Age Is But a Number

Kevin ran after her and got to the door as it slammed, after Charlotte had already ran inside. Kevin knocked like crazy and Caitlyn answered the door.

“What did you do?” she asked, becoming protective.

“I don‘t know exactly,” Kevin said. “I just need to talk to her.”

He walked over to the bedroom door but Caitlyn stopped him. “I don‘t think she‘s in the mood Kevin. Just leave her be.”

Kevin sighed and walked back to the door, beginning to pace. Nick decided to tell him that Laura left some things in room, things he left behind when they broke up. Kevin rolled his eyes at the thought of Laura and decided he could use some time alone to breathe and hope he didn’t just ruin things between him and Charlotte.

He unlocked the door to his hotel room and walked in, smelling perfume. Then he saw clothes on the floor. He walked cautiously to the bedroom and found a smiling Laura lying on his bed in a skimpy lingerie outfit.

“Laura what the heck are you doing in my hotel room?” Kevin asked. “Is that guy in here too? You decided to stalk me and remind me why I broke up with you?”

“Oh Kevin, do you really think I could forget about you?” she asked, getting up off the bed and walking over to him. “What about all the good times together, huh? I know you miss that.”

Kevin looked away from Laura as she came closer to him. He was both freaked out and trying not to fall into the trap Laura always seems to set for him. She was beautiful, no doubt about it, and she was always able to get him to go very far, borderline too far actually. He has actually seen the piece of lingerie she was wearing before.

“Laura, please, there is no chance for us,” he told her. She wrapped her arms around his body and he felt warm all over. “I can‘t trust you again.”

“But you can kiss me again,” she breathed, her lips grazing his.

Kevin had once loved her. They were in love, and she had ruined it when he came back to his hotel room to find her and some guy named Devon in his bed, clothes strewn across the floor. He remembered the way they would kiss, how that felt, how soft and nice her lips were. . . .

He placed his hands on her hips and pulled her to him as their lips touched. Laura felt accomplished as she slipped her hands up Kevin’s shirt and sliding it off. Kevin felt himself get into a familiar setting, because he’s been in this position with Laura before. She’s sliding his shirt off. He has the taste of her lingering on his lips as he goes to the spot on her neck that tickles her as he lightly kissed it. It was almost a natural thing. They were together for two years, and their constant kissing throughout those two years made it seem effortless to kiss her the way she liked.

Laura knew she could do anything now. She moved her hands down his chest, down his stomach, and to his pant buttons. She began to unbutton them. Kevin recognized this, too. She has done this before and he stopped it before it got too far. But he just felt like he couldn’t control himself. Why does being a guy have to mean not being able to stop a beautiful girl from controlling him?

Charlotte’s a beautiful girl. More beautiful than Laura, inside and out. How could he be doing this to her?

When Laura sank down to take his pants off he realized he needed to stop for Charlotte’s sake.

“Laura get up,” he ordered.

She came back up. “You want to take over from here?” she asked him. She pressed her body against him, then her lips.

“I knew it,” a voice said.

Kevin looked over to see a crying Charlotte. “Charlie, please -”

“No, Kevin,” Charlotte interrupted. “You go ahead and continue whatever you were doing. I‘m sorry I interrupted. Gosh, I‘m sorry I ever believed you would ever feel anything for me.”

She turned around and ran out of the hotel room.

“Laura leave me alone, okay? Just leave.” He began to redress himself.

“Oh come on, Kevin, just stay. Don‘t worry about her and -”

“Get. Out,” he ordered.

Laura fumed. “Fine. Devon is better at this anyway.”

Kevin hurried getting his pants back on as he heard the door slam once again as Laura stormed out. His pants wouldn’t get back on. “Darn you skinny jeans!” he shouted, finally getting them up and buttoning them.

