Chapter Text
The turnout of the study group was considerably small today. Cameron sat alone at the table with his head down, eyes glued to a maths copybook. While Neil sat splayed out on the armchair, Todd perched on the arm feeding him lines, trying to be as quiet as possible as not to disturb the natural order of the library. The rest of the poets were taking an exam for an elective. Despite his annoyance Cameron missed having them there, Neil and Todd were off in their own little world as always, and it was always nice to listen to the others’ chatter while he studied.
At the sound of footsteps, Cameron didn't even need to look up to know it was Charlie Dalton. He always thought Charlie was the type of person whose presence would always completely shift the atmosphere of the room, not even the tiniest movement of his would go unnoticed. He almost had his walking pattern memorized, even that caught his interest. There was something that just drew people towards him.
Neil tore his eyes away from Todd to look up at him “I thought you were doing the exam with the others,” he greeted.
“Charlie doesn't take that elective,” Cameron spoke without looking up, tapping his pencil against the table in thought.
“How do you know that?”
“I notice when you're not here,” he shrugged.
“Neil doesn't,”
“Then integrate him not me,”
“Oh but I love you more,” Charlie reached out and ruffled his hair, Cameron flailed his arms in an attempt to bat him away. Cameron simply laughed as he took his hand away, secretly admiring how Cameron looked with his hair all messed up.
“Rude,” Neil complained.
“Can't I have favorites? You have your whole… thing, with Todd don't you?”
Todd glanced up from Neil’s script at the sound of this name, “What's that supposed to mean?”
“Oh nothing,” He chirped. Todd looked over at Neil expectantly.
“Where were you anyway?” Neil continued, to Neil's dismay, entirely unbothered by Charlie’s comment.
“Detention, got caught skipping math again,”
“You're going to fail that class if you keep doing this,” Neil shook his head disapprovingly.
“I'm awful at math, I'm going to fail anyway,” He threw the comment away casually and sat back on the table in front of Cameron.
“Charlie get off the table!”
“There's no chairs left, Where else am I supposed to sit?” He batted his eyelashes at him with faux innocence before snatching the copybook. He laid back on the table and held the book above his head to read it.
“Drag one over from another table– gimme that,” Cameron tried to grab the book from his hands but Charlie stood up and pulled away at the last second, continuing to read as he celebrated his triumph.
“What kind of ancient hieroglyphics is this?”
“It's basic trigonometry, you'd know if you actually showed up to class,” He managed to get the book from his hands, sat back down, and smoothed out the slightly crumpled pages with his hands.
“Nothing that's said in that class actually means anything, I'm convinced she makes half of it up on the spot,”
“Come on, this stuff is easy,”
“Well if it's so simple why don't you explain it,”
“You never take me seriously– there's no point,”
Charlie grabs the back of Cameron's chair and pulls it back so he could lean into his ear. “I’m sorry, I just got so distracted by your pretty little voice” he whispered.
Cameron turned his head to look at him in disbelief only to find Charlie looking deeply into his eyes like he meant it. “W-what?” he stammered.
Charlie dropped the chair suddenly, breaking his straight face and bursting into laughter. Cameron buried his face in his hands.
“Don't get all shy, I'm just kidding,” he said through laughs.
“Jesus Charlie just do your homework,”
“It doesn't make any sense,” he whined.
“Fine, I'll explain it, but you're not sitting on the table, go get a chair,”
“Okay sweetheart,” He threw Cameron a sickeningly sweet smile before going to grab a chair. He pushed it up right next to Cameron's and sat down.
Cameron broke into explaining the pythagorean theorem, Charlie confusedly nodding along.
He got strangely quiet, it wasn't like him to not throw in random snide comments, Cameron was almost concerned to see him listening for once.
After a while Charlie gently rested his head on his shoulder, and Cameron tried to hold as still as possible as not to disturb him as he scribbled furiously in his copybook.
“Hey!! I got it!” Charlie sat up quickly, startling Cameron's state of calm. “That's right isn't it?” He held his copy less than an inch away from his face.
“Hold on– I can't read it when you wave it around like that” he took the copy from his hands and scanned it quickly with his eyes. “Looks right to me,” Charlie beamed at him in response.
“See? I told you it was easy”
“No you didn't, I said that,”
“Uhh– no I think it was me,” he laughed, despite Cameron's annoyance, he still couldn't help but notice how infectious Charlie's laugh was, the way his stupid smug smile could light up a room.
“I specifically remember you calling it ‘Ancient Hieroglyphics,’ ”
“No, I never said that,” Charlie crossed his arms in mock stubbornness.
“Come on Neil, back me up,” Cameron called over to the boy on the couch.
“Stop bickering,” Neil sighed. “Char, are you coming to the meeting tonight?” He added in his attempt to change the subject.
“Only if Cameron is there,”
“So?” Neil asked in Cameron’s direction.
“I don't know guys… We have a latin test first thing tomorrow,” He looked down at the floor.
“Pleaseee, I'll read you latin poetry,” Charlie leaned in, giving him puppy eyes.
“You don't even know any Latin poetry," Cameron pushed him away.
“Yes I do!! Te amo, Cameron,”
“What does that mean?”
“Why would I know, you think I speak Latin?”
“You just did there,” he protested.
“Anyway… are you in for tonight?”
“Fine. But you better follow through with the Latin poetry– I need some more study,”
“I'll see you tonight then, Carissime,” Charlie stood from his chair and started to wander away.
“Is this actually Latin, or are you just making it up?” Cameron called from behind him.
He turned to glance back at him. “You'll never know,” he smirked.
“Oh yeah– speaking of Latin, I have the notes for that class you missed last week. You want them?” Neil spoke up.
“Yeah that’d be great, thanks Neil,”
“No problem,” he fumbled in his bag for a second. “Todd, hon, is my Latin copy on the table beside you there?” Todd blushes at the nickname, frighteningly glancing at Cameron who simply rolls his eyes.
“Yeah, I'll get it for you,” he took the copy from the table. “Hey, that's what Charlie said isn't it?” He turned the copy around to Neil and pointed at a list of phrases.
“Wait, let me see,” Cameron scrambled over to them to look at the page. And there it was, clear as day, well as clear as it could be in Neil’s messy handwriting, “Te amo - I love you,”