chocolate chip mint and vanilla with sprinkles
Story: Timeless { backstory | index }
Title: Someone To Pretend
Rating: R
Challenge: Chocolate Chip Mint #5: vulnerable, Vanilla #7: holiday
Toppings/Extras: sprinkles
Wordcount: 716
Summary: Charlie Buckett needs someone to pretend.
Notes: So, I’m starting to love Charlie. Sex scene ahoy! Not terribly graphic though.
Lynnie Green was a nice enough girl; a prostitute, obviously, but so were most girls that Charlie knew. He didn’t have to pay anyway because he knew them well enough by then. Maybe he was reckless and a bit dangerous but he was charming too-he got their wares for free.
Winking at his best friend Isaac as he and Lynnie shuffled towards the staircase at the back of the inn-earning himself a spectacular eye-roll-Charlie bounded up the stairs and turned at the top, awaiting Lynnie with a slapdash grin plastered over his face. Olive green skirts bunched in her hands, she whisked herself up the stairs, make-up worn and flaking. She was missing a few of her teeth but that wasn’t how Charlie gauged the worth of a girl.
“Alright, Lyn?” he asked her pleasantly as they walked into one of the rickety bedrooms at the top of the inn. The Piper’s Inn made a fair amount of money from its prostitutes so they were allowed to use the rooms up top-as long as they didn’t disturb anyone, of course. It was draughty and the wooden walls were dotted with pinprick holes from the woodworm.
“S’pose,” Lynnie said, attempting a smile as she started to unlace her skirt.
“Hey.”
Charlie’s demeanour changed as he stepped towards her in the half-darkness, hand landing on top of hers. Brow furrowing in confusion, Lynnie looked up at him, seeming more bemused than anything else. Easing his fingers under hers, Charlie took her hand in his and found himself unable to move his gaze from the floor.
“Uh, Charlie? Look, it’s gonner be a long night, an’ if yer not payin’ and all...”
“Right,” Charlie said, snapping back into action and stepping away from her as she parted the folds of her skirt and laid back on the bed. Lynnie wasn’t exactly pretty, though her flaming red wig was of quite a high quality and glowed very becomingly in the single candle lighting the room. The only problem was that she was extremely apathetic. Although disappointed, Charlie joined her on the bed, sliding between her legs. When he pushed some of her ringlets of hair from her eyes she looked at him strangely.
They rutted like animals-in short, emotionlessly. Lynnie made a few half-hearted sounds but her eyes never closed, her fingers never curled. Listless arms opened at her sides as though she were being crucified. She didn’t touch him anywhere but where they joined.
When he was finished Charlie was consumed with a heavy, sluggish feeling; his arms slid around her waist as he rolled onto the lumpy mattress, nose rubbing her ear as he breathed in the stinking cheap perfume and the reek of body odour beneath it. It didn’t matter. It was someone, it was something solid, and he didn’t need a woman really, he just needed someone to pretend-
“Charlie. Charlie.”
He opened his eyes reluctantly, arms refusing to move for a moment as Lynnie tried to slide away from him. After she repeated his name again, he opened his arms out and sat up a little as she laced up her skirt efficiently, the rest of her clothing having not even moved. Cheap jewellery gleamed on her fingers.
She kept looking at him as though he were a very bizarre creature. Colouring a little, Charlie swung himself out of the narrow cot and started to dress himself.
“See you later,” Lynnie said in a tired voice, treading towards the door.
“Right,” Charlie replied with all-too-familiar anger in his voice, turning his back to her as he did his breeches up. He heard the door closing softly behind her and found himself chewing hard on the inside of his cheek as he always did in situations like these.
Why did women always insist on making a total goon out of him? Scowling to himself, he looked back at the slightly rumpled bed-they had been there so short a time that it wasn’t even warm-and kicked at it hard enough to make it bounce from the floor, legs slamming back into place with a clatter. A veritable fog of dust clouded from the ancient mattress. By the time it had cleared, he had already slammed himself out of the room.