Chapter 42: A Beautiful Mess

It was Wednesday. Charlotte and I could barely think straight all day at school, and we both cut out of the last class of the day to hang out and plan how we would break the news to the Lawsens. Ron was home again, and we'd planned to tell them that night. They were out, so we sat around Charlotte's waiting for them to return.

There was a certain crackle of excitement in the air between us, an almost palpable energy. We just kept staring into each other's eyes, and grinning an almost crazy grin. There was terrified panic in that grin. There was love for each other. And there was a certain giddiness about breaking the big news to them, about our engagement. Our excitement was bubbling over. We barely talked about it. We just held each other's hands and grinned nervously while we moved about the place.

The phone rang constantly. We didn't answer it. I called my mom at some point and told her where I was and that I'd be staying for supper. At some point, Charlotte called Amy just to make sure everything was alright with her. They talked for a long while and wept together on the phone. Then I talked to Amy for a few minutes as well. It was so wonderful to hear her voice again. Honest to God, it was like the voice of a distant angel. She sounded sad and tired but so happy to hear my voice.

"Hiya, Ant."

"Hiya, Aims. How's yer bod?"

"Been better. Got a funeral tomorrow apparently."

"I heard."

"Everything'll be alright though, right?"

I wasn't sure if she was asking me or telling me. She seemed certain and yet hesitant at the same time.

"You're a brave girl, Aims. If things get rough for you tomorrow, just think about Charlotte and me. We'll be there with you in our hearts, okay?"

"I haven't stopped thinking about you guys since I left. My dad's probably sick of hearing about how wicked and cool and totally awesome you guys are."

It was the nice to hear her refer to Ron as her dad. It gave the universe a little bit more center somehow.

"I doubt he's sick of hearing how awesome his daughter is. He probably agrees with you completely. He was telling me yesterday how much he absolutely adores you to pieces too."

"He said that, huh?"

"Yeah. As soon as he got off the plane, and for about hours after that."

"He kept telling me too, over and over again, and I just thought he was being polite, telling me what he figured he was supposed to say."

"Nope. He's over the moon for you, girl. It's beautiful to see."

"How's Char doin'?"

"She's awesome. I love her to pieces too, forever and ever and ever."

This I was saying more to Charlotte than to Amy. She was sitting in my lap again, listening to Amy's voice on the phone. Then she started kissing me. She even took out her ring and kissed it about a dozen times too, and then me again. It felt wonderful.

"I'm sure she feels the same way."

"We figured out that little secret too, about the movie. Remember you were saying?"

"Oh, so you got your head out of the clouds finally?"

And Amy giggled. It was such a beautiful sound.

"Yup. It finally hit us the other night. I went down and talked to Sheila about it, and she told me I don't need to worry about nothin' but taking care of Charlotte for the rest of our lives."

"It's such a beautiful movie."

"Yeah. Sheila's awesome. I love her to pieces too."

"I heard on the news that these kids down in Australia made a sex video too, just like yours. All poetic and pretty. Some girl was gonna commit suicide but she changed her mind because of it. They don't even know who those kids are, but everyone's looking for them. Can you imagine if that happened with your movie!?"

"That's crazy. I can't even imagine."

I couldn't either. It was so far fetched in my mind at that point that the idea of our movie getting out never even occurred to me. At that point I was just thinking how cool it was that we weren't the only ones being creative and naughty like that.

"I wish I had the internet here. I wanna check out theirs and see if it's as good as yours. Apparently it's all over the world. You just do a search for it and there's like a million links to it now. I'm at my grandparents though. My grandma thought it was disgusting of course, but my grandpa just chuckled."

"I'm sure it's nowhere near as good as Sheila's."

"Me too. But I'm biased. You guys are the most beautiful people on earth in my books."

"You ain't so bad yourself, Aims."

"Thanks, I guess."

"So what else did you and your dad talk about?"

"I told him about how you popped my cherry," Amy said with a giggle.

"You did what!?"

