If you've stumbled upon this story by chance, I do hope you'll stay and read it, but there are a few things you should know. First, this is NOT REALLY a Pretty Little Liars story. I just had to categorize it as such. It's a companion piece to a Pretty Little Liars fic, which I also wrote, called State Your Sting. If you're looking to read something that's about Emily Fields and Paige McCullers, I'd start there. And while you're doing that, you'll come across these two original characters that I made up: Charlotte Cole and Eden Renmark. This is actually their story, and while Emily and Paige might make a small appearance here or there, this isn't really about them. But it all exists in the same little universe I made up for them. So, without further ado...
The Wall
by Donald Justice
The wall surrounding them they never saw;
The angels, often. Angels were as common
as birds or butterflies, but looked more human.
As long as the wings were furled they felt no awe.
Beasts, too, were friendly. They could find no flaw
In all of Eden: this was the first omen.
The second was the dream which woke the woman.
She dreamed she saw the lion sharpen his claw.
As for the fruit, it had no taste at all.
They had been warned of what was bound to happen.
They had been told of something called the world.
They had been told and told about the wall.
They saw it now; the gate was standing open.
As they advanced the giant wings unfurled.
"Charlotte, I'm so sorry, but I really can't stay any longer. I have a showing early tomorrow morning and I need to get home tonight so I can have enough time to prepare for it," Dianne told her daughter, brushing some nonexistent dust off the shoulders of her crisp, red skirt suit in the lobby of the bustling dorm building.
The two were merely drops in the veritable monsoon of activity that was freshman move-in day at Vallance College: a five by five block liberal arts bubble in the midst of the republican, small town of Solomon, Illinois. The mother and daughter were as much in opposition as the college and its town. Charlie stood, an almost bored expression on her face, in baggy jeans, a white t-shirt and a backwards Chicago Bulls hat; Dianne in her business suit with its prominent shoulders pads, a string of pearls around her neck, and her salt and pepper hair pinned back in a tight, elegant bun.
"I know, mother. It's fine," Charlie shrugged.
"And your father wanted to be here—" Dianne began.
"But he's working on a very important case right now," Charlie finished for her mother perfunctorily. It was a script she'd been privy to her entire life. She'd heard it at her Say No To Drugs speech in 5th grade, her middle school choir concerts, and her high school basketball games. By now, she knew it by heart. Dennis, Charlie's father, was one of the most powerful and sought after lawyers in Chicago, and the fact that he took off two weeks every summer for a family vacation, as well as a week every winter for Christmas and New Year, made him father-of-the-century as far as Dianne was concerned.
"Do you have everything you need?" Dianne asked, a rhetorical question apparently, because she continued on before Charlie could answer. "You have all of your things up in your room, the parking permit and sticker for your car, I put extra money on your Dining Services card. We'll put money into your bank account each month. Can you handle buying your books and supplies after you enroll in your classes?"
Charlie nodded. "There's a bookstore somewhere on campus. It shouldn't be hard."
"Well, here," Dianne said, opening her purse, extracting her billfold and pulled out several hundred-dollar bills, which she handed to Charlie. "In case we've forgotten anything."
"Jesus, mother, people are going to think I'm a prostitute!" Charlie said, shoving the wad of cash into her pocket as quickly as possible. "I'm gonna get mugged."
"That's enough, Charlotte," Dianne dismissed her daughter's comment. "Your father and I will try to make it down for one of your games this winter."
Charlie gave her mother a small smile, but knew she wouldn't be holding her breath. Pigs would fly before her parents "made it down" for one of her basketball games.
"Do you have to wear that hat, honey? It makes you look like a boy. I wish you'd try a little harder," Dianne muttered, frowning as her eyes scanned up and down her daughter's form.
"Sandy gave it to me for graduation," Charlie responded, putting a protective hand over the top of her hat. "I love it."
"Be that as it may," Dianne said, then, her attention was caught by an old, light brown upright piano at the far end of the lobby. "Oh, there's a piano here. That's nice. You'll be able to stay in practice."
Charlie rolled her eyes. "I don't play, mother," Charlie explained, a detectable edge creeping into her voice. "Felicity is the one that still plays."
"Oh, that's right," Dianne agreed. "You complained about how much you hated your lessons for two years until we agreed to let you quit."
"No, that was Catherine. I loved playing. But when I was 9 you told me that I didn't have any talent at it and it would be a waste of money to keep taking lessons."
The correct light bulb for the correct daughter finally lit up above Dianne's head. "Right. Well, to be honest, you hadn't improved in a year. We needed to spend time fostering your marketable skills. That's something you should keep in mind when choosing your major, Charlotte."
"Yes ma'am," Charlie assented, but her eyes looked dead in their sockets.
Dianne took a moment to regard her daughter— her baby, her youngest. This was it for her. When she got back to Chicago that night, it would be to an empty nest. A large part of her could hardly believe this day had finally arrived. She heaved a sigh as tears began to well up in her eyes.
Charlie didn't even glance up at her mother, assuming the woman was still in lecture mode, until she heard her mother sniffle. When her eyes finally snapped up to her clearly crying mother, Charlie's face contorted into a scene of utter confusion. She was too shocked by her mother's sentimentality to even make a smartass comment about the scene Dianne was making.
Dianne brought one hand up and cupped her daughter's face gently, stroking her cheek for a moment before she cleared her throat with an air of finality. "Your father and I love you very much, Charlotte," Dianne told her. "I hope you've never doubted that."
She pulled Charlie into a quick hug, kissed her cheek lightly, and then turned to go. She looked back for a just a moment, opened her mouth, but hesitated, and then closed it.
"Call us if you need any money," Dianne finally managed, then strode off and left Charlie alone in the lobby of her new home.
"What the hell was that about?" Charlie wondered aloud, still completely flabbergasted by her mother's uncharacteristic show of emotion.
