Rachel Matheson had just gotten back from yet another business trip and was being driven home by her husband.
"You were gone for a lot longer this time," Ben pointed out for at least the third time so far this car ride.
"I know. But it's my job, Ben," Rachel defended herself in an irritated tone. "What do you expect me to do?"
"That's not what I'm saying," her husband responded, his eyes seeming a little too focused on the road ahead of them. "I just think that before we get home that it's important that I warn you that a lot has changed in the past few weeks… Things are pretty different now at home."
"I think that I can handle it, Ben," Rachel retorted in a moody tone as she stared out the passenger side window. She was tired from the trip and that combined with the instant reminders of how long she had left her family for this time had put her into a bad mood.
The pair spent the rest of the ride home in an uncomfortable silence. After a few minutes Ben turned the radio on just to try and fill the silence.
Rachel didn't make it more than three steps into her home before she dropped her bags to the floor in shock. She stared at her daughter in silence, mouth agape, for several long seconds before she finally remembered how to speak.
"What's with the costume, Charlie?" She finally managed to croak out.
"It's not a costume," Charlie responded as she momentarily stopped rummaging through her bag to glance up at her mother.
"So you're telling me that you just woke up one morning and all at once decided that you were going to dye your hair pitch black, put on clumps of make-up, and get facial piercings?" Rachel demanded.
It was true. Charlie now wore heavy, dark make-up paired with her dark dyed hair. Her whole wardrobe these days seemed to be primarily black and she had recently added a nose ring and lip stud to the look.
Today she was wearing leather pants, a black tank-top, and a choker necklace. It was like she had walked right out of a bad dream of Rachel's.
"No, it wasn't all at once," Charlie said in an irritated tone before she gave up on whatever she had been looking for and threw her bag over her shoulder. "… Maybe if you'd actually been here for once you would have known that."
With that she made her way to the door, shoving her mother with her shoulder harshly on her way by.
"Where are you going, Charlie?" Ben questioned. "Don't you at least want to welcome your mother home first?"
"I'm meeting Connor," Charlie responded, pausing momentarily in the doorway. "And not really… She's already made me late enough standing in the way. And I'd rather not waste my time with someone who just leaves when I have someone who actually stays waiting for me."
Rachel opened her mouth to speak, but by the time that words came out her daughter was already out the door.
"Who's Connor?"
Danny had been sitting on the couch watching the entire encounter and quickly spoke up with, "He's Charlie's boyfriend."
"Charlie has a boyfriend?" Rachel asked in surprise before she turned and pointed accusing eyes at her husband.
"I tried to warn you," Ben insisted. "But you were sure that you were prepared."
"What did you let our daughter do to herself?" Rachel demanded.
"It's not that bad, Rachel," Ben said in a futile attempt to calm his wife down.
"Have you seen her?" Rachel shouted.
Ben decided that now was not the time to make matters worse by telling his wife about Connor. Instead he figured that Rachel could use a little time to calm down before she finds out what Charlie's new boyfriend looks like.
"And there's no 'I missed you Charlie' or 'Hi, Charlie' or anything," Charlie continued her rant as she sat cross-legged on the floor of Connor's house. "No, it's just straight into judgy-lecture mode. But what did I expect? She's hardly ever home, but whenever she is she lives in some delusion where she's super mom or something."
"That's messed up," Connor agreed. He had spent the last ten minutes silently listening to Charlie as she spilled out the entire story.
Bass turned into the room and his expression immediately transformed into a grimace.
"Oh great, Charlie's here," he muttered sarcastically. "Are you two staying here and eating or what?"
Connor glanced over at Charlie for a split second before he decided that she'd already had to deal with her own disapproving parents, so she really didn't need to deal with his disapproving dad right then.
He turned and glared back over at his father. "We were just leaving."
Charlie didn't question the interaction. It was nothing out of the ordinary for Connor and his father. Instead she just silently rose to her feet and followed him out of the house.
A few minutes later, the pair stood outside the door to Miles' apartment waiting for him to let them in. Charlie had her own key, but she was a little hesitant to use it since the time that she had practically walked in on Miles and Nora.
When Miles came to the door he simply wordlessly smirked at the two teens before pushing the door out of the way to let them in.
He didn't need to ask what they were doing there. He knew that his place had become like a refuge to the couple, since both of their fathers less than approved of their relationship. Ben seemed to think that Connor was responsible for the change in Charlie and Bass was sure that Charlie was the main reason that his son walked around with dyed black hair, black make-up, and several piercings. Bass had hated it enough when his son had gotten the two hoops through his eyebrow along with his ears pierced. The tongue piercing was a whole new level.
"I actually am kind of hungry," Connor admitted as he flopped down onto Miles' couch feeling more comfortable than he usually did in his own home.
"Pizza?" Charlie questioned.
Connor nodded his head in approval before turning his head a little, "Miles?"
"Pizza's fine."
Charlie ordered the pizza and then returned to Miles' living room with a bottle of beer for each of them in hand. She set them down on the table as she sat down on the floor next to it before turning to face her boyfriend.
"Come here."
Connor let out an exaggerated groan as he rolled off of the couch and moved to sit beside her.
Charlie smiled a little to herself as she turned to rummage through her purse.
"What are you looking for?" Connor questioned.
"This," she responded victoriously as she pulled a bottle of black nail polish out of her bag. "I'm doing your nails."
She wanted to take her mind off of her mom being back and she figured this was as good of a way as any.
Connor didn't argue and instead just stuck his hand out over the table to give her better access to his chewed down nail beds.
Charlie was just finishing up painting his second hand when there was a loud knock at the door.
Miles left the room and returned a moment later with a pizza box in hand.
Charlie closed up the nail polish and put it back into her bag as Miles set the pizza down on the table. They usually just ate straight from the box since Miles didn't believe in having to wash dishes. The only types of plates found in Miles' kitchen were paper ones and even those were a rarity.
Connor moved his hand like he was going to go open the pizza box, but Charlie quickly reached out and grabbed onto his wrist.
"Hey, wet nails," she told him. "You can't use your hands."
"Then how exactly do you expect me to eat?" Connor questioned.
Charlie tossed the lid of the pizza box open and then grabbed a slice. She took a bite out of it before turning to her boyfriend and telling him, "Open your mouth."
He did as he was told and Charlie moved the pizza over so that he could take a bite too.
"Beer me," Connor told her.
"You have to finish this slice first," Charlie teased.
Connor opened his mouth comedically wide in response as Charlie moved to feed him, cramming half of the slice into his mouth at once.
A laugh found its way to her lips as he made a slight choking noise while biting down. Charlie took the rest of the piece back and finished it off as she grinned innocently over at him.
Miles finished off own slice of pizza as he watched the pair with an amused smirk before turning to head to the kitchen to grab himself a drink.
After much chewing, Connor eventually managed to swallow the rest of the pizza in his mouth.
"Jesus, Charlie. Just because you don't have a gag reflex doesn't mean that I don't," he told her accusingly.
She continued to look as innocent as she could manage as she told him in a gloating tone, "Sorry, my hand slipped."
"Yeah, sure it did," Connor responded sarcastically with a slight smirk of his own. "And I have Justin Bieber's name tattooed on my ass."
"Really? Can I see?" She asked in an eager voice, causing her boyfriend to roll his eyes. "Or better yet, you should show my mom. I'm sure she would flip out."
"Oh, so now the plan is to piss her off?" Connor questioned.
"She's going to be pissed off either way," Charlie pointed out with a shrug. "It's just more fun on my terms."
A/N: Please read and review! This story is dedicated to Steph-Schell because there is no way that any of this would exist without her :)