Reborn in 1994: Internet Empire

51 Lina and Charlie

Lina looked over at Max and Jules. They seemed to be even more closely after the end of their second night at the resort. She watched Jules cuddle up against Max, as he leaned over to kiss her on the forehead. She was no longer jealous of the fact that Jules had Max to herself. She had her eyes on the boy who sat next to her. The only issue was that she was not sure how they could get to that level of skinship, especially when her skin was one of the things that she was incredibly insecure about at the moment. Nearly every part of her body, aside from her face, had some sort of wound that came from the kidnapping incident that had happened almost a week prior. The wounds no longer stung so that she could swim with no issues, but they were still healing and still had deep maroon markings on her skin. She wasn’t sure how Charlie would react to this, so for the past few days, she had been making sure to stay close to Jules so that Charlie could find someone else to hang out with. However, now that Jules was practically all over Max, she wouldn’t be able to find a way out.

“Hey, Lina?”

“Y-yes!” she said as she jumped at the sudden question.

“Are you ok?” Charlie asked as he looked into her eyes, hoping to get an answer.

She froze and smiled.

“Yes, I’m fine Charlie. I just got a little wrapped up in my thoughts,” she said, as she tried to laugh it off.

Charlie was clearly not convinced. But it seemed he let the topic go, as he grabbed some food for Lina to eat.

“Might as well give this stuff a try, right? I heard that Sashimi and Caviar are really delicious. Well… As far as Jules says,” he said with a kind smile, holding both of their plates in his hands.

She nodded nervously as she walked with him to the table. They sat down and tucked into a hearty, if not indulgent, meal of steak, sashimi, and caviar. At this point, they could make any kind of ridiculous order and the kitchen would prepare it for them with no questions asked.

Lina tried to enjoy her meal, trying to sit a decent distance away from Charlie without him picking up on what she was trying to do.

“Are you enjoying the food?” Charlie asked, with his mouth somewhat full.

She nodded as she scarfed down some sashimi. The texture was jarring to most, but since she was half Japanese, this kind of food was not new to her. She ate it down quickly and downed the steaks as well. With a final few gulps of water, she tried to escape Charlie’s company.

“Well, I think that I’m ready to go do some rappelling! I’ll be off-”

“I’ll come with you!” Charlie said with a grin. “After all, I’ve never tried this kind of thing before so I’m sure it’s going to be an experience, right?”

She nodded, cursing her luck. After a reasonable amount of time letting the food go down, the two trekked up with their guides to the top of the cliffside. Lina took a good look at the view and almost instantly forgot her troubles. It’s the kind of view that one can never get used to, especially when they see it in real life. Easily around a couple of hundred feet in the air, the houses and cabanas below matched the size of her toenails. She took a deep breath and enjoyed the cool air at the top of the mountain. It was then that she turned back to Charlie, who seemed to be completely petrified. However, he tried his best to hide his fear, especially in front of Lina and the guides. Lina smiled kindly at him and gripped his hand firmly.

“It’s ok! It’ll be fun. And I’m right here.”

“R-right,” Charlie replied as he prepared for the initial jump.

The two were strapped in side by side, as they prepared to rappel down the side of a stone cliff. Charlie was tense, but Lina always made sure to keep his head on straight. With a final jump, they were officially rappelling down the side of the cliff. Charlie hopped in small increments while Lina took more daring longer jumps. However, she would always make sure to wait after a few moments just so that Charlie could catch up.

“You ok, Charlie?” she asked, as he slowly made it to her level.

“I’m good. This is kinda jarring your first go,” he said, as he tried not to look down.

They still had quite a ways to go, but Charlie made sure to be as close to Lina as possible both for peace of mind and so that he could fulfill his promise of always being there.

“Hey, Charlie? If you were scared to go on this thing, why did you come with me?” Lina asked, just as they were about to reach the bottom.

He was too focused on his feet finally hit the ground, that he almost forgot to answer. But when he noticed that she was waiting on his answer, he finally answered.

