rich man's world; charlie dalton

[eight] by definition

It was that time of the night when everyone was tired but didn't want to go to their dorm rooms because curfew allowed them to talk for a while. Knox was back from the Danburry's with a new obnoxious crush on a girl he'd only known for a couple hours, and Sigrid laughed when he mentioned she was practically engaged to Chet Danburry.

Neil and Todd weren't talking to each other as Charlie, Knox, Sigrid, and Gerard went into depth about what happened at the Danburry's. Sigrid felt bad for him, it wasn't everyday you thought you met the love of your life but they were already spoken for. At least when she got uncalled for crushes on people they were single.

She lounged on the couch as he practically cried about his problems, the boys found it humorous at first but as time went by and Knox still rambled, they realized he was being serious.

Sigrid asked Charlie for a piece of gum, he took the pack out of his pocket absentmindedly as he continued to look at Knox, a little glimmer of fascination behind his eyes as Knox unknowingly described Chris like she was a goddess.

"And so...we were having dinner as she was just on the other side of the table passing the food around and giggling at Mr. Danburry's jokes. God, she was just there and I was just on the other side hoping, begging for her to pay attention," he licked his lips before looking in Charlie's direction. Sigrid was taking the pack out of her hands and popping a gum stick in her mouth, she gave it back, he dumbly put it back in his pocket.

"She looked at me...and I remember smiling like some lunatic because I didn't know what to do. I probably looked like some madman, Sigr, what do I do? I'll see her again at some point and I have to be prepared."

Sigrid straightened herself on the couch, caught off guard by Knox's plea for help. She cleared her throat awkwardly before looking down at her now twiddling fingers, "Well, Knox," she looked up quickly, "As a girl I could tell you that a lot of times we don't understand why a boy likes us."

Charlie turned to her in curiosity, Gerard pulled his seat closer, she laughed nervously as one of her eyebrows twitched upward in thought. "You guys might think you're being painfully obvious but sometimes it's really hard to understand what's going on in someone else's head. It's like...when you like us we don't notice and when we like you you don't even bat an eye. Do you really want to get into this?"

"Sigr, I really want to know. What am I doing wrong?" his eyebrows furrowed before he reached out to grab her hand, she tensed up slightly before looking up.

Richard and Steven were now listening to the conversation as well, she felt all eyes on her and even millisecond passing made it feel like the room was caving in. She almost hyperventilated but she laughed it off, "Well, for starters you messed up on the part where you didn't take into account that she was spoken for."

Charlie and Gerard laughed through their noses before Knox slapped their arms for them to shut up. "And," she licked her lips and started cursing in her head. She wanted to stop talking, "the second thing you did wrong was look at her the entire night instead of talking to her. I know you were only there for dinner and Chet was there...I get that maybe in the moment you weren't compelled by your persistence to talk to her. I get it, it's scary. But maybe something other than a hello could've got her to start thinking about you a little more."

He was silent, she looked back worriedly.

"But what if I said something dumb?"

"It'll be more memorable, maybe it's a good thing. She thinks of you and she smiles. You can't lose."

"But what if he ended up saying something mean?" Charlie butted in.

"Dalton, you sure know a lot about that," Gerard coughed out, causing the boys behind him to laugh, Charlie shot him a glare.