EVERMORE | DEAD POETS SOCIETY

TWENTY-SEVEN!

*June 4th, 1960*

THE SUN PEEKED THROUGH THE WINDOWS AS REBETTA'S EYES FLUTTERED OPEN. She didn't wake up at all since her nightmare that she had last night. It was also the most comfortable sleep she had in months. She glanced over to Charlie, who was still fast asleep. He held onto her tightly, scared that she was going to get hurt.

She slowly wiggled out of his grasp and made her way downstairs. She knew she couldn't just swallow her feelings for Charlie anymore. She liked him. The way that she liked Neil. She felt comfortable, almost safe around him. Rebetta just worried about their friendship, that maybe if this were to go anywhere it would wreck their friendship. She had already lost Neil. She couldn't imagine losing Charlie too.

She made her way downstairs and grabbed one of her poetry books that she brought along on the trip. It was a poetry book she had kept in her bookbag for the longest time, but it had been awhile since she had read it.

Rebetta hurried outside with the book in her hand and sat on the dock that was right by the house. Her small legs dangled from the edge and the sun beamed off the water so perfectly.

Rebetta slowly opened up the book and looked down at the page. The page that he read at every meeting. If she just read it, maybe it wouldn't hurt so bad. She took a deep breath in before starting.

"I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately," She spoke softly, almost a whisper. "I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life. To put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I had come to die, discover I had not lived."

She had realized she had read the whole thing without getting quite emotional. She felt relieved. She hadn't heard those words in months and it had been a long time since she spoke them. She decided then that she would read some more poetry to herself as she enjoyed the beautiful sunshine that beamed upon her.

The poems really stuck with her because she was losing track of time. By the time that Charlie woke up, he was quite disappointed that Betta wasn't still in bed with him. He heard some commotion from outside. Charlie sat up and stretched before getting up to check what it was. He smiled when he saw Rebetta, laying down and dramatically reading a poem. He didn't expect anything less from her.

He quickly zipped outside, trying his best not to scare her. She caught him in the distance and smiled, putting down her book. "Hi silly, I thought you were going to be sleeping for the whole day." She joked.

"No, I missed you too much." He joked, laying beside her. She rolled her eyes and turned to him. "Are you alright?"

"I'm horrible." She responded.

"The truth now."

"Amazing." She whispered. "I have no idea what magic you have, but I was so peaceful after I fell back asleep. Felt secure... safe."

Charlie's smile widened as he looked at her. He just stared at her and admired her beauty, who she was as a person and what she had gone through. Rebetta smiled back, admiring Charlie. Maybe there were some beautiful things in life to look forward to. The beauty, the romance that Mr. Keating had talked about a long time ago.

Charlie grabbed a loose strand of Rebetta's hair and tucked it underneath her ear. For some reason, she didn't panic. She didn't think about Neil, or that night. She thought about Charlie and her. How safe Charlie Dalton made her feel. The way he cared about her more than anyone else in the whole entire world.

He glanced down at her lips and back up to her pretty ol brown eyes. He couldn't help himself but he placed a slow, but soft kiss against her lips. Rebetta was stunned. She didn't know how to react. Moments later, Charlie pulled away. He couldn't believe he did that.