PART+THREE

<<On the Road by Jack Kerouac is the next book Bill gave to Charlie after he finished Catcher in the Rye. Bill read his paper on the book and told him he was developing at a rapid pace, which made Charlie feel even better about himself.

-After the show Craig had everyone over to the apartment to drink, they ended up playing truth or dare. Everything was fine until Patrick dared Charlie to kiss the prettiest girl in the room.At that time Charlie was dating Mary Elizabeth and he actually kissed Sam. Charlie stated, " ...I knew that if I kissed Mary Elizabeth I would be lying to everyone"(135) After this night no one really talked to Charlie anymore, and he didn't know what to do. He felt alone and couldn't figure out what was wrong with him, which he then decided to buy pot from Bob, and that's how he tried dealing with the problem.
 * Truth or Dare? **

Every once and awhile the kids put on a showing of their own version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Charlie never really played a role in the show, but he helped out around the set. Just the idea of the movie in general opened Charlie up to many new things like sexuality. Sam usually played Janet, Patrick played Frank N' Furter, Mary Elizabeth played Magenta, and Craig, Sam's boyfriend, played Rocky. One night Craig ended up not showing up and nobody knew why, not even Sam. That's when Mary Elizabeth suggested the idea that Charlie play Rocky. Next thing Charlie knew, he was up on stage in nothing but slippers and a gold painted bathing suit. In the show Rocky has semi-intimate moments with Janet, in this case Sam. Charlie claimed that that was the best part of the show, he wanted Sam to really mean it when she was touching him. He wanted it to feel like Sam and Charlie not Rocky and Janet. Charlie playing Rocky didn't really help him get over his obsession with Sam, and that plays a big part. The reason is because the night that Charlie played Rocky, Mary Elizabeth asked him to the Sadie Hawkin's dance and he said yes. Ever since the dance Charlie and Mary Elizabeth were and item, and Charlie's first real "girlfriend" that he shared and intimate relationship with. But, this ended when Charlie ended up confessing that Sam was the prettiest in a game of truth or dare when he kissed Sam instead of Mary Elizabeth, this shows that Charlie still has a slight obsession over Sam and playing Rocky probably didn't help. The Rocky Horror Picture Show also seems like a way for the kids to escape real life. For example, Patrick was going through troubles with Brad. First, Brad's dad found out about him and Patrick and beat him. Second, after the incident with Brad's dad, Brad ended up calling Patrick a "faggot" in front of everyone in school and all of his football buddies and didn't see ashamed. Later Charlie claimed that he went to see his friends play in the show and expected Patrick to not be himself, but he ended up playing Frank N' Furter better than he ever has.

** -> ** //**Charlie's First Cigarette:**// About a week after Charlie's experience with LSD he still was having "bad trips" and said that, "things would start moving again, and sounds were bass heavy and hollow. And I couldn't put a thought together." (101) So, he went to the library to read up on LSD and read that sometime people do LSD and don't really "get out of it" and that esentially the drug causes schizophrenia. This made Charlie panic and he started to breathe fast and think back to the schizophrenic kids in the hospital. This resulted in Charlie skipping his first hour class and going to see Sam and patrick outside. The first thing that came out of Charlie's mouth to Patrick was, "Can I have a cigarette?" (101) Sam seemed shocked and didn't let Patrick give him one and she pulled Charlie aside to find out what was wrong. Charlie began to tell Sam about his bad trips and how he thought he was going to be stuck seeing and hearing things forever. She began to talk Charlie through what he was going through, and then gave him the cigarette. Charlie said when he hit it, "It actually felt soothing." (102) Sam told Charlie that he just needed to focus and the feeling of the LSD would go away and what he was experiencing was "the trance". Ever since his first cigarette Charlie states that hes now up to about ten cigarettes a day. Charlie began to go through relationship problems with his "girlfriend" Mary Elizabeth and honestly didn't know how to handle anything anymore with his friends or her, seeing the fact that these are the first friends he's ever really had and has never experienced these problems before. For awhile he stopped talking to his friends and he finally called Bob one day, but it was to ask him if he had any marijuana he could buy. Bob told Charlie he had a quarter ounce left and Charlie ended up buying it with his Easter money and said he has, "been smoking it all the time since." (139) Charlie is starting to be introduced to all kinds of drugs and alcohol and someone who was once a "loner" and a wallflower is beginning to "participate", but not in the way his english teacher Bill had in mind. It seems like Charlie doesn't know how to handle his problems and his trying to fit it by solving them with drugs (like LSD, Marijuana, and cigarettes). Even though Charlie is beginning to break out of his shell and participate with the people around him, he now has to deal with drama and drugs. When Charlie had no friends and didn't participate he seemed like a happier person with less worries and problems and knew how to handle things in a decent manner without turning to drugs.

