Thank you to everyone who took the time to review the first chapter of my new story. It will take a while for Charlie and Joey to be on the same page again but I hope you enjoy their journey back to each other! Tomorrow will probably be my last update for a few days but I will get back to you when I can. I hope you enjoy this chapter - Charlie and Joey are both seeking solace in the bottom of a bottle. Or five. Love, IJKS xxx
Chapter Two
Charlie arrived home barely able to keep herself together. She'd turned away from Joey's new house and headed back down to the docks where she had wept for hours. Now, with red eyes and a still trembling lip, she'd bought herself several bottles of wine. Now, she was planning on drinking herself silly.
"Charlie!" Ruby said desperately, leaping up from the couch. "Where have you been? Did you see Joey?"
"Yeah," Charlie replied miserably. "She hates me."
"Oh, come on. Of course she doesn't. She's just hurt that..."
"She told me she hates me," Charlie interrupted. "And I don't blame her."
"Well, what are you going to do about it?" Ruby asked.
Charlie merely shrugged in misery. Ruby stepped forward and gave her a cuddle.
"Charlie, I meant what I said earlier. You've got to fight for her. If you love her even half as much as you say you do, you have to prove yourself. You have to let her know exactly how sorry and regretful you are and then you have to win her back."
Charlie sighed, crumbling into a chair.
"How am I meant to do that, Rubes?"
Her little sister sat down on the edge of the sofa and held her hands.
"I don't know," she admitted. "But some kind of gesture is a start. I know it's tacky but... what about flowers or something like that? Or... I don't know... something really public! Let Joey and the whole world know how much you love her. Coming out loudly has got to help, hasn't it?"
She grinned, clearly getting excited about the idea of Charlie winning the love of her life back.
"Okay," Charlie agreed anxiously. "But I have a lot of wine to drink before the night's through so I'd better get started."
She moved towards the kitchen in order to pour her first glass. Worried, Ruby followed her.
"Charles, do you think getting drunk is a good idea?"
Charlie popped the cork and poured a large glass, heading out onto the cool night air of the patio. Ruby followed.
"Charlie?"
"Yes?"
"I don't think getting drunk is good for you," she said.
"I disagree," Charlie replied. "I think it's a very good idea personally."
She sat back in a chair and took a large gulp. Vowing to keep her company, Ruby sat beside her.
Joey was all moved in and very grateful to Aden for his help.
"No problem," he said, stretching himself out on her bed. "It's not like I have much else to do."
Joey sighed and perched on the desk chair, pulling it up beside the mattress. Belle was still in rehab and her face was being constantly flashed on the front page of the local paper for a supposed affair with bad boy rock star, Liam Murphy.
"Women, hey?"
"Yep!"
"Hey, why don't we go and get wasted?" the former deckhand suggested.
Tempted, Aden raised an eyebrow. Joey leapt to her feet, announcing that it was a night out on her so that she could thank him for his help and support.
"A free night of beer?" he asked, sitting up quickly. "I'm in!"
Grinning, she headed out the house. As nice as the girls she'd moved in with seemed, she hadn't seen hide nor hair of them all day and she wasn't sure how friendly they were going to be. Still, she had Aden and that was enough for now.
"Ooh, we could be totally classy and get pissed on the beach with a few six packs!"
Aden laughed.
"Wait... how drunk are getting?"
"We won't even remember it in the morning," Joey declared, stepping out onto the street and closing the door behind them. "And if I'm really lucky, I can blot out the last few months completely."
Aden put his arm around her and they walked to the bottle shop together.
Ruby was on soft drinks and Charlie had consumed two bottles of wine all to herself.
"Are we having a party?" Leah asked when she arrived home.
"A really tragic one," Ruby commented.
The drunker Charlie got, the more she slurred and the more she slurred, the more she whimpered about losing the love of her life. Ruby was sympathetic but frustrated that as usual, Charlie seemed to think that the answer to her problems were in the bottom of a bottle. Last time she'd got trashed like that, she'd cheated on Joey and slept with Hugo. And the time before that, she'd wound up in bed with Angelo. Drowning her sorrows was definitely not a good idea.
"You got that right," Charlie moaned. "I'm fucking tragic."
