Chapter Text
Brighton Beach, 2007
“Soooo, when were you gonna tell me that you had a summer fling?”
Charlie felt the chocolate strawberry milkshake seize up in her throat before she coughed out the rest, wiping away the spilled droplets from her lip before she looked at her best friend incredulously. “Who the hell told you that?”
“Your mom and brother.” The girl next to her answered cheekily as she sipped on her salted toffee milkshake.
Charlie could feel her face flare up and she was pretty sure the heat from sun was not the reason why her cheeks were turning red. “God, I’m gonna kill Otis next time I see him and that’s last time I tell Mom anything.” She grumbled as she took another sip.
The girl let out a fanged smile as she nudged Charlie on the shoulder. “So, you did have a fling?! Miss Charlie Watson, former dive champion and mechanic extraordinaire! You couldn’t have told me, your honorary Sister from another Mister, this lovely little detail while I was gone?!”
“Cassía, It wasn’t a fling and you were in boot camp. I didn’t even know I could tell you.” Charlie argued.
The taller girl pulled a feigned hurt expression as she dramatically placed a naturally tanned hand over her heart. “Charlie, I could be stationed on the Moon for Iara’s sake, and I’d find some way to get a phone number or email so you can talk to me whenever. Hell, the post office still works. Write a letter.” She took another sip before she continued. “But seriously though, why didn’t you tell me?”
“Again, because it wasn’t a fling. I just…made a friend who needed some help getting in touch with his…other friends.”
Cassía raised a suspicious eyebrow and let out an “Uh-huh. Why the hesitation when you said friends?”
Charlie could feel her ears growing a bit warm as she wrestled with how much should she tell her bestie, “Well, he got mixed up in a fight before I found him and— “
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Cassía waved her hand in front of her, “Got mixed up in a fight before you found him? Charlie, please tell me your new friend isn’t part of some gang that may or may not come after you later!”
“He’s not, and will you let me finish?” Charlie snapped a bit.
“Ah, sorry.” Cassía offered feeling a bit chastised as her cheeks grew a bit red.
Charlie took another breath before she focused back on her ‘story’, “Anyway, yes I found him because he was a bit out of it after the fight and didn’t know where he was, so I helped him out. Also doesn’t help any that he got hit in his throat during the fight so he couldn’t exactly talk. I couldn’t just leave him there like that.”
Cassía took a hard look at Charlie before letting out a big sigh. “Only you Charlie. Only you.” She scratched her head through the twists. “Okay. So, if this guy was hurt THAT badly, why didn’t you go to the hospital, or call the cops? Hell, it’s why they’re there!”
“Because I didn’t want to put him in anymore danger, and he asked me not to.” Charlie delicately answered. Yeah, both the hospital and police wouldn’t know what to do with two-story tall alien robot that could shift into a car.
“He…asked you not too…” Cassía raised an eyebrow. “What is he? Some sort of gang member or something?”
“Or something.” Charlie answered. Well maybe part of the truth wouldn’t hurt. “He’s kind of in the military and asked me not to say anything because he wasn’t supposed to be out.”
Cassía’s eyes grew significantly wider as she heard this, “In the military…?” She said slowly, the gears slowly ticking away in her head. “Yeeuch, ok then. No wonder he didn’t want to go to the hospital then.” She trailed off as she nursed the last bit of her shake.
“Really? That’s it? You won’t say anything?” Charlie asked. She was a bit shocked how easily she dropped the interrogation.
“Nope. My lips are sealed.” Cassía answered promptly. “I may be a Marine now, but that doesn’t mean I won’t look out for our own. As far as I know, you just helped a friend out.” She said with a wink.
Charlie slumped her head and shoulders in relief as she let out the small breath she was holding. “Thank you.”
“Of course.” Cassía chirped as she obnoxiously slurped the last of the shake before she shot the empty container into a nearby trash can. “Soo, tell me about your new friend.” She teased as she propped up her chin with her hand.
Charlie couldn’t help but let out a small laugh at this. “You’re still on about this?”
“Heeeeell yeah~!” Cassía confirmed. “I wanna know about the guy that turned our sweet little Miss Charlie into an accomplice. You said he was in the military. What branch?”
“Uh, Army. He’s still in.” Charlie quickly supplied.
“…..oh god he’s Army!” Cassía looked up dramatically before she turned back to Charlie. “Please tell me he’s at least smart.”
“He is!” Charlie quickly defended but the antics from the night of trashing Tina’s car and TP’ing her house quickly came back to her mind. “He’s just…not caught up socially.”
Cassía gave her bestie another long stare before she answered. “Yeah, that sounds about right. Book smart as all get out, but social skills are not quite there yet.”
“Yeah…that’s him.” Charlie sheepishly replied.
“Ok, so what is this guy’s name, or did you guys spend long enough time together to even get his name?” Cassía teased again
“Yes, I got his name!” Charlie answered quickly before, “Well, I sort of gave him a nickname cuz that’s all I could get out of him with his injury.”
“Uh-huh? Nicknames already? Moving a bit fast for nicknames for ‘just friends’, no?” Cassía questioned again with a sly smirk.
