ii; charlotte, sneaking out with william, november, middle of the night.

charlotte.

Climbing out of the window, Charlotte breathed a full lungs of fresh air. November air was always her favourite, cold and sweet. She didn't bring her phone with her, it was like a secret tradition between her and William. Sneaking out at one A.M, a box full of cigarettes for him and a big bottle of Ribena for her. She hoped William remember to bring some water with him, because Gosh, Ribena would be the worst without water. She didn't like drinking syrup right out of the bottle that much. Yuck, too sweet that I just want to puke. She said that one time to William after he poured a whole cup of fresh Ribena, no-water-Ribena, right down her throat. She couldn't eat anything for days after that, the cloying taste just stuck in the back of her throat and refused to go away.

They met at the French room, Prof. David's French room because he never bothered to lock it properly. Michelle used to whine to her all the time, about how David was such a dick teacher. Never care to give a proper speech to his students, why was he even here teaching? The Chiltons were so doomed, having that man as a house head was like the worst nightmare ever.

Lucky you, Maggie is such a sweetheart, unlike somebody— Jesus H. I hate that man with my whole soul.

"What are you thinking about?" William asked, and she snapped out of her thinking. He was grinning at her, the sort of grin that always reminded her of the wolf. Big grin that showed all his teeth, it's like he's gonna shred her neck into pieces right away, blood smeared on his lips, painted his teeth red. Her neck was torn into half and he would just smile.

"Mitch's bad mouthing David the other day." She answered simply, looked down and watching him painting her nails red. They always had to do something for each other whenever they sneak out like this. The last time Charlotte helped him nick some of the snacks in their school's cafeteria. The four of them, her and him and Marcus and Dandelion, had a full party in the boys' dorm, giggling and laughing because they drank way too many shots and then had a terrible hangover the next morning. This time she wanted her nails painted a new colour.

('That's it?'

'Sorry for not being as stupid as you.'

'Sneaking into cafeteria is not stupid, it's fun.'

'If your fun is letting us nearly got caught by Morgana, then I have nothing to say.')

He picked red, bloody red, like how the blood shed whenever he turned into a wolf in her mind. He even drew little stars on both of her middle fingers, he knew she loved stars, the cartoonish five pointed kind of star, not constellation (she did love constellations and astronomy and yada yada, but the stars were just different).

"We'll gonna have classes of him when we enter year 11, you know that?"

"Big fucking nightmare of me. Gosh, why can't we just stick with Maggie, huh? She's so much better."

William nodded with a quiet chuckle. They sat there in silence, cigarette in his mouth and she was holding a cup of Ribena. Charlotte was sort of focusing on the boy's face more than her painted nails, his eyelashes was so long, has anyone ever told him that?

"Done."

William said, smiling when he glanced up at her. He was still holding her hands so they stared at each other for a while. Charlotte could feel the smoke started filling her lungs, and she leaned in, slowly and slowly till their lips were merely an inch apart and she could hear her own heartbeat thumping in her ears and William just— fucking dropped her hands then stood up.

"Got this for you, Cher." He said, still fucking smiled at her and ran over to his bag.

Bloody hell, she cursed silently in her head, I was going to kiss him and he just ran away like that.

Like the gears in her head stopped working, Charlotte just looked at him coldly when he came back with something on his hands. She didn't care to answer when he asked 'What with that face, Cher? You look weirdly sick.' She was upset, with him, with her, because why didn't she just grab his face and give him a smooch, just like how she wanted to instead of silently sitting here like a bloody fool.

It was a tattoo kit, Stick and Poke or whatever. He nicked it from his uncle, saying he used this when he was their age, tattooing on all of his friends' backs like a professional. William's uncle, Hudson, was so cool. The more she heard of him the more she thought of him like this big fab person that would absolutely give a six years old a fag if they asked politely.

"But can you do that, Billiard? Your art skill is like, you draw a cat and I will ask you if that's a cockroach or not."

"It's just stars, Lottery. Everyone can draw stars."

"Wait, you want to tattoo stars, on me?"

William flashed her a smile and oh, how about she just clutched her chest and fell over dramatically and finally died right here? That's not gonna be a problem, innit?

"I know you love them."

Yeah, she loved them. And she loved them being tattooed by him. Stars, a dozen of colourful stars, spread like a fucking universe on her back. Or William would say it a bouquet, yeah, he would so say that, a stars bouquet for just only her.