She opened another bottle of wine. Leah and Ruby exchanged worried glances and the Diner owner pulled up a chair to join them.
"Can I have a glass?" she asked.
"Go for your life," Charlie slurred. "I've got five more bottles."
"Five?" Leah and Ruby exclaimed loudly, making her jump.
Then she burst into tears.
Joey was also extremely inebriated, crashed out on the beach with Aden. Her drunken giggles were masking the deep set pain she was in over Charlie and she wondered if she could constantly drink herself into oblivion and forget her ex-girlfriend forever. Every time she thought about what Charlie had done and how badly she had hurt her, she felt physically unwell. Her heart sank time and again and she thought it would end up in her feet at some point. Sitting up, Joey gazed out at the water. A slurring Aden mirrored her position and sighed heavily. She turned to face her friend.
"What are you thinking?" she asked.
"Not much," he lied. "I'm a bit drunk."
They both grinned at each other.
"I can't seem to get Belle off my mind," he admitted.
"Do you think you guys will be able to work it out?" Joey asked.
He sighed again.
"I doubt it," he said unhappily. "I mean, why would she want to be with me when she's got a rock star after her?"
"Because she loves you," Joey replied without missing a beat.
He smiled and hugged her.
"I let her down, Joey," he sighed, keeping his arm around her.
She leant on his shoulder.
"I abandoned her when she needed me."
"But I'm sure she understands that," Joey said.
On the afternoon before she and Charlie had got together for real, Aden had poured his heart out to Joey about Belle's drug addiction, his father's alcohol abuse and its consequences. He had even shared the facts about what had happened during his childhood with his granddad.
"Maybe," Aden mused. "But would that be enough? Do you understand why Charlie did what she did?"
Joey pulled away from him and downed the rest of her beer.
"I don't want to talk about her," she said firmly.
Ruby held onto Charlie as she wept. Leah had gone to get some tissues and an extra wine glass. She returned and put her arm around the police officer's other shoulder.
"She hates me!" Charlie sobbed. "She was so fragile and so beautiful. She gave me everything she had and I just trampled all over her heart. I hate myself..."
Ruby kissed the top of her head.
"It'll be okay, Charlie," she said. "We'll make it better."
"How?" Charlie asked desperately. "She's never going to give me another chance. And nor should she. I don't bloody deserve one."
"Listen to me," Ruby said sternly, forcing Charlie to lift her face. "You and Joey belong together. I might not have taken the news quite so well at the beginning. I'll be the first to admit that. But having lived with you these last two weeks and seen how happy you were, I know you can get through it. I've never seen you like this about anyone before, Charlie. Every boyfriend has generally only brought you pain. But Joey loves you so completely. She worships the ground you walk on. And you feel the same, don't you?"
Charlie nodded.
"You're perfect for each other," Ruby continued confidently. "And two people who love each other and fit together the way that you to do could never be apart for too long. You let her down and you broke her heart. But you can mend it. You can make this better."
"You really think so?" Charlie asked weakly.
"I'm sure of it," Ruby confirmed.
"Me too," Leah added.
Charlie gazed at her.
"Everything Ruby said is right," Leah explained. "You two were the perfect couple. You made a ridiculous mistake but that's really all it was. A blip. You'll get over it and get back together. I'm sure of it."
"Jo, isn't Charlie the whole reason we're out here tonight?" Aden asked.
"No," Joey said. "I'm thanking you for your help and I'm celebrating moving out and gaining some independence from the likes of bitches like Charlie Buckton and bastards like my brother."
"Not drowning your sorrows in a bid to mend your broken heart?"
She sighed and turned to look at him.
"Maybe a little bit," she admitted.
"So... why don't you talk to me about what's going on?"
"Because I don't know what to say."
"Well, how do you feel?"
Joey gazed out at sea and sighed heavily.
"Like I'm never going to be happy again," she told him honestly.
He put his arm around her again. She managed a somewhat bitter laugh and turned to look at him again.
"You know, it's a shame I'm a dyke really," she giggled. "I think you'd be the perfect boyfriend."
He laughed too, playing along.
"You bet I would!" he said. "You and I would be totally hot together."
Grinning, she leant in and kissed him.
