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webslingingslasher · 2 years

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I Swear I Don't Know Who That Man Is

Pairing: Peter Parker x Reader

Genre: fluff/angst

Word Count: 5K

Summary: you got wasted and called peter to pick you up, you also don't realize it's him right away.

Peter Parker hates parties.

But, he loves you. That’s why he’s currently allowing his eardrums to burst apart and have his shoulders constantly being checked from the other bodies surrounding him. It’s giving him the type of overstimulation where he wants to throw everyone to the side and scream at everybody to shut the fuck up. Instead he pushes through the crowd and tries his best to find you as quickly as he could.

“Yo Parker! Is that you?”

Peter wants to roll his eyes, how is Tarrent going to look directly at him, use his name even and then follow it up with asking if it is in fact, who he thought. Peter thinks about ignoring him until Tarrents hand claps him on the shoulder and digs his fingers in as he drags him to the kitchen island.

“Parker’s here, pour 'em up!” Tarrent waves his hand at his friend with the bottle, he shrugs and follows instructions. Peter is busy looking around for you.

“Thought you weren’t the party type, Parker.”

Peter grabs the shot from Dalton, the one with the bottle, who poured them at the request of his frat president.

“I’m not really, I’m on boyfriend duty right now.”

Tarrent rips a nearly empty beer can from his lips, foam spilling out and his fingers slightly dented the can in his hold. “Where’s she at? Should I get D to pour a shot?” Peter’s always been confused by Tarrent, he was kind of a dick. Not the intentional type of dick, but the overall stupid dick. He’s always been a fan of Peters, he never let anyone pick on him and always was his buddy when he was in the room.

Peter eyes the shot in his hand, he doesn’t want to do this.

He doesn’t get drunk, unless he drinks an abnormal amount. Instead he just gets to taste all the burn with none of the fun side effects.

“Not sure, she was supposed to get a ride home with Linzey, but then she called me up here.”

Tarrent nods, “Linzey with the tits? They’re honkin dude, you should see ‘em.”

Peter blinks at him, “Yeah, she has boobs alright.”

Tarrent raises his shot glass, “To tits!”

Peter raises his own shot glass, “To tits!” He tries to forget that you would pinch his arm if you heard him say that. Then taps the glass on the counter twice in unison with his friend before throwing it back.

His nose wrinkles slightly, warm vodka was absolutely terrible.

“So, Parker. Wanna play a round of pong?”

Peter thinks he doesn’t know his first name, he’s never once called him it.

“I would but I’ve never played and I have a girlfriend to find.”

Tarrent claps his hands, “Tell you what, you play a round with me and I’ll send D to get your girl. Sound good?”

Peter thinks about it, he really, really doesn’t want to be here but he’s feeling slightly pressured. Not to mention Tarrent’s done a lot for Peter, he’s pulled a lot of cards for him. He’s helped him get into the library after hours, and he even let Peter use his car for a date.

Peter sighs, “Just one round?”

Tarrent waves Dalton off and raises his fists and shakes them, “This is gonna be so lit dude, something tells me you’re gonna win us this round.”

Peter laughs, “I’ve never played.”

Tarrent punches his shoulder, “Beginners luck, man.”

Peter watches Tarrent push away a kid on the cups, even in the middle of a game they both stopped just because Tarrent wanted to play. “Rerack ‘em, Charlie. Parker’s gonna kick ass.”

Tarrent explains the game to Peter quickly, “You shoot a ball and I do, you wanna get them in the cup. You get it in the cup, they drink it and remove it from the triangle. If we both get one in then we get balls back and can reshoot, if we land it in the same cup then they take an extra cup off. You can’t have your elbow go over the edge of the table, however you can bounce the ball and if it lands they’ll take an extra cup, but they can also swat it off the table. If they land a cup and the ball swirls around the cup you can ‘finger it out’, basically how you do your chick, last rule is a redemption, if we win they get an extra shot. If they miss, they lose, if they hit it, our win is canceled out but the game isn’t over.”

Peter nods slowly, “So I just make it in the cup?”

Tarrent smiles, “Exactly, Parker.”

Charlie finishes the rerack, both sides have ten, red plastic cups lined up in a triangle. He looks up to see his opponents, Tom and Terry, twins in Tarrent’s frat. Tarrent holds out his hands, a fist in one palm, Tom copies his move and they start slamming their fists down. “Rock, paper, scissors. Let’s fuckin go, Parker! Watch me.” Tarrent cheers when he wins the game, picking up the white ball he blows on it for good luck and shoots it, it hits in the middle and bounces around the rim before falling off.

“Fuck! You got this, Parker. Win it for your lady!” Tarrent slaps Peter’s chest, the force knocking him off balance for a second.

Peter can’t think of one thing you’d be less impressed with.

Tarrent is a good guy, dumb and sexist and misogynistic but a good guy. He didn’t realize what he was saying was wrong and usually when Peter gently corrected him he took note immediately and changed his language.

Peter decides he’ll give the win to Tarrent. He can easily win this game, no matter how good his opponents are, they don’t have Spidey skills.

He clears his throat and picks up a ball, he focuses on the first one and shoots. It’s a perfect shot.

Tarrent jumps up and howls, “That’s my fuckin guy! Fuck you Tom! Fuck you Terry!”

The game goes back and forth for a minute, Peter choosing to miss some shots to slow the game a little. Otherwise it would be finished in five minutes. Halfway through the pressure gets to Terry, “You can’t hit this, Parker. Just like your girlfriend, you know you always leave her begging for more.”

Peter blinks and tilts his head, “Is that supposed to be trash talk?” He sails the ball into a cup, Tom slaps his brother's head and chugs the now lukewarm beer. Terry’s words made him think, where were you? Dalton was sent to search almost fifteen minutes ago.

Dalton comes running up panting, “So I’m looking all around for you man and I gotta be honest, I have no fucking clue what she looks like. I tried asking every girl if Parker was their boyfriend but there’s too many.”

Peter looks over to Tarrent, he’s heard his pledge and made pleading eyes at Peter.

“C’mon, man. You can’t bolt now, we’re about to win!”

He’s right. With a sigh Peter unlocks his phone and shows Dalton your picture. He examines and nods, “Be right back!” Then turns to break into a half jog, he stops to turn a girl around, that looks absolutely nothing like you, before shaking his head and running back into the house.

He has very little hope.

They won the game with very little surprise on Peter’s end. He nearly got talked into a second game but he was more desperate to find you so he could get midnight mcdonalds and a cuddle. “You sure you can’t do one more?” Peter winces, “Sorry, dude. I gotta find Y/N, she’s probably pissed by now.” Tarrent nods gulping down a beer, “I know how chicks are, I’ll see you Tuesday, Parker.”

Peter smiled and nods his head, “Good game, man. Glad I could get you that win.”

Tarrent gives him a grin back, he’s a little sloshed for sure. He hooks an arm around Peter’s neck, his beer splashed on his sweater on the shoulder. “You know, I really do consider you a good friend, Parker. You’re a good guy.” Peter taps his arm, “Thanks, man. You too.”

Tarrent shoves him away and slaps his ass, “Go find your chick, I’m sure she’s missing you.”

Peter now realizes why it’s taken Dalton so long to find you, he’s not looking.

He estimates Dalton made it three steps in when he spotted a wasted blonde and was busy chatting her up, he made eye contact with Peter and his eyes widened, “Listen man, I’m sorry, okay? I just saw the prettiest girl in my life and I had to talk with her. Also can you please not tell Tarrent? He’ll knock me back four points and Franklin can’t beat me, I have a thousand bucks I don’t have on pledging.”

Peter watches the girl swing her head back and hit the wall, she giggles and sips her drink. He just points at her and looks at Dalton, “She’s wasted. Get her a water and get her home safely. I promise she’ll call you, do the right thing.” Dalton grins and shows Peter his phone, an Uber already ordered. “Like Tarrent says, rule three of Alpha Beta Delta, W.W.P.D. What would Parker Do?”

“Tarrent has a rule dedicated to me?”

“Dude he has a whole fucking powerpoint on it.”

Peter nods his head impressed, turns out he can make an impact outside of the suit.

He pulls out his phone to check the time and sees two missed calls and seven texts, each one getting progressively sadder when you ask where he was. Peter looks up at Dalton and motions to his phone, he understands and waves him off. Peter’s quick to send you a text.

‘I’m here, where are you?’

You read it, your chat bubble appears, then disappears, and then sends nothing.

Peter doesn’t know if you’re in trouble or just mad he was an hour late to get you and ghosted you.

‘baby please tell me where you are, i want to go home.’

You have the same pattern, then a text appears.

‘So did I. An hour ago.’

Peter groans, no one could ever prepare him for a not only drunk, but a pissed off, drunk girlfriend.

‘:(‘

He tries to think of where you might’ve gone. Peter checks the upstairs bathrooms first, then Tarrents room. When he comes up empty he tries outside, both the front and back. Nothing, he’s worried you might’ve left him as a punishment. When he circled the living room for the third time he was hopeless and texted you with no response, he was about to scream until he saw Lindzey. He nearly bolted to her, “Where’s my girlfriend?”

She narrowed her eyes then smiled when she recognized him, “The basement. She’s pretty gone, she said Jarred was giving her the creeps so I came to get her some water.”

“Where is she now?”

Lindzey looks at him funny, “The basement?”

“You left my girlfriend, your friend, alone in a basement with a guy that was giving her the creeps while she’s inebriated?” Peter decided he would never trust her around you again.

She tried to speak but Peter held up a hand and passed by her, quick to get down the stairs, he didn’t even know there was a basement. He was able to breathe easier when he saw you sitting in a chair in the corner swirling a straw in your cup, your feet tapping to the beat of the song.

You looked drop dead gorgeous.

Peter approached you, you didn’t look up at him. You sucked on your straw and chewed at the end, he smiled down on you.

“Hey, trouble.”

In a swift movement you moved to hit the side of your shoe against his, “Out.” You spoke around your straw and kept staring at a poster on the wall. “Huh?” Peter was confused, did you want him out of the room, or the house?

You sighed and kicked again, “I said out!”

Peter couldn’t help but laugh, you were trashed. “Out of where, baby?”

You ripped the straw from your mouth, the ice danced in the cup, at last you snapped your head to look at his face “Listen here, prick.” Your voice was venom, Peter’s eyes widened, he looked around for a second and shuffled closer. In turn you threw yourself back in your chair, “Out means out. Out of my way, out of my space, out of my fucking life.”

You’ve never been this harsh before, he didn’t realize you were this pissed.

He sighs, “Trouble, I’m sorry I-”

You cut him off quickly, “Don’t call me that, ever. My boyfriend calls me that, that’s his word for me. Not yours.”

He can’t help but grin in relief, you didn’t know it was him.

“I don’t see a boyfriend.”

You scoff, “Yeah well if you don’t see a bear shit in the woods doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. He’s on his way, he’s picking me up.”

“How about I take you home sweetheart?”

As serious as you could muster at the moment. You looked dead in his eyes and threatened him, “My boyfriend is gonna beat the absolute shit out of you.” Peter raised his eyebrows, “Oh is he now?” You nod fiercely, “If I ask, he’s so whipped for me he would do anything I want.”

Peter’s offended. He knows it’s true, but damn.

“He’s whipped but left you here alone?”

You nearly clawed his eyes out, “I have no fucking idea why you’re acting like you know anything about him. He’s my boyfriend and he’s picking me up, and I promise you don’t want to be here when he does.”

Peter feels a sense of pride that you’re dropping his name, he made you feel so safe and comfortable that you knew he would drop kick anyone you deemed deserving.

“Okay, sweetheart. Want me to bring you to your boyfriend?”

You scoff and sip your drink, “I don’t think he would want me to leave my spot.”

He wants to give you an atta girl, he’s trained you well enough that when you’re drinking and waiting on him you hunker down until he finds you. He will be looking forever if you’re constantly moving around.

“What if I told you I was told to come get you?”

You look him over with shifty eyes, you don’t trust this man.

“What’s his name then?”

He ignores your question and reaches for the cup you're drinking from, he thinks it’s time you stop. You slap his hand, hard, “Don’t, ever, touch something I’m drinking, okay? Mommy never taught you to keep your hands to yourself, huh?”

Peter rubs at his red hand, “I-“

You dryly laugh in his face, “How fucking entitled to you think you are? I mean really, not to mention you have no fucking clue how to read a room. I’m not interested, you dolt, I have a boyfriend that is gonna come grab me at any second.”

