DRESS || ( charlie dalton )

xviii. of grief and persevering love

˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊·̩̩̥͙

DRESS
(( — DEAD POETS SOCIETY — ))

—chapter xviii. of grief and persevering love

tw: mention of suicide and grief

LORAINE WASN'T allowed to go back to her room all day. nolan refused to let her out of his sight. even if thomas swore, in her place, that she hadn't planned to jump out of the window

nolan didn't believe him. loraine didn't say another word, not having the strength to discuss anything. and ultimately she didn't care if she was sitting in her fathers office or on her bed.

she later stayed the night in thomas room, her brother having to promise their father not to let her out of his sight. thomas nodded and repeated that he would take care of her, considering that nolan had enough to do already, making calls and arranging the schools own funeral and church service for neil.

thomas didn't want loraine sitting in the room where nolan was arranging a funeral.

it had been set for the next morning. and even though thomas did not believe that loraine truly tried to jump, he still thought it would be better to not leave her alone right now.

knox had shown up at his door in the evening, asking about loraine and thomas realized that more than just a few people had witnessed the window debacle and had spread a story of their own.

knox had also told him about charlie's state, after thomas had to swear to not mention it to anyone.

to knox' luck thomas was lenient considering what had happened these past few hours and he did not tell his father, thanks to knox giving him the alcohol.

he had assured knox, that loraine was alright. at least physically and even let him in, so he could check for himself. he had sat at loraine's bedside for half an hour, talking in a soft whisper.

thomas knew that loraine had great friends. but they really were great after all.

he had thought that he had had great friends too, but the moment that it mattered and life got hard, they had turned their back on him. even though he had only been sixteen at the time and really needed them.

loraine's friends on the other hand, seemed to be there even more during the hard times. especially neil.

thomas knew why loraine was taking all this so hard. not only was neil her best and longest friend, but he was also the person she most wanted to talk to when something awful happened.

now, something awful had happened to neil.

thomas felt like he had failed his role as a brother. he couldn't mend her pain and somehow he felt like he was also in some sense neil's brother. that was what knowing someone since their birth did to you.

knox kissed loraine's forehead, before he got up from the chair. he patted thomas' shoulder as he was leaving.

thomas caught knox' eyes, and for the first time he realized how unfair it was that someone who was still a kid, did already have to mourn his friends death. a friend that was still a kid himself

thomas closed the door behind knox and sat on the bed. he took loraine's hand. "i'm so sorry" he said "i'm not sure if i even said that yet"

loraine tried to smile and she nodded "thank you"

"he will be dearly missed"

"i know" her voice broke but she was able to hold back her tears. "welton actually felt like my home" she mumbled. thomas squeezed her hand. "now it's just a school full of boys"