True to Me//George Daniel

Chapter 23

I wake up hot and sweaty from falling asleep in my clothes and being under my thick quilt. When I look toward the window in my room I notice that it's still dark outside and I must not have slept all through the night.
I walk out in the kitchen and notice that Matty and Maddy are gone, probably back to their house that they live in now since they're oh so prestige.

I just grab a beer out of the fridge and sit on the sofa, turning on the TV to watch some late night film or some shit. ITV2 seems to be playing the old version of Godzilla so I settle for that, barely focusing on the movie at all since my mind is elsewhere.

Halfway through they have some sort of news thing and I zone out completely until I hear the name Kenny and my ears start to listen in.

"Kenny G has been seen in various clubs and party places lately and seems to be completely ignoring the beef between herself and Danielle and Charlie. Nobody really knows who this down low girls are but they have caused a lot of problems for Kenny recently. However, she is unbothered by the events and has carried on as normal. In fact she has recently become ambassador for a new clothing line in England and will be heading out there soon to promote it. I wonder what will happen if she bumps into her enemies? On the plus side she will be seeing her boyfriend Tyler who is actually the brother of Danielle, however they seemed to have not been affected by the arguments and have carried on as normal, get ready for cute couple pictures time guys, Kenny G is on her way."

The news reader moves on to another topic but my mind is still on the topic of Kenny. Something serious must of happened for her to fall out with two of her best friends, Kenny always valued friendship over anything, even to the extent she always claimed she'd pick Maddy over me in the worst situations. My mind is spinning with questions and curiosity. I care about all these girls in different ways and I don't want them to be fighting, so I guess the only resolution is to speak to Charlie, the real beef is with her and I know she'll keep it real with me, she always has.

It's only 12 by the time I get to the strip club which is when it's last hour of business is in full swing. I know I won't get charlie alone for a while so I leave it and sit at the bar, drinking a Jack Daniels and coke and having a friendly conversation with the familiar faced bartender.

"It must be a nice job, I wouldn't be complaining." I say and he laughs.

"I never do, the pay is shit but the view...that's amazing." He winks.

"And its all about being comfortable in the workplace am I right?"

We both laugh again and then he goes to serve another customer. I feel two small hands snake around my neck and a face rest in my neck and know immediately it's Charlie.

"Hey Georgie baby, what are you doing here?" She whispers, her voice already a seductive purr.

"I came to talk about what's going on between you and Kenny." I say and she stops stroking my chest and unravels her arms from around me.

"Seriously? I'm dressed up like this and you want to talk to me about Kenny? Men are another breed." She huffs and crosses her arms looking anywhere but me.

"Oh come on Charlie, it's not like you dressed like that for me." I snap and she widens her eyes and looks at me.

"That's fucking disrespectful! You've always told me you don't have a problem with my job and you think I'm sexy and here you are degrading me! It's nice to know how you really feel." She whines, a hint of hurt in her voice.

"Charlie for fucks sake, I didn't come here for a drama between us, I think you've got enough enemies at the moment without making one out of me. What the hell is going on?" I shout over the music.

The bartender looks at us in confusion and Charlie grabs my arm and starts to lead me somewhere. When we get behind a velvet red curtain I realise it's backstage, where there's loads of lovely ladies swanning around. I almost can't take my eyes off of them but Charlie snaps me back to reality.

"She's a bitter girl George. I do understand why, I mean she knows she made the biggest mistake of her life breaking up with Blackbear because she loved him right. I mean she left the person who loved her most in the world to be with him. You know she doesn't even love Ty? He's just her sick attempt at a rebound. And now she's mad because I'm helping Blackbear to move on and she doesn't want that. She's caused all this beef by being a jealous cow babe." Charlie explains.

I almost snap when the word cow comes out of her mouth but I keep the anger contained. I shouldn't be sticking up for her, not after what she did. But it's not even about our relationship anymore, now we're friends. So I should stick up for her...right?

"I don't think she's pretending to love Tyler, Charlie. I don't know why you're so interested in her love life but the way you just described it maybe you should just back off. In reality it is a snakey movement trying to help her ex boyfriend, no one knows what happened either and she's your friend so you should always be on her side." I say, a reasonable response.

"Oh come on George! I'm not being snakey, I'm being fair! You know what Kenny is like. She'll put it all on Blackbear when in reality it was probably her fault. She did it to you and she'll do the same to Tyler, let's be practical for fucks sake! I know in your eyes she's the fucking sun in the sky, the dust on the ground and the water of the ocean but she's really not that special. And maybe she needs to realise that. Just stay out of it George please." Charlie begs and I sigh as she takes my hands and pulls me towards her.

She leans up to kiss me and I hold her waist tightly. I get into the kiss easily, she's familiar and it's easy to get lost with her but my mind is still racing with thoughts about this situation. Maybe she's right though, this is between girls and I wouldn't have a second clue on what to do about it. I'll just leave it for now.

"One condition if I forget about this..." I say, pulling away from Charlie briefly.

"Anything..." She says.

"Don't take it out on Caitlin, she's a rowdy girl but she's done nothing wrong." I say and she nods.

"Anything for you." She smiles up at me and I lean down to kiss her.

"Come back to mine." I whisper and she nods.

I don't believe a word she's said.