Peter squats so he’s more eye level. He notices the issue, you couldn’t see him. He was backed against the wall and it was shadowed, the second he bent down the window lit up his face.

“Hey, trouble. I am your boyfriend, wanna get home?”

Your eyes lit up with recognition, the moment you saw who you were berating your lower lip trembles. Fat tears pooling in your eyes had Peter panicking, did you still not understand who he was? Has he scared you?

“You’re okay, baby. It’s just me.” He smiles to be non threatening, it doesn’t work. You blink and tears fall, Peter frowns and reaches forward to cup your face, you shrink back further into the seat. The drink clutched to your chest spilled out over your shirt, you ignored it and looked at Peter, shaking your bottom lip at him to hold off sobs.

Peter starts to look around, before placing a palm on your chest trying to sop up the extra liquid into his sweater. You shove his hand back quickly, then raise your knees to hide your chest, wrapping your hands around your legs and cry into your knees.

He’s at a loss for words, he really doesn’t know what’s going on. Are you truly lost and think he’s taking advantage of you? It seemed like you recognized him the second you saw his face. He puts his hand on a knee, you move your leg so his hand falls off, he’s lost.

Peter thinks he needs to find Lindzey, he doesn’t like the idea of leaving you here alone upset, but he can’t seem to figure you out. If you can see your friend and have her willingly say that you are safe and this is your boyfriend then everything should be fine, right?

You have your face hidden from him, he had taken your cup away when it landed all over your front. Peter rests the plastic on the ground, the remnants of ice click. With a sigh he stands, he turns to look up the stairs hoping Lindzey would be coming down any second, if he has a guess though, she’s in Tarrents room watching the ceiling fan.

Peter takes one step and you grab his wrist tightly.

“You’re not leaving me right?”

“Hey!” He gives you a warm smile, like the kind of greeting you get from coming out of your room after a few hours. “What’s got you crying?”

You repeat your words, “You’re not leaving me, right?” You emphasize the right, because you don’t think Peter would do that but you’re not too sure the way you’ve been talking to him.

“I was gonna find Lindzey, are you-“

You jump up instantly using the hand you have on Peter for stability. You’re so close to Peter you almost step on his toes, he’s quick to back up. You take in his movements and start to cry, you shake your head quickly.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, please don’t leave me. I’m sorry, I’ll never do it again, I promise. Don’t break up with me, don’t leave me.”

Peter’s face scrunches in confusion, you take it as rejection. You cry harder, you sob so hard people are starting to turn and look. “Hey, c’mere.” He wraps an arm around your shoulder to pull you out of the basement but you stick your feet to the ground and shake your head violently. “No! Don’t do this, Peter. I’m sorry! Please don’t!”

He really wants to get you the fuck out of here. It’s dark, cold, loud and crowded. You’re also a nervous wreck that’s not only sobbing but also screaming at him stuck to his side but refusing him to touch you back. You’re also making it sound like he’s about to take you out back and teach you a lesson, he’s trying to think of the nicest way possible to get you to shut the fuck up.

You sniffle and take a deep inhale, then pout at Peter who takes your silence as an opportunity and leans in to talk directly in your ear.

“Calm down, Y/N. Follow me, understand?”

You nod but when he tries to move you stay attached to the ground again, “I said I was sorry, I didn’t mean to, I promise.”

Peter can’t think of a time you’ve been more hammered.

He needs to get you out of here, he tries one last time before he’d be forced to throw you over his shoulder. Peter leans to talk into your ear once more, not mean but stern. “I’m not mad, but I will be if you don’t follow me.” You wipe away any extra tears that had fallen before nodding slowly, you’re trying to not make him mad. He doesn’t know why you think he’s so upset at you.

Peter tries to grab your hand but you cross your arms and sniffle as you follow him up the stairs, he keeps turning every few seconds to make sure you’re still with him. He knows the second he’s able to get you away from the house you’d be able to explain why you were so upset. He’s just so tired and is more than ready to get home so he could sleep next to you, and he’s been so patient with you so far.

It’s rare you make him aggravated. So when you bolt from behind him to hide behind Tarrent he has to take a few deep breaths before he follows you. He doesn’t know why you’re scared of him, he doesn’t know why you were crying, he doesn’t know why you want to hide behind Tarrent. He does know he wants to get the fuck out of here. Peter takes a second for his annoyance to leave, he’s half tempted to pull your arm like a toddler out the door. Kicking and screaming and all.

When Peter finally walks over he’s blocked by Tarrent’s hand.

“What’s going on, Parker?” His tone is accusatory, his side chosen with the teary eyed sniffling girl.

Peter sighs, “Honestly, no fucking clue.” When he looked over at you, you immediately threw your head down to look at your shoes. He leaned in a little closer to Tarrent to speak softly, trying not to set you off again, “I tried to get her to leave but she started crying and freaking out.”

“She doesn’t want to leave with you.”

Peter blinked. Tarrent was supposed to be his friend, why was he taking your side out of nowhere.

“She had me spooked too. I promise everything is okay.” He smiled and went to move around Tarrent to grab his girlfriend, this time Tarrent was more aggressive. “She said she doesn’t want to leave with you, Parker. I won’t make a lady do anything they don’t want.”

Peter is so ready to say fuck it to everything.

He pinches the bridge of his nose. “Okay, great. Are you going to be getting my girlfriend home safely or will one of your pledges that can barely tie their own shoes be instructed to do so?” Tarrent’s face hardens, “Why don’t you go take a walk, Parker?”

He throws his hands in the air, “Awesome.” He points to Tarrent, “You can take care of it from here.” Then Peter stands near you, you still haven’t said a word or moved an inch. “Have a goodnight, Y/N. I’ll talk to you whenever.”

Finally you speak, it’s a worried tone.

“You’re leaving?”

Peter can’t help himself, he gives a laugh, like he’s the crazy one. Exasperated, he looks at you, “Yeah, baby, I am.” You look him up and down, “Why?” He takes a second to look around the room, he’s expecting cameras to come out.

He doesn’t want to fight but his tone said otherwise.

“Because, Y/N. You called me here to pick you up, then you were mad I was late. Then you wouldn’t tell me where you were because you thought a game of hide and seek would be cute, then when I found you, you started crying and screaming at me. Now you’re hiding behind my friend and he’s telling me you want me to leave. You want me to leave but you want me to stay, which is it?”

Tarrent looks like he’s ready to break up the fight at any second.

You go back to blinking at your shoes, he nods his head with a mumbled ‘fucking awesome’ and started to walk away. Your quivered voice made him stop, you were panicked and upset. He didn’t get why until now.

“So you’re breaking up with me?”

Tarrent looks at him like ‘well, are you?’

Peter can’t stop himself, the confusion spills out.

“Huh?”

“You’re breaking up with me?”

When he walks closer Tarrent spreads out slowly, he’s trying to let Peter have a chance to talk to you.

“Baby, why would I break up with you?”

You look at him and he sees how sad you look, you can’t help the bubbling cry that pulls through.

“Because I was mean to you.”

Oh.

You thought he was mad because of what you said to him in the basement. You thought you had fucked it up by hitting and berating him. You thought he was trying to get you out of the house so he could swiftly dump your ass and leave with a nicer, prettier girl.

“Oh shit.” He breathes out the words and in an instant Tarrent knows this isn’t as accurate as you claimed it was, even if you were plastered he was ready to have your side first. And not that he even really knows you, but he considers Parker a good friend and if there was a chance he was about to fuck up and end it with you he had to middleman it. Tarrent knows Parker deserves you.

He slowly pushed himself away until he was no longer in between you two. Peter appreciated the space and pushed his toes into yours, he was going nowhere.

“I’m not mad about that! You didn’t know it was me!”

Peter is so happy this was about nothing.

You won’t hear it, you’re drunk and extremely apologetic.

You hiccup, “No, cause I was so fucking mean to you, Petey. I should’ve never said that, I was so so mean. I wasn’t being a good girlfriend.”

He wants to laugh but he thinks it would upset you more.

“Baby, really. It’s okay, you didn’t know it was me. I’m not mad at all, I promise.”

You shake your head, “I was so mean to you though. I called you like, so many bad names.” You gasp when you remember what else you had done, you grab his hand to look at it. Peter tries to pull it away before it causes you to spiral more but you somehow have an iron grip on his wrist.

“And I hit you! Oh my god, Petey. I am so sorry, I didn’t mean it I swear.”

Peter places his free hand against your cheek, “I know you didn’t.” You place a soft kiss to the red mark, he knows you feel insanely guilty.

‘Hey,” He taps your cheek with a finger to get you to look at him. “You trust me, right?” You nod. “Good, now believe me when I say I’m not mad. You stuck up for yourself, trouble. You didn’t see it was me and I realized that, okay?”

You sniffle. “So you’re not mad at me?”

He laughs, “No, trouble. I’m not mad at you.”

You look at his hand and frown, you kiss it again. “And you won’t break up with me?”

Peter smiles sadly, “Don’t think you can get rid of me that easy, sorry.”

“Kiss?”

He looks at you, then the room, “Here?”

“If you’re not breaking up with me then prove it.”

Peter wants to tell you he could kiss you then dump you but you wouldn’t get that he was joking and it would collapse everything.

He follows your wish and pulls you in, he’s not much for outstanding PDA but he thinks you deserve a little more than a peck tonight. You did just gaslight yourself into thinking he was breaking up with you.

Peter pulled back and watched you grumpily blink your eyes open.

“Why stop?”

“Are you asking for another?”

You nod quickly and look over his shoulder, “Now! Before Casey Shauna sees you and tries to come over.” Before he can say a word you fly up to meet his mouth, it was sloppy and you basically headbutted him with your mouth so his teeth hurt. He gently pushes you away and rubs his upper lip.

Your eyes widened, “Oh no, I did it again. I hurt you, right?”

Peter was not about to fall back into this rabbit hole, not when he just found his way out of it.

“Not at all, trouble. Had some lip gloss, that’s all.”

You pout and shake your head solemnly, “I’m not wearing lip gloss.”

“How bout this, I get you home and I’ll give you all the kisses you want. How’s that sound?”

Like a puppy you’ve forgotten why you were upset, excited you hold on tight to his arm as he guides you through the crowded room until you reach the front door. You ask him how firm he is on the kisses offer, he gives you three the second you exit the house.

“I also want sex.”

Peter laughs, “That’s funny, cause I want a mcchicken.”

You ‘oo’ at him and slap his arm in excited agreement. “I want one too, but with cheese. And maybe some fries. Oh, Peter! I want a super large coke too, they have the best coke!”

By the time you’ve hit up Mcdonald’s and had Peter’s wallet buy you whatever you wanted, (even when you asked him for another mcchicken and a refill,) you were too tired to do anything but pass out on the couch.

Peter humphs at you while he watches you snore with the TV playing in the background.

“The sex to Mcdonalds pipeline never fails.”

#peter parker x reader #tasm!peter x reader #peter parker blurb #peter parker angst #peter parker fluff #tasm!peter x you #tasm!peter one shot #tasm! peter parker x reader #my writing

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ash5monster01 · 5 months

Note

hi!! i was wondering if i could request a charlie dalton x fem!reader inspired by guilty as sin? by taylor swift <333

Guilty as Sin?

Pairing: Charlie Dalton x FemReader

Warnings: 18+, sexual themes, sexual desire, heavy lust, language, big ego, fluff.

Summary: based on the song Guilty as Sin? by Taylor Swift. You have a longing for Charlie Dalton that you’re wishing would finally come true, lucky for you, Charlie thrives off of fulfilling fantasies. He’s happy to do the same for you.

word count: 2k

Masterlist

The sound of a book slamming against the table causes you to jump. Bringing you back to reality and tearing your eyes away from the boy on the other side of the library. With your heart now thrumming in your chest you eye the culprit, a frazzled student, rushing to drop his things on the other end of your table as he prepares to study. He has no idea he's just caused you to jump out of your skin but you're thankful to him anyway. If you weren't careful you could get too wrapped up in the idea of the brunette boy across the room and that was never good.

Charlie Dalton had become an all consuming thought. When Welton first became co-ed you had promised yourself you wouldn’t fall for any of the boys. Especially Charlie who had become the well known flirt amongst the school. Thing was, you couldn’t help it. Being in a place like Welton was like being trapped in a cage. It used to be fine but now you dreamed of breaking free. Dreamed of cracking locks, throwing your life to the wolves or ocean rocks, crashing into Charlie Dalton who was the definition of freedom simplified. The boy was a paradox.

