-----* pennies for a memory

[Channing Whitaker]

THE COUNTRY CLUB, CHARITY BALL, OCTOBER 2007

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-----laughter filled the air at the abernathy estate as rowan looked upon her brother, dressed head to toe in a monkey suit and looking horribly miserable. "knock it off!" rowan said in her southern drawl as she popped dante in the shoulder, "damn boy you look like someone just ran over your dog.' rowan turned back to the vanity, the curling iron still in her hair as she waited for her golden locks to curl properly. after all a southern lady never leaves the house until she looks somewhere about one hundred percent. that was the law. well it wasn't a georgian law but it had been the law of the house for as long as rowan had been living in her mother's shadow. what could she say, old habits die hard especially when they're beaten into your brain since birth. "well it does feel as tragic. honestly rowan why do you have me in this thing? you're the charity kinda gal, not me. you're the good one in this family." rowan rolled her eyes as she slowly un-twirled the curling iron from her hair, smiling as a perfectly curled bundle bounced around her shoulders. she quickly resumed the same technique with another bundle of hair, one of a few clumps yet to be curled. "because i usually take dates to these things and i hardly know a soul within a rooster's caw of this place. you're goin' to have to settle for bein' my date for the night." rowan said into the mirror, talking to the reflection of her brother. "besides, you look darn spiffy. i'm sure those californian gals will eat you up."

-----though he looked like he maybe considered it for a moment, dante was walking out of her bedroom door moments later griping about "them charity things" and tugging at his bow tie. again rowan couldn't help but laugh. what did the boy expect when his sister got to town? sure rowan had been away in greece for the summer, hanging out with some friends before they all went their separate ways to college, but now that she was back he should have figured that rowan would be working her magic on him. after all, she had had nineteen years of practice doing so. the one thing she hadn't managed yet was getting her brother to try a class at VU. rowan really didn't want to see her brother just shlumping around all year. she wanted him to get up and make something of himself. true it was an aspiration more for a mother than a sister, but rowan had stood in as a substitute for that role long ago.

-----no one ever really did understand why lorraine abernathy-mcallister had reacted the way she did that fateful day at the hospital those short nineteen or so years ago. doctors couldn't ever really explain it as being anything more than postpartum depression, but everyone who even knew the family knew that couldn't be true. how could a mother swear completely off of one child while doting on the other? rowan figured that it began when lorraine and dante couldn't really connect. from the moment he'd been born, dante had been rushed into surgeries to repair the birth defect to his heart. why it had happened to him, why a certain birth defect, no one would ever know. all that was known was that after the surgery dante had come down with an infection of the surgical site and had been hospitalized for months battling it. indeed there had been a long period time in which lorraine could not have openly held her son, but the worst part was how much she didn't want to touch him. there was no hoping that he would get better. no sitting in the neo-natal icu looking at dante through his incubator. no hoping or praying that he would come through it unharmed. it was as if, with a healthy little girl in her arms, lorraine hadn't cared that her son was unwell or battling for his life. she saw him as an imperfection. a blight to the perfect world she had created with the perfect husband and the perfect home, perfect, perfect, perfect. just as lorraine had taught rowan to never leave the house unless she looked decent, she'd been taught from a young age that she was useless without perfection. because dante had put a damper on her long-time reign of being perfect, disowning him would change all of that.

-----ha, as if that were even true. instead she'd been put on meds that didn't help and pretended to enjoy her son's company as much as she could stand while he husband was home. otherwise she would ignore him. tend to his needs, of course, because she wasn't that bad of a mother, but she never cared for him, never loved him, not really. since the day rowan had figured that out she'd made a promise to herself that she would always make her brother feel loved. she would, and it wasn't because she pitied him and the life he'd been handed, but because she knew he deserved that much and more. she was after all his sister and she loved him anyways, she just made a point of showing it more after she'd realized her mother's biggest fault. since that day rowan had been dante's biggest advocate and supporter. if that meant tugging him around to the occasional charity ball, then he would have to deal. not because he owed her, but because he loved her just as much.

-----rowan finished her hair and unplugged the curling iron from the wall. she checked her makeup one last time and slid her way into the mid-thigh length black sheath that she chose to wear tonight. she slid into her black designer shoes, the designer's name of course escaped her, and grabbed her black clutch. she walked out of her room to find dante leaning against the banister once again tugging at his bow tie. "oh here." rowan said as she walked over to the banister, dante turning to face her. she pushed her clutch in his hand and undid the clasp that held the bow tie together, pulling it from his neck and tossing it to the floor. she then undid the top two buttons at his neck and gave the shirt a little fluff. "there. happy?" she said with smirk as she took back her clutch and headed downstairs. "yes, very." once in the car, rowan turned the radio on and set the channel to one of the classic rock channels. ac/dc exploded from the speakers as they drove toward the country club in one of their grandfather's cars. "remind me to change that when we get home. if pops uses this car and i forget i may well give him a heart attack." they pulled up to the country club entrance, passing off the car to a valet and walking inside. "so what is this little shindig supporting? saving the whales? saving the snails?" rowan rolled her eyes but smiled, linking her arm in his as they walked through the front door into the ballroom. "cancer actually. so smile, i'm not completely wasting your time." she said as they walked down the entryway stairs and onto the ballroom floor.

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status • finished
words • 1491
tagged • rowlie !
clothes • drool much?
listening to • you belong with me - taylor swift.
notes • hope this is okay. i'm still getting a feel for her.

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[Edmund "Charlie" Rose]

( EDMUND CHARLES ROSE )
VALKYRIE COUNTRY CLUB, OCTOBER 25, 2007, EARLY EVENING

some people are working hard working hard on
their style on the back streets of the front line you
see signs of the crimes absence makes the heart
grow fonder how could patience ever hurt you?
. . . . . . .

"leda, i'm not trying to be critical or anything like that, but how long exactly is this going to take?" charlie's voice was upbeat and cheerful, as per usual, even if the words themselves he had actually used might seem to contradict that. he was standing before his bed, keeping very still - because leda yelled at him whenever he moved - , and his cousin, leda, was standing on the bed itself, on top of the haphazard, whirlwind mess of blankets and comforters that were the result of charlie never making his bed. her brow was furrowed and she had her tongue stuck out slightly; symptoms of the intensity of the concentration she was evidently applying to try and accomplish what she wanted to accomplish. what exactly was that, you ask? it was learning how to tie a tie. she had her hands entwined in the long strip of fabric that was wrapped around charlie's neck, trying to make the proper loops to turn it into the formal accessory it was meant to be, and so far she was having very little luck, but she was refusing to accept any help whatsoever from her cousin, who knew perfectly well how to tie his own tie, mind you; maintaining that she wanted to do it by herself. she could be suprisingly stubborn when she wanted to be and, seeing as she something she could easily use to strangle him wrapped around his neck should she feel too provoked, charlie had decided to just go with it.

