Goodnight Hollywood Boulevard

After spending the weekend in Manhattan, it was back to California. Charlotte promptly requested the week off from work and spent every minute with Garrett. February was coming to an end soon, as was the time the boys had in California. The wedding plans were proving impossible for Charlotte. She wanted to be married in Arizona, her home, and she couldn’t quite envision it, being so far away.

“Char,” Garrett said, rolling onto his side. He pushed the blankets down his body so he could watch her pace around his room. She didn’t stop her movements, only looked at him. He sighed, climbed out of bed and grabbed onto her. He dipped his head slightly so his eyes met hers. “Stop.”

Charlotte exhaled sharply. “I just want to throw up. I’m so stressed.”

“Well, stop. We don’t need to get married next month or anything. Just, you know, don’t plan anything for a while,” he soothed, guiding her to his bed. “Let’s just live in the moment and enjoy being engaged, okay?”

Charlotte’s head hit the pillows and Garrett grinned down at her. “Enjoy being engaged, hm?” she mused as his lips lightly pressed against hers.

“Mmhm,” he mumbled. “No plans, no colors, no bridezilla moments. Just you and me.”

Charlotte smirked into the kiss and allowed Garrett to pull her tank top out of her skirt. His hands slid up her torso and in one swift movement, he had the fabric over her head and in his hands. She tugged his shirt off, too, and dropped it to the floor. She hooked her fingers through his belt loops and pulled his hips flush against hers.

“Oh, my god,” she said in surprise. “I got it.”

“Got what?” Garrett asked, a hint of shock in his voice.

“Our wedding, Gar. What if we forget everything I had planned and mapped out and just- just do something untraditional? Something that incorporates me and you in it?”

He sighed softly, “I thought we just agreed to not plan anything right now?”

“We did but listen, it could be so great, Garrett. The ‘you’ part could be, like, an end-of-the-world theme, with your zombies and everything. And the ‘me’ part could be the high-end fashion aspect. The Lady Gaga of weddings!”

Garrett made a sour face. “A Lady Gaga wedding, Char? Really?”

Charlotte giggled. “Not a Lady Gaga wedding, but the Lady Gaga of all weddings.”

“I’m not following,” he said simply.

“Think royal weddings. They have to wear hats, right? But they wear these crazy hats, so it’s not like everyone is wearing the same thing,” she explained excitedly.

He made a face. “I.. I still don’t get it.”

Charlotte pursed her lips. “Think of it as a costume party, but we’d be getting married.”

Garrett thought about it for a moment before shrugging slightly and pressing his lips to hers, done with the subject. But that was all Charlotte could think about. Garrett was able to distract her for that hour, but otherwise she had decided to start fresh. She bought a new planner to piece everything together in and gathered as many wedding magazines as she could, though she rarely used them. She was sketching more ideas than ever before, thrilled to be doing something so exciting and new.

She hardly ever paid attention at work nowadays. She went to work, did the minimal tasks she was asked to do, and spent her time sketching. Not just for the wedding anymore, either, but for a new line. She found herself talking about her clothes at after parties more than established designers, and to her surprise people were interested. When she wasn’t at work-related parties, she was at the boys’ apartment sewing her clothes together by hand.

She had managed, very sneakily, to get a designer on board with her idea. He had offered to support her first showcase. All she had to do was allow two of his students to be in the show as well, and it had to be done on the school campus he worked for so that they could include it in their paper. Charlotte agreed, and she would have agreed even if he had said she needed to do the show thousands of miles away.

“You almost done, Char?” John asked, sitting down on the couch with a beer in hand.

Charlotte looked up, brushing her hands out of her eyes. “Almost. Bobbie and Sasha are going to be here any minute now. Are you coming tonight?”

“Like I would miss your first show. You were at my first show,” he chuckled. “Granted, it’s kind of different.”

Charlotte laughed, standing from the floor when she heard a knock on the door. “At least there will be plenty of pretty girls there, right?” she joked, and opened the door.

As Bobbie and Sasha stepped inside, Garrett walked out into the living room, rubbing his eyes sleepily. He sat next to John and watched as the girls fussed over the dresses. He couldn’t help but smile at how intently Charlotte was working, safety pins in her mouth as she tried to hem the dress Sasha had on.

“Gar,” Charlotte said without looking up. “Go get dressed. It’s almost time to leave.”

Garrett huffed, heading back into his bedroom to change into the outfit she had chosen for him before he took a nap earlier. Charlotte finished the last-minute touches on the two girls’ dresses before instructing them to take them off and change back into their own clothes. She couldn’t afford to have anything happen to them.

She put the dresses in garment bags and headed down the hallway to check on Garrett. After fixing his jacket a few times, she grabbed his hand and kissed his cheek. She was a bundle of nerves on the ride into the city. Her hands shook as she carried her clothes inside the gallery where the show would be held. Garrett kissed her quickly before she had to disappear backstage to get her models ready.

Charlotte helped dress her models, personally zipping each zipper and accessorizing each outfit perfectly. The school was providing hair and makeup stylists so the students were able to get some real-world practice. She was only backstage for an hour before she felt satisfied enough with how the models looked. She went into the gallery to find Garrett but was met with a full house already, with another half an hour until the show even started.

“Babe, this is so great,” Garrett cooed, coming up beside her. “I’m so proud of you.”

She smiled. “Thanks, Gary. Are the others here?”

“Just arrived,” Kennedy said, squeezing up next to her as well. He hugged her quickly. “This looks like it’ll be a good show, Char. I’m excited to see your stuff.”

