Login with:

Facebook

Twitter

Tumblr

Google

Yahoo

Aol.

Mibba

Your info will not be visible on the site. After logging in for the first time you'll be able to choose your display name.

Why We Call Each Other

A Guy with a Girl

“It’s funny watchin’ ‘em do the way they do, they come walkin’ up to me but they only wanna talk to you. And I don’t blame ‘em that they’re hypnotized, they keep staring at your heartbreak eyes…”


Darcy was back in LA a couple days later and Charlotte got a room at the hotel the rest of her crew was staying at. Ultimately, she decided against staying in the same room as Jules. If she wanted to get any sleep at all, she’d have to get a solo room. It wasn’t too bad though. Events for the festival kept them all pretty busy so Charlotte didn’t have too much time to think about how much she wished Darcy was there. It almost seemed for the best that he was back in LA for work. She wouldn't be able to occupy his time in between festival time. Mostly, she just wished he could be there the night of the award ceremony. Not that she believed they’d walk away with any awards, it’d just be nice to have him there in her defeat.

Because camp was only during the morning or early afternoon and many of the events in Toronto were in the evening, Charlotte and Darcy always found a time mid-afternoon for a phone call. Sometimes they had things to talk about, and other times they just kept each other on the line even if they didn't have much of anything to say at all.

He had been gone almost a week by the time all the films had been premiered and panels were taking place. Charlotte, Lindsey, and Peter had been asked to join a panel to talk about their film in front of an audience and critics. Some of the films that had been deemed to show exceptionally well at the festival were given this opportunity, and as excited as Charlotte was to get a chance to talk about the film, she was just as petrified to know that there was now an expectation of them and their film because of it. That was a lot of pressure to suddenly find yourself under. And Charlotte figured no one knew pressure like Darcy. When she called to tell him that she was going to have to talk on the panel, he congratulated her profusely. He was beyond proud of her and made that explicitly known. But more than that, he assured her that she would do amazing on the panel. He also made it known that he wished he could be there with her.

Nothing could’ve prepared her for this. Sitting in between two of her friends, she was being asked questions about development and production of their film. No amount of public speaking classes would’ve prepared her for this. It was a big reason why she wanted to be a producer. While it was still a big role, it wasn’t the center of attention. It wasn’t an actor in front of the camera, it wasn’t the director in the middle of the crew like a captain, it was the silent leader on set hoping and praying they’d done enough in pre-production so they could sit back.

They were in a smaller theater, probably just over a hundred people looking at them, waiting like a pack of wolves for the moment they could pounce on the three unsuspecting rabbits at the front. The moderator chose the questions, and thankfully, the first one was for Lindsey about what it was like directing a World War Two piece. That gave Charlotte time to settle in. As her friends seemed cool and even-keeled, she strived to be at their level of comfort. Lindsey was giving an articulate answer, but Charlotte had to admit she heard very little of it. She went into a tunnel-vision mode of focus, until her name was being called.

She refocused, and looked out at the audience, settling on the man standing with a microphone in front of him. “What was your biggest focus when it came to allocating money?”

Charlotte cleared her throat and held her microphone up to her mouth. Well, having no money meant having nowhere to allocate anything. “My primary focus was to make sure that I did the time period justice. This was not a pretty time. These men… these boys… were coming off of three years of fighting. With all period pieces, a lot of money goes to production design because you have to make a space look like a specific year. For us, we had such a low budget… I’d say I allocated just under sixty percent of our budget for production design. And that sounds like a lot, and it is, but you also have to understand that we made this movie on a lot of favors and deals; locations, sets, equipment… we had friends in all the right places.”

First question out of the way. She could do this. She knew her movie. There was nothing they could throw at her that she wouldn't know the answer to. They had all devoted their lives for the past nine months to this project. The next question was for Peter, and this time Charlotte listened wholeheartedly. She was in this.