To be quite blunt, Charlotte Cole was an accident and this fact was never kept much of a secret from her. There was really no other way to put it. Dennis and Dianne were a lawyer and real estate agent in Chicago. They already had six children and were both in their 40s when Dianne realized that she was pregnant again. It had been 7 years since she'd given birth to their youngest and quite frankly, she thought she had passed her childbearing years. Charlotte's sudden appearance was not on anyone's radar and consequently, she was always a bit of a wrench in the gears of the Cole Family.
Six months after Charlotte was born, Dianne had hired a nanny and went back to work. She'd stayed at home for 12 years raising her children and she missed working. In the two years since her last child had started school, Dianne had established herself as an up and coming real estate agent, dealing mostly with big name clients looking for properties downtown. She didn't want to lose all the ground she'd been able to gain in that time.
For the most part, Charlie was raised by a succession of inattentive nannies until age 11. None of them hadn't lasted very long…for one reason or another. Charlie had a bad habit of scaring them off with her various shenanigans. Those shenanigans were also why Charlie had such a strained and tenuous relationship with her siblings.
Charlie had stolen what little attention her parents' had for Felicity and Elizabeth when she was born and had, apparently, used Elizabeth's bed for a potty training exercise while her mother was on a conference call one weekend. At 6 years old, Charlie had become violently ill at Dan's high school graduation and projectile vomited all over his girlfriend's family, who were seated in front of the Coles, during the ceremony. She'd learned to read by stealing Catherine's diary and would quote passages of it whenever her sister brought boys over to their house in Lincoln Park. At 8, she'd crashed Ben's beloved Camaro over Christmas break when he was home from college and she decided to take it for a joyride while everyone else was busy decorating the tree. The summer she was 10, she'd cried throughout the day when her oldest brother, Aaron, got married and ruined every wedding photo she'd been in.
Finally when Charlie was just starting 5th grade, her parents' had hired a young woman named Sandy to look after her. Sandy had become her surrogate mother and friend and for the past 7 years had showed Charlotte more love and understanding than any of her family members ever had. It was Sandy, Charlie thought, who deserved that tearful good bye, not Dianne. Sandy was the reason she had even gotten into college, as far as Charlie was concerned. Without her patience and encouragement, Charlie wouldn't have even applied.
Standing in the lobby of Craft Hall, the freshman, all girls dorm at Vallance, Charlie suddenly felt very lonely. She wandered slowly through the lobby, weaving between anxious freshman, middle-aged men carrying things that were too heavy for them, and volunteers from Residential Life, all of them wearing purple shirts, who were pointing wayward souls in the right direction.
Charlie perched herself on the worn, wooden bench of the upright piano and ran her fingers over the dingy, yellow keys, tapping a few at random. When she'd taken lessons, Heart and Soul, was Charlie's favorite song to play, although, she'd never mastered playing both parts of the song at the same time. She could still remember the basic melody, though, so she started to slowly pick out the notes as they came back to her. Charlie was just starting on the melody a third time, getting into the rhythm of it, when someone sat down next to her on the edge of the piano bench.
Charlie glanced over at the intruder, to throw a snarky comment at their presumption, but she was momentarily struck dumb. This person, this woman, was gorgeous. She had skin the color of chocolate milk (Charlie's favorite drink), deep brown eyes, eyebrows that reminded Charlie of Egyptian hieroglyphs, and tightly coiled black hair that clouded around her heart-shaped face. Her lips were full and soft and completely enticing. And her body, Charlie thought letting her eyes trail momentarily away from that hypnotic face, it wasn't lean and sharp the way her own was. No, it was much better, Charlie decided. It was full and curvy and delicious. She wanted to run her hands all over that body. It was by no means Charlie's first time feeling attracted to a woman, but it was the first time she felt it like a train running straight through her stomach. The attraction was complete, immediate, and undeniable.
"Keep going," the regal goddess spoke to Charlie, still in her reverie, out of that heavenly mouth.
Charlie blinked a few times and then, rather in a daze, turned back to the keys and very slowly began to plunk out Heart and Soul again. But this time, it was fortified by the girl next to her who began to play the other half of the song; the part that Charlie's left hand should have been playing. It sounded so good, with that girl filling up the empty spaces in between her notes that Charlie almost forgot that she couldn't actually play the piano. She felt bolstered and, well, happy. A giant smile split her face as Charlie watched the dexterous hands moving along side of her own. The mystery woman had her nails painted a deep, shocking pink. The contrast of the pink against her brown skin was so satisfying to watch that Charlie felt hypnotized as they continued to play through the song.
But then, someone must have called to her—Charlie couldn't tell with the mass of people flowing in and out of the propped open doors of the dormitory. She stopped playing abruptly and looked past Charlie for a just a second before she met her eyes and said apologetically, "I have to be off."
Then she was gone. Charlie didn't even have a chance to ask the girl for her name. And just as quickly as the strange girl had made the world fill up, it emptied again with her absence. And Charlie went back to her lonely state of being.
She figured she might as well unpack, so she headed into the stairwell and climbed up the four flights of stairs to the door that opened on the landing where her room was located.
Craft Hall was made up of six suite-style dormitories that were designed to include a living room area that Charlie's Residential Advisor had called the suite when she had introduced herself. The lower level door opened into the suite, a big room that had a couch and various tables and chairs. On one side of this room was a large, two-story window that overlooked the lawn outside. On the other side was a staircase that led up to a balcony that overlooked the suite. On either side of the stairs, both upstairs and downstairs, were the rooms – two double rooms in all four of the corners—and a bathroom in each corner as well. Charlie's room was in the upper left hand corner, were there was also another door that opened onto the main stairwell. Charlie liked the suite set up. She thought it made the dorms seem homier and less institutionalized.