"shush," she said, smacking him on the shoulder, not taking her eyes off of her work. "if you're not quiet, i won't be able to concentrate, and if i can't concentrate, this will only take even longer." well, phooey. in principle, charlie didn't really mind that this was taking so long, but he had been standing perfectly still so that leda could, for whatever obscure reason, add the skill of tie tieing to her repitoire, and it was starting to bore him out of his mind a little bit. come to think of it, he wasn't exactly sure how she was managing to take so long with it, because she knew that basics and all the steps, but apparently something just wasn't working. charlie was beginning to think that maybe this was some sort of sign, meant to make leda aware of the fact that tieing a tie was not and never would be "her thing", and perhaps the two of them should just accept it and try to move on with their lives. however, that thought was evidently just refusing to occur to leda, so charlie spent another full five minutes while she tried, again and again, to get it right, before she finally, at long, long last, succeeded. "yay!" she squealed, as she let the now perfected tie fall against charlie's chest and did a victory dance type thing, bouncing on the bed. "ladies and gentlemen, this is a momentous moment!" charlie proclaimed. "leda can now properly tie a tie! huzzah, huzzah! i'm going to speak with the president immediately to get him to declare this day a national holiday!" leda cackled happily as she hopped down from his bed. "october twenty fifth now be called 'leda is amazing day'! future generations will be celebrating how amazing i am for years and years and years... until the apocalypse! maybe even after that!" charlie expressed his agreement and then leda left to go work on some homework and charlie was free to continue getting ready. which pretty much consisted of him throwing on the jacket that went along with his suit, running his hand through his floppy hair, glancing into the mirror and thinking "damn i'm adorable", and loosening his tie just a wee bit.

and he was good to go. his father and rochelle were both attending a charity ball at valkyrie's snooty country club, to which rochelle owned a family membership type dealio, because she was loaded and did the high society thing. and, because he was just such a caring, compassionate soul, charlie had volunteered his musical services, because it had been a while since he had played in public at one of these things, and they were always interesting. usually some pretty girls got dragged along by their parents and if nothing else he could usually unload some fake i.d.s on some young, angsty rebellious teens. he met his father and his step mothing in the entrance area of the mansion, chuckling as he heard cat yelling at leda upstairs to get the hell out of her bedroom. apparently his cousin had been sidetracked from starting to work on that homework.

they left the house and arrived at the country club a little less than twenty five minutes later, whereupon charlie headed off into the ballroom area to get to his cello and his father and rochelle went off to mingle with their fellow rich valk married friends. he found his cello in the corner of the room where it had been set up that afternoon by some of the guys some of the valk women organizing this whole outfit had enlisted to help with the heavy lifting. charlie always had it get here ahead of him because he really hated carrying the damn thing. many people, dolled up and dressed to the nines, were already meandering about the ballroom and some of his fellow string musicians were already playing, so charlie simply joined in with ease. he let himself get swept up in the music for a while, into the billowing notes that had a way of getting through to more than just your ears, but also to your soul. it might sound corny, but charlie felt that music was the most conclusive proof of the human soul that there was. however, after they had gotten through a couple of pieces, he glanced up at the dance floor and, amid the swishing skirts and smooth moving tuxes, he spotted something that made his jaw drop and his hand forget how to hold his bow. it went tumbling to the floor, creating an unpleasant and dischord-y end to the note he had been playing and causing his fellow musicians to give him a look that translated directly into "what the fuck?". but charlie really didn't have a wayward thought for any of them at the moment. because, from across the ball room, he had just laid eyes on a girl he knew. a girl named rowan. rowan abernathy-mcallister. rowan fucking abernathy-mcallister. holy. shit. what was she doing in valkyrie? in a dress that caused an auto widening reaction in his eyes, no less? oh em gee.

he stood up abruptly. "you guys have got this under control, right? grand." without waiting for a response beyond anything but very, very weird looks, he balanced his cello on its stand and hurried off. it was a bit of a miracle that he managed to navigate his way successfully through all the dancing couples without causing any fatalities, because he kept his eyes locked on rowan's form the whole time, somehow afraid that if he let his gaze wander, even for a second, she might evaporate into the air. he knew that she probably wouldn't be happy to see him but, well, he didn't give a flying fuck. he didn't have any idea what he was going to say, either, which probaby wasn't the greatest, seeing as he was a bout four paces away from her... three... two... one... bam. he was standing right before her. he simply stood there for a moment, before opening his mouth and saying the first thing that came to his mind. "you wanna dance?"

. . . . . . .

status , finished.
tagged , rowlie.
attire , here.
credits , lyrics: finley quaye. formatting: me.
notes , woot!

[Channing Whitaker]

THE COUNTRY CLUB, CHARITY BALL, OCTOBER 2007

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-----rowan had to admit that she had a bit of a soft spot for these kind of events. though they did tend to be a little snooty-er here. rowan had been to tons of charity events in the past. she figured it was one of the best things she could do for her community seeing as she had no real marketable skills that would actually help those in need. she'd been to walks to save the condors, food drives for the homeless, heck she'd even entered a grilled cheese making competition just to support gay rights. what grilled cheese had to do with gay rights was beyond her, but she did it anyways and of course had a blast. it was one of the many things she could say she'd taken part in. because not everyone could say that they made grilled cheese sandwiches in a team of two working with a drag queen. especially in southern georgia. she wasn't a big time activist. she protested now and then but found them to be far too intense and often dangerous for her liking. now she could sit around a tree and sing kumbaya till her face turned blue, but practically rioting in protest to a nuclear power plant was beyond her. how successful could that really be? it wasn't, which was why she stuck to events, walks, and competitions. rowan did have a big heart, usually grouping every little thing into one and caring about it all similarly. very few things were held in higher regard than everything else. dante, for one, advocating for children, a sense of what is both right and wrong, etc.

-----rowan had an excellent sense of right and wrong, and she would tell you so if you asked. she knew that politics was corrupt and how wrong it was, she knew that not having a health care for everyone while other, even third world coutries had at least something, was completely wrong and favored the wealthy. she knew that even so much as taking a pen from the place you work at is theft. there were a lot of things that were easily discernable in this world, but one of those things that bordered on the shades of grey in her black and white world was charlie. she hadn't seen him since she was last in pageants but that doesn't mean she'd ever forgotten what she'd seen or what she'd been forced to learn. she hadn't known him for more than a few weeks, maybe, but rowan had been quick to trust him and had really grown to care for him over such a quick length of time. who wouldn't? charlie was charming, always smiling, and he'd provided a sense of escape for rowan from her mother's world of hair spray and elegant gowns. rowan had really trusted him too. she'd snuck away from hotels to see him and hang out with him, she'd missed pageant rehersals just to say hi to him and spend some time talking. rowan had really gotten attached to him, only to have him break her heart. at that time rowan had been completely unbiased, as she usually was. rowan never saw a situation and tried to see how she could turn it in her favor. she never used her old money connections to ever get her ahead in life. she never even went out clubbing as a rebellious teenager because having a fake i.d. was wrong. so when she'd put all her trust into charlie just to walk into a room to find him stealing a woman's wallet from her purse, she'd immediately beens truck with how little she knew about the world. she hadn't seen him sense but the lesson she'd learned from their encounter had stayed with her forever.

