Freeing Carter (11 page)

"
That you were going to be with someone hot and not someone
old
,
which is what I assumed.
"

Ah
,
so that
'
s what this is about. Mel always gets harsher when she
'
s jealous
,
which I used to kind of like
...
but now? Not so much.

Willing to do anything to end this conversation and have five freaking minutes of peace
,
I don
'
t say what I
'
m really thinking. What comes out instead is
,
"
You
'
re
hot
,
Mel. Come on. She works for my mom. It
'
s not a big deal. I invited you to come. It
'
s not like I
'
m trying to hide anything.
"

Her frown flips up into a smile.
"
Thanks
,
baby.
"
 

Crisis averted! Even more so when the bell rings. We say our goodbyes
,
Trina and Mel going one way
,
and Travis and I another. Once they
'
re out of ear
shot
,
I groan. What the hell has happened to my life lately? My calm place has suddenly grown two heads and an extra set of claws
and
I
'
m not in the mood to deal with
it
.

"
Why is she freaking out? Next time I say we get pissed when they go to Sam
'
s. She has a brother. Same thing.
"
Travis shrugs when he says this
,
but I stop walking.

"
They went to Sam
'
s last night?
"
Devin
'
s sister? She ditched me to go to Devin
'
s house?

"
Umm
,
yeah. Is that bad?
"

My heart pounds
,
muscles tightening. She was flirting with him
,
went to his house without telling me
,
and then she freaks out because Mom hired Kira?

"
Nothing
.
I just
..
.
"
Is she cheating on me? Does she like him? Am I freaking out over nothing? Wait. Do I care? I don
'
t know. I
should
know that
much
,
right?

"
I
'
m thinking of breaking up with Trina.
"
Travis starts walking again. His words make me forget everything else. It
'
s always been the four of us. We hang out and have fun together.
"
What?
Why?
"

He looks at me like it
'
s the stupidest question in the world.
"
Have you been paying attention? It
'
s just not the same. Plus
,
it happens
,
ya
know? You think people are going to stay together forever
,
but they don
'
t. Why prolong it?
"

Travis
'
s voice sounds strange. And I don
'
t know about the forever part
,
but I
at
least figured we
'
d stay together through high school.
"
Huh? You
'
ve never said that before.
"

"
It
'
s just
...
My
..."
He shakes his head like he just changed his mind about something.
"
This is our last year in high school. Do we really want to spend it getting bitched at for everything? I mean
,
it
'
d be different if I
,
like
...
but it
'
s not like that. I just want to have fun
,
ya
know?
"

I have no idea what he's not telling me, but I totally get what he
is
saying
. It
'
s not like I thought we
'
d be one of those go-off-to-college-together couples. 
Or that
we
'
d  get married one day. Have the 2.2 kids or however the saying goes.  Don
'
t ask me how you can have .2 kids
,
but whatever.

Still
,
we have fun. At least
,
we used to. When I pictured my senior year
,
I pictured the four of us. We
'
ve been a constant for a year now.

"
I
'
m not saying you should do the same
,
" he says. "But I just wanted you to know. Didn
'
t want it to come out of nowhere.
"

This
shouldn
'
t come from nowhere
,
because we
'
ve both been fighting with the girls a lot
recently
,
but it does. It does because as weak as it makes me sound
,
even though I
'
m jealous as hell he
'
s going to do this
,
I don
'
t know if I can do the same. Mel will freak and as hard as she is to handle lately
,
I can only imagine
how much hell it would be
to deal with a broken-up-with Melanie.
All I want is one piece of my life that has no drama and I can’t even get that.

Before I can reply
,
the second bell rings
,
making us late for English. We make a run for it
,
my mind tangled with thoughts of Mel
,
Mom
,
English
,
and Kira.

Chapter Five

Practice is ruined by Mrs. Z
'
s voice in my head
;
every play I want to call out is overpowered by her lecture because I didn't turn in anymore late assignments
. Unfortunately
,
she
'
s not the only person copping a squat in my head. I have Mom on one shoulder
,
needing my help at the store. Getting upset when I question her about her douchebag dad. Even if she weren
'
t whispering in my ear
,
I
'
d be worried about her. It
'
s never a good day when she has to go see him
,
but knowing Sara will be home takes some of the worry away.

The crappy part is
,
it doesn
'
t stop there. Mel
'
s sitting on the other shoulder
,
alternating between being the calm Mel who helps make me forget
,
and then images of her with Devin keep popping up behind my eyes. The fact is
,
I realize I
'
d be pissed
,
but I wouldn
'
t be hurt. I
'
d almost be relieved. It
'
d be one less direction to be pulled. One less person who wants something out of me.

Right now
,
I could do with a little less
"
Carter
,
I need you to
"
and a little more
,
"
Carter
,
do what you need to do.
"
Hell
,
maybe even a little
,
"
Carter
,
do you need help?
"

By the time I rush to the shop after practice
,
I
'
m in an even worse mood. Yanking my backpack out of the truck
,
I slam the door and head
inside
. There are a couple customers
,
but Mom
'
s still here so I sit at the
little round table by the front counter, where Sara does her coloring and Mom eats her meals
. It
'
s kind of hidden because it
'
s shorter than the counter the register sits on and it
'
s on the opposite side as the door.

The only problem is on the other side of it is a spinning wrack of homemade bookmarks
,
jewelry
,
and weird little animal carvings that a lot of people come in to buy
,
which means pretty often there are nosey people looking over my shoulder while they
'
re shopping.

Luckily
,
no one is standing at it today.

Even though I
'
d really like to put my head down and take a nap
,
I pull out Mrs. Z
'
s English stuff. It
'
s
numero uno
on
'
Carter
'
s list of crap to
do'
.
'

Without paying attention to anything else
,
I try to make myself concentrate enough to figure out what happened in the play we
'
ve been reading. All the
'
twas
'
s
,'
'
eth
'
s
'
and rearranged words (I see
,
not see I) make no sense to me. Why the hell can
'
t the guy just say what he means? It
'
s like he writes in code so you have to try
to
decipher ever little word. Me and deciphering Shakespeare don
'
t mix.

"
Oh! Carter
,
I didn
'
t see you come in.
"
Mom steps up beside me.
"
I
'
m heading out. Bill has Sara
,
but I
'
m picking her up after I go see Dad. We
'
ll probably be home around the same time as you.
"
Her voice sounds light
,
but I hear the stress behind it. Hear her nerves at going to see her
dad
,
who
'
s only going to give her crap for trying to help him.

"
I still don
'
t get why you
'
re going.
"
Even though it will upset her
,
I can
'
t stop myself from saying it.

Mom sighs.
"
Because that
'
s what you do
,
Carter. You take care of your family. Like it or not
,
he
'
s my dad.
"

My eyes snap toward her. Take care of your family? Yeah
,
I get that
,
but at least Mom deserves what I do for her
...
right?
"
Whatever.
"

She presses a quick kiss to my forehead.
"
Thanks for helping
,
kid. See
ya
tonight.
"
And then she
'
s gone.