Charlotte grinned and thanked him. She stood around with them for a while until she was pulled away to answer a few questions for the school paper. Finishing with minutes to spare, she rushed backstage to do one final check on the models. Everyone seemed to be doing okay still, nothing had fallen apart, and all of the girls were chattering excitedly.

The lights dimmed and the student in charge began giving directions. Backstage became a whirlwind of people rushing past and shouting instructions over the house music. Charlotte felt like her chest was going to explode as she watched the other designers putting their clothes out to the world. This would be her first time anyone would ever see a full line from her. She wasn’t sure if it would be good enough or accepted.

“Charlotte, you’re up in 40 seconds!”

Charlotte turned to Bobbie, her face pale. “Shit. This is happening.”

Bobbie only smiled, placing a hand on her sister’s shoulder. “You’ll be fine. You deserve this.”

Charlotte smiled, too. It made her feel so much better hearing that from her sister. She quickly lined up her models in order of appearance and bit her lip nervously, counting down the seconds until she had to direct them on stage. She had chosen “Time to Go” by the Maine as the song for her girls to walk to, something she hadn’t told anyone besides Jared. And she couldn’t help but giggle when she saw the looks on the boys’ faces as the opening chords started. They were completely shocked to hear their music playing instead of the trendy fusion techno that had been played for the other two designers.

Charlotte had ten models and each of them had a little over 45 seconds to walk up and down the runway. Even though it was relatively short when written down on paper, Charlotte couldn’t help but think how long it was taking. She watched each step the girls took intently and paid close attention to the reaction she was getting from the audience.

It wasn’t until Bobbie had left her side that Charlotte really felt like throwing up from the nerves. Her show was over. Her first show and there hadn’t been any glitches. She listened as the crowd cheered and clapped for her and smiled so widely that it hurt. All of her models came up behind her, pushing her out on stage.

“Charlotte van Heusen!” Bobbie said into a microphone. “Creator of this line.”

Charlotte blushed several shades of red, waving slightly at the audience. She and the models bowed gracefully before hugging and then heading backstage again. The boys were waiting for her, each of them smiling.

“Char, those were so good!” Pat shouted and squeezed her tightly.

“I had no idea you were going to use one of our songs,” Garrett laughed. “Sneaky.”

“I asked Jared if it would be okay,” Charlotte replied, laughing as well. Everyone looked at Jared, who only shrugged in response. “Did you guys like it?”

“Like it?” Kennedy asked, baffled. “Loved it is more like it!”

Charlotte talked to the boys for a while longer until she had to collect her clothes from the models and give a brief interview to a few more students. By the time she was finished, the boys had gone back to the apartment and only Garrett was left waiting. Bobbie had taken Sasha home, so they had told Garrett, but they both knew the girls had gone out to party.

“The guys planned a party for you at the apartment,” Garrett told her before she could ask where everyone had gone. “It’s supposed to be a surprise.”

Charlotte laughed, “Well, thanks for ruining it.”

Garrett was going to reply but he was cut off by a certain honey-coated voice he could never forget. Except this time, it felt cold. “Charlotte.”

Charlotte turned slowly to face Leslie. She was standing with her hands on her hips, unamused, tapping her heels. “Just what do you think you are doing?” she demanded.

“I found an opportunity and I took it,” Charlotte explained, almost bitterly.

“This is completely out of line. You are an intern,” Leslie reprimanded. “You are so lucky I’m your boss and not someone else in the company. You could be fired for this.”

Charlotte sighed sadly, something Garrett definitely didn’t like the sound of. He stepped forward slightly, ready to speak again, but stopped when Charlotte squeezed his hand. “I quit.”

“You- You what? You can’t quit,” Leslie stammered. She looked shocked, to say the least.

Charlotte shrugged. “I can do what I please. And I’m quitting. I’m tired of giving you my ideas and never being crediting for any of it. I’m not advancing at all, not even slowly. I run to the mailroom and I get you coffee. That’s not where I want to be right now, especially after tonight.”

Leslie’s eyes turned cold. “You won’t go anywhere, Charlotte. Tonight? This was luck. You don’t have any formal training and your seams were visible. It was a mess. No one will pick it up.”

“My designs, however sloppy they are now, will be fixed soon enough,” Charlotte said calmly. “And you don’t have any rights to them. Which, as far as I’m concerned, makes them perfect.”

Before Leslie could get another word in, Charlotte took Garrett’s hand and pulled him out of the building. He watched speechlessly as Charlotte shoved garment bag after garment bag into the backseat of his car before she pushed the seat back and fell into it. He licked his lips, closing the door for her, and rounded the car to his side.

“Well, that was interesting,” he mumbled, starting the engine and pulling out of the parking spot.

“It had to be done,” Charlotte murmured. “Now I can move back to Arizona and I won’t ever have to see Wyatt again. I’ll be home with you and we can just.. move on with our lives.”

Garrett drove with a smile on his face. He couldn’t think of anything to say that hadn’t already been said, or that she wasn’t already thinking. He knew her heart was pounding in her chest at a million miles a minute, especially now after standing up to her boss like that. He simply drove them back to the apartment, took her clothes inside, and they partied without mentioning anything to the others.

It wasn’t until much later, in the early morning hours, that Charlotte and Garrett were locking themselves in his room while the others continued to drink and party. Garrett stripped down to his underwear as Charlotte rummaged through his drawers, pulling on a shirt and pair of old shorts. They then cuddled up together in his bed, sighing heavily at the idea that the long day is finally over.

“I have something to tell you,” Charlotte said softly, placing a hand on Garrett’s cheek. He mumbled under his breath, eyes already closed. “I was accepted to FIDM for the fall.”