Because of all this you couldn’t stop yourself from dreaming about him. It was the only exciting thing you had in this entire school. Seeing visions made up entirely of breaking every possible rule with the boy by your side. You weren’t sure if it made you bad, mad, or wise. All you knew is that you wanted Charlie Dalton in more ways than one. He was an ideology that made your heart soar and you dreamed of him claiming you as his own. Wishing he was written ‘mine’ on your upper thigh as his very hand slowly slide past your knee. Too bad it was only in your mind.

Feeling yourself slipping and falling back into the everlasting maze of dreaming about Charlie Dalton you quickly collected your things before it got too far. Even though dreaming about him would be lovely way to die, you had trigonometry homework that sadly the chestnut eyes of Charlie Dalton could not complete. Your safest option was getting as far away from him as possible. At least that was your goal until you bumped into a hard body after pushing open the doors to the library.

“Shit” the familiar voice swore as your books scattered across the ground. You froze in place as you spotted the apologetic smile on the boys face as he bends to collect your things. You hate that just the sight of him makes you recall things you never did. Things like needy top lip kisses, a longing for shared trysts, all without having ever touching his skin.

“It’s okay” you finally bring yourself to say, collecting your books back from him and probably looking like a deer in headlights. You hate even being around him made you feel guilty as sin. You had to keep these longings locked inside a vault before you got caught.

“You okay?” he asked with a soft chuckle, hand falling to your shoulder and you can’t help the goosebumps that cover your body just from the simple touch. Finally daring a glance into his eyes you hope he can’t see the desperate longing you have for him there.

“Do you want to hangout?” you can’t stop the words from leaving your mouth, instant regret fluttering in a breath behind them. Screw your trigonometry homework, Charlie Dalton was standing in front of you and you were going to take a chance.

“What?” he laughs, handsome eyes sparkling with amusement and you shake your head fastly even though the words coming out are opposite from the way you look.

“Yeah, I mean we have a few classes together and I just thought we could get to know each other” you look strained as you say it, contradicting yourself completely and the boy in front of you lets out a hearty laugh at the sight. Someone once told you there was no such thing as bad thoughts but you were having quite a few right now. At least your actions talked and hopefully he couldn’t see through the smoke screen that hid your fatal fantasies of labored breaths, him taking all of you, already doing it in your head.

“Yeah, I’d like to hangout. Got anything in mind?” he asks and it’s innocent. You know it is. That doesn’t stop your mind from running wild, recalling every dirty scenario you have put him in the last few months. If it was all make believe why does it feel like a vow you’re both going to uphold?

“Not particularly” you respond, nervously tucking strands of hair behind your ears and he just grins, arm reaching out and wrapping around your shoulders.

“Don’t worry, I know a place” he says confidently, sultry and smooth, the very personality you’ve been obsessed with. You hate that your cheeks redden, suddenly anxious about the fact that the same boys name you call out at night, building up like waves and crashing over your grave, has his arm around you.

“Is this the part where you kidnap me?” but he just grins and guides you out the doors and into the warm spring sun. You decide not to question him as he helps you sneak past the tree line and rush through the forest. In fact because of how obsessed you were with him he could murder you and you’d probably say thank you.

“Welcome to my humble abode” he says suddenly, a short cave in front of you both. Not in any place to question him, you duck inside just to see there are remnants of human life all around. Rubble from a previously burning fire lies in the center of the cave, blankets and a stack of playboy magazines on a rock to the side, some sort of lamp made out of a human statue. Whatever this place is, it was frequently visited.

“It’s… welcoming” is the word you find yourself saying as you perch yourself on a rock. Charlie just grins, settling onto the ground beside you, back pressed against the rock below you. If you moved only an inch you could hook your leg over his shoulder and the very thought has you stiffening your spine.

“Good, I’m glad. It doesn’t see nearly as much women as it should” Charlie says as he pulls a cigarette free from his pocket. You watch as he strikes a match along the rock you sit on before lighting the filter between his fingers.

“So this is where you take all your conquests?” you joke, crossing your arms over your chest before leaning back against the wall of the cave.

“Not all, but it would be a lie if I said none” he answers with a smirk, the cigarette pressed between his lips tipping upward at the action. You hate how attractive he is, the way you clench your legs together without even touching his skin.

“Does that make me one?” you find the confidence to question, realizing quickly if you’re going to do this little dance you might as well try your hardest to win. You may not be a conquest of Charlie’s but he was definitely one of yours.

Yet the look he gives you, a lustful stare burning behind his eyes, makes it easy to see you might be one of his too. So you anxiously wait as he pulls the cigarette from his mouth and blows the smoke towards the hole in the roof of the cave. Finally dropping his head to look back at you. “Only if you want to be”

“I thought I made it pretty clear when I asked to hangout” you say, a tone that oozes honesty pushing the words out. Charlie smiles that dazzling smile and much to your surprise reaches to hook his hand around your leg. Just the simple touch of his fingers curling around your calf sends a shudder down your spine. This is was you had wanted, a chance to live out a daring fantasy with the boy beside you. There was no backing out now, you had to roll the stone away, you’d end up crucified anyway.

“I thought you stared because I was annoying” he mutters, snuffing out the butt end of his cigarettte and abandoning it beside him. You watch with a pounding heart as he lifts himself onto his knees, hand still locked around your leg as he sat before you.

Out of all the ways you had pictured Charlie before, nothing could top him on his knees in front of you, hands holding your legs, itching to make their way up. Taking another daring chance you reach to graze your fingers through his hair, smiling at the way the action makes him instantly close his eyes. “I stared because of how bad I wanted you, that was still annoying though”

He offers a devious grin at that and just hearing the confirmation of how badly you wanted him, he starts to lift his hands up your legs, smiling at the feeling of your bare skin as he moved closer and closer to the hem of your skirt. You can’t stop your head from tipping back and enjoying the way he holds you which is truly holy. Just before his hands reach the end of your skirt, you stop him with your hands landing on top of his.

“Before this gets too far I need you to know this is a long suffering propriety for me. You have no idea how much you’ve haunted me” you tell him, prepared for him to stop his movements and step away from you. He just bumped into you at the library and was looking for a hookup, where you had been in love with the idea of him for far too long.

“I’d be content if you were mine and only mine” he confirms, a sweetness to the usually cocky smile. You’re stunned for a moment, realizing he just chose for it to be only you and him. This alone has you leaning forward and capturing his lips in your own, a messy top lip kiss at first and then slowly shifting into something magical.

The kiss gives Charlie the confidence to continue his trail, fingers slipping beneath your skirt and up the tops of your thighs. You moan at the memory of earlier, where you had imagined him writing mine on your thigh. As if Charlie reads your mind he breaks his lips apart from you, hands bunching up your skirt and revealing the doughy flesh there. He flashes you a smile before pressing a kiss to the top of your thigh and you wish to have it tattooed there forever.

“This is so much better than I imagined” you grin at him, smiling when he lifts his head and slides his hands to your waist. In one swift motion he’s lifted you up, sitting where you just were and settling you on his lap. You grin at the feeling, skirt still bunched up as you straddle his waist.

“Agreed” he says before peppering kisses along your collar bone and you draw your eyebrows together, hands gripping his shoulders for balance as he grinds up into you.

“Wait, you thought of me too?” you ask and he pulls back with that dazzling smile, eyes glazed and shining into your own.

“Guilty as sin babe” he tells you and you can’t help the soft laugh that falls out of you before sealing your mouth around his own. He kisses back just as eagerly, squeezing at your hips as you officially determine this was so much better than trigonometry.

Finally so happy you wondered if you were even allowed to cry.

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gonzo-rella · 9 months

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Headcanons: Charlie Dalton, Neil Perry and Todd Anderson Taking Care of Their Sick S/O

MASTERLIST | AO3 | KO-FI

Relationship(s): Charlie Dalton x sick!gn!reader (romantic), Neil Perry x sick!gn!reader , Todd Anderson x sick!gn!reader (romantic)

Warnings: The reader has a cold so... yeah. Also, since I'm sick myself, my brain isn't really working at it's normal level so apologies for any mistakes! (Let me know if I need to add any)

(A/N: Unfortunately I'm still sick (it's only been a few days). Fortunately, I'm still motivated to write headcanons to get me through this relatively mild illness (and I'm starting to feel better)! I've got a Todd one-shot draft that I started a year ago and never got around to finishing, so here's my first offering to the Dead Poets Society fandom. I'd love to write more for it, both reader-insert and not. I'm not sure if I'll end up writing any more sick fics (I've already written hcs for Yellowjackets and Abed Nadir and Annie Edison from Community) since I should be better soon, but if you're still interested check out my fandom list and requesting info and feel free to send an ask!)

CHARLIE

Charlie will jokingly tell you that you’re disgusting.

If you’re not amused by that, he’ll awkwardly but sincerely apologise, his mortification thinly veiled.

He isn’t entirely sure what the hell to do to make you less sick.

(He'll have to consult his more medically knowledgeable friends for advice)

He will ask you if you want him to kiss it all better.

(And he will not hesitate to kiss you when you give him the go ahead)

Suffice it to say, he does not care all that much about getting sick himself.

(A small part of him hopes that he does get sick so you'll have to take care of him)

He will spend so much time with you, you’d think you were dying.

He will also get you anything you ask for (even if it has no clear use in making you physically better- he just wants to make you happy).

If his earlier attempt at joking doesn't work, he'll still persist in cracking jokes and making you laugh to make you feel better.

(If your laughter causes you to break out into a coughing fit, though, he will feel awful).

NEIL

Neil knows exactly what to do.

He may not like his dad's dream of him becoming a doctor, but damn he has such a knack for looking after you.

He makes sure you’re drinking enough fluids and taking any medicine you need to take.

No matter how disgusting you might get, Neil is completely unfazed the whole time.

If anything, he'll find it funny and try to keep you in as high spirits as possible.

If he does mind getting sick, he certainly doesn't show it.

For example, he doesn't hesitate when kissing you on the cheek or forehead.

He loves you so much that it really won’t matter to him if you can- or do- get him sick.

He’ll regularly ask you if there’s anything that you want or need, and if you’re comfortable, and if you’re too hot or cold.

It’s evident that he cares about you getting better.

He’ll sit at your bedside and try to take your mind off of how you’re feeling.

But, he will insist that you need to rest up, so when you’re asleep or trying to fall asleep he’ll be as quiet as humanly possible to make sure he doesn’t wake you up.

If he does end up waking you, he’ll feel terrible about it.

He’s so loving and caring anyway, but especially when you’re sick.

TODD

This guy is fucking terrified.

He assumes that anything he does will only make you sicker.

A small part of him is convinced you will die under his care.

So, he begs Neil for advice, and Neil humours him so that Todd doesn’t drive himself nuts.

Todd will regularly ask you if you need something, and he’ll repeatedly offer you whatever Neil advised him about.

He’s also completely torn between his innate desire not to get himself sick, and his deep love and affection for you.

So, please don’t get upset with him if he recoils almost every time you cough and sneeze, because he does spend as much time as he possibly can at your bedside.

Speaking of which, Todd sits at your bedside like a loyal golden retriever.

He’ll hold your hand (internally panicking about your high temperature, of course) and place the occasional kiss on the back of it.

He’ll also read some of his poems, works in progress and completed, out to you, and he’ll make sure to pick plenty that are about you specifically.

Sure, he’s nervous, but you love his poetry and all he wants to do is reduce how terrible you feel.

#dead poets society #dps #dps headcanons #charlie dalton #neil perry #todd anderson #charlie dalton x reader #neil perry x reader #todd anderson x reader #x gn!reader #x gn reader #x gender neutral!reader #x gender neutral reader #x reader #headcanons

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ohmyenjolrass · 8 months

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take a chance on me | charlie dalton x fem!reader

summary: charlie dalton is obsessed with you and he mans up to ask you out on a date. you are secretly in love with him, but you can tell his intentions almost immediately.

pairings: charlie dalton x fem!reader

word count: 0.5k

warnings: none, but welton is a boys and girls school.

n/a: i was really looking forward to write something with charlie, and i am so excited for this one. i really hope you enjoy it. feel free to request anything! as always, english is not my first language, so there might be some mistakes, sorry in advance x

masterlist :)

"i'm gonna ask her out", charlie repeated for the thousandth time, staring at you from the other side of the common room.

