Painted Ivy and Wax Hearts
AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: And hello there my wonderful readers! So here it is. The next update. There is a trigger warning later on in the chapter, please be careful when reading it. I hope you guys are enjoying where this triangle is going! And as always, don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys next week. (Hopefully, it might be late cause I'm struggling with writing it!)
Chapter 19
A week later and they were officially a month into this sharing business and Bo still wasn't doing well with it.
He was still catching up, so he knew that Charlie and Vincent weren't having sex yet, in fact he made sure of it. And yes, yes he was enjoying that it was just him fucking her. He got to have sex with her basically every night that he wanted to and he got to rub it in Vincent's face that he was the one sleeping with her… pretty much exclusively at that point. The problem was that the good sex, and yes they had phenomenal sex, hadn't changed her mind or swayed her to him in anyway.
She was still closer to Vincent then she was to him, he was still the person she wanted to spend most of her time with. So at this rate, basically the only thing that Bo got that Vincent didn't was sex and that wasn't going to last for much longer.
It shouldn't have been this hard to compete with his brother for a girl. It really shouldn't, and he was definitely not impressed with how this was going.
He kept trying to take her on dates, and he knew she liked them, but she still ended up cuddling with Vincent every night. It was still his room she ended up in if she had a nightmare. She still seemed to enjoy chilling with him on the couch instead because she was always there or with him in the House of Wax.
Like seriously, enough.
That date night he chose to take her to a movie.
Like a real movie in a movie theater.
He let her pick the movie, paid for her movie ticket, bought her all she could want at the concession stand, let her pick their seats even if they were seats that he wouldn't pick.
Then they barely watched any of the movie.
As soon as the lights went down the two of them starting making out, which was great for him because he had no interest in the rom-com she had picked.
This was a movie that Vincent would have liked to watch. She should have realized he wouldn't have liked this movie, but he was trying to prove that he could be like Vincent so he hadn't complained when she picked that one.
So yes, they made out the whole movie and then, when the movie was done, he figured he'd drive them somewhere private. You know, seeing as she had managed to get him all riled up during that movie.
He parked them in their spot, that little piece of field where they had fucked the first time. She was clearly excited, but when he got her into the back of his truck bed, she only seemed to want to stare at the stars.
He kept trying to engage her in the kiss, but she was brushing him off.
He didn't want to be brushed off, goddamn it!
"Charlie," he had eventually hissed at her and she turned those luminous blue eyes of hers to his.
Sometimes Charlie took his breath away from him. The night sky reflected in those beautiful eyes had done it to him again.
"Yes Bo?" she asked innocently, as if she didn't know that she had given him the worst case of blue balls in his life.
"You know what I want Charlie."
"I do, but I don't think it's fair," she said.
"You had Vincent were fucking for…"
"Yes but not at the rate you and I have been going at it," she reminded him and he found himself inwardly groaning. She kind of had him there. "I think it's Vincent's turn."
"Charlie you can't leave me like this," he growled. "And besides, I went to all this trouble for this date…"
"Is that the only reason you wanted to take me out? To get sex?"
"That's the whole reason every guy deals with a date, Charlie."
"That isn't the reason Vincent does it."
"Vincent's a pussy."
Her eyes narrowed at that and he found himself frowning. He knew she hated it when he insulted Vincent, but sometimes he couldn't help it.
"Yeah, that's not getting me in the mood," she said and she turned those beautiful eyes back up to the stars. Great, that was basically him dismissed. That time he groaned audibly.
"Charlie…" he whispered sliding closer to her, trying to press kisses to her jaw, so she'd look at him. If he could just get her back into a kissing mood he knew he'd be able to convince her to go the rest of the way. Making out was her biggest turn on, he could melt her if he kissed her the right way.
But Charlie folded her arms over her chest and kept her eyes on the stars. "No. I don't think you deserve it."
What? No, he did deserve it. He so did.
He did not drop all that money tonight and agree to watch a shitty movie, not to get laid.
"I'm sorry," he said in what he hoped was a cutesy voice. She shot him a glare and he knew it didn't work. "I can't help it you know. Wanting you I mean. I mean look at you. You're so pretty how can you expect me to resist?"
And she was dressed up super pretty. A pair of dark blue denim jeans and this lacy blush top that he knew would be super easy to pull down to get at her breasts.
