a/n: in lieu of APs this coming Monday, I am updating this little thing, which is probably the last thing you'll be seeing from me until next weekend. It's been a while, so I wanted to update before I got too lost in stuff. I pretty much want to shoot myself because Chem is Monday, but after Friday, I'm okay. I'll only have AP Lang after that, and everyone knows that no one really cares about AP Lang.
so yeah. Enjoy! Thanks for the reviews. Seriously. 25 for one chapter? Blew me away. :D
-P&P-
"Charlie, what the hell are you doing?" Will asked incredulously. "Get down from that ladder, you're going to fall."
Will had come out of the kitchen with a slice of red velvet cake, only to be met with the sight of Charlie on a ladder, trying to fix an already working light bulb. Will didn't even want to ask where he'd gotten the ladder from.
"No," Charlie responded, his attention fixed intently on the light bulb he was twisting into the ceiling. "I need to fix this light bulb."
"...why?" Will asked blankly. "It already works."
"I'm doing it to impress Jane."
"You're doing what to impress Jane," Lizzie asked, walking into the hallway from the living room, hands tucked into the back pockets of her jeans, Jane trailing behind her.
"Who's doing what to impress me? And why are you always eating?" Jane asked Will.
"Charlie's trying to replace an already working light bulb in the hopes that you'll look at him as a manly-man again, and I'm always eating because food is delicious," he shrugged in response.
Besides, Lizzie thought. At least he works off the calories. Will Darcy was a fine, fine male specimen who fit the phrase 'tall, dark, and handsome' to a tee. At six foot 3, he stood taller than most people he met, except for Charlie, who was only half an inch shorter. Unlike Charlie, however, he had broader shoulders and was more built than lean. His muscles, while not huge, were enough to fill out his dark green sweater perfectly. And though he eyes weren't a 'unique' color like blue or green or a dark, stormy grey, she felt like she was drowning in melted chocolate when she held his gaze for too long.
Or any amount of time, really.
And when he laughed, he was...
Well, he was something; she just didn't know what yet.
"Charlie? A man's man?" Jane snorted. "Yes, that'll happen when he starts to think for himself."
Charlie stopped twisting the light bulb and shifted on the ladder so he could look at the three of them, the tops of their heads almost three feet below his. "What is your problem, Jane?" he demanded.
"You," she responded with a saccharine smile. "Is there something wrong with that?"
"Yes, it is," he started climbing down. "Because you haven't stopped making stupid comments like these in the past two days."
Since they'd gotten to New York two days ago, all Lizzie and Charlie (and Will, for that matter) had been treated to were smart comments from Jane, who was doing everything she could to convey to Charlie just how unhappy she was with this arrangement. The only reason Charlie was surviving was because he kept thinking of what it would be like when she finally loved him again every time she started. Unfortunately, that often meant that Charlie would zone out into his own world where everything was fine and dandy and Jane would get even madder that Charlie, who was professing to try and win her back, couldn't even care enough to pay attention.
When Jane yelled more, Charlie zoned out more.
It was a vicious, vicious cycle.
He'd kept quiet about it until now, but even for a nice guy like Charlie, there had to be a limit.
Then again, Charlie was the one who had screwed up, so maybe he should listen to all this crap. God knows how Will was smiling at her every five seconds.
"Would you have liked it if I baked cookies for you instead?"
"Jane," he rolled his eyes. "No, I wouldn't like that."
"Then please, Charlie, do tell me what you want. After all, that's the only thing that matters, right?"
"Okay," Lizzie said quickly, sensing the forming argument. "I'm going to go see if there are any Christmas movies on ABC Family." She deftly stepped around Jane and started walking back in the direction she'd come, eager to get away from the brewing argument.
"I'll come with you," Will added, throwing a panicky look to his two best friends. "I think Home Alone should be on right now."
"I would love to be Home Alone right now," Lizzie muttered.
"Me too." Jane glared at Charlie.
"Okay, you know what, Jane?"
"No, I don't know what, Charlie."
Will practically ran out of the room after Lizzie.
-P&P-
"When did my sister get so vicious?" Lizzie asked him as they settled onto the couch.
"Around the time she became a first-year resident. Apparently you get tougher when your patients start to die."
"Poor Jane."
"Poor Jane, indeed. She had this one patient with cancer. Probably around nine or ten years old. The girl, Katelyn, seemed like she was going to make it, but then once she got out of surgery, she went into a coma. Jane was depressed for days."