"yeah, right.", knox teased him. "you always say the same thing but you never really do it."

"and also, what if y/n doesn't like you back?", wondered neil.

but charlie's ego was too big to break like that. and also, he had noticed how your eyes fixated on him when he wasn't looking, so, at least, you were interested in him.

"you can mock me all that you want, but i am going to do it.", charlie said, as he stood up. the rest of his friends stared at him in disbelief, with their mouths open.

you saw him approaching your group of friends and returned your sight to your latin homework, playing dumb. you knew your friends couldn't tell, but your heart rate was alarmingly fast as charlie was closer.

"hey, girls", he greeted you and your friends. "do you mind if i steal y/n from you one sec?"

you knew charlie wasn't asking for permission, he hardly ever did, so you stood up, closing your notebook. "what is it, charlie?"

"just a thing i wanted to ask you. come with me?"

you followed him to the corridor, which was empty, and waited for him to start talking. you and charlie weren't exactly friends, but you liked him. he was funny, and smart, and didn't have any problems to cause some trouble in school. he was also devastatingly charming, and every single girl in school would agree on that.

"so...", he started. "how was your day?"

"did you actually dragged me out of the common room to ask me about my day?", you laughed.

charlie fidgeted with the collar of his school shirt. "actually i wanted to ask you something."

"ask away, i'm not gonna bite you.", you said, jokingly.

"i was wondering if you had any plans this friday evening.", charlie said, and you flustered to your ears. your cheeks were so warm you even wondered if it was possible to be that red.

don't be an idiot, y/n. come on, woman up, you thought.

"um, no. i don't think so. why?"

"would you like to go out? like, with me?", he asked, and you could tell that he was blushing too. it was a rare sight to see charlie dalton blushing, but it was a very cute one.

"sure, yeah.", you replied, your hands trembling. you couldn't believe that. "anything planned?"

"i thought we could go to the cinema? if you're up to it."

"yeah. i love the movies.", a weird silence formed between the two of you, both too happy to say anything. then, you cleared your throat. "so, friday, 6pm?"

"perfect. i'll pick you up on your dorm."

you nodded, going back into the common room. a few moments later, charlie entered too, sitting with his friends. you could see his face between todd's and meeks' shoulders. he noticed you staring and winked at you. you lowered your head back to your homework.

and friday couldn't come fast enough.

#ro writes things #charlie dalton #charlie dalton x reader #dead poets society #dead poets society x reader #dps x reader #charlie dalton x fem!reader #charlie dalton fluff #charlie dalton imagine #charlie dalton fanfic

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jentrovert · 2 months

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Love to Hate You ♡

(Charlie Dalton x Fem Reader)

Enemies to Lovers Oneshot!

Warnings: Swearing, 1950’s stereotypes (purity, clothing style, cigarettes), mentions of neglect, immature high school drama, talk of paddling at school, dumb pranks, kissing, romance, teen partying, suggestive flirting, mention of a diet, moral grayness, parental issues, arguing, drinking, jealously, reader possesses slight anger issues, Neil lives and all is well.

Synopsis: The highly regarded Welton Academy has two buildings, one strictly for girl students, and the other for young boys. By a turn of events, they all end up having to share study hall together in the afternoons. (Y/n), your typical rich, hyper-feminine prima donna, thinks she’s in charge of Welton Academy. With her squeaky clean reputation and unwavering confidence, surely no one will ever see her sweat. However, being the drama queen that she is, she takes her first encounter with Charlie Dalton as a personal attack. Teenage chaos ensues. ~

｡ﾟ•┈୨♡୧┈•ﾟ｡ *

Authors Note: Hello! I just got into DPS, and I don’t write very much, so be gentle. This was originally supposed to be a dumb little blurb I wrote without intent to post. Short and silly. Obviously it’s based on the movie, but I also made it my own. Reader is referred to as a female, woman, and girl. She/Her pronouns used. It’s mentioned once that the reader has hair, but other than that, if something doesn’t feel neutral as far as the reader’s appearance, please let me know. Feel free to request! :)

Dramatic Princess Society

꘎♡━━━━━♡꘎

To say you were a diva was a staggering understatement. Everyone who graced your presence could see that you were in control of any room you happened to wander into. You weren’t a princess; you were the princess. A fond nickname you’d developed as well. You were never afraid to say whatever was on your mind, and you figured that really wasn’t such a bad thing. You just knew what you wanted, and that was all.

It didn’t help that your wealthy parents constantly fed into your ego, insistently showering you with lavish clothes and gifts to distract you from the fact that they only saw their child a few times a year. The only time your mother really gave you any guidance or contacted you at all was to ask about your diet or your clothing size, which was honestly fine by you. You had a social hierarchy to rule over, and that kept you plenty busy. Yeah, you were vain, and maybe even a bit too proud, but if anyone had the right to be, it was certainly you.

Your parents had pushed you into doing all sorts of extracurricular activities throughout your childhood and adolescence. They put a lot of weight on status and education, so failure just wasn’t an option in their eyes. You were meant to sit above everyone else at all times with a crown fixed on your head. Maybe if you could accomplish that, then you’d have to be good enough in their eyes.

What most people didn’t usually see, however, was the bleeding heart beneath all of that pompous prestige. Just below the surface, there was a young girl who wanted the same thing every other teenager so desperately did: to be accepted. But no one was going to knock down that wall you’d built.

On par for the course, you attended Welton Academy, one of the most distinguished prep schools in the country, made strictly for young women like yourself. The catch was that just across the lake from your school, there was another high school identical to your own, except it was made for young men instead.

The girl’s building was a fairly recent addition to the school grounds themselves. Neither of them weren’t necessarily close in proximity, but they were close enough that you could always see the opposing building. On the rare occasion of a mixed assembly, the Welton staff were always swift to pull you in opposite directions when the event had ended. There would be absolutely no one partaking in any premarital activities on their watch. The adults around you were very strict in that regard.

“What do you think the boys are doing over there right now?” Your roomate Maddie wondered aloud, her elbows propped up on the seal of your dorm window as she ogled dreamily across the lake.

You gave a teasing scoff as you turned away from your chemistry work to face her. “Probably using binoculars to stare at our building so hard that their eyes are getting sore.”

“You think?” She chirped in almost a hopeful tone, glancing over her shoulder at you.

Your eyes nearly rolled out of your head as you went back to reading. “That’s not a good thing, Madison. They’re a bunch of little perverts, and everyone knows it.”

“Maybe I should wear prettier night gowns,” She mused, ignoring your input completely.

You groaned. “Gross. For the love of all holy, please just close the shutters.”

“At least you said ‘please’ for once,” Madison grumbled, doing just as you’d told her before deciding to turn in for the night.

You sighed, playing with a strand of your hair. “Madison. They’re just boys; I promise you, they don’t have anything special.”

Once you heard Maddie’s mischievous giggle, you already knew where she was about to go with that statement.

“Oh, I’d beg to differ on that one.”

You couldn’t help the grin that cracked across your face, but you waved a dismissive hand in her direction.

“Maybe if you weren’t so uptight, then all the boys wouldn’t be scared of you,” She stated through laughter.

You looked over at her again, brows raised. “Ha! Shows how much you know. That’s the way I like it,” You hummed, shrugging your shoulders as you inspected the polish on your nails. “But who could really blame them? I’m pretty intimidating, if I do say so myself.

Now it was Maddie’s turn to roll her eyes. “Whatever you say, princess,” She said, bowing theatrically before flopping back on her pillow. “Can you cut the lights off already? You’ve been looking at that forever.”

“Oh I have to say ‘please’, but you don’t?” You huffed at her, but obliged anyway.

Cutting off your lamp, you followed Maddie’s lead and crawled beneath your own blankets, curling into a cozy little ball. Your eyes lingered on the ceiling for a while before you finally drifted off. You couldn’t stop yourself from wondering if there really was anything interesting about the boys over there. You doubted it, but you wouldn’t know unless you saw for yourself. Perhaps they could make things a little less boring in your current life. As much as you appreciated all the praise from your female peers, it was getting a little tired.

The next afternoon, it was nearing the end of the school day when you were sitting in Mrs. Newman’s class, daydreaming about your next salon appointment before dismissal. That’s when the older woman made an extremely important announcement to the class. Apparently, the boy’s library was under some new renovations, and as such, all of the boys who still wanted to attend study hall were instructed to use the girl’s library in your building until construction was over.

Your eyes widened when you heard the news, and you’d never admit it, but your heart also sped up a little at the thought. A few coy giggles echoed through the room as Mrs. Newman spoke.

“Now, ladies,” Your senile instructor boomed, scanning the room with a very firm look on her face. “I expect nothing but professional behavior from you all, and anything to the contrary will not be taken lightly. Do you all understand?”

“Yes, Mrs. Newman,” The class cooed in unison, not sounding nearly convincing enough.

You never thought you’d live to see the day Welton Academy would actually allow males and females to mingle. Hell had finally frozen over, you thought.

Newman kept a narrow eye on all of you as she dismissed class, but none of you seemed to pay her any mind. You were all too busy laughing and gossiping about what it would be like to merge study hall with boys. You must’ve heard your name being called a hundred times as you made your way to your locker.

“(Y/n)! (Y/n)! Did you hear?! We get to be with the boys every single day for the next few weeks!” A freshman girl named Rachel beamed as she approached.

The mundane expression never left your face. “Duh, of course I did. That’s all anyone’s talked about for the last five minutes.”

She deflated a bit. “Oh. Right. Um, I like your makeup today, by the way… Always, really.”

“Of course, Rach. You know me,” You remarked, stopping to fiddle with the combination on your locker. You could see her grin from your peripheral as she started to turn away.

“Alright, well, I’ll see you later, (Y/n)!”

You wiggled your fingers in her direction as you sorted through the books you wanted for study hall. You liked Rachel; she had great fashion sense, but she was a little too boy-obsessed for you, even worse than Maddie. You refused to give young men so much of your attention. They should be excited to see you, not the other way around. You’d never judge her or anyone else for it, but there was no way you were going to be dubbed a ‘tramp’ and end up being an outcast from your social groups. At least that’s what your parents told you would happen. So a boy would need to have something truly magical in order to make you break a sweat over them.

As you gripped your stack of books and began making your way to the now highly sought-after library, a small group of girls began trailing close behind you, a couple of them throwing affirmations your way about your hair or outfit. A few of them you knew, a few you didn’t, but at least you never had to worry about sitting alone.

“(Y/n), I love your pink socks.”

“Thanks. You know I just can’t be bothered with their horrid dress code. The patterns on the skirts are bad enough.”

“(Y/n), where did you get your bag?”

“Don’t remember. I just grabbed one this morning.”

“(Y/n), are you going to talk to any boys?”

“They can come up and talk to me if they want.”

“If they dare,” Maddie laughed, amplifying the string of constant giggles behind you.

You had your hand on the library door, ready to push it open, when a high-pitched voice startled you by crying, “Wait!”

You pulled away, immediately recognizing a sophomore named Jenny as she rushed over, peaking her head through the window of the large double doors.

“Ohmygosh,” She whispered. “They’re really in there.”

The group laughed, but you simply nudged her aside. “Please, Jen. Of course they are.”

“Oh! Let me pick where to sit!” Maddie begged with her sad brown eyes.

You thought about it briefly and ultimately caved in to her request. She cheered as she took a turn looking through the window, scanning each male specimen with great precision. A few women were in the library already, but not too many just yet. You tapped your foot impatiently, staring at the side of Maddie’s head while you waited on her decision.

“Pick cute ones to sit by!” A little red-headed girl commented, and the rest of them whispered amongst themselves in agreement.

You huffed, stamping your foot a bit as you began to push by your classmates. “For God’s sake, women, can we pull ourselves together a bit? Maddie Garcia, you’ve got two seconds before I pick for you.”

“Okay! Okay!” She squealed. “Um… That one! That table right there.” You stepped beside her, observing the large table that she’d pointed out. It was only half full, with one side harboring a fairly normal-looking group of young men, and the other side vacant.

“Fine. Perfect.”

Giving the entrance a quick shove, the group began filing in to the library one by one. Maddie and Rachel stayed by your side in order to get a closer look at the scope of people, and the rest of them hung behind you shyly. If the boys weren’t looking your way already, they certainly were after you haphazardly dropped your pile of books on the table. The rest of the girls sheepishly sorted out which chairs to take, making sure to leave a space between them and any boys. Almost instantly, you began burying yourself in your chemistry book, ignoring the girl’s whispering and the boy’s eyes that were burning holes in your head. You couldn’t believe all that fuss was just for them to not even talk to a single male in the room. You simply had no time for the nonsense.