-----she was completely unaware that charlie was even within a fifty mile radius of herself. how the hell was she supposed to know that he was in valkyrie? so of course, without knowing someone who'd killed her sense of trust was even in her line of sight, rowan went on as if there was nothing about to happen, as if her world wasn't about to completely come to a stop. she smiled over at her brother as he returned with two small glasses of punch, grumbling something about them being non-alcoholic. "as they should be." rowan said with a small smile as she brought the cup to her lips and took a drink. it was about that time that she'd heard a small misstep from the band. still she finished her sip, bringing her hand down to her side before turning to the stage to see what happened. all she found was an empty chair propping up a cello and the other members of the band looking off to the side of the stage. maybe someone had gotten sick or something? hm, oh well. she turned back to her brother, striking up some conversation. as she spoke she rested her hand on his upper arm. as she looked into his eyes she noticed that he wasn't looking at her, but that something had caught his eyes off in the distance. maybe a pretty girl or something? rowan turned her head to see what dante was looking at, only to find that she was face to face with charlie. she damn near went pale as her grip on dante's arm tightened to the point that she got a slight "ow" out of him. she was lucky she hadn't dropped her punch. want to dance? dance? DANCE? she didn't want a dance she wanted answers! what the hell was he doing here? why did he feel the need to talk to her? why did she still want to say yes after all this time and all he'd done to her and all he'd changed about her sense of trust?! ugh!

-----she quickly looked back at dante, unsure of what to say. dante of course, was oblivious to what was going on inside of her head. he hadn't been there for the pageants. at about that age he'd been staying over at friends' houses while lorraine dragged rowan off to pageants. still, he could tell something was wrong. "what is it?" he said with growing concern, looking from rowan to this stranger. why in the hell was his sister freaking out over some guy that had just asked her to dance...unless she already knew him. "do you remember a charlie story?" she whispered, trying not to be rude, but hey she was in crisis mode here. "charlie?" dante said inquisitively before a slow smile crossed his lips. well rowan hadn't been expecting that. she'd been hoping for a little anger. maybe dante would scare him off. instead he was plucking her hand from his arm and taking her punch. "go dance." he said, turning away from her and disappearing into the crowd leaving rowan to watch him in disbelief as he vanished into the mass of bodies. slowly she turned back to charlie, giving him a slight nod and an unsure "uh huh" before she took his hand and headed out toward the dance floor. once she found a spot, rowan turned to him, placing her hand on his shoulder and leaving her other hand in his, but she never looked at him. not once since he'd asked had she looked into his eyes. "what are you doing here charlie?" she said over the music as they started to dance.

--------------------------------------------------------

status • finished
words • 1488
tagged • rowlie !
clothes • drool much?
listening to • uninvited - alanis morissette.
notes • wow that was super easy to write. hope you like it!

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[Edmund "Charlie" Rose]

( EDMUND CHARLES ROSE )
VALKYRIE COUNTRY CLUB, OCTOBER 25, 2007, EARLY EVENING

some people are working hard working hard on
their style on the back streets of the front line you
see signs of the crimes absence makes the heart
grow fonder how could patience ever hurt you?
. . . . . . .

charlie was a man of somewhat contradictive character. most of the time he was a perfectly nice guy; funny, charming, cute, cheerful, never without a smile or a joke. to some people he simply got really fucking annoying, but that wasn't the point. most of the time he was still a perfectly nice, somewhat stand up guy. he most likely wasn't someone you'd pick out of a line up to be someone who went around pick pocketing people, snatching wallets and bills right out of back pockets, nor were people likely to pin him as the type who gambled on most anything. because, honestly, who exactly would expect that out of someone like charlie when at first glance he seemed like a normal, nice guy?

well, maybe the extremely cynical and/or paranoid, but whatever.

the weird thing was that most of the time he was actually a nice person. he was the one in the room who made the jokes and acted goofy... mostly because it was just apparently who he was, but he did usually take how it generally made things more fun for everyone into consideration. and when people got upset, he felt more often than not obliged to try and cheer them up. he was a goof, he liked to make people laugh. and he was niether a heartless bastard, nor a sociopath, so he wasn't exactly sure why he felt very little remorse for the illegal things he did. more and more since he had moved to valkyrie, california, he had been able to write off something like pulling a couple of fifties out of some guy's back pocket at bare as taking something from someone who didn't really need it. because, believe you me, in valkyrie, it was more than effortless to sift out the ridiculously wealthy from... everyone else. and they were the people charlie made sure to take from and scam on. see? he did have some moral decency. in a way, he was kind of like robin hood. except he didn't give what he stole to the poor, he wasn't alive in medieval europe and he didn't wear tights. and it wasn't like he went around committing grand larsony every single day. on his "work days", his usual haul was no more than three or four hundred dollars a day and it was generally made up of fifties, twenties and hundreds. so, really, he wasn't wreaking as much devastion as he could be. it was the fun shit he got up to when he was bored because, for some reason he couldn't explain - having never been big on self contemplation - he was fascinated by money. more specifically, getting money.

and that had turned out to be his downfall when it came to his relationship with rowan. he could still remember the moment they had met with a surprising amount of clarity. he had been lurking about the parking lot of one of philadelphia's fancy pants hotels, waiting for a few of his friends in order to commence an epic night on the town. but then he had set eyes on five feet, ten inches of... rowan. and the rest had seemed to have had unfolded by fate. she was only there for a pageant type dealio, so they had spent all the time that they possibly could together. charlie had been absolutely unable to get her out of his head throughout the days she had been in town.

and then it had gotten all fucked up.

she had walked in on him taking a wallet out of a woman's purse. he had just been about to take credit cards and liscenses and all the shit that wasn't cash out of it and plop it back into the bag, but then he had realized that rowan was there and had had to prepare himself for whatever was going to come next. which had turned out to be an argument and the last words he had ever said to her. of course, if he had known that, he would have been less defensive and simply apologized until he turned blue, even if he wouldn't have meant the words or have considered what they would have meant. because it would have been worth it if he had been able to just keep in contact with her. for rowan abernathy-mcallister did something to him. he wasn't even sure what precisely it was, but when she had been around, he had just felt... different. as if he had just noticed the sun was shining.

however, he apparently did not have this same affect on her, because the moment she turned, casting her golden hair aswirl slightly around her, she seemed to blanche. it was then that charlie noticed her male counterpart, for rowan apparently had his arm in a verifiable death grip. "ow." charlie looked at for a moment, wondering if he should be feeling jealous or planning on how best to get rid of him, but then an explanation under which he would have to do niether occurred to him and he relaxed. this guy was probably just dante. her twin brother. charlie had heard a lot about him. good. this was good. "what is it?" the guy whispered at rowan. charlie tucked his hands into the pockets of his pants and began to open his mouth, feeling as if he should say something... even if he really didn't know what it was. "do you remember a charlie story?" rowan responded covertly to him. this made charlie feel just slightly awkward - for about the third time this year, so kudos to the abernathy-mcallister twins for making it happen - and once again felt like he should have been saying something. "charlie?" when rowan's companion said this, he finally was able to latch onto an opportunity to speak, even if the word had not technically been directed right at him. "the one and only," he said with a small, chipper grin. "go dance." charlie's eyes widened a bit at the sense of triumph that gushed through him at the evasion of the 'protective brother' obstacle. "uh huh." huzzah! he was barely able to restrain himself from breaking out into a victory dance when rowan took his hand and directed the two of them out onto the dance floor. one of her hands was placed on his shoulder and the other in one of his and he just couldn't describe how it felt to touch her. he wrapped his remaining hand around her waist, being oddly careful about it, as if not being extremely light was going to make her go poof and disappear. "what are you doing here charlie?"

he had only just noticed that she was avoiding meeting his eye, so he had been rather focused on trying to establish some eye contact, resulting in him only just managing to catch her question. "well, i'm here in this country club because the people who orchestrated this little shindig said that this absolutely could not happen without me providing my musical services." he grinned. he cracked himself up with how full of b.s. he was. he however had a feeling that her question had extended to something beyond that, so he continued. "but i'm here in the charming town of valkyrie because i live here." he paused. "you look beautiful. audrey hepburn is jealous."

