Part 3 – Love And Theft

Chapter 1

September. Again. School had begun again a few weeks before, at McKinley High, and many things had changed, from the previous year.
The school bell rang at the end of the lesson, and Sam and Blaine got out of the classroom, heading towards their lockers.
"So, are you regretting persuading Kurt to move to New York?" Sam asked his friend.
"Absolutely not!" answered Blaine. "It has always been his dream, and I helped him achieving it!"
"And... how is he?"
"He's doing great! We call each other almost every day, and he always keeps me up to date with his life, and Rachel's... It's just that he told me that recently something strange is going on..."
"What?"
"You remember Charlie, the girl who came here a year ago, don't you? Well, Kurt told me that since a few weeks, when he tries to call her, she doesn't pick up the phone, or she immediately hangs up, as she sees his number! Or sometimes when she calls Kurt, she hangs up immediately, as she hears his voice!"
"That's weird! Why does she do that?"
"If I knew where she is right now, I would ask her..."
The two boys went separate ways. While heading towards his locker, Blaine walked past the auditorium. He heard music coming from it, and, driven by curiosity, he decided to go and glance.

Tina was alone, in the middle of the stage, illuminated by a dim light. The music started, and the light grew. After a few seconds of instrumental music, she started to sing.

Tina:
"Loving him is like driving a new Maserati down a dead end street,
Faster than the wind, passionate as sin, ending so suddenly…"

She was thinking about Mike, the boy she had dumped that very summer.
She turned towards one of the side scenes, from which Charlie came out. The girl started to sing with Tina.

Charlie:
"Loving him is like trying to change your mind
Once you're already flying through the free fall,
Like the colors in autumn,
So bright just before they lose it all…"

Both:
"Losing him was blue like I'd never known,
Missing him was dark gray, all alone,
Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you never met…
But loving him was red…
Loving him was red…"

Both were thinking about someone they had madly fallen in love with, someone who they were trying to forget.

Tina:
"Touching him was like realizing all you ever wanted was right there in front of you,
Memorizing him was as easy as knowing all the words to your old favorite song…"

Charlie:
"Fighting with him was like trying to solve a crossword
And realizing there's no right answer,
Regretting him was like wishing you never found out love could be that strong!"

Both:
"Losing him was blue like I'd never known,
Missing him was dark gray, all alone,
Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you've never met…
But loving him was red…"

Tina:
"Oh red…,"

Charlie:
"Burning red…"

In the meantime, Blaine was looking at the two girls from the audience. They couldn't see him, because the audience was almost completely in the dark, and they were too focused on the song they were singing.

Tina:
"Remembering him comes in flashbacks and echoes…"

Charlie:
"Tell myself it's time now, gotta let go,
But moving on from him is impossible…"

Both:
"When I still see it all in my head…
In burning red!"

Charlie:
"Burning, it was red!"

Both of them wanted to forget someone that had been very important to them, but it was almost impossible!

Both:
"Oh, losing him was blue like I'd never known,
Missing him was dark gray, all alone,
Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you've never met…
Cause loving him was red…"

Tina:
"Yeah, yeah, red…"

Charlie:
"Burning red!"

Tina:
"And that's why he's spinning around in my head…"

Charlie:
"Comes back to me in burning red…"

Both:
"Yeah, yeah…
Loving him is like driving a new Maserati down a dead end street…"

The two girls smiled and hugged each other. They were happy they had finally managed to sing together.
"Very good, 'Warblerette'!" said a voice coming from the audience.
Charlie looked towards the direction that the voice had come from. After a few seconds she recognized Blaine, who was coming towards the stage, applauding her.
When, a few years before, Charlie had attended Dalton Academy, she was a member of the 'Warblers', the Glee club of that school, together with Blaine and Joe. She was famous for having been the first and only girl to be a member of the club, but no one had ever addressed her using the nickname Blaine had just given her.
"Why is there always someone hiding and spying on me, every time I sing, appearing out of nowhere at the end of the song, scaring the hell out of me?" said Charlie, ironically.
She was right, though: many times she had been caught singing, revealing some secret. It had happened two years before, when Tina, Artie and Mercedes had first discovered that Charlie was actually a girl; another time, when Charlie was still attending Dalton Academy, she was caught by her friend Joe singing with her real voice a song about a boy she was madly in love with, whom she couldn't speak of.
"What are you doing here?" Blaine asked. "On the run again?"
Before Charlie could answer, Tina drew her attention.
"I've got to go to class!" she told her. "See you later, Charlie!"
The girl waved back, and then got off the stage, to get closer to Blaine.
"You know Kurt isn't here, don't you?" the boy told her.
"I know," said Charlie. "I read it on Facebook!"
Blaine's attention got caught by a dark blue suitcase, left in front of the first row of seats.
"Tell me you're not serious..." he said. "Do you really want to drop everything and go away?"
"Do I have other options?" Charlie asked. "I've wanted to see the world for a very long time, but not with a non-stop moving!"
"Are you insane? And how are you going to travel? By foot?"
"No, with some makeshift means... and with the money I... took..."
"Don't tell me you stole it..."
"I just borrowed some money from my mother... She does nothing with it!"
"Why are you in such a hurry to leave?"
"My house is a living Hell... I'm not going back there! And then, if I went back, I would face again the non-stop moving, the city changing, losing my friends, and people who just tolerate me..."
"You have withstood for eighteen years... Would it be so difficult to bear all this, until your graduation? You might need a certificate, in the future..."
Charlie thought about it for a few seconds.
"You're right," she said. "It won't be so difficult to keep surviving for a few months! And then, thinking about it, I could have stolen more money!"
"What are you going to do, then?"
"I'm going to stay here, for a few days! I'm going to stay at Kurt's, since his parents already know me... It will be great to breathe for a while, before going back to Hell..."
Later, Blaine brought Charlie in the choir room, at the Glee club meeting. Just like the previous year, the girl noticed many new faces in the room. Every week, Mr. Schuester gave to the students a theme for the songs they would have sung during the whole week. That time, the theme was 'love songs'.

Hi, readers!
This chapter is the first one of the last part of this story. Here, we see Charlie trying to run away from home, but she really needs to think twice about this crazy idea...
In this chapter, you can also see the only duet in this story (I would have rendered it better using colors, but I didn't have them in the editor of this website), which is "Red", by Taylor Swift. I hope you liked it!
I hope you're enjoying this story. If so, I would be very happy if you left me a comment, or a message: you probably ignore it, but it would help me very much! :)