“Char came to me with the idea and said, Pete, if we’re not making movies that cause a stir, what’re we doing? The three of us,” Peter motioned to the girls on either side of him, “were like cruise ship directors, y’know? We’re leading a group of people towards something, and the entire time, the three of us are on the same page of what this is. Charlotte said it, this wasn’t a pretty time. We went into this knowing we were making a war piece about immigration; I mean this is a rough topic. And that’s why I wanted to make this movie. I get to make something I care about with the people I care about. What could be better than that?”

Everyone in the audience liked his answer to that. Maybe that’s what everybody liked about this movie; that it was made by a group of friends who hadn’t really been told to grow up yet. They were still fooling around and somehow ended up on something spectacular. A woman stood up next and asked all of them the same question: Did it ever cross their mind to be afraid of making this movie? Both Lindsey and Peter looked at Charlotte to answer this one, because they knew this could lead to a touchy situation in which their words could be taken out of context.

“I can’t speak for every person on the crew, but what I can say, is we all felt this was an important story to tell, especially right now. In Canada, it’s amazing, the political agenda expresses an acceptance of refugees and immigrants coming here for asylum. America, for better or for worse, has adopted a different approach. Setting this film in the forties seemed fitting. The war was a traumatic point in our history. What a better backdrop for a traumatic story?”

Charlotte looked over at her friends, and then back at the audience as the woman’s voice sounded again. “That was diplomatic, but you didn’t answer the question,”

Charlotte smiled, “so you noticed?” The audience laughed and Charlotte picked at her fingernails nervously as she thought. “As filmmakers, we have a moral obligation to tell our truth. To tell a human truth. It doesn’t matter if we’re scared, doesn’t matter if we’d rather take an easier road, if we lied we would put society at a great disadvantage. We’re allowed to tell our truths regardless of whether or not we’re saying popular speech. And those around us are allowed to say whatever they want about our truth. The conversation is what makes everything possible. By making this movie, we’re putting the conversation back into people’s mouths. Hopefully that actually answers your question to some degree,” she smiled. “I have to retain a level of diplomacy,”

All things considered, the rest of the panel went pretty well. And Charlotte was excited to call up Darcy and tell him how it went. But by the time she got back to the hotel room and called him up, it went to voicemail. It was pretty late for her, which meant it was still a reasonable hour back in LA, but she couldn't expect him just to be lounging around now that his season was starting. He had to assimilate himself with a new group of guys. They were going to be his support system, his best friends, for the next year at least; it was important that they see him as one of their own.

Tomorrow would be Charlotte’s last full day in Toronto. That night would be the award ceremony for the shorts, and the remaining days of the festival were reserved for the features. She was torn between wanting to get back home and wanting this experience to last forever. That night when she tucked into bed, she looked at the empty space beside her. She never remembered a time where she actively missed someone as much as she missed Darcy when he wasn’t around. A big part of her wondered when that happened. Was that before or after they officially became a couple? Was the jealous yearning of wanting him to call her an indication that she had missed him all along? Eventually, because she couldn’t sleep, Charlotte got up and sifted through her suitcase until she found one of his sweatshirts. She had managed to swipe it from his bag before he left. Now, she tugged it over her head and curled back into bed. If he couldn't actually be there, at least she could still get the small traces of his scent from his clothes. As pathetic as that sounded, it eased her active brain.

She woke pretty early in the morning and grabbed some breakfast with Jules. Her brain was going haywire with the awards tonight and she needed someone to bring her back down to earth. That would’ve been Darcy, but Charlotte still wasn’t able to get in touch with him; a fact that she mentioned to Jules in passing about how it was making her nervous. They spent the morning talking and gossiping, and when Charlotte got back to her hotel room, she knew she should get as much rest as she could before going back to the theater tonight for her last round of festival business. It was sure to be exhausting.

Before anything, she wanted to get out of her clothes and back into something a little more comfortable; like underwear and Darcy’s sweater. Unfortunately, the moment she got naked, someone knocked on her door. She cursed herself for not putting the Do Not Disturb sign up, but had no time to dwell on it as the person knocked again, this time more frantic than before. Charlotte pouted and ran to the bed, tearing apart the sheets until she found the sweatshirt and threw it back over her body. Only then did she run to the door as the person knocked for the third time.

