Montana Mansion

Wow. -Amanda

Amanda's POV:

Taking a deep breath, I entered Charlene's room. "Hey, babe." I smiled falsely as I looked at the one girl who could have taken Finn from me do her toenails on the floor.

"Hey Amanda!" she replied cheerfully. "I just finished. Want to do my nails? I'll do yours."

This was much more casual and friendly than I had expected. 

"Sure. Where?"

"My balcony." I didn't like that. Charlene and I would be talking very near a ledge she could push me off.

"OK. Meet you out there?"

"Mhm." Charlene's mind was obviously elsewhere as she put together her nail polishes. From a seat at the small table on the balcony, I watched her grab pillows, blankets, a hairbrush, makeup, a lantern, flashlights, and finally walk outside. She shut the door behind her.

CLICK!

"Char!" I exclaimed. "It's the middle of the night. Why did you lock us out here?"

"There are lights," she shrugged. "And we aren't going back inside until we fix this mess."

I sighed. "We do need to talk. We can't keep avoiding each other like this. There's too much tension."

"Why did you let Jess tell me to back off if it upset you so much?" Charlene went in for the kill as she sat down across from me.

"I didn't know." I played with the ends of my hair. "I never would have let her, because now I have no idea if Finn would have liked you better if you'd played as hard as me."

"Yeah," she whispered. "He might have."

"Probably would have. You're gorgeous."

Charlene glowed. "Thanks."

"It's true."

"But one of us had to lay off of him or we might have all gone up in flames." It was Charlene's turn to sigh. "And Jess decided that that person should be me."

"Only because everyone's jealous of you." I gasped. Where did that come from? I wasn't jealous of Charlene. 

Was I?

"Why are you all jealous of me?" Charlene looked confused. Very confused.

"Well, you're perfect. You're gorgeous and you've got the perfect life. Perfect family."

"Perfect life?" Charlene laughed. "You were there when Finn found out I was only fourteen, weren't you?"

"There's nothing wrong with you being younger than us. Makes you more attractive, really."

"How so?"

"You've got the perfect figure, perfect face, perfect hair and you are so mature for your age. If you're like this now, imagine how amazing you are going to be when you grow up."

Charlene looked like she was about to cry. "Perfect family?"

"Of course. Your mom is, amazing. Coolest mom ever. I mean, your dad died, but he loved you. I don't know how my parents felt about me."

Charlene shook her head slowly, a sad smile taking form on her lips. Crocodile tears slipped down her cheeks. "That's the greatest gift of all." Charlene bit her lip and looked down at her lap. "I would have loved to live having no idea how my dad felt about me."

I furrowed my brow. "Why? He loved you. I don't know if my parents did."

Charlene look back up at me and met my gaze. "Oh, Amanda. But they might have."

"But yours did. For sure."

"My father never loved me."

Her words hit me like a block of wood. "What? Why do you think that?"

Charlene swallowed slowly. Carefully, she started to speak. Something about her tone told me not to interrupt. "My father never loved me. He wasn't ever proud of me, no matter what I did. On his deathbed, he," Charlene looked to the ground and her hands clenched into fist. She took slow, steadying breaths. She started again. "The last words he said to me were, 'You quit the keepers, Charlene. Medal in the Olympics. Give me one reason to be proud of my own daughter. I wish I could've disowned you before I ended up here'."

Her words cut into me like ice.

"He never once said he loved me. Neither did yours, Amanda, but they never had the chance." Charlene had passed the sad stage. She was nearly spitting when she continued. "I crave male attention. Something to tell me that I matter. But I haven't had one steady boyfriend. Not one." Charlene looked up and met my gaze. There was no anger or resentment in her eyes. Only heartbreak. "Then I found one that seemed to like me. Seemed to care. But he found someone else."

Me.

We sat in silence for a moment. "I love him, Amanda."

I gasped. "You love him?"

"Of course I do." She smiled bittersweetly at me. "I pictured having a life with him. We'd have a dozen children and we'd get married young. 18 for me, 20 for him. Or whenever the OTs were defeated, whichever came last."

I gaped at her. This little girl had her entire life planned out with my boyfriend. I didn't have our next date planned. "I'm breaking up with him."

"What?" Charlene exclaimed, her eyes widening to the size of saucers.

"I don't love him like you do, and if someone meant that much to me that you were dating, wow. I would have pushed you off the balcony by now." I leaned across the table to Charlene and grabbed her hand. "I can't guarrantee that he loves you, Char. I really don't know. After what Jess did, I love her, but she could have screwed up fate. But, if she hadn't tinkered, Char, I think you would have been the one to end up with Finn." I shook my head. "And after everything you've been through, Charlie, I couldn't think to dump more pain on you."

Charlene leapt across the table and hugged me. Hard. Like broken rib level hard. "Thank you, Amanda," she whispered softly into my ear.

"I love you, Char."

"I love you too."