EVERMORE | DEAD POETS SOCIETY

THIRTY-ONE!

So! This is a what if chapter I wrote about a month or two ago. This does contain spoilers so if you haven't read the whole book yet, I suggest you turn away now!!!

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WHAT IF BETTA NEVER CHECKED ON NEIL, THE NIGHT OF THE PLAY?

"Rebetta, you got to calm down." Meeks told Rebetta, who was pacing back and forth in the cave.

"Meeks, I can't." She told him. "I don't know if Neil is going to be okay. I'm scared. I don't have a very good feeling. God, he has nightmares about his father and it came true, the nightmare. I have a bad feeling guys."

"I'm sure Mr. Perry is going to just make him quit acting Betta. That's all." Charlie reassured her.

"Okay I understand that Charlie, but did you see how he reacted when we just tried to talk to him?" Rebetta looked at them all. "Even with Keating and I? Do you think Mr. Perry would do that in front of everyone?"

"Betta, I think you're just looking too much into it." Cameron told her. If anything, Cameron never made her feel any better. She shot him a glare with Todd clearing his throat.

"Betta, Cameron kind of has a point," Todd told his best friend. "I'm sure he'll come back to school tomorrow. He will probably just have a really bad punishment or maybe he convinced him somehow. You just can't expect the worst."

Maybe she was just looking too into it. "You've also had a really long day Betta," Pitts added. "We all have. Neil will be with us tomorrow, we can ask him how it went. He's going to be alright."

He's going to be okay.

"Okay." She whispered, looking around at all of them. "He'll be fine. He's literally Puck, god dammit. Carpe Diem, right?"

She wanted to beg an answer out of someone, just so she could go to his house to see what was up. The look he gave her while he was in the car was a concerning one. But, the other poets had known Neil for quite longer than she did. They knew what he was like. But did they really know him the way that Betta knew him?

She let it go. She went to bed that night, knowing that she would see him in the morning. They would talk about the play, they would talk about how Neil had finally stood up against his father and finally told him his true passion of becoming an actor.

She woke up that morning with no alarm clock, but frost on her windows. Her eyes fluttered open as she noticed it had snowed throughout the night. But the first thing that came to her mind was Neil. She couldn't wait to talk to him about the play and how well he had done. After all the internal stressing she was doing last night, all she wanted to do was talk to the love of her life.

First thing she did was brush her teeth and then put on her Welton jacket and a pair of boots she had brought from Iowa so she could look outside for herself, but also find Neil. She made her way to the front corridors as the cold air hit her cheeks.

Welton had seemed awfully quiet today. Too quiet.

From the corner of her eye, she could spot her fellow friends walking. She smiled softly to herself as she managed to catch up to them. "Guys! Hey!" Rebetta called out to them.

They all stopped walking and had turned to Rebetta. They didn't have very pleasant looks on their faces. "Have you guys seen Neil anywhere? I wanted to talk to him, I was worried about him all night." She asked them.

They didn't tell her. Nobody had told her yet.

They all looked at each other, while Todd just stood in the back all quiet. She was confused as to why nobody was saying anything. What was wrong with them? Were they all tired? Were they mad at her?

"Betta..." Charlie whispered softly. "Do you not know?"

Betta's heart dropped. "Do I not know what?" She asked quietly.

    She looked at all of them and they didn't know who was going to break the news to her. It was hard enough to do it with Todd. But with Rebetta... that was going to be even harder. "Someone better start saying something. Where is Neil?" She said.

    Charlie let out a shaky sigh, and looked at his feet.

    "Neil's dead, Betta."

    Frozen. Numb. She truly didn't have any feelings when those two words rang out of Charlie's mouth. "No, he's not." She tried to argue. "He's fine. Right guys?"

    She tried to look at her other friends as if they were playing a sick joke on her. But all of them were looking away, looking hurt. She felt her throat getting tighter and her eyes filled up with tears.

    "Charlie?" Her voice cracked.

    "His father found him... In his office." He spoke quietly. "He shot himself."

    Rebetta slowly backed up, not wanting to believe what was happening. But the pain had gotten so much that she had collapsed to her knees and let out the ugliest sobs. She had screamed in pain, with agony, that her one true love had left her all by herself.

    "Betta!" She heard the guys from the distance come and comfort her. They had held onto her as she trembled in sorrow and pain. Rebetta had never cried like this before. This wasn't supposed to be like this. Neil Perry shouldn't be dead.

    "No, no. He's not dead, he's fine." She sobbed uncontrollably as Knox, Pitts, Meeks and Todd comforted her on both sides. Charlie was in the front, facing her. "He can't be gone. He can't leave me. I need him here. He needs to be here!"

    "Betta, I know." They reassured her.

    "It was his father!" She screamed in anger. "It was his stupid father that killed him! He didn't know a way out. His father killed him! He killed Neil! He killed him!"

    Now was not the right time to even say a word. They just needed to be there for their friend. She had lost her soulmate, her favorite person on the planet. Her favorite person at Welton. A part of her had died that day,

    The day that Neil Perry died.