The Problem with Charlie

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*****

When you meet that SOMEONE, everyone says that you’ll know. Right away. But what if you found him, he was there, and you didn’t connect. He’s still your other half. It’s just that no one remembered to mention it to you two. And you sat there, and you hated him. You sat there, looked at the guy who you won’t make sense without in a few years, and you loathed him. How would you feel, if three years later, you saw each other again and fell madly in love? If you had a one night stand, that turned into a hell of a lot more than one night, which ended up being the epic love story that everyone wishes for.

Well, that’s not what it was like for me. Because Charlie had a girlfriend from the start, and I never knew. Because I would have lived my life without him if it hadn’t been for an almost deadly mistake. I was never meant to find Charlie at all. He and I were never supposed to have known each other. The other way this story could have ended is in my death. But he saved me. That’s what you need to remember. That, no matter what we go through in this, he still saved me. And that’s why we are inexplicably bound.

*****

Charlie and I met when I was a freshman in high school. He was a senior then, and I was awed by his skill. We were both in band and both of us play piano. We had seen each other at piano competitions before, and I knew that he was good. But, we were never in the same circle of players. While we were both classically trained, he stayed with classical music. I branched out, playing everything from Mozart to Fun to ACDC (and it takes talent to make their music sound right on piano, seriously). My friends were the unique ones. Never going to be “popular,” but we would always have each other. And that was okay with me.

Charlie was different. He had always been Mr. Popular, wowing girls everywhere with his piano playing skills and his ways of romancing a girl. While I refused the in crowd, he reveled in it. His every move was meant to up his popularity. But, he was never a jerk to anyone. He just was on another level, above all the “unpopular people. And that’s why I couldn’t stand him.

But, life goes on. I lived through my freshman year, suffering through the fall sport season. I hate football, and I only see people getting hurt when they crash into each other. Few people at the games see that these concussions and injuries will someday ruin the lives of the players. All they see is boys being “manly.” Too bad that it will one day be their downfall.

But, I won’t play their games. Instead, I play piano. Nonviolent, with no one screaming and yelling as you play. There is nothing harmful about piano, except if the keys are too sharp. It’s why I can survive high school. Because I figured out a long time ago that getting involved with anyone is too much work, I keep to myself. I play piano, I run, and I swim. I do my school work and stay out of the popular path. Still, I stay focused on piano. I have this dream of going to Julliard someday. But, first, I have to get through high school.

And I was far too busy thinking about some school work that day. School had just finished for the day, and I was going to get my stuff for swim practice, which was in the gym, across one of the many roads that crisscross MPI’s campus. And that’s when it happened. Frickin’ Charlie went and saved my life. The car was going too fast. I was thinking and not looking both ways when I crossed the street to go get my swim bag. And Charlie saw the car coming. He saw the car coming and he saw me step into the street. We might not like each other, we might never get along, but Charlie has always been a good person. No matter how much I deny it.

Do I regret living? No. Do I hate that I now owe him my life? Hell yeah I do. And I can’t stop wondering what he’s going to expect me to say to him on Saturday. The day of the biggest piano competition of my life. The one that decides whether or not I get the scholarship to Julliard. Which is what I’ve been working towards ever since I was three, when I was doing scales for hours. Which is why I barely do anything except school, swimming, and piano. This is why I have no friends other than the unique ones. It was all so that I could get that full scholarship to Julliard, which is the only way I’m going to get to go to the school of my dreams. There’s just one problem.