233 New beginnings, changing times, and culinary crimes (1/2)
Seeing this, Monica smiled. ”So this is why you were so shy and panicked last night...”
Chuck looked at the ground, then spoke with a pitch that was a little higher than yesterday. It was her natural voice. ”Sorry… Yea, I've…never actually gotten this far with a girl.”
”Why dress up as a guy?”
Chuck sighed. ”It's a long story…”
”Well, I'd love to hear it.”
After hesitating for a few seconds, Chuck decided to share a little. ”I get lonely…but…something happened to me once, and I couldn't trust men after. No, I became terrified of even touching them… So I thought maybe…I'll try dating girls, but...being reserved, I didn't know how to approach them either. Then, I found a group of guys online, who I could hang out with, and with whom I could speak to women.”
She bit her lip. ”But I didn't think they'd accept me as a girl. So I started dressing this way, and found it helped me open up more too. When I'm in men's clothes, it's like they see me differently; I feel like they don't want anything from me. And I see them in another way too. The tension's gone, so I don't have the same fear…
I can even touch them without…triggering my issues; Something I couldn't deal with no matter how hard I tried before. I hoped I could bring some of this into the rest of my life, but so far, it hasn't happened…”
Then, she smiled. ”The guys aren't bad either, a bit weird but, they're funny… I enjoy my time with them, so…” She stared at Monica with her big eyes, showing a pleading expression like a hungry puppy. ”Please, you can't tell anyone…”
Monica got up from the bed and came to sit next to her on the futon, prompting Chuck to move her contact lens case before Monica sat on it.
She patted Chuck's back and smiled. ”Don't worry, your secret's safe with me… You sure are cute as Chuck though, but that can't be your real name, right?”
Chuck brushed back her hair with her fingers, as she tried to recover the slicked-back style which had come undone over the course of sleeping. Blushing, she shook her head.
”What's your name, dear?”
After a long pause, she answered. ”I-its…Charlotte.”
***
A while later, Ben, Beluga, and Antonio were sitting in a booth at a diner near Beluga's house. The smell of coffee, orange juice and eggs permeated the air as they prepared to order their breakfast, a victory feast of sorts.
The girls were gone already, having gotten picked up by a friend after waking up in various states of 'what the f*ck?'
The rooster crow of the drunk slut...
Chuck also went home after saying he didn't feel well. So, that left the three guys. ”That was some night.” Ben rolled his shoulders back in a stretch as he leaned back against the red upholstery.
Picking up his coffee on the other side of the booth, Beluga also thought so. ”The quality of the females was indeed notable.”
Ben's preferences were different though. ”I still prefer the smaller bars like Domina. They're more intimate, with less nonsense like what happened with the VIP.”
On that note, Beluga couldn't help recalling many things as he gazed at Ben. It amazed him how much Ben changed in a couple of short months. Beluga still remembered teaching the fat boy to open women, and how Ben failed hundreds of times before getting any semblance of success. Now, this 18 year old even pulled off a miracle play in the top club of Manhattan that he shouldn't have even been in.
It didn't become any less shocking each time he thought about it.
First, Ben cleared the VIP somehow, which Beluga still didn't understand. In the boy's words, he weaponized his anus and launched a nuclear beefwalk...
The truth was a matter of debate, but amazing either way. Then, Ben pulled that set of girls back to the house, leading to all of them closing, which was unthinkable. Yet, it wasn't only that.