The Unicorn's Forest

Beth eyed Charlie for a minute before getting her own phone out and called Tim first.

When Tim answered, Beth first let him know what it was about. "Okay, first, we didn't know my younger sister was up last night when we got home and she overheard part of our conversation, so there's an issue that we need to discuss. Are you busy today or should we do this over the phone with everyone?"

"What's the issue?" Tim asked.

"The issue is what was overheard. I'm also thinking that if we meet up, then we could have Charlie pick a movie, since she did win that bet."

"Sure, that sounds good. I'm interested to know what Charlie's choice is myself," Tim said before he hung up.

"Beth turned to Charlie as she got Ralph's phone number selected. "Got Tim on board."

Charlie only nodded in response.

Beth was afraid that Ralph's voicemail would pick up as it kept ringing, but Ralph answered before that happened.

"Hey, Ralph," Beth said before Ralph could say anything. "I was wondering if you'd be available to meet up with us at Charlie's today."

"Why? I was fine vegging in my room," Ralph interrupted.

Beth sighed. Maybe she should have done this before Tim, just so that it would have been over with that much sooner. "Because my sister overheard some things we were talking about last night and we need to decide what to do about it," Beth said, unable to keep her annoyance from entering her voice.

"Alright, I can show up," Ralph said, as if he was granting a great concession. "By the way, will Charlie pick her movie then? Since we're going to her place, I mean."

"Yeah, I already talked with her about that. She's still not very happy about it."

Ralph laughed and Beth noticed Charlie watching her closely. She briefly wondered how much Charlie suspected what she was talking about with Ralph.

"I bet. Anyway, I'll be heading over in a minute. See you there," Ralph said and hanging up before Beth could even say anything in response.

"Okay, next is Wes," Beth said. Then as she held her phone after she was about to call Wes, she turned to Charlie. "If you want, you could go home and get ready for everyone to show up."

Charlie shook her head. "I'll be okay. I also wanted to talk with you a bit about some other things," Charlie said, still sitting calmly on Beth's bed.

Beth shook her head. "Suit yourself," she said as she set her phone to call Wes.

Beth didn't even hear a ring on her end of the phone before Wes picked up.

"Hey, Beth. What's up?"

"Wes, I was calling to see if you'd be available to meet at Charlie's today," Beth said.

"Ah, yes. The sweet call of the group," Wes said.

"If you're trying to wax poetic, I think you should keep trying," Beth replied dryly. "Or maybe stop altogether. That might be a better idea."

"Doesn't matter," Wes said cheerfully. "I'll meet you there." Then before Beth could say anything after that, he quickly added, "How long should I expect this to take?"

Beth shrugged, even though she knew he likely wouldn't be aware of her action. "Not sure. Though, we'll probably get Charlie to pick a movie. So at least long enough for that," Beth said.

Wes laughed. "Can't wait to see what she picks."

Wes then hung up and Beth sighed. Three down, two to go. She first dialed Amelia. Mostly because of alphabetical order.

"Hey, Amelia. Would you be available to come over to Charlie's today?" Beth asked when she heard Amelia pick up.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, sure, I'd be happy to go over to Charlie's. I assume this is to talk about what your sister overheard and what to do about it?" Amelia asked.

"Yeah, I was gonna call Hannah next. I already got Tim, Wes, and Ralph to agree to it," Beth answered, starting to feel eager to get moving.

"Don't worry about Hannah. She's right next to me," Amelia said.

"So, were you already hanging out with her?"

"Sorta. We were working through a problem she's suddenly found out about." Beth was pretty sure Amelia was shaking her head as she said that. It just kinda sounded like she was doing that.

"What's the problem?" Beth asked.

"Well…" Amelia hesitated. "Actually, I think it might be best to have Hannah explain in person. I'm not sure of the details exactly, so I wouldn't be able to tell you much other than the basics of what Hannah already told me."

"Okay, we can also cover that. Though, I was also thinking that we could have Charlie pick out a movie, since she did win that bet."

Amelia laughed. "I can only imagine what she'd pick." Amelia paused. "Huh? What? Oh yeah, I'll take care of that, mom!"

Beth chuckled at that. Always a hazard when talking to friends on their phone.

"Anyway, Beth, I gotta go. We'll be over at Charlie's as soon as we can. My mom has something she needs me to help with," Amelia said before hanging up unceremoniously.

Beth chuckled. She could only wonder what Amelia's mother needed help with. Could be any number of domestic chores or even having to watch over her younger siblings for whatever reason and for however long. Hopefully it wasn't the latter and they wouldn't need to help keep those two entertained, but if that happened, then there wouldn't be anything they'd be able to do about it.

"Okay, that's everyone," Beth said to Charlie as she put her phone away. "If we don't leave now, they'll probably all arrive before we do."

"Okay," Charlie replied, getting up from Beth's bed.

"By the way," Beth said as they started to leave her room. "What was it you wanted to talk about?"

