George - Chapter Three: The Past, Present, and Future - Part Two

A couple notes:

- This chapter is long, so I broke it up into two parts.

- If you've read any of my other two parters, you'll know that they have a TON of pictures. Same thing with this one. :)
- Language warning

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As Charlotte talked to Mom, Trev and I sat on the couches, watching and listening.

“How do you think Mom’s doing?” Trev asked.

“I’m guessing that she’s relieved that Charlotte is okay but she’s probably in shock right now. She told me more than once that she feared that Charlotte was dead. Mom’s pretty resilient though, I mean she’s dealing with Dad’s death and has even turned his death into something positive by opening the art gallery in his name. She’ll be fine with this, eventually.”

“How are you?”

I sighed. “I’m okay. I’m still trying to process that this is really happening. I mean, I keep looking at her wondering if she’s really here.” We both looked at Charlotte and watched her. She had started crying several times and I could tell that the conversation that she and Mom were having was an emotional one. I almost wish I had been able to be with Mom when she got this phone call but I was sure she’d either call or go see Uncle Jeff once she got off the phone with Charlotte which made me feel better.

I was surprised when Charlotte walked over to me and handed me the phone. “She wants to talk to you.” I took the phone and stood up.

“Hey, Mom.”

“You knew she was okay and didn’t tell me?” This was the part I had dreaded.

“Yeah, I know, Mom. I didn’t want to tell you before I talked to her myself.”

I heard her sigh. “I can’t believe it! She’s really there? Does she look okay?”

“She’s fine, Mom.”

“What does she look like?”

I looked over at Charlotte and smiled. “She has shorter blonde hair, not short, just shorter than before. I mean she looks pretty much like she did when we were eighteen; just taller and older.” I smiled big at Charlotte and she rolled her eyes.

“She looks like she’s eating well?”

“Yes, she’s eating.” Charlotte started chuckling.

“Okay, well try to convince her to come home soon. Try to convince both of them to come home soon.”

“Okay, I’ll try. Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m just shocked. I’m going to call Uncle Jeff after this and tell him.”

“I figured. Do you want to talk to anyone?”

“Put Trev on.”

I walked over to Trev. “Your turn.”

He grabbed the phone and I sat down.

“So what are you going to try?” Charlotte asked.

“Huh?”

“You told Mom you’d try”

“Oh, she wants both you and Trev to come home soon and wanted me to try to convince you.”

She started to look worried. “Charlotte, if you’re not ready, it’s fine. But eventually, you’re going to have to go home and face things. Make peace with the past. If you don’t do it, you’ll always be running from it.” 

She chuckled. “I should have known you’d be a psychologist. You’ve always tried to help people.” At her mentioning me helping people I thought about the girl I had helped earlier, Stephanie. I wondered what she was doing and if she was okay.

“Well, I’m glad that’s over.” Trev said as he sat down on the couch. “You were right, she seems like she’s shocked but sounds like she’ll be okay.” I nodded and looked over at Charlotte.

“So, you know what I’ve been up to, and you have to have known what Trev and Will have been up to; what have you been doing?” I asked her.

“Well, I’ve mostly been working in bars, serving drinks. Not as glamorous as Trev and Will and nothing as helpful to humanity as you, George, but it’s paid the bills and has even allowed to get my foot in the door to sing at some places.”

“What’s the place like that you work at now?”

“It’s nice. It’s one of the nicer bars or clubs that’s in Bridgeport. The guy that owns it is okay. He told me that I could start off serving and whenever a performer canceled or there was an open night I could sing. He’s been pretty good about keeping his promise. I’ve made several friends there, including a couple of the other servers.”

“Don’t forget about the bartender.” Trev added. Charlotte rolled her eyes at him.

“What about the bartender?” I asked.

“Trev seems to think that he likes me. Which couldn’t be farther from the truth. He hardly ever talks to me and when he does, he acts like he would rather be talking to anyone else besides me.”

“Yeah, but the way he looks at you when you’re not looking. . .I thought about going over to him and saying something to him.”

“Like you can talk! You almost hit on me!” Charlotte joked with him.