After a while, everyone seemed to settle in and get back to their books and homework like normal, but every minute or so, Maddie would tap on you and ask, “What about that one? Is he cute?”, only for you to look over and shrug. More and more students came through during the hour. The library had stayed surprisingly quiet, so you figured the boys must be on their best behavior in the new environment. They were very careful not to say anything too loudly about any of you, though you knew what they were probably talking about when they lowered their voices. It was fine by you as long as they weren’t being overly distracting.

Your friends, on the other hand, weren’t doing anything with their time except yammering on; their books were open to a random page in the hopes that none of the teachers would actually notice. That day probably set a record for how many students attended study hall in Welton history, and the ironic part was hardly anyone was studying.

“Hey, (Y/n)?” A girl named Tayla asked, catching your attention.

You looked up at her in acknowledgment, so she continued. “How do you always keep from getting in trouble during Mr. Baker’s class?”

You thought about it for a second and laughed. “Well, you see, if you misbehave in a male teacher’s class, but you simultaneously wear a skirt that’s two sizes too small, then they won’t paddle you. None of them would dare make you bend over in a skirt that short.”

And you were right; teachers wouldn’t paddle you if your clothing seemed too short, so you always made sure wear clothing from previous school years if you were planning on causing problems. It may have been a shoddy thing for you to do, but so was hitting your students with an object, you thought. At least this way you could laugh about it.

A few of them giggled, one calling you a ‘genius’ in a playful manner. However, you could see from across the table that a few of the boys had suddenly turned rather crimson, and you knew it was likely from your conversation. You couldn’t fault them, because you weren’t exactly being quiet. Though you wouldn’t concern yourself with it either. If they were embarrassed, that was their problem.

A toothy smile graced your lips as you returned to your book, feeling oddly triumphant in your “advice”. But alas, you couldn’t revel in it; you had chemistry work that desperately needed your attention as well. Your parents would have your head if your grades proved any less than perfect.

You’d sat at the head of the table, trying your best to focus for at least a few minutes once everyone had gone quiet. However, rather than focusing on chemistry formulas, you’d slowly started to take notice of a young brunette who sat opposite you. He wasn’t doing anything particularly special, just chewing gum and trying to kick one of his friends under the table, not paying much mind to the new female table-mates. One of his classmates had called him “Charlie”, which was a name you actually recognized. You’d definitely heard a few of the girls talk about him before, and his not-so-appropriate stories.

You took a moment to observe the details of his face and the way he interacted with his friends, your work now long forgotten. He seemed so confident and loud, clearly a class clown as well. His boyish features were pretty charming, if you had to admit it. Soft and mischievous at the same time. The uniform looked handsome on him too. His looks and mannerisms definitely made you want to get to know him a bit better.

Suddenly, the same male you were admiring cleared his throat in a loud, dramatic sort of fashion, catching everyone at the table’s attention. He made quite a show of folding his hands out in front of him on the table, leaning toward you with direct eye contact, so you knew that whatever he was about to say, he was talking to you.

You cocked a brow at the boy, clueless as to what he could possibly be drawing so much attention for.

“Ma’am, since I don’t see any paint or an easel in front of you, I’m going to have to ask that you refrain from staring, please. Not that I don’t enjoy it, but it is very distracting at the moment,” He explained in mock concern, smiling in almost a taunting sort of fashion.

Your eyes blew wide, your jaw all but dropping to the floor as everyone who was listening turned to see your reaction. A few other tables had heard the disturbance as well. Your back suddenly straightened, and you opened and closed your mouth a few times in an attempt to defend yourself, but nothing came out. Normally, you’d fire off something snarky in return, maybe even insulting, but instead, your mind was rendered completely blank. It was strange, really. Sex and everything related to it were extremely taboo, especially with the way you’d been raised. It was one thing when you were talking to your female peers, but having a male address you in that sort of manner was kind of petrifying.

Your cheeks burned with humiliation from all the giggles that met your ears. His gaze never left yours as a huge smirk began to paint his features, causing you to avert your eyes. You couldn’t remember when you became so shy.

“I, uh...” Your eyes darted around to various on-looking students. “Whatever,” you muttered, propping your book up in a way that would block most people from seeing your face.

A symphony of “Ooo’s” echoed from all around you, the group of boys laughing as they playfully punched their friend on the shoulder. Only one boy in a vest who sat closest seemed to give Charlie a displeased look. Some of your own friends began poking you and laughing themselves. Your skin was on fire. You hardly even interacted with men in your day to day life, much less experienced this. You were mortified. You could only take it for a few more moments before you stood straight up from your chair, slamming your chemistry book. Charlie and a couple of your friends were the only ones who noticed the tantrum you were throwing, and Maddie stood to follow you as you made your way out of the library.

You practically stomped out of the room, never once looking behind you. “Who the hell even is that? Who does he think he is talking to me that way? This is why they shouldn’t be over here,” You ranted, directing it toward Maddie, even though she hadn’t caught up to you yet.

Before the door could shut behind both of you, someone had flung it open once more. You turned to see if the rest of the girls were following you, only to be met with his face again. You groaned and began walking faster to your locker.

“Hey!” The boy laughed, hurrying to catch you. “Hey, hold on-”

You didn’t answer, the click of your heels being the only noise you made. Maddie didn’t say anything either, but she watched the two of you with suspicious eyes.

“Wait a second,” He urged, attempting to grab your sleeve before you swatted him away.

“Who do you think you are, exactly?” You snapped, suddenly spinning on your heel to face him. He nearly tripped over his feet to stop himself from running into you.

“Uh, I think I’m Charlie,” he stated, taking a couple steps backward.

Your eyes narrowed. “And what do you want? Why are you trying to humiliate me?”

Charlie stared at you for a second, then let out a small chuckle as he began rolling his sleeves up to his elbows. “Ah, I see. You’re one of those types.”

“Excuse me?” You seethed, digging your nails into your textbooks. “One of what type? Nobody is like me, not even close, so get that straight.”

The male put his hands up in defense. “Now, I didn’t mean it like that, babe.”

Throwing him a fake laugh, you rolled your eyes and continued the journey to your dorm. “Babe? I’m not your babe; my name is (Y/n). Now go torture some other girl.”

Charlie stuffed his hands in his pockets as he watched you walk away, glancing over at Maddie, who had yet to follow you again. "Well, now I have to torture her,” he said.

“Good luck with that. She’s, like, the queen of Welton,” Maddie laughed. “Although, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody work her up that much before.”

Charlie hummed, fixed on the spot you once stood. “Well, then the king himself will just have to take that as a challenge.”

The next few days went by with you avoiding study hall like the plague, no matter how much any of the other girls begged you to go. You were sick, you were hungry, you were tired—anything it took to avoid him until you were certain the whispers had died down. You hated his cocky demeanor. You were the only one who should be cocky at Welton. Of course, the rumor of your “crush” had made its rounds by now, much to your dismay. Maddie told you she’d heard some of the boys talking about it as well. The majority of girls just couldn’t shut up about how cute you’d be together with one the “poetry nerds”.

You must’ve been asked a dozen times if you and Charlie were dating, and for once you wished people would stop paying so much attention to you. That was the point where you’d had enough. There was no way you were going to let people think you had a thing for that clown, absolutely no way. You knew he just liked to flirt with every girl anyway, so his advances meant nothing to you. He had embarrassed you on purpose, and you were going to make damn sure you returned the favor someday. These were your school grounds, not his, and not anybody else’s either. Mr. Nolan, the old bat, could take that fact and shove it for all you cared.

The day you finally went back to study hall was on a Friday. There was a chemistry test on Monday morning, and no matter how much you detested it, you really could’ve used one of the boys’ help to study. This chapter of Chemistry was your weak point, and you’d heard a lot of good things about a boy called “Meeks” and his godlike abilities in that realm. You’d seen him sitting around Charlie on that fateful day, which troubled you at first, but once you thought about it for a while, an idea started forming in your brain. That’s where your friend Rachel came in.

Rachel had an affinity for lizards, frogs, and any other small creature that crawled along the ground, which was just perfect for you. You just hoped Charlie loved lizards as much as she did. By the time Friday afternoon had rolled around, you all but dragged Rachel out and down to the library. You could tell she was very unsure, but went along with you anyway.

You stopped and turned to her right outside the doors. “Did you catch one?”

“Yeah,” she sighed, crouching down to fish through her bag.

After a moment, she stood, holding out her hand to reveal a small lizard gently clenched in her grasp. You grinned a wide, maniacal grin, carefully taking the creature from her hands. He was small enough that he would hopefully go undetected for a while, which is exactly what you wanted.

“Thanks, Rach. Alright, c’mon, let’s go,” You instructed, holding the creature in one hand behind your back.

“Ok—ay,” Rachel replied, trialing behind you with your chemistry books in hand.

You strutted right through the room and towards Steven Meeks’ table, ignoring any whispers you heard along the way. Sure enough, Charlie was sitting right beside the Meeks boy, laughing at something his friend had said.

Perfect.

As you approached, most of the table’s attention had turned your way. Charlie immediately plastered that smug look across his face at the sight of you. You scowled at first, but quickly switched your expression to something nice and welcoming as you looked toward Steven, leaning down to his level once you were beside him.

“Hello, gentlemen. Do you mind if I steal your friend Steven for a moment? Rachel and I are seriously clueless when it comes to chemistry, and we need some help for our test Monday,” You explained in a sugary sweet tone, intentionally placing your hand on Meeks’ shoulder. You knew they would fold like wet paper at your request.

The group exchanged several glances with one another, during which, you took the opportunity to place your lizard friend into Charlie’s uniform coat, carefully planting him where he’d likely go down rather than out the top.

“Uh, yeah, alright, sure,” Meeks agreed, gathering up his things and rising from his chair. Rachel chuckled awkwardly, giving a timid “Thank you” to the boy for his help. You couldn’t distinguish whether she was nervous about what you’d done or if Rachel actually had a thing for Meeks. Either way, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was getting to witness the events that unfolded when Charlie realized something besides him was moving in his clothes.

You and Rachel led Meeks to a vacant table off to the left and began setting up things to study. You could tell the boy was a bit nervous around you, but he but shook it off pretty quickly. You, however, were still too distracted with watching Charlie. Once Meeks noticed this, he chuckled, gaining your attention.

“What is it?” You questioned.

“It’s just that… I noticed you staring over there.”

You shot him a chilling glare.

“I was not staring at him!” You blurted a little too loudly. A few students glanced your way before going back to their work, making you take a breath and sit back in your chair. “I apologize. Continue, please.”

Rachel held in a laugh, but said nothing.

A few minutes had gone by before you finally caught a sign of Charlie feeling around in the sleeve of his clothes. You leaned forward in anticipation, waiting eagerly for some sort of panic to ensue. However, rather than panicking, Charlie stood up, removing his jackst and flipping it to search the inside. After some investigation, he found whatever he was looking for.

“Oh, man!” You heard Charlie exclaim as he pulled something from the article of clothing. “Guys, check this out.”

He seemed excited about it, much to your utter frustration. The group all gathered around to view the animal Charlie now held in his hand, all taking turns viewing the small reptile. You were fuming, now sunken down in your chair with your arms folded.

“Yeah, I wonder where he came from, too,” Charlie articulated louder than before, peering over his shoulder at you with a knowing look.

That cocky smile of his made you stand up so hard that your chair fell backwards. You snatched your book off the desk and started to walk out, not bothering to say anything other than, “I’m going to study in my room.”

“Okay,” Rachel squeaked as she and Meeks’ eyes followed you out the door.

Charlie couldn’t stop the laughter that nearly doubled him over as he witnessed you pretty much barrel through the door on your way out. You ignored him, walking briskly to your locker to grab another book, accidentally bumping into a few people on your way. Once you stopped in front of your locker door, a puzzled look replaced your once furious one. The combination lock on your locker had completely disappeared, initially making you think someone had stolen something out of it.

In a panic, you threw open the door to see what might be missing, but rather than finding an empty space, you found the exact opposite. The second you tore it open, an absolute mountain of paper came toppling out like a waterfall, making you shriek as they pooled all around your feet. You stood staring at the ground for a moment, desperately trying to process what just occurred. That’s when you heard footsteps approaching to your right. You didn’t even have to look to know who it was.

