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"What did you just say?"
- Charlotte Wells
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Charlotte sat alone on one of the table in the barn, hunched over her book.
As half the people in the barn stood to do the dance, she remained on the bench, her eyes floating towards Gilbert and Winnifred who had stepped on the dance floor.
As much as Charlotte tried to hate Winnie, she couldn't. Her smile was blinding and her blue eyes gorgeous. Charlotte knew deep down if Gilbert chose Winnie, there was nothing she could do to change that. Hating her would only hurt Charlotte more. The only person Charlotte could be mad at was Gilbert.
So she was.
She hated that he looked at her like he did when he was with Winnifred, yet he didn't even take her letter. She hated that it took seeing him to realize her feelings.
She hated that he was the one those feelings were directed at because with Winnifred in the picture, he would never feel them back.
Charlotte rolled her eyes as Rachel sauntered towards her, aiming to grab the girl my the arms. "What are you doing? Get in there."
"No," Charlotte replied, shrugging out of Rachel's grip. "I'm fine here."
Rachel grabbed the girl by the arms. Before she could shove Charlotte onto the dance floor, the brunette swatted her hands away from Rachel. "Stop telling me what to do. Do the dance yourself."
Charlotte stomped back towards the bench, sitting herself down and continuing to read. As soon as the dance ended, all the girls rushed towards Charlotte, standing or sitting behind her.
Jane glanced towards the floor, before back at her friends. "Gilbert has a secret sweetheart?"
"Charlotte, you're good friends with Gilbert, who is she?" Josie asked.
Charlotte clenched her jaw. "You're all friends with him, so why do you expect me to have information?"
"She's at least Prissy's age, if not older," Jane beamed. "She must be from Charlottetown.
"I need to get some air," Josie announced to her friends, before walking out of the barn.
Ruby smiled widely, glancing at all her friends. "Moody waved at me."
Charlotte let out a breath of relief, having the conversation changed.
"Wait so, you don't like Gilbert anymore?" jane confirmed.
Ruby glanced to her right as Josie re-entered the building. "Where have you been? Moody looked in my direction and you missed it."
Charlotte narrowed her eyes at Josie's fearful expression and the tangled bow at the back of her head.
As Billy entered the building, Charlotte watched his every move as he sat beside his friends, before glancing towards Josie and whispering in their ears.
While Ruby continued talking about Moody, Charlotte slowly began to piece things together. While their friend group left for the second dance, Josie stayed standing close to Charlotte.
The brunette glanced over to the blonde, watching Josie hug her body in her arms, lips quivering and discomfort written all over her face. "You alright?"
Josie remained standing close to Charlotte, which the brunette picked up on. "I'm fine."
Charlotte's knee was slightly grazing the sleeve of Josie's purple dress because of how close the two were.
Charlotte furrowed her eyebrows, glancing around at the people in the barn. Several people were glancing in the two girls' directions and whispering. She turned towards Josie once again. "We're friends, Josie. Did something happen while you were out there? Billy was with you too right?"
Josie sucked in a harsh breath, running her hands through her hair. "It's nothing. I'm just tired."
As the circle of people spinning in the middle turned, Charlotte exchanged eye contact with Anne, the two girls thinking the same thing. As the redhead split from the crowd towards the two, Charlotte closed her book standing up from the table.
"Josie, is everything alright?" Anne asked.
"I'm fine."
"Are you sure, the boys are saying things about you and Billy," Anne replied.
Josie's face hardened. "What are they saying?"
A glare set on Charlotte's face as she looked down at Josie. "Did he do something?"
She got her answer as Josie teared up.
"Absolute dog," the brunette scoffed, teeth gritted.
Anne had stormed over to Billy, Charlotte close behind her.
"How dare you!" Anne snapped.
"Come to beg for a kiss too?" Billy sneered, no remorse for the blonde girl sitting meters away.
"That's not what happened and you know it," Anne replied. "How dare you spread nasty rumors about my friend."
"You weren't there," was all Billy replied with. "You don't know what you're talking about.
"I have eyes." Anne glared up at the boy. "I can see she is devastated. You shouldn't have touched her, Billy."
Half the eyes in the barn were drawn to the scene, towards Anne standing strong in front of Billy and Charlotte behind her.
"Well, I guess she regrets having loose morals."
Charlotte's stomach churned, she stepped in front of Anne so Billy was glaring right at her. "What did you just say?"
"You heard me," Billy scoffed in her face.
"Bastard, you better get out of my face," Charlotte hissed towards him, her fists clenching my her side.
"As I was saying, maybe if she had any self respect and wasn't so desperate—"
He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence before he was on the ground, gasps echoing from everyone in the barn as Charlotte's knuckles collided with his jawline. The thud of her fist against his jaw was what made people turn.
"Don't you talk about her like that," Charlotte panted, massaging her knuckles. "You took her out of this barn and you violated her!"
"I'm done with your crap," Billy snapped, crawling up from the ground.
"Maybe I'll treat you like an object and see how you like it," she yelled back. "You act like an animal already, maybe I'll start feeding you with my hands because you're incapable of anything other than getting your daddy to fight your battles for you!"
Billy rammed into Charlotte, sending both of them flying onto the cold floor. Charlotte crawled up before him, using her palms to bash his head into the wood below them. She slammed onto the floor, Billy clambering on top of her. She kneed him, throwing him off.
The people in the barn rushed forward, half the men attempting to tug Charlotte off Billy after she punched him over and over again. Yelling rose throughout at the sight of a small girl and Billy punching each other like their lives depended on it.
