Silence Is Still Not Golden-Chapter 3
"So, do you ditch a lot?" Stephanie asked.
Charles let out a laugh, "You're scared you're going to get caught aren't you?"
"No," Stephanie lied. She was petrified.
Charles smirked.
"A little,"
Charles' smirk turned into a smug grin.
"Okay, a lot!" She finally admitted.
Charles let out a laugh.
She playfully kicked him in the back of his calve with her foot.
"Ow," he winced trying to say it quietly. But Stephanie heard him.
"Pull into this parking lot," Stephanie said pointing to an empty parking lot that belonged to a mill.
"What?" he asked.
"Just do it," she urged.
Charles nodded and pulled in parking his car.
"Roll up your pant legs," she said.
"Steph, we just met and-"
"Charles!"
Charles rolled his eyes and pulled off his jacket.
Stephanie saw a cigarette burn.
"Your dad hit you again," she said quietly.
"It was a long time ago, back in the fifth grade, it just hurts-bad,"
"Why?"
"Like I would know, everything I do pisses him off,"
"What he did to you back then was wrong,"
"Stephanie it was like 5 years ago,"
"Charles! He burned you with a cigarette, twice,"
"No he didn't it was only once," Charles lied.
"Charles you know that isn't true! That spot on your neck from your "softball" incident...that has been there since the fifth grade, you used the same excuse," Stephanie said.
"What?" Charles asked, "How would you know what went on when I was in the fifth grade?"
"Because I was there," she said quietly.
Charles stared at her with wide eyes and then placed his head in his hands, "Oh my God," his voice was muffled, but the words still came out clearly.
"Charles, I'm Stephanie-"
"Tanner. You're Stephanie Judith Tanner. I know who you are, I know who you were. You ratted on me," Charles said.
"Charles, I had to!" Stephanie said.
Charles grabbed her arm firmly, "How could you do that to me Steph? How could you?!" he said, tears filling his eyes.
"Charles," she said his name softly and wrapped her arms around him, giving him a hug.
Charles patted her on the back and hugged her soft skin.
This was the girl he had loved since he was eleven, and now she was in his arms, and they didn't hate each other.
Charles didn't know it but Stephanie was thinking the same thing about him.
Kiss her you dork, Charles urged himself. He couldn't. Not now at least.
Kiss him, kiss him, kiss him, Stephanie's conscious screamed at her.
Kiss her.
Kiss him.
"God, shut up already!" Charles exclaimed.
"What?" Stephanie asked.
"Sorry, it's not you. My conscious is bugging me,"
"If its telling you the same thing mine is telling me, I see why,"
Charles' heart leaped, "What would that be?"
"You first,"
"It kept on telling me to kiss you,"
"You really have changed over the past years,"
"What do you mean?"
"You're not as funny,"
Charles smirked, "I don't know if I should take that as a complement or a complaint,"
Stephanie smiled despite herself and kissed him lightly on the lips.
"Okay, I think my conscious stopped now," Stephanie said with a sigh and leaned against the head rest.
Charles racked his brain for a witty comeback until he found one.
"Mine didn't," he said and brought his lips to hers.
Stephanie's mind stopped working and her heart was doing all the thinking.
She fiddled with her hands until her seat belt was unbuckled and she climbed over to Charles, practically sitting on his lap.
The kiss began growing deeper with more certainty.
Charles ran his hands around Stephanie's hair.
She reached down and unbuckled his seat belt as well so that they would be able to move around.
Stephanie felt Charles' tongue pressing against her lips.
She opened up her mouth and gently slid her tongue into his already open mouth.
The kissing grew hotter and heavier with each second. He never touched any other part of her body than her lips with his own.
Their tongues began massaging each other faster and more rapidly as the kiss grew insanely passionate.
Charles hands fell from her hair and went around her neck, pulling her closer to him.
They drew closer until their bodies were completely touching each other.
Just then Stephanie's mind kicked back into action.
Andrew. Andrew. Andrew. ANDREW.
Stephanie wasn't getting the message, she was just continuing to kiss Charles.
STEPHANIE! STEPHANIE! Her mind screamed.
Just then Stephanie realized it wasn't her mind, it was Charles.
The two were sitting in his car in the empty parking lot.
"Stephanie!" he exclaimed.
"What?" she asked.
"You zoned out for like ten minutes,"
Oh my God, it was a daydream. Oh God no, please don't say that, PLEASE!
"What were we talking about?" Stephanie asked.
"You just got done telling me who you were."
"So we didn't kiss?" Stephanie blurted.
"Huh?" Charles asked.
"Nothing,"
"So you were dreaming about kissing me huh?" he asked jokingly.
Stephanie laughed, "You don't wanna know what I was dreaming about,"
Charles pulled the car out of the parking lot. They drove in silence for five minutes.
