Left Behind

CARTER

“So you kissed him?” She screeched into my ear louder than anyone had ever before. I shushed her because it was known that Bryce was downstairs in the kitchen. We were sprawled out across my bed at Aliyah’s house starting on our assignment for class.

I nodded, hesitantly, because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to tell her or not. Yes, the two of us had gotten closer over the week that we had been preparing our research assignment, but she wasn’t on the list of people that I should trust.

“Was he a good kisser?” she whispered as she winked at me knowingly. “Of course he is, who am I kidding?”

I rolled my eyes at her hiding the smile that was appearing on my face. “Okay, Kristen, what are we supposed to be doing? We’ve been working for an entire week and have gotten nothing accomplished.”

She picked up her phone. “Carter, can you believe these damn shoes are fifty percent off? This weekend, I'm going to the Mall in BR. My friend Trevor is coming with me. You should bring a friend,” she said smiling.

“A friend? Like… Aliyah, friend, or—”

“Ew gross, I hate Aliyah. I feel like I’ll catch something from even breathing in the same oxygen as her from this trashy house she lives in. Please,” she scoffed, “Aliyah would never go anywhere with me.”

I’ve always wondered if something went on between Aliyah and Kristen. I know that Aliyah hated Bryce with a passion, but I never thought that it could possibly have something to do with Kristen. “Well, why not?”

“It’s a long story. Maybe I’ll tell you when we’re closer,” she chuckles as if it would actually happen someday. “So? Are you in?”

I shrugged and shook my head, clearing my thoughts and trying to get myself back on track. “Kristen,” I said pointing to the papers that surrounded us on the bed. “This is why we can’t get anything done.”

“I know, I know, but I have one more question.” I raised my eyebrows waiting on her to continue going. “So are you and Bryce—like—a thing?”

“A thing?”

“Did he ask you to be his girlfriend yet? I mean, he kissed you so he obviously likes you.”

“Yeah… uh, no me and Bryce—”

“—Are what?”

Both, Kristen and me, snapped our heads up in the direction of the door. Bryce was leaning against the door, arms folded, trying to be cool, but of course he isn’t cool at all. Kidding. He smirked at me, and I looked away because I was embarrassed that I had been caught talking about him.
Kristen spoke up. “Carter and Bryce are… you guys are so… just fucking date already. I’m sick of watching nothing happen, and as much as I hated carter in the beginning, I swear she is perfect for you. Maybe she’ll teach you a couple of things about yourself.”

“Yeah?”

“I think so, really,” she said confidently. “Brycen, Carter wanted to invite you with us tomorrow. We’re driving down to BR, and she wanted to know if you’d like to be her date?”

“I’ll have to think about it—sure.” He laughs at himself because he noticed that he sounded a little desperate. He sighed as he remembered something. “Wait, I can’t. Blake is supposed to be coming over because we haven’t talked in forever. He needed to tell me something.”

Kristen shrugged. “Tell him to come too. Tell Blake to bring Paris along; I promise I won’t claw her eyes out.” I was proud of Kristen for changing. Unlike some people who actually do nothing about the problem, she actually figured out her problem and fixed it. I liked ‘new Kristen’.

+

Aliyah shook her head in disappointment. Apparently I was wrong for abandoning her for teenage stuck up rich kids who only cared about themselves. She sat on the couch in her living room glaring at me. It wasn’t like we didn’t see each other all day; we lived together. She had her friends and I had mine. I don’t know why she thought that we had to be together all day every day.

“Kristen, Paris, Blake, Bryce, and Kristen’s boyfriend? How awkward can it get?”

“It’s not awkward unless you make it awkward, Aliyah.”

She thought about it for a second. “Well then… yep! It’s pretty awkward. How the heck can you hang with them, Carter? They are like vampires that suck the personality out of human beings.”

“You act like I have a personality,” I chuckled. “But they’re outside, so I’ll see you later.”

She walked me to the door, and I walked to the car that was parked in the driveway. It was completely full, so I was going to have to squeeze in the backseat with three other people. I sighed as Bryce opened the door, letting me in the middle and squished me in between him and Blake. I laughed to myself at the image of Blake squeezed in the middle. He was definitely too big to be sitting there.

During the ride, the music was pretty loud the entire time. It was probably because the girls had nothing to talk about since they didn’t really care for each other anyway. The guys were all bored and Bryce and Paris were both sleeping against the windows fogging up the glass with their breathing.

Blake was staring out into space, so talking to him was the only other option. I mean, we were practically all over each other anyway, right? “I like your tattoo,” I told him trying to make conversation.

He looked at me and smiled. “Aw, that’s so sweet, Carter.” I laughed at him for being goofy. “I got it so long ago; it’s time to get retouched. I think it was badly done from the beginning. See, it was a skull, but it’s starting to look a little like a hot air balloon.”

“No it doesn’t,” I said trying to hold back the laugh that was trying its hardest to come out. “What did it say?”

“It said ‘Sinner’. It was a personal thing. But you can’t really read it now, so I’m getting it redone soon.”