"Yup. We stayed up all night talking on Sunday. It was beautiful. He asked me if I had a boyfriend and I told him, well, everything. About how I was saving myself for someone special and how the little dicks around here only wanna get into my pants, and how when I finally did lose my virginity it was with the sweetest guy ever who wouldn't hurt me if his life depended on it. And you know what he said? It's so funny. He says, 'Charlotte's got a guy like that too. I'm so happy for you girls.' I laughed out loud for like five minutes and I just had to tell him. He wanted to know what was so funny. Then he laughed with me. It was so sweet."

"That is pretty funny. He didn't even mention to me that he knew."

We talked for a few minutes more and finally said goodbye. Amy's grandma needed to use the phone. She said hi to us too though, before they hung up. She seemed like a nice lady. It made us feel better about Amy dealing with all the stuff over there without us.

We told her we loved her and that we would see her again soon. Then we hung up.

Charlotte was quiet for a few minutes, and then she said something funny.

"I'm craving ice cream."

I laughed at her.

"You're silly. Is that ice cream stuff starting already? You want pickles with that too?"

She smacked me in the arm. Then she got up and peeked out the window.

"Looks like they're not gonna be back for a while yet. Will you take me to the store?"

"Sure."

Off we went. We got in Steph's car (well, my car technically, just not officially yet) and I drove her down to the local convenience store, the place where we'd first met Jade. It was just before one o'clock. There were a bunch of girls hanging around, apparently skipping the tail end of their school day as well, drinking their drinks, chewing bubblegum, and giggling and talking too loud about girl stuff.

Here's where it got strange for Charlotte and I for the very first time. Looking back, it was quite a momentous occasion, but we were still pretty clued-out at the time. As soon as we got out of the car, the girls all looked over at who could possibly be driving such a hot car. Charlotte and I stepped out and their jaws dropped all at once. They're eyes went wide and their mouths gaped in awe. They started whispering as we walked up toward the door.

"It's them! Is that them, Trish!? Is that them!?"

"Oh-my-god-oh-my-god-oh-my-god, it is them!"

Charlotte looked at me and I looked back at her. We were holding hands and we went into the store. We got some ice cream and a couple of drinks and stood there in line to pay for them. All the girls had their faces pressed to the glass and were chattering excitedly a mile a minute.

"Maybe they know us from school," Charlotte said. That was the only thing I could think of too, but they seemed far too excited to see us. It didn't add up.

Then we went out again, and they all just stood there in hushed awe like they were expecting us to say something. We stopped and stared at them, shaking our heads, confused.

"Hi. What's up, girls?" I said.

And they all screamed like I was a rock star or something. It startled us both. I almost dropped my drink. They started jumping up and down and hugging each other. One girl was shaking and almost crying. Very weird.

"You guys are, like, so awesome! I love you! I can't even speak!"

"Um ... why?" Charlotte asked. She was blushing. I must have been too.

As soon as Charlotte spoke though, they all screamed again, in a chorus of shrieking wails that actually burned my ears a bit. People turned to look from across the street. Apparently Charlotte was a rock star too.

"Well, have a good day," I said. And they squealed again.

We turned and headed for the car, hand-in-hand, looking back at them over our shoulders.

"Why do I feel suddenly naked all of a sudden?" Charlotte asked. "Did you see the way they were ogling us?"

I hadn't noticed.

"I'm just trying to figure out what the hell they're screaming about. You'd think we were famous or something."

"Come on. Let's go to the park."

But as we were getting in the car, the gaggle of girls came rushing up with pens and notebooks, asking for our autograph. Another girl took our picture with a digi-cam.

"You girls go to Frederick Ranger High too?" Charlotte asked. Her words were drowned out though.

"Can you sign this for me?"

"Sign my binder! Oh please! Oh please!"

I took the pen, hesitantly and signed everything they thrust at me: "A.J.M."

"You guys are like, so the best! I cried for an hour last night! I swear to god! Even my mom was crying, and that says a lot!"

"Crying? Why?" Charlotte asked.

But they all squealed again, not even hearing what she'd said. One girl hugged me, and then they all started grabbing me and hugging me. One of them bumped me, pushing past her friend and knocked my drink out of my hand. Pretty colors of Slushy splashed all over the pavement.

Some of them hurried around the car to get Charlotte's autograph as well. We had no idea what the hell was going on. I was honestly stunned. Completely clued-out. So was Charlotte. A bit of her ice cream dripped onto her finger and she licked it off before grabbing the girl's pen. When they saw that they all screamed even louder! One girl even started shaking and had to lean against the car to steady herself, like she was gonna faint or something.

