CHAPTER 3: PEGGY'S STORY

In the years since Peggy Jean met Charlie at camp when they were kids, she was always flighty. She moved on from boy to boy, leaving broken hearts in her wake, including Charlie's. But as she got older, it never stopped. No man respected her or even tried to sympathize with her due to her reputation of being a massive flirt. In high school, she got labeled a slut and a tease. And those were the "kind" remarks she got. The boys didn't respect her, and the girls downright hated her. She was very immature for her age and didn't seem to think about the boy she was with at the moment before moving on to the next one. For his part, after getting over the initial hurt, Charlie was able to move on from her.

But one faithful day, Peggy's behavior finally caught up to her. She had done the same thing she had done to Charlie and countless others to a nice, meek man named Norman. Norman was similar to Charlie when he was younger, but unlike Charlie, never really changed but stayed the same, and was even more wishy-washy than Charlie was when he was little. Norman was happy that a woman, ANY woman, was paying attention to him, and she showered him with love. But a couple of weeks into the "relationship", Peggy was already onto her next conquest, leaving Norman hurt and in tears. He took the rejection even worse than Charlie did when he was a kid, as he later took his own life by swallowing a cyanide capsule with strawberry soda. When his two sisters and mother found his suicide letter, naming Peggy as the reason for killing himself, they sought out this Peggy Jean. When they found her with her new man, they confronted her angrily, telling her that Norman had killed himself because of her. When she responded with what looked like indifference, the sisters proceeded to beat her up badly. The man she was with learned of what she did, left her not too long after the beat down she received at the hands of Norman's sisters, telling her to lose his number.

After recovering from the pummeling she got, Peggy finally took stock of her life and realized what she was doing. She thought back to the boy who was so nice to her. She thought about Charlie. She wanted to make amends with him and possibly pick up where they left off all those years ago. But when she got back to Sparkyville, it was too late. He had moved on and got a fiancée, who had his baby, and he was enjoying his life as a sergeant in the Marine Corps. In essence, Peggy had lost her chance with "Brownie Charles".

This particular day, Peggy was walking the streets of Sparkyville with a noticeable limp, the result of what had happened to her as a result of Norman's sisters beating her up. It did irreversible damage to her legs and hips. While she didn't need a cane to walk, her limp was noticeable enough to see she suffered some damage. She was thinking about seeing Charlie and Pat together happy. She never tried to do anything to harm them, or even try to disrupt their lives, aside from Marcie catching her staring into their house. She decided she would come back and this time knock at the door to at least make peace with him and apologize for her actions. She also wanted to get him back and be with him.

She was walking down the street when Lucy, by coincidence, was going the other way on the same sidewalk. She was on her lunch break from her work at the library when she recognized the brunette coming her way.

"Holy shit!" she said, seeing the disheveled girl before her. "Linus was right. You are Charlie's old girlfriend from camp!"

"Hello," she said with a squeaky mouse-like voice.

"You know everyone is talking about you coming to his place."

"I know. I want my Brownie Charles back!"

"Okay, first of all, it's 'Charlie Brown', not 'Brownie Charles'! That was a flub on his part all those years ago. Secondly, he's with someone now; someone he's known longer than you, who carried a torch for him, even when you two were 'together'. They just had a kid, for Christ's sake! Besides that, you were the one who broke his heart! What in the hell makes you think he will come running back to you after what you've done to him?! Maybe back when we were still kids, you may have had a shot, but not now! Charlie's with Pat now, and he's happy! Move on! If I can move on from Schroeder Klimt, you can move on from him."

Peggy started crying. "But I love him!"

"Are you saying that because you had a rocky past? I also heard from someone who knows you personally after it was revealed you were at his house that you got your ass handed to you after someone committed suicide from you virtually doing the same goddamn thing you did to Charlie when you were kids!"

"How did you know-"

"This city isn't that big, dearie. Anyway, I'm only telling you this because I hope there's a brain in that head of yours, but it's doubtful. Leave him alone. Let him be happy. He doesn't need you disrupting his life. Especially now that he's a father."

Peggy sulked. She wanted Charlie back with her badly, but she messed up and was now being looked at for stalking. She made a decision right then and there.

"I'll move on," she said, meekly.

"Good," said Lucy, smiling. "I've gotten in trouble with the law, myself. You don't want to go down that same road I did. I'm still on probation and have to report to my parole officer weekly! It's not worth it, Peggy."

"Okay, I'll leave Brownie- I mean Charlie alone."

"That's all he wants, Peggy. Now, if it'll help, I'll let him know that I talked to you and tell him that you agreed to leave him and Pat alone. If you truly care for him, and I know you do, you'll let them be." And Lucy kept going on her way to lunch to get a bite to eat. Peggy took in what Lucy had told her. She had a lot to weigh in. She decided to return to the hotel she had been staying at to weigh her options.

NEXT CHAPTER: WHERE THERE'S A "WILL", THERE'S A WAY