rich man's world; charlie dalton

[thirteen] richard cameron

Charlie's hand shook as Neil put the phone in his hands and aggressively pressed Mrs. Dalton's phone number, nearly permanently sinking the dials down and bending his finger so inhumanly they looked boneless.

Charlie had no idea what the phone call was for but he waited with the phone pressed up to his ear and got the notepad on top of the telephone to start doodling because he figured he'd take a long time with all the quarters Neil forked out of his pocket for him.

"Hello! Dalton residence, Theresa speaking. With whom do I have the pleasure of chatting with today?"

Richard got out of his room, taking a cigarette out from a sweater Charlie had hung up on a handle. He walked out as Charlie licked his lips nervously and looked over at Neil, "Hi mom, it's me, Charlie."

Theresa picked up the phone from where it was on the table and walked over to the kitchen island, setting the phone back down and sitting cross-legged on the kitchen stool. She took her wine glass in her other hand and took a long sip, swishing it around a couple times before responding, "Charlie! I wasn't expecting your call, how are things going with school?"

Richard walked through the door and looked at Sigrid with a regretful expression, she was hidden back under her blankets and the room was uncomfortably silent. He put a small apologetic smile on his face when Sigrid turned to the noise, she sighed and put the blanket over her face when she realized it was him.

"My mom came to visit me earlier, she brought a bin of cupcakes. My birthdays tomorrow but no one's really cared much sense...you know," Richard looked her over then focused his attention down to his lap. "I was gonna have a little get together, it's been planned for a while. Do...do you want a cupcake?"

Sigrid didn't answer and he sighed, "I know it's probably not a good time right now. But," he pursed his lips to prevent a small chuckle, "A cupcake wouldn't hurt anybody."

She responded to that, peeved. "Do you mean that in a comforting way or in a 'ha ha Mrs Dalton whooped you to Mars' type of way?"

"Comforting? I'm not good at this," he pinched the fabric of his pants before flattening it down. "So, do you want one? They're vanilla with strawberry frosting and sprinkles."

"Sprinkles?" A small smile came across her face as she watched one of his own begin to form.

"What can I say? She knows I love sprinkles."

Charlie told Neil to go away, Neil squinted. "You better go see what she did to Sigrid once you end that call, or I'm killing your whole family tree."

Charlie nodded, ashamed. Neil had difficulty leaving Charlie alone with the phone and his mother on the other line but then he decided to walk to Sigrid and Knox's door. Todd walked out and grabbed Neil by the hand to walk back to their dorm. "Anderson, I wanted to see how she was doing."

"It's nice to see she's scarfing down some cupcakes."

"You told me you liked her, I just wanted to seal the deal for you."

"I know, I know I did," he put his hand over his forehead in desperation. "Mom, what did you do to Sigrid?"

"You already know."

He wanted to hit the wall but instead he smiled passive aggressively while letting his next words spill on from his mouth through his teeth, "So you hit her?"

"It's not like I despise her."

"Mom!" he almost screamed, "She did nothing wrong, sure we ditched but I went along and if you're hitting her with another intention I suggest you apologize and leave us alone because I decided to follow along. It was my decision as much as hers. Hitting her was uncalled for, you know that. And if you didn't, I think I don't know you anymore."