Left Behind

BRYCE

I pried Carter off of a guy named Peyton. She kicked and wiggled, but I wasn’t letting her get away. She wasn’t acting like her usual self, but I also noticed a cup of punch in her hands. I placed her onto the floor.

“Carter calm down,” I said into her ear so that she could hear me over the music as I held tightly onto her shoulders.

“Look at my shirt!” she shrieked. “I’m finding a ride home. I’m not staying here uncomfortably,” she said almost screaming.

“You can borrow one of my shirts,” I said. “Just tie it in the back or something; it’s not that big a deal.”

She sighed and looked around. “Fine, whatever,” she rolled her eyes. “Just get me the fuck out of this shirt.”

I brought her upstairs and she sat on my bed as I searched through the drawers. I found the smallest shirt that I had, which was ugly by the way, and gave it to her. It was like a shirt from an old baseball team or something.

She sighed. “Thanks, you’re a lifesaver,” she said pulling off her shirt revealing her bare skin and bra. I knew she wasn’t in her right mind then, because normal, conservative Carter wouldn’t have done that. I just looked away.

“What?”I asked acting like I didn’t hear what she said. I really did, but a lot of the things that she’d been saying reminded me of someone else. Her words always sounded familiar to me…

She repeated herself slowly. “I said thanks, you saved my life.”

I chuckled at the thought. Carter pulled the shirt over her head and looked completely clueless as to why I had been laughing.

“I feel…”

“Drunk?” I said finishing her sentence.

“I don’t drink,” she said rubbing her head. “Never have.”

I laughed. “Carter, you’ve been drinking the punch all night. It has alcohol in it,” I said shaking my head.

“Shit that explains so much. I thought I was going crazy.”

“Yeah, no,” I said sarcastically. “But I need to tell you something really important.”

She looked up with a curious face, worry suddenly in her eyes. “Well? What is it?” I wasn’t going to tell her what I needed to tell her. Not yet, anyway.

She stared at me waiting with curious eyes, probably expecting the biggest secret to escape from my mouth. “I know who…”

She looked nervous suddenly. I knew what she thought I was about to say, but I wasn’t giving it away yet. She swallowed hardly. “What? Just say it.”

“I know who the guy is that ruined your shirt,” I said satisfied and began laughing at her facial expression. I know that it was a bitch move, but it was truly hilarious. She looked pissed that I had gotten her roused up for something that probably didn’t matter at all. I gave her a grin which eventually turned her frown into a small smirk.

“You idiot,” she said letting out a deep breath. “I actually thought it was going to be important.” She slapped my shoulder playfully.

“Well what did you think I was going to say?” I challenged.

Her face went blank and she was back to her ‘I care about anything’ attitude. “I don’t know. People know more about you than you know about yourself.” I stared at her, because I honestly thought she was about to admit herself that she knew what I knew. But instead she shrugged, “Do you smoke?”

“Sometimes,” I replied searching my pants pockets for my cigarettes.

When I took out my cigarettes she snatched them out of my hand. “Lighter,” she demanded holding her hand out. I gave it to her and she walked towards the door. “Thanks, you might not be getting this back,” she said and trotted down the staircase.

CARTER

I walked outside where no one was and just decided to relax for a while. I hadn’t had a cigarette in a month at the least, and my body ached for one. I went out the front and lit a cigarette placing the box in my back pants pocket.

Sucking in the first cloud of smoke in a month very much relaxed me, especially from what had just happened. When Bryce told me that he needed to tell me something important, I was sure that he would tell me that he knew who I was. But thinking about it, there’s no possible way that he could know without me telling him; unless he remembered my face and name suddenly, of course. But then he would tell me right?

What if he knew who I was and went around telling everyone my life story? That was basically the only fear I had of him knowing my real identity. I didn’t want the word to get out that I was some freaky psycho suicidal maniac or something. Not that I cared or anything…
Out of the blue, I saw Kristen Pistole trotting her way across the lawn in my direction. She walked up to me stomping her feet through the grass like it would scare me off. “Hey,” I said attempting to keep the peace as I flicked ashes. I just knew she was coming over to start something.

“Carter,” she said.

I looked around waiting for her to say something else, but she didn’t. “Can I help you with something?”

“Yes, actually. Bryce doesn’t like when people smoke around him, so I’m sure he won’t like you dropping cigarettes in his yard,” she claimed.

“Oh he doesn’t?”

“No. He hates smokers. He knows that I hate smokers, so he promised he wouldn’t smoke.” She smirked. “So I would suggest you to put it out now and throw it in the street,” she said.