Charlie was stifling laughter as he closed in on you. Then he dug around in his front pocket for a moment before pulling out your missing lock and holding it towards you. “Figure you’d want this back,” he offered between chuckles.

“You put these here?” It came out as a statement rather than a question.

“Yeah, kinda like you put a lizard in my shirt. Funny coincidence. Mine was funnier, but I guess we’re even now, eh?”

You studied the inside of your locker for a second more before slamming it shut as hard as you could and pivoting on your heel to face him. His expression faltered a bit when he saw the rage evident in your features.

“Babe, hold on, it was just a jo-”

“How did you get my lock off of there?!” You roared, kicking papers away as you shoved your manicured finger right in his face.

Charlie smirked. “The same way I knew it was you who got that lizard in my blazer, I’m just smart, is all.” He didn’t seem too fazed, which angered you even further. “That was pretty corny, by the way. You should know that we men aren’t afraid of our own shadows like you ladies are.”

You thought your head was about to spin around.

“Afraid of our own shadows?! Are you aware that it was a girl who got the lizard in the first place, you hoity, lame, stupid, conceited-”

“Children!” An adult’s voice boomed from down the hall, making you both whip your heads in that direction.

“Shit,” You and Charlie whispered in unison.

“What on earth is going on here?! What’s all of this mess for?!” Mrs. Newman screeched as she advanced toward you, her brow carved into a deep, wrinkled frown.

You quickly began straightening your outfit, scanning your brain for an excuse to the papers.

“Well, Ma’am, I, uh- Um, Mr. Dalton here had accidentally bumped into me, and I dropped a bunch of papers on the ground,” You rushed out, flashing her an innocent smile as you flattened your skirt.

She gave you a skeptical look up and down, then turned her attention to Charlie. “Is that so? Then what’s with all the noise?”

Charlie coughed into the crook of his elbow before he spoke, giving himself a moment to think.

“Were we being loud? I’m so sorry, Mrs. Newman; we’ll keep our voices down. Won’t happen again, I promise.”

After contemplating it for a minute, she finally let the two of you off the hook, scolding you not to let it happen again and instructing Charlie to help you clean up. Once she was out of sight, the boy grinned at you, kneeling down to help you sort through the sheets of paper littering the floor. “You lied for me, babe?”

You could hear the satisfaction in his voice. “Don’t flatter yourself. I knew if I told on you, then you’d probably narc me out too.”

He paused for a second, then laughed under his breath. “You hardly look at me when we talk like this. Do I make you that nervous, babe?”

As soon as the words left his mouth, you reached over and kicked the foot he was balancing his weight on, effectively toppling him over. Charlie was quick to catch himself, though, cackling like it was the funniest thing he’d ever seen happen.

You stood to your full height, intending to leave him on the ground to fend for himself. “I told you to stop calling me that!”

“Hold on!” He cried rather dramatically, grabbing you by the hand while on his knees in front of you. “I’m sorry. How could I have ever upset the most amazing girl at Welton? A beautiful flame that I’ve tried to snuff out. Could you ever forgive me?”

It was almost weirdly poetic, but still very sarcastic.

Your expression couldn’t have been less amused than it was in that moment, but it quickly twisted into one of shock and horror as the boy leaned forward and planted a curt kiss on your knuckles, still staring up at you with a look that feigned remorse. Those auburn eyes froze you in place for just a moment before you finally snapped out of it, tearing your hand away. The recoil of your action caused you to stumble back a step, which Charlie was thoroughly entertained by, of course.

You shook your head. “Ugh! Can you just stop messing with me, Dalton?! There’s a hundred other girls here; try one of them.”

As much as you hated it, Charlie was right about one thing: You did have a difficult time meeting his gaze. Something about those eyes just made it frustratingly difficult for you to string the right words together. So instead, you scooped up your books and trudged back to your dorm, leaving him surrounded by mounds of paper that still needed to be dealt with.

It seemed that the more irate you became, the more Charlie couldn’t help but laugh. Whatever the reason was, you were not amused in the slightest. You were really about to snap, and dumb little pranks weren’t going to alleviate your feelings. As the day crawled to an end, you took a shower, ate a snack, and eventually decided on going to Maddie’s house for the weekend. You figured it would do you some good to hang out and relax rather than staying at school, and it wasn’t as though your parents cared anyway.

Madison lived close by, and her parents would always come pick her up if she wanted. They were happy to have you since they got along well with your family, so it worked out perfect anytime you needed to get away. By the time you got there and caught up with her family for a bit, it had grown dark outside. She was quiet for a while as she put her things away and meandered around aimlessly, obviously stalling for something she wanted to say.

“So,” she finally said, drawing out the “o” at the end. Your eyes flickered up from your book to see Maddie fighting a smile, her hip cocked with one hand placed on top of it. “I heard about your locker.”

Your jaw clenched. “Maddie, let me stop you right there. I do not want to talk about it. I do not want to think about it. And it was hardly a joke at all; it was just stupid. I had no idea he’d actually pull something so dumb.”

She let out a breathy laugh and picked up a book of her own, beginning to immerse herself in its contents after plopping onto her bed. “Right, so stupid. It's almost as stupid as putting a lizard in someone’s clothes.”

Your nails nearly tore the page you were pretending to read. “I asked you to drop it. I do not want to talk about that man child anymore this weekend.”

“Actually, you didn’t ask,” She hummed. “And it’s funny, since he’s all you’ve wanted to talk about for the past week.”

“Is not!” You wailed, dropping your book on the desk to look at her.

Maddie blinked at you owlishly, though she was plenty used to your antics by now. “(Y/n), I know how much you adore drama, but don’t you think you’re being a touch dramatic here? He probably just likes you.”

“Well, he has a horrible way of showing it.”

“He’s a teenage boy, (Y/n).”

“I don’t care. You all are gonna make me take up smoking.”

She pursed her lips, observing you for a moment. “Are you sure you don’t think he’s kind of cute..?”

You heard the skepticism in her voice. “... Absolutely not.”

She didn’t acknowledge the fact that you hesitated for a split second, she just smiled and went back to reading. “Whatever you say, princess. I’d say you match each other’s egotism.�� She paused for a second. “I was going to tell you something else, but now I forgot what it was.”

“Mm. That’s a shame; I would’ve really been interested to hear more of what you had to say,” You drawled, sarcasm dripping from your words.

She grinned. “Shut up, you-… Hold on, do you hear that?”

You glanced around. “What? It’s quiet.”

Maddie lived in a pretty wealthy neighborhood so everyone, including her parents, had turned in by half an hour ago. It stayed generally pretty mundane.

“Listen,” She said, walking to her window and moving the curtains. Both of you stilled as you strained to hear something, and sure enough, the sound of distant music met your ear.

“Is someone throwing a party?” You asked.

“Must be that girl across the street. I bet her parents are out for the weekend.”

“Hm. And where does she go again?”

Maddie shrugged. “One of the public high schools nearby, I suppose.”

“Whatever,” You sighed, standing up. “I guess I’m going to head over to the guest room and get some sleep.”

Maddie nodded. “Alright. Let me know if you need anything. I’ll be next door.”

“Thanks, Mads.”

Surprisingly, it didn’t take much for you to doze off once you’d gotten comfortable. Perhaps you were exhausting yourself worrying about nonsense. The unfortunate part was that you didn’t stay asleep for very long. About three hours went by before Maddie was shaking you awake again.

“Ugh,” You groaned in annoyance, shifting as your stirred awake. “Wha—at, Maddie? My beauty sleep-”

“Don’t you hear that? I haven’t been able to sleep forever!” She interjected.

Your eyes fluttered open as you listened. That’s when you finally processed how excessively loud the party music was playing from outside. Maddie was hardly visible in the darkness, but you could still make out the aggravated expression etched on her features.

Now you were pissed.

The absolute last thing you wanted to deal with was being woken up out of your sleep by some inconsiderate bunch of teenagers with nothing productive to do in their spare time.

“I’m surprised no one in the neighborhood has called the police on those kids or something,” She grumbled, folding her arms over her chest. “I guess none of them are as close to her house as we are.”

You kicked your legs over the side of the bed, weaving past the young girl and practically growling as you went digging around for some shoes.

“What are you doing?” Maddie quizzed, watching as you tugged some slippers onto your feet and started towards the door.

“I’m going to make sure they quiet down. Come on.”

She was quick to follow after that, not uttering a word as you padded down the stairs and out the front door. You were careful not to alert her parents of your exit, even though you knew they slept through everything anyway. Maddie almost had to jog to keep up with your pace.

As you made your way across the street, it became even more glaringly obvious where all the noise was coming from. The neighbor’s backyard was practically lit up like a rock concert. You didn’t even bother with the front door at that point and instead looped your way around the back of the house, straight for the source. You could hear Maddie faltering behind you.

“(Y/n), wait, if there are boys here, we can’t be in nightgowns! What are you even going to say? What if-!”

“Listen, I know you’re a ridiculously light sleeper, and this noise is just stupid, so I’m fixing it right now. Either follow me or don’t,” You snapped, not bothering to look in her direction.

She didn’t reply, but never stopped following you. You were on a war path, but the instant you rounded the corner, you came to a screeching halt, causing Maddie to smack into your backside.

“Ouch!” She yelped, stepping backward. “Why did you…” Maddie trailed off as she caught sight of what you were staring at—the very thing that had caused you to stop in your tracks.

“No. Way.”

Just as you suspected, there was a crowd of high school kids everywhere, some drinking, some smoking, and others dangling their feet in the large pool. You didn’t recognize any of them—none of them except two teenage boys standing by a large table of refreshments. One of them you knew as Knox Overstreet, and the other was Charlie Dalton himself, right there in the flesh, sipping on a cup of God-knows-what with his arm slung around a young brunette girl’s shoulders. They were preoccupied laughing at something Charlie had said, completely oblivious to your presence.

God, he looked just as arrogant as ever with that horrible smug look slapped across his face. To you, it looked like he thought he was getting somewhere with that girl.

You were initially shocked to see them both, but quickly shaped up when you remembered why you were standing there in the first place.

“That’s Mary, the girl that lives here. Is she with Charlie?” Maddie asked.

“Over my dead fucking body,” You mumbled, marching right towards where they stood. It only took a second for them to notice you approaching. The girl, Mary, seemed only bewildered by your clothing choice, while the two boys looked like they had suddenly seen a ghost.

You got about six feet away before stopping and jamming a finger in their direction. “I apologize, but this music is-!”

“What?” Mary yelled over the music. You could tell by her body language that she really wasn’t all that interested in what you had to say regardless. Like you were the one being a nuisance, not the other way around.

You gritted your teeth, glaring down at one of the radios that blasted on the table beside you. You all but ripped the knob off that damn machine trying to turn it off. At that point, nearly everyone had turned to look at the commotion you’d caused, but you truly couldn’t have cared less. The perplexed expression had melted off Charlie’s face, now seeming more impressed than anything. But what he was impressed by, you weren’t quite sure.

“I said,” You snarled, practically boring holes into the girl’s head. “I’m sorry, but music is over the top. I’m at my friend’s house across the street, and it’s clear as day through the walls. It’s late. We and everybody else in the neighborhood are really trying to sleep, and you’re being a bit inconsiderate with this. There is zero reason for it to be that loud all night.”

Your head snapped to Charlie when you heard his laugh, and it was all you could do not to tackle him, then it went back to the girl.

“Or maybe,” Mary said slowly, “You should try putting some clothes on before you decide to come stomp on everyone’s fun. I mean, seriously, are you a prostitute or something?” Her words were slurring together. Then she took a final swig from a glass bottle she held before tossing it in your direction.

You stepped back quickly, listening to her giggle as the bottle rolled along the grass and bounced off your foot. Charlie chose to step away from her at that point. Taunting “Ooo’s” came from the crowd of people, who were now fully engrossed as they moved closer to watch the show. You stood there stunned for a moment, in disbelief that someone had actually thrown a glass object at you. Sure, you could be catty sometimes, but you’d never done anything like that to a stranger.

“(Y/n)..?” Came Maddie’s meek voice. You could hear her take a few steps in your direction.

You ignored her and instead looked up at Mary again with a calm smile.

“Hey, alright, look, you can’t-” Charlie began to tell her, but you stopped him politely.

