The Richardson List

“No… really?” Astonishment fused with the blonde’s voice. Audrey sat on her bed with the duvet pulled up to her chin, eyes wide with surprise and a smile twisted onto her lips.

Carter nodded her head, but she had of course left the last tidbit of the conversation with Skye out. To say anything would’ve been… unnecessary, really, it wasn’t that big of a deal and would only maybe for a really irrational Audrey. And that only made for very embarrassing situations that Carter had to deal with.

“I guess it’s not that surprising,” Audrey admitted after a moment of silence, dropping the covers from her body and stretching her arms over her head.

In response, the blonde received a deadpan stare, accompanied with a few blinks of confusion. Carter could recall a tsunami amount of disbelief crashing into her when he had walked away, leaving her to collapse onto the pavement and steady her breathing. There was herself, someone who avoided confrontation like the plague, confronting. It made her weak in the knee and queasy in the stomach.

She even had to take a breather before even thinking about walking back to the picnic table.

Audrey said nothing, though.

“Care to explain?” Carter cocked an eyebrow, head titling to the side in naivety.

Audrey had gotten to her feet and was advancing towards her dresser where a bottle of her brand new nail polish sat, a glittering pink. Ever since she had grown out her nails past the nubs, she’d been nearly obsessed with painting them.

The blonde glance over her shoulder while unscrewing the cap.

“Explain what?”

Cue another deadpan stare.

“I guess it’s not that surprising,” Carter mocked Audrey's previous words in a high pitched voice, adding air quotations for emphasis.

“Oh,” the word tumbled from Audrey’s lips as realization crossed her features. “Yeah, I was just saying, not that surprising that you weren’t all “Skye love me long time”, ya know? ‘Cause of the whole Cole thing.” Her eyes focused on the thick pink liquid she was now applying while seated in the middle of her floor.

On her spot atop the bed, Carter narrowed her eyes at the meaning in Audrey’s words. “What Cole thing?” she asked slowly.

Audrey remained oblivious to the harsh stare, continuing to coat her nails with delight. “Oh, you know,” she began once again, when in fact Carter found herself finding she didn’t. “How you two are like lovers.”

“No-no we aren’t!” Carter denied furiously, her cheeks betraying the defiant display and burning a cherry red. The blush crept over her skin with a glowing presence, and when Audrey’s gaze lifted from her nails she grinned.

“Come on, we both know it,” Audrey coxed the truth passed fastened lips.

Carter shook her head, but she could feel her defence wearing thin.

“But he hates me,” she reminded her friend once again, the painful truth that had been delving into her sanity.

The blonde twisted the nail polish close, setting it onto the dresser with a sympathetic gaze. Only half of her one hand was finished.

“He doesn’t hate you. He’s just mad, people get mad. It human, but you have to talk to him,” Audrey tried to reason with Carter, who somehow felt that the conversation would not end in her favour. Lately, spare the entire Skye incident which was a ray of light in her life, nothing was really doing so anyways.

While she didn’t outright allow the horrid words to touch the surrounding air, Carter knew where Audrey was going with this. If there was one person in the world Carter knew better than anyone else, it was Audrey.

Sometimes she wished that her friend could be a little more unpredictable.

“Audrey,” she sighed, eyes falling to her hands fingering the covers. Her voice possessed a begging hint that she was certain the blonde had picked up on, however the girl made no notion of so.

Instead Audrey blinked in false innocence, mouth stretching into a cheesy smile. “Come on, Carter!” she whined, batting her eyelashes, looking almost like she was suffering a seizue.

“No, no, no.” Carter crossed her arms over her chest boldly, turning her head to the side with her lips pressed tightly together. “I refuse to go talk to Cole.”

And that she was planning to stick to. She had enough of being bold, telling Skye that not only did she not want to be with him but to destroy his endeared list was enough for a lifetime. If Cole just didn’t fit into that skilfully crafted plan, so be it.

In response to her little rebel episode, Audrey rolled her eyes. She blew on her fingers while using her free hand to twist her door open. With her cheeks puffed up she nodded her head to the corridor, disappearing down the hall.

And suddenly, Carter found that she wasn’t in Audrey’s bedroom anymore. No, she found herself in front of Cole’s house, the last place she wanted to be.

“Fine,” she surrendered with a mumble, trudging up the familiar stairs. With each stop closer to the door she could feel her body losing strength, threatening to crumple on top of the cement at any moment.

Taking in a deep breath and another glance behind her shoulder to see a defiant yet reassuring Audrey, Carter knocked on the door. For a minute everything was silent, anticipation fresh in the air. On her sides, Carter’s fists were balled up as she tightened her grip while the seconds drifted by.

Her breath hitched in her throat once she head footsteps nearing the entrance, falling hard on the ground and leaving Carter to believe that it wasn’t his mom answering the call. She had yet to determine whether or not this was good, like the many other things she found herself drowning in confusion over.

The door was ripped open to reveal the boy she had been waiting for, almost dreading and almost hoping. Cole’s face was blank; eyes gliding from Carter’s slightly terrified face to Audrey’s grinning one.