AND he could see the cream colored bra on her, there was no way she put that on to not have sex with him.
She was just being difficult.
"It's really not fair… I've been pandering you for too long. You really made up for all the sex you missed out on a good week ago… I just felt bad…"
She felt bad for him? HIM?! He was the one getting pity sex? How was that… oh my god.
"Okay… Charlie…"
She suddenly turned to him, her eyes narrowed in his direction. "This is your last freebie okay? After this Vincent gets put into the rotation and I better not hear a single complaint from you."
He might have complained more if his dick wasn't so hard and balls not so blue. Somewhere in his passion-addled brain he realized that she had decided to have that conversation while he was distracted so he couldn't complain, so he wouldn't fight her on it. But he wasn't thinking straight, all he was thinking about was getting laid, so he brushed that thought aside.
"I promise," he whispered and a smile lit up on her face.
She opened her arms to him and he scrambled to get on top of her.
He wouldn't be angry until later, at that mattered at that moment was fucking her.
-HOW-
It wasn't until three days later that Vincent planned a date for him and Charlie.
It wasn't much, but he could tell that Charlie was more excited for this date than any of the others that Bo had planned.
Vincent was just taking her to the wax museum, that's it. There was a picnic planned, he had made everything himself, and she had picked out one of the crafts to do with him that she had picked up that type she had gone to town with Bo.
Bo couldn't help but be horribly jealous.
He just wasn't sure how it was still possible that Charlie preferred Vincent over him. Seriously he couldn't wow her or pay for things like Bo could, he couldn't even take her out of the stupid town. But she was still so goddamn excited for this date.
She had actually been prepping for it since she had woken up.
Yes she made herself beautiful for Bo too, but it had been two hours and she still wasn't ready. Whenever Vincent would call up to ask if she was, she'd say in a couple of minutes.
It was starting to get ridiculous.
Bo was sitting at the kitchen table, watching as Vincent packed everything he had into the picnic basket that used to be their mother's, including that stupid craft. He kept trying to throw jabs, like, how are you going to keep everything cool? Where are you going to sit where she won't get irritated by crab-apple grass?
Do you think she'll be bored? Bo would be bored.
But Vincent wasn't fazed.
Eventually Charlie came down the stairs in that grey dress she said she'd only wear for special occasions. Her hair was done up in this elaborate braid, her make up Smokey and… well more appropriate for a dance club than a picnic.
She looked stunning, and Bo couldn't help but bitterly wonder why she hadn't dressed up that nice for any of the dates with him.
He then took a good long look at Vincent who didn't match her at all, except for the fact that he too was actually dressed quite nicely for Vincent.
The jeans he had on didn't have a single speck of wax on them, which was big considering all this clothes had wax on them, and he was wearing a very nice polo shirt that was light grey to match her dress with a black collar. Bo recognized it as a shirt Charlie had asked him to buy earlier that month.
He had assumed that she was looking to have him wear it so she'd have a piece of his clothing to sleep in that smelled like him, because that's what she did with Vincent's stuff. She did wear Bo's flannel a lot so he figured she wanted the polo for some variety.
Now he knew that that wasn't the case and if he had known what she really wanted it for then he wouldn't have bought it. Which was probably why she hadn't told him.
But what really pissed him off was the little bit of bra strap poking out of her dress.
It was cream.
She was wearing the bra and panty set, that he bought just for himself, for Vincent.
Obviously this meant that she planned on having sex with Vincent, which was probably why she went with a skirt and also why Vincent had packed a blanket. It wasn't just for the crab-apple grass and any other weeds that might irritate them on a picnic by the House of Wax, it was to have sex on.
Bo was immediately livid.
"Uh… Charlie, just a quick little…" he started and then she turned to him. "I just wanna talk to you super quick."
Her eyes narrowed at him, clearly expecting him to give her some sort of trouble. She was no doubt ready to remind him that Vincent had not complained once about all of their dates so he couldn't either, and he wasn't going to.
"What the fuck are you wearing?" he hissed once she got close. She looked down at her dress and he growled cause she knew what he meant and it wasn't the dress. "The bra… I can see the bra… you're wearing our sex set and that is not why I bought…"
"It's not yours though," she said softly. "You gave it to me as a gift and as such you don't get to dictate when I wear it and who I wear it for. Now if you'd like to buy another set that I wear just for you, then by all means, you can do that… and you can keep it in your room."