It had to have been only a microsecond between the time Charlotte opened the door and the time she jumped into Darcy’s arms. It was pretty instant. He held her up and pressed his lips to the side of her head as she buried her face in his neck. Darcy waddled further into the room, carrying Charlotte in front of him until he cleared the door and let it shut behind them. Once he set her feet back on the ground, he lifted her head and kissed her lips over and over.

“What’s going on?” Charlotte asked, lifting her hands up to Darcy’s cheeks.

“I found a day in between camp and preseason,” he smiled and kissed her again. “Jules gave me the information I needed.” He reached back and out of the back pocket of his jeans, he pulled a rolled up magazine out. “Look what I found downstairs,”

Charlotte took it from his hands and looked at the cover. Some local gossip magazine was covering the film festival. She looked back at Darcy, pretty confused, and then began thumbing through the pages.

“Page thirty-seven. Apparently my hands and eyes are exactly where they should be,” he giggled and cupped one hand behind her head and leaned in to kiss it gently.

Charlotte laughed at the comment too, but nonetheless flipped to the page. It was filled with pictures and writer comments beneath them; one of which happened to be Charlotte and Darcy on the red carpet. She was smiling at the cameras and Darcy was beside her, one hand on her ass and his eyes locked on her. His expression was pure love and admiration, and Charlotte agreed with the comment below their picture. His hands and eyes were exactly where they should be.

Darcy went over to the bed and sat down on the edge. From there it didn’t take too long for him to run his hands through his hair and lay back with his hands behind his head. Charlotte was so happy to have him back here, especially for tonight. She walked over to him and crawled up on top of him, sitting on his waist. He smiled at her and cocked his head to the side. Her legs were straddled over his body and she reached for his hands, just to place them on her thighs.

“You’re coming with me tonight?” Charlotte asked and reached for the bottom of the sweatshirt she had on. Darcy’s hands had already begun to squeeze her thighs.

“I’ve got a suit downstairs getting pressed,” he grinned. As Charlotte pulled the sweatshirt up her body and over her head, Darcy’s grin got wider. Seeing her naked beneath his clothes would never get old. He growled playfully and sat up. Keeping her on top of him, he cupped her breasts and pushed them together, squeezing, as he opened his mouth around one nipple and then the other. “God, you’re so sexy,”

Charlotte giggled and grabbed his wrists, pulling them away from her chest. When she finally managed to do that, she pushed against him until he laid back down on the bed. With her hands still holding his above his head, Darcy still closed his mouth around one of her nipples and rolled his tongue over it. She sat up on his waist and pressed her hands to his chest, positioning herself in a way that would allow her to rub herself against his crotch. As she began to do so, Darcy brought his hands to her waist and helped her out some, rocking her back and forth.

But she wasn’t having any of it. Charlotte frowned and grabbed his wrists again and held them over his head. “No,” she murmured innocently. She just wanted him to allow her to play with him. Once Darcy nodded, Charlotte kissed him quickly and then sat back up on his waist. She pressed on his chest again, using it as leverage to circle her hips over his waist, using the denim of his jeans to add pressure and friction to her sensitive areas.

Not able to do much for her, Darcy was content to watch her use him to get herself off. Although her movement on top of him and the way her ass and breasts bounced because of it was turning him on too. And his jeans offered very little room for his growing dick. He winced slightly when Charlotte passed over his crotch this time and he bent his legs slightly as though he were trying to protect himself.

She lifted herself off of him and repositioned herself a little higher up on his stomach. Darcy smiled for her mercy and lowered his hands behind her now in order to unbutton and unzip his pants. Once they were loosened, he pushed one hand down his pants and rubbed himself as Charlotte continued to drag herself over his stomach. Against his skin, he could feel how wet she’d become now. He pulled his hand out of his pants and grabbed hold of her hips once more. Even though she fought against him again, he managed to drag her up his body. At first she was confused by what his end game was here. And then she realized she was in for something new.