When she and some frat boys who'd been stationed outside to help students move in had carried her boxes in a couple hours ago, Charlie's roommate hadn't shown up yet. Charlie had picked the side of the room that didn't have a window because she figured she'd be able to sleep in longer in the mornings if the sun wasn't glaring in on her face. Now, however, the window side of the room was filled up with boxes and Charlie felt excitement bubbling up in her as she walked in the room.
Charlie already knew her roommate's name was Eden Renmark. They'd sent each other brief emails of greeting once Vallance had informed them of their room assignments. Eden had seemed oddly formal in her email but Charlie was anxious to meet her nonetheless.
She bounded into the room and found a thin, dark skinned girl putting sheets on the bed. "Hi!" Charlie exclaimed.
The girl jumped a bit, dropped the sheet she was holding, and turned around with a shy smile on her face. "Oh, hey," she responded timidly.
"I'm Charlie," Charlie stated and thrust her hand out boldly, though she was quite taken aback by how young her roommate looked.
"Nice to meet you," the girl said, shaking her hand.
Charlie couldn't help herself. "Are you like one of those baby geniuses that skipped like 5 grades? Because you look super young. Like holy crap," she burst out.
The girl just grinned and giggled at her before glancing at the doorway to someone who had just walked in. "Eden, you're roommate thinks I'm you," she said, still laughing. "I'm going to go help Mom. She said to meet her outside when you got back." Without further ado, the girl skipped out past Charlie, who was blushing hard with a hand smacked to her forehead.
Stupid! That was Eden sister, probably. Then she spun on the spot to introduce herself to her real roommate. All that came out, though, was, "Holy shit!"
It was that beautiful stranger from the lobby who had briefly filled her up with music. Charlie's heart began hammering so fast in her chest it made her slightly nauseated. Those gorgeous brown eyes were glaring at her. Wait. Glaring?
"Please don't curse at me," Eden snapped. "I'm a lady."
"Seriously?" Charlie chided.
"You're Charlotte," Eden stated.
Charlie grabbed her hat off her head and in one smooth movement, grandly swept it through the air and across her body with her arm extended and sank into a deep bow.
"My lady," she said, smirking up at Eden, one eyebrow cocked, challenging her new roommate not to be charmed by her.
Eden surveyed her like that queen that Charlie could already tell she was, and then, cool as anything, said, "You may rise," and marched past her, further into the room.
Charlie straightened back up and moved over to her side of the room. She glanced toward Eden and was pleased to see that the other girl was failing to suppress a grin.
"So," Eden said, "why exactly did you curse at me just now?"
"Because," Charlie said, keeping her tone neutral as possible, "you surprised me. I wasn't expecting to have the most beautiful girl on campus as my roommate."
Eden had stopped in the middle of opening one of her boxes to eye Charlie curiously.
"Are you teasing me? That's not very nice," Eden said eventually, turning back to the box of books she was unloading.
"Who said I was joking?" Charlie retorted, making sure to keep her tone as blasé as possible. She didn't want to sound as nervous or excited as she felt.
Eden decided to ignore her. She was clearly crazy. What kind of a person, even if they do think their roommate is beautiful, tell them so without so much as a hello? She also decided to ignore the fact that this lanky girl with a snapback was making her heart jackhammer in her chest and her skin erupt in goosebumps despite the heat of September in central Illinois.
"So, Charlotte," Eden began again.
"It's Charlie, actually."
"Alright then. Charlie," Eden tried again. "What do you do? What will you be majoring in?"
"Uh…" Charlie stuttered. "I…I dunno. I thought we didn't have to decide on a major until later."
"Do you do anything?" Eden questioned again, now piling some of her clothes neatly into her dresser drawers.
"I play basketball," Charlie offered. "I'm on the school's team."
"Do you do theatre? Or some kind of music?" Eden asked her hopefully.
"Uh, no," Charlie laughed. "Not really my thing."
"Really?" Eden asked, sure Charlie was pulling her leg now.
"Really. Why do you sound so skeptical?"
"You just really shone earlier when we were playing the piano."
"I shone?" Charlie asked, moving across the room toward Eden and stopping directly in front of her.
Eden's breath hitched slightly having her personal space so thoroughly invaded by this brunette heathen who smelled like vanilla.
Charlie slowly reached her hand out and Eden slowly leaned away from that hand, though she was effectively trapped with her legs pressed back against the bed frame. She was starting to sweat under Charlie's intense stare.
Finally, Charlie trapped on of the big coils of curly hair hanging just to the left of Eden's cheek and pulled it out until it was stretched completely straight, but not hard enough that it hurt or was actually pulling. She extended it just enough so that when she let it go it bounced back into place dramatically.
"Boing," Charlie whispered. "I like your hair. And I have personal space issues. Just warning you."
"Thank you?" Eden responded, a slight quaver in her normally steady tone.
And then Charlie winked at her and those green eyes (emerald, Eden thought), they made her mouth go dry. Eden dismissed all the weird things happening in her body as nerves over starting college and being apart from her family for the first time in her life. And this girl, Charlotte, being so brazen. All these new things were making her feel off kilter, she decided.
They talked for the next 20 minutes, Charlie back on her side of the room, telling Eden about all the nannies she'd driven away as a little kid. Eden telling Charlie that she was like all seven of the Von Trapp children all by herself. Charlie wondering who the fuck these awesome kids were until Eden broke out into Doe a Deer. Charlie falling silent for the first time since she entered the room because Eden's voice sounded like the auditory embodiment of honey dripping over a warm biscuit and it was all making her mouth water.
That was when Nel came in, one eyebrow cocked in exasperation at her daughter, who was mid-refrain.
"You know, she will stop if you ask her," the heavyset black woman told Charlie, chuckling in a sweet raspy voice.
"Oh no, ma'am," Charlie said, standing up from her bed where she'd sat down to listen. "It was…great," she gushed sincerely.
"I think you may have found your perfect roommate, Eden," Nel, who had commanded the room from the moment she stepped foot in it, said.
