Behind the Veil
a fanfiction by Emma

Chapter Ten

Winter
December
Christmas

It's cold outside. Very. Very, cold.

I don't like the cold.

See, I would stay inside, but then I'd just starve to death. Since I can't even make cereal! Heck, every time I try and pour a glass of milk, half of the milk still ends up on the floor! That's the reason I hardly buy any groceries, so I don't waste my low, low pay as cashier in the Grocery Store, I use it to buy food to eat at Charlotte's.

That just happened to be where I was now.

"How has your day been?" I asked Charlotte with a grunt.

"Well, I serve people, the people eat, I clean up for the people, and they pay me." Charlotte said, "It's really quite simple."

"I still don't understand why I can't work here with you. It would be much more simpler." I said.

"I told you," Charlotte said, with annoyed tone, "I don't need any help!"

"This place is packed!" I cried, turning to look at all the full table.

"After doing it for about six years, I think I can keep up." Charlotte whispered in my face.

I sucked in a breath silently as she got closer to me. Sometimes, I was afraid, that if she got too close, I would have an urge to kiss her again. No offense to Charlotte, but I really don't want that happenening.

"Fine." I sighed, I turned around on the stool, and threw a twenty dollar bill on the counter, "I gotta go anyways." I said.

"Hey, Chad wait," Charlotte said, hopping over the counter, "Christmas is coming up."

"Don't remind me . . ." I mumbled quietly.

"What was that?" Charlotte asked.

"Nothing, continue." I sighed.

"Well, I really don't have anyone to celebrate Christmas with this year – or usually any year for that matter, I usually just work all day, so people can have a nice Christmas brunch. But, I was wondering if you would like to come over on Christmas morning, you could stay, eat supper?"

I took a shaky breath, and stuffed my hands into my pockets, "Do I have to get you anything?" I asked.

"It would be appreciated." she said with a small wink.

"I . . . I guess. But, why don't you come to my house? You really have only been there once, and . . . that day didn't go too well." I said with a raspy laugh.

Charlotte smiled, "Your house? Well, okay. I'll bring over food to cook – since you obviously can't."

"Whatever." I scoffed, "I'll just see you then, Christmas morning, ten o'clock?"

"Sure. See yah then, Cooper." Charlotte said waving to me.

I gave her a weak smile and walked out of the diner.

Great, now I have to buy a tree.

"Are you sure they're going to like me?" Sonny asked me, holding my hand tightly.

"Certain, you're a very likeable person, Sonny." I promised, kissing her cheek.

She smiled at me, that smile I loved. That smile I missed. I took her hand and lead into my parents huge mansion.

"Mom! Dad!" I called, "We're here!"

My Mom appeared around the corner and smiled at the sight of Sonny.

"You must be Sonny Munroe," she said happily, "My son just can't stop talking about you!"

"Mom!" I whined.

Sonny giggled, "It's okay, Chad," she said, then she turned to my Mom, "I can't stop talking about him either."

Mom gave her another huge smile, "Come on, dinners just gotten finished, let's go sit down at the table, shall we?" she said, linking arms with Sonny and taking her into the dining room.

My Dad was in the living room, in his finest suit.

"Hello, you must be Sonny," he said, holding out his hand, that Sonny shook, "I'm Clyde, Clyde Dylan Cooper, and this is my lovely wife, Clarissa Danielle Cooper."

"I now see where the 'CDC' came from," Sonny said with a laugh.

Mom and Dad laughed along with her. Good, they liked her, but then again – who couldn't like Sonny?

"What are we having for supper?" Sonny asked, as I held out her chair for her. Then going over to my chair.

"Ham, potatoes, the usual Christmas dinner." Mom said, as Dad helped her into her seat.

"Sounds delicious." Sonny commented with her bright smile.

Suddenly, my parents beautiful dining room, that shone brightly, seemed to burn down into a black mess, and the table started to wobble. Though my parents OR Sonny didn't seem to notice anything.

"Uh . . . guys–" I started to say.

"So, Sonny . . . you seem to like my son a lot . . . do you love him a lot?" Mom asked.

"Actually, no. I hate your son, I don't love him at all. I'm only here to break his heart." Sonny said, turning to me and staring at me hard in the face. It was intimidating, so intimidating it was hard to look at her.

