Left Behind

CARTER

I laughed with Kristen and Paris, who isn’t that bad. “Warm Bodies was amazing.”

“It really was. From the previews, I thought that it would be corny, but it was actually pretty cute. It was so funny. I want to go see it again,” she chuckled.

Paris didn’t say anything to involve herself in the conversation. She would say a few things to me, but she would never talk to Kristen. She probably felt guilty for doing all those things when in reality, Kristen had matured.

Kristen noticed that Paris was a little distant, so she decided to invite her into the conversation. “Paris, did you like the movie?”

Her head snapped up and she bit on her bottom lip. “It was cool,” she said bluntly.

I held in a laugh as Kristen changed the subject. “Okay, so Carter, anything happen today? With—you know—Bryce? I saw you guys sitting together.”

“No, we just talked about non important things.”

“Sure you did.”

+

It was dark, maybe around eleven by the time Kristen stopped at Aliyah’s to bring me home. I was the first stop, so Bryce walked me up to her door while the others attempted to see what we were doing. I was glad that it was too dark because it was none of their concern.

“You want to go somewhere with me tomorrow?” Bryce asked hopefully.

I shook my head. Of course I wanted to, but I couldn’t. “If we were done with our project, I would go with you, but we haven’t even started. But, you’ll be over here tomorrow, so I’ll see you then?”
He nodded unsure of himself.

“Bryce, did you need to tell me something earlier?”

“Uh, oh, no, never mind. I’ll tell you some other time,” he replied as he hugged me. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to tell me?”

“You’ll find out soon,” he shrugged and began to walk back to the car. “I’ll call you cutie.”

I laughed. “Okay, Bryce.”

BRYCE

“You kissed her, right? And gave her the necklace that you and Blake found for her?” Kristen eyed me from the rearview mirror. I shook my head because I didn’t feel that it would have been the perfect time to do that. It was also uncomfortable talking to her about things like that.

“Not yet.”

“Well you should’ve. We all know that you like her, and she likes you obviously. For all we know, she could be about to give up on you because you’re taking too long. She can’t wait forever, Bryce.”

+

Blake and I sat in my room playing the Xbox. I hadn’t seen or heard from Blake for weeks before he showed up that day. We had decided to hang out to catch up.

The entire day he had been waiting to tell me something, and I had been anxious to find out what it was. It seemed important, so I didn’t know what it could be. I knew that I was probably the first to know since Blake and I were always closest than anyone in our group. If I ever needed to talk about something, he would be the one to go to. We both knew that the other would never tell a soul something that the other did.

“Blake,” I started. I was tired of waiting.

He looked up and raised his eyebrows. “Yeah?”

“You needed to tell me something?”

He nodded hesitantly. I noticed that the moment I asked him he tensed up. It almost seemed that he had been avoiding telling me the entire day, but I wouldn’t let him get away with it that easily. “Uh, yeah,” he said as he swallowed. “I do.”

“Well, I’m listening.”

“I’m not sure that I want to say anything anymore. It’s—it’s complicated. It’s not something that I can just… say. I have to know that you won’t tell anybody ever.”

I shrugged almost offended. “You already know that I wouldn’t tell anybody.”

“Not even Carter. Especially not her.”

“Okay, I promise. What kind of secret are you even telling me?”

He sighed and put his face in his palms. It looked like whatever he was hiding was tearing him into two, but I didn’t say anything. I just waited for him to continue. “I did something really bad, man.”

“How bad, Blake?”

“I ki—no I can’t tell you.”

“You know you can,” I pushed. “What did you do this time? Stole money from daddy again? Trashed your dad’s office and pretended that it was that woman that he has affairs with? I’m sure it’s not that bad. You would never do—”

“No! It’s nothing like that!” he yelled loudly. “It’s different this time! I’m just fucking sick of hiding this because it’s starting to get to me. I just don’t want you to look at me any differently than you have our entire lives,” he said.

“You know me better than that.”

“I do, but you would think that you knew me better too, Kel,” he said. He was the only one that ever called me by my last name every now and then. “What I did was unforgiveable. It was the lowest thing I could ever do, and I am so disgusting.”

“I doubt that you could do something that bad.”

“I did! If I don’t tell somebody about this I’ll go crazy. I’ll end up fucking killing myself!”

“No, just tell me! I’m listening!”

He pulled on his hair, and I knew that it was just about to pop off of his head or something. He looked defeated, almost to a point of crying, and smaller than ever; almost like a little kid who had got fussed at for lying. Without another moment of awkward silence he opened his mouth and said, “It was me.”

I stared at him clueless, waiting for him to continue. “What was you?”

He chuckled as if it were unbelievable that he was about to tell me what he had kept a secret for so long. “I’m the one—I did it. It was me! I’m the person who shot Lucy in the alley. It was all me…”