"I'm still deciding," Eden quipped.
"Where are your manners, young lady?" Nel said, her voice turning stern. "Introduce us all." She gestured around to the young man and the girl that Charlie had previously mistook for Eden.
"My apologies," Eden said immediately. "Charlotte," she announced loudly, "this is my mother, Nel; my brother, Gabriel; and my sister, Esther. Family," she turned to face the trio, "this is my roommate, Charlotte Cole."
Charlie had embarrassed her parents enough to know what good manners were, so she stepped forward and offered her hand to each of them in turn and muttered a "nice to meet you," to them all.
"Is your family here, Charlotte?" Nel asked warmly. "I'd love to meet your folks."
"Oh, no," Charlie shrugged. "My mom just dropped me off. I'm the youngest of seven, so this is kind of old news for them. They're probably glad to be rid of me. My father always tells me what a holy terror I am."
Charlie froze, deer in the headlights, at the sympathetic look Nel was giving her. She'd said too much. She hadn't meant to reveal so much personal information to these strangers. She'd meant to act cool and aloof and unaffected by her lack of happy family on move-in day. Charlie tried to chuckle, to laugh it off, but she could tell that even if Eden's brother and sister were buying it, Nel sure as hell wasn't. She could see the truth of everything Charlie had just said. It was that whole, a mother always knows thing, Charlie thought.
Luckily, Nel also seemed to pick up on how vulnerable Charlie was now feeling, and seemed to decide not to push it. Charlie sighed in relief as Nel turned her attention to a plastic bag she was holding and pulled out a bright yellow Vallance t-shirt.
"We picked out a shirt for you, baby," Nel said turning to her daughter again.
"Mom! That wasn't necessary," Eden smiled. "Thank you!"
"Do you like it?" Esther piped up, stepping closer to her sister. "It's your favorite color."
"Put it on!" Gabriel told her, his smile warm and broad. "We've got to take a family picture."
Charlie thought Gabriel look about 14 or 15. His arms seemed like they were just a bit too big for his body, but his face was still soft and smooth and free of hair. She got a very good-natured vibe off of the boy. Esther was slightly younger, maybe 12 or 13, Charlie guessed, and she seemed to be more shy and soft-spoken than either or her siblings.
Eden slipped the shirt on over her head and tugged it down over the shirt she was already wearing. Then she did a little twirl to show it off for everyone.
"Do you mind?" Gabriel asked, walking up to Charlie and holding out a camera to her.
"Oh yeah, sure!" Charlie replied, eager to help. "Everybody get together…uh, how about between the desks?"
The little family shuffled around for a moment, both of Eden's siblings vying for a place beside her. It was obvious how much they adored her and it was probably becoming a reality to them that she wasn't going to be around much anymore, Charlie thought. She smiled sadly at the moment as the thought crossed her mind, remembering all the times she'd had to adjust to another empty room at home.
"Alright, say cheese!" Charlie said and snapped a few pictures. They were nice, but Charlie always preferred candids; they were just so much more genuine. "Okay, now pretend someone farted!" she shouted and as the Renmark family all burst out laughing, Charlie snapped away. Perfect, she thought.
"Can I give Charlotte her present now?" Esther asked, turning to her mother.
"Of course, baby. Go ahead," Nel said, handing her youngest the plastic sack.
Esther moved over to where Charlie, wondering why in the hell these people would have bought her something, was standing and extracted a flat brimmed Vallance baseball hat.
"I noticed you liked hats earlier," the girl said to her shyly. "So we all picked this one out for you."
"It was definitely the coolest one they had at the bookstore," Gabriel stated.
"Oh wow!" Charlie said, quickly swapping her Bulls hat for the purple Vallance one Esther had just handed her. "Thanks! Thank you!" She looked over at Nel especially who seemed pleased with Charlie's positive reaction. "You were right," she said to Esther in particular, "I do like hats. And I love this one!" Esther beamed at her.
"Okay, how about a couple of you and Eden?" Gabriel suggested then, taking the camera back from her and pushing Charlie over to where Eden was waiting. "First college roommate is a big deal, right?"
Charlie moved over and slung an arm around Eden's shoulders, smiling when the other girl moved her own arm around Charlie's waist, albeit a little more stiffly. Gabriel instructed them to smile. After a few clicks of the camera, Charlie lowered her voice and leaned into Eden's ear.
"I really did fart," she whispered, holding back a laugh. She hadn't actually farted, but she wanted to get a reaction from Eden and she wasn't disappointed.
Eden erupted in something between a laugh, a scoff, and retch, pushing back on Charlie's chest with an open palm while Charlie just roared with laughter, her head thrown back.
"Oh, you are gross!" Eden yelled.
Charlie just shrugged.
"It's going to be an interesting year," Eden remarked.
"I promise, you'll never be bored," Charlie grinned, marking an X over her heart.
Eden just rolled her eyes.
The afternoon went by quickly and in a highly enjoyable atmosphere as the Renmarks helped the new roommates unpack and decorate their room. They worked steadily, except for the short break Eden and Charlie had to take for the first suite meeting, where they formally met their RA and the other girls who lived in Craft 6.
Charlie talked basketball with Gabriel as they boy helped her tack up her Michael Jordan posters. She joked with him about how tall he thought he was going to get and how she could probably out shoot him. He seemed eager to play one-on-one with her sometime when they visited Eden.
After Charlie had set up her computer, in a move that surprised the rest of the family, she turned on One Direction and spent a good hour speaking directly to Esther, who was quite taken with Charlie, as the two engaged in a spirited discussion about which member of the group was the cutest and how many times Charlie had seen them in concert.
Nel watched Charlie with a discerning eye as the older girl had her youngest daughter in stitches and her other two children enraptured with her boisterous charm, noting how starved for attention Charlie seemed, but also how genuinely sweet she was.
