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by Seraphina Parts 36-40 Part 36 Paul listened until he could no longer hear the evidence of Tim�s distinct driving skills (ie. screeching tyres)- or lack there of- before reaching for the front door handle and entering the house. Hearing movement in the kitchen, he braced himself and headed that way, taking up strains of �I�m Sorry�. "I�m sorry, so sorry, please accept my apolo-Charli?" "Apology accepted, Paul," a young, blonde girl replied from behind the kitchen bench. "Hang on, what are you apologising for first and then I�ll decide whether you�re forgiven or not." Paul dumped his ridiculous amount of shopping on the bench top, the circled to the other side, gathering the blonde, Charli, in a bear hug. "How are you girl? How long has it been? Where have you been? Do you know how much I�ve missed you? When did you get back? How long are you staying?" Charli laughed at the bombardment of questions, hugging him back tightly. "Good, nearly four months, around, probably as much as I�ve missed you, last night and I haven�t decided yet," she answered, stepping out of his embrace and looking into his face. "You�ve shrunk, Paulie," she said, her eyes almost at the same level as his. "I have not," he said indignantly. "You�ve just grown a hell of a lot. Four months and you�ve grown at least two damn inches." "A slight exaggeration there I think, McDermott. An inch maybe." "Ok," he agreed. "You�ve grown an inch-" "And you�ve shrunk one," she smirked. "Hey! Respect your elders, young lady. You�re only 16 and you�re already talking down to me almost as much as Sara does. Speaking of Sara...You�ve spoken to her I take it?" Charli snickered, nodding. "what the hell did you so to her? She seemed a little upset." "Yeah, well she�s PMTing and-" Paul started unhappily but Charli cut him off. "You didn�t eat all the ice-cream did you?" she asked. Paul threw his hands up in the air. "Why does everyone seem to know about the �don�t eat all the ice-cream� rule except for me?" He sighed, getting over it. "Anyway, she kicked me out of the house because of it. Tim and Rich seem to think that that means she wants me to come back begging." "They�re right," Charli said as she dug through the multitudes of plastic supermarket bags. Her eyes lit up as she pulled out a bottle of Irish Cream liqueur, Paul took it off her quickly. "Excuse me, but you, my dear, are underage AND it�s for Sara. It�s ALL for Sara." "What�s all for me?" came a voice. They both turned to see Sara emerge from the hallway, yawning and rubbing at her eyes, obviously having just woken up. Paul frantically organised his peace offerings before pointing to them with a flourish, "This, because...I�m a bad, bad man...person...thing." Sara�s sleepy features broke into a smile. She strode over to the bench and kissed him thoroughly on the lips. "You�re the best, Paul," she said and in a flash, was into a tub of �ultra chocolate� ice-cream. "Oh my God," she groaned, her mouth half full. "This is better than sex!" she exclaimed, shovelling a heaped spoonful in before even finishing her first mouthful. "Well I wouldn�t go so far as to say that," Paul said, a little disconcerted at having his performance in the bedroom ranked below chocolate ice-cream. "Shut up, Paul," Charli said warningly, taking a spoon offered by Sara and getting stuck into the tub herself. She too groaned in ecstasy. "Well I�m glad you like it," Paul said a little sarcastically. "And you did all this for me?" Sara asked between spoonfuls. Paul nodded, pleased with himself as she hugged him. "You�re such a sweety. And you claim not to be able to understand women." "Yeah, well..." he had the decency to look a little modest and not gloat. "You know, you could have done the same thing with a bunch of flowers and a sorry card," Charli said, ripping into a block of chocolate, "You mean..." Paul trailed off disbelievingly. "Yeah, she�s right," Sara agreed. "You didn�t have to go out and spend all this much...not the I�m complaining." Paul had had enough. "That�s it! I�m never going to Tim and Rich for help ever..." he trailed off, realising what he�d just said. Sara looked at him coldly. "You mean, this wasn�t your idea?" Paul shifted uncomfortably. "Not exactly." Sara burst into tears and made a quick exit of the room, but not forgetting to take the rest of the ice-cream and a bottle of booze with her. Paul slammed his head on the bench in frustration. "I�m never gonna get this right." Charli patted him on the back. "Don�t worry, she�s just a little over sensitive that�s all, besides, you always win. You did with me didn�t you?" Paul smiled in memory. Part 37 �"I don�t believe