Dead Poets and Dying Roses

Last Chapter

(AN: own plot idea)

And I wait. The thought never leaves my head. But it fades into the background of my mind. I go back to school and into my nothingness. My invisibility. From now and then I get some letters from my friends, until they slowly fade away. Just Knox and Todd remain, well, atleast sometimes. I don't hear from the Perrys ever again. I serve my days in this almost-prison, I study hard and lastly I graduate. I go off from school and try not to land on the street. I switch from job to job, sometimes more than one a day. From one shady motel to another. Some of the owners are merciful, some are not. One time I live with an old lady, that sees her daughter in me, who has left years ago. Then she dies and I'm on my own again. Of course, I have been sad, but then I have moved on. I've had to. I travel around France, to different cities and places, meet new people. I perform my music and sing my songs. And no matter how deep the fall, no matter how hard I hit the ground, I go on. I don't give up. Of course it is hard. It would be a lie to say that I didn't doubt myself. But still I have been free in all this time. And that has been all I cared about. To be uncatchable. Even though somtimes I've been coming home to a little room with no light, because I couldn't have paid the bills. To a room covered in dirt and with nothing but my clothes on me. And I've cried. Cried over my miserable life, over my loneliness over everything that has went wrong or maybe my terrible life choices. I've cried throughout whole nights, but in the end, when the morning sun has risen and I've had to pack my things, I would wipe my tears away as if nothing ever happened. Because that's just how life is. It's tough and shitty and sometimes you wanna quit. But it's mine. I have chosen it to be this way. And then I meet these two girls in one of those shelters for travelers. Trina, a daughter of rich parents, that has been treated like an isolated princess her whole life, even though she has just wanted to be normal. The other, Valentina, has run away from home to be a ballet dancer, until she has had to end her carreer because of an injury and is now trying to recreate herself. We immediatly have clicked. Because no matter how different we may have been or where we've come from, we've all had something in common. We've been lost. Lost and grateful for some company. So we've sticked together since then. Our little group has talked about bright futures and big dreams and then until some point it hasen't been just about bare imaginations anymore. Because why not do it? Everyone of us has worked like a dog, we've scrapped all the money we've had together. And the three of us have bought a little, old cafe. It has looked like shit in the beginning and it has taken a lot of us to get where we are now. But in the end it has turned out pretty well. And we finally have had everyting we needed together. Trina, a waitress eager to work with the people, a barista in the form of a hard working and newly inspired Valentina, and me. A girl driven by nostalgia, guilt and creativity. After a few month open our group has accomplished a solid base of customers, we've finally made some income and the world seemed right again after a long time. Because of the money, all of us have been able to perform our hobbies on the side. Trina going to nurse school, Valentina mastering different arts, from playing violin one week to painting portraits in the next. And I've been singing, in clubs or restaurants, whatever gigs I got. Any I've been happy. Not at peace maybe, but still.

So, in this way the years passed by and things went their casual way. Well, until this one night...

5 years after the events at Welton

Summer, 1964

Toulouse, France

Nervously the young man stares at the crumbled sheet in his hands. He almost has lost all hope, but in one way or another this will be a good night, looking at the bar in front of him. Charlie opens the door and immediatly walks into a intense wall of smoke. Waitresses are running around, whiskey glasses and beer pints on their tablets. It's very crowded. On some tables they are playing cards, on others there is just drinking and laughing. Music booms through the room, disrupted by the happy chatters and shouting. A lovely voice echoes to his ears, singing a ballad like song. In an instant his pulse is racing. The voice sounds familiar. Very familiar. But still he could be in the wrong. Maybe it's just wish thinking. A trick of his desperate mind. Hyped up, but also scared he makes his way through the people and to the stage. Then his heartbeat seems to skip. He cannot believe his eyes, not really, but there she stands. Guitar in hand and twirling around in a black dress with yellow sunflowers embroided on the skirt of it. She wears her hair open like the last time he has seen her. It's a bit longer and wavier, but still flows over her shoulders like a wildfire. Rosalie Parks-Dubois, also known as mystic girl, maybe not the greatest singer of all France, but surely the heart of the common people. For years Charlie has been going after her, but he has never been quiet able to get a grasp on her. On the girl that has made him brave enough to follow his own path. And so much more. She's got all the eyes of the people on her, sometimes winking at a few of those drunk men, toying with them. He can not help it, but give them a stinky eye. But then Rosalie's gaze lands on him. Her eyes widen and she misses a few lines of the lyrics. But, of course, like the profesional she is, she quickly gets into the song again. Yet, her eyes remain on him till the song is over as her smile shines a thousand times brighter than before. Afterwards, Rosalie comes down and within a few seconds she's right in front of him. But Charlie is too stunned to speak, so he just stares at her. Rose also seems to struggle with her words as her lips move, but nothing comes out of her mouth. Until she finally speaks up. "Charlie!", she breaths out his name, but he can't answer. Then suddenly she wraps her arms around him and his frozen body finally melts. He squeezes her thight, while she mumbles into his ear. "I can't believe you are really here." Rosalie draws back from him with furrowed eyebrows. "Wait.", she asks irritated. "You are really here, right? I'm not hallucinating, am I?" Charlie can't keep in a loud laughter. "Hallucinating? Are you for real?" Her lips curve up and he tries not to stare at them for too long. He damn well hasn't forgotten how they have felt on his. "Well, you know, I'm experimenting with some stuff. Just gotta be sure." She crosses her arms cockily. "So you are still up for trouble?", he asks Rosalie, even though he knows the answer. "Of course, 'trouble' is my middle name!", she laughs out and he joins in. "I guess we have a lot to talk about then.", Charlie suggests, indirectly inviting her to come outside with him. "Yes, we have.", Rosalie answers with a bit of melancholy in her voice. But then she lights up again. "Wait a minute, alright? And don't run away!" There almost has seemed to be a hint of fear in her last words. But he wouldn't leave her again, for sure not. "I won't run away!", he promises her as she already sqeezes herself through the crowd. "Even though sometimes you scare me!" "That's exactly my intention!", Rose yells back to him, then she's gone. A few seconds later she pops up somewhere at the back. "Gabriel! Gabriel!", she shouts out and Charlie snorts out at the sight of her waving her arm frantically to get the attention of an older men. "Can I quit early today?", she asks Gabriel, probably her boss. "Your shift isn't over yet.", this grey haired man grumbles, but somehow it doesn't seem like he's mad at her. "Come on, please.", Rose squeals and begs, while making puppy eyes. "It's a special occasion." With a nerved out look, that only some kind of father figure can do he dismisses her after a few moments. "But for once be on time tomorrow!", he lectures her one last time, but she's already running towards Charlie again, who has watched the whole spectacle. "I'm serious, Rosalie!", the man screams after her, but she just waves him off. "Let's go!", she exclaims with euphoria and drags Charlie with her, who is just as eager as his former flame. And he does not care what the night has to bring for him, because he already got, what he has been searching for. Just to be in her orbit has made him the luckiest man on earth right now.