Did I Come On Too Strong?
CHAPTER 1: MEMORIES OF CHUCK
It was closing time at the bar. All the chairs were put up, the band had loaded their gear into the beat up van, the bartenders were washing the glasses and putting the beer back in the coolers. One of the barmaids was cleaning the tables and booths. She sported a green crop top showing off her slender, yet curvy figure. Her auburn brown hair shined under the lights and her distinctive freckles dotted her face. Yet for a twenty-five year old Peppermint Patty, this wasn't where she thought she'd be. She was never the brightest person in the world. She always heard what she wanted to hear; never what she needed to hear. This was part of the reason why she quit high school the first chance she got. She was failing in all of her classes, except P.E. where she excelled. While in high school, she still lived in a fantasy world where everything would lay at her feet and come true, like her longtime crush, Charlie Brown, falling madly in love with her, and forgetting about the crimson-haired goddess that was Heather, the little red-haired girl. Even after Heather moved away, Charlie Brown was still oblivious to the tomboy's advances. It didn't help matters when folks, namely Lucy Van Pelt, told him no one could ever love a wishy-washy loser like him for years on end. It did something to his self-esteem. That was part of what Patty failed to see. Even after Lucy's brother and Charlie Brown's best friend, Linus told Patty directly about what Lucy had done to him telling him that, she was determined to have the round-headed fool fall in love with her; little red-haired girls and fussbudgets be damned!
But alas, it was never to be. For when she finally got up the courage to finally profess her love for him, she abruptly moved away herself, as her father had gotten a job in another city. She stayed connected with her bestie Marcie, who updated her on things happening in Sparkyville. And Marcie had gotten a new boyfriend, giving up on her own crush on Charlie Brown and deciding to stay friends with him, instead. Marcie was more direct with her crush on him, and, unlike Patty, even understood how years of being told no one could love him messed him up with reacting to girls who actually liked him. Patty, for some odd reason, could not see that, and it messed up her chances of having him as a boyfriend, though he would have been oblivious to it to begin with. Marcie was now married to her high school sweetheart and living in Boston. Patty was still in Sparkyville working at a dive on the rough side of town, and had no one to call her own. Sure she went on dates with guys, but they were after one thing, and that was where she was smart. She had the street smarts, rather than the book smarts. While she was able to read, she never understood math, or everyday common sense. She still acted on impulse, and got upset when things didn't work out for her. She went to her go-to excuse: blaming others. It kind of turned folks off from her and she had very few friends who tolerated her behavior. In fact, it was this that she used to do to Charlie Brown, which finally culminated in him distancing himself from her, even before she moved out of town. What Patty never figured out (even Lucy, his biggest antagonist, knew this) was that even Charlie Brown, everyone favorite whipping boy, can only take so much abuse. When she tried to blame him for her failing a test the last time, he finally snapped and told her that it was her fault and her fault alone. And if she was going to continue to blame him for what she was at fault for, never to call him again. He even stopped playing against her team for baseball. That's how bad it got. And Patty was hurting for weeks on end.
As she finished the last table, Patty hung up her apron and clocked out for the night. She hopped into her used 1971 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, which was a pet project for her as she was fixing it up, and headed for home. She lived with a roommate in a duplex on the rough side of town. Her roommate was a woman named Wendy. She worked at an insurance office and was the total antithesis of Patty. She was a college graduate with a Master's in insurance and was very smart, whereas Patty was… less smart. She came in quietly as Wendy was asleep and needed to be at work in the morning. After getting to her room, she went on her computer. She searched through Facebook. She had Marcie, Franklin, and Roy as friends on there. She kept in touch with them the most. She also had Linus, Schroeder, and, reluctantly, Lucy, on there, as well, but, except for maybe Linus, hasn't talked to them as much. She also had Charlie Brown's sister Sally as a friend. She was hesitant to ask her about her brother, though, after the falling out they had years back. When she typed in Charlie Brown's name in the search engine, multiple names showed up, much to her dismay. She finally went to bed after another fruitless try of finding her old crush. Was he even on Facebook, or had any kind of social media account?
"Where are you, Chuck?" she said through her tears.
The next day, Wendy was already gone to work when Peppermint Patty woke up. After taking a shower and having breakfast, she got ready for her day. She decided to take a road trip back to Sparkyville to see if Charlie Brown was still living there. She had the day off from the bar, so she could drive back in the evening. After getting some gas, she was off to her old town.
NEXT CHAPTER: GETTING ANSWERS