Finally, around 6:30, Nel announced to the group of youngsters, "Why don't we go find someplace to have dinner?"
Her children all murmured their assent happily and Eden attempted to locate her keys as they all moved to the door.
"You guys have fun," Charlie said, her smile dimming a bit as she watched them leave the room.
"Oh, do you have other plans?" Nel asked her.
"Well, no," Charlie said apologetically, not daring to hope that she was invited. "I just…I don't want to butt in."
"I'm sure we'd all love it if you'd join us, Charlotte," Nel told her evenly.
Charlotte jumped off her bed and bounded forward, but then faltered when she caught sight of herself in the mirror in between the closet doors.
"Should I change?" she asked nervously, her own mother's words echoing in her head about trying harder. She quickly ripped the hat off her head and tried to tame her long brown locks by running her fingers through them.
Nel moved to stand directly in front of Charlie and pulled her new hat from her hands. "Charlotte, are you comfortable?" she asked.
"Yes ma'am, very comfortable, but –"
"Then you're perfect," Nel cut her off with finality, placing the hat back on the girl's head.
Charlie beamed and tried very hard to blink back the tears that were brimming in her eyes.
Once outside, they all loaded into the Renmark's car and drove around Solomon until Esther spotted a hole in the wall Italian place and declared her need for spaghetti.
It was a quaint, little place, The Gondola, and it was red everywhere—red walls, red tablecloths, and red lamp coverings that cast a red glow over the entire dining room. Charlie decided she liked it immediately and that if she ever needed to take a date somewhere, she'd bring them here.
They were sat quickly in a circular booth in the corner by the restaurant's front window and a young man approached them soon after, laden with menus and cutlery, which he placed on the table in front of each of them while he spoke.
"Good evening, my name is Vince. I'll be your best friend and spaghetti man this evening."
Esther laughed at him and he winked at her before continuing. "Can I get you folks started with some drinks?"
They each placed their orders and he hurried away to collect their requests while they all picked out an entrée from the menu. He returned soon, skillfully holding three glasses in each hand and depositing them accordingly.
"Is everyone ready to order?"
"We were thinking of sharing some garlic bread as an appetizer," Nel mentioned. "How is it here?"
"I would sell my soul for a loaf of it," Vince chuckled. "It's divine."
"Well alright then," Nel laughed. "We'll start with that."
As everyone ordered, Charlie watched Vince. He was very charming and nice, probably only a year or two older than she was; however, while his clothes were clean, Charlie noticed, they were very worn. And his shoes looked like they were barely holding together, wrapped up in what appeared to be electrical tape.
"And for you?" Vince asked, smiling, turning to Charlie, who was the last to order.
"I'll have the lasagna, please," Charlie said, then, curiosity over taking her, asked, "Do you go to Vallance?"
"Yeah, yeah, I do," he said, his smiling widening. "You, too?"
"Yeah! Eden and I," Charlie gestured to the girl sitting opposite her who was watching Charlie closely, "we just moved in to the freshman dorms today."
"Nice! You guys are going to love it. Vallance is a great school," Vince told her.
"Are you working your way through?" Charlie asked. "If you don't mind me asking. I just can't imagine working and doing school full time. It must be killer."
"It's rough sometimes," Vince agreed. "I try to save up as much as I can over the summer so I can just do part time when classes start up. But I've got scholarships and grants. It could be worse. Beginning of the term is always hardest, though. I'm a science major and the text books, well, they might as well be made of pure gold with what they charge for them."
Charlie grimaced. "Sounds rough. I haven't bought my books yet. Maybe we'll see you around campus and we can compare receipts?" Charlie grinned at him then.
"Totally," Vince laughed. "Hey, my frat, Sigma Chi, we're having a party this weekend before classes start next week. I have to work that night, Friday, but you two should come. I'll be heading over as soon as my shift ends."
"Thanks," Charlie said, "we'll check it out."
He smiled broadly and headed back to the kitchen to put their orders in. When Charlie returned her attention to the table, she was taken aback by how intensely Eden was staring at her. She couldn't help but feel like she was being studied.
"See something you like?" Charlie asked, attempting to deflect the way Eden was taking her in and making her feel flustered.
"You're good," Eden said, eyes still zoned in on her target, "with people. You got us a party invite."
"I'm a smooth talker. It's not exactly hard."
"You'd be a good actress," Eden commented.
"Hardly."
"No, you would. You have it."
"Have what?" Charlie asked.
"It," Eden replied, a fire seeming to spark just behind her eyes. "You should come with me on Thursday to the Theatre Open House."
"Okay," Charlie replied, surprising herself a little. She hadn't meant to agree so easily.
Charlie wasn't sure what it was, but if Eden thought she had it…Charlie cleared her throat and took a drink of her water, mentally shaking herself. It's not a good idea to wade into murky waters with your roommate, she told herself, no matter how incredibly beautiful she may be.
The meal went by in a rush of conversation. Nel asked Charlie about what she wanted to study and her interests. They talked about possible career paths and majors she might enjoy. Somehow, by the end of it, Charlotte had promised to send Nel her grades twice a trimester by email and was considering a possible future in chiropractic medicine. Before she realized what had happened, Nel had paid for dinner and they were getting ready to leave the restaurant again.
"Wait…you didn't have to buy my dinner," Charlie started, reaching for her pocket, but faded out at the look Nel was giving her. "Thank you very much. It was delicious," she corrected herself instead.
"Save your money for something more important," Nel told her with a warm pat on the back. "Mothers like feeding people."
As they headed to the door, Vince waved to them from the table and said, "See you on Friday!" Charlie's gaze fell to his shoes again and she remembered what he'd told her about his textbooks.
"I'll be out in just a minute," Charlie told Nel and Eden who were both waiting for her at the door. "I just wanted to say good bye to Vince."
Charlie hurried back over to the waiter. "Were you serious, earlier, about your books?" she asked without pretense.