He ran over to Charlotte’s and Caitlyn’s hotel room and knocked with both hands. Did she come back in here? Caitlyn answered the door and asked what he wanted. He asked if he could see Charlotte. Caitlyn looked angrier and asked him why she came back crying. Kevin’s heart ached worse than it did when he found Laura with another man in his bed. So much worse.

“Please, if you let me go and talk -” Kevin pleaded.

“Why the hell did Charlotte come back crying?!” Caitlyn demanded. “She came back from the day with you upset, and then when she comes back from going to your hotel room she‘s crying.”

“I didn‘t want her to -”

“Did you say anything to her, Kevin? Did you touch her at all?”

“Touch her? What do you mean touch her?” Kevin was a bit offended that Caitlyn would even think of that.

“Charlotte has been through a lot and I have been with her through all of it. I can‘t be too cautious with anyone about any kind of situation.”

“I respect Charlotte,” Kevin explained.

“Kevin just tell us what happened,” Nick said, coming over to Caitlyn and putting a hand on her shoulder.

Kevin began with him confessing his feelings and ending with what just happened with Laura. As he explained his story, he thought about Charlie’s statement, the one about her age. Was he wrong about her age? Was she younger?

“Crap, crap, crap,” Nick muttered. “You can blame me for what happened with Laura. She tricked me.”

“No, Nick, it‘s still my fault,” Kevin reassured his brother. “I just. . . . This may sound ridiculous, but how old is Charlotte?”

“She‘s fifteen,” Joe answered. “She‘s two years younger than Nick. I think that‘s what made it even harder for her to think you like her in any way.”

Kevin exhaled deeply and placed his face into his hands. This just made things even more complicated. Much more. Not only had he ruined things between him and Charlotte, he realized that nothing could happen between the two of them in the first place. A twenty-one-year-old with a fifteen-year-old is wrong to most. He’ll be twenty-two before she even turns sixteen. It’s like a college student with a sophomore in high school. No one is going to take it lightly nor will they approve. Why did he not care? He still felt crazy about her. And heartbroken that he had hurt her the way he did.

“I have to talk to her. I have to,” he told Caitlyn, who had become the official guard of the bedroom door. “Please, Cady. Please let me try to explain myself.”

Caitlyn pondered on it and sighed, figuring that it would not kill Charlie to talk things out with Kevin. He obviously did not intend for things to go too far with Laura the Wonder Slut and was obviously dying slowly with the guilt.

“If she kicks you out it‘s not my fault,” she said and let Kevin go inside.

Charlotte sat there on the balcony with her back to the door, her shoulders shaking, soft sobs coming from her. Kevin slowly came up to her ever so slowly and stood next to her. She took one look at him and it made her heart ache even worse. She turned her face away from him. She didn’t want him to see her cry. Too many bad things have happened to her when she wasn’t crying in solitude.

“Charlotte, please look at me,” Kevin said oh so softly. “Look, I‘m really sorry. She came onto me. She was waiting in my room for me.”

“And your clothes just started taking themselves off, right?” she replied, her voice cracking.

Kevin was stumped. “I admit that I am partly to blame, but -”

“That doesn‘t change the fact that you -”

“You have to understand that she came onto me and -”

“Still kissed her and had your hands all over her and had her -”

“I didn‘t plan any of that! I don‘t want to be with her, Charlotte, I want to -”

“Taking your pants off, Kevin! I don’t even know why I even wanted to -”

“Be with you!” both of them shouted at the same time. That whole argument they were both trying to be louder than the other, both trying to get their point across.

“You actually wanted to be with me?” Kevin asked, pronouncing each word slowly. Charlotte looked away from him again. “Charlotte, you can trust me, you know that. I do not want to be with her at all. I - I know there is quite a . . . road block for us, but, I really want to be with you. Despite everything.”