this," Paul said for the hundredth time. "I don�t fucking believe this. I didn�t do anything and here they are, ordering me to do community service for six fucking months. Six. fucking. Months. Do you know how long that is?" "I�m guessing twenty-eight weeks," Sara said smugly as they neared the local community centre. "Well aren�t you just the fucking smart arse bitch?" he spat, not happy at having the piss taken out of him as well as having to perform civic duties as punishment. "Don�t you dare start taking this out on me you pathetic garden gnome. You should have thought about this before you went out on the piss and got in a fight." "Well it wasn�t me that glassed the fat bastard so why should I get the bloody rap for it?" "Don�t play innocent with me, Paul. You know very well that the part you played was far from a benign one. Just be thankful that you got off so damn lightly," she said, stopping and pulling his coat around him a little more neatly than what his attempts had brought him to look like. The weather had been strangely cold for the Sydney area and they�d been forced to done heavy coats. Sara had even gone as far as to wear a pair of bright red gloves with matching scarf and beanie. Looking up at him, she saw the heavy scowl he wore on his face that was close to becoming permanent. "Cheer up, Paulie. Your face looks like a slapped arse." If anything, his brow creased even further. Sara giggled at him and kissed him lightly on his cold nose. His face softened a little and he even managed to force a smile, a small one albeit, her cheerfulness having an almost osmosis effect on him, bleeding happy rays into his ratty self. He could be in the shittiest of moods and amazingly, it hardly ever brought Sara down. She just never allowed it. She gave a satisfied grin and put a gloved hand on both of his cheeks, pushing her hands together to give him fish lips. "Now you have a good time, painting walls, or cleaning toilets or whatever it is they�re going to make you do. I am going to go and get a few things from the shops and I�ll meet you back at home." He rolled his eyes at her silly display of affection as she moved her hands back and forward on his face making him look like God knows what before removing her hands, pulling the front of her beanie down over her eyes and giving her a quick kiss. "Yeah, I�ll seeya later," he said, pinching on the bum before walking off in the direction of the community centre. Entering the building, he couldn�t help but note how obvious it was that this was a government funded facility. It was all grey and drab, and most of the volunteers walking around the place could easily be placed into two categories; The geriatrics that had nothing better to do when it was the off season for lawn bowls or the RSL wasn�t open at that particular time, and the young, hug-a-tree greenies, wearing alternative clothing, their hair not having been attended to in well over a year, attempting to make their community a better place for their methadone addicted, unborn children to live in. Those that didn�t fit into either category were either church workers or paid. Walking up to �reception�, he was greeted by a perky, �pink� kind of girl, painting her nails a bright magenta colour whilst chewing on a wad of gum. She looked up at him and smiled, a fake, cheerleader type smile. �Can I, like, help you?" Paul groaned inwardly. "I�m, like, here for, like, community service, like, duty�like," he said with mock perkiness. �Pink� looked at him as if he had two heads. "Are you, like, ok man?" she asked. "I�m, like fine. Like, why do you, like, ask?" he said through gritted teeth. "You�re just, like, speaking kinda, like, funnay," she said, making jerky little head movements as she spoke. Paul dropped the act. "Look, would you just tell me where I have to report to and make it, like, quick." "God," �Pink said. "Thar�s, like, no reason to be, like, pushy ar anythang," she said, glaring at him from under thickly mascara coated eyelashes and eyelids smothered in pink, before pointing to a group of adults and teenagers in front of a women, smartly dressed in a navy blue ensemble and holding a clip board. Failing, deliberately, to say thankyou, Paul quickly escaped the area of the Pink monster and approached the woman in the navy suit. She turned and gave him a stressed out kind of smile. "Mr McDermott?" she asked, sounding hopeful. Paul nodded and she sighed with relief. "I was beginning to think you were a no show," she said, turning back to the others. "Ok folks, now that everyone�s here, we can get started. I�m Janine, so if you�ve got any questions, don�t hesitate to ask. Now, all you adults are here because you�ve enrolled in a