Her smugness seemed to diminish at your mellow reaction, which was quite the opposite of what everyone thought. She had clearly anticipated on you being angry.

But you were angry. You were literally shaking with anger. However, you opted not to express it right away. You weren’t going to give her the pleasure of seeing you scream or cry over her actions.

Still sporting your gentle expression, you sauntered around to the back of the refreshment table and stood there for a moment, all while maintaining eye contact with the young girl.

Mary furrowed her brows, almost ready to laugh at whatever you were doing, but just as she did, you reached out in a quick motion, and flipped the table completely over onto its side, emphasized by a deep ‘thud’ as it hit the ground.

Food went cascading in various directions, the radio rolled several times, and the punch bowl’s contents shot out so far that it covered almost all three of their shoes, causing Mary to shriek and jump backwards. You could tell she had some nice shoes on, too. Well, they were nice.

“Oops,” You sang, “My mistake.”

You could tell she was furious, but thankfully for her, she didn’t move to approach you.

“What in the hell is wrong with you?!” She screeched, face now glowing with anger.

“What’s wrong with me? It’s you, bitch. You’re what’s wrong.”

Noises of surprise and astonishment came from the other teenagers, some egging you on and others commenting on how unladylike you were. You didn’t care; you were ready to shove her in the pool if she tried something else. However, Maddie was there to snatch your hand and start tugging you in the opposite direction.

“(Y/n), let’s go,” She demanded.

You pulled your arm back, knocking her aside as you left all the laughter and commotion behind you. She was about to take out, but Charlie stopped her.

“Hey, head on home, I’ll handle it.”

Maddie sneered at him. “Are you kidding me? You? You think you’re going to help?”

“I’ve got it, I promise. She’ll be back at yours afterward,” He assured.

She sighed, and begrudgingly allowed him to go after you. It didn’t take him long to catch up, but he was confused to find you walking down the road rather than back toward Maddie’s house. You knew from the weight of the footsteps that it wasn’t Maddie behind you, but that didn’t concern you in the slightest. You were too busy fighting tears that threatened to swell in your eyes, the adrenaline making your emotions run rampant. You just wanted to walk and cool your head a little bit, and you were deaf to anything else going on around you.

“(Y/n)! Shit, I didn’t know you had that kind of fire, babe!” Charlie hollered, but when you didn’t stop or even slow down after a few more steps, he took the liberty of grabbing you by the shoulders and spinning you around to face him.

“(Y/N)! Where are you-“

“What?!” You yelled, not bothering to fight him as he held you. He let go when he saw the way you were looking at him, then opened his mouth to say something, but you immediately cut him off.

“What do you want with me? What did I even do to you?”

“What? I’m pretty sure you started this whole thing, not me. Besides, where are you even going?” Charlie laughed.

You glared. “Does it really matter? And what the hell is so funny? What are you so amused with all the goddamn time?!”

“You,” He stated dryly, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“Me?” You quizzed. “I’m is amusing? Is that why you embarrassed me in front of my friends the first day we met?”

He pulled back. “I wasn’t trying to embarrass you, I was trying to get your attention.”

“Well, congratulations, you’ve got it!” You ridiculed. “What are you even doing here? Did you sneak out with Knox to go to that stupid party? And who was that girl hanging all over you like that? She’s awful.”

A broad, playful smirk stretched across the boy’s cheeks. “Why do you care who she was?”

You straightened, placing a hand on your chest. “I don’t. I just don’t see why you have to throw yourself on every girl like that; it’s gross.”

He stepped forward with that ever-teasing look on his face. “Oh, but it was okay when you were rubbing Meeks’ shoulder at school?”

“I wasn’t ‘rubbing’ his shoulder!”

“Yeah, and I don’t actually ‘throw myself’ at women, either,” He shrugged. “I only talk a big game. I make jokes, it’s what I do.”

You tried to fight it, but it was useless. He just looked so attractive under the warm street lights, the wind making his hair all ruffled and messy. Your resentment diminished at the sight, and instead was replaced with a pang of jealousy. The reality was that you wanted Charlie’s arm around you instead. You needed it to be you, and not Mary or anybody else. The facade had finally lost its luster. Realization was now staring in the face: you had feelings for Charlie Dalton.

“Yeah, right, Dalton. That’s what I’d say too,” You uttered, demeanor now flat.

“It’s part of my charm,” He affirmed.

“Of course…”

Charlie was so easy to admire that it made you loath him for it. A thick silence hung between you both for a second.

“I wasn’t trying to make you that angry, for the record. I was just teasing. You’re absolutely gorgeous, and everyone at school wants your attention, so I was trying to make sure I kept it to myself for more than two seconds,” He mused, scuffing his shoe on the pavement. “Although you are pretty hot when you’re mad, so I’ll admit it was a little fun.”

Chills ran down your arms, eyes drifting to the ground bashfully. “You’re crazy, Charles Dalton.”

“Hm. Then I guess we have a lot in common,” He retorted.

“Really? You can’t be serious for two seconds?”

“You can’t loosen up for two seconds!”

You wheeled around, ready to walk away from the conversation and let your crush die with it, but Charlie grabbed you again. This time he wrapped one arm around your waist and pulled you dangerously close, using his other hand to firmly grasp your chin so you’d have to look at him.

You were about to reprimand him, tell him to unhand you and to go back to that other girl, but before you knew what was happening, he’d already leaned in and smushed his lips right up against yours.

A bolt of electricity ran through your body upon contact, and the words that died on your lips came out as a small moan of surprise. He was kissing you. You couldn’t believe it, Charlie was actually kissing you. A real kiss. The sharp scent of cologne and cigarettes invaded your nose, overwhelming your senses. It took a moment for your brain to process the situation, but when it did, you relaxed against him, instinctively letting your eyes close and snaking your arms around his neck. You felt him smile against you as you pulled him flush to your body. It was sweet, meaningful. Your heart thumped wildly in your chest, making you slightly lightheaded.

Oh, you were so screwed.

You had no foggy idea what came over you, but you didn’t have to think twice about it. You began running your fingers through his chocolate locs of hair, nails grazing his scalp ever so slightly in a way that had him sighing against you. He ran his hand to the back of your neck began moving his lips feverishly with your own. You could taste whatever fruity substance he’d been sipping on earlier, but it was heaven. The way he kissed you caused your tongues to brush together a few times, and your stomach flipped each time it happened.

All the built-up tension you’d acquired over the past week was completely released in those few moments as his hands moved up and down your torso. You were fully content to stay like that for the rest of the night, but of course, it was over all too soon.

“Hey, Dalton! Why can't we leave you alone for five minutes, man?” Knox’s voice made you jump away from Charlie, ears warm from being caught.

You weren’t exactly being discreet about it by making out in the middle of the street, but you were still surprised and suddenly much more aware of the fact that you were in nothing but a nightgown.

“Hey, Carpe Diem, man!” Charlie called back to him from down the street, sporting a grin that was probably less than trustworthy.

He continued when all he got was silence in return, “Hold on a second; I’ll be right there, I swear!”

Knox rolled his eyes, turning back toward the house. “Make it quick; we’ve gotta get back before someone misses us!”

Charlie gave his friend a thumbs up, then turned back just as you shivered from a gust of cool night air. Without missing a beat, he peeled off his jacket and placed it over your shoulders, shooting you a goofy smile.

You pulled it around you while shaking your head, then leaned in to kiss him on the cheek, and watched as youthful excitement erupted on his face.

“So you were staring at me that day.”

“Mmm, let’s not push it, Dalton. You’ve been having way too much fun this week,” You warned, stifling a smile.

“Neil owes me a dollar.”

Eyeing the wet grass for a moment, you thought carefully about what you wanted to say next, but it proved difficult to come back down from the high that kiss had put you on.

“You know… I really am sorry about everything that happened,” You said ashamedly.

Charlie’s silence urged you to continue.

“You… I like you, truthfully. And I’ve never really been interested in a boy like this before. When you called me out that day in the library, it sort of hurt my pride a little bit for everyone to see how flustered I got.” Your breathing trembled. "And… I don't know, I guess I just panicked when I realized I couldn’t be cool in front of you."

It felt foreign to open up like that. Showing soft emotions was just not your forte. You were always taught to suck it up and keep going; you were to cry about things in private and smile like a lady in public. But fortunately, Charlie didn’t care about that, and he listened to you ramble with perfect patience. You couldn’t tell if you wanted to cry or throw up at that point, but you were glad you got it out.

“That’s what all this was about?”

You nodded.

“(Y/n)… You need to stop worrying so much about what everyone else thinks. I was sure you just hated me by this point.”

“Charlie, I can’t help it. I’ve worked hard all my life trying to impress everyone,” You defended, feeling a twinge of sadness as you thought back to your parents.

“Well, whether you believe me or not, I would never want you to feel like you had to earn my acceptance. Never.” He gave you a sympathetic look. “And please trust me when I tell you it’s not worth trying to be whatever your family expects you to be. You’re better than whatever they have in their head for you.”

You nodded, and he smiled. A genuine smile, not that patronizing smirk.

“I could’ve approached you so much better than I did, and it was immature to keep antagonizing you like that. I’m sorry, (Y/n).”

You shook your head. “No, I should’ve controlled my temper. You and that poor lizard didn’t deserve it either. And now I need to go apologize to Maddie for the feud her family is going to have with the neighbors for the rest of their life.”

He grimaced. “Eh, they sort of had it coming, if you ask me. I should’ve known you could handle yourself just fine.”

“Don’t encourage me,” You hummed in amusement, watching the trees sway in the breeze.

“Man. Nobody gets the last word with you, do they?” He said through chuckles. “Honestly… What you did was pretty funny. And you were right; the music was obnoxious. It was giving me a headache. Also, let it be known that none of this was my idea, by the way; Knox dragged me here.”

You smiled back at him half-heartedly. “Yeah, I’m never going to hear the end of it… Not that I necessarily deserve mercy.”

“Well, regardless of how it started out, I hope it can continue.” Charlie took your hand, kissing your knuckles just as he’d done before, mumbling against your skin, “If I had known all it took to get on your good side was to stick my tongue in your mouth, I would’ve done it a while ago.”

You took your hand away and whacked his shoulder gently. “Shut it.”

You didn’t have to look at him to know he was grinning from ear to ear.

“I’ll see you Monday! And I’ll have to properly introduce you to my friends,” He joked, walking backward toward the direction Knox had disappeared in. “They all think you’re pretty, but they’re also scared of you, so you have to sit by me.”

“Wait! Do you want your coat back?”

“Nah, I’ll get it Monday, and I’ll get you your lock back, too,” He laughed. “And next time we’ll have to do this at my place, babe!”

You rolled your eyes. “Only if you wear the nightgown next time, Charles.”

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redsummermoon · 1 month

Text

Pretend?

Charlie Dalton x reader

CW: female reader, use of Y/N, making out, Knox and Chris, slight underage drinking

[2.7k words]

“You guys gotta help me! It’s an emergency!” Knox burst into Charlie’s dorm room, breathless and frantic. He barely noticed the way Charlie and Y/N were laughing over some inside joke, their textbooks abandoned on the desk. He knew Y/N would be there; she always was.

Charlie looked up, his eyes narrowing with a mix of curiosity and concern. “Whoa, slow down, Overstreet. What’s the crisis?”

Y/N’s smile faded into a slight frown as she turned to Knox. “What happened, Knox? Are you okay?”

Knox took a deep breath, knowing this was a long shot but feeling like he had no other choice. “I need you two to fake date each other,” he said in one breath.

Y/N blinked, her frown deepening as she tried to process what Knox had just said. “Wait, what?”

Knox pressed on before he could lose his nerve. “Chris thinks we have something going on. You know how we flirted at one of her parties so I could make her jealous? Well now she thinks you and I are a thing, Y/N, and I need her to know that we’re not. Because you’re with someone else.” Knox took a breath. “I don’t care if it's Charlie you fake date. Hell, I can ask Cameron if you want.”

Y/N gasped at the thought of even fake dating Cameron, “Do you really think so low of me?”

Charlie raised his eyebrows, curious to see how Knox could get out of the grave he's digging for himself.

“No, I don’t. I promise,” Knox whined. “I’m just a guy in love making stupid decisions. So please, help me out, would you?”

Y/N opened her mouth to tell him he’s out of his mind, but before she could get a word out, Charlie’s lips curled into a mischievous grin. “You know what? We’ll do it,” he said, cutting her off, his tone filled with a teasing edge. He shot Y/N a wink, his eyes sparkling with amusement.