"Oh my gawd! You're like so totally sexy! I wanna be you so bad!"

"Um, thanks..." Charlotte said. "But you're beautiful too. Don't try and be someone else. Just be you."

And they all screeched in demented glee again. My ears were starting to ring.

"Can we get a picture with you?"

Then they were standing beside us, taking pictures, crowding around and hugging us.

Then they said the strangest thing of all.

"Um, can you like, tell us what your names are? We don't even know."

"Our names?"

"Yeah. What's A.J.M. stand for anyway?"

"I'm Charlotte, and he's Anthony. Why would you know our names?"

"Charlotte and Anthony! Charlotte and Anthony! Oh my god! That's so sexy!" And there were more screams of glee.

I shook my head, amazed and confused. What the hell was so sexy about our names? And then they were hugging us again and one of them really got weird on Charlotte.

"I love you so much! You've changed my life! You really think I'm beautiful!?" There were tears running down her face.

"Of course you are, isn't she Anthony?"

"Gorgeous," I said. But I was sorry I did it. She nearly swooned again, and Charlotte had to steady her. Then they all screamed. Ouch!

"You're so sexy! You're so sexy! Oh my GOD!!!"

"Thank you, I guess. I'm not sure what..."

And then they all backed away slowly. Other people were looking over at us too, wondering who we were and why the girls were all totally freaking out. We got in the car and they stood there waving, and jumping up and down and cheering and then they all ran away all at once waving their autographs in the air.

"We've got pictures! We've got pictures! Nobody's gonna believe it, but we've got pictures! They're really real!"

Charlotte and I watched them go, stunned into silence.

"Okay, what the fuck was that about!?" I said. "Was that some sort of weird prank? Are we on camera or something?"

"Anthony, that girl was crying? Did you see that? She was crying! I'm scared."

"I know. I don't know what the hell is going on. Maybe they were high on something and thought we were someone else. They didn't even know our names."

"Yeah. Weird."

We drove off to the park and sat in the car, eating our ice cream and sharing Charlotte's drink. Then we spent some time just sitting there making out in the front seat, kissing and cuddling, and feeling one another up, but mostly just talking about everything. The park was pretty empty. Every kid in town was still in classes. There were some old folks walking their dogs and some young moms pushing strollers, but we were in a shady spot and they ignored us.

Charlotte took the ring out of her pocket and put it on, sighing happily and snuggling up to me again.

"You carry that thing with you everywhere?"

"Of course! Why wouldn't I? I wish I could wear it! It's so beautiful. Isn't it beautiful?"

"It is."

"It's you. It represents you for me. Everywhere I go, whether you're with me or not, I have you holding my hand here, see?"

She held up her hand and we looked at the sparkling ring. Then we kissed some more.

"So what are we gonna tell them? We can't leave it too long."

"I don't know," Charlotte said.

"How do you think they'll react anyway?"

"I think they'll be upset at first. It was pretty irresponsible of me-"

"Of us."

"Of us, but once the initial shock wears off, I honestly think they'll be thrilled, especially when they see this. They know you're not gonna run out on me. They know-"

"How are they gonna be thrilled about it? No parent wants their sixteen-year-old daughter coming home pregnant, ring or no ring."

"Anthony. What's the most important thing in the world to them? Think hard for a moment."

"Um, you? Each other?"

"Exactly! They don't care about what people think, or what people might say, or how we're gonna come up with the money to feed ourselves and take care of the baby! All that stuff other girls have to deal with is like non-existent for us, not even a factor. All they'll see is a beautiful new baby on the way, someone else to love and treasure."

"I don't know, Char. I think they're gonna be upset about you not going to college, not going after your dreams. Parents care about that stuff you know. That's what's really at stake here."

"Well maybe my dreams will just have to change. Maybe you're my dream now. Making you happy, being a good wife, and taking care of our baby. Why can't that be my dream?"

"I guess if you can convince your parents of that, that's all that matters. But I kinda wanna see you make more of yourself some day too. I want you to be happy, successful, have a career and an exciting life."