big brother/big sister program. Now, you obviously know what this entails, or you wouldn�t be here so today, you�ll be assigned your little brother or little sister respectively and you are to go away and bond with each other. It is up to you how often you keep up correspondence with your designated sibling but we ask that you make the effort to spend at least 5 hours a week with them. The rest is your time." She looked around and smiled at the adults, who returned the gesture with enthusiasm, the kids who were all between the ages of 12 and 16 were a little less receptive�along with Paul. This is not what he�d been expecting. He did not want to be doing this. His thoughts were interrupted by navy woman again. "Ok folk, lets get started then shall we?" She then proceeded to start pairing big brothers and sisters off with younger ones but Paul wasn�t listening. He was busy, desperately trying to wish himself into another situation, praying that some angel would come down form heaven, hand him a toothbrush and a bucket and point him in the direction of some really Goddamn awful public bogs. By the time they were down to the last 3 adults, Paul was very nearly tempted to march straight back into the magistrate�s court and beg to serve some time in jail. It had to be better than this. Looking over at the group of 4 teens left, he nearly died when he saw one of them wearing a Doug�s t-shirt over a black skivvy. Great, all he needed was a f---ing wild fan who most probably was hiding track marks under her sleaves, to jump him right there and then. Thank God they only made same sex pairs at this gig. Paul could think of nothing worse then getting stuck with a wacko fan for six months. The dirty blonde girl looked up at him, catching him staring at her and narrowed her eyes at him. He glared right back at her before he realised that it was kind of a strange thing for a fan to be doing. Shouldn�t she be making goo goo eyes at him or something? There was only himself and one other guy left now, but there were still 3 kids remaining; two boys and the blonde. Looks like she was gonna miss out�lucky her. "Tony Danes?" Janine said. One of the boys stepped forward. He looked to be about 13 and surprisingly, appeared excited about the prospect of having a Big Brother. Paul hoped he didn�t get the little enthusiastic bugger�he�d be too painful. He just wanted someone who�d accept that he didn�t really want to be doing this, and leave him alone. "Your Big Brother is�" Paul held his breath. "Ricky O�Connell." The bloke next to Paul stepped forward, shook Tony�s hand and they walked off happily together. Probably to go play mini-golf or something equally as lame, Paul thought. He was the only one left now. Janine turned to him. "Mr McDermott," she said smiling, looking down at her clip board. "That leaves you with�Charli," she said, turning to the two kids left. "Charli?" she said, looking expectantly at a docile looking boy of about 15. The boy said nothing, just looked at her dumbly. "Charli, are you going to come and say hello to Paul, your Big Brother?" The boy still didn�t make any move. *Great,* Paul thought excitedly. *I got assigned to a mute. This is going to be a cinch.* "Me name�s not Charli," the boy finally said. Janine started to look flustered, flicking through the notes on her clip board. "But, er, it says here that," she looked at him hopefully. "You�re sure your names not Charli?" "Me name�s not Charli," the boy said again. "But�but," Janine was lost, she didn�t know what to do. Then, the girl spoke up. "I�m Charli," she said quietly. Janine, Paul and the boy turned and looked at her for and explanation. She rolled her eyes. "Short for Charlotte." "Oh dear, oh deary me," sighed Janine. "This is a bit embarrassing. I just assumed that Charli was a boy. I guess that leaves you without a Big Sister, and Mr McDermott," she said turning to him. "That leaves you with�" she trailed off looking at the boy questioningly for his name. He stared at her before screaming, "ME NAME�S NOT CHARLI!!!" He then ran around in a circle a few times then headed smack bang into the grey cement wall. He picked himself off the floor and began banging his head over and over again on the wall repeating "Me name�s not Charli," like some broken record. Paul and Janine looked wide eyed at each other before turning to Charli who had been standing stoically for the whole performance, looking quite bored. "Well, it�s not normally our policy, but perhaps you�d like to take Charli for now until we find a suitable replacement," Janine said at a loss, before scampering away, not wanting any confrontations on the matter. Paul regarded Charli in her DAAS t-shirt. "Well, Charli. I