Charlie's Lucky Charm

9: Confessions

It takes at least over an hour before Frank comments out "oh, I think he's coming to."

Charlie begins to stir awake, his head in my lap and I try to slow him from sitting up so quickly "Oh, shit, that hurt." His hand flies to his head where he just shot a flare gun at.

I try to get him to lay back down "oh, easy."

Charlie groans in pain and comments out "well, I guess that means we're alive, huh?"

"Yeah, guess we are." Dee snickers.

At the same time Dennis also mutters "guess we are, Charlie."

"Good, well, then maybe everything's gonna be okay." He says, being optimistic.

Mac replies "uh, no, pal, we're in deep shit here." He looks down.

Charlie looks down to see what we've all seen for a bit of time now and comments "oh, shit!"

He see's the water piling in, out ankles already covered with sea water. He tries to stand up, a bit freaked out and I put my hand on his arm "take it easy. Okay, take it easy."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not good. It's not good. Oh." He looks around at all our feet, freaking out.

Dee says "as long as, um, we're not gonna get out of here-- and it looks like that's sort of where this is headed-- is it okay if I just confess something, get it off my chest before we die?"

"That's a good idea." Dennis nods his head "we shouldn't die holding things in about ourselves. Go ahead, Dee."

"No, we're going to be fine" I try to stop her from confessing whatever shit she wants to confess.

She doesn't listen to me and utters out quickly "Mac owns a Cowboys jersey. I saw him wearing it in the back office."

"What?" Dennis, Frank and Charlie call out together.

"Uh... What?!" Dennis adds on again.

"That's a secret, Dee! What are you..." He tries to argue with Dee.

Dennis comments "don't say it's Romo."

"Of course it's Romo!" He replies "who else would it be?"

"Oh, my God!" Charlie screams.

Mac defends "I'm sorry. You don't think he deserves to be MVP?!"

"You son of a bitch." Frank shouts.

Mac continues to defend himself "he's constantly overlooked!"

"You are a traitor!" Dennis accuses him.

I roll my eyes as Mac calls out "how many Super Bowls have the Birds won?"

"Oh, shut up!" Dee yells.

At the same time Charlie calls out "go Birds!" He then caws like an eagle.

I decide to end this stupid argument and yell out "Oi, oi, oi!"

"Okay, you know what?" Mac changes the topic "I've got something I want to confess. Charlie changes Frank's prescription on his glasses to keep Frank dependent on him."

"Whoa!" Charlie yells out "why the hell you blowin' up my spot, man?!"

Dennis utters "wow. Uh, I'm sorry, Frank."

"All right, fine. Well, as long as we're "tattling," uh," Charlie stands up to defend himself "Dennis ripped up all the letters that your dad wrote from prison, so... you know."

He chuckles at his confession but Mac whispers out "what? My dad has been writing?" He turns to his friend "Dennis, is that true?"

"Yeah, man, but you were just gonna be, like, talking about it all the time, and then your dad was probably gonna come to our house and, like, try to kill us or eat our butts." Dennis says to him trying to explain his reasoning "you know? I'm trying to protect you, dude! And me."

Mac asks "does he still write?"

"Well, no, pal, 'cause you never wrote him back." Dennis explains. Mac sighs but Dennis goes on "but, hey, if it makes you feel any better, I-I read all those letters, and he never once said that he loved you. He just mostly wanted you to send him, like, pornographic magazines and put drugs in your butt hole."

Mac and Dennis start to yell and fight one another and I just sit dumbfounded next to Frank waiting for it to be over. They yell at one another but Charlie just suddenly yells out "I'm in love with Bevin!" Everyone goes silent, and my eyes go straight to Charlie as he stands and I'm sitting, wondering what the hell he is saying. Everyone else stares at him and he explains "yup, I love her. She's the best and I love her." He then turns his head to look to me "Bev, I love you." He and everyone else wait for me to say something back. I go to open my mouth but no words come to mind to speak out. Charlie and I hold our eye contact while Frank mutters something out loud to get the others arguing and yelling again.

At some point as the others yell, Charlie and I break eye contact and I keep my eyes focused on my knee's. What the hell just happened? I think to myself. Charlie loves me? That's not possible, he loves the waitress. Hell, he fucking stalks her. How could he love me. But I can't help my mind flashing back to his eyes looking into mine, how sincere they looked when he said he loved me. The water continues to fill up quickly and we're all swimming now. Although a part of me is livid I let myself get into this mess, the other part of me knows I've never lived more in my life before until I met these hooligans. I'm furious I'm about to die on a cruise ship, but I know I lived as much life as I could the past few months since knowing them then I probably would have if I never moved to Philadelphia. As the water continues to rise, one by one the rest of the gang start to give in and let themselves succumb to the room filled water. Finally, it's just Charlie and I. "Charlie" I call to him "did you mean it, you love me?"

He grabs my hand "yes, I love you."

I squeeze his hand, worried as all hell about dying right now. I try to take comfort with someone next to me who loves me. I confess "I'm scared as shit."

"I got you" He tells me, giving me a soft smile. I return the smile and the two of us take a deep breathe and lower ourselves into the water. A few seconds into the water and half of the room glows light. The door open and everyone start to fight to get up and out, including myself. Once my mouth reaches the air, my lungs beg for air and I inhale deeply.