The walk back towards the entrance of Stourton was quiet and awkward, and what made it even worse for Charlie was that Veruca never stopped staring at him, she stood still, her head cocked to the side and emotionally ambivalent all the while. It seemed that no matter what Charlie did with Veruca, he always ended up ruining all the previous work, all the relationship-building he had done up to that point, but this time he had crossed the Rubicon of relationships and he was utterly slaughtered soon after he made it to the other side. Up to this point, Charlie had let Veruca know he was approaching her from the position of a fellow Golden Ticket winner, an acquaintance, a friend, dare he say; but his latest action was the most obvious proof that he wanted to be more than friends. For some unknown, unexplained reason, the Good Boy was actually able to muster up the courage and attempted to kiss the little brute, something that he thought would have been ridiculous just a week ago, and not just because he knew what her personality was. Charlie had grown closer and closer to Veruca over the week, and that, coupled with the fact that the two of them shared a childhood history that only a handful of others could claim as well, led the Good Boy to feel comfortable enough with the little brute that he was able to be completely honest with her.
Unfortunately, that meant letting her know that she had become his new infatuation; and, in the brat's defense, it wasn't all that surprising that Veruca had rejected him, and Charlie knew that. He knew that his scrawny body and meekly personality was not what women craved and he also knew Veruca only cared for the finest goods and reacted rambunctiously if her wishes were not fulfilled, so it wasn't that surprising to Charlie that the attempted kiss went down the painful way that it did. Yet, that realization did not help ease the pain that was quickly consuming him; for those few seconds, Charlie put his heart out only for Veruca to stomp all over it, not to mention immediately destroying the relationship the two former Golden Ticket winners had developed as the brat reasonably assumed the Good Boy had only been spending time with and doing things for her because he wanted something from her. At first, it seemed all hope was lost for poor Charlie, but, interestingly enough, after coldly rejecting him, the little brute summoned the Good Boy back to her presence, giving him another chance to let Veruca know how he felt about her and perhaps also a chance at salvaging enough of the relationship that they had built in order to forge a new path, together.
Charlie didn't look up from the ground, not even when he was standing directly in front of the little brute, he just kept wringing his hands as he explained, "I'm sorry, Veruca. The thing is I panic when someone confronts me about something I did. I cower and burry my head in the sand, you know, like an ostrich."
The second Golden Ticket winner has having none of the fifth winner's excuses, nor did she even want to know what he had to say about his social ineptitude, so she raised her open palms up to her chest to signal Charlie to slow down, and responded, "I don't care about that. Now look, I just need to know, what do you want with me?"
"What...what do you mean?" Charlie stuttered as he began to look up towards Veruca. He had an idea what she meant but he didn't want to speak his mind and embarrass himself again, and so he asked in hope that she would clarify her question.
Luckily, she did elaborate, it seemed that Charlie was correct in his assumption as to the nature of Veruca's question, and she demonstrated that she wanted to know about his intentions when it came to him choosing to spend time with her when, as she said, "You know, most people are scared of me once they get to know me and run away the first chance they get. Why do you care for me?"
Answering that question was easier said than done, while Charlie felt something between them, he didn't have much experience to differentiate between the different types of feelings. But even though he struggled to verbalize his feelings, Charlie still answered the question as honestly as he could, replying, "I told you, I feel this...connection and it's telling me that I have to reach out to you."
Charlie had mentioned this connection to Veruca many times before, but this was the first time she ever actually listened to what he had to say. The meekly street urchin who went on a tour of a magnificent chocolate factory with her years ago now wanted them to be more than acquaintances, but she was not in a position to eagerly accept; although, she would be lying if she said she hadn't pondered the exact same proposition before. So, instead of shaming the shy boy for being bold and decisive, Veruca decided to toy with Charlie and left the door open to future excursions together, dismissing her over-the-top reaction by proposing, "Why don't we chop it up to garlic breath."
"Chop what up?" Charlie asked in confusion.
The little brute rolled her eyes before gently pushing Charlie's chest, as she responded, "Me pushing you away."
A look of realization came over Charlie's face as Veruca continued observing the man she had rejected, but surprisingly, pretending as if everything had gone back to normal was not doing enough to make up for the humiliation Charlie endured, and even more strangely was that Veruca felt a bit bothered by that. The Good Boy's explanation for his actions had struck a chord with the little brute so much so she began to feel as if the only way to be at ease would be if she could be even with Charlie; now, she wasn't going to give him what he originally wanted, so she decided to tell him what he liked to talk about at dinner the most, another truth about her, and so she said, "You know, before I go, I feel I should tell you, I might have lied to you back at the restaurant. I may more Swedish than Hjälp! Jag behöver en läkare!"