guess that means I�m your Big Brother." "Ladefuckingda, and you�re not my brother, so you can drop that title right here and now," she spat. "Look, I�m not exactly happy to be here, in fact, I didn�t chose to be here," Paul tried to reason. "Well that obviously means that you�re here on community service punishment. Your a crim. They stuck me in the care of a fucking crim," she sneered. He chose to ignore that and out of curiosity, enquired about the t-shirt. "Nicked it out of the Salvo�s bin," sshe said, uninterested, oblivious to the shirt�s meaning but still intent on chasing up Paul�s police record. "So, what d�ya do? Kill someone?" Paul scowled at her, a little dejected at having found that someone had thrown their Doug�s T-shirt into the charity bin. "There�s about as much chance as me killing someone as there is you-" She slapped him in the face. and glared at him. "Don�t you dare go making assumptions about me," she growled stalking off. She stopped and turned to look back at him. �Are you coming or what you stupid old gadge?" Paul was still recovering from the shock of being struck by the little nitwit. This was going to be a long six months, he thought before storming after her. Part 38 Paul caught up to at the double doors of the Community Centre and feel into step with her as they walked out onto the foot path. It annoyed him that she wasn�t even going to acknowledge his presence at it made her happy to know that she was annoying him in doing so. Charli kept her hands in her pockets and her head down, her eyes on her feet as they made there way up the street. Paul took the time of silence to get a good look at her, well as good as he could out of the corner of his eye. Her hair sat messily around and over her face and fell just below her shoulders. It looked like it hadn�t been washed for a millennia and could do with a good brush. Her face itself was dirty but still gave the appearance of being quite fair, it�s most prominent feature, a pair of large, dull green eyes. At about five foot four, she had a medium build, perhaps a little on the skinny side but then again, from what he could guess, her quality of living was exactly that of an average standard�it was far below. Her clothes were grotty, and it was only the fact that both the t-shirt and the skivvy were black, that hid the dirt and grime. Her jeans, however, made up for this. They were faded and baggy and dirty could not even begin to describe the state they were in. Her shoes were even worse; and old pair of Dunlop runners that looked as if they would fall apart at any second. "Stop f---in� lookin� at me," she said without looking at him. Paul quickly averted his eyes to look straight ahead. "I wasn�t looking at you," he lied. "You were f---in� so. You were lookin� at me from the corner of your f---in� eye," she told him. "Charlotte, I was not looking at you��f---in�� or otherwise," Paul argued. "Charli," she said shortly "What?" "My name�s Charli." "Charli what?" he asked, raising his head and looking around to see that they were quite near home�now, if he could just get rid of her- "Just Charli." "Well you have to have a last name," Paul tried to reason. "I don�t f---ing have to have anything," she said angrily. "My name�s Charli, plain and simple." "Well, Charli plain and simple, where do you live?" he asked. "No where, anywhere," she answered, her biting tone replaced by and airy sad one. "No foster home?" "Don�t like �em. I ran away from the last five so they�ve given up on me. They don�t care what I do. My social worker�s retiring soon. They won�t assign me to anyone after that. That�s why they put me in this dumb program," she said, the sniping returning to her voice. "Well, where�s your family?" "Don�t have none," she said in a tone that ended the conversation. A tone that indicated that this subject was not to be pushed any further. "So, where�re we going?" she asked, changing the topic all together. " Well, �I� am going home," he said matter of factly. "Cool, lead on," she said, not realising what he�s latter statement had meant. Paul stopped walking and turned to look at her. Charli took his lead. "You seem to have misunderstood," he said. She gave him a puzzled look. "You can�t come home with me-" his voice trailed off as he saw how truly pathetic she looked. She was skinnier than he�d first thought and her teeth chattered together as she shivered, her bodies feeble attempt to battle the cold. Her hands had disappeared into the confinements of her sleaves which he noted were almost worn through in places. "What do you mean I can�t come home with you?" she asked, a little alarmed. Despite how much he wanted to ditch her right here and now, he couldn�t