Stephanie glanced over at his arm, at the cigarette burn.
"How could anyone do that?" she asked, breaking the quietness.
"Do what?" Charles asked.
"Hurt their child, with a cigarette no less?"
"I don't know, ask my dad,"
Stephanie shook her head slightly and leaned against her headrest and stared out the window.
"What's with this chick music?" Charles asked, trying to break the tension.
"It's Ashlee Simpson, and she's awesome,"
"And out of this CD player," Charles said pressing the eject button and the CD popped out of the player.
Then he reached into the pockets of his cargo pants and brought out Good Charlotte's CD.
"Okay, first of all, that's not going in my CD player, my little sister listens to them, and second, you carry CD's in your pants pockets?" Stephanie questioned.
"Too bad about the first part, when I'm the driver, I'm also the DJ, so I always have to be armed incase a girl, such as you, decides to play chick music about a guy loving her for herself, so hence that is why I carry CD's with me."
Stephanie rolled her eyes.
Charles put the CD in the player and skipped past almost all the songs to the second to last one, it was called Emotionless.
Hey Dad, I'm writing to you,
Not to tell you, that I still hate you,
Just to ask you, how you feel,
And how we fell apart,
How this fell apart.
Are you happy out there, in this great wide world?
Do you think about your sons?
Do you miss your little girl?
When you lay your head down,
Do you sleep at night?
Do you even wonder if we're alright?
We're alright.
We're alright.
It's been a long, hard road with out by my side.
Why weren't you there on the nights that we cried?
You broke my mother's heart,
You broke your children for life.
It's not okay, but we're alright,
I remember the days you were a hero in my eyes,
But those are just a long lost memory of mine.
I spent so many years trying to survive,
And now I'm writing you to let you know,
I'm still alive.
Stephanie's mouth dropped open and she flipped to the second song on the CD, she didn't know what it was, but it had to be better than that.
It was the song The Anthem, Michelle had the CD and she played that song all the time, but she never heard her playing the song that Charles was just playing.
"What the hell was with that song?" she asked, surprised at her word choice.
"What?"
"It's a song about telling your dad you don't need them, and that you're okay without him in your life," Stephanie said.
"And?" Charles asked.
"Never mind, I guess that would be the type of song someone like you would listen to," she said and then regretted it the millisecond it left her mouth.
"Someone like me?" Charles repeated.
"I didn't mean it like that, I mean, someone who has had a crappy life like you," Stephanie said and then cringed at what she said, "I mean you know like-"
"Steph, I knew what you meant," Charles said.
"I'm sorry, Charles," Stephanie said.
"Don't be, it's not your fault what my dad did to me,"
"And still does," Stephanie finished.
"I hate my dad. I hate him so goddamn much!" He exclaimed slamming his fist down, it hit the steering wheel and the loud horn honked, and everybody heard it.
They all started honking back and yelling.
Charles shook his head and pulled into another parking lot.
"You okay?" Stephanie asked.
"No offense, but do I look okay?"
Stephanie shook her head.
Stephanie glanced at the building they were parked in front of.
"Oh God," she said.
"What?"
"We're at the Wake Up San Francisco studios, oh my god!"
"Isn't Wake Up San Francisco done for today, it's like 1:00," Charles said looking at the digital clock on Stephanie's radio.
"It is done. The people coming out of the building right now are my dad and aunt Becky!" Stephanie exclaimed covering up her eyes with her hands.
"Uh oh," Charles said, "Do you think they'll see us if we pull out of the parking lot,"
"My dad'll recognize this car, anywhere,"
"I'm sure more than one person in all of San Francisco has a red VW Convertible,"
"Not like this one, my dad put on a specified plate on it, its right under my license plate, it lets him know that this is my car, it has an ID number on it, and my name," Stephanie said.
"No offense to your dad or anything, but does he suffer from paranoia or OCD?" Charles asked.
Stephanie let out a small laugh, "Sometimes I think so,"
Charles glanced back at Stephanie's dad and aunt, the 2 were turned around talking to somebody, and of course it wasn't just someone. It was Blink 182.
"Holy shit," Charles said.
"But anyways if my dad finds out this is my car, he'll kill me,"
"No he won't,"
"Yes he will,"
Charles got out of the car and returned a minute later with something in his right hand, he plopped it on Stephanie's lap.
It was her ID plate.
"No he won't,"
"Oh my God, Charles!" Stephanie exclaimed.
"Now you're dad's turning around, I better hurry," Charles said and peeled out of the parking lot as fast as he could, most definitely burning rubber and the pavement they were driving on.
Stephanie let out a laugh and a sigh.
"So why weren't you more excited about your dad talking to Blink 182?"