"Well, yeah. They can be pretty steep depending on what classes you're taking," he told her, assuming she was nervous about how much her own would cost.
"Okay," Charlie said, pulling the wad of cash from her pocket that her mother had handed her earlier that morning.
"Woah, what are you doing?" Vince said, holding an apprehensive hand out in front of him.
"How much will your books be?" Charlie asked, ignoring his question.
"Like $300," he admitted, though his eyes still looked wary and a little defensive. "But it's fine. I've got it handled."
"Look, you were a really great waiter tonight. I'm allowed to tip you," Charlie explained, peeling three $100 bills from the wad in her hand.
"I can't take that," Vince said, shaking his head adamantly.
"Give me your phone," Charlie said, changing tactics when it was clear he wasn't going to just take the money from her.
He handed it over, too shocked to argue, and Charlie put her number in and then send a text to herself. "There, now I have your number and you have mine. One of these days I'll call you up and you can bring me a bottle of wine or something, okay? We'll call it even."
He still shook his head at her. "You have to need this for something," he said, pointing at the money she was trying to hand him.
"That's the thing. I don't. My parents are like, stupid rich. I just want to help you. And if you know anyone else that really needs help buying their books, give them my number okay? I'm serious. But don't just tell anyone about this. I don't need people hitting me up for money for stupid shit. Just for books, okay?"
Vince just laughed, disbelief spreading across his features. For some reason, Charlie asking him to give her number to others who needed help buying their own books was what finally convinced him this wasn't some weird set up or blackmail for something later.
"Alright," he said finally, gingerly accepting the money. "Thank you. This is…"
"I'll see you Friday!" Charlie exclaimed before he could say anything else, a wide smile on her face, and hurried out to the car.
Nel dropped Charlie and Eden back at their dorm for the night, promising to be back the next morning to say good bye to them both before she, Gabriel, and Esther headed back to New York.
"Just us now, huh, Roomie?" Charlie said and bumped her shoulder into Eden's as they walked up to their building. The night air was a cool relief after the heat of the day and the bustle of moving.
"It's a little strange," Eden remarked.
"Well, you're a little strange."
Eden heaved a sigh. "Charlotte."
"What? You are. You sing more than most people. It's okay. Just accept it. Are you going to unlock the door? Cuz I didn't bring my keys."
"Of course you didn't," Eden said and moved forward, unlocked the door, and they both walked into the lobby, the air conditioner hitting them like a brick wall and making them shiver a bit. "And I just meant, I haven't ever been away from my family before. It's strange to be on my own."
"Hey, you've got me now!" Charlie said, shooting Eden what she thought was a winning grin.
"Yes, and I have the distinct impression I'm not going to get a moment's peace now that I have you."
"Does that mean you don't like me?" Charlie asked as they slowly ascended the stairs together.
"I never said that," Eden replied flippantly, smirking.
Charlie side-eyed her new roommate as Eden unlocked the door to their room unable to stop herself from wondering if this gorgeous creature could possibly be flirting with her. No, she told herself. Not possible. It was better not to go there.
Eden wasn't sure what to think of Charlie. She seemed like she had maybe been raised by wolves. But like, super charming, sexy wolves. She was just so…loose. That was the only word Eden could come up with for her new roommate. They way she moved was so easy and flowing. And the way she spoke was so flippant and natural. The way she'd talked with that waiter, like they were old friends, had impressed her.
Eden could perform. She could act and she was good at it. She could march out onto a stage in front of hundreds of people and sing a song. But to make real conversation with some that wasn't scripted? That was a gift, too. Charlie had that star quality Eden had never had. She just oozed likability. Charlie was charming and cocky and brash and so unlike anyone Eden had ever encountered.
When they got back to the room, Eden decided she needed to collect herself and be alone for a little while, so she told Charlie she was going for a shower. The bathrooms were….interesting, Eden decided. They were very basic – a sink, toilet, shower, and a few empty shelves. The lighting was terrible and dim and Eden wondered if anyone would mind if she stuck a lamp in the corner by the sink. There was also no lock on the door, which was sort of alarming. Weren't all bathrooms supposed to have locks? And there was this…curtain you could pull in front of the alcove that the toilet sat in. Why would they need a curtain if the bathroom was a single? The thought of needing to use that curtain made Eden extremely uneasy. How could someone do their…business…if someone else was right on the other side of that curtain? Impossible.
She set the thoughts aside. It was too much to handle on night one of her college life. Eden wished, as she skittishly stripped down and climbed into the shower, that she could be as cool and unaffected as Charlie seemed. She was taking this completely new life in her stride. Eden felt completely unbalanced and anxious. And alone.
Nel was a wonderful mother—loving, supportive, kind, funny. But she was also strict, demanding, and overbearing at times. She had rules about everything and Eden had decided early on in her adolescence that life was just a lot easier and more enjoyable when she followed the rules and avoided her mother's wrath and punishments.
So, Eden got good grades. She graduated high school with a 3.8 GPA. She attended church every Sunday morning and Wednesday evening and sang in the church choir. When she went out with her friends as she got older, she always told Nel exactly where she was going and who she'd be with. And she never ever drank or did drugs. She didn't even want to imagine the world of trouble she would have been in if Nel had ever caught her doing either.
But now, she was alone at college. No rules to abide by. No curfew, no chores, no…anything. She could drink alcohol if she wanted. She could smoke pot. She could get a tattoo. She could study when she wanted. And eat what she wanted and when she pleased. It was all her's now and it was all her's to screw up. She was free to discover who Eden, free from parental pressures, really was. And all that freedom, well, it was rather a lot. It was almost too much.
Rather than succumb to the panic attack threatening to overtake her as she showered, Eden decided to sing instead. It always had a rather bolstering effect on her. She started with I Whistle a Happy Tune from The King and I because it was clearly the perfect song to sing at this exact moment in her life. After that she sang Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing and The Storm is Passing Over. The she finished it off with Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson.
