Selling the Drama

by Theresa Smith

  Toby was eating at a pace that bordered on inhuman, his food was disappearing that rapidly. Charlotte, in contrast, could only pick at her dinner, her appetite non-existent.

  "Charlotte, what is wrong with you? You haven't done more than push your food around your plate. I hope you don't think you're going on a diet for this competition you've got coming up. You burn too many calories with your training for that sort of nonsense, now hurry up and eat before it gets cold." Iris motioned with her fork in Charlotte's direction, sending her a fierce look.

  Charlotte pushed the plate away though, not intimidated by her mother in the slightest. "I'm not dieting. I'm just not hungry."

  "Why?" Iris pressed her, typically not letting it go at that. Sweat the small stuff, ignore the huge. That was Iris all over.

  "I don't feel well." Charlotte slumped in her chair. She saw Toby look at her out of the corner of his eye, felt his knee press against hers. Before Iris could say anything else, Toby put his fork down and pushed his own plate away, although his was scraped clean, not a morsel of food left.

  "She's upset," he announced.

  Charlotte turned to him, her eyes widening in alarm. "Toby!"

  He ignored her and looked at Royce. "Charlotte was sexually propositioned by my football coach this afternoon. A teacher. At our school." He let his words sink in before continuing. "I'm going with her to see the Principal tomorrow so she can make a formal complaint, but she's worried that if she does, I might lose my position on the football team. What she fails to realise, is that I don't want to play on a team with a coach who likes to perve on students, so it's not even a concern for consideration."

  Charlotte pointed at him, shaking her head. "You are not quitting the team because of this! Because of me!" They had been over this already and she thought she'd made herself clear to him.

  "I didn't say I was quitting. I said I wasn't going to play on a team with him as the coach." Toby's tone was firm, his eyes serious.

  "That means the same thing! It isn't fair if this pushes you out of the team."

  "It isn't fair that you can't sit and watch me without some arsehole who should know better putting his hands all over you and inferring that he'd like to fuck you on a gym mat!"

  Charlotte's eyes grew wide at that and she glanced at her parents. They were both staring at Toby, mouths open, forks poised in the air. Her father was the first to find his voice, but it was not to chastise Toby on his language at the table.

  "Are you serious?" He was addressing Toby, his face dark with a look Charlotte had never seen on him before.

  Toby nodded. "Of course I'm serious! Charlotte, tell them what he said to you. What he did with his hands."

  Charlotte though, was mortified. It was one thing to tell Toby; something else entirely to tell her parents at the dinner table. But Toby was not going to be discouraged. He picked up her hand and squeezed it, just shy of too hard, yet it got her attention and she looked up at him.

  "This is not your fault. You've done nothing wrong and he has. Now tell them what he's been doing." He kept hold of her hand and waited for her to speak.

  Charlotte dragged her eyes away from him and turned to face her parents. She outlined Porter's advances in as much of a concise manner as possible, ending on a word for word recital of what he had said to her that very afternoon. When she was done, her mother's expression was one of outrage, but her father's, it was something else again. Charlotte could not come up with any other occasion upon which she might have seen his face look that way. Toby squeezed her hand again. She was grateful for his presence beside her.

  Royce appraised Toby, a knowing look coming over his face. "You have a plan, don't you?"

  Toby nodded. "Yes, I do. Charlotte has the right to attend those practices to watch me, and to walk around that school without fear of him propositioning her. I have the right to play on a team that is not being coached by a paedophile. If we all go in together tomorrow, using the right terms and making just the right amount of demands in the right tone of voice, then there's a way for us to get what we want. They aren't going to want the public to know they have a teacher who is a paedophile on staff. It's all about how you present your case. About how you approach them."

  Iris sat back, smiling widely at Toby. "You're a smart young man! Royce, isn't he brilliant?" She turned to her husband with a nod in Toby's direction.

  Royce nodded. "Indeed. Nicely played, Toby. We'll go in first thing in the morning." He looked at his daughter then, a look of sadness settling onto his face. "But only if Charlotte wants us to."

  Iris protested immediately. "Don't be ridiculous! You can't let that man get away with this! She's going to report him, and that's that." She looked at Charlotte with warning. "Don't you dare even think of not saying something! This is a travesty against women, that we have to put up with this sort of thing, all the time, in every setting we grace, it's always the way."

  Charlotte rolled her eyes. She could tell her mother was just starting to get wound up. She would be quoting Germaine Greer within minutes if Charlotte did not end this now. "Relax, Mum. I'll stand up for all women everywhere." Her sarcasm was not appreciated by Iris though.

  "You mock now, but you wouldn't be so flippant if he raped you."

  "Alright!" Royce interjected. "She's agreed, that's it. Please." He looked at Iris, imploring her to not proceed with this any further. Charlotte was not sure what her mother saw in her father's eyes, but she backed down, standing abruptly and walking around the table to pull Charlotte into a fierce embrace.

