Negotiate a Peace, Or Negotiate a....Romance? {Charles Lee x Female!Reader}

Chapter 10: Ten Things You Need to Know

1. The week had actually started out promising.

It had been a week or two since Charles and (Y/n) had the run-in with George, and neither of them nor any of their friends had seen him since. They hung out and laughed and had fun. Classwork was piling up, but life was good.

2. George was relentless in his pursuit.

He may have stayed away from them for a while, but he never stopped scheming. For a man who had never worked for anything in his life, George was determined. He planned every detail out with James, until he was certain. In his mind, he'd have Charles back by the end of the month.

3. It started by trying to separate Charles and (Y/n).

James Reynolds had a lot of gossip on almost the entirety of the freshman class at Kings College, so it wasn't hard to get the people he needed. Slowly but surely, both Charles and (Y/n) were getting bombarded by "old friends" who wanted to meet up. Eventually, the two were hardly seeing each other in person.

4. Next came the rumors.

This was the tricky part. Getting the whispers about Charles to spread around campus was easy enough. But it had to be subtle enough that none of the boys would take matters into their own hands with dealing with Lee, yet make (Y/n) question her trust in him. People started talking about Charles Lee spending a suspicious amount of time with one of the most sought-after girls on campus. From there, things only spiraled more and more out of control.

Of course, at first (Y/n) refused to think anything of it. But what do you expect to happen when everyone whispers? Enough people throw you pitiful looks, and you might even believe your own grandmother betrayed you. Unfortunately for (Y/n), she made the mistake of not asking Charles about it directly. And he made the mistake of thinking she didn't believe it.

5. The original plan was to start a fight.

One day, (Y/n) was bound to explode. George was counting on it. And explode she did.

In her defense, tensions were running high. The end of the semester was approaching, and she barely slept. It hadn't helped that everyone was convinced her boyfriend was cheating. It certainly hadn't helped that Charles was hardly ever with her.

So when Charles had blown her off and said that he "could've sworn he had texted her that he wasn't be able to make it," let's just say it wasn't pretty. It might've been okay, if (Y/n) had been the only one upset. However, Charles is hotheaded and super defensive. It was the equivalent of a stab to the heart to hear his girlfriend accuse him of cheating.

6. Both of them did too much yelling.

Some of the things they said made sense. Other things were said that were way out of line. At some points, anyone could've thought that what Charles and (Y/n) were screaming at each other had nothing to do with the reason they were fighting. Though, to them, this might've been a long time coming.

Both of them said things they didn't mean. Who doesn't blurt out things in the heat of the moment, after all. But when Charles got angry, all he could see was red. He couldn't see how much he was hurting her.

7. They still loved each other so much.

Even with the yells and curses, they knew deep down that their feelings hadn't changed. Charles and (Y/n) still held so much affection for each other — their hearts were still beating as if solely for the other person.

Maybe that's what made the experience so intense. When someone you love more than anything screams at you, it hurts like hell. And that's what broke (Y/n).

Maybe if the fight had run its course, the anger would've died and they would've been able to talk reasonably. Maybe the love would've burned away the rage, and they'd remember that they were in this together. Maybe they could've fixed things. But (Y/n) couldn't stick around any longer — she had to leave Charles to calm down on his own.

8. No one had expected (Y/n) would drink.

(Y/n) had sworn she would never drink. She'd seen what it did to other people, and she never wanted alcohol to have that much of a hold on her.

So when she walked away from the fight and her friends went looking for her, they didn't even think to check the bar. They couldn't imagine they would find her there, downing shots in an attempt to ease the pain. Yes, desperate times call for desperate measures. But not even George had thought the situation would become that desperate.

9. She never saw the car coming.

When she'd finally had enough — and when the bartender refused to give her any more drinks — (Y/n) decided to go back to her dorm. She was drunk out of her mind, stumbling back to campus. She hadn't even thought of taking a cab. And when she slipped into the street, no one had enough time to stop her.

10. George swears it was an accident.

He had orchestrated the fight, sure. But he hadn't planned anything after that. According to him, when (Y/n) had stepped out in front of James's car, George had yelled at him to stop. But he was too late. James hit the brakes, but he wasn't fast enough. The damage had already been done. (Y/n) was already sprawled on the ground, not moving.

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Oh, I feel evil for writing this. Such a little amount of words, and so much content that was covered. But the brevity was intentional, and necessary.

Lowkey writing this made me hate like all of the characters in this story (apart from Sammy — he's always a bean), but it's good to remember that everyone has flaws. For (Y/n) it's that she bottles things up for too long, and Charles has a temper.

Also, I apologize if this story feels like it's moving too fast. I didn't want to write a ton of fluff chapters that were just fillers. I hope that's okay.