"Well, part of it was how you guys were telling me about what I should wear so I don't look like a kid and what I should be doing with Alex and all that," Charlie said.

Beth cringed as her younger sisters walked by them as they were making their way to the front door. Even though Charlie hadn't said anything specific, she really didn't want her two youngest sisters to even have those kinds of thoughts in their heads. At least not at their current age. Even Stacie probably could be problematic. Although, Dale probably is starting to get those thoughts himself, so it wouldn't be as troubling for him to overhear, but it might be entertaining to see Charlie's reaction to leaving about him hearing what she'd said.

However, they were able to quickly get out of the house before any real details were made. Much to Beth's relief. Although, she was starting to wonder just how aware of their surroundings Charlie was at the moment.

"I know what I said last night about how I'm good with what underwear I have and how I don't need to look more grown-up or even if I shouldn't be uncomfortable about Alex seeing me naked or even partially naked, but when I was coming over to your house, I couldn't help but wonder if I should be more worried about things like that," Charlie continued. "I mean, I've never had friends before, and having a girlfriend still feels weird to me. So, I don't know if I should just get in bed with Alex when we have a chance or if I should be… um… oh yeah, if I should be taking things more slowly."

Beth shook her head in amusement. Of course Charlie would be worried about this.

"Maybe I'm influenced by the way my mom is, with her main job being an escort. I doubt she sleeps with all of her clients, but I'm pretty sure she sleeps with most of them. Maybe that's why I pushed Allison into sleeping with me when I did, but maybe there were other reasons," Beth said, but quickly shook her head as she realized she'd started off on a tangent. "What I'm trying to say is that maybe you should ask someone else about that. I mean, I'm sure you'd enjoy it, but that doesn't mean it's right for you and Alex right now. If you're still unsure, then you probably shouldn't do that just yet. Maybe start slowly by letting her touch you or something, but if you're not comfortable, then you shouldn't do that right now."

Charlie nodded and Beth let out her breath in a sigh. That took more energy than she'd expected it to. Especially since she said a lot more than she had thought she would.

"Any suggestions about who I should ask?" Charlie asked after a minute.

Beth almost burst out laughing. Who should she ask indeed. Beth could only imagine how mortifying that conversation with her parents would be.

"Sorry, I don't have any suggestions. Though, maybe I could see if Allison would be willing to talk with you about that," Beth replied as she thought about it, a little of her amusement creeping into her voice. "Worst case, you could always ask Alex. I mean, it might be a little uncomfortable, topic-wise, but at least you'd know what to expect going forward in your relationship with her."

"I was afraid that's what you were going to say," Charlie said, sighing.

"Well, who said things like this were ever easy, right?" Beth said, putting her arm over Charlie's shoulders again.

"Well, aside from all that, there's something else I wanted to talk about," Charlie said.

Beth removed her arm from Charlie and waited patiently.

Charlie sighed again. "I'm starting to think it might be better if you guys don't join me on my search for the world that has the griffin canyon in it," she said quietly. Beth would have missed what she'd said if a car had passed by at that moment with how quiet her voice was.

"Why? I thought you were fine with your friends helping you," Beth asked, unable to avoid feeling hurt by Charlie's question.

"It's not that," Charlie replied, looking away. "It's just that I'm not sure how long it'll take, what'll happen, or even what might be required of us."

"What's prompting this?" Beth asked. "I mean, you didn't say anything about this last night when we mentioned about some possibilities that could occur while we're going to be on that trip."

"It's just.." Charlie started then trailed off before sighing. "I mean, I'm really not part of you guys, I'm just on the side."

Beth had to suppress the urge to laugh or giggle. How Charlie put it was funny, but this wasn't something to laugh at. "What do you mean?" Beth asked. "We all think of you as part of our group."

"But I don't fit in with you guys. I'm just always on the side," Charlie said, sounding more miserable than Beth would have expected.

"Was this about the dance?" Beth asked. "We didn't mind keeping you company and even if it's more than that, we're there for you if you ever need help. Even if we needed to spend the entire dance with you, we wouldn't have complained.

Charlie shook her head. "It's more than that. It's like… um… It's that… uh…" Charlie kept trailing off and Beth wondered if what the problem was something she was having trouble identifying herself. Then Charlie took a deep breath. "Okay. It's more that you guys have a something about you that I just can't be a part of. I don't know why, but I've tried being patient, but it still feels like I'm still more of an observer than part of the group."

Beth couldn't help but laugh. "What's the 'something?' How can we try to really include you if we don't know what the problem is?"

Charlie sighed. "I wish I knew myself," Charlie replied. "Maybe it's because I haven't had friends before, but I just really don't know."

"Well, until you do know you'll have to accept that we're going to join you," Beth replied. "After all, if you can't give a reasonable argument against us coming, then you'll just have to accept us coming. After all, if we don't have a reason why we shouldn't go, then there's really no reason for us to stay. Especially since we'd decided to join you."

