DRESS || ( charlie dalton )

ixx. of funerals and betrayal

˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊·̩̩̥͙

DRESS
(( — DEAD POETS SOCIETY — ))

—chapter xviii. of grief and persevering love

tw: mention of suicide and grief

LORAINE WAS STARING at charlie, who was sitting in the front row. she was seated across from him, next to her brother, whose hand she had been holding since the ceremony had begun.

she had seen mr keating sitting down the row from them, but she hadn't been able to talk with him before the service had started. he looked as sad as all of them did and loraine was wishing she could've spoken to him.

charlie wasn't singing, just like her. he just stared straight ahead, almost looking through her.

after the singing had ended, nolan took the stage, holding a speech. "the death of neil perry is a tragedy. he was a fine student, one of welton's best and he will be missed. we've contacted each of your parents to explain the situation. naturally, they're all quite concerned" he paused, before he finally added "at the request of neil's family i intend to conduct a thorough enquiry into this matter. your complete cooperation is expected"

loraine looked up surprised. she looked at thomas, but he looked just as surprised.

after the ceremony had ended, loraine noticed her friends sneaking off. she asked thomas to cover for her, before she followed them into the room and closed the door. they spun around frightened, before they calmed down as they noticed that it was just her.

"ray" charlie said relieved, before he hugged her "where have you been? i haven't seen you since yesterday morning"

"i wasn't allowed to go back to my room" loraine said and exchanging a look with knox, she added "my father thought i tried to throw myself out of the window, that's why i wasn't allowed to go anywhere without him or thomas"

"what?" todd asked confused

"you tried what?" charlie was more angry than confused. he couldn't handle losing the most important people in his life in the span of two days

"it was a misunderstanding" loraine admitted shamefully. "i was just throwing something out the window, not myself"

"jacob wells said it was super close" meeks added

loraine send meeks a reproachful look. "meeks" she hissed

"but what do i know?" meeks shrugged, quickly paddling back

"you knew about this?" charlie asked meeks "why didn't you tell me?"

"well" said knox "you weren't really in the state for that yesterday"

"what does that mean?"

"he was incredibly drunk" knox answered loraine's question before charlie could stop him

"what?" loraine said loudly "you could've gotten yourself thrown out, you idiot!"

"yeah and you almost fell out of a window, so what's new?" charlie said back

"i was safe, knox visited me, probably right after he sobered you up enough"

"so knox can visit you, but i can't?"

"knox wasn't drunk, you goddamn idiot" loraine crossed her arms "and he also just came to check on me after he heard about the window thing"

"so you knew too?" charlie turned to look at knox, who was searching for words. "did all of you know?" the group adverted their eyes, all except for todd, who shook his head. "maybe next time, one of you tells me when my girlfriend tries to kill herself after my best friend did, huh?"