“Oh really, Kevin?” Charlotte asked. “You are willing to risk being with me, a girl whose father is probably out there tracking her down and will kill anyone who is in his way. I am not a person you want to be with! You don‘t understand that I am something that is beyond repair. It is literally dangerous for you to be with me.” Tears were rolling down her cheeks rapidly. “But there you are, so kind to me, so understanding of how I am and who I am; a person who is so fun, so caring, so you, and I can‘t help but want to be with you too.”

“Charlotte, just because you‘re parents are drug addicts does not mean you are messed up in any way.”

“Yeah frickin right.”

“Even if your dad is after you at least you are not at your old house where you can be seriously hurt by those guys you mentioned, the ones that would sexually harass you. Leaving was probably the smartest thing to do before -”

“Before anything could happen?!” Charlotte shouted, finishing his sentence. “Something already happened! That so-called surgery I had was an abortion because I had a miscarriage due to the fact that my father kicked the crap out of my stomach. One of those men that would stare me down every time he came got the nerve to come and attack me. That‘s the kind of crap I‘m talking about. I‘m messed up. It‘s dangerous to be with me.”

Kevin was taken aback. Their argument was a bit heated and he was panting. And speechless. Charlotte, a fifteen year old who was dealt a bad card: congenital heart failure, a dad who beat the crap out of her, druggie parents, was raped, and had a miscarriage.

While Kevin was silent, Charlotte took that as a bad thing. Now he knows everything about her and she realized he will never look at her the same. She began to cry. This is why she limited herself to one close friend, a friend who found everything out after Charlotte knew she could trust her a year after they became friends. She told Kevin everything after almost two months. Now she ruined it.

“Charlie,” Kevin said softly. “Charlotte come here.”

He pulled her to him and Charlotte felt so crushed she didn’t care what happened. Might as well enjoy the hug. It wasn’t like Kevin was going to hug her like this - so tight, his embrace so warm - again.

“I‘m staining your shirt,” Charlotte whispered, sniffling. When she sniffed she smelled the scent that reminded her why she was upset in the first place. “And you smell like perfume.”

She pushed herself away from him. She knew Kevin really didn’t like her. He saw the girl with the broken wing and decided to tell her he liked her, and then his ex-girlfriend comes in and he forgets her and goes to the ex. He knew he could get any girl he wanted; he was Kevin Jonas of the Jonas Brothers.

“I really am sorry about that,” Kevin explained. “Trust me, Charlotte. I don‘t want anything to do with her.”

“Because there‘s always another girl you can get at the next concert,” Charlotte murmured. “And the next, and the next, and the next.”

“Really? You should know by now that I am not like that,” Kevin argued. “I can tell you now that I want to be with you.”

“Even after hearing that I am no good?”

“I want to be there for you, to help you through it all.”

Charlotte sighed. He forgot again. “Kevin, it‘s not going to work. It really is not going to work between us.”

“Why? Do you not want to be with me?” Kevin really hoped that was not the case.

“I - I really do,” Charlotte said quietly. “I told myself not to fall for you, but I did.”

“Then what is holding you back?”

“Do the words too young ring a bell? Does the number fifteen mean anything?”

“Oh what does that . . .” Kevin was going to say it doesn’t matter, but he could not figure out a reason why it wouldn’t.

“Exactly, Kevin. It just makes things too complicated, what with the constant criticism we would be getting. And, like I try to get across to you, I have my dad after me. He would not hesitate to . . . to kill you. He didn‘t last time you saw him.”

Kevin hesitantly reached out for her arm and gently held it, ready to pull her close to him. “That‘s not going to stop me, Charlie. I can‘t even tell you how much I adore you. I . . .” He pulled her to him and pressed his lips against her soft, full ones.

Charlotte pushed him off of her. “Kevin! Don‘t make this more complicated than it already is, gosh darn it!”

“But Charlotte -”

“Just stop, okay? Just stop.”

Kevin pulled her closer. His lips were inches away from hers. “Please, Charlie.”

She slapped him as his lips were about to touch hers. “I said stop it, Kevin!”