“Can we please forget that ever happened?” Trev said and looked like he was going to be sick.

“Anyway, even if he was interested, I’m not looking for love. All love ever brought Mom was heartache and I’m not going to go through that.”

I looked at Charlotte and couldn’t believe that she would purposely close of her heart to love because she thought it had brought Mom nothing but heartache. Mom had mentioned many times since Dad’s death that she was so fortunate to have had Dad in her life and she wouldn’t have traded one moment of her time with him. She would have rather had the short time she had with him than no time at all. This was one of those instances that the psychologist part of me had to be silenced by the brother part of me.  I looked over at Trev and he was shaking his head. I sighed and held my tongue.

“Where do you live?” I asked her.

“It’s not far from here. It’s about seven blocks from here. It’s next to a hot dog bun making factory. Not even close to being as nice as this place, but it’s a lot better than some of the other places I’ve lived in.” When she started talking about living next to the hot dog bun factory I froze. That girl Stephanie had lived in an apartment building next to a hot dog bun factory.

“The Doggie Dog Hot Dog Bun factory?” I asked her.

“Yeah, how do you know the name of the factory?” She wondered.

“I saw it earlier tonight. When I went out for a walk.”

“You walked that far? You couldn’t have possibly walked that far and back in the short time you were gone.” Charlotte argued.

I really didn’t want to go into the fact that I had helped a girl while I was out and that I had ended up there making sure she had gotten home okay. I looked up and they were both staring at me.

“What?” I asked.

“How did you end up there?” Trev asked.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“You might as well tell us, George. We’ll just pester you till you do.” Charlotte tried to convince me.

I gave in. “Fine, I was walking about four blocks from here and as I was walking past an alleyway I heard a guy and a girl fighting. He pushed her down and hit her, so I helped her. She was limping after that and I wanted to make sure she made it home okay and that’s where she told the cab driver to go. I guess she lives in the same apartment building as you.” I looked at Charlotte. Her mouth was hanging open. She blinked a couple times and then started laughing.

“You haven’t changed a bit! You’re still trying to help complete strangers!” She said while she laughed.

“Was she at least pretty?” Trev asked.

I rolled my eyes. “God Trev! A guy was getting ready to beat a girl and all you want to know is if she was pretty?”

“Well, I mean. . .I feel bad that the guy was treating her that way but, yeah. . .was she pretty?”

“Yes and she was young. I doubt she was even twenty.”

“Hey, as long as she is over eighteen, it’s okay!”

“Whatever, Trev. It doesn’t matter. I’ll probably never see her again.”

“Why not, I mean you could just go knock on every door in the apartment building till you find her.”

“Yeah, not that that wouldn’t be creepy. And anyway she didn’t seem all that appreciative that I helped her and for another thing, like I said, she’s too young.”

He shrugged. “So while you were talking with Mom, Charlotte, George and I talked about what we could all do tomorrow. You have to work tomorrow night, right?” She nodded. “So how about you spend the night here like we talked about and then tomorrow morning we’ll go out for breakfast and then tomorrow night George and I will come visit you at the bar.”

I looked over at Trev and gave him a look. “I won’t drink; I promise. And if I try, you have my permission to take me out back and kick the living shit out of me.” I still didn’t like the idea of him being in a bar but I had to admit that I was curious to see where Charlotte was working.

“Okay, but no drinks.”

“Yeah, yeah. I already said that.”

“That sounds good to me. What should we do right now?” Charlotte wondered.

“You know, I think I might have a copy of Star Wars. . .” Trev said and smiled. That had been our favorite movie when we were all younger. It was the only movie all of us could agree about watching.

“Okay, you can put it on but I get to say all of Leah’s lines, George, you can say all of Luke’s lines; and Trev, you do Han’s lines.” We had always chosen characters before the movie started and whoever we were was whose lines we said. If will had been there he probably would have gotten Obi wan’s lines or C3PO’s lines.

The rest of the night we spent watching Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. It had been a long time since I had laughed that hard and had so much fun. We eventually all went to bed and I slept like a log. I woke up to the sun streaming into the room and looked over at the clock. It was already 9:30. I couldn’t believe I had slept that late. I never slept past seven. I got out of bed and headed into the living room. I saw Charlotte sitting on the couch.