"Well, what else do you know?" Charlie asked as he looked up at his fellow Golden Ticket winner with his eyes wide open.
The little brute noticed how curious her fellow Golden Ticket winner got when she told him another fact about her life, but she also knew what she was about to do would result in ridicule if she did it in front of anyone else, so she set some ground rules before proceeding with her performance, and told Charlie, "Look, the only reason I am doing this is so that you don't leave here all gutted, alright. So, don't laugh or I'll swing this bloody glass door on your face!"
Charlie knew he had to put on a straight face and nod if he didn't want to suffer Veruca's wrath, and so he did; he now stood back and watched as the little brute took a deep breath, and then, out of nowhere, began swaying her hands back and forward as she clapped them, and unbelievably, started singing, chanting, "Dansa med oss. Klappa era händer."
The clapping stopped, but then the second Golden Ticket winner began taking a few steps towards her left, all the while singing,"Gör som vi gör. Ta några steg åt vänster."
And with the enthusiasm of a sports announcer contractually obligated to promote a show on the network he worked for that he wouldn't be caught dead watching during the halftime break, Veruca rocked side to side, not moving her hips, at all, placed her hands on the side of her head and flapped them to make them look like animal ears, all the while wrapping up her performance, singing, "Lyssna och lär, missa inte chansen. Nu är vi här med, Caramelldansen."
It wasn't long before the brat grew to regret what she had done, but the Good Boy kept a straight face, even though he had never seen anybody dance that famous meme song in real life before, and so, to overcome the silence that descended over them, Veruca elaborated as to why she even knew the song by heart, explaining, "We had to learn the lyrics to that song and sing it in my Swedish class. Many people think the song is in Japanese because of the music video, but it's actually in Swedish."
Having the little brute clarifying a misconception that even he thought was true surely expanded Charlie's mind, but it also left him feeling less intellectual; and to make up for this deficiency, the Good Boy conjured a memory from his time as a schoolboy, and replied to Veruca, "The only song I ever had to learn to sing in school was God Save the Queen."
"The Royal Anthem, not the Sex Pistols song," Charlie quickly clarified, interjecting his last statement by waiving his open palms in front of Veruca's face as he knew some people might get the two polar opposite songs confused if all he said was their names.
Without making eye contact, Veruca chuckled at Charlie's comment and that got her thinking about that and all the other patriotic British songs her father made sure she knew and could recite at a moment's notice from a very young age, and without much hesitation, she spat out her take on all off these national jingles, arguing, "I always preferred Rule, Britannia! The chorus is much more thrilling."
The Good Boy nodded in agreement, but eventually the awkward silence retuned as there was nothing else left to talk about, and so Veruca decided to jump in the water first and call it a night; she opened the door and passed him in order to get inside the lobby, but before she could escape his reach, the heir leaned into the doorway and wished his guest, "Good night."
Veruca didn't respond to Charlie's best wishes, she just kept on walking into the lobby as if nothing had just occurred between the two of them, although she did give Charlie a look of acknowledgement before entering the building that was more playful than her typical scornful ones. From behind the glass wall that surrounded the lobby, Charlie had a clear view of the brat as she made her way to the elevator and boarded it on a ride up to her penthouse. At first, it looked like Charlie was all alone, he now had the privacy he needed to analyze whatever it was that had just transpired, or so he thought. The heir heard a noise, like someone knocking on a table, and looked around outside yet spotted no one else, but when he heard the noise again, he realized that the strange sound was coming from inside the lobby and being generated by someone he recognized.
It turns out the person making the noise was Herp the concierge, who was now standing up behind his desk and speaking loudly into a cone he made by putting both hands around his mouth so that Charlie could hear him from the other side of the glass, admitting, "I totally thought you two were going to kiss."
Charlie didn't want to engage with anybody else on the topic of his relationship with Veruca, especially someone who apparently saw his most recent embarrassment unfold before his eyes, like Herp. Fortunately, the Good Boy had an excuse that he was running late to recuse himself from sticking around and chatting, so after taking a glance at his watch, Charlie replied, "Oh, look at the time! I need to be getting on my way if I want to develop this photo. See you later, Herp."