Then he started laughing, a laugh that wasn't her own, it was far off. It was evil, and cold. It was a laugh I didn't recognize at all.

I closed my eyes, and plugged my ears, trying to drown out the laughter, but the second I covered my ears, the laughter grew louder, making it ring in my eyes.

"Now, now Chad, it's not polite to cover your ears during supper." my Mother said, coming behind me and forcing my hands off my ears.

My Mother wasn't ever the strongest person, but now she had the iron grip, almost breaking my fingers as she pried them away from my ears.

Sonny was still laughing, as the rain started from nowhere, then the thunder, then the lightening.

There was a flash, and suddenly, Sonny wasn't Sonny . . . she was Charlotte, Charlotte wasn't laughing, she was staring at my intently from across the table, but the laughter still came through the air.

"I ... moved here when I was eighteen." Charlotte said to me.

"What, I . . . uh . . ." I started to say.

"You need to get over it! Because she's not here! She's not here Chad! You're n-not near h-her!" Charlotte continued to say.

"Wait, Charlotte . . . what are you talking about?" I asked her.

"Chad, I don't know why I look like S-Sonny, I've n-never noticed it before, but I do, and you've apparently noticed."

Then I realized something.

"Chad, I-I'm not–"

"You were ... close to Tawni Hart?"

"Well, if you think about it she probably is with someone else."

These were memories. These were actual things Charlotte said to me.

But, why? Why were they so important.

I bolted upright in bed, panting.

I sighed, holding my head in my hands. I hated my nightmares. They had quieted down over the past couple of years, but they were still bad. And whenever they happened, I felt defeated.

I had night terrors. True story. I bolt up screaming, and my Mother would run into my room, trying to hold me tight, to calm me down, but I would just thrash around in bed, swatting my hands everywhere, until Mom just had to leave. Though, when I was 18 my Mom finally helped me get rid of them. I would have to get up at three o'clock AM, when the night terrors would usually start. I would just sit in my bed, and stare at the walls until five, when my night terrors would usually end, and I would go back to sleep until seven. Then I got medication, and they went away.

I looked at the time now, it was getting close to seven o'clock, so I got up and took my shower, dressing in black dress pants, and a blue dress shirt. By then it was almost nine o'clock, so I sat down on my couch, and flipped around on the TV until Charlotte arrived.

An hour or so later, I was still lounging on my couch, when the doorbell rang, I jumped up and walked over, letting Charlotte in.

"Hey." she said, "Point the way to the kitchen, this stuff is heavy."

In her hands she had a huge ham, a plastic bags with potatoes, and another bag with vegetables and things.

"Why didn't you just drive down here?" I asked.

"Because you live a block away from the diner, and I don't feel like wasting gas, and killing our planet." Charlotte said, as she dropped everything down on my table with a loud bang.

"Um . . . that's a lot of food." I pointed out.

"Okay, I have a plan. First I'll cook, then we eat, and then we'll open the presents."

"Presents?"

"Chad! Don't tell me you forgot a present!" Charlotte whined.

I laughed, "Calm down, I was just playing with you."

Charlotte pouted slightly, "Not funny."

I only smiled.

So we followed Charlotte's plan, she cooked, (note the word she, as in I didn't!)We ate, and then we sat down on the floor next to my bare tree.

"Your tree is bare." Charlotte said, pointing at it.

I laughed nervously, "Haha, yeah . . ."

"How come?" she asked.

"Why don't you just open your present!" I said, shoving the small box into her hands.

She smiled and took the box from my hands, she ripped the paper off, and opened it up, and gasped. She took out the small necklace I had bought very cheap. – Let's just not tell her that part.

"Oh Chad . . ." she whispered, "It's beautiful. Thank you"

I shrugged, "I didn't really didn't know what to get you, so I just walked into that jewelry store, and I saw it. It just kinda screamed you," I said, "Oh, there's more."

"More?" she asked looking down into the box, then she laughed, taking out the piece of paper, "A coffee gift certificate. Thanks"

"Since you're a caffeine addict."

She only laughed again, "Okay, now here's yours."

I took the package from her hands and started to rip the paper off, it was a picture, of us. It was about . . . I don't know, a couple weeks ago. I smiled at it, we were just sitting casually on a park bench.

"Do you like it?" Charlotte asked, "I know it's pretty simple, but . . ."