Maybe she went on longer than she really needed, but she could tell that whatever was eating at Charlie, Beth's statement was getting her more and more annoyed. Maybe even angry, and if it was an anime, she would expect to see a vein throbbing thing appear on her head. Though, Beth was curious about what she would do. Would she give a response that didn't have any filter on it or would she lash out in some other way. The only way to find out was to keep poking her.

"Maybe we could figure out a way for us to stay here while also joining you. I mean, I'm sure I could eventually find a way to divide in two people with my magic and keep you from getting lonely while you're traveling by yourself. Or maybe we could even clone you the same way so we could travel with you while you're figuring out why we shouldn't join you," Beth said, pulling Charlie into a side hug.

Charlie merely let out a deep breath, apparently trying to calm herself, which surprised Beth. If anything, she would have expected Charlie to have some other reaction.

Beth rested her head on Charlie's shoulder. "Ah come on!" she whined, trying to sound as cute as possible. "Go on and tell sissy Beth what's bothering you. Maybe we can find a way to help."

Charlie shook her head. "I've told you all I can think of," Charlie said, but the way she said it made Beth think there was something she was keeping back. She couldn't say exactly how she knew, just that she had a general idea that there was something there.

"Don't worry, sissy Beth won't tell," Beth continued to press, but decided to up the ante. "You know sissy Beth is good with secwets. You don't have to hide it. Okay?"

Charlie was trembling at this point and Beth hoped she was about to lash out in some way. However, in order to keep her from calming herself down, she decided to continue her press.

"Pweeeeaaaasssssee?"

Beth could identify the moment that Charlie snapped. She jerked away from Beth and glared at her. There was even a fire in her eyes that she'd never seen before. For a moment Beth was afraid that Charlie was going to attack her, and if she did, she might not stop.

However, what Charlie did was merely scream at her, "I DON'T WANT YOU TO DIE!!!"

Whatever Beth had thought Charlie would have yelled, screamed, shouted, or just merely snapped, this was definitely not it. It wasn't anywhere near her radar.

"What do you mean?" Beth asked, dropping her 'cute' pretense.

"Never mind," Charlie said, starting to jog away. Beth realized there were tears in Charlie's eyes.

Beth called out to her, but Charlie didn't respond. Not that she really expected her to. Though, she wasn't really sure what was going through Charlie's mind. Especially since she hadn't expected this turn of events to occur.

She tried keeping up with her, but as she tried matching Charlie's pace, Charlie kept increasing it and kept pulling ahead. Charlie had even turned off the road and was running through some trees.

Even though it was probably someone else's private property, Beth followed. Maybe she shouldn't have pressed so hard, but she had wanted to be sure what all the reasons were of what was going on in Charlie's mind. Part of it was that she was worried about her friend, part of it was that she wanted to try and work through the problems that Charlie was dealing with.

Even though the trees weren't that thick, it didn't take very long before Beth lost track of Charlie. When she realized that, she stopped where she was. She looked around, trying to make sure that Charlie hadn't changed direction suddenly. She couldn't have gotten very far regardless, but there wasn't any sign of her.

She was about to go back to the road when she suddenly heard something. It was quiet and she almost missed it, but it was the sound of someone crying nearby. Beth started to wonder if Charlie used her magic to make herself invisible or something.

Taking a shot in the dark, and hoping no one was within earshot of her, or could see her, aside from maybe Charlie, she said, "Charlie? I'm sorry if I upset you. I just wanted to be sure what was going on in your head."

The crying continued, and Beth slowly moved towards the direction she thought she was hearing it from. When she was pretty sure she found where Charlie was, she could tell that she'd used magic to hide herself, since she couldn't see her at all.

"Look, if you really want to go by yourself I guess we can't stop you," Beth said, squatting down while hoping she was making herself more eye level with Charlie. "But at the same time, don't you think you owe it to us to let us take our own risks? I mean, while that dream was probably really real to you, we can't be sure that it's going to happen or even if it would happen on this trip."

Beth paused, waiting to see if Charlie would respond. Which she didn't, but she did notice that the crying sounds had stopped. Which she took as a positive sign.

"The main reason that we want to join you on your search for the world with the griffin canyon is that we care about you. We all want you see you return safe. I especially don't want to die myself, so I can appreciate that, but is that really a reason to say that we can't help? If you want to talk with us about it, we'd be more than happy to listen," Beth said, but then paused before amending her last sentence. "Most of us would be more than happy to listen."

Beth could see Charlie's outline start to take shape in front of her. First it looked like a distortion in the air, then it began to solidify and eventually she could make out finer details, such as her hair and the streaks the tears had left on her face.

Beth reached out to pull Charlie into a hug, which Charlie seemed to endure, if nothing else. Beth wasn't sure if that should be taken as a good thing or not.

"Thanks," Charlie murmured, softly.

Beth couldn't help but smile. "Anytime, Charlie. Just try not to run off next time, okay?"

Beth felt Charlie chuckle a little as she said that.

"No promises, Beth," Charlie replied.