“Hey there, sleepy head.” She had always been a chipper morning person.

“Hi.” I mumbled.

“There’s coffee in the kitchen. Although it took me a while to brew it. Trev’s got one of those complicated, expensive coffee makers.”

I shuffled into the kitchen and as I poured a cup of coffee, Trev came walking in. “Pour me one, would you?”

I grabbed a cup and poured him a cup. We were both standing there drinking our coffee when Charlotte started laughing.

“What?” Trev asked.

“You too. You’re both just standing there, drinking coffee, looking like you’re about to fall over.”

“Well not all of us can be chipper morning people.” I complained to her.

“So are we going to stand around all day or are we going out for breakfast?” Charlotte asked. 

We all got ready and then headed to a restaurant nearby that Trev said had a great breakfast. He had been right. While we ate we continued to talk about what we had each been up to. Trev was actually off this weekend so he was able to hang with Charlotte and me. He talked about how his season was going and how he was doing physically. The years of playing college and pro football had taken a toll on his knees and he was due to have another knee surgery in the next year or two.

We finished breakfast and Trev and I said good bye to Charlotte. She had to go back to her place and get ready for work. Trev and I headed back to his place and for the rest of the afternoon, we played the Xbox and since it was a nice day, we sat on the terrace and talked.

We had decided to go out to dinner and then go to the bar where Charlotte worked. Trev wanted to go to one of the best restaurants in the city so we got dressed and headed out. The food at the restaurant was amazing and after we were done, we took a cab to the bar. As the cab slowed down, I looked at the building. It was a very modern looking building and didn’t look much like a bar to me.

As we got out of the cab I looked at Trev. “Is this it? It looks like a big concrete building?”

“Yeah, It doesn’t look like much on the outside. It’s what on the inside that counts.” He laughed and we headed over to an elevator. We got on and we went up three floors. The doors opened and I was shocked by how many people were waiting to get in. I had been out enough times with Trev to know that we weren’t going to have to wait to get in. He walked past all the people waiting, whispered something to the bouncer, slipped him some money, and in we went. Once we were inside I started looking around. It wasn’t the biggest bar I had seen but it was nice.

“Why don’t we go to the bar.” Trev suggested. I gave him a warning look. “What?! I’m not going to get a drink!” He protested.

“Fine.” We walked over to the bar and had a seat. A guy with dark hair and a beard walked over to us.

“Hey, you’re Charlotte’s brother, aren’t you?” He asked Trev.

“Yeah, I was in here a couple nights ago. I’m Trevor.” He motioned with his head. “This is George. He’s our brother who’s visiting this weekend.”

“I’m Ethan. So is that it? Or are there more siblings?”

“We have another brother he’s my twin. George and Charlotte are twins too.”

“Wow, I didn’t know she had any siblings, let alone a twin. She doesn’t talk about herself much. So, can I get you guys a drink?” I looked over at Trev and he rolled his eyes.

“I’ll have a Coke.” He gloomily said. Ethan looked at me. “I’ll have the same.” He walked away and Trev immediately started talking.

“That’s the bartender that is interested in Charlotte. Whenever she comes around you’ll have to watch how he looks at her.” Just as if she heard us, she appeared next to Trev.

“Hey! Did Ethan help you guys?” I was about to respond when I noticed what she was wearing. She had on an outfit that I wasn’t thrilled that my sister was wearing, but what shocked me even more was that I had seen that outfit before.

“What’s with you George?” She asked.

“That outfit you have on, I’ve seen it before.”

“I don’t see how, George. You’ve never been here before so there’s no way you’ve seen it before. It’s what all the servers here wear.”

“No! I’m telling you I’ve seen that outfit before.”

“I need a Sex on the Beach and a dry martini, Ethan.” I heard a server say next to me. I immediately recognized the voice. The outfit, the voice. . .I looked over and was looking right at the girl I had helped just the night before, Stephanie. I stood there staring at her, frozen with disbelief. She stood there tapping her foot as she waited for the drinks and then looked down at her notepad. She looked back up and slowly turned her head in my direction and our eyes finally met. We kept standing there staring at each other, both shocked that we were seeing each other.