bring himself to leave the poor little wretch out in the cold. He sighed. "You can�t come home with me�unless you have some decent, warm and clean clothes." She still held a worried look on her face. "But these are the only clothes I�ve got," she said. Dammit! Why did he have to be so damn nice? [yeah Paulie, you keep on telling yourself that- sera] "Well, you�re about Sara�s size. I�m sure will find you something at home," he said and began to cross the road. Charli jogged after him. "Who�s Sara?" "My girlfriend." He was going to go on about Sara when a car suddenly came careening around the corner, narrowly missing the both of them as it zoomed haphazardly past. "WATCH IT YA f---ING ARSEHOLE!!!" they yelled after the vehicle in unison before turning to each other, looks of surprise plastered on both their faces. Maybe this wouldn�t be so bad after all. Part 39 Paul laughed despite himself. "Yeah, I guess I did sort of win you over." It had taken a little while but they�d learnt to trust each other. They�d had their ups and downs and Charli had never seemed to give over to being completely happy but they were both content for it to be that way. "Although, I have my suspicions as to whether it was the other way around," he said, glancing sideways at her. "I was pretty much an arsehole there for a while." "Can�t argue with that," Charli said grinning, breaking off another row of chocolate and beginning to eat it. "Hey!" Paul said defensively. "Is it my fault I have troubles connecting with little people?" Charli raised an eyebrow. "Say what Mr. Oompa Loompa?" Paul looked at her warily. "Touche. But you know what I mean�young people, child people, not of the old people." Charli nodded. "But then, I don�t get that because you were that age too once upon a time that has long been forgotten." Paul glared at her. "I was never of that young," he said indignantly. "I came flat packed at the age of 21," he said, his glare turning to a smile. "Yeah, and you still haven�t hit puberty," Charli laughed. He was about to retort when there was a slamming of the bedroom door, stomping up the hall, then the slamming of the bathroom door before the sound of a bath being run. Paul�s face fell. "What am I going to do about her?" he asked. "Well," Charli said, considering the options. "Personally, I think that she�s either entirely overreacting or there�s more to it then just PMT. Is there anything she�s been worrying about lately?" Charli asked, breaking off yet another row of chocolate oblivious to Paul staring at her as if she had two heads. "God, I really shouldn�t be eating all this chocolate, I�ll make myself- What?" she asked as she noticed Paul�s expression. "Have I missed something?" "You don�t know," he whispered before slapping his forehead. �Of course you wouldn�t know, you haven�t been around." "Know what?" Charli asked, clearly confused. "Look, when Sara�s calmed down a bit, you can ask her yourself, I don�t think I can deal telling you." "Oooook, I�m gonna go now. You sort things out with her and I�ll be around tomorrow," Charli said, grabbing her backpack and getting ready to leave. Paul was shocked out of his little �episode�. "You�re not staying? I can make the spare room up for you." "Thanks for the offer, but I don�t want to be a burden and I suspect you two will be needing a little time to yourselves tonight. I may be young but I�m not bloody stupid," she said, slinging her pack onto her back. "Well, where are you going to stay?" Paul asked, concerned for her well being. "The old squat on Stevens Street. No doubt Skeet and Toni will still be there." Paul frowned. "I�d much rather you stay here. You�re not safe in a place like that." "Paul, take a chill pill. I lived their for a year and I was fine. I�ll see you tomorrow." Before he could argue any further, Charli had grabbed the remainder of the chocolate and had headed out the back door. Paul sighed, shook his head before heading down the hallway, planning to try and make a ends meet with Sara again. The bath had stopped running and he tapped lightly on the door before entering the steam filled room. All that was visible of her was her head, the rest of her body hidden by about a foot of foaming bubbles. "What are you doing in here?" she snapped, her eyes huge and her pupil dilated with anger. "Um, checking to make sure you hadn�t fallen asleep and drowned," he lied. "What, after being in here for all of five minutes? You could have at least waited for me to answer your knock." "You didn�t," he said, a tad miffed. "That�s why I came in." "Well you can just turn around and go out again!" Indignation brought a blush to her cheeks and she looked at him with stormy eyes. Then, in an