  "I can't believe you had to endure that, what a horrible experience! You poor, darling girl. We'll fix this for you, don't you worry." Iris placed a kiss on Charlotte's forehead before straightening up. She turned her attention to Toby then, resting her hand on his shoulder, patting him with appreciation. "Thank goodness she has you. Otherwise, who knows what she'd let people do to her." Iris began to clear the table then, swiftly removing all of the dishes and taking them through to the kitchen.

  Charlotte rolled her eyes in her father's direction. He smiled at her knowingly. Iris had a unique way of making you feel both loved and like shit at the very same time. He stood and left the table, no doubt heading to his couch upstairs in order to read the paper. Charlotte glanced at Toby, her hand still encased within his.

  "You aren't a lawyer yet, you know," she said with a dry tone, a little peeved with his tactics.

  He grinned at her, pulling her hand up to kiss her on the knuckles. "Maybe not, but you have to admit, I'm probably going to make a damn brilliant one."

  She couldn't help but smile at his enthusiasm. She had no doubts about that whatsoever.

  The suspension of Porter from his position at the school generated a feeling of such euphoria within Toby that he could compare it to only one other thing.

  Leaving the office after the meeting, they all stopped on the path outside to convene. "That was a good outcome." Royce smiled widely before adding in a more sombre tone, "Shame about the football team though, it may take a while for them to find someone else to commit to coaching."

  Toby shrugged. "I'll ask around at the club. It doesn't have to be a teacher. The training and games are all out of school hours. Someone might help out." He was unconcerned about this. The guys could all train on their own anyway. It was just the coordinating and logistics of the games they needed someone else for. There was a possibility too that a teacher could be convinced to act as a coordinator if someone else was actually doing the training aspect. Toby had a few potential leads he could approach.

  Iris leaned forward to give Charlotte a kiss on the cheek. "I have to go to work now. I'll see you later this afternoon." She reached out to give Toby's arm a squeeze as she took her leave.

  Royce pulled Charlotte against him, embracing her warmly. "Alright, pretty little lady, you know you have to go home for the day. Principal's orders. Dad's orders are to study. Don't waste the day just because you can't be here." He looked at Toby, pointedly. "Yo
u'll come back after dropping her home?"

  Toby nodded. "Yeah, I have a test later." A fair bit later though, so he was in no great hurry to return.

  Royce nodded. "See you both, then." He headed off to his own car with a wave over his shoulder.

  Toby put his hand on Charlotte's back and steered her up the path in the direction of the student car park. The Principal had asked that Charlotte not attend school today. He assured her it was for her benefit only and that Porter would not be on the school grounds beyond this date. His concern was for the slim chance of him running into her on his way out of the school. It just seemed better all round, the Principal surmised, if Charlotte was not put in the position of having to come face to face with Porter right after her complaint and his suspension having been made known to him. Her parents had agreed wholeheartedly and then given Toby permission to leave school in order to take Charlotte home.

  "See, I told you it would all work out." He put his hand on her leg, squeezing her thigh gently, running his hand just a little bit higher, coming to rest just under her skirt. He left it at that though; he needed to concentrate on driving.

  Charlotte smiled at him. "You sure did. I guess that means you just won your first case."

  He looked at her with a grin, shifting slightly in his seat. "I guess so. Not that there was ever any doubt. I think we should celebrate."

  Charlotte snorted with amusement. "You are so full of yourself sometimes."

  "It's called confidence, baby, and it leads to success." He removed his hand from her leg then, placing it back up onto the steering wheel.

  She laughed outright at his statement. "Whatever."

  Charlotte got out of the car first when they arrived home, heading up the stairs at a brisk pace, leaving the front door open for Toby to follow her in. He locked the door behind him, heading straight to her room where she was already taking off her school uniform, clipping the skirt up onto its hanger so it remained crease free for tomorrow. He waited in the doorway as she unbuttoned her blouse, hanging it neatly also, putting both back into her wardrobe.

  Before she could get any ideas about putting on other clothes, Toby crossed the room and put his arms around her from behind, pulling her against him, putting one of his hands into the front of her bra and the other down into her underpants. He pressed himself against her and leaned into her ear.

  "Do you know what winning makes me feel like?"

  She laughed lightly. "Pretty hard, I'd say."

  He began to work his hands over her, fingers touching in all the right places. "It's a feeling of euphoria, winning something like this, even when I was completely sure that there would be no other outcome. I wonder what I'd feel like if I won something that I didn't think was a sure thing." He licked her neck, slowly running his tongue up to her ear.

  "You do realise his career as a teacher will be over now, don't you?"

  "Yeah, that was the idea. He has no right to a career as a teacher." There was no grey area for him. There was wrong and there was right. End of story.

  "Maybe, but that was his job. His career. His whole life has changed now and it's because of something I've said about him. I feel a bit, I don't know, empty." Charlotte remained still in his hands, neither responding to, nor rejecting his advances.