Billy had treated Charlotte like she was nothing for years, and if he thought she was just going to let him do that to someone else, he was wrong.
Once four men had managed to pull Charlotte off Billy, her blouse was splotched with blood. Both from Billy and herself. Crimson was running down her nose and from her mouth where Billy had hit her.
Charlotte shrugged out of the men's grip, her steps hazy as she slightly stumbled on her own feet from exhaustion and the adrenaline slowly fading. That adrenaline high was slowly lowering, and Charlotte felt like her lungs were going to implode inside her.
A streak of blood lined her hand as she wiped her mouth with the back of her palm.
Billy stood from the ground, attempting to lunge at her before being held back by Matthew and Mr. Lynde. "Wait till I see you next Charlotte. I'll kill you!"
"You're a pig, Billy Andrews," Charlotte screamed down at him. "You're rotten and have no respect for anyone."
Charlotte clenched her jaw as Marilla stormed up beside her. "Outside, now."
After dragging Charlotte by the arm out of the barn, she glared down at the girl. "What on earth was that?"
Charlotte simply smiled, her stance still on edge as she still stumbled over the air. "That was me beating Billy up. Thought that was obvious. You must have blinked. Or you need a refund on your glasses."
"You can't keep doing this."
"Doing what?" Charlotte interrupted. "I've hit Billy before, why does it make a difference if I did it now."
And just like that, all the adrenaline she felt came plummeting back to her in rage. She didn't know who she was angry.
"Oh, wait, I remember." A sarcastic smile morphed onto her face, eyebrows raised as she nodded slowly. "Because I did it in front of your fancy friends."
Just before Marilla could reply, the door to the barn opened. Charlotte's brows furrowed and her eyes darkened as Gilbert stepped out.
"Sorry," he said, closing the door behind him. "I just came to check if Charlotte was alright. Billy's half knocked out."
"Well, I'm still standing," she replied. "So run along. Go spend time with Winnie. I bet she's lonely all by herself."
Gilbert's eyebrows lowered slightly at her pettiness. "I'm just checking if you're okay."
How could he leave Winnifred for her?
"Well you checked and I'm fine," she replied. "Now leave."
Before she could turn to walk away, Marilla grabbed her arm. "I'm not done—"
"Don't touch me." Charlotte shrugged out of her grip. "I'm walking back to Green Gables by myself. Don't act like you care because you don't. You're not my mother."
Marilla's jaw dropped, her eyes widening to the size of saucers. "That's what you think?"
"That's what I think? I know a lot of things, Marilla, but what I know is that to you I'm just someone sleeping in the bedroom upstairs, helping with the farm when you need me and whenever I make a scrap of money it goes towards you—"
"You offered to do that."
"Because I thought you would finally appreciate me being around! You didn't even seem to appreciate the fact I was fourteen when I practically ran across the country for Anne. I'm always running off looking for everyone else but who runs after me? Who, Marilla? Answer me. Who!"
As Marilla didn't answer, Charlotte stepped forward.
"See, you can't even think of one person who would run across a town for me. Hell, I just fought Billy for Josie and we're not even nice to each other half the time. You always get angry at me when I stick up for people but did you ever wonder that maybe I do that because nobody ever sticks up for me."
Gilbert stuffed his hands uncomfortably in his pockets at her words and the expression on her face. Pure rage. Blood was splotched on her face, smeared. Any person would be scared of her, yet Gilbert wasn't. He felt bad for her. He had seen this before, the time he found Charlotte fixing his fence coated in mud she had rambled about him not making her feel good enough. Now, she was rambling about everyone not making her feel good enough. He could see exactly what she wanted in her eyes without her having to say it.
She wanted to be cared about.
"Charlotte, go back inside and apologize to the Andrews—"
"No."
Marilla's eyes darkened in annoyance. She was used to Charlotte's outbursts, but this was different. Charlotte's comments were usually laced with sarcasm and wit, now, they were covered with hatred and disgust.
"I'm not apologizing to Billy for hitting him until he apologizes to Josie for touching her." Before Marilla could speak, Charlotte interrupted once again. "Don't try to change my mind because I won't. Billy deserved every hit he got and I hope he says something foul on the streets so someone will hit him harder."
Marilla's breath was heaving as she glared at the girl. "Go back to Green Gables, get yourself cleaned up. Best believe we're talking about this when I get back."
"Best believe we won't but..." Charlotte trailed off, slow clapping as she began to walk backwards from the barn, "ladies and gentleman she cares! Take your photos because this is a once in a lifetime sight. Better document this while I get the chance."
Charlotte turned to Gilbert, pointing at him in the air with a cocky smile on her face. "And I don't know why you're just standing there watching, but you can leave now. I didn't want you coming out here acting like you care."
"Where is this attitude coming from?" Marilla scoffed, glancing back at Gilbert then towards her.
"Loosen your corset. Don't yell at me for hitting Billy. You know he was wrong and nobody in that barn was doing anything about it so I did." Charlotte pointed to herself. "You can punish me for not doing chores or for getting a bad grade but you don't get to punish me for defending my friend."
With that, Charlotte turned on her heel and moved away from the two, not giving a care in the world if they were left hurt or not.
Gilbert knew Charlotte. He knew if she lashed out unexpectedly, it meant something was bothering her. And he had a feeling he knew what it was that was bothering her. Him and Winnifred.
Yet, he was too oblivious to understand why.
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12/03/2024
I just wrote the best scene of them with 'I See The Light' from the tangled soundtrack on and tell me why it's kind of their song??
Also thank you everyone for 10k reads! I hope you're enjoying ENCHANTED so far and thank you for staying this long.