unprecedented action, she scooped up foam and water and threw it at him in a spontaneous action that surprised her almost as much as it did him. Dejectedly, Paul left the bathroom with a sopping shirt, closing the door behind him. He nearly died from fright when he turned to see Charli standing at the end of the hall. She beckoned him quickly to her. "I just came back to grab some food," she said quietly. "Hope you don�t mind." Paul shook his head. "Anyway, I�m going now, but I thought I�d tell you that in about 20 seconds, she�s going to call you back in there and apologise, blah blah blah, and you�ll probably end up in the bath with her doing things I don�t want to think about so I suggest you take off your Rolex now." She gave him a quick grin and a peck on the cheek before rushing out the door. He stood watching after her for a few seconds before Sara�s wafted out from the bathroom. "Paul, come back," she said, pleadingly. He quickly removed his Rolex and put it on the hall stand before rushing back into the bathroom. A minute or so later, there could be heard a large splash, followed by a fit a of giggles. Charli smiled from her place under the bathroom window before taking off towards her shelter for the night. Part 40 "Charli doesn�t know," Paul said later that night as they got ready for bed. "Well obviously," Sara said. "We haven�t know that long ourselves." Paul looked at her sadly. "You�re going to have to tell her." Sara sighed. The worst thing about having a death warrant wasn�t actually the dieing part, it was having to break the news over and over again. She thanked God that her parents were long since gone, her father especially. She would never have been able to tell him something like that. "I know. I�ll tell her next time she�s here." Paul climbed into bed as Sara walked around the room, picking up knick knacks and photos and turning them over in her hands. Most of them were things that they�d acquired during their life together marking little events throughout that time. These were the moments that she was going to miss the most, apart from Paul that is but he knew that. "She�s coming over tomorrow," he told her. "Then tomorrow I�ll tell her," Sara said simply, her head bowed as she looked at a photo of them making a sandcastle on the beach, one of their more childish adventures together along with Richard and Tim when they�d gone to Brisbane for a show. She smiled sadly. Paul noticed. "Sara," he said quietly, beckoning her over to the bed. She came with no qualms and climbed in next to him, falling into his embrace. Paul reached over and flicked the bedside lamp off. Nothing else was said, nothing needed to be said as they fell asleep in each other�s arms. [excuse me while I vomit- sera] Sara was woken by Paul thrashing about in his sleep, murmuring and crying out in an obviously very bad dream. She shook him gently and he awoke with a start, panting for breath. She hugged him to her. "Were you dreaming I was gone again?" she asked softly. He did it quite often nowadays and it hurt her to see what all this was doing to him. "No," he sighed. "I dreamt I was being chased by a hoard of teenage girls who can�t keep their hormones under control." Sara laughed. "Is that all?" "Hey," Paul said indignantly. "They had teeth. Really big teeth. Sharp ones." "Oh, well that explains it then," Sara giggled before dropping into a news reader type voice. "And to day we�re talking to the one and only Mr Paul McDermott, member of the famous comedy trio, the Doug Anthony Allstars. Mr McDermott, how does it feel to be the honey to almost every Australian teenage girl�s bee?" Paul chuckled. "Well that all depends." "On what?" "On whether I�m your regular screw top or a Capalano twist �n� squeeze," he said, attacking her neck with his lips. Sara cracked up laughing and resumed with her normal voice. "Paul McDermott, you�re insatiable," she squealed as his tongue and teeth tickled her neck, gradually getting lower and lower. Paul looked up at her, an evil yet playful glint in his eyes. "So sue me." "Sorry, what was that you said?" Sara asked breathlessly. "So screw you?" "Yeah, that sounds about right," Paul said, diving under the sheets. Sara squealed once again. Later on, as they lay in each others arms, Paul sang softly to her. She tried to join in several times but each time he told her to shutup; her voice was not exactly up there with the best. But this time, she didn�t listen to him and attempted to sing the chorus of �Throw Your Arms Around me� as Paul buried his head under his pillow. "And you may throwowowow you arrrrrrrms around meeeeee." "PLEASE BE QUIET!!!!" he cried as she did an incredibly squeaky �me�. Part 40 continued |