She took a step away from and to the door were Vincent was patiently waiting for her.
"Have a nice day Bo, don't forget to get some sunlight while I'm gone."
It was the same farewell she used to give Vincent whenever she left with Bo to go to town and he found he absolutely hated being on the receiving end of it.
And he was definitely going to buy her his own sexy set that she only wore for him. He was already day dreaming about it, maybe this time he'd get one that was strappy and red.
-HOW-
**This chapter might have some triggering moments in it – please be warned**
After Charlie and Vincent had that date everything changed wildly.
It was like now that Bo's head start was done and he knew about them, they figured it was safe for them to be more… affectionate.
Like he'd come down the stairs to find Vincent's arms around her. Maybe they were kissing, maybe they weren't, Bo never saw them kissing. But he did see them, foreheads bowed together, or Vincent's face bent downward like his mouth was just coming away from her neck.
They had gone back to their shared whispers and inside jokes that Bo was not a part of, except now he could see the flirtatiousness behind the gestures.
Charlie never wanted to do any of those things with him. She didn't want to do crafts with him, she didn't want him on the walks with her and Spot. She didn't want to sit on the couch cuddled into his side, and always chose to be cuddled into Vincent's unless Bo reminded her that she was to treat him the same way.
In fact Bo had to keep reminding her that he was there, that for every date she had with Vincent she was supposed to have one with him too. That lead to having to have a talk about what was considered a date, because a lot of what the two did, they didn't think was a date but Bo definitely did.
The longer it went on, the angrier Bo was getting. He couldn't help it. Now that this was all out in the open it was clear that Charlie preferred Vincent. Like… a lot more than Bo. He hadn't been in this situation since his mother was alive, she was the only one who liked Vincent more… ever, and this was bringing it all childhood trauma back to him.
He just couldn't fathom why Charlie liked him so much.
Seriously? Why?
He was starting to realize that he wasn't ever going to be her favourite. Charlie was always going to prefer Vincent, and all this trying was only going to end with him getting hurt.
In fact, he wouldn't have been surprised if Charlie was in love with Vincent. She definitely seemed to act like it, and he could tell that Vincent loved her.
And with that realization came the nightmares.
The dreams of Charlie and Lester. He wasn't sure why it was that one, but they came back.
The first couple times the nightmares came at him he woke up in a cold sweat, determined to shrug it off and go to sleep. But the more that realization sunk in, that he was wasting his time, that Charlie's heart really did belong to someone else, the more painful those dreams became.
He woke up one night, biting by a cry of fear. He sat there in his bed, bare chest heaving, trying to catch his breath.
He just needed to see her, just to make sure she was okay. That was all.
So he got himself out of that bed and into her room. He didn't knock, because he didn't want to wake her up. He just wanted to open the door and see if she was okay. Once he saw that she was fine he'd be okay.
But he got that door open saw her sleeping form in her bed and he found he couldn't walk away. He could, however, walk into that room.
At first he was certain that all he wanted to do was check her pulse, make sure she was living. But once her skin was under his fingertips, he couldn't stop. Within seconds he had climbed in that bed and was on top of her. His lips trailing up and down her jaw, his hands disappearing under her shirt.
It was when his hands went for her booty-shorts that she really woke up.
"What'r'you'doing?" she had slurred, and Bo had responded by kissing her.
Kissing was her turn on. He figured that when he kissed her she'd just slide into the mood, but that was not what happened.
She roughly pushed him off, struggled to get him properly off her. "Bo, get off!"
Except he didn't want to.
A gruff: "No," came out of him, in a voice he almost didn't recognize as his own and then he forcible lowered himself down to her.
"BO!" she had tried to cry, but he had kissed her again to cut her off. She was pushing against his shoulders trying to dislodge him, but he wouldn't move.
His lips went to her neck, that was her sweet spot, that should fix things.
But the second he had freed her lips, Charlie and shouted.
Not in ecstasy, not for him, but for Vincent.
Charlie was usually pretty good at not messing up their names. Sometimes she did it casual conversation but she had never mixed them up in bed.
