Love Conquers All

Story Info
Moment of crisis brings mismatched lovers together.
7k words
4.72
70.7k
59
Share this Story

Font Size

Default Font Size

Font Spacing

Default Font Spacing

Font Face

Default Font Face

Reading Theme

Default Theme (White)
You need to Log In or Sign Up to have your customization saved in your Literotica profile.
PUBLIC BETA

Note: You can change font size, font face, and turn on dark mode by clicking the "A" icon tab in the Story Info Box.

You can temporarily switch back to a Classic Literotica® experience during our ongoing public Beta testing. Please consider leaving feedback on issues you experience or suggest improvements.

Click here
jack_straw
jack_straw
3,218 Followers

At the 20-year reunion for the Class of 1984 at Millbrook High, you would have been hard-pressed to find a more mismatched couple than Danny Wilson and Charlie Panetta.

Danny was the archetypical All-American Boy. He was big - 6-3, 290 pounds - blond and handsome. His family owned the largest bank in town, plus one of the largest realty companies, and he was about a big a jock as you could find. He was All-District as a tackle on the football team, played power forward on the basketball team (emphasis on the word power) and was one of the top five shot putters in the state.

Despite his family's position and his status as an athlete, Danny was extremely nice and very popular, and was voted Senior Class Favorite. He was especially popular with all the creamy debutante cunts in Millbrook, and he spent most of his high school years screwing as many of them as he could handle. To top off the stereotype, because he hated to read and therefore never bothered to study much, everyone thought he was just another dumb jock. It was only later that it came out that he was badly dyslexic, and basically couldn't read. Thus the fact that he still managed to make Cs and even a few Bs was cause for wonder.

Because of his popularity, Danny could have run with about any group he chose, but he seemed to move around as far as who he hung out with. But if there was one group that he was probably closest to, it was the track guys, particularly Tom Baraszki. Tom was a middle-distance runner, but he and Danny had gotten to be friends over the course of their track careers.

Charlie Panetta's real name was Carlotta, but all anyone had ever called her was Charlie. It fit. Charlie was everything Danny was not, smallish with an olive complexion, and decidedly bookish. She had been a tomboy when she was younger, with a scrawny, boyish figure. She reached her full height of 5-foot-4 fairly early, but didn't really mature until very late in her teens. She had an unruly mass of dark curly hair that she wore well past her shoulders and in thick bangs in front, and big glasses that gave her kind of a nerdy look. She was also very smart, a talented artist and she wore the funkiest clothes imaginable. She was into the grunge look long before it was hip.

She also came from the wrong side of the tracks. She moved to Millbrook when she was in sixth grade, and if there had ever been a father around, no one knew about it. Supposedly, Charlie and her two little brothers all had different fathers, but no one knew for sure, because the family generally kept to themselves. Charlie's mom worked as a housecleaner for the wealthier families in town, but there were whispers that the bulk of her income came from working the bars on weekends, trolling for tricks.

Whatever the case, Charlie was something of a loner, a misfit who if she ever had a date, it was a well-kept secret. In fact, vicious rumors at school held that she was a lesbian. And, for some reason, there was a certain element at Millbrook High that took great delight in tormenting her. This was mostly the football jockocracy, led by the star quarterback, Dirk Bennett. A more arrogant, obnoxious individual would be hard to find, and he led a relentless campaign to belittle anyone who was the least bit "different." That especially included Charlie Panetta, whom he took a visceral disliking to from the first day of high school their freshman year.

Most of the debutantes also sneered at Charlie, and they were more than happy to spread the stories about Charlie and her family.

However, there were a few isolated souls at the school who treated Charlie with some decency. In fact, because she and Tom Baraszki always seemed to be in honors English together, they got to be almost friendly. Almost alone among the Class of '84, Tom was the one person who'd sit down to chat with Charlie and listen to her spill her guts. As for Danny, anyone who was friends with Tom was a friend of his, so he was cordial to Charlie, although he was too busy bedding the cunts to pay her much mind.

The only time he ever really paid any attention to her during their high school years came early in their senior year, when Dirk and two of his cronies had Charlie surrounded in the hall between classes, and were giving her a ton of verbal abuse, something to the effect of, "how's your girlfriend," "licked any slits lately," and other rude comments. Charlie was trying hard to fight off tears and get away, but they kept her surrounded. That's when Danny happened to walk by.

