Lucy is shocked at the revelation, of all the people it could be, it was the guy she hated most, the one she would make feel lower than dirt, when she thought nobody would want her after her antics with Schroeder the past years, when word got out she pushed him too far and he slapped her. He of all people, it had to be him; Charlie Brown. He tried to be there from the beginning of this spiral, she wouldn't let him, would rather push him away. She has to hate him, that's how it's supposed to be, right?
"Charlie… said… he loves me," she turned to rush back in the cafeteria.
"No you don't," Linus grabbed her, "you are not going back in there like this!"
"Let me go, Linus!"
"No!"
"I need to see him," she growled.
"Fuck no!"
"Linus, I need to," she pleaded.
"No. You. Don't. Stay away from him, you're in a bad headspace right now, you can't, I'm bigger than you, I won't let you! I'm trying to save you from yourself, damn it. If you go back in there, you're going to regret it, you're going to throw something away without thinking and hate yourself for it. This is for your own good, your well- being. Stay away from him the rest of the day until you can think straight. Stop fighting me!"
"It'll be fine!"
"No it won't."
"I can handle it!"
"No you can't."
She slowly stopped fighting back.
"Please, let me."
"You're not ready yet."
"I'm… I'm not ready," she starts to cry.
"Nope. You'll fuck it up."
"Linus? I don't want to fuck it up," she cries.
"Then go back to class, stay away from him until you sort it out, go to the mall with your friends," he ordered.
"Okay, I'll listen to you," she walks off.
"Lucy."
She turns back to him.
"The reason your sharp tongue doesn't bother him; he wants you happy, he's not hearing your words, as much as your voice and your pain. He's fighting for you, he doesn't care about the things you say to him, because they make you happy, which is his goal; to make you happy. Charlie isn't pushing your love away like Schroeder- he wants your love, and you're not giving it to him."
"I don't want to hurt him to feel good about myself, I think it's making me hurt myself more," she turned away, letting herself cry.
Linus walked back to the table where Violets group sat, trying to erase the concern from his face.
"Where's Lucy," Frieda asked.
"She went to back to her class, she didn't want to say anything, so keep it amongst ourselves, but she was a bit overwhelmed by you all, she does want to go to the mall, though."
"I thought it was going to be something bad," Frieda spoke.
"I hope Lucy gets ir together," Violet walked off to dump her tray.
"Okay… it is kinda bad… kinda good. First off Violet must not know. Period. I'm afraid she might ruin it," he explained.
"What? We can't leave her out," Patty stated.
"Oh but if you really love Lucy, you must. It is paramount. I'm going to say this brief, I'd like to discuss full detail later on, but the issue is; Charlie is falling in love with her, he wanted me to help to get her swayed over… are you hearing me, I just told her because she is getting real paranoid about him. I talked to her, I made her walk away because she was going to come in here and confront him," he spoke quickly.
"Would that have been bad," Frieda asked.
"She hates him, you tell me, anyway; he's the key to getting Lucy back to normal, maybe a brand new Lucy!"
"Damn, it's that serious, Babe? Why exclude Violet?"
"Because Violet hates Charlie more than everybody, he's Hitler, Stalin, nine-eleven, and Katrina all wrapped up in one, for her. She will, out of her jaded kindred friendship with Lucy will stop at nothing to keep them apart under pretense of trying to help her, sending her deeper down the fucking deep end. I don't have time to explain anymore, she's coming back. I'm not asking this for Charlie, do it for Lucy, but he can't know either, we all gotta figure this out," he walked off.
"So you're sure she wants to go to the mall," Violet stopped him.
"Yeah, I told her that being with friends is good medicine."
"I guess you would know best; seeing all the experience you had with your bastard friend. Thank you Linus."
"Ya know… I don't know or care why you hate Charlie, but he's a good friend. You should take this time to understand you're in the same situation with Lucy… we all are. Lucy is in his shoes, you, Frieda, Patty, are in mine, Trish, Marcie's, and Schroeder's. I'm trying to get used to you for Patty's sake, and start caring about my unloving sister. It won't kill you to have some personal growth."
"I'll give it consideration, Patty does love you."
"And Frieda actually does like Charlie, despite how you all treat him as a group."
"Looks like you were having a serious pow-wow after Violet walked off," Charlie queried.
"Ehh," he replied.
"Where did Lucy go, lunch isn't quite over yet," Charlie asked.
"I had to calm her down, and tell her to go back to class. I gotta get something off my chest before lunch ends; you Trish… can I count on you to help with this Lucy issue?"
"I guess… why?"
"I think she's going to need more friends. She really doesn't have that many, unlike Charlie, I think her depression is more self-inflicted because she never had people trying to cut her down. I'm hoping she might be a better person coming out, and old grudges won't help."
"I'm not giving up on her," Charlie stated.
"I can't even get near her," Schroeder huffed.
"You are a different case. It's not the first time she's been hit, she's not afraid of Trish, who's beaten her up, she just never pushed her that far again, I've beaten her up and she would still smack me in the head here and there. You know she went to Sally last night and begged her to leave me alone, so the same thing wouldn't happen between me, Patty, and her?"
"Is that why she wanted to talk to my sister?"
"Yep. Sally told me the gist of what she said, and the impossible happened; Sally said she didn't even need to think about it, she was done."
"Wow," Schroeder gasped.
The end of lunch bell rang.
"I'll see you guys later," Charlie left first.
The rest started to leave and Linus called them back to walk and talk.
"Hey hold back a bit, I have something important to say," he slowed them down.
"Now?"
"It's something Charlie can't know. Or Lucy and Violet actually. It was important earlier and we need to get Marcie, Sally, and Franklin to meet with us, Patty, and Frieda."
"What's the big deal," Peppermint Patty asked.
"Charlie asked me to help him with this, but I didn't have a clue how to go about… well… warming Lucy over. She really is paranoid, or at least is expecting Charlie to treat her like she treated him, as if the tables were flipped."
"C'mon, Van Pelt!"
"Charlie thinks he loves her… Lucy that is."
"Are you fucking for real?!"
"What he said," Peppermint Patty agreed.
"He told me last night, while she was talking to Sally."
"Is he crazy," Peppermint Patty blurted.
"Might be, but I had no clue how to weasel the thought in her head, so just outright telling her, as she was raising her concerns about him in the hallway, why her taunts weren't working and why he keeps asking about her and trying to help her."
"You think she deserves a nice guy like him," Schroeder wondered.
"I think he can fix her, before she tries to kill herself, she fell hard after you slapped her, whole world collapsed. I told her that he loves her and it was like a cataclysm in her head, I had to stop her from rushing in here and chewing him out."
"Yeah… we don't need Chuck getting depressed again."
"No we don't, but he would bounce back. Lucy on the other hand would be lost. Far worse. She started to question if her disdain for him was still there, something I think she's been doing since she hit him. I had to hold her down and make her leave him alone until she could sort her feelings out. Her routine of putting him down to lift herself up isn't working, I think she's just hurting herself by trying to push him away. I think she might be falling for him."
"I actually think Lucy deserves somebody who wants to be with her," Schroeder added.
"Yeah, he was talking about how happy he was that she was around her friends again."
"Plus I think maybe…. Just maybe… if she can come around to the idea and feels safe around him, she might slowly stop being afraid of you, Schroeder. Now you see why Violet can't know?"
A unanimous "yeah" came from the two.
"Let us know where to meet up, so we can figure this out," Peppermint Patty walked to her room.
"I feel responsible, I'd like to actually try to be her friend, if she gets together," Schroeder doubled back.