“Well, because I promised you that I wouldn’t leave your side. Right?”

She blushed at the thought. It was then that the memories came back to her. That time in the hospital room, with only her and Charlie. She remembered the talk that they had. The kiss that they shared. As well as the promise that Charlie made. It was clear that she was not the only one that remembered. Her daydreaming was evident as Charlie began to probe again.

“Listen, if there’s something wrong, you can tell me. You know you can tell me, right?”

She nodded, but she still couldn’t muster up the courage to tell him how she had been feeling. About her skin. About the wounds. About her broken body. In her eyes, she was not the best self that she could be, and therefore she questioned if she could ever give herself to him.

“You gotta tell me something, so I can fix it. I promised that I’d always be here. Please, take advantage of that. Tell me anything, Lina,” he said, as he and she walked back to cabanas that they got ready in.

“Well, you promised you’d be here for me right?”

“Right.”

“No matter what?”

“Of course?”

She gulped.

“What about my wounds?”

He didn’t miss a beat.

“What about them?”

She was startled slightly by the answer but continued anyway.

“Well… Would you really be able to spend all that time you promised me, with how ugly I look now?”

“You’re not ugly though,” he said, as a matter of factly as he could make his sentence sound.

“I am, and I know it,” she said as she looked down, practically telling him that she had already admitted defeat.

There is no way that anyone could handle a girl with that kind of baggage, she thought to herself. That is, until Charlie answered again.

“Well, I still think you’re beautiful,” he said, as they finally made it back to the resort.

“You don’t have to lie,” she said as she shook her head.

“I’m not lying!”

She tried to storm off into their room, but he followed her in hot pursuit. In an instant, she stepped into the bathroom and locked it, stopping Charlie in his tracks.

“Lina! Lina, please open up!”

She didn’t make a sound, and the door didn’t budge. Whatever the case, he knew that she could still hear him, so he continued to speak.

“Listen, I know you don’t have to believe a single thing I say. So just listen,” he said with his hands pressed against the closed door.

“I know that you think you’re ugly right now. Especially with all of those wounds being reopened. I can’t possibly know what that’s like. Neither can I take whatever they did away from you. But I did make you a promise. A promise that I’d be the one to take care of you. If everyone else in the world failed, I wouldn’t.”

He paused hoping for a reaction. Still nothing.

“So I promised you I’d stay. And that’s regardless of what you think you look like! I’m here to stay. I mean think about it! I supported you in your love triangle with Max. I supported you through the heartache. I was your shoulder to cry on. I saved you from someone who could have easily ended my own life in a heartbeat! And even if I wouldn’t get anything back, I’d have done it again. Because that’s how precious you are to me. And you oughta know it!” he said, finally taking a breath. “I’m yours. I’m only yours. Because even though you think you’re not beautiful, or good enough, in my eyes, you’re wrong! You’re way better than what you think you are. You are the most beautiful. You are priceless. And that is the reason why I made that promise Lina!”

He finally stopped talking. For a moment, he didn’t hear any movement. Finally, after a while, the door unlocked with a Lina, who couldn’t look Charlie in the eyes.

“Did you mean all of that, Charlie?” she asked, still not looking at him.

He nodded.

“Do you promise?”

“I do.”

“You can’t take any of it back-”

Charlie cut her off and kissed her with everything that he had. The shock subsided as she leaned into the kiss. She put her arms around his neck as she relished in the softness of his lips. She felt his hands tracing along her arms. He felt them in their entirety. The wounds that she thought made her the most hideous thing in the world, was the very thing that in that moment, that Charlie was focused on. They pulled away for a brief moment to breathe. With their eyes not leaving the other’s Charlie spoke again.

“I wouldn’t take it back for the world. You’re all mine,” he said as he kissed her again.

All mine, she thought. She couldn’t help but smile at the idea. All she could do now was make sure that he held onto his promise for as long as he possibly could. For in her mind, he was all hers as well.