I Never Needed You

Chapter 1

The girl can't help it, she needs more,

He hasn't found what he's looking for,

They're still standing in the rain,

He can't help it, and she's just that way…

Girl Can't Help It, by Journey

Charity St. Mare frowned as she looked at her reflection in the long dressing room mirrors. Her hair was in a tangled mess, her face shiny from the heat of the dressing rooms, and her legs had more bruises than she cared to count. Guys told her she was beautiful, and whether or not she liked to admit it - which she didn't, she was. She was a slender seventeen year old with golden skin which, was due to her Italian heritage, she had light sky blue eyes that stood out too much against her long wavy black hair, and legs that were long and well toned from dancing so much. "I need to re-streak my hair," she announced to her best friend, Kimberly Hanson.

"What color this time?" Kim asked as she turned around at looked at her butt to see if the pants made it look bigger than it was.

"No ass in those," Charity absently told her as she thought about her hair. "I think that I want to stay with blue for now," she decided, then frowned at her reflection again, criticizing her outfit.

"I think that you're right. It does make my butt look small," Kim decided. "And the skirt is too big for you."

Charity frowned and nodded. "I was thinking the same thing," she said as she made her way towards the changing room. Kim followed suit.

"Are you going to tell me what's bothering you, or are we just going to continue walking around the mall spending money?" Kim asked from the next stall as she changed into a small skirt and a white crochet halter top that was a startling contrast against her tan skin.

"I'll get to it," was Charity's answer as she stepped out of the stall in a pair of white Dickies pants that had small blue lines down it, and a white corset that had black lacing and strings.

"You have to get that!" they both announced as they noticed the others' outfit, causing them to laugh.

Charity looked at Kim and smiled she really did look wonderful with the black skirt that was high up on her small legs, and her white halter top bringing out the darkness of her tan and the lighter brown highlights in her brown hair, and her light blue eyes seem to stand out even more than they did.

"I have one more outfit," Charity announced and went back into the room to change into an outfit she figured that she could wear to her new school. That was the news that she was scared to tell Kim. She was leaving Indianapolis for San Diego in two weeks. Now that she had been signed to a label, Charity was about to start her recording process. Something that she couldn't wait to start.

Kim smiled as she watched her best friend come out in black pants that had zippers on the thighs, the side of the calves, and where her pockets should be. The pants fit her body to perfection, showing off the curves that was given to her by heritage most likely, and years of dance. And the top was a regular baby blue top with a saying on it, but she looked wonderful in the outfit. "Get it," Kim demanded, causing Charity to grin.

"That's what I thought." was all she said before she went back into the stall to change back into her black Dickies skirt and white spaghetti strap shirt, and slipped her white flip flops on. After walking out with the clothes that she had taken in along with the bags that she had already accumulated, Charity walked over to the dressing room lady with Kim and handed over the clothes she didn't want before making her way towards the cash registers.

"Where to next?" Kim asked as they walked out of the store and started walking in no particular direction.

"I'm hungry, so why don't we head for the food court?" Charity suggested as she touched a hand to her hollow feeling stomach.

"Sounds good to me," Kim shrugged and headed towards the stairs.

!*!*!

"Dude, you keep on leaning back, and its making you wipe out," Christian smirked as he watched his friend paddle back out to where he was, waiting for a wave.

"I know!" Michael groaned in frustration. He had been trying to do the same move for the past two hours, and it got him nowhere, expect for looking like a prune.

"Try to keep your weight centered," Christian suggested before he went after a wave.

"It's not my fault you're just so damn fucking talented," Michael sighed, and watched as Christian rode the wave.

After a while, the two of them had gotten tired of surfing and after packing up their gear, drove over to Michael's house to hang out.

"I hear that Dad is going to be the reason of a new face at school," Michael said as he walked into the kitchen, followed closely by a starving Christian.

"Yeah," Christian nodded as he opened the fridge and took out a bottle of water. "Her name is Charity St. Mare, and she's going to be here for a few months recording, and she'll have to be in school, so she'll be enrolling at San Diego High," he informed his friend and started to pursue the cupboards for something to eat while Michael searched the fridge. He always felt at home in the Branston house, seeing as he was there as much as he was at his own house. His parents where best friends with the Branston's, causing the two boy's to be as close as brothers.

"How old is she? Is she hot?" Michael asked as he got out some frozen corn dogs and frowned at the instructions.

"17, and I haven't seen a picture yet, why?" Christian asked as he continued searching.

"Dude, what the hell is the difference between a conventional oven and a microwave oven?" Michael demanded, still frowning at the instructions.

