Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: We watches this in English. I'd already seen it once before, and I absolutely love this movie.
Todd clutches his jacket closer to him and wonders why it is that, even in the cold, biting air, he finds it more welcoming outside than in the school.
Life goes on. Neil is dead, Mr. Keating is gone, and life goes on. How can it? How can life move forward without even one sign of change, one sign of loss for a boy who was special?
It still hurts him. He still wakes up expecting to see another bed and another body in the room.
Swallowing to dissolve the lump in his throat, he walks down the snow covered path, stopping when he sees a huddled form ahead of him. Even from here, he knows it's Charlie, with his distinctive bad posture. He hesitates; he doesn't know if the other boy wants any company or not, but he decides that if Charlie doesn't want him there, he can tell him so.
Charlie looks up when Todd sits on the ground next to him. It's cold and uncomfortable, the snow soaking through his pants, but that's all right. Cold and uncomfortable matches his feelings right now.
"Hey, Todd," Charlie says, attempting a weak smile, and Todd immediately knows he's been thinking about Neil. Although it doesn't take much deduction because, like himself, Charlie thinks about Neil all the time.
"Hey, Charlie," Todd responds, bringing his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around them.
Charlie's smile grows more real. "You know, you're the only one who won't call me Nuwanda."
"Do you want me to?"
Charlie laughs. "Nah. I'm kind of sick of it, but it stuck."
Todd smiles back. "You did bring it upon yourself."
Charlie shrugs. "It seemed like a good idea at the time." Todd watches him turn his head and look off into the distance, his eyes growing faraway. Todd knows that 'Nuwanda' and the more boisterous parts of Charlie disappeared when Neil died.
"We were friends since we were little kids," Charlie says abruptly, and Todd doesn't pretend not to know who he's talking about.
"You were?" he asks quietly.
"Yeah. Real little. I was jealous of you for a bit, you know," Charlie adds. "I mean," he continues with a laugh that doesn't really have any humor in it, "he had the same relationship with you that he did with me, and you hadn't even known him a year."
Todd says nothing for a minute, and then speaks, eyes trained on the ground in front of him. "We didn't have the same relationship, though. He was different with me, and different with you."
Charlie looks at him, and his expression smoothing out a little. "Yeah. And there's nothing to be jealous of anymore." He leans to the side a little, until his arm brushes against Todd's. "We--the two of us--are the only ones who really knew him best. We have the best memories of him. I'd say that's good enough reason for us to be friends."
Todd closes his eyes, inhaling the chilling air, and finally feels something inside him ease. He's not alone. Life doesn't go on for everyone--he's found someone else who's hurt, someone he can be broken with.