Author's Note: Based off of the song Break Your Heart. DeadPoet0712 and I talked about it a while ago and agreed it would most definitely be a song Charlie would relate to. However, this fic just randomly popped out of me like a child from a Greek god...it originally started as a humorous fic, but then decided that it didn't want to fully be comedic, and this is what came of it.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the poets or any of the other boys (whose names were all taken from IMDB).
Charlie Dalton is a heartbreaker. He will break your heart without ever looking back and he won't even give a damn.
He led Neil on a merry chase one summer, effectively capturing the dark-haired boy's curiosity, then left him high and dry with nothing to scramble for but a few seductive glances and smirks dropped here and there.
Knox Overstreet obsessed over Charlie and his perfect hair and his perfect smirk and his perfect sense of humor and his perfect eyes and his perfect height and his perfect hands and what he can do with them and his perfect voice and his perfect etc. for a few months before falling head over heels for the new secretary after he realized that Charlie would never actually want him for keeps.
Steven Meeks, although rational and scientific, could not doubt that he had been infatuated by the boy at one point in time or another. It is unconfirmed as to if this state of being is ongoing or not.
Gerard Pitts once felt his heart shatter as he watched Charlie snatch up his bowl of chocolate pudding, scarf it down, and then bolt out the door to rowing practice.
George Hopkins doesn't like anybody but his grandmother, and therefore it was thought his heart could never be broken. Until the brand new sweater vest that his grandma had made especially for him with love was insulted by the one and only Nuwanda. He loved that sweater vest, damn it; even if it was the color of pea-soup exorcism barf.
Sam couldn't believe the way his stomach would drop as Charlie walked past. He didn't know if this was love or fear, but he figured he could feel both for Charlie.
Skippy is Sam's secret identity.
Lester, although always in the background and never mentioned, liked to stay standing in the background for a reason. Especially when Charlie liked to stand directly in front of him, maybe bending over to examine something, or leaning provocatively on something in order to look cool. But then Charlie would always stand erect, turn around, and look right through Lester, as if he didn't exist.
Stick was so thin that he was hardly noticeable. And in order to win Charlie Dalton's affections, one must be noticeable.
Spaz's heart swelled each time Charlie Dalton spoke to him. Despite every word being an insult. Spaz knew that when a boy teased someone, it just meant that they secretly liked that someone. His fingers were eternally crossed.
Beans had always enjoyed the color red. He and Charlie had bonded over this mutual love. Until one day in third grade Charlie claimed the color as his own, stealing all of the red crayons and colored pencils, never allowing Beans near such a magnificent color again.
All Russell had ever wanted was Steven Meeks. That wasn't too much to ask for, Russell supposed. Until Charlie found out about it and effectively got Steven to fall ridiculously in love with, not Russell, but himself instead. Apparently no one is allowed to have Steven but Charlie. Just like the color red.
Even Richard Cameron felt a small flutter behind his ribcage while accidentally witnessing Charlie change out of his muddy striped goalie uniform, slowing peeling it over his head, and into a clean pair of pajamas. Sans the tighty-whiteys. It didn't help that Charlie would occasionally wink at the ginger.
Charlie Dalton looks in the mirror and hates what he sees. Sure, he's created an image for himself that everyone adores, even Shroom, and Jonas, and Dewey, and Ace, and Woodsie, and that other weirdly named private school boy in class. But that doesn't mean Charlie is okay with how he turned out. He isn't okay with the fact that he overcompensates for lack of a loving home life by tricking the boys at his school into loving him, one way or another. He doesn't like that he always ends up hurting them like he's been hurt time and time again. And he doesn't like that he can't stop. What Charlie hates the most though, what breaks Charlie's heart, is that he doesn't want to stop. This power, the sheer feeling of superiority above everyone else, is what keeps him going. What keeps him alive. What keeps him from crumbling.
But he's breaking.