“Darc…” she choked out as Darcy guided and tucked her legs up on either side of his head.

He looked up at her and kissed her inner thigh, sucking on her soft skin as he moved up closer to center. She sat up on her knees, pulling herself away from his mouth, and Darcy let out a long breath. His fingers danced over her legs and up to her waist, trying to bring her back down to him.

“I’ve never…” she trailed off, not really knowing what to say.

Darcy smiled softly and brought his hands to her ass to squeeze it, “I’ve eaten you out before.” He smiled again, probably hoping he’d be able to calm her down. Charlotte had to admit it was working.

“Not like this,”

He grinned and caressed her body, “it’s the same.” When she pouted, he moved one hand from her ass and placed it between her legs, circling his fingers over her clit, “I’m just gonna make you feel good.”

Charlotte swallowed hard, still looking down at him. She sat a little harder on his hand for more pressure against her clit. Darcy smiled and moved his hand away as he lifted his head and kissed where his hand had previously been. Charlotte bowed her head and allowed him to bring her down closer to his mouth. His head was relaxed back on the bed by the time he dragged his tongue along her slit and closed his mouth around her clit, sucking on it softly. Her legs flinched and she let out a shaky breath. Darcy however, let out a giggly moan at the feeling of her legs close around his head.

Darcy smiled against her and wrapped his arms around Charlotte’s legs, holding them open while he shook his head back and forth gently, working his mouth against her pussy. Charlotte hummed out in appreciative pleasure and sat forward a little bit more, guiding Darcy’s mouth back to her clit. He took note and rolled his tongue against it before taking it between his lips. Her body lurched forward and she reached down to grab onto his hair, tugging on it to brace herself. She sucked in a loud breath only to have it leave her body as an even louder scream.

Charlotte looked down at Darcy again and rocked her hips back and forth on his mouth, shutting her eyes with a smile, and leaned back just slightly. She slid her hand down his pants and curled her hand around his shaft, using the motion of her body to move her hand up and down. Darcy moaned against her, lifting his hips off the bed to get her hand down further on his dick. She looked down at him and lost focus on pleasuring him as his mouth continued to tease her. It was too distracting.

When she finally shook for a final time on top of him, Darcy hummed against her. She was bent forward and panting, and willed herself off of him, only to collapse beside him on the bed. He turned over and nuzzled against her, pecking her lips in quick precession. Charlotte found the strength to look up at him, giving a small smile before she reached up to kiss his lips. But the kiss was cut fairly short when she had to pull away as a yawn overtook her. Darcy giggled at her and brushed his hand through her hair, eyes dancing over her face like he was trying to take in as much of her as he could.




They showed up on the red carpet again, ready to take on the night. Charlotte tried to walk confidently with Darcy, but everything in her was shaking. She was nervous about tonight even though she knew she had nothing to lose. Walking out of Toronto without an award would be heartbreaking but it wouldn’t be a determining factor in what their success would be for the future. This festival had created a buzz for them that never would've happened anywhere else. Like she had said on the panel, it was putting the conversation back into people’s mouths. And if they walked out of this with no physical object, they knew it was just a matter of time until they did have something physical to show for their work.

At least that’s what Charlotte kept telling herself as she walked into the theater and sat down, waiting as patiently as possible to hear the winners announced. Winning an award here does not validate your film. Being here in the first place validates your film. But oh how she wanted to walk away a winner. Sensing her frantic nerves, Darcy held onto her hand the entire time. It was like he was tethering her to her seat, because without him, she was sure she would’ve been pacing back and forth like a madman.

It couldn't have been more than an hour and a half, but it felt like a lifetime before she heard the words, “and the award for best short film…”

Charlotte’s heart dropped into her stomach. Fuck, she was gonna pass out. Hurry up. Who won? Take me out of my misery.