Christian smirked as he saw the confused look on his friends face and took the package away from him. "A microwave oven is a microwave, and a conventional oven is a …. hmm… oh yea, an oven," Christian said in a sarcastic voice as he smirked at his best friend.

"Oh."

Christian shook his head pitifully at his friend and went about making them some corndogs.

"Hey, I just thought of something," Christian said suddenly. "Where the hell is the Charity person going to stay?"

"You don't know?" Michael asked and went about trying to find ketchup and mustard.

"No. I'm just asking the question because I want to see if you're physic," Christian said, rolling his eyes as he pulled out the hot corndogs by the sticks.

"Sorry, but no, I'm not." Michael smirked then ducked ask Christian swung at him, corndogs and all. "Watch the food man!" he laughed and took two of them out of Chris's hands and put them on a paper plate.

"You know, it'd be cool if Dad's new 'artist' is hot and ends up staying at your house," Michael smirked. "Then one of us could hook up with her and it'd be easy to get to her…" he said suggestively.

"Huh?" Chris asked, confused. "Get to her? You mean to her room?"

"Yeah, that's what I said," Michael frowned. "Dude, Chris, you're losing it." he decided with a shake of his head.

"One of these days you're going to lose your head," Christian remarked, then frowned. "That made no sense though."

"Tell me about it," Michael laughed. "OW!" he screamed as he felt Christian kick him.

"Oops, sorry. Slipped." Christian smirked.

"You're going to get it," Michael said and continued to eat. "After I eat."

"Sure."

"Hey, Kim," Charity said quietly as she picked at her chicken nuggets and looked everywhere other than the person across from her.

"Yeah?" Kim answered in an uncertain voice. This was starting to make her nervous. Ever since they had sat down, Charity had been quiet, which wasn't at all like her usual loud, talkative self.

"I have some…really bad news," Charity told her, still not looking at her. "I'm not really all that sure if I'll be able to graduate with you," she said, trying not to cry. Ever since the two girls had been in elementary school and became friends, they had always imagined graduating together. And now, that didn't seem like it would really happen.

"What? Why? What happened?" Kim demanded.

"Well, I'm expected in San Diego in two weeks to start my recording process, and the label wants me to stay at one studio, so….I'm going to be going go to school there."

"Oh," was all that came out of Kim's mouth.

Charity kept quiet, not knowing what to say or do, so the two of them sat in silence for a while.

"Well," Kim sighed after a while. "It's your dream to be in a recording studio, so if that's where you have to go to do so, then go. So what if we don't graduate together, that doesn't make us no longer best friends," she said, smiling slightly.

"Really?" Charity asked, looking into Kim's light blue eyes and smiling. "You're okay with it?"

"As long as you call me every day and tell me about it. Especially if there's any cute guys." Kim smirked, trying to act like her normal self, so that Charity wouldn't catch on to how much she didn't want her best friend to leave her.

"Of course I will. And I'm not even sure if I'll be finishing school there. I mean, its November, and school ends in June… is it really going to take seven months to record?" Charity frowned. She knew that no matter what Kim was saying, her leaving was bothering her, but there was really nothing that Charity could do about it.

"Who knows?" Kim commented as she took a bite of her steak sandwich.

Two weeks seemed to pass faster than any one expected it to. The night before Charity was supposed to leave, she was in her room finishing her packing. Who knew that she would have wanted to bring practically her whole room. "I think that I've ran out of suitcases, Mom," Charity laughed as she zipped up the last suitcase full of clothes. "I took one from you, two from Antonio, and one from Derek. And I would have taken one from Dad, but he hid all of his," she laughed.

"I'm going to miss you sweetheart," Pilar sniffed as she watched her only daughter and oldest child place her last suitcase next to the seven others that she had lined up.

"No more tears, Mama, I've cried like… twenty times today with Kim alone!" Charity exclaimed as she felt tears come to her eyes when she saw that her mother was crying. It always amazed her to see how young her mother looked. At 39, Pilar St. Mare looked like a 20 year old. Her black wavy hair was still naturally black, there were no lines next to her silver eyes, and her tan skin was still flawless. She was still a natural beauty.

"I'm sorry, its just…you'll be gone for so long. I'm going to miss my baby." Pilar sniffed and walked over to her daughter and hugged her. "I love you."

"I love you too, Mama, and I'll miss all of you guys so much." Charity told her as she held on to her mom tightly.

Pilar backed up and wiped her tears away. "Why don't you get some sleep. You need to be up early tomorrow morning."

"Okay," Charity sighed and kissed her mom's damp cheek. "I love you."

"I love you too," Pilar said as she kissed her daughters cheek and left the room.

