Royal Dilemma

Chapter Eight

(Charli's Point of View)

 Summer passed in a blur of waiting tables, sweating my ass off, and going out with Piper every weekend. Before I know it the fall semester is here and my classes are starting back up again. I wish I had done more with my summer, maybe taken a short vacation or gone to the beach a few more times. But I know if I were to do it all over again I'd probably have the same outcome. I need money, I can't afford to take days off of work.

I pull my sweatshirt sleeves over my hands as I make the trek from the university campus to the bus stop. My backpack is heavy with textbooks and binders, I'm already drowning in homework and we're only a month into classes.

The bus is packed and I have to sit next to a man who smells a little bit like pickled onions. Gross.

Forty-five minutes later I'm shuffling into my apartment, my eyes drooping. I'm exhausted. I check the time and find I have about two hours to get some homework done before I have to go to work. I feel like all I ever do is work. I'm either working on schoolwork or I'm working at my job.

Saturday nights are the only time I feel the stress fade from my body. For one night a week, I can just relax and have fun shooting the shit with my best friend. One of our favorite things to do is people-watch at the bar. We make up stories about the other patrons and try to see who can come up with the most outrageous one.

But on Sunday morning I'm back to the never-ending anxiety and stress that eats away at me. I know this can't possibly be healthy but I also don't know a way of alleviating it.

"I feel like you're going to have a heart attack at twenty-two or something," Piper says one night when we're doing homework at her kitchen table. "You worry too much. You need to find a stress reliever or something."

"Let me know when you find a good one," I mutter, flipping through my textbook.

"Maybe you need to develop a pot habit."

I roll my eyes. "I can't afford a pot habit."

"Maybe you can start dating a stoner and he'll supply all the pot."

"Yeah, no thanks."

Piper sighs but thankfully goes back to taking notes in her textbook.

I'm relieved when Saturday night rolls around. Piper curls my hair for me and then complains when I refuse to dress up. I'd rather be comfortable than pretty and, not to brag, I have no trouble ensnaring men despite the way I dress.

"We're going to get laid tonight," Piper states as she sits down at one of the high-top tables.

I take the opposite seat and smile at her. "The universe wants us to get laid."

"That's the spirit!" She takes a sip of her cocktail and looks around the bar. "Not a lot of prospects though. God, is every guy here a frat boy?"

I follow her gaze to a group of douchey-looking guys crowded into a booth. "The universe would not make us fuck a frat boy," I say, looking back at her. "We'll find somebody worthy."

"What's his story?" Piper says, pointing to a guy wearing a sweater vest over a striped collared shirt.

I take a moment to think up a backstory for the man. "He used to be a scientist for NASA but he had sex with one of the aliens so he got fired. The alien got pregnant and went back to her home planet to abort the abomination and then she ghosted him so now he's looking for a rebound."

She tilts her head while staring at the guy. "What type of alien?"

"Some sort of reptile," I say with a shrug. "She kind of looked like an alligator."

Piper laughs. "Nice." She turns her gaze to a table of men not far from us. "I believe I've found my prospect."

"Go get 'em, tiger."

Piper grins and then makes her way over to the other table. I watch her for a moment and then set out to find my own guy for the night. It turns out to be a lot harder than it sounds. The first guy I talked to kept asking weird questions about what types of shoes I like. Foot fetish?

The next guy won't stop talking about a football team I could not care less about. I start to tune out my third guy of the night who's rambling about some TV show I've never heard of when my eyes wander to the bar and I see a familiar face.

No. Way.

CJ is approaching the bar and, wow, he's even more handsome than I remember. I feel a little tug in my tummy as if there's a magnet inside of it and it's pulling me directly towards CJ. The urge to go up to him is overwhelming.

Run, I tell myself. Run away while you still can.

I don't move though, I stay right where I am while the guy I'm with continues to blather on about his show.

I have this feeling, a feeling like something is about to change in a big way. I know that if I go up to CJ right now it's going to be the start of something, I don't think it will end at a hookup this time. A repeat is a fluke, but... sleeping with someone three times? That's a little bit of a commitment.

I feel like I'm on the edge of a cliff trying to decide whether or not I should jump into the water below. This is the start of something new and different and I'm not sure if I want that.

CJ smiles and says something to the bartender.

I want CJ, I know that much, and I know I want him in a way I've never wanted other men. I want to know him, I want him to know me. But it's a scary thing to be truly seen by someone else. You never know if you can really trust them or not and CJ's already proven to be kind of shady.

"Sorry, I have to go," I say, cutting off the man who was talking to me and making my way towards the bar.

I'm going to take that leap, even if there might be rocks in the water below.