“Second runner up…” there was an annoyingly long pause before the presenter finally blurted out the name of the film, “Ghostland.”

Charlotte let out a long sigh. Okay. They weren’t second runner up. But maybe they weren’t anything at all.

“The award for best short film goes to…” a long pause as the presenter just seemed to enjoy the power she currently wielded over the rest of the theater, “Begin Again.”

Even though it felt like she was being stabbed in the gut, Charlotte figured somewhere there was a camera on her, waiting to catch her reaction. So she did what any showman would do. She plastered a smile on her face and clapped. She and Darcy caught each other’s glance, and judging by the look on his face, he could tell that she was completely devastated.

And then over the PA system, the presenter commented, “first runner up is Asylum.”

It was no consolation that they had come in second. Just one away from taking it all. So they were pretty good, but they weren’t the best. For Charlotte, she feared they’d come in second at any festival where they and Begin Again’s crew attended. And no matter what she was feeling, Charlotte knew she had to be the example for her crew. It was no small feat to be at this huge of a festival on the first try. Don’t be disappointed by not winning an award.

When they got out of the theater that night, Darcy took Charlotte’s hand and led her to the curb so he could hail a cab. With the craziness that was going on in downtown Toronto, they didn’t have to wait too long for one to pull up. After they ducked in and Darcy told the driver the address, he looked back over at Charlotte, but she was staring out the window. “I’m proud of you, Char,”

She turned to look at him, but said nothing. Instead, she just put her hand on the middle seat between them, and smiled weakly when he set his hand on top of it. She didn’t know what to say, mostly because she didn’t know what was going to come out of her mouth. There was nothing to be disappointed at. Deep down, Charlotte knew that. They had already accomplished something amazing.

Once Charlotte pushed open her hotel room door and walked in, she expected Darcy to follow her in. But when she didn't hear the door shut, she looked back to find him standing in the doorway. He was leaning against the doorframe, just staring, knowing she’d come back to him. When she did, she hooked her arms around him.

“I have to head out,”

Charlotte chuckled in half-disbelief, “you just got here.”

“I only had a day. There’s a pre-season game tomorrow,” he looked at his watch. It was already past midnight, “today.” He ran his hand over her hair softly, “I head to China tomorrow.”

This was news to Charlotte. So much so, that she moved her hands from Darcy’s back to his hips. She stared up at him in pure shock, “were you just going to disappear and expect me to know?” Of all the things to be angry at in the day, this was the very last on the list. It was for hockey; what was she supposed to do?

“I didn’t want you to worry about it when you were here,” he chewed on his bottom lip. He relaxed more when Charlotte grabbed his hand and intertwined their fingers.

“You gonna call me when you’re in China?” She smirked and leaned in to press her hips against Darcy’s. “Or you gonna find a new girlfriend over there?”

Darcy rolled his eyes and decided to play along, “I’m getting kinda bored of you. Think I’ll move on to something new,”

“Better not,” she responded, getting up on her tip toes to kiss him.

He reciprocated her kiss and cupped his hands over her cheeks, “never.” After one more lingering kiss, Darcy took a deep breath in, “I’ll probably be at the rink by the time you get back, but I’ll see you after the game.” He smiled when Charlotte nodded at him. “I’m so proud of you for getting a film here.” With one last kiss, “I love you.”

Charlotte smiled against his lips, “I love you.” She held onto his hand tighter as he backed away. Only at the last possible moment, did she let go. And she watched him all the way down the hallway until the elevator doors opened up for him and he stepped in.

Notes

"A Guy with a Girl" by Blake Shelton.

Adulting is hard, y'all. Hope you're enjoying this story

Comments

OMG I NEED MORE!!

tangerine21 tangerine21
9/9/19

omgggg i need more!!!!! this is one of the best stories i have ever read!

racheal racheal
3/29/19

Oh no

Futuremrs__ Futuremrs__
2/27/19

I just hope Darcy isn’t “living it up”

ugh this makes my stomach hurt