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DRESS
(( — DEAD POETS SOCIETY — ))

—chapter x: of articles and late night kisses

THE CAVE WAS DIMLY lit and loraine had sat down next to neil, pitts leaving her his seat without protest, but confusion evident on his face.

"to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life" the group recited at the same time "to put to rout all that was not life—" they were interrupted by giggling coming from the cave's entrance.

"oh my god" cameron whispered

"is this it?" a female voice asked

"yeah, this is it" loraine had wondered why charlie wasn't joining them, almost missed him and now she wished he was anywhere but here. "go ahead, go on in. it's my cave. watch your step"

loraine observed with a bitter feeling, how two girls climbed into the cave. "we're not gonna slip, are we?" one of them asked

"hi" the other exclaimed. neil stood up to stand in front of loraine protectively.

"hi guys" charlie greeted "meet, uh, gloria and..."

"tina" the girl said

"tina" charlie repeated proudly "this is the pledge class of the dead poets society. move, guys" charlie instructed. "come one, folks, it's friday night. let's get on with the meeting"

the group walked around the cave, rearranging so the other could fit. loraine ended up in the middle of todd and neil.

"guys, i have an announcement to make" charlie said as soon as everyone was seated "in keeping with the spirit of passionate experimentation of the dead poets, i'm giving up the name charles dalton. from now on, call me nuwanda"

the boys snickered surprised at his statement, while loraine snorted loudly and crossed her arms.

charlie took a red lipstick out of tina's hand and drew weird looking shapes on his cheeks.

"he's definitely had something to drink" loraine whispered in neil's direction.

"are we gonna have a meeting, or what?" charlie sat back down

"yeah, if you guys don't have a meeting, how do we know if we wanna join?"

"join?" neil repeated as if he hadn't heard her right the first time, then he just shook his head, sending an aggravated glance in loraine's direction, who seemed as happy as he was.

charlie got up from his seat to stand in front of tina. "shall i compare thee to a summers day? thou art more lovely and more temperate"

todd noticed the look on loraine's face and quickly took her hand. charlie, without drawing much attention, noticed that action.

"that's so sweet" tina smiled

"i made that up just for you"

"you did?"

"no" tina turned her head to look in loraine's direction "shakespeare did, sweetheart" she smiled sarcastically.

charlie ignored her remark. "i'll write one for you too, gloria" he sat down next to the girl in red and pretended to think "she walks in beauty like the night— she walks in beauty like the night, of cloudless climes and starry skies.. all that's best of dark and bright. meet in her aspect and her eyes"

"that's beautiful" gloria said impressed. loraine rolled her eyes, todd squeezed her hand

"there's plenty more where that came from" charlie smirked

"you mean any poetry book?" loraine suggested sarcastically

charlie turned his head at loraine, looking at her annoyed. "what's your problem?"

"what's my problem?"

"do you have to tell me something?" charlie crossed his arms "if not please refer from speaking to me, loraine"

"woah" the boys all said at the same time. it wasn't what he had said in itself but more that he referred to her with her full name. no one ever did that except for teachers and her father. just like no one ever called him charles either. most of the boys couldn't remember when charlie had called loraine anything other than ray.

"okay" neil stood up to stand in front of loraine, so they couldn't look at each other anymore "let's just all calm down"

"how about something to drink?" tina asked, sensing the tension. she pulled out a bottle of alcohol and passed it to neil. "pass it around" she instructed

neil took a gentle sip while his friends watched him.

"me and pitts are working on a hi-fi system" meeks said "it shouldn't be that hard to put together"

"yeah" pitts nodded "i might be going to yale.. uh but i might not" he quickly peddled back.

"don't you guys miss having girls around here?" gloria asked and loraine opened her mouth in disbelief.

"yeah" meeks and pitts nodded. loraine send them a spiteful look and they shut up immediately.

"that's part of what this club is about" charlie explained "in fact, i'd like to announce: i published an article in the school paper in the name of the dead poets"

"what?" asked cameron outraged. that was probably the first time loraine thought the exact same thing as him.

"demanding girls be admitted to welton, so we can all stop beating off"

"how did you do that?" neil asked

"i'm one of the proofers. i slipped the article in" charlie said like it was obvious

"it's over now" meeks protested

"why?" charlie asked "nobody knows who we are"

"don't you think they're gonna figure out who wrote it? they're gonna come to you and ask to know what the dead poets society is. charlie you had no right to do something like that" cameron argued

charlie got up from his seat and grabbed the alcohol "it's nuwanda, cameron" he took a sip "and are we just playing around out here, or do we mean what we say? if all we do is come together and read a bunch of poems to each other, what the hell are we doing?"