. . . . . . .

status , finished.
tagged , rowlie. <3
attire , here.
credits , lyrics: finley quaye. formatting: me.
notes , woot!

[Channing Whitaker]

THE COUNTRY CLUB, CHARITY BALL, OCTOBER 2007

[/font][/center]

-----it was funny how one guy could take a beautiful day and turn it around on her in an instant. rowan wasn't usually the kind of girl to hold a grudge. if you wanted to be a bitch to her, so be it, that was your decision. if you wanted to ignore her completely, well good luck to you on that front. but rowan hardly ever held any long-term grudges. there were always the little tissies that she'd gotten into that had lasted a day or so, especially in the glamorous world of pageants. there were always too many egos in one room. too much hairspray snuffing. to many makeup kits. to many sparkly, taffeta'd evening gowns. tempers had a tenancy to flair behind the curtains of a pageant. if you had a chance to look, if the judges really got to see the character of a lot fo the girls they deemed to be "role model material" well they would find that they had been incredibly wrong. rowan was one of the few girls who could really keep their cool, but even she had her moments. usually it had to come to things happening in repetition for rowan to lose it and just need to say something to someone. something like a girl setting her evening gown in rowan's station more than once or someone rifling through her make up bag to see the veteran's tricks of the trade. really it was shameless. most girls, or their mothers, would go to any lengths to make sure they or their daughters won. honestly it was as if healthy competition went out the window. nothing mattered more than having the literal perfect daughter to flaunt in front of the mothers of the losers. it wasn't just a competition for the girls. it was the equivalent to who's penis was bigger, the women's version. honestly it was pathetic.

-----that had been all the more reason for rowan to call it quits while she'd gotten the chance. pageants had taught her some useful things, she wasn't about to deny that. who knew that hairspray kept your bathing suit from riding up? oh yes the boatloads of information she'd learned in pageants was rivaled by some of the greatest minds in all of the world's history. who needed einstein's theory of relativity when you knew that waterproof mascara was only needed in the top five when most girls were guaranteed to cry? who needed darwin's theory of evolution when you knew that vaseline on your teeth ensure that your mouth stayed open in a vibrant smile? rowan wasn't usually this cynical about anything but pageants had been one of the biggest time wasters she'd ever come into contact. she'd the equivalent to weeks worth of weekends stuck in the car or plane with her mother as they traveled all over the continental u.s. just to participate in these pageants. it had not only been a chance for lorraine abernathy-mcallister to show off her daughter like a purebred dog, or for bragging rights, but it had been one of the best excuses she'd had for leaving her son behind with a nanny or under the care of a very understand friend's parents. yes, lorraine got away with ditching her unwanted son and rowan was the center of it all. she'd hated it. the closer pageants hadn't been as bad because dante had come to the occasional one. her last pageant for instance, dante had showed up to watch rowan, knowing just what she had. the twins rarely kept anything from one another, hence why dante knew about charlie to begin with, so he knew the day of that pageant that rowan was planning to talk her mother out of making her to more pageants. dante had shown up as back up and it had mostly gone according to plan. rowan was free to stop doing pageants and she hadn't been left behind when her hot headed mother drove away without her daughter. dante had been there to celebrate, and to drive her home.

-----what would she do without her dear brother? well rowan was going to find out tonight because this little stunt with charlie had her wanting to wring his neck. after what she'd seen in pennsylvania, she'd first of all never thought she'd see charlie again. secondly, she'd been so damn hurt by her mistake in trusting him that she hadn't particularly wanted to see him again. she'd been so hurt that she'd even cried when she'd gotten home and gotten around to telling her brother the stories. no where amongst that had he ever smiled at her. he'd simply hugged her close until she'd stopped crying and gotten her ice cream from the kitchen. there was never a time when he'd smirked at her like he had today. he'd given no inclination that he'd heard something else in her voice and words, something he'd obviously imagined, that would lead him to walking away from her when she really needed him to scare charlie away. damn it where did he get off! she didn't know if twin telepathy worked, there were days when she knew it had between the two of them, but if it was true she was certainly making quick work of sending him angry hate telepathy.

-----she didn't want to make eye contact with him. that was what had done her in the first time she'd met him. she'd looked into his eyes and she'd thought that she had seen honesty and just an all-around sense of cheerfulness. what pissed her off was that everything about him had told her that she was right back in pennsylvania. everything up until the moment she'd caught him rifling through some woman's purse had told her that she was dead on about him, and yet he'd proven her so dead wrong. damn it that never happened to her! rowan was usually such a good judge of character and charlie's chipper, good-hearted demeanor had her trusting him almost from the moment she'd said hello. to be so completely fooled by him, if she wasn't so angry she would give him props, but after all of this time and especially after seeing him now...she was angrier than ever. musical services...well that explained a lot. "you were the sour note." she said aloud with an 'i can't believe this' shake of her head. had she turned the minute she'd heard the note, she would have seen charlie and made quick work of getting out of here. "you live here?" rowan said louder than expected, her feet failing to move along with the beat as her surprised caused a misstep. her surprise quickly turned right back into anger as her eyes narrowed at him, "don't you start that with me." complimenting her...ugh! "no really, what are you doing here? using a charity event to stuff your pockets?" okay so now she sounded downright bitter. but she was mad, she had an excus-. rowan sighed. this was not the right way to go about this, at all. "sorry." she said bluntly, "you're just...a sore subject for me."

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status • finished
words • 1447
tagged • rowlie !
clothes • drool much?
listening to • bad to the bone - george thorogood and the destroyers.
notes • aw he makes her so mad! lol. it's cuz she's still hurt.