"Hey man," he said in an authoritative tone. "You guys back off, OK? She hasn't done anything to you. Just leave her alone."

Needless to say, Dirk wasn't going to pick a fight with Danny Wilson at school, not over Charlie Panetta, and not during football season, so they let her walk away. Before she hurried away, she looked back and mouthed a, "thank you," and Danny smiled and nodded in return.

It wasn't long after that that Charlie finally started to fill out a little, although with the outfits she wore, it was hard to tell. Still, the only time she got any kind of notice was at the senior awards night, when was she was named among the high honors graduates, with scholarship offers from several colleges. She surprised a lot of people that night, because she had pulled her hair back, worn a rather snug dress (for her) and put on a little bit of makeup.

As she walked up to receive her honors award, there were several boys in the crowd who noticed that Charlie wasn't bad looking at all. She still had the big glasses, though, and she still had the really long hair that she hid behind.

Unfortunately, one of the boys who noticed that Charlie had gotten worthy of attention was Dirk, and that seemed to set him on edge. He was also angry because he hadn't gotten any scholarship offers because of his poor grades, and was going to have to try out for a junior college team if he was to continue doing the only thing it seemed he was capable of doing, which was play football.

It was a Friday night in late June, not long after graduation, when the events transpired that threw Danny and Charlie together. Danny had broken up with his girlfriend of the moment several weeks earlier, and he was frankly not looking for another one. He was tired of superficial relationships, and had decided he'd been through about everyone Millbrook had to offer. He was looking forward to going to college in the fall, at a nearby small-division state university, where he'd gotten a football and track scholarship. Maybe the scenery would be different there, he thought, but somehow he doubted that things would change.

In fact, the rather acrimonious breakup with his last girlfriend had kind of soured him on women. He was convinced that most of the girls in Millbrook were only interesting in him for his family's money and his family jewels, which were considerable. He was looking for a woman who wanted him as a person, not an object. He was about to find just that, in the unlikeliest of places.

Danny and Tom were out cruising the boulevard on that hot Friday night. Darkness had just fully descended and the moon hadn't yet begun to rise, so it was quite dark out. Danny decided to check out the large park at the edge of town to see if there was anything happening, a party or something. Not finding anything, they had stopped just to look at the stars for awhile and continue the deep conversation they'd been having while driving around.

He and Tom had just laid back on the hood of Danny's car, the same old beat-up Toyota he'd driven all through high school, when they heard a shriek come from the farthest corner of the park. It was the sound of a female in distress. Danny and Tom jumped off the car and dashed off in the direction of the sound. The closer they got, the more they realized that they were hearing the sounds of one-sided struggle between a woman and several men.

It came from the pavilion where picnics were usually held. When Danny and Tom closed in on the pavilion, they were met by a stunning sight. Dirk Bennett and five of his buddies surrounded the picnic table, and they had a nearly-naked Charlie Panetta held down, with great effort. Her baggy pants had been pulled off and discarded, the crotch of her panties had been ripped open, her shirt had been torn open and her bra sliced in half.

Dirk was already on the table with his pants around his ankles, seconds away from pushing his hard cock into Charlie's frantically struggling body. Two guys held down her arms, two held her legs, and another was trying to stifle her screams while groping a nice pair of pale-olive tits. Charlie's glasses were nowhere to be found and her hair was being held tightly by the guy that was mauling her tits. It was crazy, but all Tom could think about at that moment was how good she looked.

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, ASSHOLE?" Danny bellowed.

Dirk turned at the sound and gave Danny a smirk.

"We're going to show this lezzie whore what cock is all about," Dirk said. "If you guys want some, get in line. Otherwise, fuck off. This is none of your business."

"LIKE HELL IT IS!" Danny yelled, his face red as a beet. Tom had known Danny Wilson a long time, and he had never seen him like this. "YOU LAY ANOTHER HAND ON HER, AND I'LL KILL YOU!"

Just then, one of Dirk's friends let go of a leg, turned around quickly and whipped out a switchblade. Danny's response was equally quick. He sent a size-14 shoe squarely in his attacker's nuts, then smashed his face on his knee. He turned to Dirk, who was franically trying to pull his pants up, and cold-cocked him with a haymaker right that dropped him in his tracks.

