AN- I just want to know if I should continue posting this.
For all those wanting to know if this is Erik/Charlotte or Erik/Christine... let's just say Christine is THE main character. Erik is the leading man. So there. But as all teenagers know (and all fans of Christine) mixed emotions stand in the near future.
Title: Good Riddance
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Anything anyone ever writes that is Phantom involved will belong to Leroux. Except if, you know, it belongs to someone else.
Summary: (Modern Telling)The final year of high school can be tough, even with the best friends in the world. Christine Daae knows this for a fact. The account of her senior year- new plays, loosing friends and much more. Most importantly, meeting Erik...
Chapter 6- Rebel With A Cause
-i've got you under my skin/
i've got you deep in the heart of me/
you're so deep in my heart/
that you're really apart of me/
and i've got you under my skin-
-Frank Sinatra's "I've Got You Under My Skin"
Christine
I've found that the older you get, the faster things go by. This includes high school.
After we discovered Erik had the voice of an angel, he stopped hanging out with us. Wait, that was an understatement.
The boy avoided us completely for two weeks. We pestered him in class everyday, asking him if he would sit with us at lunch or come to someone's house that weekend. The answer was either one of two things- "I have to work" or "I have to practice".
He never told us what he had to practice and no one ever really thought to ask. Whatever chased him away- we doubted he was coming back.
"It was you two making out all the time," Meg accused Janie and Holden one night after theatre practice.
Theatre was the only time we ever saw Erik. After Charlotte and I told Mrs. Giry about his voice, she had him audition again and enlisted him, despite the limit of students allowed in class.
Janie looked appalled, "No! It was... Carly! Carly was so mean to him!"
Carly rolled her eyes, "Who needs that freak?"
"I bet it was Charlotte," Nat grinned. "She did stalk him and followed him to work."
"Oh, I did not," she rolled her eyes.
"Pshaw," I said. "I'm sure he was flattered."
"I know I would have been," Rayne laughed.
Rayne stuck with us. He fit in just fine. He was fun and theatrical like the rest of us.
Truth was, I thought the Erik ditching us really got to Charlotte. No one had ever ignored her charm and friendly attitude. The fact that she couldn't win someone over confused and bothered her.
She still visited his café though she thought I didn't know.
It was a rainy day in September when I finally talked to Erik again. It might have been three weeks since he stopped hanging out with us- a week since we stopped persisting. School was going well and auditions for The Princess Bride were starting the next Monday. I had decided to try for the role of Princess Buttercup though I knew I wouldn't get it.
I was walking to a Saturday ballet practice at school when I stopped in the sidewalk. My hood was pulled over my eyes to block the rain but I saw a piece of paper getting drenched on the ground. I picked it up.
I scanned it once over and then I noticed the name on the top. Erik G. Dautron. I smiled and read it again.
It was a college acceptance letter. Looking up to see if he was close, I spotted him a block down. I couldn't miss that fedora, even in the rain.
"Erik!" I called. Maybe he was ignoring me or maybe the wind carried my voice away but he didn't respond. Deciding to find him later and to insure Mrs. Giry wouldn't get mad at me for being late, I ran to ballet practice.
32 pirouettes, 10 grand jetes, 5 waltzes and two sore feet later, I was following Meg out the door. The rain had cleared, leaving a gray mist settled over the trees and buildings. Meg and I departed, promising to meet up later to study for a Science exam.
I hurried home to find Charlotte. She sat in her room on her blue blanketed bed and drummed her fingers on the top of her little iMac computer. She was singing.
Charlotte's singing was casual. Not the sound but in how she preformed. She sang like she spoke, or in the same control. If the world suddenly started singing everything in the world, she would lead them all. She was a soprano but sang alto as well.
I knocked on the door and she glanced up with a smile.
"How was ballet?" she asked, tossing her head slightly.
I plunked onto her bed.
"Good. Long."
She nodded and turned back to her glowing computer screen as I said, "Um, Lotte? Do you know where Erik works?"
She nodded again, slipping headphones off her head, "Yeah, why?"
