where all the poets went to die [dead poets society]

15 - everything about you is bible

When Charlie and Maria walked into the student lounge with intertwined hands and equally flushed cheeks, their friends almost fell out of their chairs.

"Well, would you look at that?" Knox whistled, excitement practically gleaming off of his eyes.

Meeks quickly recovered from his shock and clapped his hands together in excitement. "I knew it! I knew it was going to happen soon," he exclaimed and then pulled a small pocketbook out of his pants. He thumbed through the pages and Charlie and Maria shared similar odd looks and approached their friends.

"That means..." Meeks stuck out his tongue and looked over the writing on the pages, quickly counting on his fingers. "That means... Todd's won the wager! Todd!"

Todd grinned triumphantly, holding out this hand and making a beckoning motion. "Pay up, gentlemen," he said, chuckling.

Maria stared at him, mouth open wide as the other boys dug through their pockets and forked over his winning money. "You didn't..." she shook her head in disbelief. "You actually wagered on us?"

The others shrugged.

"Why ever not?"

"Men can never resist a gamble."

"Of course we did."

Neil, still wearing a smirk on his face, placed a bill into Todd's hands and then rounded on Charlie. He looped his arm around Charlie's neck, pulling him down into a headlock and the two of them wrestled about for a minute before Neil secured the upper hand. "You really couldn't have waited a week longer, Slick?" Neil asked, flicking Charlie in the ear. "I wasted my entire childhood befriending you and you couldn't sense that I needed you to wait a little longer before wooing Maria. I've lost a twenty cause of you now."

Charlie rolled his eyes, shaking Neil off with a shove. "Sorry to disappoint," he replied with a lazy grin. His eyes flicked over to Maria, softening for just a moment before he cast her a flirtatious wink. "Couldn't help myself."

Maria rolled her eyes.

Charlie chuckled, pulling her closer to him so that her back was against his chest. "You know you love it," he said, looping his arms around her. Affection - particularly public displays of affection - came easily to Charlie, even more so when it was toward Maria. He wouldn't deny that it made him feel better to know that all the other boys at Welton could very well see that his girl wasn't available to them any longer.

Charlie had called dibs once upon a time, and Charlie had earned his dibs.

Maria hummed and then smiled slyly. "Lucky for you, I couldn't help myself either," she retorted and tapped her finger against his jaw. "We're just too irresistible, I guess."

Charlie made a cheeky face, pleasantly pleased with this side of Maria that he was now privy to. He moved to wrap his arms around her waist possessively and laid his chin on her shoulder. "You all listen here," he said, to no one in particular, "Maria Keating and I, Charlie Dalton, are going steady. Heed my warning now you bastards."

Their friends cooed, hooting and hollering and mainly teased Charlie as Maria wriggled out of his grasp, growing shy as Charlie played up the protective boyfriend trope.

Gosh, Maria smiled to herself. Boyfriend.

Charlie Dalton was really her boyfriend.

A part of her couldn't believe it - even though just moments ago, they had been up in their room kissing in a way that only a boyfriend and girlfriend would. She blushed, thinking back to how it had felt. She had kissed other boys before - William Lowery in eighth grade Algebra and James Kenneth in the summer just before she left for Vermont, but kissing Charlie, someone who actually was her boyfriend and not just some boy who had taken a fancy to her and decided he wanted to kiss her, was entirely something else.