Taking Charlotte Out on Labyrinth Gardens

Daniel

April 29, 2009 2:40 PM

Taking Charlotte Out by Daniel

Danny's eyebrows lifted in surprise as Charlotte offered the insight that her legs were unshaven. He rubbed his own smooth chin absently. "It's okay," he told her. "I haven't shaved either." A tinge of annoyance entered his tone as he expanded upon his inferior adolescent progress, "I've got the supplies all ready, too, but not a single chin hair to shave off. I check twice daily."

He shook his head as the left the confines of the school building and he led his date over toward the Gardens. "But I guess if your legs are all hairy, we can just walk and pick flowers." Wait. Had he just really said that? Out loud? In that tone of voice which all but screamed that he thought picking flowers was for sissies and that he'd much rather go looking for the stream that he didn't even know how to find? Dear God.

He had thought he was a pretty suave guy. He'd practiced. He was an actor. He was supposed to have better control of what came out of his mouth. Nobody was ever supposed to know what he was actually thinking. This dating thing was way more dangerous than anybody had ever let on. He didn't think he knew Charlotte well enough to love her, but he was certainly acting idiotic enough.

"I'm a moron," Daniel thought. No, that had been out loud. "Crap." So had that been. "I'm having trouble with my inside voice and my outside voice," he confided. "My outside voice is getting stuff that's supposed to stay in my head. Love is clearly overrated. See? That was supposed to be kept to myself."

1 Daniel Taking Charlotte Out 130 Daniel 1 5

Charlie

April 30, 2009 4:26 PM

First time for everything by Charlie

Charlie couldn't help but keep giggling that Daniel wanted to shave but couldn't yet. "My brother's fifteen and he doesn't shave yet," she said, her tone more matter-of-fact than consoling. Besides, it was only a part-truth, because although Charlotte was fairly certain Oliver didn't shave, Julian defintely did, and had for a few years. She was worryingly close to sharing this useless information but was saved from speaking by Daniel's sudden complaint.

Quick to temper, Charlie pulled her hand from his and frowned. "We can find the stupid stream if you want," she retorted, then blinked, because that's not quite how she'd meant to react. "I mean, we can try to find the stream if that's what you want to do," she said, and although it sounded better, it wasn't quite the 'we can do whatever you prefer' with the sweet smile that she'd intended.

It seemed she wasn't the only person there having difficulties with words. Daniel said he was speaking aloud his thoughts without meaning to. He said something about love being overrated, too, but Charlie skimmed over that part. "Well seeing as neither of us can keep our mouth shut it seems like a great time to get to know each other," she said, and she sounded happy about this. In fact there was a tiny part of her brain reminding her that she might end up saying some thing she'd regret, but for some reason that little voice couldn't make itself heard. "Like you could tell me if you even want to be on this date." Whose brain and mouth did she even have right now, anyway?

0 Charlie First time for everything 0 Charlie 0 5

Daniel

May 04, 2009 11:01 AM

So don't blame me for lack of practice by Daniel

Daniel nodded as Charlie told him that her 15 year old brother didn't shave yet. His research had shown him that the range for beginning that particular activity was pretty wide. "Still, I want to be ready when it happens for me; I couldn't abide being hairy for even a day," he found himself saying, and wasn't entirely sure how much of what he'd just thought had actually been out loud.

It occurred to him that she might take that to be censure against her own hairy legs, and promptly heard his tongue digging him even deeper, "No, you could be right. We'll skip the stream. I might not want to see your hairy legs, after all. We'll just walk."

His eyes grew wide with horror at his own words. Man, she had ever reason to slap him. He half raised an arm defensively in precaution. "Don't hit me," he said in a truly wimpy plea that he would never have allowed past his lips under normal circumstances. "It's my tongue's fault, it's not listening to my brain."

While she had seemed pretty pleased by the whole truth telling phenomenon going on here, Daniel didn't like it one bit. "And the truth is, I'm not so thrilled with this date anymore. It had seemed like a good idea a few minutes ago, but that was before I realized having a girlfriend made you forget all your manners and how to lie. I don't like me like this, and I can't imagine how you possibly could. No wonder Mom got divorced so many times. Guys are jerks when they like a girl. Maybe Dad has the right idea with sticking to other guys. Crap, I was not supposed to say that."

Daniel's earlier horror paled beside what he felt now. It was one thing to embarrass himself, but that a was a sacred family secret. Not even Holly knew. His face went white, and his voice turned urgent. "You can't tell anyone, Charlie. Promise me."

1 Daniel So don't blame me for lack of practice 130 Daniel 0 5

Charlie

May 10, 2009 3:20 PM

Practise makes perfect by Charlie

Charlie had to agree with Daniel's sentiments about the date; it had seemed like a good idea a while ago, but nothing was going according to plan (Yet for some reason she couldn't fathom, Charlotte still found herself in a good mood. Usually when dates went bad she could be sulky for hours). There were, however, some parts of his outburst that she didn't agree with, and she told him so. "I don't think it's having a girlfriend that makes you talk like an idiot," she said, not even realising her musings could under some circumstances be taken for an insult, "but I do like that I seem to be having some sort of effect on you."

But Daniel was still talking. He said some rather surprising stuff about his parents. It made both of Charlie's eyebrows jump up towards her hairline. She guessed it must have surprised Daniel, too, because his face went white as a sheet as he begged her not to tell. "I swear on my life," she told him earnestly, and while she meant it she mostly wanted him to calm down. "I'm not the sort to spread rumours, don't you worry."

That, of course, left a very tense sort of silence, and before Charlie could even think about it, she found herself saying, "Look, this date isn't going anywhere. We're both being weird. But I think you would make an excellent boyfriend, so maybe we should try again some other time. Maybe after the summer when we've had time to mature. That sound like a plan to you?"

0 Charlie Practise makes perfect 0 Charlie 0 5

Daniel

May 11, 2009 2:09 PM

Perfect by Daniel

Danny was relieved and his whole body showed it, from the slump of his shoulders, to the loosened fists (when had he clenched those?), to the whoosh of breath, to his closed eyes and the way his skin began to regain its color. He nodded slowly. "Thanks, and yeah. That sounds like a great idea," he agreed, the first time since they'd started talking that his mind and mouth were in complete accord.

He pulled out a small notepad (he always had one with him - he was a proud member of Aladren House, after all) and a quill and wrote down his address. He tore the small page out and handed it to Charlotte. "Here's my address. We can write over the summer, get to know each other a littler better before we jump into dating." That was more in line with his normal behavior, and he felt glad that he was falling back into his usual patterns. This evening had been weird and unsettling and he didn't like it one bit.

"Don't feel offended if I take a little while to reply. I'm going to be acting on Street Beat - it's a cop show on the CW - so I don't have a lot of free time during the summer." He didn't mention that his real life dad played his TV father, but when the credits named Matt Bealer as Dan Nash and Nate Bealer as Danny Nash (another reason he was trying to go by Daniel here), it was going to be pretty obvious. Plus, the family resemblance was pretty striking. Danny didn't know what traits he'd inherited from his mother, but they weren't in his looks.

And the fact that he wasn't telling Charlie about his genealogical history was probably a pretty strong indication that whatever had come over him was starting to fade and attributed that to the plan to part company for the time being. It was clearly the right decision.

1 Daniel Perfect 130 Daniel 0 5