The Spirit of the Corps » Band of Brothers

37: A Little Bit Less Lost

"Nothing," Charlie said, forcing a smile.

Mabs made a sound of disagreement and Charlie faltered, letting the fake smile fall. This was Mabs. If she couldn't talk to her, who could she talk to?

"He said he prefers my freckles to my makeup tonight," Charlie explained with a sigh. It sounded like such a stupid thing to be upset over. Really, she couldn't understand why it was bothering her so much. Why did it matter if he thought she looked pretty, anyway?

Mabs made a sound of pure disgust in the back of her throat. "You can always trust Floyd Talbert to go 'round shoutin' out his unwanted opinions to anyone that'll listen. Christ. Who the fuck is he to have an opinion on your makeup anyway?"

Charlie pulled a face. "Well," she began warily, not wanting to be told off by Mabs for her own foolishness, "I did ask him."

Mabs sighed loudly. "Well, what the fuck did ya do that for?"

In spite of herself, Charlie laughed. "I don't know. He said, 'You covered your freckles' and I said, 'Autumn did my makeup' and it seemed the natural thing to say after that. To ask whether he liked it." She shook her head, laughing again in an attempt to brush it off. "And apparently he didn't."

"Who cares what Floyd Talbert thinks anyway?" Mabs asked with an expression of uncensored dislike on her face. "It ain't like he knows what he's talkin' 'bout. When does he ever?"

Charlie didn't say anything to that. She cared what Floyd Talbert thought. Honestly, she had shocked herself with how much she cared what he thought. Why on Earth was it bothering her so much that he didn't like the way she looked tonight?

All of a sudden, Mabs pushed herself up from the table and slapped her hands down on it. "Y'know what you need, Charlie?"

Charlie humoured her with an amused smile. "What?"

"What you need is to dance with a man who appreciates ya. Who looks at you and thinks he's never seen anyone more beautiful and is downright enthralled by every damn word that comes out of your mouth."

Charlie laughed sheepishly, shaking her head. "I don't think -"

Mabs cut her off, knowing where she was going with that sentence. "There's so many men in here lookin' at ya like that you could close your eyes and point and land on one. So -" She slapped the table again, "- let's go dance. Alright?"

Mabs held out a hand for Charlie and Charlie took it, and together they walked to the edge of the dance floor. Charlie highly doubted that this would work; Mabs would be asked to dance within seconds, of course, because she was Mabs and she was glowing, but Charlie just didn't have that same effect. And then she'd be left standing by herself on the edge of the dance floor like a fool.

She was surprised when Alton More appeared beside her, grinning. "Finally my turn for a dance?"

Charlie smiled, attempting to hide her surprise at his appearance behind a teasing roll of her eyes. "Maybe." She grinned. "What do I get in return?"

He smirked. "The once in a lifetime opportunity to dance with me."

Shaking her head, Charlie laid her hand delicately in his outstretched palm. "Well, in that case..." she said, laughing as he pulled her onto the dance floor.

Her dance with Alton was fun and talking to him was easy but it didn't make her feel all that much better. What she really wanted to do was lock herself in a bathroom until she managed to wash all of her makeup off, but she knew she wouldn't do that - Floyd would know why she'd done it, for one, and for two, why should she take it off? She'd felt pretty before he'd gone and said that. She just resented that she couldn't seem to feel that way again knowing he didn't agree.