Kingdom Keepers: Once Upon a Dream

Chapter 14

A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry I never finished updating on here. I ended up having a crazy semester! But now I'm going to catch the story up on here, and continue posting on AO3, so hopefully I can finally get this story done publishing, since it's been completed for about a year.  This chapter has been one of my favorites through the entire process, so I really hope you enjoy!!!

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It was late in the evening the next day. Terry was working on painting a piece behind the counter at Crazy Glaze. The place was empty, despite being open, and low-volume music streamed from a nearby Bluetooth speaker connected to his phone. He'd always felt at peace when he was alone like this, doing nothing but working on his art. His life was stressful, for sure, but for all the things that were wrong, he at least got to spend most of his time doing what he loved.

Just then, the bell above the door, which was supposed to indicate a customer, rang. He shut off his music and looked up to see Charlie standing in the doorway, clutching her purse and smiling shyly.

"Hey!" he said, startled, quickly rushing to take off his apron and put down his paints.

"Hi," she replied, not yet fully stepping into the room.

"What's up?" he asked.

Charlie, apparently taking his question as an invitation in, smiled and skipped over to the counter, all the while reaching into her purse. He chuckled as he watched her; since the last time she was here, she hadn't really seemed like herself, but now, approaching him with a bounce in her step and a bright smile on her cheeks, she looked just like the girl he'd always seen walking the halls of their high-school: eternally cheery, and always walking around like she could instantly take command of any room. It always used to annoy him, but now, something had changed. He found it...intriguing.

"The parents of one of the kids I coach own this local movie-theatre in Winter Park, and the other day they gifted me with this voucher for two free tickets," she explained. "I thought it might be fun to go see something together!"

She held up two movie tickets with an excited giggle.

"Oh," Terry said, startling.

"What is it?"

"It's nothing..." he stuttered, grabbing the counter as he felt his balance trying to go out from under him. "Why me?"

"Well I don't know," Charlie sighed, hardly making eye contact as she held onto the counter and swayed back and forth. "My Mom, bless her, has been begging me to get out and do something with someone other than her, and I don't really talk to my high-school friends anymore, and all of my friends from college live in different states, so you guys are pretty much all I have right now. Finn would spend the entire time talking about the mission, and Willa or Dell would start confusing me talking about some kind of random subject I know nothing about, and those other girls, Jess and Amanda, I don't even know what's going on with them. But you just...I don't know you're....you just...I feel like we could have a nice time together okay?"

Terry said nothing, and Charlie looked at the floor with a straight face, feeling vulnerable. She'd never spoken so unclearly like that, never rambled, or stuttered or anything. She wanted to curse at something for the notion that it was happening to her now of all times, and she barely breathed at the thought that she might have just completely turned Terry off from ever speaking to her again.

She looked up at him, and his expression was still blank, until, after a moment, it melted into a goofy smile, and Charlie found herself smiling back. Then, without saying anything else, the two of them started laughing, and the tension in the room dissolved.