She felt a great deal better when she was done so she got out of the shower, dried off, and put on her pajamas before heading back into she and Charlie's room. As soon as she opened the door and walked in, though, she froze.
It looked like a bomb had gone off, but only on Charlie's side of the room. The sheets were ripped off the bed, all the drawers of the desk were pulled open and the contents inside strewn across the surface of the desk or the floor. The dresser looked like it had gotten the same treatment and what appeared to be every item of clothing inside was dumped out onto the unmade bed. Charlie herself was, from what Eden could tell from the incoherent mumbling and items being tossed out, on her side of the closet, continuing to demolish all the unpacking and organizing they'd accomplished that afternoon.
"Charlie! What in the world?" Eden yelled, quickly closing the door behind her. She moved to the far side of the room and pulled the closet door open wider, ducking just in time as a Charlie sent a DVD (The Princess Bride, nice taste,Eden thought) over her shoulder.
"Where is he?!" Charlie mumbled, breathing in ragged, choking gulps.
"Charlotte!" Eden said again.
This time, Charlie seemed to hear her and snap out of it slightly. She turned around and Eden could see some tear streaks down her red face. Her eyes looked panicked and scared.
Eden did the only thing she could think to do; she moved forward and wrapped her arms around Charlie in a giant bear hug. And then she held her until Charlie's breathing finally evened out and she seemed to have calmed down a little. Eden released her after that and used the sleeve of her pajama top to wipe the tears off of Charlie's cheeks.
"Charlie, please tell me what's wrong so I can help you," Eden requested calmly.
Charlie just shook her head from side to side violently.
"Charlie, did you lose something?" Eden tried. It wasn't hard to gather that much from the state of the torn apart room.
Charlie wouldn't meet her eyes, but nodded, stiltedly, and a fresh tear slipped out of one of her green eyes.
"If you tell me what it is," Eden explained gently, "I can help you find it."
"It's too embarrassing," Charlie said quietly. "I can't tell you. You'll make fun of me."
Eden had to admit, Charlotte Cole was intriguing. If anything, this unexpected show of vulnerability only made her more likeable. How did she do it? Suddenly, Eden had an idea.
"Stay here," she instructed, and hurried over to her side of the room, where she grabbed a book off her desk and then returned to where Charlie was looking completely wrecked.
"Here, hold this," Eden said and thrust the book into Charlie's hands, who held it awkwardly with a confused look.
"What is this?" she sniffed, confused by the lack of a title on the cover.
"It's the Bible," Eden stated as if it was obvious.
"Why do you have a Bible?" Charlie asked, genuinely curious.
"To read it," Eden stated with one eyebrow raised, not sure if Charlie was teasing her now.
"Oh. I didn't know people did that. Except for like, priests and stuff," Charlie mused while she rubbed her eyes.
"Yes, they do," Eden said, now a little more sure that Charlie wasn't poking fun.
"So…" Charlie said, looking at her now, clearing asking why Eden had just shoved a Bible into her hands.
"Oh! Right," Eden said, snapping back to the task at hand. She placed her left hand palm down on the Bible and her right hand over her heart. Then, staring Charlie directly in the eyes, with the utmost seriousness she could muster, said, "I, Eden Cecelia Renmark, do solemnly swear, under penalty of the law, to never ever, ever ever—" Charlie's lip quirked up a little at that,"—make fun of Charlotte Cole for whatever it is she is about to reveal to me and will forever, until my death, not reveal her secret, so help me God."
Charlie had a very watery smile on now, and she let out a long sigh. "I have bear," she mumbled, almost inaudibly.
Eden actually felt her heart melt with fondness for the girl standing in front of her. She only barely managed not to let the awwwwwww slip out of her mouth that was echoing around in her brain.
"I see," she replied instead. "And what is his name?"
Charlie chewed on her lip nervously for a moment before she decided to just lay it all out there. "Fancy," she revealed. "He's uh, purple and he has a bow tie."
"He sounds extremely fancy," Eden commented with such conviction that Charlie actually chuckled a little bit.
"I've had him since I was 3," Charlie divulged.
"And if he is lost, then your world as you know it will end?" Eden questioned.
"Well…yeah!" Charlie said, looking rather desperate.
In a move that stunned Charlie into silence, Eden took Charlie's face in both of her hands. It was so gentle and reassuring that Charlie's could actually feel a little of the tension leave her body. Eden was looking at her with such warmth she thought it might make her cry even more. Luckily, Eden didn't try to prolong the moment. It was over as quickly as it began and Eden's hands were back at her sides.
"Now," Eden snapped, pulling them both out of their closet reverie. "Where exactly did you pack Fancy?"
"In my backpack," Charlie said, sure of that much.
"So you're entire backpack is missing?"
"Yeah, but…Fancy is the only thing in it that matters. Everything else is just stupid stuff."
"I see," Eden nodded gravely. "And what does the backpack in question look like?"
"Um, it's grey with these like thick zigzag stripes on it that are red and orange and yellow."
Eden's eyebrows creased above her nose as she thought. "Charlie, I really don't remember seeing that bag while we were unpacking this afternoon."
"Neither do I," Charlie whimpered, visibly deflating.
"Listen, why don't you call your mom? Maybe you left it in the car?"
"We drove separately, so probably not. And I remember taking my backpack out of the car, but after that…"
"You never know. She might have grabbed it by accident. Just call her and check. I'll go look in the suite and see if it ended up out there somehow," Eden told her steadily.
"Yeah, okay," Charlie replied, pulling her phone out of her jeans pocket, but she sounded pretty hopeless.
Eden grabbed her keys off her desk. If she didn't find the bag in the suite, she thought she might check the lobby. She headed out into the hallway and turned left, away from the bathroom, and trotted along the balcony that ran between the upstairs rooms until she reached the top of the staircase at the other end.