Summary: In this section, Charlie did many new things. He went to the Rocky Horror Picture Show and when Craig didn't show up to play Rocky, he stepped in.Afterward, he said he had the best time he ever had in his whole life. Sam played the role of Janet so he had to touch her and was at first worried, but everything worked out in the end and the audience was very pleased. After the show, everyone went to the Big Boy and then Mary Elizabeth asked him to the Sadie Hawkins' dance. He told Sam about it and expected her to be jealous but she wasn't. She just ended up giving him advice since it was going to be his first date. He had an ok time at the dance and when he was there, he saw his sister with her boyfriend have a huge fight and then she ran off the dance floor. Later at home, Charlie found her in their basement crying and she told him she was pregnant and when she told her boyfriend, he said it wasn't his and broke up with her. He took her to the clinic to get an abortion and he started crying and went out to the car because it was the first time anyone had ever counted on him. She found him in the car afterwards and saw him smoking. She said she wanted him to stop and that she loved him. This really brought them together.

As for Mary Elizabeth, Charlie doesn't quite like her as much as she likes him. They go on multiple dates and she calls him often and buys him gifts. He gets annoyed by the majority of the things she does. When she buys him gifts, she wants him to go around and show everyone what she got for him and he doesn't think that gifts should work like that. Also, they'll be together and then when Charlie gets home, Mary Elizabeth will call and say "What's up?" He knows that she likes him and he doesn't want to be mean, so he never tells her that these things annoy him. On Good Friday, Craig had a party at his apartment after the Rocky Horror Picture Show and everyone was drinking and Patrick suggested that they play truth or dare. Charlie chose dares all night so he wouldn't have to tell the truth about Mary Elizabeth. Patrick dared Charlie to kiss the prettiest girl in the room and he got up and kissed Sam. After that night, nobody talks to him and he feels horrible about all of it. After a week of not talking to anyone, he called Bob and bought some pot from him and has been smoking it since then. He went again to buy more pot from Bob and ended up talking to him for a while. He told him that Brad's dad caught him and Patrick together and beat him severly. He was out of school for a week. Charlie went to the show that night to see how Patrick was but he didn't talk to anyone. Charlie's sister has a new boyfriend now also.

Brad finally came back to school and Charlie described him as looking different. He said he always walked with his head up, but now he hung his head and looked at the ground. Charlie noticed Brad and Patrick talking quietly in the hallways a few times and found this odd because they never spoke in public. He saw Patrick crying one day while he was smoking a cigarette but decided to give him personal space. Later on, at lunch, Patrick walked up to Brad and his football buddies and started talking to him and then Brad called Patrick a Faggot. Patrick punched Brad and then some of Brad's football buddies started beating Patrick up too. It got to be five on one so Charlie decided to step in and throw some punches. At the end, Brad two of his friends just stopped firghting and stared at Charlie. The other two were on the ground in pain. Then Charlie said to Brad, "If you ever do this again, I'll tell everyone. And if that doesn't work, I'll blind you" (151). Patrick ended up getting suspended for a week. Some of the guys got a few days and Brad and Charlie got a month of detention. On the first day of detention, Brad walked up to Charlie and said, "Thanks. Thanks for stopping them" (152). Also, Sam talked to Charlie and said that everything was good but she was upset that he kissed her because Mary Elizabeth is a really good friend of hers and she really liked him. Charlie is now talking to everyone again and has decided to smoke less pot.