"Danny, look out!" Tom exclaimed as he swung the tree limb he'd picked up over the back of another of Charlie's attackers, who also had a knife out, and that gave Danny a chance to turn and throw the third assailant over his shoulder hard onto the ground. With three of their number down, the other three backed away warily.

"You motherfuckers get the hell out of here, and take this lowlife scum with you," Danny said, giving Dirk a swift kick in the gut. "I'm sick of all of you."

The threesome pulled their injured fellows up, and as they left, Dirk groggily looked back at Danny with pure hate in his eyes.

"You'll pay for this, Wilson," Dirk mumbled.

"No, YOU'LL pay for this," Danny responded.

With that, they left, and Danny and Tom turned their attention to Charlie, who had sat up and pulled her torn shirt together to try to cover her breasts, but she couldn't see where her pants were and had her legs tightly closed to prevent any more exposure than she'd already had. She was shaking from head to toe, trying to hold back the sobs. She'd always prided herself on not showing the hurt when she was tormented, but this was the worst thing she'd ever experienced.

Danny saw what was going through her mind, and instinctively he went over and gathered her in his arms. When he did, the dam burst and she broke out in heaving sobs. As he held her, something passed between them, he would never be sure exactly what. But as Charlie Panetta sobbed on Danny's chest, a definite spark was lit.

As Danny and Charlie clutched each other, Tom walked over and found Charlie's pants and what was left of her glasses. The frames were bent and one of the lenses was shattered, rendering them useless.

After Charlie had cried herself out somewhat, Danny and Tom helped her get her pants on and helped her off the table. As they walked to Danny's car, she had to hold her pants and shirt together because the buttons on both had been sent flying when they'd been ripped from her body.

"They were going to rape me," she said quietly, hesitantly, still fighting off heaving sobs. "Why? I never did anything to those people, but they've always made my life miserable."

"Some people are just like that," Danny said. "What happened?"

Charlie lived fairly close to the park, and often walked through the park in the early evening to get away from the bustle of her small house and her alcoholic mother to find some solitude. She'd been on her way home when Dirk and his buddies had driven past, and called out a stream of insults. For some reason, she had decided she was tired of turning the other cheek and flipped them the bird as they drove past. Dirk whipped the car around, parked it suddenly, they all ran out of the car and chased her down, then dragged her to the pavilion.

"The rest you know," Charlie said as she sat in the passenger seat while Danny drove toward the local hospital. At first, she protested, telling them she just wanted to go home, but Danny was insistent about her getting checked over by a doctor and filing a police report.

"Charlie, if you don't report this, he'll do it again, to someone else, or maybe he'll come back looking to finish what he started with you," Danny said. "You owe it to yourself to file charges. If you don't stand up for yourself now, what's going to happen the next time? And who knows what he's capable of. There's nothing I wouldn't put past him, and I'd hate to see you get seriously hurt. You've got too much to offer. I'll be behind you all the way, but you have to stand up now. You can't just run and hide any more. It's gotten too serious."

Hearing words of support from the most popular guy in school changed something in Charlie's heart and soul, and she knew he was right. It was time for her to come out of her shell and take control of her life, to stand up for herself.

So she let Danny take her to the emergency room, where the doctor treated her for some abrasions, removed some splinters from her butt and had the nurse give her a pelvic exam. Then they gave her some scrubs to wear home in place of her torn clothes. The doctor also called the police, who came and took a statement from her and from Danny and Tom, and took her clothes as evidence. When they were finished, Danny took Charlie home, and they drove in silence to her house.

As they pulled up in front of Charlie's house, Danny looked over at her and studied her for a few long seconds.

"You know something?" he said. "You REALLY ought to think about getting contact lenses, because you've got the prettiest eyes I've ever seen. And shorter hair wouldn't hurt, either. Charlie, it's time you came out from behind yourself. You're way too pretty to be hiding like you do. It wouldn't take much for you to knock 'em dead. Think about it."

Charlie blushed, and a tear fell from her eyes.

"That's about the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me," she whispered. "Thanks. I will think about it. And thank you guys for helping me. They would have... And I've never..."

Suddenly, she turned quickly and opened the car door, ready to run to the house before she started crying again, but Danny called her back.

"Hey, how about a kiss for our trouble," he said with a grin. For some reason she would never be able to explain, Charlie stopped, turned back around and gave Danny a kiss. It started as just a quick peck on the lips, but they looked each other in the eye and it just kept getting deeper and deeper, and they lost themselves in the moment, their mouths straining at each other, their tongues working together.

