Maybeck P.O.V.
I walk silently through the streets since all my friends are long gone. Of course my teacher chose today to make me stay after school, the day me and the rest of the Keepers were supposed to meet at Frozen Marble.
I kick a rock out of the way and think about going to see if my friends are still at the ice cream shop when I hear crying. I stop and look around. There's no one around, but I still hear the crying, and it sounds like, whoever it is, is in a lot of pain.
I look to my right and see an alleyway, so I go toward it. What I see surprises me, to say the least. A little blonde girl is sitting huddled in the road. As I get closer, I recognize her.
Wait, I know her? OMIGOSH, It's Charlene!
I run toward her, scared out of my mind. Is she shaking? I bend down in front of her, about to reach for her hand, when she shrinks away from me, nothing but terror in her eyes.
"Charlie, it's just me, Maybeck. I won't hurt you." I try to get a little closer and she lets me. But just as I reach out my hand to push her hair away from her face, she grabs it, holding on so tightly it feels as though it's going to pop off.
"Donnie..." That makes my heart stop. She's never called me anything but Maybeck before.
"Donnie...it hurts..."she manages to whisper.
"Okay, Charlie, you're gonna be okay, I'm going to take you to my house. Can you walk?"
"I don't think so."she says as a couple of tears fall down her face. Seeing her like this breaks my heart.
"Who did this to you?" I ask, almost unable to hold my rage in.
"The girls on the basketball team. They said they'd had enough of me being the prettiest girl in school. I didn't even know I was!" she cries, tears streaming down her face.
"Ssh,ssh. It's going to be alright. I'm going to get you out of here." I gently pick her up so I won't hurt her and start down the road toward Crazy Glaze.
Charlene P.O.V.
The pain I am feeling as Maybeck carries me to Jelly's shop is like nothing I've ever known. I try to fight the tears, try to stay strong in front of Maybeck, but it just hurts so bad, I can't help it. He's probably going to tease me about this, never let me live it down.
"How are you doing?"he asks, worry filling in his voice. Maybe I was wrong.
"It still hurts, a lot." I whisper before a blinding pain shoots up through my leg. I can't help it, I scream out. I see tears forming in Maybeck's eyes even though he's trying to hold them back.
"We're here, Charlie, it's going to be okay...it's going to be okay..."he keeps whispering as he takes me into the house, more to himself than to me. Jelly comes out to tell Donnie hi, but stops dead in her tracks when she sees me.
"Oh. My. Gosh. Terry, what happened to that poor girl? Who is she?" she asks, obviously panicked.
"It's Charlie, Jelly,"he whispers, clearly trying to hold back tears now, "I'm going to take her up to my room, okay? I've got everything under control."
He hurries up the stairs as fast as he can without jostling me too much. As he opens his door and lays me down on his bed, I realize that this is the first time I've ever been in his room. He runs out of the room, leaving me by myself. I suddenly feel very lonely and wish that he would come back.
But because I have to do something to get my mind off of the pain, I look around his room. There are shelves on all four walls, completely stacked with video games, the walls themselves are black, red, and blue, not the best colors for me to be seeing right now.
Maybeck comes running back in, washcloth in hand. He kneels down beside the bed and starts to clean my face with a surprising amount of gentleness. After he finishes with my face, he does my arms and my legs since my jeans were torn so badly that he had to make them into shorts.
"Donnie..." I whisper, scared to tell him what I have to tell him.
"What is it, Charlie?" he answers softly, with the most emotion in his voice that I've ever heard.
I hesitate for a moment before saying very quietly, "There's some cuts on my shoulders and stomach." As I finish, I can feel myself turn red. Maybeck looks at me, wide-eyed for a minute, before carefully gripping the bottom of my ragged shirt, taking a deep breath, and slowly pulling it up, over my head.
My face just gets redder.
Maybeck P.O.V.
Seeing Charlene in nothing but a pair of shorts and her bra definitely made my eyes pop out. Just a little. But I tried my best to cover up my curiousity so I wouldn't make her feel uncomfortable.
I think I might like Charlene, a LOT, so I don't want to scare her off. I carefully dab the blood off of the cuts on her stomach, feeling her eyes on me. I try to avoid eye contact with her as I move up to do her shoulders, but since her shoulders are so close to her face, I soon find myself looking into those beautiful, deep sea blue eyes.
We stay like that for a minute, just staring at each other, me trying to come up with some clever quip, when she leans up and presses her lips against mine. Even though it only lasts for a second, I can feel the fireworks going off.
"I'm so sorry, I don't know what I was thinking, I know that we're just good friends, and I'm fine with that, I think, and-"I cut her off by putting a finger to her lips.
"Shut up, Charlie." And with that, I kiss her, this one being just a little bit longer than the first.
And more amazing.
Charlene P.O.V.
The last thing he says is, "Shut up, Charlie."
Normally, I would get mad at him for telling me to shut up, but in this case, it was different. Because we were kissing. I'd never felt anything like this before. Sure I'd kissed other guys before, but mostly only because my friends dared me to.
And you know I can't turn down a dare, I am not a chicken.
But right now, no coherent thoughts are running through my mind, and I don't want them to. I can't think of anything but Maybeck. Sweet, sweet Maybeck...
I can feel it getting heated now, and I'm not sure what to do. I've never gone past the lips touching, much less making out.
But I want it. I do. And I want it with Donnie. I'm just not sure how to do it.
Lucky for me though, he pulls away, completely out of breath.
"I don't want to take advantage of you while you're like this, Charlie. But I want you to know that I like you a lot, and I want you to be my girlfriend."
He says all of this very rushed, as if he's scared that he'll back out.
But he isn't finished.
"I've never had a girlfriend before, I haven't even thought about having one, but I want you, Charlie. I don't want any other guys to be able to get a hold of you. I want you to be mine."
I'm speechless. I've never seen him like this before. With so much emotion.
I can't think of anything good enough to say, so I do the only thing I can think of.
I kiss him. Gently. It isn't anywhere near as heated as the one before, but to me, it's perfect.
When I pull away, Maybeck has a huge smile on his face, so I guess he got my message.
I wanted to be his, too.
Maybeck P.O.V.
That night, Charlene stays at my house. We don't even go to sleep. We stay up the whole night playing video games, watching an endless amount of episodes of her favorite TV show, Leverage, and kissing.
I have the most fun with Charlie that night than I've ever had before, so I ask her stay during the weekend, and she gladly says yes.
And with that, she kisses me.
And after knowing what it feels like to kiss Charlie, I don't think I ever want to do it with anyone else.