“Hello! Earth to Steph! You’re drinks are ready.” Ethan started knocking on the bar and Stephanie snapped out of her staring and looked over at Ethan. “Oh, sorry. Thanks!” She grabbed the drinks and hurried away.

“What the hell was that about?” Trev asked. “I mean she’s cute, George but you both couldn’t stop staring at each other.”

I sat back down and tried to process what had just happened. I hated to admit it, but I had wondered what the girl I had helped actually did. That guy Tony kept talking about her “customers” and with the way she was dressed, I had wondered if she was a prostitute. I then started wondering if guys around the city were looking at Charlotte the same way. I wasn’t too thrilled about that.

“George!” Charlotte yelled at me. “Snap out of it!” I looked over at her. “What the hell?”

“Do you know her?” I asked Charlotte.

“Yeah, that’s Steph. We started working here around the same time. She’s nice. She lives in my apartment building and we hang out sometimes. . .” Her eyes got huge. “Oh my God! Is she the girl that you helped yesterday?!”

At that point Trev was looking at me and his mouth was hanging open. “Is she?” he asked.

I didn’t even have time to answer before Stephanie had walked back over to us. “Can I talk to you for a minute?” I looked at her and nodded. “Ethan, I’m taking my fifteen minute break right now.”

“Okay, but be back in fifteen.” He warned and looked strangely at us.

“Follow me.” She said and I followed her through a set of doors and then down a small hallway that led to another doorway. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be in this part of the bar since it seemed to be where only employees went, but I was much too interested in what Stephanie had to say to care for very long.

We walked out a doorway and I immediately recognized where we were. We were in the alleyway that I had seen Tony and her fighting in.

She had her back to me and I was about to comment on the fact that this was the alleyway that I had met her in when she whirled around. “Who the hell are you, really? And don’t tell me you are just some guy who happened to be walking past this alleyway yesterday. It can’t just be a coincidence that you walked past here last night, “helped” me, and then end up being back here the next night. Are you some sort of stalker?” I noticed her hand at that moment and she was holding pepper spray.

“Look, I’m just as shocked as you are. I’m not a stalker I swear, just put the pepper spray away.” I heard the door open and was relieved to see that it was Charlotte.

“Steph, why are you holding pepper spray?”

“This guy is some kind of sick weirdo! He’s following me!”

Charlotte started laughing. “This guy is my brother, my twin brother.” I watched as Stephanie looked back and forth between us and then she looked like she relaxed a little.

“You’ve never mentioned having a brother.” 

“I have three, actually. One of the other one’s was sitting next to George at the bar.”

“One of your brothers is Trevor Davila. . .? Davila, never made the connection.”

“Yes, and I would greatly appreciate it if you wouldn’t pepper spray George; and I’m sure he would appreciate it too.” Stephanie looked at me and looked even more confused.

“I’m going back in. I’ll cover for you until you get back inside so don’t worry about going over fifteen minutes.” I watched as Charlotte went back inside and I looked back over at Stephanie. She was still staring at me in disbelief.

“Okay, start at the beginning. What in the world is going on?”

I almost didn’t know where to start. I took a deep breath. “I came into the city last night to stay with my brother and to see Charlotte. It’s. . .been awhile since we’ve seen each other. I felt like taking a walk and I walked past this alleyway.” I slightly chuckled at the coincidence. “I saw you and your boyfriend arguing, saw him hit you, stepped in, made sure you got home, and then went back to my brother’s apartment. I wanted to see where Charlotte worked so my brother and I came here. It wasn’t till I saw what Charlotte was wearing that I realized that you were wearing the same outfit last night and at that moment, you walked up and told Ethan your drink order.”

I waited for her to respond and I wasn’t quite sure how she was going to. She looked at me with her hazel eyes and had no expression on her face. “So you really are just a nice guy, who happened to be passing by? I figured you were some weirdo freak. Shitfire!” She exclaimed and started to pace as she thought. She stopped pacing all of a sudden and got a serious look on her face. “I’m really sorry! I really thought you were some freaky guy who had a superhero complex and wasn’t right in the head. That’s why I acted the way I did. I appreciated that you helped me but I didn’t want to seem too friendly since I figured you were some crazy guy. I feel like an idiot now.”

