The Richardson List

It was alternatively refreshing when Carter arrived at school to find Audrey leaning against her locker, absorbed in her phone. Over the weekend they had hung out, caught up on the things they missed, more than a couple times they had burst into apologies, but it didn’t matter. Everything had mended over, from what Carter gathered, and she was happy to have Audrey back on her side.

Even though she hadn’t admitted it when it happened, she had truly missed Audrey’s presence when the blonde wasn’t around. Of course Audrey held her flaws, and Carter embraced hers, but the two were most definitely best friends. And best friends just can’t be away from each other, it was nature’s law or something. They both admitted that they had screwed up and were whole-heartedly ready to forgive each other.

Cole had also made his appearance during the days. Audrey refused to let him leave with Lily, making sure that they were together all the time, spare bathroom breaks. She told them that they had to make up for lost time, and the only way to compensate for this was being together every waking moment of the weekend.

Carter didn’t argue at all, happy to be surrounded by her friends. On the other hand Cole had been a little hesitant at first, religiously texting on his phone and making numerous attempts to escape the claws of Audrey. After many failures he finally surrendered, beginning to enjoy himself gradually. After a while he had even ditched his beloved cell phone.

They spent their time watching movies and eating food, only leaving when it was essential. Their destinations were usually a close convenience stores or Wal-Mart, nothing too excited to say the least.

In retrospect, the weekend had been wasted fairly well. She wouldn’t have wished it to go any other way.

She missed Tiffany though, admittedly, and was excited to see her friend the moment she stepped into the school. Of course she would have to wait until lunch, when they usually first saw each other, but she was excited nonetheless.

“Audrey!” Carter called out.

“Rousseau!” Audrey replied with a grin, slipping her phone into her pocket.

“Off to Math?” Carter asked, fumbling with her lock.

Audrey nodded her head and straightened up, readjusting her bag slung over one shoulder. In her hands was her Math book, the small purple Coach bag unable to carry around textbooks. This defeated the entire purpose of a backpack, but Audrey insisted she liked it.

Once she had retrieved her books, Carter slammed her locker shut, clipping on her lock and turning to face the blonde. “Away we go then.” She gestured down the hall where their next class awaited.

“Away we go.” Audrey smiled, walking down the hall.

Carter’s grip on her backpack tightened as she followed her friend, a smile slipping onto her face.

Best friends, that’s what they were. And it was what they were always going to be.



“Cole?” Carter called when she saw her friend by her locker, confusion compressed in her gaze.

He lifted his gaze off the boy who he was talking to, the exact name of him escaped Carter but she had seen his face around before, mostly when he was talking to Cole.

When Cole saw her a smile was painted across his face. He bid the boy, who Carter still couldn’t put a name to, a goodbye before waving to the raven-haired girl.

She had expected Tiffany to be leaning against her locker, anxiously awaiting if she was being honest, but seeing Cole instead was a nice surprise. The instant a smile curved onto his lips his entire face shone, radiating delight. It was infectious to say the least, for soon her mouth was mimicking his.

“What are you doing?” she asked, shifting the weight of her backpack onto her other shoulder.

“Going to lunch?” He chuckled slightly, implying the answer was obvious.

They began down the hallway, their destination- the cafeteria- in their line of sight. On that day Carter had made her own poor excuse of a salad that morning, finding herself unbelievably broke.

Her salads were better then the cafeterias anyways, but she was pretty sure the sludge in a pig’s trough would be too.

“I know, but usually I see Tiffany, not you,” she mumbled, eyes searching for the familiar brunette. Oddly enough the girl she was looking for was no where to be seen, causing for Carter to wonder where she was.

She hadn’t texted her all weekend, and even though Audrey banned Cole and Carter from running off with other people Tiffany usually sent her weird, random texts throughout the week. And, she had even checked her phone several times, there was none.

She reminded herself to keep her eyes peeled anyways, in case Tiffany did decide to grace everyone with her presence.

“Are you buying?” Carter asked when she realized that she wasn’t going to find her friend, and Cole seized her entire attention from there on.

“Nah, since Audrey had us buy all that crap I’m pretty broke.” He laughed, shrugging his shoulders in a nonchalant manner. Audrey was, if anything, a big spender, and no one would deny that.

Carter nodded her head, agreeing with him. “Eh, the food here is crap anyways,” she decided, her coffee coloured eyes scanning her environment in hunt for the blonde.