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[Edmund "Charlie" Rose]

( EDMUND CHARLES ROSE )
VALKYRIE COUNTRY CLUB, OCTOBER 25, 2007, EARLY EVENING

some people are working hard working hard on
their style on the back streets of the front line you
see signs of the crimes absence makes the heart
grow fonder how could patience ever hurt you?
. . . . . . .

now that he was out here, atop the gleaming oak dance floor, dancing with rowan abernathy-mcallister, rowan fucking abernathy-mcallister, charlie was finding the atmosphere of the charity ball quite infectious. fancy hors d'oeuvres were situated on glossy, finely crafted tables, waiting to be daintly scooped up and munched demurely on. light was beamed down upon everyone by the chanedlier hanging from the ceiling that had no doubt cost more than what an average middle class family made in a year, maybe two. well practiced string music swelled across the room, providing a pleasant backdrop for pleasant chit chat for most of the attendants. normally charlie was not one of those people, for he liked to focus in on the music, listen to it, chew it over in his brain, even if he happened to be one of the people producing it. at the moment, however, this was not exactly the case, though was paying enough attention to note that his band mates had continued on stoicly enough without him but that it would without a doubt sound much better if he were still playing. naturally. nevertheless, the music was currently far from his main concern. because he was here, on the dance floor, with rowan fucking abernathy-mcallister basically in his arms and there just wasn't much room in his mind for anything else.

while she obviously didn't really want to look at him - whenever he made another attempt to hook her blue eyes with his brown ones, he was thwarted - he just couldn't stop looking at her. taking her in; the long blonde tresses that fell about her shoulders, the curve of her neck, the way her dress he approved of so wholeheartedly that it was hard to get over fell against her body. luckily, they were too close together for him to be able to stare too much at any female "assets" that wound up warranting the most slaps for being ogled without looking like a total creeper. and, contrary to a popular belief, charlie rose was not a creeper. not completely, anyway. sure, he had been known to follow girls out of supermarkets - cough, kiran slade, for example, cough - , but no matter what his actions suggested, his intentions were very, very, very rarely creeperish. in fact, hell, when he wasn't selling fake i.d.s or various sketchy documents or pulling money right out of someone's back pocket, his heart was nearly always in the right place. he didn't ever do anything to anyone just for the sake of hurting them. and even when he was in the previously above mentioned situations, he wasn't doing those things just to screw with people; he did it simply for the thrill of having a new, crisp green bill to be able to stuff into his pocket and claim as his own. he didn't give the people he was taking from any thought. perhaps one day he would start seeing them as people and not just faceless entities and he wouldn't be able to do what he did anymore, but as of this moment, your guess is as good as mine. charlie really didn't give much thought towards this rather ominous lack of conscious, nor did he give much thought to contemplating right and wrong and the ramifications of being a person who broke the law. cat, however, theorized that he had just been at it for so long after starting up from something relatively minor that it would just go against the grain for him at this point to think anything of it.

however, when it came to rowan, all of those conditions of conscience didn't really matter when it came to rowan. because, she was rowan. he had never, ever, ever meant to hurt her and he would never, ever, ever, ever try to hurt her. the fact that he had made him sad, but there wasn't an ice cream cone's chance in lucifer's sauna that he would have ever intended for it to have happened the way it did. in fact, the sadness he had felt in the time after she had left philadelphia had meant more to him than the thrill of pick pocketing and various other scam type operations did, which was quite the rare occurence for him.

now, as they moved across the dance floor, charlie was trying to figure out how to go about explaining that issue. that he was sorry, very, very sorry that things had happened the way they had that. that the fact that anything he had done had hurt her in any sort of way made him feel like crap. he felt a little thrown out of his element here. normally the things he dealt with in his day to day life were things that didn't make him feel like this. it was kind of weird, because he was currently incredibly elated to just be looking at the tall, beautiful blonde girl... don't even get him started on how freakishly amazing it was to actually be touching her. all his remorse for how he had managed to make her sad was encompassed in this uprushing of good, happy, billowy feelings. because, after all, she was here, in valkyrie, rowan was here!

and it was like it always had been. like he had just noticed the sun was shining.

"you were the sour note." she shook her blonde head and charlie made another valiant attempt to catch her blue eyes. damn it, she was being a bit stubborn, wasn't she? "yes. i saw you and my bow spontaneously decided to try to learn how to fly. it failed epically." he smiled crookedly, really, really wishing that she would just look at him. it was kind of starting to really bother him. "you live here?" her southernly accented words were rather loud and she stumbled a bit in their dance movements but she recovered well. the next second, however, her eyes were narrowing and he could see anger flow onto the features of her face. damn, she was pretty. "uh, yeah. sorry?" he tried to keep his words somewhat neutral, not wanting her to get any angrier with him than she already was. "don't you start that with me." eep, what? what had he said? he opened his mouth to ask, but she continued on with all the elements of a little mini rampage. "no really, what are you doing here? using a charity event to stuff your pockets?" his mouth slackened a bit as his face fell. something that happened very, very, very rarely for charlie rose was happening right that moment. and we're talking rare, here. like, next to never. the words of someone else had hit him and had stung. it was disorienting. normally anything and everything other people said simply rolled right off him, but not this... "sorry. you're just...a sore subject for me."

he cleared his throat. "rowan," he said, his voice, for once, free of an air of cheerful teasing. tonight was just turning out be a very unusual night, wasn't it? "i never meant to hurt you. you know that, don't you?" if she refused to accept that, believe you me, he was more than fully prepared to unleash the full force of his best puppy dog face on her.

. . . . . . .

status , finished.
tagged , rowlie. <3
attire , here.
credits , lyrics: finley quaye. formatting: me.
notes , so, when i was writing this, i officially fell head over heels in love with rowlie. <333

[Channing Whitaker]

THE COUNTRY CLUB, CHARITY BALL, OCTOBER 2007

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-----rowan never would have imagined that she would be here right now, in what had to be the most tense, uncomfortable moment in her life. alright so maybe in her life was a little bit of an exaggeration. there had to be things that surpassed meeting up with charlie again. running over her dog? getting teeth pulled? her mother? ew, yeah. okay so seeing charlie didn't rank that highly in the list of miserable moments, but damn it, he was close to being atop her list just created simply for valkyrie. if she had a list that is. rowan wasn't as ocd to need a list that would describe every horrible, good, or otherwise kind of moment she'd had in her life. still in the list she'd racked up in her mind, charlie ranked at least in the top ten. as much as she hated to admit it, her lack of proper judgment in the matter had followed rowan like crazy. after pennsylvania, rowan had actually been hesitant about meeting new people. she'd been so wrong about charlie, who was to say that she wouldn't be wrong about the rest of the ever loving world? it had taken a lot for rowan to get past of that. it was never anything drastic like therapy, but rowan had definitely needed time to think it all over and prioritize what she'd learned. over all it had made her a little more cautious about who she did or did not trust. her first few weeks after coming back from that pageant, rowan had hardly spoken to anyone new. she stuck to the people she was familiar with, people she had been friends with or had been competing with for a decent about of time. new people be damned. there were probably a few good people that rowan had left to their own, letting them make their own assumptions about her. usually she didn't care. usually rowan could make friends at the drop of a hat and would take them under her wing, pageant girls new to the scene especially.

-----it just hurt to be so damn wrong. and she had been. rowan was certain that without a doubt she'd been completely wrong about charlie. go and try and change her mind now and she was likely to blow up in your face. she had decided. rowan had made her verdict on the matter and could not be pushed into changing her mind. the only one who could change her mind was rowan. no one could push her or show her that she was wrong. it would only make the stubborn mule in her bray to the point of causing quite the problem. dante was right about her, when rowan was her usual happy self there was nothing could bring her down, but try and change her mind forcibly and you were more likely to get a better response out of prodding a hornet's nest. it wasn't pretty.

