Chapter 13

“Buddy, you rocked!” Gabe said and high-fived Bronx who grinned and let Gabe pick him up and spin him around. I patted his shoulder once he let him down. “Yeah, you really did rock” I agreed. “Thanks for coming, dad told me you had work.” “No problem, for you, sweetie” I replied and Bronx smiled.

Pete and Ashlee came up behind Bronx and Ashlee took his hand. “Hi” she said. “Hey, thanks for the books, they’ve been really helpful” I said. “No problem.” I nodded slowly but I didn’t know what else to say so I looked up at Gabe for help who quickly picked up on it. “So, I should get going, should I take you home, Charlie?” “Yes, please.” “Oh, don’t you guys wanna come back to my place?” “No, I should really get back to work, after me and a few of the girls who are interested in starting the paper are going out for dinner.” “Do you need some money?” I raised my eyebrows and crossed my arms in front of my chest. “Really, Pete? No, no, I don’t need any money, thank you very much. Bye, guys” I said, unable to believe that he had really just offered that. “Bronx, you were awesome, buddy, well done” I added and messed up his hair before turning around and walking towards the exit.

“Yeah, bye, guys, bye, buddy” I heard Gabe say quickly, then he caught up with me. “Hey, what was that?” he asked, his voice rising to a higher pitch like it always did when he was half-amused or couldn’t believe something which happened pretty often. “Do you mean me or him?” I asked in confusion. We walked down the school corridor and out into the street. “Him, of course. I mean, he still doesn’t get it.” I breathed out loudly. “Exactly, he doesn’t! Thank you!” Gabe laughed, running his fingers through his hair, seeming slightly stressed now. “He told me what you said about not wanting to depend on him and I get it, I really do.” “I’m glad” I replied. He opened the door to the passenger seat for me and I got into the car. He walked around it and got in beside me, driving out of the parking space.

“He should get it too, I don’t understand why he doesn’t. He knows you so well, probably better than anybody else.” I sighed. “Yeah, he should but for some reason, it doesn’t seem to make any sense to him.” Gabe sighed too. “Yeah but you have to give him some time, maybe he’ll realise.” “I’m waiting.” He grinned. “Well, he’s gonna figure it out. Reactions like this make it pretty obvious.” “Not obvious enough, I guess. He really has the nerve … and I mean, right in front of Ashlee too!” Gabe inhaled deeply. “I know, Charlie, I know.” I shook my head in desperation. “It’s so upsetting, you know?” “Yeah. Hey, should I talk to him about it?” I thought about it for a second. “No, I want him to figure it out himself.” Gabe laughed. “Spoken like a true woman!” I laughed too. “What?” “It’s what women are like, they don’t want anybody to help their guy out, they want them to think of it all by themselves.” I laughed again. “First of all, he’s not my guy, Gabe and secondly, I have been pretty damn helpful, dropping hints here and there and spelling it out for him. I just want him to put himself in my position for once. I don’t get it, he’s not the kind of guy that’s all about money so why doesn’t he get it?” Gabe shrugged. “You know, I know you won’t like hearing this but I can understand his point. He’s probably just too blinded because he wants to help you, that’s all he sees, the opportunity to help you.” “But he should think about how that makes me feel! Weak and like I can’t take care of myself and I don’t think that’s what he’s trying to achieve.” Gabe nodded. “Exactly, he isn’t thinking far enough!” I yawned. “I don’t know” I sighed because I was running out of things to say and I didn’t want to bother Gabe with this any longer.

He dropped me off at work and I finished a few articles that were due for the next day and when everybody started to pack and get going, I did the same. Down in the lobby, I met Sue, standing by the door with three other girls who I had talked to about the project already. “There’s four others coming, I told them we’d wait for them down here” Sue explained, a wide grin spread across her face, telling me that she was probably just as excited as me. The other three girls looked happy too, none of them were pulling the faces they always wore upstairs.

After a few minutes, three more girls came out of the elevator and the ones I didn’t know yet, I was introduced to by Sue. Then the last girl came down and we walked down the street and just around the corner to something that Sue had told me about as “Gilly’s favourite place”. Since I didn’t doubt Gilly’s judgement, I had agreed on going there, also because I didn’t want to seem like I was in any way a leader of this whole thing, I was just looking for fellow writers. When we arrived there, Kate was already waiting at the table she had reserved for us. We left our coats by the door and sat down together and the more it sank in that we were such a big group already, the more real it all started becoming in my head.

We all ordered and the more I talked to the girls, the more I realised that they were really exactly what I was looking for and I was happy for trusting Sue on getting a few people that would fit in with us. One of them had already worked at a women’s magazine before but it had been closed down for being a little bit too offensive which I already liked right away, especially because Cindy seemed just like the kind of woman who wouldn’t mind going a bit too far and addressing some risky subjects which I knew we needed because that was not everybody’s cup of tea.

The thing that made the happiest though was the fact that we all seemed to have the same views and almost the same ideas for the paper. We had our focus on different things but then also, we agreed on most of the issues that Sue had presented from the start. We all had the same vision in front of our inner eye, we all wanted to get something out there that would make people think but also help people. We wanted to inform and to convince other women with our writing. I felt more happy than I had in ages, surrounded by other women who thought like me and who acted like me and who just made me feel like my goals weren’t completely off and impossible.

We had so much fun, chatting and eating, discussing our views and perspectives that it got really late and when I was in the back of the cab home, smiling to myself, I got my phone out and leaned back, holding the phone up to my ear with a huge grin. The evening had opened my eyes and impressed me, it had made me feel so sure about everything that the first thing I spoke into the phone was: “Pete, we’re gonna do this paper and it’ll blow minds.”