Meet You Halfway

CHAP. 6

   Charlie, Todd, Cameron, Meeks, Knox, Pitts, and Y/n all sit in the cave. The boys try to smoke from pipes that (Y/n) assumes Charlie brought. Pitts coughs aggressively. "Atta boy, Pittsie. Inhale, deeply."

   "My dad collects a lot of pipes." Cameron smiles and nods."Your parents collect pipes? Oh, that's really interesting, " Pitts responds sarcastically with a laugh. (Y/n) grabs the beret Charlie is wearing and places it on her own head. "How'd you get all these pipes?"

   Charlie stretches his arm up and around (Y/n)'s shoulders. "It takes special skills that few have. Luckily, I am one of those few." He adjusts the beret on her head. "You know, I thought I looked good in that hat, but on you..." He lets out a long whistle and winks. "Good, god, Dalton." She pulls the beret off and pushes it against Charlie's face. He laughs and places it back on his head, keeping his arm around her shoulders.

   "Pittsie, let me try." He looks at the girl hesitantly. Pitts finally hands over the pipe and match he was holding. She places the thin end of the pipe to her lips, and inhales. She starts coughing and hands the pipe back. "God, that's awful. Give me one of your cigarettes, Charlie." He pulls a carton out of his pocket and (Y/n) takes one of the cigarettes. Meeks hands her the match box they had been passing around. As she lights the cigarette, Charlie turns to Knox.

   "Come on, Knox, join in." Knox shrugs sadly and starts to smoke his pipe. Y/n smokes her cigarette, flicking off the ash ever so often. "What's wrong, Knox?" She asks."Yeah, Knox. We're from the government. What's wrong?" Pitts snorts.

   (Y/n) gasps. "Is it Chris?" The boys "ooh" and repeat Chris's name. "Here's a picture of Chris for you!" Pitts shoves a playboy magazine in Knox's face. "That's not funny." (Y/n) pushes the magazine away from Knox's face.

   "Knock it off! Smoke your pipes." Charlie waves his pipe at the group. They all settle down. Neil ducks into the cave holding a tattered up lamp. "Friends, scholars, Welton men and woman." He greets the society members. "What is that, Neil?"

   "Duh! It's a lamp, Meeks." Pitts shakes his head at the boy wearing glasses. "No, this..." Neil removes the lampshade to reveal a legless cowboy connected to the lamp's base. "-is the God Of The Cave."

   "The God Of The Cave?-" Charlie blows hard into his saxophone, startling everyone. "What do you say we start this meeting?" He stands and clears his throat. "Gentlemen and (Y/n), Poetrusic, by Charles Dalton." He plays a string of off-key notes causing everyone to groan. "Oh, no."

   "Laughing, crying, tumbling, mumbling. Gotta do more. Gotta be more.'' He plays off-key again, drawing out the last note in Pitts's face. "Chaos screaming. Chaos dreaming. Gotta do more. Gotta be more!" Everyone prepares for their eardrums to burst, only to hear real music filling the cave. They stare in awe. Charlie crouches down in front of (Y/n) as he plays the last few notes. He finishes and places his beret back on her head.

   Everybody applauds as Charlie takes his seat. "That was great. Where'd you learn to play like that?" Neil asks. "My parents made me take the clarinet for years." "I love the clarinet." Cameron responds. "I hated it." The group laughs. "The saxophone...the saxophone is more...sonorous."

   "Oooh sonorous." "Vocabulary!" Suddenly, Knox kicks at the ground dramatically. "I can't take it anymore. If I don't have Chris, I'm gonna kill myself." Every eye turns to look at him.

   "Knoxious, you've got to calm down.-" "No, Charlie. That's just my problem. I've been calm all my life... I'm gonna do something about that." Knox stands. "Where are you going?" "What are you gonna do?"

   "I'm gonna call her." He laughs as he leaves the cave. They all rush out, running after Knox.

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