Teenage Dream

22

Christmas is about a week away.  New Years Eve is 2 weeks away.  And they are spending them both in New York City!

Stepping off that plane, Charlie thought she would burst, but even that couldn’t compare to the way she feels right now, standing in the middle of Times Square, looking up at all the billboards, flashing lights and skyscrapers.

Christmas in New York.

Kayla was just as excited.  Charlie spun around to look at everything, and when she stopped to face her, Kayla let out this high pitched squeal that made Logan flinch.  “Shopping on fifth! White Christmas on Broadway! Christmas Eve party at the Plaza! New Years Eve in Times Square!” She said, grabbing Charlie’s hands and jumping up and down.  Charlie joined her.  Who cares about the thousands of other people surrounding them, including Logan!? This is exciting!

They spent about 4 hours dragging Logan from store to store.  He was resistant at first, then he started just tagging along, but around hour 4, he had that look like he was going to start putting up a fight.  They were on Fifth Avenue when Kayla spotted the Abercrombie and Fitch, with the hot, shirtless model standing just inside the doorway. 

“We have to get a picture, Jess will die!” she said, grabbing Charlie’s hand.

   After some begging and bribing, they got Logan to take Charlie’s camera, and they posed on either side of the unreasonably good looking model. 

“Oh you know what would really kill her?” Charlie asked Kayla after the flash went off.  Kayla looked at her.  “Take one more Logan!” Charlie told him, “Fine, 3, 2, 1” Charlie got up on her tiptoes and planted a kiss right on the guys cheek, just before the flash went off.  Kayla dissolved into giggles when she realized what her best friend had done. 

“Sorry, thanks for the pictures” Charlie said, with a cute, almost cheeky smile on her face, before making her way back over to Logan, who was doing a wonderful job of hiding his reaction.  Especially since the other guy had such a big stupid grin on his face. 

She took her camera, and went to look at the picture, and Kayla whipped out her camera, catching a photograph, of the two of them looking down at the photo.  It’s almost unfair how photogenic the two of them are.  The photo almost looked professional.  They both looked up, seeing the flash go off, and she snapped another one.  “Oh come on! At least let us pose for it!” Charlie playfully scolded her friend, before throwing her arm around Logan, and giving Kayla a big, cheesy smile.  Kayla laughed and took the photo.

That’s how they spent the week.  Roaming all over New York, taking cheesy photos, going in and out of shops, and stopping at small restaurants all over for Logan to determine if they really did have the best pizza in New York, or the best cheesecake, or best burger.

It was Friday, and Kayla was extra excited.  Of course, White Christmas on Broadway was tonight, not to mention, only 2 days til Christmas, but it seemed to be more than that, as she grabbed Charlie’s hand and practically dragged her out of the hotel.  It was early, not even 8 yet when Kayla shook Charlie awake, and they left without waking up Logan. 

She refused to answer any questions and just led Charlie down several blocks, before getting on the subway.  Eventually she gave up trying to get answers out of her friend, and just glanced around the sub car.  Charlie grew up in a rough neighborhood.. she’s taken the bus.. but that didn’t make her stop wishing that Logan or Mr. Blake were with them.

Getting off the subway, and practically running up the stairs, it was only a few more blocks before Kayla finally slowed down.  She smiled up at a brick apartment building, probably about 20 floors of apartments, it wasn’t anything special, but it looked nice.  No blood or vomit on the sidewalk, and the hobo on the stairs looked harmless. 

“Kayla?” Charlie asked slowly.  Kayla turned her big smile towards her friend, and then she jogged up the stairs, disappearing through the door.  When Charlie followed her, she was speaking to a large bald man that Charlie assumed to be the landlord.  He nodded, grabbed a set of keys, and started walking towards the elevator, motioning for the two girls to follow him. 

Charlie bit back her questions, she had a million of them, and just watched as the landlord opened the door to apartment 7B.  “Close the door when you leave.” He said, before turning back to the elevator.

At this point, it was getting ridiculous, and Charlie stood in the empty space that would be a living room, with her arms crossed over her chest, staring at Kayla.

“I got accepted at Barnard, and Logan got into NYU.  This is the apartment building that we will be leasing in after graduation.” Her eyes were bright, and her smile was wide, but that didn’t stop the frown from coming to Charlie’s face. 

Not that she wasn’t excited for her friends, but she didn’t want to think about them being split up. 

“There are so many opportunities here Charlie.  Anything can happen in New York… I know you’ve been applying to colleges, I know you want out of Texas.  You want out more than Logan and I combined…I want you to come with me Charlie.”

“What?”

“I want you to live here with me and Logan.  Apply to the colleges around here.  There are 10 within a 30 mile radius, I’ve already checked, I’ve got the applications downloaded on my laptop.  I don’t’ want to go through college without you.  We can do scholarship searches later, see what you qualify for.” 

Now Charlie was smiling too.  “Are you sure? Does Logan know about this? How much will my share of rent be?” questions came spilling out.  She’d gotten a couple acceptance letters, but none of it had really sunk in that she’d finally be getting out, escaping.  But this, this felt real. 

The girls investigated the apartment for a while, before sitting on the floor of the living space, talking about college, and how great it would be to live in New York, together.  Kayla answering all the questions she could.  They returned to the hotel after lunch, to find it empty.  Charlie tried not to sound too concerned when she questioned where Logan might be, and Kayla brushed it off with a simple “food”

They filled out applications for awhile, and then started throwing clothes around the room, trying to decide what they’d wear tonight.  It’s a formal affair, and neither of them are really experts in that department.  They finally came to the decision to Skype with Jess, and hold up outfits for her approval. 

Clearly not satisfied with any of the options, Jess sent them on a shopping mission, demanding pics of everything before they bothered trying it on.  It took several hours to find dresses that Jess approved of.  They only had about an hour and a half to get back to the hotel and get dressed. 

They both ended up with black dresses.  Kayla’s was short sleeve, and fitted from the waist up, but was graceful and flowy down to her knees, topped off with a braided silver belt around her waist.  Charlie’s was a bit looser fitting. It had shoulder cut outs, was long sleeve, and came to her knees, and she shaped it a bit with a thick black belt. 

They came out of their room, to find Logan, and Mr. Blake sitting on the sofa, watching a soccer game on TV.  Mr. Blake had on a smart black suit.  Logan had on nice black pants and a black button up.  He looked like sex on legs, and Charlie hoped she wouldn’t start to drool. 

A/N: Sorry this chapter blows.  I felt bad that it'd been like 3 weeks, and tried to crank this out. I'm done with school now, and will (hopefully) start to update more often.  I've been doing a lot more reading that writing lately, but I'm hoping to get back into it soon.  Thanks for reading! Love you :) -@Mollypop59

A/N2: More Logan and Charlie coming up!! (I'm thinking about a sequel to this, where they are in NY, going to college, would you guys be into that?)