"Ever since Tommy Page showed up at my birthday party and kissed DJ, I haven't shown my normal love for them, I still love them, just not as much,"
"I remember that birthday party,"
"Oh yeah, you were there,"
Charles nodded, "He sang you that song and kissed your hand and you thought he was your boyfriend, you were talking about it to Jennifer and Jennifer at school the next day,"
"Yeah, but that was my tenth birthday, so we were still in the fourth grade,"
Charles nodded.
I didn't like you as much then, but then wait 'til you started fifth grade Steph, damn if you would have heard every word that had been running through my head when you weren't looking, we'd be married by now.
"Did we get along in the fourth grade?" Charles asked.
"Better than we did in the fifth, but personally I think, enough with the past, you're living in the present, so focus on the future,"
"Wise words," Charles said.
"Yeah, my older sister's boyfriend had it in his fortune cookie a year ago,"
Charles smirked.
"What?" Stephanie asked.
"Nothing, you just surprise me,"
Stephanie felt a blush began to creep across her cheeks but it ended as soon as her dad drove up right next to them.
"Oh my God," Stephanie whispered.
"What?" Charles asked, he followed Stephanie's gaze and saw Danny and Becky sitting in Danny's new Volvo Station-wagon right next to them at the red light.
"Has he seen us?" Stephanie whispered.
"What, do you want me to ask him?" Charles remarked sarcastically.
Stephanie rolled her eyes.
Charles pressed the hood cover button and the hood began to cover up the car.
C'mon light, it seems you have been red for the past 10 minutes! Stephanie said to herself.
"Uh oh, Danny's looking at us, duck," Charles said, practically pushing Stephanie's back down to get her to lean down.
"Isn't it a school day?" Danny asked Charles.
"Uh...uh..." Charles stammered, Stephanie reached out her hand and whacked him on the leg to get him to say something, "Yes, sir, it is but you see-"
Just then the light turned green, "Gotta go!" Charles said and sped off.
"Crazy kids," Danny muttered to Becky.
"Well that's all over now," Charles said, pulling into his driveway. It was 3:45. School had gotten out fifteen minutes before.
After the encounter with Danny, they had gone down to the mall to hang around and get something to eat.
"Can you put back on that ID thing?" Stephanie asked him, "My dad'll know it was us if he sees that it's not on there,"
"Sure, hand me the thing," Charles said.
Stephanie reached into her jeans pocket and slipped the ID into his hand.
Charles took the silver plate and screwed it back into place above her license plate.
"Thanks, for everything today, I had a blast, seriously," Stephanie said.
"Yeah, I had fun too, see you tomorrow," Charles said, lifting his hand into a wave and jogging into his house.
Stephanie slid over to the driver's seat and drove off.
"I'm home," Stephanie called out, dropping her messenger bag onto the floor and walking into the kitchen.
"Hey Steph," DJ said from where she was reading an article in a magazine at the kitchen table.
"Hey," Stephanie greeted her and ran upstairs to her room.
"Michelle, you have your own room you know," Stephanie said whenever she saw Michelle sprawled out on Stephanie's queen size bed flipping through the channels on Stephanie's television.
"My cable box is out," Michelle said.
"So, use the one in the living room,"
"Did you miss Steve and Joey flopped on the couch screaming and hooting watching a football game?" Michelle asked.
"Oh, that's why there were bags of chips and bowls of popcorn and a pizza box on the coffee table,"
Michelle nodded.
"Well, how about Uncle Jesse's apartment, or Joey's room?" Stephanie asked.
"Joey has his VCR on record right now, apparently there's a "Classic Cartoon Marathon" on Cartoon Network." Michelle said making quotation marks with her fingers to emphasize Classic Cartoon Marathon, "And Nick and Alex are upstairs watching Rocket Power," As soon as Nicky and Alex reached age 8, Nicky refused to be called Nicky he'd rather be called Nick and Alex hated being notified as Nick's twin. Whenever the 2 were at school, they were like day and night, Nick was getting popular because of his shaggy blonde hair that Becky hated, and Alex would get picked on because he was a born brain, even for a fourth grader.
"Why can't they just buy The Greatest Cartoons Ever DVD box set or something?" Stephanie asked.
"Why are you asking me these questions? You're sixteen almost seventeen, I'm thirteen, you're getting ready to start your junior year, I'm getting ready to start my freshmen year, do the math," Michelle said.
"Hostile," Stephanie said sarcastically.
"So any luck on that Charles dude?" Michelle asked, bored with the television, flipping it off and turning to her sister.
"Well the "dude" knows who I am now," Stephanie said sitting next to Michelle on her bed.
"Okay, you already lost my attention, see ya," Michelle said getting up from Stephanie's bed and going back into her own room.
30 seconds later Stephanie heard Good Charlotte pounding from Michelle's stereo, and Emotionless was the song she was playing.