The suite was full of the noise of the girls all settling in on their first night. Eden could hear music playing, laughter, and a slew of chatter issuing from the open doors of the bedrooms. Down the stairs in the suite area, Eden found a few of the girls had set up a TV and DVD player up and were arranging the very basic school-issued furniture into some semblance of a living room. She glanced around the area, looking for Charlie's bag, but didn't see it anywhere. She took just a moment to admire the view of campus that the enormous windows in the suite afforded. She could see the student union on the far side of the large lawn that stretched away from Craft Hall and then, in the distance, the Lincoln Performing Arts Center. The campus looked downright picturesque with the lampposts just turning on and a few students milling about in the warm September night. In the back of her mind, though, Eden felt she couldn't enjoy any of it when Charlie was so upset.
"Ladies," Eden said, addressing the girls who were just about to start a movie, "sorry to interrupt, but my roommate lost her backpack. Have any of you seen a grey one with zigzag stripes on it?"
Most of the girls shook their heads, but one of them said, "You know, I saw one that looked kind of like that down in the lobby." Eden thought she remembered the girl introducing herself as Bridget at the suite meeting.
"Really? Oh, thank you!" Eden said, hope flaring in her chest as she ran out into the stairwell barefoot. She hurried down the three flights of deserted staircase, the linoleum slightly chilly on her feet, and burst out into the lobby, quickly beginning to search among the myriad of couches and chairs scattered across the lobby.
Finally, she spotted it, shoved beneath one of the couches that sat under a row of windows. Eden's heart sped up. It looked like someone had rifled through it and then shoved the evidence out of sight. She sent up a little prayer that whoever had pilfered the bag had found no interest in the teddy bear.
Eden dropped to her knees and pulled the bag from underneath the couch. She tore it open and at first all she could see were some ruffled magazines—and old Rolling Stone issue and a copy of O magazine. Eden quirked her eyebrow at this. Charlie didn't seem like an Oprah fan…but that was neither here nor there. She pulled the magazines out and tossed them aside, then looked back into the bag. There at the very bottom of the bag was a dingy, well-loved, faintly purple bear, staring back at her. And she could see a little bow tie sewn just beneath his chin. She squealed with happiness as she extracted him from the depths of the bag.
"Fancy! Oh thank goodness," Eden said, giving the bear a squeeze and noticing a warm vanilla smell that emanated from his little, stuffed body. "Your mother was very worried about you!" she scolded him as she stood up and gathered Charlie's backpack and magazines together before heading back upstairs.
On the way up, Eden decided that going back to someone not-empty-handed was one of her top five favorite feelings. She immediately put Professional Finder on her list of imaginary jobs to pursue if she ever won the lottery.
When Eden walked back into their room, Charlie was sitting on her bed with her head cradled in her hands. As soon as she heard the door open, though, her head snapped up and her eyes fell on the bear Eden was holding reverently in her arms. She flung herself off the bed and ran over to Eden.
Eden was expecting Charlie to grab Fancy, but she grabbed Eden around the middle instead and hoisted her in the air, spinning her around wildly before setting her back down, both girls laughing loudly. Only then did Charlie snatch the bear out of Eden's arms.
"Fancy, you suave bastard!" she shouted. "You nearly gave me a heart attack!"
Eden laughed joyfully watching Charlie shove her face into the stuffed bear and hum contentedly. "So he's suave, huh?" Eden giggled.
"Duh! Look at this motherfucker," Charlie boasted, squeezing Fancy tightly.
Eden didn't want to put a damper on this joyous reunion, but she also didn't want to withhold anything from her roommate either. "Charlie," she said, forcing the smile off her face, though it was difficult with how with how downright cute Charlie was being now that she had her bear back. "I'm sorry to have to tell you this but I believe you've been robbed. Your bag looked as if it had been ransacked. It was stuffed beneath one of the couches in the lobby.
"Oh, shit," Charlie said, moving toward Eden who was offering up her backpack. Charlie took it, never once setting Fancy down, and pulled the bag open to see all she had lost. "Yep," she said after digging through the bag. "My iPod is gone. And my headphones. And my Nintendo DS. Looks like all that's left are my magazines."
"I'm so sorry," Eden told her. "That's not a very nice way to start your college career."
"Oh well," Charlotte shrugged, a grin lighting up her face. "I've still got Fancy. That's all that really matters."
Eden just stared at her, much like she had in the restaurant earlier, in something akin to wonder. Charlie was so much more complicated than she had assumed when they'd met that afternoon. There was something pretty incredible brewing underneath that smarmy exterior. She was just about say something, though she didn't know quite what, when Charlie's upset tone interrupted her.
"No! Damnit!" Charlie huffed, tossing her magazines onto her desk.
"What?" Eden asked, concerned.
"Those fuckers took my Playboy!"
"You can't be serious…" Eden replied, sure Charlie was kidding now.
"Nope!" Charlie fumed. "I mean, what kind of heartless asshole steals another girl's porn?" Charlie threw her hands up like the mere thought was blasphemous.
"You just buy it for the articles, right?" Eden questioned. She thought she'd just uncovered the true, secret, sensitive underbelly of her roommate. Something here wasn't adding up. How could a girl who still sleeps with a teddy bear own pornography?
"Nah," Charlie responded. "I get it for the pictures of the naked women."
"Charlotte!" Eden screamed, clearly scandalized at hearing Charlie state it so bluntly.
"What?" Charlie asked, a sly grin gracing her features.
The mixture of feelings that spilled over inside of Eden, seeing Charlie grin at her in such a lecherous manner was too much to even consider sorting through, so Eden decided it would be best to ignore them instead; especially that peculiar flipping sensation that was happening low in her belly. She wasn't going to think about that at all. It was probably just the Chicken Parmesan she had a dinner, right?