He reared back to ask her what the fuck was up with that and then paused because it wasn't pleasure on her face, she wasn't enjoying herself. She was crying.
Crying like she had been when he had rescued her from Lester.
"Get off me!" she shouted but before he could actually get off of her fully like she asked Vincent had a hold of his shoulders and had fairly thrown him off of her.
Vincent was shouting at him, he kept asking what he was doing, but Bo was flabbergasted. What had happened? How had he taken things that far without realizing he was hurting her?
He tried to stutter out that he was sorry, but neither Vincent nor Charlie would listen. In fact, Charlie wouldn't even look at him.
Vincent shoved him out of her room and slammed the door in his face and Bo just stood there chest heaving not sure how this had happened to him.
In a few minutes the door opened again, and Vincent was leading a shaking Charlie out of her room and to his and Bo did nothing to stop them.
Not only had he drove Charlie further into Vincent's arms, but he had become the thing that had been giving him nightmares. And he had no one to blame except himself… but he was going to blame Lester if asked.
-HOW-
The following morning, he found that both Vincent and Charlie were already up when he made it downstairs. Both were sitting at the kitchen table, mugs of tea in front of them, both waiting for him with stony faces.
He was expecting it, but it still worried him to see it.
Because even he was aware that he had fucked up.
"Before you guys lecture me, I know," he said and then turned to Charlie. "I'm sorry. I read the signals wrong. I didn't… I wouldn't have… I'm sorry…"
He so rarely apologized, but he hoped, that up and doing it before being asked to would fix things before they got too far. Because he was certain Vincent would use this to convince Charlie to drop him out of the triangle entirely. It was what he would do if the roles were reversed.
If he could apologize and convince Charlie to keep him in rotation he'd take that blow to his pride.
Charlie exchanged glances with Vincent before turning back to him.
"Thank you for apologizing, but I still want to talk to you. Can you sit down?"
Okay, not what he wanted to hear, but she was being much nicer about this than he expected after what had gone down last night. He also knew not to argue… yet. So he took the seat across from them and then just stared at them, waiting to see what they were going to say.
"So… I wasn't too impressed with what happened last night…" dear god he hoped she wouldn't ask him what had set him off. "And it made me realize that I need a safe space, which I don't have right now…"
Okay, he wasn't sure why she would need a safe space, but if she said she was going to Vincent's room he was going to lose his shit.
"So… I'd like to make my room the safe space." Oh he was okay with that. "That means if I've shut the door neither of you are allowed in unless I specifically invite you." Oh! And she was including Vincent in this too. This wasn't so bad at all. "So I'd like you to give me the key you have, and tell me if you have any others."
Oh.
Now he wasn't too pleased with that.
He liked being the only person with the keys. It was part of how he kept his brother under his thumb and by extension Charlie who didn't even have a key to the front door.
Though to be fair they didn't lock the front door. But still. Only Bo had the key to it.
He didn't really want to relinquish that control.
But Charlie was sitting there, her hand extended and all he could remember was her looking at him like he was as bad as Lester and he never wanted her to look at him like that again.
"It's just the one key," he said, reaching into his pocket for his keys. He found the right one on his key ring and began to get it off. "And you're not going to use it to lock you and Vincent in the room together."
"Nope, just me and Spot."
Right. Fair. He was fine with that.
He handed the key over and she smiled. "Do you want to talk about whatever set you off last night? Cause it's not like you to come to my room in the middle of the night."
No. No he did not want to talk to her about what was going on with him. He didn't want to tell her about the nightmares because they made him feel weak. And Charlie already had too much power over him.
"No. I'm good."
"Okay, well it's not good to hold that stuff inside you, you know?" she said. "So maybe talk to someone?"
Yeah. He wasn't going to do that.
She stood up, pressed a kiss to Vincent's cheek, and then rounded the table to give him one. "I'm gonna walk Spot. Just by myself thank you. I need some space, okay?"
Both boys nodded and then watched her go to get the leash to walk their dog. As soon she was gone Vincent turned to him.
"Is she right? Was something wrong with you last night?"
"Just drop it Vincent," he snapped getting to his feet. He was going to go to his garage and hopefully work out whatever was wrong with him.
God he had never wished he could kill more. Just so he could feel like the strong one again.
What had Charlie done to him?