcohol for it. Ethan and I have nothing going on, he calls you his girlfriend." 

     Charlotte chuckled again.  "That's not what I see when he looks at you. He might be a little confused now about what he wants, but believe me when I say he only pities me. This is a pity." 

        "You and Ethan were dating before he found out about your condition." 

        "Because he is desperate." 

        "Desperate for what?" 

       "You will find out with time. The first time I saw you and Ethan together, the day you had that misunderstanding about going on the date, I felt the chemistry myself that I was mad at myself for trying to go between you two because I was selfish..." 

       "You are not selfish, Charlotte. I'm not in love with Ethan." 

        "Are you not?" Charlotte asked looking over at her.  Faith blinked and looked away from her. 

     Nora tilted her head so she could see Faith.  "Are you going to answer?" 

       Faith swallowed hard. She might be attracted to Ethan, but that's just because of his sex appeal and because she was kind of lonely, but love was way out of the picture. She wasn't even over Noah yet, in her heart of hearts she still wishes Noah would come back again and that wish was already coming true. She didn't want infatuation to get in her way.

       Noah was ready for life, he had proposed to her once and he was ready for life, for marriage, for responsibility. Ethan was still playing around, he doesn't even have a job, and she doesn't know what he does to get the money he spends. The closest she was going to get to him was just being friends with him and  nothing more. 

       She looked at her friends that were looking at her. At that moment, she knew the answer she would give to them.