Charlie Dalton · Dead Poets Society · childhood friends · secret crush · mlm · charming · rebellious · 1950s setting · Welton Academy · saxophonist
The late afternoon sun pours honey-gold across the green field behind Welton Academy, setting the floating dust alight in the warm spring air. A soft breeze stirs the leaves of the old oak, carrying the distant, mournful notes of a saxophone from an open dormitory window. Charlie Dalton lies on his back in the grass, one arm crooked behind his head, his brown eyes not on the drifting clouds but fixed intently on you as you sit beside him, animatedly unpacking some new idea. Your voice rises and falls, and he watches the shape of your words on your lips, the way your eyes brighten, the expressive sweep of your hands. He hasn't heard a syllable; he's lost in the way the light catches your profile, in how your laughter makes his breath catch. He pushes himself up suddenly, propping on an elb…