Sugar - Charlie Dalton

14

In the evening, Clara found herself in the bleachers watching the boys soccer game.

It was near the end and Neil's team was about to lose when they scored the winning goal.

Immediately the girl jumped up and cheered, dropping the homework she had been doing.

She watched as the boys hoisted Mr. Keating onto their shoulders and ran around the field.

Clara laughed as she walked over to her friends, who were already talking about the next meeting.

"Hey Sugar, you see my block? That won us the game."

"Gross Charlie you're all sweaty. But you did do a nice job." The brunette giggled, taking the boy's arm off of her. Usually she would've opted for him to stay there, but he was dripping sweat.

"We're gonna go shower, then meeting?" Neil asked his twin who nodded in response.

"I'll go wait in my room."

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In the cave, the guys had all brought their pipes to smoke.

"Attaboy, Pittsie, inhale deeply." Of course Charlie had been the one teaching those who didn't how to smoke.

"My dad collects a lot of pipes." Meeks said, pushing up his glasses.

"Really? Mine's got thirty."

"Your parents collect pipes? Oh, that's really interesting."

"Come on, Knox. Join in." Charlie urged the boy, sliding down next to Clara.

"Yeah, Knox, we're from the government. We're here to help, man."

The girl would've laughed but Knox looked so morose.

"What's wrong?"

"It's Chris. Here's a picture of Chris for you." Pitts explains, holding up the Playboy picture. Clara was starting to grow sick of seeing that thing every meeting.

"Smoke that. Put that in your pipe and smoke it." The ginger smiled as everyone laughed.

Everyone expect Knox. "That's not funny."

"Knock it off. Smoke your pipes." Charlie said, nudging the two boys.

"Neil!" Clara smiled as her brother came into the cave with a beaten up lamp. "Uh what is that?"

"Friends, scholars, sister. Welton men and woman."

"What is that, Neil?" Meeks repeated the girls question.

"Duh. It's a lamp, Meeks." Pitts laughed as Clare giggled at the two.

"No. This is the god of the cave." Neil smiled, removing the lampshade to reveal the base was a man.

"The god of the cave."

Suddenly, Charlie got up and pulled out his saxophone.

Saxophone?

"Charlie, what are you doing?" Pitts asked.

"What do you say we start this meeting?"

"Y-Yeah, just-I need a light. I just gotta-"

"Got my earplugs?" Clara asked Todd making the boy smile.

"Gentlemen, 'Poetrusic' by Charles Dalton."

Charlie began to play erratic notes on the sexophone.

"Oh, no."

"Laughing, crying, tumbling, mumbling. Gotta do more. Gotta be more."

More notes filled the cave.

"Chaos screaming, chaos dreaming. Gotta do more! Gotta be more!"

Then the boy began to play a real tune, ending with dropping beside Clara again.

"Wow!"

"That was nice. That was great. Where did you learn to play like that?" Pitts asked the boy.

"My parents made me take the clarinet for years."

"I love the clarinet." Cameron smiled.

"I hated it. The saxophone. The saxophone is more sonorous."

"Oh la la!" Clara laughed at the boys words.

"Vocabulary." Meeks laughed as well.

Suddenly Knox jump to his feet. "I can't take it anymore. If I don't have Chris, I'm gonna kill myself.

"Knoxious, you've gotta calm down." Charlie said as the others nodded.

"No, Charlie. That's just my problem. I've been calm all my life. I'll do something about that."

"Where are you going?" Neil yelled to him.

"What are you gonna do?"

"I'm gonna call her." Knox laughed as he climbed out off the cave.

The group all stared at one another before quickly grabbing their coats and following the love struck boy.

As the ran to catch up, Charlie played loud noise on his saxophone.

"Would you quit it, Dalton!" Clara whispered shouted at him, reentering the school.

"Sorry, Sugar. Time and place." The boy smirked, placing away his instrument.

They finally caught up to Knox, as he was pressing buttons on a payphone.

"Knox are you sure you wanna do this?" Clara asked hesitantly, creeping up on the boy.

But the girls questioning was too late.

"Hello?" Chris said from the other line.

Immediately, Knox hung up the phone as swung around to face the group gathered around him.

"She's gonna hate me. The Danburrys will hate me. My parents will kill me. All right, goddamn it. You're right. 'Carpe diem.' Even if it kills me."

The others shared a look as he redialed the number.

"Hello, Chris? Hi. This is Knox Overstreet."

Listening for a moment he smiled. "She's glad I called."

Clara gave a double thumbs up and smiled.

A beat passed before the boy smiled even wider. "Would I like to come to a party?"

"Yes. Say, yes." Charlie ushered, slinging his arm around Clara. She didn't dare to move away.

"Well, sure!"

The others silently cheered as Knox nodded profusely. "Okay, great. I-I'll be there, Chris. Friday night at the Danburrys'. O-Okay. Thank you. Bye."

He rung up the phone and whipped around cheering. "Yawp! Can you believe it? She was gonna call me. She invited me to a party with her."

"At Chet Danburry's house." Charlie added in.

"Yeah."

"Well?"

"So?"

"So, you don't really think she means you're going with her?"

Knox scoffed. "Well, of course not, Charlie. But that's not the point. That's not the point at all."

"What is the point?" Clara asked, raising an eyebrow.

"The point, Clara, is, uh-"

"Yeah?"

"-that she was thinking about me. I've only met her once, and already she's thinking about me. And I don't need crap for you two just cause you immediately loved each other." Clara shared a smile with Charlie, her face heating up. "Damn it. It's gonna happen, guys. I feel it. She is going to be mine. Carpe. Carpe!"

With that, Knox flipped his scarf and climbed away on the stairs.

"Just give him it." Clara sighed, walking away with the others.

Slowly, she moved her hand down to intertwine with Charlie's.