"I-" I paused. "I need to find him. I need to give him something."
She peered at me and I glanced up before dropping my head back down, "Sure. He works at Boulevard Bakery downtown. Just ask for Erik and they'll send you up."
"Thanks. See you for dinner, okay?" I said, leaping off her bed and heading for the door.
"Um, Chris?"
"What?" I paused.
"You're going like that?" she laughed. I peered down at my apparel before nodding.
"It's an emergency."
"Why the rush? What do you have to give him?" she arched an eyebrow.
"Something important."
3 3 3 3
I found the place no problem and he man at the register sent me to the roof.
It was drizzling still but in a comforting way. The sight that met me when I reached the roof was also comforting.
"Erik?" I called.
He spun around. He was seated by a piano (which was covered in a tarp) and drinking what smelled like cider.
"Christine?" he asked. "What are you-"
"I found this," I hurried, reaching into my bag and pulling out the letter. "You dropped it. I found it on the way to ballet today."
He stood to his full height which I guessed to be about 5'8 and glanced at it. He took it from my hands, his fingers brushing mine. Erik glanced at me a moment before reading it. He sighed before crumpling it up and dropping it on the roof.
"Erik!" I said, bending down to get it.
"It's nothing."
"You got accepted!" I cried, shocked.
"Nothing. Will you just leave it?"
I stopped, my hands on my hips.
"What's your problem?" I said, loudly. I never spoke loud. I didn't know what I was doing.
"Excuse me-"
"All we've been is nice to you and accepting and you don't even give any thanks! We want to be your friends."
"It's not you guys. I just... I'm just not looking for friends right now."
"And you just got accepted to a really great college. I haven't even gotten any letters back yet! You seem really ungrateful, Erik."
He turned and faced me, "What do you know about me being grateful? Don't come into my life acting like you know about me, Christine. You don't know anything about me."
"What? What is so wrong with you, Erik, that you are so cross?"
His hands shook and he clenched his teeth. Suddenly, he ripped his fedora off his head.
I stood with my mouth open.
There was a mask, like from Zorro, only white. It went from his hairline to his lip. Not only was that shocking but so was how handsome he was on the other side.
He was the most gorgeous guy I had met.
"What are y-"
"Don't ask what's underneath, Christine. You don't want to know," he whispered.
I nodded and turned away. Quietly, I walked to the door, opened it and descended down the stairs.
"Wait!" I heard when I reached the bottom. He was running down the stairs, his hat crammed back on his head.
"Is that it?" he asked. "Are you never going to talk to me again?"
"No, I will. It's just I feel horrible for calling you ungrateful. I think I should go pray for forgiveness."
He let out a laugh. It was sharp and deep. A nice laugh.
"Listen," he mumbled. "Do you want to go for a walk?"
"In the rain?" I asked slowly.
He glanced out the window and I could see the bottom of his cheek shade pink.
"Oh, well, uh-"
"Sure."
He paused, "Really?"
"I'd love to."
We left the café and walked along the trees that out skirted it. There was a small creek nearby and we halted as we came to it. He sat on a rock as I balanced along the bank of it.
We said nothing until finally he burst, "It's deformed."
"What?" I said, tripping over a rock. His voice surprised me. It was intent and loud, not how he usually spoke.
"My face. The side covered is... deformed. I wear a mask to hide it. That's why we moved here. Because where I used to go to school, I got made fun of and beat up. Among other things."
"I'm sorry," I began. "You don't have to explain."
"No," he shook his head. "It's nice to tell someone. I just feel bad, dragging my little sister into this. It's not her fault her brother is a..."
I walked along the shore and dipped my toe in the water, "Why don't you run away? To Aruba or France or something. You could live on your own and be all adventurous."
"Well," he said patiently. "Anywhere I go I would be looked down on and people would hate me. And why would I subject myself to such a state where I had to think that everyone's lowly opinions should matter?"
I let a smile slip and he mumbled, "Sorry. Sometimes I get-"
"No, it's fine."
He was silent a minute and I went on, "You could join the circus."
