"You beat up a cheerleader," Charlie stated.
"You're not surprised?"
"You're you."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Ummm… unless it's Trish; I can't picture you losing a fight to any girl, or some boys."
"You know me too well," she kissed him.
Charlie wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight in their new normal of spending time together topless. Her head resting on his shoulder.
"Can I… can I see you naked?"
"Charlie," she sat up.
"I'm not asking for sex, I just want to see the rest of you."
She starts to blush, "you really want…"
"Just one time. I won't touch, you can say no… I'm just asking."
"I'd never deny your touch, but you gotta get naked, too," she climbed off of him.
"Sure, I can do that," he sat up.
"You first, this time."
"Okay."
Somebody started knocking on the front door, Charlie grabbed his shorts with an eye roll, pulling them up.
"Hold on minute... fuuhhhkk!"
Lucy made a sigh of disappointment, plopping down on the bed. Charlie went downstairs opening the door to see Rerun standing there.
"Linus kicked me out, so he and Patty could have time alone."
Unamused, he yells upstairs; "nevermind!"
"What, why," she yelled back.
"Rerun is here!"
"Hi Lucy!"
"Aauugghhh!"
The three of them are downstairs watching tv, Lucy is still annoyed their special time got interrupted.
"I still don't see why Snoopy just can't babysit him," she huffed.
"Because we're all out of root beer, and he's been seeing this poodle from around the corner."
"But we were gonna… damn it."
"C'mon, don't be selfish, he is your brother."
"Yeah… I'm sorry, Rerun," she sighed.
"No problem, Lucy, I know you don't mean it. You just want to spend time with Charlie by yourselves."
"I shouldn't be putting my baby brother on the back burner."
"It's okay, you're happy and I know you won't forget me. Ever since you started dating Charlie, you've been so happy, I haven't heard you cry, or anything in weeks. I used to hear you cry almost every night, I would pray that something would make you happy."
Lucy hugged him, "I don't even know what to say. I didn't know you heard all of that."
"I didn't know what else to do, Linus wouldn't let me go in your room, because he thought you'd get mad."
"Rerun really cares about you, Lu-Lu."
"I remember a few times Linus begged Schroeder to go out with you, just so you wouldn't cry yourself to sleep, he kept saying to try it, pretend you like her, one time he tried to pay him. I asked him why and he told me no matter how mad you made him, he couldn't stand the sorrow."
"Charlie, did you know about that?"
"I had no clue," he shrugged, "neither ever talked to me about it. Though that explains those times they seemed to be mad at each other. Must be nice to have siblings that care about you."
"Sally cares about you."
"Only when it's convenient."
"Seriously, Babe; you know she does," she looked up at him.
"Sally doesn't really care about me, unless I was doing her homework, or needing to sic me on some bully to get my ass kicked. She doesn't respect me at all."
"Really?"
"One day; I lost another kite to that damn tree, you, Violet, and Frieda tore in to me, and I got attacked by World War Two, trying to protect Snoopy, Sally went off on me for being a loser, and threw a pack of razor blades at me, saying she was tired of hearing about my 'melon baller' bullshit, if I'm as done as she is, to use those, because I was useless anyway. It's ironic; you were so mean to them, yet they cared, I always tried to be as nice as I could be, and I get told to kill myself."
They both just stare at him.
"The last thing I gave up on, was her. She's just my sister."
"Want me to talk to her about that," Lucy's temper started to rise.
"Nah, I got my parents, my friends, and you, I'm about full on people that matter."
"That's not right," Rerun gasped.
"Are you sure, Baby?"
"Not everybody will like you, Rerun, that's why you put your energy to those that do. I'm positive, nothing good will come from it."
"Um… did your mom and dad do anything about it," Rerun wondered.
"They chewed her out for it, after I told them, didn't change anything, but we manage to keep the peace."
"Wait, you put energy to Lucy, and she wasn't your friend."
"I was once, before you were born, we were as close as he is with our brother, he used to hold my hand and walk me to the bus stop," she reached for his hand.
"I knew that same girl was still there somewhere," he squeezed her hand.
"Sounds like you two are supposed to be together."
They look at each other.
"Who wants food, I'm hungry, let's split a pizza," Charlie suggested.
"Yeah! I want pizza!"
"Let's go, dude," Charlie jumped up.
He catches Lucy smiling at him.
"You're a great brother, don't let her fool you," she kissed him.
Lucy still rolled her eyes at Patty's car sitting in front of her house, walking to the car. Charlie cranked his favorite rock station, singing along, until Trains Get To Me, where Lucy's vocals silenced them, she hadn't realized they stopped singing with her, by the time the disc jockey was on the air. Rerun listened quietly as they both sung Of Monsters and Men's Little Talks.
"I wish I could sing like you two, you sound good together."
"You're profound as a middle schooler, Rerun," Charlie said.
They pull in the parking lot, Lucy giggled as they drove by Heather and Brittany walking to the restaurant, Charlie parked.
"Shit… Babe; can you go get my wallet out the car- I thought my ass felt weird," she handed her keys over.
"Be right back."
"Well, well, well; we were just talking about you, Velma," Brittany sneered.
"Like I haven't heard that one before," Marcie rolled her eyes.
"You got my friend beat up."
"Ah yeah, she had it coming, she should've listened to my friends to leave me alone," she walked away.
"No! Nuh-uh! You don't get to walk away Scott free," Brittany followed her.
"Paybacks about to be a bitch," Heather laughed.
"She's alone, we can take her, easy."
Marcie ran to the car, getting Peppermint Patty's wallet, turning to see Brittany and Heather running up, she tried to run back to the restaurant, getting trapped between them between cars.
"What the fuck is going on," Charlie yelled.
"Mind your business, you blockhead bastard," Brittany yelled.
"Where's-," Lucy started.
"Stuck inside without her wallet!"
"Toss it!"
"Damn it," Marcie threw it.
Charlie caught it, "Rerun, go tell Trish."
"I don't know what's taking her so long, my car is just a few yards away."
"You aren't trying to dine and dash are you," the manager asked.
"Have I ever done that here, no, no I haven't," she glared.
