rich man's world; charlie dalton

[five] jealousy and unzipped sweaters

Mom, who's that girl you walked in with?

Day three and Sigrid knocked on Todd and Neil's door with a small cup of tea. She had been drawing in the darkness for the past three nights to finish the drawing Mrs. Dalton had requested but alas, she burnt her wires and needed a break. She knocked on the door in an attempt to be as quiet as possible without waking up the golden retriever at the end of the hall. Todd slowly opened the door and pulled her inside when he realized she was still in her nightwear. He got one of his sweaters off the clothing rack and gave it to her quickly, looking away. She gave him the approval to turn around once she had zipped it up.

"Is Neil still up?" she whispered as she looked at the bed, which looked like it was occupied in the darkness. Todd shook his head, "He left to go to the bathroom. What brought you here?"

She looked down at her cup, still steaming and burning her hand slightly. She took a slow sip before smacking her lips happily. "I didn't know who else to bother, I tried to wake up Knox but he sleeps like a hibernating bear. I haven't quite talked to Meeks or Pitts. And Charlie...well it's obvious that he finds me annoying so I didn't bother."

He hummed in confusion and then sat down on his bed, he covered himself with his blanket so she wouldn't see him in his pajamas. It caused her to smile slightly, "How about we both change and take a little stroll outside? If Neil comes around in the next five minutes he could come with us, the more the merrier."

"It's freezing outside, you're going to have to go back and change."

"Or I could just wear one of these," she looked through the small closet and pulled out uniform pants. "Sure, it'll fit a tad big but we could avoid getting caught by exiting through the window."

"You and Knox don't have a window?"

"No," she answered before turning when she heard the front door squeak open. She flashed a smile at Neil, who was squinting because his sleep was winning him over, he didn't even notice the girl in the night gown and walked past her to go back to bed. "Go back to sleep, Anderson," he mumbled as he turned himself over and groaned at how cold his pillow was. Sigird waited until Neil was lightly snoring to continue talking.

"So are we going to be mischievous and take a stroll around Hellton?" She held the pants over her legs with a playful smile on her face.

He hummed with uncertainty, "I don't know, Hall, it's really dark outside and we could get demerits for getting caught outside. I don't want Nolan calling my parents."

"Oh come on," she whispered her whine. "Carpe Diem. Live a little, besides we all know your dad would probably be happy to know that you sneaked out with a girl. All men are like that, I'm bored and you need good points. I'm assuming if your parents took you out of your old school to send you to Hellton."

He rolled his eyes, "My dad isn't," then he stopped himself to think about the fight they had last summer. Sigrid noticed his face twist into a mixture of anger and despondency. "Never mind."

"What? What happened?" her eyebrows furrowed as she sat on his bed hesitantly just in case he didn't want her to sit down. "Did I say something out of line?"

He looked at her from the corner of his eye, shaking his head unconvincingly. She picked up on the slight details, "Maybe I should just let you stay here, you're right it's too cold to walk outside. I'll find something else to do."

He watched her, biting his tongue to stop himself from saying something he might regret. She stood up, unzipping her sweater while overthinking what it was that she said. Neil opened his eyes once he heard the rumbling and gaped when he noticed Todd looking at her, he was hoisted on his elbows.