CHAPTER TEN!
( YOU STILL SMELL. )

   AFTER SCHOOL THAT day you wanted to talk to Charlie about the girl. You were hoping to casually tease him about it in conversation, but you hadn't been able to find him for the last hour. You finally decided to give up and just walk around the campus for a while. The boys would be playing a soccer game tonight, so you figured you would just talk to him after that. You wandered aimlessly past the rushing river and tall brick walls. Despite the terrible experiences you'd had at Welton, it truly was a beautiful place. And you were slowly adding more positive memories this year.

As you walked, your mind wandered to Charlie. Instead of stopping yourself, you decided this was a good time to sort out how you felt exactly. You couldn't help but feel a bitter tightness in your chest at the thought of him in love with another girl. You thought about it for a moment, and to your horror, you came to the realization that you liked him much more than you initially planned. From his stupid jokes to his stupid brown eyes, you loved it all. The only problem was that you didn't see how it could ever work out. He had plenty of girls pining over him, that you were sure of. His flirty disposition didn't help, he just loved the attention he got from girls. You clenched your fists, quickly drawing in breath, hoping the feeling would pass.

That's enough, you scolded yourself as you turned back around to grab a book or start on your trig homework. Anything that required you to focus on something other than your wandering thoughts.

After getting through a few chapters of your book, you and Violet headed out to watch the soccer game. Sure enough, once you reached the bleachers you saw Charlie in his striped goalie jersey. By this point he would've usually winked at you or at least smiled in your direction, but instead he avoided your gaze and continued getting ready. You swallowed hard as it occurred to you that he was avoiding you. Why would he be avoiding me? Did I say something?

You turned to Violet to say something, but saw that she was staring at Meeks, who was staring right back until Pitts knocked him on the side of the head. Why didn't he just ask her out already??

After the game the boys lifted Keating into the air in victory and ran around the field. You grinned as you watched the scene and jumped off of the bleachers. You finally locked eyes with Charlie who had a wide smile on his face. He held his hands up in victory as he walked over to you. You smiled back, but just then Todd walked past, still looking a little disconnected from the group. You intercepted him and patted him on the back.

"Nice goal, kid," you congratulated. "You're full of surprises y'know? You're easily one of the best on the team."

"Thanks," he laughed. Todd turned back towards the rest of the team as Neil ran up to the two of you. Neil looked like he'd just dunked his head in water.

"Hey, Y/N. Good game right?" Neil smiled.

"Oh yeah, very entertaining," you nodded.

"C'mon Todd, you really need a shower. Bad," he laughed, ruffling Todd's hair.

"Oh, you're one to talk," Todd muttered with a smile.

"What was that?" Neil grinned, holding his hand up to his ear before hurrying off to the dorms.

"See you later, Y/N," Todd said, following Neil.

"See ya, Y/N!" Neil shouted as Todd caught up to him.

You turned back around to try to spot Charlie, but you didn't see him. Shit, how did I lose him?

Meeks and Violet were walking hand in hand back towards Welton. You'd hate to ruin their moment, but you wanted to make sure that Charlie wasn't upset with you. You ran up to them and tapped Meeks on the shoulder. He looked slightly annoyed, as expected.

"Hate to wreck the mood, but have you seen Charlie? Is he mad at me?" you asked quickly.

"Uh, he's probably just heading back to the dorms. Mad at you? Why would he be mad at you?" Meeks replied.

"I dunno, just kinda seems like he's avoiding me."

"No way, Charlie looks forward to every minute he can get with you," Meeks stated.

"Huh?"

"Never mind, I'm just trying to say that I'm sure everything's fine."

"Alright, thanks Meeks. See ya Violet." You continued towards Welton's doors when you saw him.

You ran up to him and punched his arm playfully, mostly just to see how he would react. If he had a playful response, it would mean everything was okay. If he...

"I gotta get back to the dorm Y/N. I'm pretty tired," Charlie sighed.

...if he did that, it meant something was wrong.

"Hey, what is up with you? I couldn't find you after school, and trust me I looked for you, for like an hour. And after the game you just walked away, where's the cocky comment? I mean you played great. You should be gloating right now. What happened? Did I do something wrong?" you expressed. You looked at him intensely, not allowing a single movement of his to go unnoticed by you.