"we were hiding out before our lives were over" loraine got up as well, stepping closer to charlie, angrier than he had ever seen her "are you just acting or are you really such an idiot, charlie? this article has your name plastered all over it and you just shoveled all of our graves. but i'm glad you had your fun, congratulations!"

he looked at her stunned, before he could get another word out, she turned to the rest of her friends "i'm going home and all of you should do the same, you don't want to be caught outside of your room the moment my father finds out about this" she send one last aggravated look to charlie, before she climbed out of the cave

neil looked after loraine. "all right" he said annoyed, facing charlie "loraine is right, you shouldn't have done it, charlie. this could mean trouble, you don't speak for the club"

charlie's eyes were still fixated on the entry of the cave. what looked back was just the black of the night. "i'm gonna say i made it up, when they ask. and that it was me, only me" his head turned quickly to the rest of the boys "are none of you gonna follow her?" he asked and without waiting for an answer, he pushed the alcohol against neil's chest and climbed out of the cave as well.

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LORAINE WANDERED through the forest without a clue in which direction she should go. normally, she knew the way, but it was so dark and foggy, she couldn't make out anything. also she had tried to get away as fast as possible, so she hadn't really watched in which direction she had went.

it was cold and her heartbeat grew quicker and quicker. this tree, had she been here before? or did all of them just look oddly familiar. there was light coming from one side of the forest. but before she could focus on that, there was a noise.

branches breaking under heavy footsteps, that came closer. loraine halted in her step, hoping that if she wouldn't move, she would just blend in with the dark forest.

"oh god, please no" she whispered. no one that was outside in a forest at that time could have any good intentions, she was sure of it.

she decided that standing around wouldn't save her. so without a second thought she turned around to just walk away, in any direction if necessary. but she was met with someone standing in front her.

loraine screamed, while she tried to hit the man. the person quickly grasped a hand over her mouth.

"do you want all of welton to hear you?" charlie asked and loraine breathed an unintentional sigh of relief

"charlie" she said after his hand had left her mouth. "i thought you were... doesn't matter" she shook her head, before the relief turned into anger. she hit him on the arm. hard.

"ow" charlie said offended

"you scared me, you idiot" then she started walking away from him.

"where are you going?" he was next to her in a second.

"home" she said coldly

"do you have any idea where you are going?" he asked rhetorically "because if anything we're walking away from home"

"leave me alone, charlie" loraine crossed her arms "you wanted space and now i'm giving it to you"

"i didn't mean it like that"

"i don't care what you meant" she stopped walking and turned to him "you say you think of me as more than just your friend and then you bring those stupid girls into the cave. into our cave. you had no right to do that"

"why do you even care? i thought i was just your friend, i'm just trying to move one loraine"

"yeah seems like that's pretty easy for you"

"nothing is easy for me when it comes to you" charlie protested. "i feel like i ruined everything by saying what i did, but i couldn't take it anymore"

"don't you think i feel bad too?" loraine argued "you basically told me i was hurting you because i loved you the wrong way"

"we're turning in circles, loraine" charlie breathed calmly "we've talked about this and doing it again and again won't bring us any further. i just can't take being your friend anymore if it feels like that" he almost whispered "not when i want more. and you wanting to be just friends is fine, but i just can't do it. not right now"

loraine took a breath, trying to gather up the courage she was lacking. "i don't want to be just friends" she said "that's not what i wanted in ever. it just took me so long to realize it and when you came to talk to me tonight, i wasn't ready" charlie looked at her with big eyes "but i should've been. you're everything to me, charlie. and i don't want you as only a best friend"

"what do you mean?" charlie asked. he didn't want to understand anything the wrong way. not when it concerned loraine. this was far more important for him to mess up.

"i'm sorry about tonight" loraine said "and you're not the only one who wants more than friendship. that is what i mean. and maybe, if you're still interested—"

"interested?" charlie repeated laughing in disbelief "i wanted to kiss you ever since i met you"

"then do it" she said

and he did as he was told. the kiss was soft and warm and everything both of them had dreamed of. it was rare that a first kiss was perfect, but this felt close to it. or maybe it was just because they loved each other so much.

"i'm sorry about the article, ray" charlie said finally "i promise i'll fix it"

"we can worry about that later" loraine assured, softly caressing his cheek.

"okay" charlie smiled "let's go home" he muttered against her lips, taking her hand and leading her out of the dark forest.

A/N

AHHHHHHHH the first kiss!! i can't wait for you guys to read the next chapter. i'm so excited about this!! what do you think of chay as a shipping name? i find it so funny lol

also loraine might be a girl's girl, but not when it comes to her man!!

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