  Toby thought for a moment, the feel of her against him, filling his hands; he was not really in the mood for a deep philosophical discussion about whether Porter deserved what he got or not. There was nothing to discuss. He did deserve it, and as far as Toby was concerned, he could sit and reap the rewards of his behaviour in the leisure of all his spare time now. It really was that simple. Justice, for Toby, was clear cut. People should not get away without appropriate consequences for their actions. They would just keep on doing it otherwise, perpetrating crimes against unsuspecting victims, growing in confidence, and increasing their brutality until the next thing you knew, they were up and snapping the neck of the person who trusted them the most. Justice, was essential to the running of society, and Toby felt a deep connection to that concept. He was not going to dwell on it any further than that.

  "Charlotte, I want you to think of it this way. By speaking out and changing his life, you've saved other girls from having him change theirs." Toby waited as she contemplated this.

  "You're right. You're completely right. You really are a brilliant lawyer in the making. I think you could persuade anyone to think anything you wanted them to." Her voice held a teasing tone, but he could tell she had taken some relief from how he had just laid it all out for her.

  "Do you think," he breathed into her ear, "that I could persuade you to let me try something out on you?"

  She melted against him, heat flooding his fingers as they worked at her. "What are you going to do?"

  "Take your underwear off and lie down." He released her so he could take off his own clothes. When he returned to the bed, he lay beside her, running his hand down her body, the smoothness of her skin layered on top of his initial euphoria inviting a boldness within him.

  There were many things he and Charlotte did together, the intensity of their experiences increasing as they became more familiar with each other and lost their inhibitions. Yet, a lot of it happened in the dark, late at night, and he did not often get to see her naked in broad daylight, exposed to him like this. He moved over her slowly, kissing her throat, working his way down the centre of her body, a trail of kisses in a straight line to the one place he had not yet had the confidence to explore with his mouth yet. Which seemed a little unfair really, because Charlotte was always making him lose control with her mouth on him, sometimes at the most inopportune moments. The closer he got, the more tense he felt her grow, the muscles in her stomach contracting. Her hands threaded into his hair, gripping it lightly. Spreading her legs further, he looked up at her, the expression on her face telling him he was going to be happy with the answer to the question he could not help himself but ask.

  "Has anyone else ever done this to you?" Shit he hoped not. There were some things he knew he could not change about Charlotte, and having not been her first was one of them. It was also something he had just had to suck up and get over, and for the most part, it never bothered him anymore. But the idea of being her first for other experiences was enough of an enticement that it almost erased the other disappointment.

  She shook her head, her hands tightening in his hair. "No. Never," she whispered.

  "Good. You need to let go of my hair so I can move around."

  She let go of his hair and let her arms fall to her sides. He kissed her just inside her thigh, trailing his tongue closer, taking note of the way she jumped beneath his hands as his breath hit her. He looked at what was spread right in front of him, a first time visual despite them having had sex countless times and him sticking his hand down into her pants at every opportunity. But this was different, having her laid out before him in this manner, exposed, so trusting and giving. Possessed with a feeling so strong it shallowed out his breathing, he felt as though he were stepping over into something else entirely with her, a type of intimacy that spoke volumes about the intensity of their relationship. Toby could not imagine wanting to do this with anyone other than Charlotte. And the thought of anyone else doing this to her was abhorrent. He kissed her between her legs, using his tongue to open her. He was not entirely sure about the mechanics of this yet, but he thought he had a good chance of figuring it out as he went along, picking up vital clues from Charlotte herself in the process.

  The feeling of her becoming undone beneath his mouth was a sensation like nothing he could have imagined. The power he held over her pleasure was like a shot of adrenalin to his own, an orgasmic ride that he had not been prepared for. Charlotte was trembling now, her hands clawing at the sheets beside her, an unrecognisable sound emerging from deep within her, her legs unable to remain still, and it was all he could do not to completely lose control himself, the knowledge that he was bringing her this much pleasure equally as euphoric as
the act itself. Removing his mouth from her, he reared up and drove himself down into the depth of her, just about passing out at the feeling of her pulsating around him, not thinking she would really mind this time that he had barely lasted thirty seconds inside and forgotten to use a condom. Again.

  But fuck, what an incredible thirty seconds it was.

  Charlotte was overcome by a breathlessness that was almost painful. Toby was still lying on top of her, a dead weight as he tried to get his own breath back, but this was not the source of her discomfort. This was one of those times, where Charlotte felt that there were no words that she could say to him to articulate the emotion within her, no actions she could make that would demonstrate the depth of feeling she possessed for him. She had never been under any illusions that sex and love were the same thing. Indeed, she'd had enough sex with enough different people to know that for sure. But Toby had blurred the lines on that theory some time back, which was what happened, Charlotte supposed, when you started to love someone who you were also having sex with. The physical had meshed with the emotional. Up until this moment, she would never have believed it possible for him to demonstrate his love for her through sex. Recovering from the most epic thing to have ever happened to her with the one person she never wanted to be separated from in this lifetime, was all she felt capable of in the moment. Words? What were they again?