“Something’s telling me that he won’t mind, Honey.” I rolled my eyes and took another drag.
Kristen reached for my mouth and yanked my cigarette out of it. I saw my cigarette fly to the ground, then her foot on top of it smashing it further.

“You heard what I said,” she reminded me.

“Is there something you want? Other than to bother me with your rules of the house?”

“No! That’s it,” she squealed cheerfully like she accomplished something great.

“Okay, good,” I nodded. I took out another cigarette, lit it, placed it in my mouth, and walked off leaving her as dumbfounded as ever. Or so I thought. She followed behind after a while, and I turned around to confront her. “What?” I said in a sterner voice rolling my eyes.

She started to say something, but quickly changed her sentence as I turned around. “Y- Wait! Is that Bryce’s shirt? Why do you have on Bryce’s shirt?”

“Look, I’m just borrowing it. You have a problem with it, well here I am,” I said waiting for her to approach me. If there was one thing that I wasn’t afraid of, it was fighting.

“Just because Bryce thinks that I’m a jealous bitch, I’m gonna say as nicely as possible to stay away from him. I saw you go upstairs earlier and the other day you went to eat with him. I’m not stupid. You can’t just steal people’s boyfriends.”

“That’s fine, because I don’t want him,” I said then continued back towards the house.

“I mean it!” she yelled after me.

“Me too!” I yelled without looking back.

***
KRISTEN

“Me too!” Carter yelled as she walked back into the house.

I sighed and walked back as well, but making sure not to follow her. I went up the stairs to find Bryce sitting there in a complete daze, obviously in deep thought. He had to be thinking about her, and I knew for a fact he was, but if I made a huge scene out of it he would get angry. Peeking my head into the doorway I managed a “Hey” that came out as almost a whisper.

He jumped. “Oh, hey,” he said standing up.

“What are you doing up here when the party’s down there?” I said pointing with my thumb to the staircase.

He shrugged. “I had to get Carter a shirt. Someone ran into her and spilled their drink on her clothes.”

“Oh.” There was an awkward silence until I decided to break it. He’s my boyfriend. Why is there an awkward silence? “Well, do you want to head back to the party? It’s crazy down there!”

“I guess,” he said looking passed me as his expression changed. I turned around to see Carter leaning against the railing of the balcony.

He walked passed me and over to Carter who just gave a sly smirk, most likely to piss me off. “Hey, did you forget something or…”

She nodded. “I forgot to give you your cigarettes back,” she laughed. She gave him the box. She then looked at me and winked as she tossed the lighter to me and I, stupidly, caught it. “Thanks for the smoke. I needed it.” She turned and smile as she went down the hall and down the staircase to disappear into the wild crowd.

Bryce had a smile on his face as he just played with the box of Marlboro cigarettes in his hands. I was as confused as I would ever be at that point. “What the hell was that? And what the hell are you smiling for?” I snapped.

“What are you talking about?”

“You. Are. Smiling!” I shrieked. “And… you told me you didn’t smoke!”

“I’m sorry that I can’t smile anymore,” he said sarcastically. “And, well, I lied. You know that you can be controlling, and I want to do what I want sometimes. It’s not always about what you want me to do.”

I could feel my blood rushing to my head as I attempted to manage the anger that wanted so badly to come out. “And did you think that it was funny that she purposely tossed me the lighter because she knew that I didn’t know that you smoked? She did that to piss me off!”

“Did it work?”

I suddenly flipped. Why the hell would he ask me if it worked? He obviously wanted to get punched. “Obviously it did! You’re the worst boyfriend ever, and if we can’t have trust then we have nothing! Sometimes I swear I don’t understand you!”

“Tell me how she knew that you didn’t like me smoking.” Shit. I knew that he didn't want me talking to her.

I was quiet for a while. He lifted his eyebrows as if to say ‘I'm waiting’. I gave a long sigh and bit my bottom lip. “Well, I kind of talked to her, but it wasn’t like bad or anything…”

He forced a fake chuckle, nodded, and tossed the cigarette carton onto his bed. Without saying another word he just walked out of the room leaving me completely confused and slightly embarrassed. Just a couple days ago we were the perfect couple, and ever since Carter came, he’s been slowly changing.

Unlike those cheesy movies where the current girlfriend picks on the other girl because she’s so fragile and innocent, I can’t do that. Carter’s way too tough for me. She doesn’t break down or even flinch at my words like post people would. I'm stuck on the assumption that she's a complete badass, even. I’m almost one-hundred percent sure that I’m more scared of her than she is of me, and when I smashed my cigarette under my foot as she just tossed another in her mouth, I figured that out. Something told me not to mess with her, but I wasn’t gonna let this secretive friendship between her and Brycen continue.