"Oh, my God. Katelyn?"
"Yeah. I think it hit her so hard partly because your younger sister's name is Katelyn, too."
"Wow, I missed a lot. She never tells me these things."
"She doesn't like to burden people with these things."
"I'm her sister."
"She doesn't even tell me."
"But you're not her sister."
"I'm her best friend," he stated confidently. "It might as well be the same thing."
"Uh, no," she replied incredulously. "Being her best friend does not make you her sister."
"Brother, then."
Somehow, the idea of Will being her brother (even by transitive property in a purely hypothetical situation) didn't sit right with her.
"No, not the same."
"This is what happens when you live 3,000 miles away."
She shot him a look. "Hey, it doesn't mean I love my sister any less."
Will raised his hands in defense. "I never said it did."
"Okay." Slightly mollified, she toned down her glare and turned her attention to the television instead, where, sure enough, Home Alone was playing. They were silent for the first ten minutes of the movie, but the moment Macaulay Culkin was into the Plaza, she couldn't take the silence any longer. "So how's life," she asked, focusing a little too intently on the screen.
Will was amused. "Life is good."
"Yeah? Your girlfriend doesn't mind that we're here?" she asked casually. What was with her? She didn't care if Will Darcy had a girlfriend.
You know, of course not.
"No," Will bit back a laugh. She was fishing for information.
"So you have a girlfriend?" she asked casually.
"Are you fishing, Lizzie?"
"NO!" She turned to look at him. "I'm making polite conversation."
"If you say so."
"I do say so."
"Okay."
"Okay."
Cue silence.
It was amazing, really, how being in his presence for just two days had made her question why, exactly, she had rejected him. The difference between Will Darcy now and Will Darcy in 2003 was so significant; she almost kept forgetting they were the same people. He shifted in his seat, then, and the way he angled his body made it so easy for her to smell him...
"Lizzie!" Jane called, her voice panicky. "Come on, let's go out."
Lizzie shot up in her seat, shaking her head clear of such thoughts.
Who the fuck cared if Will Darcy smelled nice?
Not her.
Or so she told herself.
-P&P-
Jane had come to a silent agreement with herself that she was going to tell Lizzie what had happened with Charlie.
But not right now, when she and her sister were taking a nice walk down 6th Avenue, heading to the Rockefeller Center.
Eventually.
After all, just because she hated him didn't mean that Lizzie had to as well. Hate by association was one thing, but she loved Lizzie and didn't want her sister to end up in jail.
It hurt to think about it, but she couldn't tell her sister. Not even the SparkNotes version:
Three years ago, Charlie had proposed to Jane. They had been engaged for one blissful week, when Jane came home one day to read a letter from Charlie saying that she could keep the ring, but he couldn't follow through with it. The letter had gone on to explain how sorry he was and how much he loved her, as well as his reasons for leaving, but Jane hadn't had the heart to keep reading. All she had registered was one word in the middle of the second sentence: Caroline. Her second thought was that Lizzie could never, ever find out, because, well, she'd castrate Charlie. Or kill him.
And seeing how three years later, Jane was still in love with Charlie, it just made sense that she would want him available with all his...ahem, parts.
(What? Just because she was a surgical resident didn't mean she had to be so clinical all the time.)
"You know," Lizzie said. "There's this Thai place around the corner that seemed really good."
"You saw the sign and you think it's good?" Jane asked with a smile and a raised eyebrow.
"I got this vibe!"
"A vibe?"
"Yes."
"Okay," Jane sighed. She pushed all thoughts of Charlie from her head and followed her sister around the corner, only to be met with the sight of a subway station.
Lizzie, paying no heed to her older sister, started descending the stairs leading to the underground station.
"Really, Lizzie? I thought 'around the corner' meant 'around the corner'!"
"Well, the train station was around the corner!"
She was waving her iPhone at Jane, who could clearly see the Google Maps app open. "Alright. Fine."
"Fine."
"Fine."
And so it continued on the way to the train.
Jane could talk about Charlie later. She just wished she knew what to say.
-P&P-
Please, do review, whether you liked it or didn't, what you think I'm doing wrong, whatever. It's a skewed up timeline, so I'm counting on you guys to make sure I don't mess up too much!
Till next time,
The-Passionate-Sun.
