What She's Doing Now (Sequel to The Great Pretenders)

White Horse

 By Taylor Swift

...I should have known

That I'm not a princess, this ain't a fairy tale

I'm not the one you'll sweep off her feet,

Lead her up the stairwell

This ain't Hollywood, this is a small town,

I was a dreamer before you went and let me down

Now it's too late for you

And your white horse, to come around

Matt watched as his best friend made up with his wife and he felt a pang of longing in his chest. He tried breath through it as he made polite conversation with the couple in front of him. He had hoped to see Lucy...to get a chance to talk to her but so far she was nowhere in sight.

"Matt! Dad!"

He turned to see Charlie bounding toward him and giving him a tight hug. What difference a few months made. At the beginning of the summer, he hadn't even known about her but now he couldn't even see his life without her.

"Hey kid," he said before placing a kiss on the top of her head. "I missed you too."

"Can you believe this?" she asked nervously "I don't think I can do it."

"Of course you can," he assured her "You're a Sanders. You were born to be in the spotlight."

"I don't know," she replied. "Maybe I didn't get that gene."

"Sure you did."

She shook her head "And to top it off Chris brought his ratchet old girlfriend."

Matt mouthed the word ratchet and laughed "Charlie I'm sure she's not that bad."

"She IS," Charlie yelled and the Weekes stopped their conversation to stare. "Sorry," she added embarrassed, realizing the P! ATD bassist was standing in front of her. She shook her head thinking how weird her life had become.

Matt chuckled"It'll be okay." was the best he could come up with.

Charlie's eyebrows crashed together, just like Lucy's. "He's doing it on purpose," she insisted "to get a rise out if me."

"How do you know?"

"I just do," she replied miserably "I missed my chance and now he's totally trying to rub it in my face."

" What if he actually likes her? "He asked remembering how his and Lucy's relationship started out as a plan to make their exes jealous but resulted in Matt falling in love with her.

"That would completely horrible," Charlie replied. "It's totally making me a nervous wreck. I know I'm going to ruin my performance because she's out there watching."

"No you won't Charlie. Once you get on that stage, you won't remember any of this. For just a little bit, you get to forget all the crap you've got going on and you get to be one with all the faces out in the crowd. It's fucking awesome."

Charlie hoped he was right. She didn't have time to think about it as she saw Val approaching.

"Charlie!" The blonde gushed "have you guys gone on yet?"

"No ma'am," she replied as politely as she could watching her...step mother...plant a kiss on her father's cheek. Stop it, she wanted to yell out loud. He should be with my mom and not you! But instead she sighed and gave a fake smile.