“Agreed,” he said, still beaming.

Beside them boisterous laughter echoed through the air, capturing both of their interest. There stood Skye and his friends, their continuous sniggers pouring from their lips. The reason why escaped her until her eyes tumbled upon a boy who didn’t seem to fit into the scene, face passive and mouth pressed tightly together.

Carter didn’t think he was in on the joke.

Carter paused and turned her body to face them, they’d already gathered a crowd around them.

Skye took a recess from his laughter and directed his emerald eyes on the boy who looked slightly frightened.

“What? Nothing to say? I guess he really is a fag!” Cue another round of sniggers.

She recollected memories of Math class where she sat next to the infamous boy. Now that Carter knew that she was nothing but a mere play thing to him their conversation was dead. He hadn’t tried to make any advancement towards conversation and she was more than content with that. She had nothing left to say to him and he had nothing left to say to her.

The only words that left his lips addressed to her were ones concerning questions he didn’t understand, and even then her replies were curt and to the point, not wasting any unnecessary breaths.

Carter watched with shock as the boy tensed his muscles, inclining his head so that his hair fell into his eyes. That didn’t hide the pained expression on his face.

She wanted to go and help him. She wanted to scream at them to stop. She wanted to do something.

But she didn’t.

Instead Carter tugged on Cole’s sleeve, who was also astonished by the scene unravelling before his eyes. He snapped out of his daze and nodded at Carter, beginning to walk away from the sight at hand.

As they made their way to where Audrey sat, Carter could hear the teasing fluttering behind them. Their words were vile and merciless and even caused for her to cringe slightly, not even directed to her.

She sent him the utmost sympathy his way but knew that she wouldn’t do anything to stop it. Similar to the many other times in her life she felt spineless and pathetic, again. High school was survival of the fittest and she wasn’t going to stick out her own neck to be shredded to pieces.

“He’s a prick,” Carter muttered, hoping that if she made Skye seem like the bad one she wouldn’t feel so guilty in comparison.

Cole laughed and agreed, reaching to wooden picnic table and stealing a seat across from Audrey.

“What took you guys so long?” she complained, setting her phone down and casting the pair a pseudo-glare. “And where’s Tiffany?” Audrey asked, craning her neck to search for said girl.

Carter sat next to Cole and dumped her bag onto the ground, resting her elbows on the table top cradling her head in her hands.

“I don’t know,” she admitted.

From the corner of her eye she saw Nina in a small cluster of girls. Melanie was with her, a girl who lately was the new talk of the school. They were mumbling amongst themselves with their eyes darting across the field as if anyone who fell victim to their gaze was unworthy. When the thought crossed her mind she instinctively lowered her head.

Audrey turned her head and followed Carter’s stare to be met with the familiar tanned skin. When she noticed this her lips instantly pursued bitterly.

“Oh what a surprise, she isn’t eating. She’d throw it up anyways.”

The blonde had already told them about her situation, and while Carter sympathized, Audrey felt Nina was down right wrong. The reason being was Carter knew what it was like to try and be perfect under Skye Richardson’s gaze, and what it could make a girl do to herself.

Carter felt a vibration in her pocket and furrowed her brows, fishing out her phone in a matter of seconds. Once again it trembled, receiving a call. She didn’t recognize with number.

Cole and Audrey had noticed and silently watched her, their curiosity awakened. All three of them wondered who would call her at this time of day, especially when it wasn’t her two other friends.

Tentatively she pressed a button and lifted the phone to her ear, eyes on the wooden table where they sat.

“Hello?” She asked, bewilderment tied into her voice.

A choked sob sounded on the other end of the phone, echoing into Carter’s mind. She repeated her words, ignoring Audrey’s frantic whispers asking who it was. She had yet to figure it out herself.

“Carter?” a voice asked, belonging to what Carter assumed was an older woman. The tears were thick in her voice.

“Yes?” she replied, stretching out the word while wondering who the mystery caller was.

“It’s Tiffany’s mother, Margaret. I, you, you were friends with Tiffany, right?”

She didn’t pick up on the tense of her words.

Carter, still having no idea what was going on and desperately trying ignore Audrey’s frantic whispering question, she said she was cautiously.

“Carter, I just… I wanted to let you know that Tiffany is… she’s… she's dead. On Friday… it was… my god, she killed herself.”