“Oh shut it.” Charlie laughed as she gave the girl in front a playful shove. “I nicknamed him Bumblebee cuz he sounded like a little bumblebee when I found him and he liked it so much, he kept it.” Charlie answered truthfully as she could get.
A look of adoration fell over Cassía’s face as she cooed, “Awww. That’s so stinkin’ cute and sweet. He kept the nickname the entire time you two were,” she paused to do air quotes, “’hanging’ out?”
“Yeah. He never told me different, even up until he left to go back with his, uhh unit.”
“Aww. Well, weren’t you two just so stinkin’ precious?” Cassía teased as she reached over to lightly pinch Charlie’s cheeks.
“Cass, let go of my cheek or I bit you.” Charlie said.
“Ah, pardon me.” Cassía cheekily answered. “So now what? Did he leave you his phone number or something? I doubt he left you without saying good-bye.”
“No, he said bye to me.” Charlie replied, before her tone turned sad as she continued, “He even took me to see the Bridge as his last little farewell thing, but…”
Cassía waited a few moments to see if her friend would pick up her trail, “But…?”
Charlie ducked her head a bit to hide a small blush that was beginning to grow on her cheeks. “He wanted me to go with him.”
Cassía was a quiet for a moment, then two moments before, “He….wanted you…to go with him?”
“Yeah.” Charlie answered, surprisingly meekly for her.
“Charlie, look at me.” Cassía asked with a serious edge in her voice. Hazel-amber eyes looked up to meet near-obsidian. “Are you sure you two left off as friends?”
Her face flushed a pretty red before Charlie sputtered, “O-Of course we left off as friends! He doesn’t see me like that!” Her heart doing a weird flutter at the thought, but she quickly squished it.
Cassía raised her brow in a suspicious look, “Charlie, honey. He offered you to go with him. That’s not a buddy-buddy move. That’s a ‘Girl, I love you so much, and I don’t want to be apart from you’ move.”
Charlie rolled her eyes at this. “Cass, you’re being way too dramatic about this. Look, we’re---,” too different. He’s alien, I’m not. He can fight, I can’t. He’s got his world to save, not me, is what she wanted to say but held her tongue. “We’re just too different, and besides, I’m not like you. I can’t just decide to get up and leave without saying bye to my family.”
There was a long silence after that. Charlie mentally kicked herself for that. “Cass, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for it to sound like that.”
Cass only shook her head with a sad smile. “It’s ok Char. Don’t be. You’re right. I know you’re not like me in that aspect and honestly, I’m glad you’re not. You still have yours; I’m just, by myself out here.” She’d be lying to herself if she didn’t say her eyes watered at that.
Charlie’s heart went out for her bestie. Even after losing her family to that fire all those years ago, she could tell it still tore at Cassía. She pulled her into a hug. “Hey, you still have me.”
The larger framed girl returned the hug as she nodded her head against Charlie’s shoulder, stifling a sniffle. “Yeah, I do. Thanks.”
“Anytime.” Charlie answers back, tightening the hug a bit before letting go.
They sat in the quietness of their thoughts before “……So about this dude?”
Charlie could only groan. “Cass, seriously? You’re not gonna drop that?”
Cassía gives something of feline smirk. “Hell nah. Look, I’ll believe you on the part of you and this ‘Bee’, what the hell is his actual name anyways, leaving off as friends, but you’re actually not considering anything else with this dude?”
Charlie let out a chuckle at Cass’s relentlessness. “Yes I’m sure, Cass. I care for Bee. A lot actually, but that’s it. We’re only friends.”
Cassía could only send a leveled stare at her before relenting with a shrug of her shoulders. “Alright, I guess. Though something tells me that this is definitely not the last you’ve seen of this guy.”
“Oh? And what says this? Your kitty instincts?” Charlie jokes.
“Eí, my instincts haven’t proved me wrong yet.” Cassía defends, crossing her arms as though trying to make herself imposing. “I’m just saying that there’s more to what meets the eye here.”
Charlie rolls her eyes at this as she moves off her sitting spot on the rock wall. “Sure, Cass, whatever you say.” She dusts off her shorts and reaches for her keys. “Come on, Mom wanted me to invite you over for dinner. It’s tuna fish casserole tonight.”
Well now, that just made Cass perk up even more which Charlie let out a laugh to. She swore that if this girl had cat ears, they would’ve stood up on attention as she hopped of the wall. “Score! Thank you! Your mom makes the best tuna casserole.”
“Yeah, well tell her yourself when we get there.” Charlie answers as she makes her way to her parked Corvette and opening the door. “I swear, you have to be a cat in order to like tuna fish casserole.”
Cass soon followed her into her own spot in the passenger seat. “I like fish, so sue me.” She innocently shrugs. “And fish is good for you. Keeps your mind sharp.”
“Ok, NOW you’re sounding like my Mom. Stop it.” Charlie jokes as the engine turns over and the Corvette roars to life.
Cass could only laugh as they pulled out of the parking lot and began the drive home.
“But no, seriously. What’s this guy’s actual name?”
To Be Continued...