"Okay, I think I'm going to go to bed," Charlie said, standing up and promptly falling over.
Ruby and Leah rushed to her aid. She had a bloody knee but was laughing rather manically.
"Let's get you patched up, okay?" Leah said kindly.
They just about managed to carry Charlie into the house and plonk her down on the sofa. Ruby stayed with her while Leah rushed off to get a plaster.
"I think I'm going to call her," Charlie decided.
"No!" Ruby said quickly.
Charlie looked like she was about to cry again.
"Not when you've been drinking," Ruby said more gently. "Wait until the morning, okay?"
Charlie nodded but secretly hadn't quite changed her mind.
"Anything?" Aden asked with a smirk when he and Joey parted.
She pulled a face and shook her head.
"Okay, that wasn't my best work," he said. "You caught me by surprise."
He cleared his throat and proposed that they try again. Joey let him take the lead and kiss her.
"How about now?" he asked, mostly joking but also a little hopeful.
Joey was one of the loveliest girls he ever met, although he knew that they would only be friends.
"Sorry," Joey sighed. "Looks like we're both stuck with loving other girls."
"Oh, so you do still love her?" he nudged.
Her expression became sharp again.
"I hate her and I never want to see her again," she insisted.
Both of them knew she was lying.
Ruby had tucked Charlie into bed, having first made her drink a pint of water and then put a bucket by her bed. She'd turned off her phone and shut it in a drawer, hoping that if Charlie didn't see it then it wouldn't occur to her to phone Joey like she wanted to. Kissing her forehead and wishing her a good night without a hangover in the morning, the teenager left and shut the door behind her. The moment she was gone, Charlie dug her phone out and dialled.
Joey and Aden were flat on their backs in the sand, studying the stars.
"Okay, that one's a bucket and spade," Aden decided.
"How?" Joey asked incredulously.
"Look, there's the handle."
"Nuh uh," Joey objected.
They began to squabble before they were interrupted but Joey's phone ringing. A little clumsily, Joey pulled her mobile out of her pocket and frowned at Charlie's name. Her heart pounded a little harder as she wondered whether she ought to answer or not.
"Go on..." Aden urged, knowing exactly who was making his friend's phone sing a Katy Perry song. "And by the way, you're such a cliché."
She poked her tongue out and then answered the phone a little giddily.
"What?" she snapped.
"Joey?" came Charlie's meek reply.
"Who were you expecting?" Joey asked, slurring a little. "Wait, did you ring the wrong number? Did you mean to ring your boyfriend?"
"Joey... please can we talk?" Charlie asked, tearful again.
"What do you think we're doing now?" Joey challenged.
"Well, mostly you're snapping at me."
On her bed, in the dark, Charlie let silent tears roll down her cheeks and falling into her hair.
"What, and you think you don't deserve it?" Joey asked bitterly.
Beside her, Aden silently encouraged her to be nicer but she was too hurt. She ignored him.
"Anyway," she said. "What do you want? I'm busy."
"What... what are you doing?" Charlie asked hesitantly.
"Well, it's none of your business really but I'm partying with Aden on the beach."
Aden snorted and lay back on the sand, watching the stars again.
"Partying?" Charlie asked quietly.
"Yep," Joey said. "We're joyfully celebrating a fresh start away from all the hurt and pain people have put me through over the last few months."
Charlie tried to swallow but the lump in her throat ached too much.
"I even kissed him," Joey added. "Twice."
Aden sat up, his eyes wide, wondering why Joey felt the need to tell her that. But they both knew she was just trying to hurt the woman who had hurt her.
"You... you kissed Aden?" Charlie asked, her heart breaking all over again.
"Yeah, it was good too," Joey lied. "Best kiss I've ever had."
Aden looked outraged and tried to take the phone from her. This conversation wasn't going to do anyone any good. He could already picture Charlie charging round to deck him.
"Okay," Charlie said weakly. "I guess... I guess I'll let you get back... um... back to your... your party."
"Sorry, has that hurt your feelings?" Joey asked coldly.
Charlie couldn't even bring herself to respond.
"Well, if you think me kissing a guy after we've split up hurts, then imagine how I feel knowing what you did," Joey said.
Then she hung up.