Chapter 6: Charlie causes a commotion

The next day, Jesse Tuck decided to go to the shopping mall. He had heard that shopping helped women get rid of their trouble, and perhaps if it helped woman, it could also help men.

It was originally not a very good idea, but Jesse didn't care anymore. He needed to escape the insanity of his brain, and doing something different such as shopping sounded pretty neat. Once at the mall, Jesse walked into Macy's, hoping to buy affordable perfume for Mae Tuck and a goodbye present for Miles Tuck.

He walked his way to the perfume department, when he quickly hid behind one of the shelves after he had spotted Liz Prescott and her handsome boyfriend, Charlie. Yes, it had to be Charlie. Charlie was tall and had fairly cut dirty-blond hair, bright blue eyes, and a cute smile. A complete chick magnet, Liz Prescott was lucky to have him.

From where Jesse was hiding about three feet away, he could hear their whole conversation. "Pick out anything you want, it's my gift from me to you." Charlie said, sweetly.

Liz smiled. "Thanks, Chuckie."

It seemed like Liz really didn't care about perfume, and when you were rich and had all the money in the world, that was how it was. You didn't need your boyfriend to buy you expensive items.

"So, Lizzie, how's it been?"

Liz merely shrugged, pretending to take big interest in the bottle of Liz Claiborne fragrance.

Jesse now was confused. He had expected Liz to be all over Charlie, to be the way she had been yesterday. Instead, she seemed completely uninterested and hardly attracted to her boyfriend.

"Can I go check out some cologne?" Charlie asked, a bit impatiently.

"Yeah, sure. Help yourself."

"Thanks," he said, and kissed Liz on the cheek.

After Charlie was gone, Jesse approached Liz ever so casually and nonchalantly. "Hey, Liz." He greeted.

Liz turned, shocked to see Jesse. "Oh, um...hi." she answered back, mesmerized.

Jesse waited for Liz to grab him and hungrily kiss him again, but that didn't happen. Liz went back to examining the bottle of Liz Claiborne.

"Wow, you must be really interested in fragrance brands that contain your name," Jesse joked. Bad joke.

"Yeah, I guess..."

Suddenly, Charlie came marching back, holding a bottle of Hugo Boss cologne. "Ready to go, Lizzie?"

Jesse felt sort of envious when Charlie called Liz "Lizzie".

"Um...not quite." Liz replied.

"Aw, come on! How long does it take you to pick out perfume!"

"I dunno."

Charlie's eyes then focused on the scruffy kid next to Liz, Jesse. "Yo, you one of Liz' friends?"

"I can answer for myself, you know?" Liz snapped.

This was unfair. Why did Liz have to be so bitter? Bittersweet, that is. "Come on, Lizzie, we better go!"

"Look, it was a bad idea, for us to hang out today."

Now Charlie was very confused. "Huh?"

"I mean, sure it was sweet of you to actually spend time with me, but..."

Then, suddenly, it hit Charlie. "I know what this is about!" he yelled, angrily, "You!" he pointed at Jesse, "YOU!"

"I don't want to cause any trouble," Jesse began.

"You've already have! You are sick you know that! Stealing my girl, taking advantage of my absence! What's your name!"

"Stop!" Liz cried. "I admit that Jesse and I did have a little something going on—it was less than a day, and it was nothing serious."

Now Charlie seemed even angrier. "If it was nothing serious," he screamed, "then why the hell are you so distracted by him!"

The store manager came up to them, telling them to quiet down or he'd have to ask them to leave. Jesse shrugged and was about to go when Liz stopped him. "I'm going with you," she said.

"Liz," Charlie said softly, "I thought you loved me..."

Liz shook her head. "Not anymore. You hardly have time for me anymore anyways. I admit I did love you, but now...I don't think so."

At that, Jesse let Liz out of the store.

"So," Jesse started, "why'd you break up with him?"

"Because...because...because I—it's complicated."

Jesse grinned. "Yeah? Well do you know what I'm thinking?"

"What?"
"I'm thinking you really do have feelings for me. That's why you broke up with him, right?"

Liz nodded. "That's one of the reasons, I guess."

Jesse wondered if he liked her back.

"But I know you don't."
"Huh?"

"I know you don't like me back. It's okay."

Now, Jesse felt those emotions all over again. Emotions of affection. Liz really wasn't some amative whore; she was a person, a person who happened to be related to his long lost love, Winifred Foster...

"What made you think that?" Jesse said, "I like you. I have feelings for you too."

Liz smiled, and took his hand. Funny, Jesse had expected her to kiss him. It didn't really matter, though. Jesse's fairy tale was finally forming. He no longer had to feel like Peter Pan, who had come back to see Wendy and had realized Wendy had become an adult, had a new life of her own. Because Jesse Tuck himself, was also about to have a new life of his own.