Y/N’s initial shock faded as she caught on to Charlie’s playful mood. A slow grin (and a lot of blush) spread across her face as she realized this could be a lot more fun than she’d initially thought. “Alright, yeah,” she agreed, turning to Knox with a smile. “We’ll help you out.”

Knox’s shoulders slumped in relief. “You two are the best,” he said, though he couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something he was missing in this whole arrangement.

“Not so fast,” Charlie said. “Our fake relationship comes with a price.”

And there it was, Knox thought, the missing piece. “Alright, what?”

“We each get a request. Only fair because this is Y/N’s second time helping your sorry ass out,” Charlie said.

Knox looked at his shoes, as if contemplating, however everyone knew he would do anything for a chance that Chris even looks at him. “Fine, but you have to decide now what you want.”

Y/N and Charlie looked at eachother and high fived. “Score!” Y/N cheered.

“Alright, I want folded laundry for a month,” Charlie requested.

“A week,” Knox retorted.

“Two weeks and I’ll give you a pick-up line pep talk.” Charlie shot a wink towards Y/N. “Angels should be in heaven. How'd you escape?”

Y/N giggled and put her head in her hands to stop them from seeing her face blush. It wasn’t even that good of a line, but it was Charlie delivering it.

This got Knox to reply quickly. “Deal. And for you?”

“Hmm. Twenty dollars so Charlie can take me out,” she responds.

“Done and done.”

Charlie pauses to argue, “Hey wait, how come you didn’t negotiate with her? Twenty bucks for one date? That’s so much!”

“Can it Charlie, he already agreed,” Y/N hushed. “And aren’t I worth an expensive date?”

“You know that's not what I meant,” Charlie pleaded.

“She’s worth more than you and has helped me out multiple times,” Knox explained.

“Fair enough,” Charlie shrugs. “Okay, so. How is this gonna work?”

“Well…” Knox starts.

The plan was simple: Knox and Y/N were both invited to one of Chris’s parties as usual, and this time, they invited Charlie to tag along. The idea was that Chris would see Y/N with Charlie and realize Knox was available, and maybe, just maybe, Chris would stop thinking there was something going on between Knox and Y/N and then make a move on Knox.

The night of the party, Knox was a nervous wreck. Charlie tried to help calm his nerves when he gave his Flirting 101 Pep Talk, but Knox still felt a knot in his stomach as they arrived at Chris’s place, a large, bustling house filled with students and the sound of music booming from the speakers. Y/N and Charlie walked in together, Charlie's arm slung casually over Y/N's shoulder, their smiles easy and relaxed. Knox followed close behind, trying to keep his cool.

Chris greeted them at the door with a smile, but her eyes quickly darted to Y/N and Charlie’s closeness, then finally to Knox.

“Hey guys. Come on in,” Chris welcomed the group. For a moment, her face hardened with suspicion, looking mildly uncomfortable.

“Chris, hi!” Y/N called. She moved to give Chris a hug, but Chris deflected, moving to let them all inside.

“Well you all know where the drinks are. See you around.” Chris ran off into the party, leaving the three friends in the foyer of Chris’s massive house.

“What did you do, Overstreet?” Charlie asked, turning to Knox.

“What do you mean, me?” Knox said with his hands up. “It was obviously Y/N she’s mad at.”

“Yeah, I didn’t like that at all. We were really starting to be close friends too.” Y/N hugged herself, feeling shame for something she didn’t understand.

“Hey, we’ll figure it out.” Charlie reached out to rub Y/N’s arms. “It’ll be okay, angel.”

“Let’s just get to the party to carry out Knox’s plan.”

“Right, let's loosen up.”

As they made their way through the crowd, Y/N and Charlie naturally gravitated toward each other, their banter flowing easily as they exchanged inside jokes. Knox couldn’t help but notice how well they got along. Better than most fake couples he’d ever seen (which was zero). They sat down on a couch in the corner of the room, and Knox awkwardly squeezed in between them.

Chris hovered nearby, her eyes darting between Knox and Y/N before she excused herself to grab drinks. Y/N and Charlie, noticing this, looked at each other and then at Knox’s sad face.

“You know what, Y/N and I will get us something to drink,” Charlie said, standing up. He offered Y/N his hand, which she accepted.

“Yeah, you just.. save us this spot, okay?” Y/N offered.

They received a groan in response, so they made their way to the make-shift bar.

Charlie got to the bar first and started grabbing multiple different bottles and cups at once.

“Careful with that, Dalton,” Y/N teased as Charlie attempted to pour them both a drink. “You might spill it all over yourself.”

Charlie smirked, deliberately overfilling his cup. “Maybe I just need someone to clean me up,” he quipped, leaning a little closer.

Y/N laughed, shaking her head as she reached for her drink. “You’re impossible.”

“And yet, you’re still here,” Charlie shot back, his tone light but his gaze intense. He brushed a stray strand of her hair behind her ear, his fingers lingering a moment longer than necessary.

Y/N’s heart skipped a beat, and she playfully nudged him. “Don’t get too full of yourself, Dalton.”

Just as Charlie was about to retort, Chris appeared beside them, her expression unreadable. “Hey, Y/N, can I talk to you for a second?”

Y/N glanced at Charlie, who gave her a small, encouraging nod, before turning back to Chris. “Sure, what’s up?”

Chris crossed her arms, her voice edged with frustration. “It’s not fair, you know. How you’re treating Knox. Last party, you two were all over each other, and now you’re with Charlie? What’s going on?”

Y/N sighed, realizing how things might have looked from the outside. “Chris, it was just for fun. There’s nothing between Knox and me. We were just trying to have a good time. I’m with Charlie now.”

Chris looked between Y/N and Charlie, processing this new information. “So, Knox is single?”

Y/N nodded, trying to keep her voice gentle. “Yeah, he is. I didn’t mean to lead him on or anything. He’s just a friend.”

Chris’s shoulders relaxed slightly as if a weight had been lifted. “Okay. I just.. I wanted to look out for him, you know?”

Y/N offered her a reassuring smile. “I get it. But seriously, there’s nothing going on with Knox and me.” Chris looked down, bashfully. “If you like him, you should talk to him.”

Chris nodded thoughtfully. “We’ll see. Thanks, Y/N.”

Chris left quickly, leaving the two of them to watch her go.

“Do you think that solved it?” Charlie asked.

Y/N kept her eyes on Chris. “Well, she’s heading upstairs instead of to Knox or at least the party.”

“I don’t know if that's a good sign or not.” Charlie rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m starting to think that Knox’s plan isn’t going to work.”

“Well, I don’t want to upset Knox, so I think we should stick to our plan and be by his side in case things go sideways for him.” Y/N picked up her drink and took a sip. “Here, get him a drink and we’ll go back.”

“Yes ma’am,” Charlie saluted and grabbed a beer for himself and a mixed drink for Knox. They both made their way back to where Knox was seated.

“Here you go,” Charlie said, putting a drink in Knox’s hand. “Made your favorite.”

Charlie sat down next to Knox, and instead of Y/N sitting on Knox’s other side, she sat on Charlie’s lap.

“Oh, hello.” A smile spread across Charlie’s face as he situated himself for Y/N. She sent a smirk back.

Knox leaned in toward the two of them, lowering his voice so no one else could hear. “It’s not working,” he hissed. “She’s still ignoring me.”

Charlie rolled his eyes, an exasperated sigh escaping his lips. “Knox, you can’t think it's that easy. Even if she knows Y/N and I are together, she might want to take her time with you. Relationships aren’t that simple.”

Knox frowned, his frustration bubbling to the surface. “Then what do you suggest? Because it looks like you’re just sitting there talking, and she’s still convinced Y/N and I are a thing!”

Y/N, who had just about enough of Knox’s bullshit and bad flirting ideas, finally spoke up, her voice tinged with irritation. “Maybe the problem isn’t us, Knox. Maybe you just don’t know how to talk to her.”

Knox opened his mouth to protest, but Y/N wasn’t finished. She turned to Charlie with a determined glint in her eye. “You want to see what a real relationship looks like?”

Before Knox could respond, Y/N leaned in close to Charlie, her hand gently cupping his cheek as she whispered, “Let’s give him something to believe in.”

Charlie’s eyes widened slightly in surprise, but a slow, confident grin spread across his face as he caught on to what Y/N was planning. “As you wish,” he murmured, his voice low and playful.

Without another word, Y/N closed the distance between them, her lips meeting Charlie’s in a kiss that was anything but fake. It was slow and deliberate, filled with an intensity that took both of them by surprise. Charlie responded immediately, his arms wrapping around her waist as he pulled her closer, deepening the kiss. They could feel the electricity between them, a chemistry that neither had fully acknowledged until now.

Knox stared at them in shock, his jaw dropping as he watched his friends completely lose themselves in the moment. He could barely comprehend what he was seeing. Their kiss was so convincing, so real, that he almost believed they were a couple.

As the kiss stretched on, Chris reappeared with slightly more makeup on and a new shirt, her eyes widening as she took in the sight of Y/N and Charlie locked in a passionate embrace. She turned to Knox, her expression a mix of confusion and curiosity. “Knox, can we talk for a minute?” she asked, her voice soft.

Knox snapped out of his stupor, nodding quickly as he stood up. “Uh, yeah, sure,” he said, casting one last glance at the kissing couple before taking out a twenty dollar bill and leaving it on the table nearby.

“Let’s leave those two lovebirds alone,” Chris said with a small smile, taking Knox by the hand and leading him away.

Once Chris and Knox were out of sight, Y/N and Charlie finally pulled apart, their breathing heavy, their faces flushed. They looked at each other for a moment, a mixture of surprise and amusement dancing in their eyes. And then, simultaneously, they both burst into laughter, the sound echoing through the room.

“That was..” Y/N started, but she couldn’t stop giggling long enough to finish her sentence.

“Amazing?” Charlie offered, his grin wide and unrestrained.

Y/N nodded. “Yeah, amazing.”

Little did Knox know, Y/N and Charlie had been secretly dating the entire time. Their relationship had started out quietly, both of them preferring to keep things low-key, but tonight had changed everything. There was no fooling anyone about their status anymore, not after that kiss.

“So, what now?” Y/N asked, her voice softening as the laughter died down.

Charlie leaned in closer, his forehead resting gently against hers. “Now, we stop pretending,” he said, his voice tender but firm. “No more hiding. No more fake relationships. Just us.”

Y/N smiled, her heart swelling with happiness as she nodded. “Just us.”

“So how about I take my best girl out on a date she deserves,” Charlie says, picking up the twenty dollars as Y/N’s reward.

Y/N laughed, “I don’t know, Charlie. Someone told me that was too much for a date.”

“Yeah, well, that was before the hottest make out of his life.” Charlie winked and stood up. “I think my baby could use some pampering.” “Well if you insist.” Charlie bent over and picked up Y/N as she squealed in excitement. He gave her a quick kiss before starting to make his way through the party to leave.

“Well, I’m glad to be out of a fake relationship and into a real one. With the same person, if I might add. Gets a little confusing, don’t you think?” They were approaching the front door and finally getting outside.

“I think I’m more happy to be done flirting with Knox,” Y/N shuttered. “Do you think your pickup lines helped him at all?”

Charlie stopped walking and stared straight ahead. “Well, either that or you talked some sense into Chris to finally talk to Knox. Look.” Charlie tilted his head forward, pointedly.

There stood Knox and Chris sharing a kiss (really getting at it for a first kiss too).

“Awe. Charlie, I think we did that.” Y/N hugged Charlie tighter, pushing their heads together. Charlie slowly set her down, keeping her wrapped up in his arms.

“No, baby, I know we did that. We’re gonna have to make speeches at their wedding about tonight. They’re gonna have to repay us by naming their kids after us.”

Y/N laughed, turning to Charlie. “I hope Charlie’s a girl then.”

Charlie rolled his eyes. “Well, as long as she’s beautiful. Gotta live up to the name, if you know what I mean.”

“Oh I do know. You are quite beautiful Charlie,” Y/N said, looking at Charlie as if he was the only thing in the universe.

Charlie blushed. “You know I could never compare to you.”

“I love you, Charlie.” “I love you too, angel.”

They both leaned in for a kiss, this one slow and tender, a stark contrast to the heated exchange they’d shared earlier. It was gentle, filled with warmth and affection, a moment that spoke of love more than anything else.

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