charlie dalton 𝒙 reader

viii. TO INDEED BE A GOD

CHAPTER EIGHT!
( TO INDEED BE A GOD. )

   LATER THAT DAY you sat alone on the riverbank, watching the boys on the rowing team. Girls' rowing practice was tomorrow, which you were forced to participate in. You hated rowing, but since Mr. Nolan assigned extracurriculars at Welton, you never had much of a choice. You noticed Todd sitting alone as well, looking wistfully at the river with a book in hand. You decided to walk over to him and finally, try to have a real conversation with the boy.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" you asked him with a smile.

"Oh- no," he said quietly.

You took a seat and remained silent for a few minutes, you finally broke the awkward silence by pointing to his book cover.

"Hamlet?"

"Yeah, I uh- I got it from the library," Todd explained.

"I didn't know you were actually into poetry."

"Well, I read it sometimes. I just like the feeling of it."

"You should read something out loud at the next Dead Poets Society meeting. I know you're not really into the whole public speaking thing, and honestly, neither am I, but you should try it at least once. No one will judge you, I mean did you see Charlie's? You really can't get more adventurous than that," you said. His eyes were still trained on the boys rowing across the river.

"I don't want to read, I'm just not the type of person who does that."

"You could be. You don't have to though, I don't want to pressure you."

Todd finally turned towards you and smiled softly, "I just don't know what I'm gonna do on Monday," he said dismally.

"Oh! I forgot about that assignment. Just write something short and sweet. You can get it over with quickly."

Todd just shrugged and looked back at the rushing water somewhat sadly. You wished that you could see what was going on inside his head, he was so reserved. You wondered if he was born like that, or if some external force caused him to be so timid. You opened your book titled Wuthering Heights and sat wordlessly with Todd until rowing practice was over. You tried to focus on the words on the page, but every few sentences your eyes wandered up to a brunet boy in the boat. You finally gave in when you saw that Charlie was telling off Cameron for something stupid he must've said, and you couldn't help but smile at the scene. You prayed that Todd hadn't noticed you staring at Charlie. You really wished you could just forget about Charlie but for some reason, you kept looking back at him.

❦

The next day at rowing you had gotten all wet since the girl in front of you, Elizabeth Harris, apparently still didn't know how to paddle properly and kept splashing you. Despite her good grades, the girl couldn't play sports to save her life, and her utter carelessness towards the people around her didn't help your situation.