Herp could sympathize with Charlie following his odd encounter with The Bad Nut, the concierge knew how hard rejection felt, but he also knew why his building's tenant stopped the Good Boy in his tracks. Armed with a dynamic-changing revelation, Herp set out to explain why things played out the way they did between the two former Golden Ticket winners, he pulled out his arm as if to grab Charlie from escaping, and proclaimed, "Wait, Charlie, there's a reason why she didn't let you kiss her."
"Ugh, next time I guess," Herp added as he pulled his arm back down in defeat, but more importantly, keeping his mouth shut about a detail that if Charlie learned about now might send him spiraling into depression.
Charlie didn't hear a bit of what Herp was trying to tell him, he was too much in a hurry to get over to the photograph developing place where he had ordered a physical copy of an image featuring him and the other Golden Ticket winners waiting in line to enter Wonka's factory. The drive would only take a few minutes, but those minutes would be enough for him to dissect what exactly had just occurred. When Charlie pushed his luck and tried to turn his acquaintanceship with the little brute into something more meaningful, yes, she initially pushed him away, but surprisingly she didn't slap him across the face, she didn't stomp on his toes or even slam the front door on his face. She used a totally made-up excuse about how it was his breath reeking of garlic from the Carpa al Mojo de Ajo as the reason for her pushing him away before departing the scene in a most diplomatic fashion, well, diplomatic for Veruca's standards. With the night out having ended as civil as could be, Charlie felt convinced that his dinner with the little brute would not mark the end of their relationship, there would be more dinners along with other activities where the two of them would bond as Golden Ticket winners, and perhaps then Veruca would begin to see Charlie in the way he saw her.
He had made it to the photograph developing place with about an hour left to go before the shop closed, enough time for him to develop the picture he took with Veruca at the restaurant less than an hour ago. After sending the image from his phone to the store's computer for developing, the owner's daughter and one of the workers, a young woman with dark skin and black hair combed in a neat ponytail named Ahnkpreet, handed him an envelope labeled "Bucket, C." Inside the envelope was Charlie's first order, the picture of him and the other Golden Ticket winners as kids. He pulled it out to inspect its quality and it was just as good as the one he saw in the magazine in his collection; Mike seemed disinterested, Violet was all too focused on getting inside and winning the special prize, and Augustus was too distracted with the Wonka Bar in one of his hands. But all Charlie really cared about were the last two kids, him and Veruca, polar opposites, one prissy and pristine and the other joyful and scruffy. As he waited for his second picture to develop, Charlie looked around the store to pass the time and eventually made his way to a display of different picture frames, all of them ranging in cost from £10 to £30. Such a great picture of all five Golden Ticket winners needed to be displayed in a fine picture frame, like a slick, black-wooded frame one being sold for £20, there was also a decoratively molded silver frame made from metal selling for £25 that Charlie thought would be perfect to frame his most recent picture of him and Veruca together. So, he grabbed the boxes containing the same model as the frames that caught his attention and walked over to the counter in order to add them to his total bill.
Now, before Charlie had even made it to the photograph developing place, Veruca had already reached her penthouse and had served herself a drink to help her end the night. The beautiful and ever-prideful Veruca had broken many hearts during the course of her life, but this was the first time she had ever felt regret after turning someone down. Even though she was confused after having had rejected Charlie, what bewildered her even more was her reaction to his attempted move on her. She totally could have grabbed him by his shirt and punched him in the nose or at least stared him down into submission; she knew she could, but she didn't. And, as she pondered the reasons why she did not treat Charlie like virtually every other guy she was uninterested in who had ever approached her, the brat examined her teal sofa, the same one the Good Boy whose heart she has just stomped on moved into her home all by himself. While she didn't express it at the moment, Veruca was impressed that Charlie had actually stuck to his promise to get her sofa up in her penthouse before the day's end.
And even though it appeared he was now another name on her list of subservient enablers, Veruca noticed something different about Charlie when he did something that benefitted her. While many people like her father, among others, brought her stuff, they did it because she demanded it, Charlie brought her stuff simply because he wanted to, like he had done with the assortment of Wonka Bars. Nobody had ever done that for Veruca before and the realization of kindness existing in the world only made her reassess her opinion of The Lucky Boy, perhaps she wasn't as uninterested in him as she said she was. Regardless of how this night out ended, Veruca was sure Charlie would reach out to her again sometime soon and plan another excursion for the two of them to do, so she might as well prepare by ensuring she knew it was him when he contacted her. Veruca pulled out her phone and went into her contacts to pull up someone who had been bothering her the last week, someone she called "POOR Little Bitch," and edited the name to reflect his true identity, "Charlie."