"No, no Y/N. It's not that. I just-"

"Does it have something to do with your poem?" you interrupted. Charlie's eyes widened slightly. He grabbed your arm and pulled you to the side. He sat down on one of the stone ledges on the walls of the school and motioned for you to sit as well. You sat in silence for a few seconds, all the while you looked at him expectantly, silently urging him to start talking. Once the crowd dissipated he finally spoke.

"Look, that poem, it was stupid of me to write. I should've just written about rain or something," he sighed.

"What do you mean? Who was it about?"

"I-" he paused and looked out at line of trees on the horizon.

"Charlie, tell me. You can't just do that, you can't just pull me aside then say nothing! Why are you being so weird about this!" you huffed, standing up.

"It was about you, okay?! It was about you." He stood up to face you. Your eyes immediately widened at his statement.

"You're kidding," you said, perplexed.

"No, I'm not. But it doesn't matter okay? I know you like Todd, I didn't want to screw that up for you."

You let out a small laugh at this, "Todd? Seriously?" He finally looked you in the eye, confusion rolling over his features.

"Well, yeah. You're always looking at him, and just now, you-"

"Charlie, I do not like Todd. Definitely not. Don't you think him and Neil would be cute though?" you giggled.

Charlie began to smile, shaking his head as he laughed. Then his laughter suddenly ceased.

"If you don't like Todd, then..." he prompted.

"Then, I like you. I really like you."

Charlie just stared at you for a few moments. You didn't mind the silence, you jumped on the opportunity to admire the way that his eyes looked like pools of honey in the setting sun, and how- Snap out of it Y/N. You felt butterflies in your stomach as it finally sunk in. Charlie Dalton liked you. You bit your lip to stop from smiling too much, while his face broke out into a wide grin.

"Well thank God," he chuckled. His face was only inches from yours, close enough for you to see every freckle, every blemish, every eyelash. Slowly, you noticed his head inching forwards. Your heart beat faster and faster the closer his face came to yours. Your body didn't even seem to have any time to register what was happening to you. You waited, unable to move. Then he kissed you. Your eyes flitted shut as his lips moved against yours. His hands moved to your waist and yours to his hair. His hair was damp with sweat but you couldn't care less right now. All you felt were his hot, feathery lips. The world faded away around you, like it was utterly impossible for anyone to find you here, because they didn't exist. Right now it was only you and him.

You reluctantly pulled away from him breathlessly. You looked from his lips to his lidded eyes in slight shock. You wanted more, all you wanted to do was pull him back in and kiss him until you couldn't breathe. Though the kiss broke down many walls, you still managed to keep an ounce of self-control. Once again, you tried to fight back the smile that was pushing onto your face, but ultimately it won. Your faces were still so close that you could feel his hot breath fanning over your face. You stepped back and held out your hand for him. He took it with a smile and began leading you up the steps toward the doors.

"Why don't we just stay out here? We could spend the night in the cave, have some fun if y'know what I mean," he winked.

"Not so fast, you have to go take a shower. You're seriously starting to stink," you teased. He shook his head and mocked offence in response your comment.

You finally got to the tall wooden doors and you reached for the handle.

"Wait. I gotta ask, will you be my girlfriend?" he inquired.

"Do you really have to ask?" You turned back around to look him in the eyes with a sly smile.

"I think so. Well, on second thought, who would ever say no to this?" he smirked.

"Hold on, slick, let's not get too overconfident," you chuckled.

"Well, what's your answer?"

You rolled your eyes playfully. "Now you're making me wanna say no."

Charlie only raised a brow, waiting for your true response.

"Yes, Charlie. Of course I will," you smiled.

Charlie grinned and pecked your lips again. "Point proven," he boasted, puffing out his chest.

"Oh, stop. You still smell."

❪ ⋆࿐໋ 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒑𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒆𝒎. ❫

AUTHOR'S NOTE.

I hope this wasn't too cringey. Once again, first attempt at something like this. Thank you so much for reading. I really do love you if you've made it all the way here. This took a little while to post, I wanna aim for updating twice a week, but my teachers think that this is the perfect opportunity to pour on the assignments for some reason, and I don't wake up before 11:00 unless I have to...

- s.