When they finally came up for air, they just stared at each other for a few seconds, then she turned to go again. But Tom cleared his throat, and kind of smiled at her, so she leaned into the back seat and gave him a kiss, and this was the peck on the lips. Then she thanked them again and walked painfully to her front door.

"Hey," Danny said softly as she got out of the car. "I'll call you."

They stayed long enough to make sure she got inside safely, then Tom climbed into the front seat and they took off in silence.

"You shouldn't have gotten her hopes up like that," Tom said after awhile, a trifle crossly.

"What are you talking about?" Danny said distractedly.

"You, Danny Wilson, gash hound extraordinaire, are going to call Charlie Panetta for a date?" Tom said sarcastically. "I'll believe it when I see it."

"Believe what you want, brother," Danny said. "But I am going to call her. Tomorrow. 'Cause I gotta tell you, the Charlie I saw tonight was not the Charlie we've known all these years. Like I told her, if she loses the glasses and cuts her hair, gets it away from her face, puts on a little makeup and dresses up just a bit, you'll wish you'd had the balls to call her. Talk about a diamond in the rough, you polish her up a bit, and I guarantee you she'll shine."

And that's exactly what happened. Only instead of calling, he went to the art supply store where she worked and went to see her. Charlie was surprised and delighted to see him.

"You OK?" he asked.

"A couple of bruises, but otherwise I'm all right," she said. "You could have gotten hurt."

"What else was I going to do?" he said. "I couldn't let them just rape you without doing something. Anyway, that's not really why I came by. I wanted to know if you wanted to go out and get a pizza tonight, and maybe catch a movie or something."

Charlie just stared at him stunned for several seconds. She'd spent most of the night lying awake thinking dreamy thoughts about Danny, and wondering if he was really serious about calling her. Danny Wilson could have, and had had, his pick of any girl in town, hell, the whole county. Gorgeous babes were falling all over themselves, falling on their backs right and left, to get a date with Danny Wilson, and he was going to call HER? She couldn't even bring herself to hope she might have a chance with him, even though she'd secretly adored him ever since he'd casually come to her rescue way back the first time he'd confronted Dirk on his abuse of her.

But he'd kissed her the previous night like he sure would be interested, and now he'd just asked her out. Of course she said yes, and the rest is really history. The following Tuesday, she went to a hair stylist and got her curly locks cut off very short, and when she went to the optician later that week to replace her glasses, she asked about contacts. At first, the price made her blanche, but Danny offered to pay half the cost, as a gift, so she did it. She also started wearing light makeup, and gradually started feminizing her wardrobe.

The effects were startling. People she'd known all her life didn't recognize her. And when word got around that Danny Wilson was dating Charlie Panetta, the common reaction was disbelief.

But anyone who saw them together came away with the same impression. These were two young people in love. And those who saw the new Charlie could see why he'd fallen in love with her. She had always had talent and brains, all she'd lacked was confidence and looks. Once she took charge of her looks, once she found out that she was attractive enough to catch Danny's eye, her self-esteem went through the roof. The one thing that did not happen between them, though, was sex.

Very early in her teens, Charlie had made a vow between herself and God that she would not be like her mother. She would not give herself to a man until it was the one she called husband. That's why she'd been so distraught at her near-rape. She was utterly determined that she was going to be a virgin and wear white on her wedding day, and that's exactly what happened. It was hard on them both, because they wanted each other so badly, especially Danny, who had gotten used to a fairly regular sex life in high school. But he loved her enough and respected her enough not to push her into it. And besides, he'd sown enough wild oats, and he was ready for a woman who wouldn't drop her pants at the first sign of arousal.

Charlie stayed in Millbrook for her freshman year at the Catholic college in town, during which time she testified in Dirk Bennett's trial for attempted rape, sexual battery and simple assault. He was convicted and sent to prison for a three-to-six year stretch. After that, she was ready to leave Millbrook, and she knew where she wanted to go. She wanted to be with Danny, so she transferred to his college, moving into a girls dormitory. By then, Danny had been tested for dyslexia, and she wanted to be close by so she could help him essentially learn to read. She had learned on their first few dates that, contrary to the prevailing opinion, Danny was highly intellegent, interested in a wide range of things, including her art.

jack_straw
jack_straw
3,218 Followers
12