Charlie and Mary Elizabeth's relationship begins as them two being dates to the sade hawkins dance. This would make Mary Elizabeth Charlie's first date ever. Although they were dates and Mary Elizabeth mentioned this to the whole group, Charlie wanted Sam to be jealous. He says, " Sam wasn't jealous though. To tell you the truth, I don't think she could have been happier about it, which was hard." He is now revealing how he truely feels about the situation. It is also apparent he still has feelings towards Sam or it would not have hurt him if she was jealous or not. Sam also fills Charlie in on Mary Elizabeths experience. He was confused about sexual things with Mary and it was clear he wasn't ready to go to the next step with her. Their first date Charlie admitted to Mary Elizabeth that he wasn't ready and she was ok with that and said that he was a very sensitive boy. However, The next time the two of them hung out, it got a little intense between the two of them. After, that Mary Elizabeth started treating Charlie differently and trying to more or less control some of the things he does. He explains as, " Beacause I started to think that I didn't know who Mary Elizabeth was at all. I'm not saying she was lying to me, but she jsut acted so different before I got to know her, and is she really isn't like what she was at the beginning, I wish she could have just said so. But maybe she is like she was at the beginnings, and I just don't realize it. I just don't want to be another thing Mary Elizabeth is in charge of."(130) He asked for advice, and his sister and psychiatrist both tell him to be honest about his feelings. However, he never is honest to her about his feelings, and they just keep on dragging on. After all of his friends performed their show, Sam's boyfriend Craig invited all of his friends including himself to his apartment to drink wine for the night. That's when Patrick suggested they all play a game of truth or dare. Charlie chooses dare instead of truth all night because, " I just dont want to tell Mary Elizabeth the truth because of a game."(135) When Charlie contines to pick dare, is next dare is to kiss the prettiest girl in the room, and he stodd up passed Mary Elizabeth, and kissed Sam. That is when all hell broke loose and it got so bad, Charlie made the bold decision to desert himself from his friends for a while to let things cool off. So, that's what he did. Mary Elizabeth and Charlie shared a dishonest and awkward relationship. Charlie could not experience the same emotions with Mary Elizabth, and he does with Sam, and ultimately, thats what tore them apart. Mary Elizabeht has moved onto one of Craig's older friends. Charlie and Mary may have reached speaking grounds, which is good to see.
 * Charlie and Mary Elizabeth.**

Charlie and his sister were never particularly close. However, one night changed that all. Theri relationship grew stronger on the night of the dance. Charlie noticed his sister slow dancing with her boyfriend. They were dancing and she whispered something to him, and they got into a huge fight about it. All he saw was his sister run away in tears, and her boyfriend stayed at the dance for a while, but eventually left. Once Charlie finally tracks her down, she screams at him at first, but the confeses that she is pregnant. Charlie says, "I told my sister that after a while, she probably couldn't hide it, but she said she wouldn't let it go that far. Since she was eighteen, she didn't need Mom or Dad's permission. All she needed was someone to be with her next Saturday at the clinic."(116) It was clear his sister was recieving an abortion, and Charlie would be the one to take her there. Charlie knowing this secret only made there bond stronger because now his sister always had to be nice to him because he had this big secret he could potentially "let slip". Even though he has something on her, she has something on him as well, she knows he smokes and doesn't like that attribute about him. They both know a secret about eachother that no one in their family will ever know. It looks like they have more in common than they thought...
 * Charlie and his sister:**

Ever heard the song "I kissed a girl" by Katy Perry? Well here's how it would sound if Charlie was the one singing the song... I kissed a girl and I liked it. The taste of her instead of Mary Elizabeth I kissed a girl and I liked it I hope my girlfriend don't mind it It seemed so wrong But felt so right Won't be talking to them for a while after tonight I kissed Sam and I liked it, I liked it!