"No, it's great. I love it, thank you."I said, putting it onto the coffee table.

"Are you going to answer my question now?" she asked, looking at me.

"What question?" I asked. Though I knew exactly what she was talking about.

"My question. You know. Why is your tree so blank?"

"Well . . ."I cleared my throat, "I only got it . . . like three days ago."

"You only got it three days ago?" Charlotte said in surprise, "Why?"

"Because . . . I . . ." I started, but then I stopped. I really didn't want to tell her.

"Because. . .?" she urged me.

I sighed, "Because, I don't like Christmas!"

"What?" she cried, "You don't like Christmas?"

"No." I answered simply.

"Why not?" she asked.

"Because . . . well . . ." I started, "Because . . . it was Sonny's favourite holiday."

"Oh . . ." Charlotte said breathlessly.

"She brought the Sunny to Christmas." I whispered.

"Chad, you really need to talk about this with someone." Charlotte said.

"What?" I asked, turning my head to look at her.

"A therapist, we could find you a therapist." she suggested.

No, I thought, shaking my head.

"Or, some sort of Doctor, to help you with depression, you just need some–"

"NO!" I yelled, causing Charlotte to gasp.

"Why not?" she yelled back at me.

"Because I–!" I stopped myself and lowered my voice, "Because I don't want help." I said more quietly.

"You need help though." Charlotte whispered to me.

"I'm doing fine on my own. Besides, aren't you the one who said, 'I'll give you time, and when you want to talk about it, I'll be right here.'?" I said, making my voice go higher, when I was imitating Charlotte.

"Yes, I-I was, I just didn't think it would take this long!" Charlotte protested.

"It's taken me eight years to tell you how much I told you!" I said, "It's probably going to take longer for me to tell you everything!"

We were now both on our feet.

"Yeah, just tell me, in like twenty years!" Charlotte yelled, "That's just GREAT!"

"GOOD!"

"GOOD!"

"FINE!"

"FINE!"

I let out a breath as I turned to the wall and lied my arms against it, then I turned around.

"Chad . . ." Charlotte started softly, "Have you ever . . . cried?"

I stared at her like she was crazy, "Yeah, when I was like, two seconds old."

"No, I mean . . . have you ever cried over Sonny?"

I decided not to tell her about the time I broke down when I kissed her.

"Well . . . no." I said.

"Well maybe that's what you need, is to cry."

I'm not going to cry." I said, sitting down on my couch.

"Maybe not now . . . but . . . maybe, soon, you will need to. Sometimes to get rid of feelings, you need to . . . cry." Charlotte explained.

"That may work for you females, but me – being a male – doesn't cry over a break up. Especially one that happened eight years ago." I said.

Charlotte put her hand on my shoulder, "Chad, it doesn't matter what gender you are. If you need to cry. Cry."

I looked into her eyes, her glasses, she was wearing her glasses, but behind the glasses I saw . . . that brown. The brown I thought no one else could possibly have.

We started leaning towards each other, our noses brushed each others, I saw Charlotte close her eyes, as if she was expecting what was going to happen next.

I backed away fast, I . . . just couldn't.

"Every year," I started, to gain Charlotte's attention, "I would buy Sonny two things for Christmas. A charm for this charm bracelet her Mom gave her, and a bouquet of red roses, she would expect it every year, but she would love it just the same." I said.

Charlotte looked at me with sad eyes, she didn't understand.

"About three weeks after she left, Tawni gave me a package. She didn't tell me who it was from, she said I would know once I opened it. I did. Inside the package were the two bracelet charms I had given her. I still have them."

"Why?" Charlotte asked softly.

"Because," my lip started quivering, but I bit it hard, "It's the only thing I have left of her."

That's when I lost it, I buried myface into my lap, and broke down like a three year old who had just lost his bag of gummy bears.

I felt Charlotte's arms close around me, giving me soft mumblings into my ear, and comforting me.

It felt like Sonny was holding me.

But it just wasn't the same.

Authors Note:
Here is the long awaited chapter! AND, it just happens to be the LONGEST chapter I've EVER written! Seriously, it's insane!

Thank you for waiting a long time for this! But NOW, this is the story I'm focusing on, so I should be getting chapters up faster!

I seriously don't know how many more chapters of this story there will be, but hopefully 5-8 more? Hopefully! :)

Don't forget to review!