-----unfortunately for charlie, rowan was in no mood to have her mind changed. it was hard enough just being in the room with him, harder still when he'd swivel his head trying to catch her eyes. damn it she didn't want to look him in the eyes. she feared that she'd see that blatant honesty in his eyes that had betrayed her to begin with and second guess her decision to wash her hands of him. it was even harder still when rowan realized that he still had the power to make her smile. charlie's response about his bow made her smile. it was a brief smile, lasting only a millisecond, and was shamefully wiped away the moment rowan noticed it was there. but that power was still evident. and it pissed her off more than anything. more so was the fact that every word from his mouth seemed to be genuine. well what she'd believed to be genuine back then had all been a lie, why couldn't this be? and since it was all a lie, why was rowan beginning to doubt it and believe that he was actually sorry. she shook her head to rid her mind of the thoughts. no. it was impossible. there was no way she was actually thinking about forgiving him. there was no way that she was going to look him in the eyes after all these years and forgive him without so much as an apology. as if he were reading her mind, one of the next words out of his mouth was an apology. damn it! did she have a teleprompter screen on her head that told charlie exactly what to do or say? because as it stood from her end of all of this, it certainly seemed that way.

-----she didn't see his expression fall. she was currently busy trying not to look him in the eyes. something she was abjectly failing at doing. finally she heard her name, his voice missing that usual jovial tone she was so used to repeating in her head whenever she had thoughts of pennsylvania. it caused her head to raise, her eyes to latch onto his. she shook her head. how could she believe that? "charlie up until that day i thought i was a decent judge of character. i thought i saw something in you that not many people have, soul, but then...then i saw the wallet." her gaze fell to the floor for a minute as rowan felt a little sense of self restraint break inside of her. "i didn't know what to think when i saw that. all that went through my head was how you had to have been playing me to get something out of me. in that one moment all i could think about was what you'd taken from me." she paused, swallowing hard. "you didn't take anything material from me. you took my trust, more than just that you stole it, then you broke it. i thought i could trust you, i thought i'd had you pegged as a good person, but i was so wrong. you, you were nothing but a guy using me, and i was nothing more than a silly girl. a mark." her voice cracked and rowan quickly brushed her index finger under her eye, catching a stray tear as she cursed under her breath. "i thought i knew you but the truth is charlie i hardly even recognize you."

--------------------------------------------------------

status • finished
words • 1277
tagged • rowlie !
clothes • drool much?
listening to • let me be myself - three doors down.
notes • aw it's breaking my heart! they need to be friends again and fast!

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[Edmund "Charlie" Rose]

( EDMUND CHARLES ROSE )
VALKYRIE COUNTRY CLUB, OCTOBER 25, 2007, EARLY EVENING

some people are working hard working hard on
their style on the back streets of the front line you
see signs of the crimes absence makes the heart
grow fonder how could patience ever hurt you?
. . . . . . .

charlie couldn't really believe this was happening. he was here, in the middle of valkyrie's snobby country club, dancing with rowan abernathy-mcallister after having abandoned his musical duties. it didn't feel quite real. like any random burst of good fortune, he just felt a little off... in the back of his mind he felt that this was really something too good to be happening within the realms of reality. if we were to rewind to about two years ago in philadelphia, pennsylvania, we would find a distressed charlie, devastated that rowan had left and thought him some sort of scumbag, no less. at that moment in time, he would have given quite a few things just to see her again and apologize until she decided to forgive him or at least not hate him. as time had passed, he had gotten over it, though he still missed her and wished things happened differently. time had inevitably taken away the sting and loneliness of her being so suddenly pulled out of his life, but it hadn't removed the source. one thing time never did.

and now here he was, dancing with her, touching her. proof that she was here, really, truly here. she wasn't an apparition, she wasn't a dream, she was here, in valkyrie. and for charlie, the bad things that had happened between them became completely inconsequential. why wouldn't they, for fuck's sake? he had thought he wasn't ever, ever going to see her ever again, as long as he lived. and that had been one of the saddest thoughts that had ever formulated itself within his brain. but now here he was, being proved wrong. it was really pretty wonderful. even if she was refusing to meet his gaze. even if she did seem detached and unhappy to see him. even when she wasn't being her typical rowan self that he had gotten to know back in pennsylvania, she was still managing to light up the room for him.

"charlie up until that day i thought i was a decent judge of character. i thought i saw something in you that not many people have, soul, but then...then i saw the wallet. i didn't know what to think when i saw that. all that went through my head was how you had to have been playing me to get something out of me. in that one moment all i could think about was what you'd taken from me. you didn't take anything material from me. you took my trust, more than just that you stole it, then you broke it. i thought i could trust you, i thought i'd had you pegged as a good person, but i was so wrong. you, you were nothing but a guy using me, and i was nothing more than a silly girl. a mark. i thought i knew you but the truth is charlie i hardly even recognize you."

as she was speaking, the happiness and giddyness he had felt from seeing her again slowly drained out of his system. he could feel it all sinking through him, leaving nothing but hollowness in its wake. hearing her say that, hearing what she really thought, listening to that, seeing the lone tear fall from her eye....

it kind of crushed him.

he was hardly aware that he was still dancing, hell, he was hardly aware that he was still capable of any motion at all. he also wasn't aware that his face had now fallen completely and that he was simply staring at her blankly, unable to really form a coherent thought out of the buzzing that had started up inside of his brain. he had known that rowan had been upset with him, but all of that, what she had just said? had he really done that? fucked up her sense of trust? did she really, really, truly think all that about him? that he was just some ass who had been around just to screw with her head and steal stuff from people? how could she possibly? he had known that her opinion of him had not been very high upon their parting, but all of this? to him, it seemed impossible for her to be thinking this when she was his drug of sunshine, when he knew she was the most beautiful girl in the room, and not just because of her gorgeous exterior. he was now aware that his steps were slowing down, that he was no longer even displaying any semblance of keeping up with the music. he had been in a state of completely silent shock for almost an entire minute now and he knew that he should say something. he was having a difficult time trying to get his mouth to work, however. by the time he had achieved it, he had stopped moving completely and was simply standing there, one hand on rowan's waist and one clasped with hers in the air.

"used you?" he repeated drily. "you think i used you?" he swallowed. "rowan, i've never used you and i wouldn't even ever dream of using you." that was evidently the most important thing he thought he should be addressing, because the words confirming that she thought he had associated with her just to get something out of her dumb founded him. "but i'm sorry i did those things to you. i didn't mean for things to happen that way and i didn't mean to hurt you and the fact that i did... it sucks." his brain was beginning to get itself out of its little funk it had been in, but he was still so absorbed that he didn't even realize how odd it felt to have gone so long without the jovial, teasing tone in his voice or without saying something funny. "because you're one of the most incredible girls i've ever met and you don't deserve to have people like me making you sad." he paused. "i'm sorry. i don't know how i can make it up to you, but i'm prepared to beg on my knees really annoyingly for as long as i have to. and even if you think you don't recognize me, you do know me. because i never really pretended to be anyone i wasn't, i just have a problem with... stuff like... you know, that." he picked up speed as he talked. "besides, i recognize you. you're one of the only people out there who make audrey hepburn want to throw bitch fit out of jealousy."

a bit of his cheerful, joking tone had returned and he gave a crooked half smile. he had no idea if the words would have any positive affect or if they were just going to make things worse, but he had just said what had come into his head. felt like it was rather important to get them out.

. . . . . . .

status , finished.
tagged , rowlie. <3
attire , here.
credits , lyrics: finley quaye. formatting: me.
notes , it's so weird writing for serious!charlie.