"Why did I have to get up so early?" Christian yawned as his father drove to the airport to pick up their guest.

"Because when I talked to Charity's mother, she warned me that she had a lot of suitcases, and I need your help," Jacob informed his son as he negotiated the airport parking lot. "And, because it'll give you time to get to know her. You are going to be showing her around school Monday, after all."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Christian yawned again. It was 5 in the morning, and there was nothing he wanted more than to be back in his bed sleeping. Specially on a Saturday morning. Hell, he didn't even make the effort to change out of his pajamas. He just simply put a hoodie on over the white wife beater that he wore, and left his plaid pajama bottoms on, and slipped on a pair of shoes.

"I hate airports," Jacob muttered as he found a parking spot that was at least ½ a mile away from the entrance.

Charity stepped off of the terminal for her flight and looked around. She knew what Jacob Sinclair looked like, having seen him before, but she didn't see him now. Sighing and yawning at the same time, Charity walked over to one of the hard blue chairs that was in the waiting area and sat down. Leaning her head back, Charity tried to fight off the urge to sleep. Just as her eyes started to become to heavy to stay open, she heard her name being called.

Christian stared at the girl in front of him. She was nothing like the girls that he was usually into. They were usually hard rock looking girls with more piercings than he cared to count, and usually wore too much make-up, and were steps away from looking like gothic wanna-be's. Yet, as soon as Charity opened her eyes, Christian felt a tug of attraction towards her. She was beautiful. And she was definitely, not a wanna-be anything. She has beautiful eyes, Christian thought as he watched her stand up and smile at her father. And a beautiful smile.

"Mr. Sinclair," Charity smiled and held out her hand as she looked at the man in front of her. He looked like a typical rocker. Only he was older. His black hair was shaggy and standing up in every which way, and his gray eyes looked as if he had just woken up. "Sorry about the ungodly hour of my flight."

"Don't worry about it," Jacob laughed and shook her hand. "Did you have a good flight?" he asked as he turned around and walked towards Christian, who had frozen on the other side of the waiting area poles.

"Couldn't tell you," she laughed, then yawned. "I slept most of it."

Jacob laughed and pointed to his son, who was just realizing that he was staring at Charity. "This is my son, Christian, Christian, this is Charity," he introduced, and frowned as he noticed the look in his sons' eyes. He was going to have to have a talk with him about Charity it looked like.

"Hi," Charity smiled, holding onto the strap of her carry on bag with both hands as she looked him over. He was hot. He was a few inches taller than her 5'5'' frame, and had dark brown hair that was cut pretty short, and startling gray eyes that seemed to be looking into her soul. She shivered at the feeling at and tried to look anywhere but his eyes.

"Hi." Christian replied with a smile in a voice that caused Charity's heart beat escalate. Her voice, Christian thought. It was this husky voice laced with a little bit of an Italian accent that made him think of something his parents didn't even know that he knew about.

"Well, why don't we go get your things," Jacob suggested as he stood there watching his son and his new client continue to stare at each other in a way that was starting to make him wonder what his wife was going to say about Charity staying at their house.

"Sure," Charity said, breaking eye contact from Christian as she started for the baggage claim.

After fighting their way through the crowd, the group finally got a spot next to the baggage belt, and Charity started to pick out her luggage.

"Jesus," Christian muttered as he watched her take a fifth bag off the belt. "How much crap did you bring?"

"A lot," Charity laughed and picked up two more bags. "But this is all the luggage here."

Christian rolled his eyes, smiled, and picked up three of the seven bags and waited for his father to pick up the other three and Charity to pick up the last one before he started out of the airport.

Looking behind him, Christian noticed Charity talking to his father about something or another and shook his head. He couldn't wait to see what life with Charity in it would be like. He had a feeling that she had felt that same attraction to him that he had to her when they had been introduced, and he wondered what she thought about it.

All he knew, was that he planned on getting to know her. And getting to know her well. He just hoped that she went along with his plans.

Charity knew exactly when Christian had glanced at her, and she managed to keep herself from looking back at him. He could have a girlfriend you know, she scolded herself. And not only that, you're staying at his parents house! They invited you to stay there out of their own generosity. You will not repay them by getting into a relationship with their son. Nothing can happen between you two, she told herself strictly and continued walking behind Christian as they headed towards the car.

But he does have a cute ass. At least what I can see of it, she smirked.

Authors Notes:

Hey all. This is a story that's been in my head for a while, so I decided to write it and post it to see what people thought of it.

I hope that some of you will review! Please!

Anyways, tell me what you think of it, kay? Should I continue, or not?