I chuckled. “I can’t say I blame you. This is a little odd. How about we start over; I’m George Davila.” I held out my hand and she looked down at it for a several seconds.

“I’m Stephanie Hathaway; nice to meet you, George, or should I call you superhero.” She shook my hand and I started thinking about how soft her hand felt. I tried to casually pull my hand away and keep my cool. 

“No, George is fine.”

She smiled and looked over at the door. “Well, I guess we could go back inside. I do need to go back to work.” I walked over to the door and held it open for her. She looked up at me. “Thanks.” She said and I followed her back down the hallway and into the bar. I watched as she walked over to a table and started talking to the two guys sitting there. She wrote something down in her notebook and headed over to the bar to give Ethan the drink order.

“George!” Trev was calling me over. As I walked up to him Charlotte was joining us.

“So you made quite an impression on Steph. I can’t believe she was really going to pepper spray you!” Charlotte commented.

“Man, you weren’t kidding! She does look young. How old is she Charlotte?” Trev asked.

“I’m pretty sure she’s twenty one.  I think she mentioned it one night when we were hanging out, that and the fact that she’s working in a bar."

“Well then, she’s free game, George!” I looked at him and shook my head.

“There’s more to it then age, Trev.”

“Oh come on!” Trev tried to reason. “Seriously, George, she’s great looking, she’s over eighteen, and ever since you’ve come back in here, she hasn’t been able to stop looking at you.”

I was about to argue with him but when I looked over at her she was looking right at me. She blushed and looked away. “Told you.” He said.

I refused to even entertain the idea. Never mind that she was older than I originally thought, but it was obvious that she had issues. Just how we met was an indicator that she probably had some self-esteem issues, especially since she had been with a guy who hit her. But then I thought about how soft her hand had felt when we shook hands and about staring into her hazel eyes. . .

“Hellooo George. Are you in there? See, you just need to go over and get her number. You’ll feel much better after you do.” Trev tried to tempt me and Charlotte started laughing.

I looked back over at Stephanie and for a brief moment, I was tempted. But when she turned around and I saw the slight indication of a bruise underneath her makeup. I turned back around and looked at both Trev and Charlotte. 

“Not going to happen.” I told them. Trev started to argue with me again but I gave him a look that let him know that the discussion was over. Charlotte walked over to a table and got their drink order and I turned back to Trev.

“I need to leave early tomorrow. I have some things I need to do before I head into the office Monday. We should probably head out, Trev.” 

He looked disappointed but didn’t argue. “Okay. Are you going to say goodbye to Charlotte?”

“Yeah.” Charlotte came over to the bar and gave Ethan the drink order she had just taken. We walked over to her.

“You guys aren’t leaving, are you?”

“Yeah, I need to leave early tomorrow morning so I can get back to Appaloosa.” I hated that I had to leave. I had missed hanging out with Charlotte.

“Well, I promise that I’ll come home soon. I’ll even drag Trev with me.” She smiled and then got serious. “Be careful driving home.” She said and then hugged me.

I hugged her back. “I will.”

“Love you, bro.”

“Love you too, sis.” She squeezed harder and I smiled. That was something we had done when we were little kids. I looked up and my eyes met Stephanie’s. She quickly looked away and I looked over at Trev. “We should get going.” I said to him. Trev and Charlotte hugged and Charlotte and I said goodbye one more time.

“Call me when you get home.” Charlotte demanded.

“I will.” I promised and Trev and I walked to the door. Trev started to walk out the door and I turned back around one last time to wave goodbye to Charlotte. She smiled and waved back. As I was turning to walk out the door I saw Stephanie look up from taking a drink order. Our eyes met again and for a moment I paused.

“You coming, George?” I heard Trev call to me.

“Yeah, I’m coming.” I said as I turned and walked out the door.

Credits:

Poses:

IMHO's - Hi, my friend