“Well that’s cool. I think I’m gonna get a tattoo. Something to remember Lucy by or something. So when I’m eighty and I have Alzheimer’s, I can know that I once knew a girl named Lucy and all that she’s done for me. It’s movie-ish I know.”

He suddenly looked uneasy. I kind of started to worry about him a little, but as quickly as the look covered his face, it was gone again. I felt like if I would have thought anything about it, other than him being a little car sick, that I’d be jumping to unnecessary conclusions, so I left it alone. “No, that’s cool,” he said. Then the conversation ended just as quickly as if it never happened.

+

BRYCE

“I guess since the girls are gone, you can tell me what you needed to tell me.”

“I can’t.”

“Why, dude? I thought that it was important.”

Blake looked around him pointing out all of the people that were passing. “I would feel more comfortable talking about it in private, though. It’ll have to wait.”

I nodded. I could completely understand where he was coming from. It was obviously something personal. “Okay, man.”

Blake looked over to me and smirked. “So, you and Carter? Honestly she’s the farthest thing from your type of girl. You really like her, huh?”

“I really do. It’s not like some cliché high school crush or something, either. It’s different with her. It’s like I’m protective over her, and she’s dependent on me, and I like that. Kristen never needed me for anything. If she wanted it mommy bought it, you know?”

Blake nodded. “It figures you’d want her to need you,” he said laughing.

“Shut up, man! I’m serious.”

“I know, I know. Keep telling me about your fantasies.”

“Like, it’s hard to explain, but it’s not hard to explain. I hate when she’s mad at me because then she knows how to keep herself away from someone, and I like fighting with her because then I know that she cares, but… all I know is that she’s different.”

“Well then why are you with me? You should like buy her some cute little necklace or something and ask her to be your girlfriend.” He laughed. “I’m sure Paris is miserable with Kristen anyway,” he said.

+

Blake went over and pulled Paris away from the girls, and Kristen decided that she wanted quality time with Trevor. That left Carter and I alone, but I didn’t mind, and I’m sure she probably didn’t either. I was still confused that she had kissed me days before because it was so unexpected. It was almost like she only did it to shut me up, but I didn’t care. As many times as I wanted to make a move, I didn’t think that Carter had wanted me to, so I didn’t.

We were walking through the mall when I decided that we should get smoothies. I ordered her favorite, for the both of us, and we walked back downstairs and outside by the outside stores. I couldn’t help but to remember the last time that I had been there and how I broke up with Kristen that day.

Carter slurped on her smoothie, and I watched her. She stirred the smoothie with the straw as she tried to find the last bit of the smoothie that was left inside of the cup. She looked more concentrated than she should have been, but I figured that she wouldn’t be carter unless she was over thinking. “Are you having fun?” I asked without really thinking. It was a stupid question considering we had been doing nothing but walking around for the past hours.

She smiled. “Yeah, of course. Are you?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you sure? Because I have a tendency to bore people to death, and I really don’t want you to be bored with me.”

I chuckled at her because ever since that night, she had been more nervous when she was around me. I was even impressed to see that she was more dressed up than casual, and she had on her fair share of makeup and lip gloss. “You are just as boring as I am.”

“Shit, I’m super boring,” she laughed.

“What? I am not boring, Carter! I will show you a good time if you think I’m boring. Remember that party that you went to where you attacked Peyton? Yeah, that was my party and it was pretty fucking insane.”

“Chill, Brycen, I’m kidding. Where’s your sense of humor?”

I paused before laughing slightly. “That was my sense of humor.”

Carter smiled and rolled her eyes as she sat on a bench. She played with her straw again, and I kept wondering what she could have possibly been thinking about. She was always such a mystery, and I wanted to figure her out.

“What do you want to be—like when you grow up?” Carter asked.

“I… I never really thought about it,” I replied honestly. My parents never pushed me to pick a college, or pick a career. They could care less about what I did. They wanted me to run their company when I got the hang of it. “Maybe a fireman or something like that. What about you?”

She shrugged. “I just want to be happy. That’s all.”

“Nothing else?”

“Nothing else.”

“That’s a pretty easy goal to accomplish,” I replied. “Being happy comes naturally.”

She shot me a sarcastic look and scoffed. “If it were that easy, I would be happy already.”

I put my arm around her shoulder and she looked up at me. “I can make you happy,” I said. She smirked, and I noticed just how confused I was. Why did she smirk? Maybe I was the one that was nervous, not Carter. “What’s funny? I’m fucking serious.”

“You’re cute,” she said in a sarcastic tone. “And I wasn’t laughing at you, so chill out. I just think that you’re… I don’t know. Stop trying so hard to make me… I don’t know what I’m trying to say.”

“I’m just being Bryce,” I replied.

“I know.”

“Hey, Carter, there’s something that I wanted to ask you.” I felt around in my pocket. “Well, this is sort of sudden and everything, but I wanted you to know that I really—”

“Bryce, Carter! Come on we’re going across the street to Rave!” Kristen stood beckoning Carter and me to go along with the rest of the group. The perfect chance equals ruined.