Story Title: Pick Up the Pieces
Chapter: One
Words: 1,300+
Chapter Summary: They thought they would never see each other after graduation. So they went their separate ways, Jack Wilder running toward his future, and Charlotte running from her past. Until one summer day, when they stumble.
"I'm out of touch,
I'm out love."
Charlotte Woods remembered slamming her bedroom door and screaming to no one in particular that it had to be the worst day of her entire life on several occasions. Whether it had been a ruined pair of jeans, the ending of yet another feeble relationship, or a lack of access granted by her parents to the keys of the Mercedes-Benz that sat so lonely in the garage, Charlotte was positive each time that it couldn't get any worse.
If her present self could have spoken to the sixteen-year-old edition, the elder would have laughed in her face. Because each teenage drama-queen disappointment was obscured by this one.
Charlotte was sure the audition had gone perfectly. As her icy blue eyes scanned over the crowd of hopefuls, there was not a single doubt in her mind that she had this job in the bag. With each set of choreography nailed as the day progressed, this certainty was only solidified.
And it all came crashing down. She had fallen. Couldn't she at least aim for something a little more memorable? Maybe fainting, or giving birth? Why did she have to be the girl who was given the boot on account of her just dropping like a fly. In the final round of the try-out, with the herd thinned to four leotard-clad and smiling dancers, her feet came down a bit too quickly and her grande jete ended with her in a heap on the linoleum floor. That's enough. Thanks for coming in. We'll call you if there's any news.
The casting directors had been all saccharine grins and sympathetic words, but Charlotte knew enough about this dammed city to know that her phone would be staying dormant. She could kiss the position back-up dancing in an "up-and-coming" band's new show on the Vegas strip good-bye. It was back to waitressing tables in a diner on the edge of town until the next time she could worm her way into an audition.
She huffed past the hallway lined with dancers crouching next to water bottles and canvas bags, stretching their nimble bodies and scoping out the competition. A mere hour ago, she had been in the same place. It took all her will power to refrain from whispering to them, "Don't bother." Charlotte used her hip to push open the exit door.
Nevada summer greeted her with what felt like a slap across the face. The pavement of the parking lot bordering the rehearsal complex acted as a magnifying glass on the July heat. If only her high school "friends" could see her now. She found it comical at its best; the fact that they were all so sure the Great Charlotte Woods would be on Broadway by now. Sorry to disappoint ladies, but I'm one bad audition away from spending the rest of my able-bodied days as a show girl.
Their graduating class had been far from psychic, apparently. Their Most Likely To Be Famous was passing the time, which her peers had devoted to college, in a fifth-floor walk-up apartment, living off microwave noodles and Diet Coke. The dancer flung her bag over her shoulder and tied her now unruly blond waves from her face and strode with her head down, trying to get to her car without anything else catastrophic happening.
She probably would have done it, too, had it not been for Jack Wilder making the same mistake of staring at the asphalt as he walked when he should have been keeping an eye out for former high school classmates.
The collision wasn't any more graceful than Charlotte's previous fall, though she did manage to stay on her feet. Her carried load didn't fare so well. "I'm sorry..." She muttered as she scrambled to pick up her things.
"Here, let me help you with that," a familiar voice came from above her. The man that had caused the mishap bent down to lift a paper with a series of large numbers printed on it, "Let me guess, a dancer?" Jack mused as he examined the paper, not bothering to glance up at the victim of his carelessness. "I'm no mentalist, but..."
His voice died when he finally did, however. He was faced with none other than Charlotte Woods, a girl he swore at graduation he would never again be unfortunate enough to come across. Because back in the days of gym class and awkward first kisses, she was the only one who seemed above it all. Yeah, that girl. The one who, if she were to step in gum, the entire student body would have lined up around the block to scrape it off the bottom of her shoe with a toothbrush for her. Yet, here they were. Charlotte Woods and Jack Wilder meeting on a Vegas parking lot two years later.
"Charlotte?"
The blonde's head flicked up upon hearing her name. No one in this town knew her name. She looked into the eyes of Jack Wilder, a face she hadn't seen in, what, two years? A face that had aged rather well, from the looks of it.
It was true what they about all attempts to run from your past failing. And Charlotte had been running pretty quickly. Apparently, the boy who sat alone in the cafeteria fiddling with a stack of playing cards had caught up to her. "Jack."
"What are you doing here?" They said simultaneously. The two laughed momentarily before at the coincidence before once again realize that it was one of epic proportions.
"Well, you had guessed correctly. Dancer." Charlotte explained, motioning to her tell-tale apparel, "And now let me guess..." She took in his leather jacket, black jeans, and mischievous smirk, "Hmm... card dealer?"
"Magician."
The former cheerleader was taken aback. "As in rabbit-out-the-hat magician?"
Jack chuckled. Charlotte pretended not to note how nice of a laugh he had. "As in, uh..." He pointed past her.
Charlotte spun and followed his direction. Her eyes landed on a bill-board, of all things, advertising the Four Horsemen, a quartet of rather sophisticated looking magicians. She'd heard all about their nightly performances; it was one of the hottest tickets in Vegas. She had neglected to ever actually look at any of the million advertisements, because then she would have noticed that her fellow alumni was one fourth of it. "Oh." The former cheerleader nodded casually.
"Yeah. I was actually just leaving a rehearsal." Jack returned his hand to his pocket and discreetly assessed the girl before him. Sure, she was pretty in that intimidating way of her kind, just as she had always been, but something was different. Charlotte Woods had changed. She no longer stood like a queen, and her eyes no longer burnt with ambition and intensity. If this was what the epilogue of a high school success story looked like, he was thankful his was a failure. "Hey, Charlotte?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah."
"Are you telling the truth?"
The dancer hesitated before releasing a small "No."
The magician continued the seemingly pointless interrogation, "Where are you heading now?"
"I'm not sure. Home, probably. Maybe the airport so I can get a one-way ticket back to New York."
Jack had been exposed to first-class burn-outs, and found it more likely that she'd be heading back to a dingy apartment on the outskirts of town to spend the night downtrodden and alone. And he couldn't just let her go her separate way with that information in mind. "Hey, I'm a pretty good listener if that's what you need. Maybe you could delay your flight just for the evening?"
The half-coy and half-hopeful smile he wore forced Charlotte to fabricate one of her own. "I might be able to arrange that."
Maybe it wasn't the worst day of her life, after all.