He smiled, "Yeah- 'Come see the devil himself!' That would be so kind."
"Home-school?" I offered.
"No one to teach."
I paused and kicked a rock, "Surgery?"
He laughed, "You just really can't stand me, can you?"
"No!" I said, horrified. "Not that!"
He smiled, "Well, I can't afford it. And all these suggestions," he paused and then he looked at me full in the face for the first time, "Wouldn't they be as bad as running away?"
I stared at him a long minute before either of us realized we were staring.
"Do you have a cell phone?" I heard myself saying.
He nodded.
"Can I have your number?"
He swallowed and smiled, "I don't see why not."
I took a black Sharpie and offered it to him.
"I don't have any paper," he said. Then I offered my hand.
I tried to ignore how soft his hands were but how coarse his fingers were from instrument playing. I tried to ignore that he pulled me closer to him as he wrote down the seven digits. I tried to ignore how warm it made me feel.
I tried. I failed.
"I uh, got to go meet Meg," I hurried. "We're studying."
"I need to go back to work," he excused himself as well.
"Well, it was nice talking to you, Erik."
He smiled at me, "My pleasure."
We departed and I shoved my hand in my pocket. I knew Sharpie was permanent but I didn't want there to be a chance of the rain washing the number away.
3 3 3 3
Erik wasn't at school on Monday. I thought this ridiculous seeing as auditions were that night. This was what my mind was on when the intercom fuzzed on.
"Good morning, Garnier High School," a chippery voice said. "This is your Secretary and President with the morning news." It belonged to Felicity Cameron- one of Janie's fellow cheerleaders..
The announcements were done by the student council every morning and afternoon. Usually Felicity and a track-star named Dean did the morning announcements. They were Secretary and Treasurer, respectively. The Vice-President and President spoke in the afternoon. The Vice-President was a girl named Rebecca Wimble and we shared a ballet class. Only today, Dean was out sick so the President was helping out with during the morning.
Our school President was none other than-
"Morning, Garnier! This is your President, Nathaniel Persion speaking and we are ready to give you the morning report!"
I stifled a laugh and Charlotte covered her mouth. Mr. Lon rolled his eyes.
"That boy never stops," he mumbled, erasing the board.
Suddenly, a song from The Lion King came on. It was "The Morning Report". Nat sang along with Simba. Finally, after he ceased and the entire class was in tears from laughter, he said, "You can't do that in the afternoon."
"Anyway," Felicity said, hurriedly, "The Debate Team has a meeting after school today at 3:30. If you want a tournament t-shirt, you must pay by this afternoon."
Nat began, "So, Felicity, what are you doing September 23 from 8:00 to 10:00?"
I glanced at Meg who paled and Felicity began to stammer, "I-uh- Nat- I um-"
"Because, well," he said. "You see- there is this dance here at school and I'm supposed to give this stuffy dialogue in hopes of promoting the chance that these fine students will go to the dance."
"Nat- please, stop-" she stammered.
"So," you could hear Nat's hand slam on the counter, "I'm going to cut to the chase, babushkas. Friday, there's a Sadie Hawkin's dance and you all should really go because the ticket money goes to the Children's Hospital Donation Fund. It's only $3 and you can go and sit and talk to your friends for a bit and then leave, okay? 8:00 to 10:00- do it for the children!"
There was a click of a button and Simba started singing again, "This is the morning report!"
I stared at Charlotte who was aghast.
Nat's voice didn't come back and he didn't appear during any classes or at lunch the rest of the day.
"Do you think he got detention?" Meg asked setting her tray down at lunch. "I bet he got detention."
I shrugged pulling out my cell phone and selected 'Send Text Message'.
I typed, Hi, it's Christine. Just wondering why you aren't at school. Hope you make it to auditions.
It wasn't until I was getting dressed after ballet did my phone vibrate back.
Hello. I had a doctor's appointment. I will be at the auditions. Thank you for being concerned. :)
A few minutes later there was an additional message.
I didn't know anyone else wrote text messages in full sentences.
I smiled. Neither did I.