Her heart began to thump in her chest, hammering against the ribcage and threatening to break the bones containing it. Her chin slightly shook as she parted her lips, taking in a deep breath and ready to pour everything she had been harbouring till then.

That was, until Cole slammed the door shut on both of them.

Momentarily, Carter was rendered stunned. At a loss for words, she turned on her heel, taking in a trembling breath.

“Well, I guess that’s it. Can’t blame a girl for trying.” She shrugged, feigning disappointment as she was about to step down back to Audrey.

However, the blonde clearly was never going to let it go down that easily. If her harsh glare wasn’t enough to keep Carter up there, the sour keys in Audrey's hand, the ones that had coxed her up the stairs in the first place definitely did.

Carter’s face fell with irritation. This was getting old, all she really wanted to do was to tell Cole she was sorry, go home with her sour keys, and sleep. Her patience was wearing thin, Cole’s immaturity was not helping that fact, and Audrey wasn’t going to give up the candy otherwise.

Again, she knocked on the door, this time with a little more force. The door opened up again, and again an aggravated Cole was visible. It seemed neither of them was diving into this with good feelings.

“Let me in,” her voice spat out as more of a demand, however at the moment she couldn’t have cared less.

He narrowed his eyes before stepping to the side, allowing her a path through the door. She accepted his offer without a glance back to Audrey, though she assumed that the girl was beyond ecstatic that they had made any sort of progress. Carter was just tired.

She advanced down the hall into the living room, choosing to stand while taking in the room. It was all too familiar to her, down to each picture on the wall and every figurine settled on the shelves.

Cole had followed her in, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. “What do you want?”

His voice was anything but welcoming, but Carter didn’t let it get to her. Instead she straightened her shoulders, still refusing to look him straight in the eye.

“I’m sorry.”

The words left her mouth, she was sure, but it felt like it wasn’t her who was saying them. She could feel her lips move around the words, and she could hear her voice slicing through the air, but it wasn’t her.

In response to her apology, Cole made no action to accept it. His blank stare continued to burn into her skin and suddenly she felt herself a tad less than comfortable.

“Is that all? You can leave then.” He regained his composure, gesturing towards the entrance. Carter knitted her eyebrows.

“Seriously? Can you not just accept it? Do you have to be so difficult?” Her teeth gritted as she could feel the adrenaline start to pump through her veins, somehow giving her a burst of confidence. And as always, she was going to put this to use.

“What?” He raised an eyebrow, returning back to his position against the wall, clearly not amused.

“You are being such an ass!” She was not very amused either. “I didn’t tell you, I’m sorry! I’m sorry! How many times do you expect me to say it? What do you want me to do, build a goddamn time machine?”

“Paint it silver, why don’t you?” he chided. Carter glared.

“Do you know how long I wanted to tell you? How I wanted to expose Lily? How many nights I lost sleep over it?” Her voice was hinting at desperate and her words were losing their spiteful edge.

“Then why didn’t you?” he countered, eyes narrowed.

“Because!” She threw up her hands in exasperation. “I know you, I know Lily. She’d feed you some bullshit story and you wouldn’t be my friend anymore! You probably wouldn’t have thought twice about dropping me. And I don’t want you to not be my friend! Because I like having you as my friend! Goddammit Cole I like you! I like you a damn well lot!”

She crossed her arms over her chest, much too furious to realize the words that had sprinted past her lips. As she mumbled incoherent profanities under her breath, yet to register her rant, Cole had pushed himself off the wall.

His gaze eyed her up suspiciously, taking a few threatening steps closer. The edges of his lips turned upwards slightly.

She noticed. “What?” Carter spat.

“You like me?” He echoed with a smile infecting his face. She was still much too overwhelmed in her anger, but she took in what he said.

Her eyes widened as she finally processed the situation, her words. “Oh, I didn’t…” her voice trailed off as she brought a palm over mouth, as if she was still able to prevent the confession from spilling.

“You thought that I wouldn’t be your friend anymore?” It was clear to see he was enjoying this, and it was times like these that Carter regretting bursting out with any coherent thought she could think up. If she could just keep to herself, avoiding confrontation like she always planned, she wouldn’t find herself in such predicaments.

“No.” Even though denying at that point was futile, that didn’t mean she wouldn’t try.

“Well, I don’t think I want to be your friend anymore.”

As the words past his lips, Carter’s eyes widened. “No, I mean I really do want to be your friend! Please, don’t not be my friend!” she scrambled for anything to say, cursing herself for ruining the friendship she had held so dear. Tears began to prick her eyes.

“Woah, chill Carter.” Cole comforted her, “I never said that I didn’t want to be more than friends.”

She ripped his arm off of her that he had draped across her shoulders moments before, casting him a heated glare. “Screw you! I so thought you were going to ditch me forever!”

Carter stalked out of the room and into the corridor, shoving her feet into her shoes with a scowl.

“So does that mean we’re dating?” Cole called from the other room.

“Yes, now shut up and go die, you bastard!”