Nobody Knows This Little Rose - Dead Poets Society x Reader

22

Friday morning came and passed quickly. Nothing noticeable happened, the Poets sat in gittery anticipation throughout all of their classes, looking forward to the meeting that night. It felt like the first one in ages.

The sun was setting before y/n knew it, and curfew was only five minutes away. She said goodnight to the boys, and with one last wink at Charlie, retired to her room.

Since her first meeting she had since invested in an alarm clock so that she didn't have to stay up waiting. Falling asleep though was a dangerous thing. Who knew the decisions her half groggy mind would make.

What didn't help, was that she had gotten at max 10 hours of sleep in the last week. As she sat down at her desk to do a bit of History reading before bed, her eyes were shut before she had gotten through two pages.

She awoke bleary-eyed to her alarm going off at 12:55, letting her know it was almost time to get ready. She gathered her coat and flashlight, and grabbed a pair of mittens, a hat, and a scarf, getting perfectly bundled just in time to hear three knocks on her door.

She opened it, to see the languid frame of Charlie leaning against the doorway. "Ready doll?" he whispered. She smiled and nodded, and they set off together down the hall and down the stairs to meet up with the others.

The trek out to the cave was especially cold, and they were all too bundled to jog. Neil whistled almost the whole way, and once they were in the shelter of the woods it was safe to chat at a normal volume.

Without having the run to wake her up, and the remains of her nap still lingering, y/n found herself in a more subdued mood than usual. She yawned a couple of times on her way out.

Once they were all seated, Pitts managed to get a small fire going. That, and their collective body heat soon warmed the cave into a comfortable texture.

Since y/n's conversation with Neil, he had switched the seats around a little bit, on the premise of making sure everyone could see, and now y/n resided between Meeks and Cameron, rather than across from him.

Neil cleared his throat and opened the meeting as usual. "Snuggle up guys. It's a chilly one" Charlie called out, his gaze flicking momentarily to Meeks.

Not wanting to pass up the excuse to be close with Meeks, y/n scooter in closer, linking arms with the freckled boy, and resting her head on his shoulder.

Neil smiled. "All righty. Now that we're all comfortable, I think Todd had something he wanted to read today." Pitts gave a little whoop and Knox put his hands together.

Todd read out a poem. Not an original, but one from Mr. Keating's book. His voice was soft, and quite soothing. Y/n found her head nodding forward, resting against the nape of Meeks's neck. Her eyes drifted shut.

No one noticed the sleeping girl until about three poems later. Well, of course Meeks felt her presence, but she had no idea she was asleep until he looked up and saw Charlie grinning evilly at him once Cameron had finished something he'd written.

"What?" He said in a stage whisper.

Everyone was looking at him now, and he stared back baffled. Neil bent forward, to inspect the situation from a better angle. His eyebrows rose.

"I think... I think she's asleep..." He said quietly, sitting back.

Everyone exchanged glances. Charlie looked eagerly at Meeks.

"Meeksie!" He said pointedly.

"What?" Meeks asked, dreading what he knew was about to happen. Dreading what he knew was inevitable. What he had known would be unavoidable since that conversation almost three weeks ago.

"Now's your chance! Carpe Diem!" He said enthusiastically, still keeping his voice low so as not to disturb the sleeping girl.

"Chance for what?" Cameron asked. He, Todd, Neil, Pitts and Knox were watching this interaction like a tennis match.

Meeks turned scarlet and shook his head vigorously.

"Come on, Meeksie. They were gonna find out anyway. Tell them!"

Meeks shook his head again, staring at a spot on the cave wall above Charlie's head.

"If you don't tell them, I will."

"Tell us what?"

No response.

Charlie took a deep breath. "Meeks loooooves y/n"

There was silence in the cave. The other poets were so intent on watching Meeks's reaction, that they didn't see the brief grin flash over Neil's face.

Meeks didn't answer, but tried to hide his face as much as possible, without moving too much to avoid the risk of waking y/n

"Aww Meeks" Knox said. "That's so cute." Cameron and Pitts were also nodding and smiling.

"Charlie" Meeks whined. "You weren't s'posed to tell"

Charlie just laughed. "Sucker. Come on Romantics, let's continue the meeting and leave Meeks to his embarrassed misery."

The group was all smiles now, and they spent almost another hour and a half reading, chatting, and humming.

"Alright guys, let's get going" Neil said as his watch read three o'clock. He yawned.

As everyone started to stand, Meeks stayed motionless. "I can't" He said shaking his head. "She's not awake yet"

Everyone stared down. "Well I'm not waiting. It's too cold" Knox said, shaking his head.

"Me either" Added Cameron. Charlie and Todd were already out the door.

"I'll wait here until she wakes up" Meeks said finally. "You guys go on. We'll be able to get in."

From outside the cave came the sound of "oooooOOOOOO" presumably from Charlie. Meeks rolled his eyes.

"See you guys tomorrow" Meeks said.

It was another two hours  until y/n stirred. Meeks was also tired, but he didn't want to risk sleeping and waking up to find it morning time. So he kept awake, listening to the gentle sounds of y/n's breathing, and watching the way her breath moved her hair.

When she lifted her head and rubbed her eyes, she seemed surprised to see where she was.

"Where are all the others? How long was I asleep for?" She mumbled groggily, looking perplexed at Meeks.

"They went back to school. You've been out for a few hours. It's going to be light soon, I think we should get going." He said.

She stared at him dumbfounded. "You...you waited?" she asked perplexedly.

"Of course. I didn't want to disturb you" He said simply.

She stared at him a long moment, looking astonished. "I-"

"It's not big deal" He interrupted. "But we should go. Like I said, it's going to be light soon"

She just nodded, getting up, and crawling out of the cave. They walked quietly together back to school, not needing their flashlights since light had begun to filter into the woods.

She was slightly in shock the whole way home, and touched by Meeks's action. She felt a new flutter of hope in her chest. The hope that maybe this wasn't just an act of kindness. That maybe it meant something more...