[Channing Whitaker]

THE COUNTRY CLUB, CHARITY BALL, OCTOBER 2007

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-----rowan had never been one to deliberately hurt someone. she didn't think that she even knew how? it often made her wonder how people in the world could even do it? how could a person say something, or dredge up an event, that could cause another person so much pain. she's always imagined herself incapable of such things. this was rowan we were talking about. charitable, smiling, always giving rowan. no one who knew her would likely think that she even had it in her, to hurt someone like that. so why did it come so easy to hurt charlie? so easy in fact that it scared her. it wasn't as if anything coming from her mouth wasn't true. every bit of it was from how happy she had been initially around him, to how much he'd hurt her, and to how devastating the effects of that night had been. it wasn't as though she'd uttered a single false word. it was true. so much in fact that people close to her could vouch for her. dante in particular could be a very good judge of that. usually when rowan returned home from a long pageant event such as what she'd been a part of in pennsylvania, rowan would burst out the passenger's door before the car even stopped moving. most times she'd forget she was still buckled in and would have to weasel herself out of the seat belt before she could go running into her brother's open arms for a hug. she was always so happy, so carefree. whether she'd won or not rowan always came back with a smile because it was just who she was. but the time she'd come back from pennsylvania, rowan hadn't come bounding out of the care like a puppy. she hadn't gotten tangled up in her seat belt and needed rescuing. instead dante had had to walk to the car and open the door. without so much as a smile or a hello, a red-eyed rowan grabbed her bag and just walked right into the house. like she was some stranger in his sister's body.

-----it had taken a good amount of time before rowan had opened up to her brother about what had happened. it had taken weeks of prodding her until she'd finally broken down and confessed, crying and sobbing in his arms as she told the story. that wasn't the kind of girl he'd grown up with. he'd seen rowan faced with a challenge or two but never had his sister been so distraught about something that had happened with some guy she'd barely known. whoever it was must have had some effect on her to wind up creating the sobbing mess he'd seen all those years ago. charlie had been that. he'd been considered a great friend almost from the first hour she'd met him. rowan could never explain it, she never really tried but that was beside the point. it was like two old souls meeting up again. they just connected and they had a blast in the process. seeing what she had, maybe rowan had overreacted. maybe she had jumped to conclusions or put situations in her own head that had never happened, but she'd never felt so duped in all her life. she'd never felt so taken advantage of or so vulnerable all in one moment. and that had really changed her.

-----but had she ever expected to hurt someone the way she was visibly hurting charlie at the moment? not at all. rowan could feel herself feeling sad about the things she'd said to him, despite them being all true. she found herself wanting to take them back when she hadn't been thinking that before. in fact...she found herself wanting to hug him. the charlie she remembered had never shown one moment of sadness in the time she'd known him. it had been like one smile meeting another really, because that had been all they'd seen from each other, smiles. charlie had been so amusing too. his quirky style had her giggling at the most inopportune times, like in the middle of pageant rehearsal for example. rowan had be on stage in her dress, forty to fifty other girls standing around her, when she thought of something charlie had done or said earlier in the day. she had burst out in giggles, forcing herself to clamp her mouth shut with her hand before anyone noticed, but it was too late. she'd gotten the stink eye from the choreographer and had gotten back into serious matters, still smiling at the thought of what had happened. over the course of a rehearsal rowan had interrupted things with her laughter so many times that her mother had been forced to come on stage and drag her daughter to the side where she told her to get her act right. still, it hadn't really worked, and rowan hadn't heard the end of it all day that day. that hadn't stopped her from seeing charlie again that day, telling him the story of how his antics were getting her in trouble all the time. he really had been a one of the best parts of rowan's pageant years, even if things had gone so awry. she never thought herself capable of removing that charming smile from charlie's face. hell, she thought it was glued there.

-----rowan fought the urge to comfort him as he began to talk. "that was what i'd come to the conclusion of." rowan said about charlie using her. though it hadn't been intentional, she'd felt like she'd been a pawn, just one of those many people a con would use as an "in" just to get to their original mark. or something like that. crime wasn't rowan's forte by any stretch. "you're telling me." things certainly had sucked. despite being mad at him, the thought of charlie begging on his knees annoyingly got her smiling. she smiled because she knew how true it was likely to be. god knows she didn't need that happening in the middle of the dance floor. "no begging. please. spare me the act of your begging." she heaved a sigh because she knew where this was headed. she could already partially feel the urge to forgive him and be done with it, only she was really close to actually meaning it. "fine, i know you, but the person i saw that night is a stranger to me. i can't see you as anything more than that guy. not until i'm sure you're not doing that anymore." it wasn't an ultimatum. rowan wasn't even quite sure what it was she was saying. did she really just say that they could be...friends or whatnot if he stopped stealing? hopefully he didn't ask because elaborating might prove difficult to her. "oh please." he really was such a charmer and she could already feel the blush beginning to form on her cheeks. "that's not necessary.." she trailed off as she could feel the heat surface on her face.

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status • finished
words • 1409
tagged • rowlie !
clothes • drool much?
listening to • let me be myself - three doors down.
notes • --

[/font][/blockquote][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Edmund "Charlie" Rose]

( EDMUND CHARLES ROSE )
VALKYRIE COUNTRY CLUB, OCTOBER 25, 2007, EARLY EVENING

some people are working hard working hard on
their style on the back streets of the front line you
see signs of the crimes absence makes the heart
grow fonder how could patience ever hurt you?
. . . . . . .

tonight was turning out to be a very strange evening for charlie rose. for a good few reasons. firstly, there was the issue of running into rowan abernathy-mcallister here, in valkyrie, completely by chance and out of the blue. how's that for astronomical odds? out of all the cities in america the two of them could have wound up in, they were both in the valkyrie, california, the relatively small diet cola version of los angeles. needlessly to say, charlie never would have expected for this to happen. not in a million years. not even in three million years, especially considering that they had both managed to attend the same charity ball on the same night. the second reason that this evening was an oddball one for charlie was that, after speaking to rowan, her words had, instead of taking the normal route that words being spoken at him took, actually hit him instead of simply rolling right on off of him. that hardly ever happened. he was quite used to being able to go about his life in a pretty much perpetually happy go lucky or at least indifferent mood or mindset, probably due in part to the fact that nothing anybody said ever had any sort of affect on him. it had always been that way. so when rowan had said something that had, instead of simply rolling off of him, had stung, or in another instance or two, crushed him, it did just sort of, for lack of a better phrase, threw him off a little. so, yeah, in conclusion, he was here, at valkyrie's swanky country club, dancing - well, not really right this second seeing as he had slowed their steps until they were simply standing immobile on the gleaming dance floor - with rowan abernathy-mcallister, a girl he had met a couple of years ago in philadelphia and had thought he wasn't ever going to see again, as well as having the words she spoke to him actually hit some sort of mark. if that didn't meet your definition of being at least somewhat strange, then... well, you were an odd one.

