{"id":803,"date":"2014-05-16T04:16:56","date_gmt":"2014-05-16T04:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jenfrederick.com\/?p=803"},"modified":"2014-05-16T04:16:56","modified_gmt":"2014-05-16T04:16:56","slug":"charlotte-chronicles-xxix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/charlotte-chronicles-xxix\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlotte Chronicles XXIX"},"content":{"rendered":"

Missed an episode? New to the webseries? You can read the story so far right here.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Charlotte<\/em><\/span>

“So it\u2019s bitter party for one now?\u201d I ask. I shift on my feet wondering if I should leave or face him down. We\u2019re going to be thrown together because of language and age and\u00a0illness.<\/em>\u00a0If I turn tail and run, he\u2019ll needle me forever but I\u2019m not well equipped for this kind of fighting.<\/span>

\u201cI\u2019m a realist. Who\u2019s your tutor?\u201d<\/span>

“Reta Kielholz,\u201d I say stiffly feeling uptight and hating it as if I am horribly uncool. This famous boy has a way of making me feel awkward.\u00a0<\/span>

\u201cAh, she\u2019s got a tight \u2014<\/span>

I turn away abruptly. I don\u2019t know what he\u2019s going to say but I\u2019m positive it will be crude and demeaning. At that moment I don\u2019t care if he torments me until I leave. I\u2019m not staying another minute.<\/span>

\u201cWait, just wait, dammit.\u201d He shoots up from his chair, his tin of contraband spilling onto the floor as he reaches for me.He doesn\u2019t want me to leave and I reluctantly turn back.<\/span>

\u201cSit down. I won\u2019t say another word about her. Let\u2019s start over. Colin Matthews.\u201d His outstretched hand hangs between us.\u00a0<\/span>

“Or any other girl?\u201d I press.<\/span>

“Shit, why not.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>

\u201cCharlotte Randolph.\u201d I take his hand, but just the tips so he knows I don\u2019t trust him very much. He gestures for me to sit and I settle gingerly into the club chair opposite his. Colin\u2019s hair is long, unruly. I wonder if he\u2019s ever had it cut since it grew back. There\u2019s a long swoop that he pushes back to reveal his mother\u2019s famous blue eyes. \u201cDoes everyone call you Colin or do you have a nickname you go by?”<\/span>

“No, it\u2019s Colin. Why do you have a nickname?\u201d\u00a0<\/span>

“Everyone calls me Charlotte but my mom\u2019s friends all call her AM.”<\/span>

“Like the time?”<\/span>

“No, radio. Like AM\/FM radio.”<\/span>

“That\u2019s weird.\u201d He pulls out a pack of spearmint gum from his pocket and offers me one. It\u2019s a peace offering I guess.<\/span>

“Mom says its a life marker. High school people know her as AnnMarie but her best friend starting calling her AM for short and it stuck in college so you know how long people have known her by what they call her.\u201d I\u2019ve always thought was neat. Daddy calls her Sunshine sometimes but don\u2019t share that with Colin.<\/span>

“I\u2019m going to make up a nickname for you.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>

\u201cNo.\u201d I shake my head. “I don\u2019t like nicknames. My parents said that I\u2019ve always been adamantly against them. A person would try to use it and I would either cry or not respond.”<\/span>

“You\u2019ll like the nickname I give you.\u201d He smirks. I can\u2019t even imagine what horrible thing he\u2019d come up with. Colin is a weird mix of arrogance and uncertainty. I\u2019m intrigued against my better judgment. Nate would probably despise him though.<\/span>

\u201cIs this your second time here?\u201d\u00a0<\/span>

He holds up three fingers.<\/span>

“Three times? You look good. Really healthy.\u201d That is no lie. His face is full and his hair is shiny. He looks ruddy and built not the slender, gauntness that marks so many of us.\u00a0<\/span>

“Have to bulk up between bouts. Plus steroids and human growth hormones are considered appropriate treatment.\u201d He flexes and I see the outline of a biceps. He\u2019s not a muscular as Nathan or Nick but I give him a smile of approval. I don\u2019t want him to feel bad. Looking good is probably very important where he lives.\u00a0<\/span>

“I want to get better. I guess I\u2019d take anything at this point.\u201d \u00a0I\u2019m way underweight which is part of the reason I\u2019m here. His glowing health makes me envious.\u00a0<\/span>

“I figure I\u2019ll die before I\u2019m 18. I want to live as much as possible until then.”<\/span>

I don\u2019t know his situation so I don\u2019t give out the reassuring platitudes that adults reflexively offer. Maybe he will die before the age of eighteen. Sometimes I think you know this. That there\u2019s a place inside you that holds the truth of your future but only the brave or stupid or hopeless look. I\u2019m none of those things\u2026yet. “You\u2019d think with all these advancements they could make some elixir that would make us completely healthy in an instant.”<\/span>

Colin leans back and stares at the ceiling. “There\u2019s always a catch. Like if you took the elixir, you wouldn\u2019t be able to ever have sex again or it you\u2019d take 25 years off your life at the end of it. No one lives without paying a price for it.”<\/span>

Nathan<\/em><\/span>

Greta has taken to texting me repeatedly the next day, telling me she\u2019s so sorry about last night and how she was drunk and it was all an accident. At first, I agreed it was an accident but the more that she kept assuring me that it was, the more that she fucking would not leave me alone makes me wonder about her motivations. Nick told me to watch out and maybe I need to pay closer attention.\u00a0<\/span>

I haven\u2019t said a word to Charlotte about the picture and I regret. I should have brought it up first thing and that I hadn\u2019t makes me look like I\u2019m lying to her\u2014at least by omission. But what was I going to say?\u00a0<\/span>

Hey your weird friend fell on top of me and someone else took a picture. It\u2019s nothing?<\/em><\/span>

That sounded like I was trying to concoct a cover up as well.\u00a0<\/span>

The photo\u2019s already being passed around. It gets sent to me by about four different people.\u00a0<\/span>

\u201cWhat\u2019d Charlotte say about the picture?\u201d Nick asks. I told him I wasn\u2019t interested in another party so we\u2019re playing a video game.<\/span>

\u201cI didn\u2019t tell her,\u201d I admit.\u00a0<\/span>

He glares at me and then closes his eyes. \u201cYou\u2019re determined to fuck this up aren\u2019t you?\u201d\u00a0<\/span>

\u201cShut up,\u201d I snap back. The whole thing is giving me a headache the size of Lake Michigan. \u201cIt\u2019s no big deal. I\u2019ll talk to her in the morning.” If I stay up late enough, I can catch her when she wakes up and I\u2019ll explain everything. Greta\u2019s weirdness. The photo setup. Everything.\u00a0<\/span>

\u201cJust remember that it\u2019s not just your relationship that will get screwed. It\u2019s my friendship. It\u2019s our families\u2019 connections.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>

\u201cYeah, I got it.\u201d The steel in my voice sinks in and Nick stops hassling me. But he\u2019s not wrong. If I hurt Charlotte, I hurt all of us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Missed an episode? New to the webseries? You can read the story so far right here.   Charlotte“So it\u2019s bitter…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-charlotte-chronicles","charlotte-chronicles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenfrederick.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}