"that was what i'd come to the conclusion of." charlie found he couldn't do much but stare at her, an odd look on his face. "why? what did you think i was using you for? what would i have been getting out of hanging out with you?" he asked. "other than the honor of spending time with such an amazing and kick ass young lady, of course," he added, the corners of his mouth twitching upward. right now his plan of action was to squeeze in as many compliments as he could. because pretty much all the girls out there who didn't have severe problems with chronic hostility and bitterness or simply had a ridiculously sound reason for staying mad at someone, melted when flattered enough. flattered with sincerity, of course, he wasn't some sort of lying jerk. this wasn't to say that rowan didn't have a good reason, either, but come on. it wasn't like charlie had mercilessly slaughtered her pet kittens or anything psychotic like that. he had messed it up but he hadn't intentionally tried to cause her any harm and now he was genuinely sorry.

"no begging. please. spare me the act of your begging." charlie shook his head, his usual jovial air of happy go lucky-ocity beginning to envelope him once more. "na uh," he said resolutely. believe you me, he was willing to literally get down on his knees and beg right here, right now. he was charlie rose, since when did he care about how looked? or about any of his behavior looked, for that matter. "not unless you forgive me. otherwise i'll have no other choice, because it's probably the best way to express to you the magnitude of how ridiculously sorry i am. you know how sorry napoleon probably was that he had to surrender at waterloo? i'm even sorrier than that." hmm. he hadn't really been expecting to be bringing up napoleon in this conversation, but whatever. sometimes it was like his brain had a mind of its own. "fine, i know you, but the person i saw that night is a stranger to me. i can't see you as anything more than that guy. not until i'm sure you're not doing that anymore." charlie didn't even really pause to think before he spoke. because this was rowan. "fine, i won't do it anymore. it doesn't matter. you matter." no doubt he would regret speaking those words in one sense or another at some point down the line if she held him to them, simply out of 'stuffing his pockets' withdrawl. but there was also probably an equal probability that he would wind up being glad that he had said them if it meant that he and rowan could be friends again. "oh please. that's not necessary.." she blushed and charlie once again realized that the two of them were simply standing in the middle of the dance floor, not really moving, amidst all the rotating couples, many of whom were giving them weird looks. oops. he started up the dance movements again. "sure it is!" he declared in her response to his second audrey hepburn comment. "audrey hepburn totally have this 'i hate rowan' club because she's so jealous. angelina jolie and all the victoria secret models are in it, too."

. . . . . . .

status , finished.
tagged , rowlie. <3
attire , here.
credits , lyrics: finley quaye. formatting: me.
notes , --.

[Channing Whitaker]

THE COUNTRY CLUB, CHARITY BALL, OCTOBER 2007

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-----it was completely unlikely for the two of them to meet up here. in the exact same place and time no less. it was as if, cosmically someone or something wanted these two to meet up once again. was it to see their friendship rekindled? doubt it. was it to see the accusations fly? well if so it would only be from rowan's end. seriously none of this made sense. what, what she fated to meet him again just to relive old memories? was she supposed to see him and just forgive him because that wasn't likely going to happen? maybe somewhere deep down it had a meaning that rowan was trying to desperately to overlook. maybe they found one another again so that there could be closure. if rowan talking to him, found out about what was going on, find some reasoning behind it, then all of the pain she'd suffered since that moment would be justified. it would be like closing the book on a really hard moment in her life. rowan wasn't so sure she was ready for that. she'd been so used to having that book of pain open, able to be read by the world. she was so used to not giving people chances because of that book and because she didn't want to not have the excuse for not trusting someone. seeing charlie now, it just seemed to change all of her reasoning. she couldn't just push people away now because of her trust issues, because they were being resolved right before her eyes by the one person who had caused it all in the first place. tell me, how on earth did any of that make sense. but the more time she spent with him, the more opportunity she inadvertently gave him to mend that bridge and fix what they'd lost. because she hadn't really wanted it to end. rowan had really enjoyed charlie's company. he'd made her smile through and through, and though she hadn't forgotten the pain he'd left behind, rowan had still missed him.

-----she didn't know how to explain feeling used, or the idea that she had been used. never once before had she really needed to explain it. she'd simply felt it and if someone didn't understand that then so be it. but charlie didn't get it. worst of all he wanted an explanation that rowan wasn't prepared to give. "i don't know, as some kind of in maybe. you know, just a pawn to get to some mark. 'befriend the girl, she'll get you wherever you need to go' or something along those lines. even if it hadn't been something as literal as that, there's no way that i can explain how used i simply felt. like a ragdoll you'd just had your fun with and tossed aside. maybe it wasn't used in the literal sense but i sure and sugar felt like i had been." there wasn't much that charlie even could have gained from befriending rowan, if that had been his intention. rowan had been a girl from out of town. sure she came from a privileged family and yes her father was a senator, but where on earth could that have really gotten charlie. in savannah, probably a lot. in pennsylvania? well in that case he'd chosen the wrong mark. "oh fine, maybe you had nothin' to gain and maybe you just wanted to be a friend. i was hurt and i jumped to any and all possible conclusions. i'm not sorry about it either." an edge of stubbornness weaseled it's way into her voice but she didn't really care. her anger was on it's last legs and for some reason she was fighting just giving in and accepting his many apologies. she'd gotten to used to being mad at him, the idea of him, and was especially used to using him as an excuse to not trust people. that crutch was hard to let go of. so sue her.

-----she hated to admit that the compliments were working like a charm. god, what was she? shallow? rowan never usually reacted to well to compliments, even ones as cheesy the few charlie had spouted. it couldn't have been just the compliments. it had to have been the source of them. what could she say, even after wanting to hating him, and after hating him, for so long, rowan still had a major soft spot for her buddy from philly. "if you keep it up i'm going to get a cavity." rowan said sarcastically with a hint of a smile. they probably looked ridiculous at the moment, carrying on this conversation, unmoving, in the middle of the dance floor, but rowan didn't care. let the people spin around them. right now, she was having a conversation. rowan laughed, her gaze falling toward the floor before she collected herself, tossing her head back to it's upright position and sending her golden curls bouncing behind her. "i can't possibly forgive someone crawling on the floor so if you want my forgiveness it'll have to be another way." his words tugged at her heart. damn it he sounded completely sincere and he was most likely willing to make a fool out of himself just to earn her forgiveness. well going about it in that manner probably wouldn't get him results. she was fine having this conversation with him amongst these people, at least they weren't watching, but some guy on his hands and knees begging for her forgiveness? with all of those eyes on her rowan would probably leaver charlie on his knees in the middle of the dance floor. like a guy who proposes too soon in front of a crowd of hundreds and gets a no. it would be pretty much the same thing. so if charlie knew what was best for him, he'd save the begging for when they were alone. not that they ever would be.

-----rowan was struck speechless by how quickly charlie had agreed not to do...whatever it was he did anymore. "woah what?" she said moments later, blinking in surprise. "no way it was that easy." damn it she sounded like she was trying to change him when really that wasn't the case. how could she have this agenda to change him when she'd just seen him for the first time in years? she began moving with him as charlie picked up the dance moves again, slightly happy to not just be standing there in the center of the dance floor anymore. "all right, all right, i get it." rowan said with a chuckle, "you're half forgiven, for now. you'll be fully forgiven when i see it. until then, you'll have to be happy with that."

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status • finished
words • 1357
tagged • rowlie !
clothes • drool much?
listening to • smile - josh groban.
notes • hehe.

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