Left Behind

CARTER

“Here kiddo,” I said dropping the McDonald’s bag onto Lucy’s lap.

“What’s this?” she asked looking into the bag.

“This nice kid bought it for me,” I explained. “He claimed that I looked familiar and wanted to get to know me I guess. So, he bought me food. I saved you half of my burger and fries.”

“Thanks, girl.”

“What did you do today, Luce?”

She yawned. “I Walked around. Explored a little more than I usually did, and just relaxed. Did you have a good first day?”

“I guess, nothing really happened. It was cool. It would’ve been better if you were there.”
Lucy chewed on the half of the Big Mac that I left for her. “Carter, I was just thinking about something. How would you feel about foster homes? I passed by one today, and I just think it would be a great idea. I think it’s something we should’ve done a very long time ago.”

“No. No! What if we get separated or something? What if we have to go to two different places and we don’t see each other anymore? Isn’t that why we’ve always avoided them?”

Lucy laughed and shook her head. “Start thinking about yourself. Carter, I know what I said the other day, but I’m sick of living like this. Seven years out here is not gonna do a person justice. Plus, we won’t get split up. We can tell them we’re like sisters or something,” she said.

“Trust me; they don’t care! They could care less if we were biological sisters, identical twins, or cousins. If they only have room for one, they’re only going to take one.”

“Look, just think about it for me? What if something happened to me, you would be alone. But if you were in a foster home, at least someone would take care of you,” she explained.

“Why would something happen to you?”

She squinted. “What?” She was playing dumb. Why would she play dumb? Why would something happen to her? “But just promise me you’ll think about it?”

“How about we make a deal then?” I asked with my all too famous sneaky look. She raised an eyebrow for a ‘what’. I clasped my hands together in the begging position. “I will do this for you if you go to school for me.”

She immediately lost all patience with me. “Damn Carter. It’s just not happening. I swear I’ll leave you on this fucking street by yourself! I'm sick of this! You don’t know the last time I slept in a bed, or even a couch. I don’t remember the last time I bathed in a tub. I would rather anywhere but here.”

“I don’t know about that…”

“Whatever, Carter. Just like you’re doing what you wanna do, it’s the same thing for me. Come or not. I’m going.” I didn’t know why she was overreacting about it, but it almost scared me.

***

BRYCE

Laken and Blaine came over to my house since Kris and I were hanging out. The only problem was, I couldn’t stop thinking about Carter. I know I knew her from somewhere and it was eating my insides to not be able to figure it out.

“Where’s Mr. Patrick?” Kristen asked me.

“Probably at the bank. Some freak shows stole his wallet on the street the other day. Good thing that wasn’t the wallet he kept his cards in. We would be in some trouble.”

Laken looked over surprised. “I can’t believe somebody would do that. That’s so funny dude,” he said. We were all lying across my bed staring at the ceiling, then. That’s what we did when we hung out. There was nothing to do and nothing to talk about, so we just relaxed.

“Are you throwing that party for your birthday Friday?” Kristen asked me.

“Yeah, Kris,” I said bluntly because she already knew the answer. Everyone already knew about the party, and we had been talking about it forever. I had one last year and the year before as well, and it was turning into almost an annual thing.

“Is it gonna be here? I’ve never been to a mansion party before,” she said smiling.

“This isn’t a mansion, Kristen. It's a hellhole. Plus, if you wanted a mansion party, you could’ve thrown one at your own house.” She laughed.

“Anyways, since everyone’s invited, I wanted to make one change to the invitation list,” she said with a snobby attitude. “The Carter kid gotta go. She’s not invited to the party, kay?”

“It’s my party, and everyone’s invited. Why can’t she come?”

“Babe,” she whined. “I’m blonde, but I’m not an idiot. I saw how you were looking at her today and one of my main sources told me that you and Carter went to McDonald’s together after school,” Kristen complained.

“So now you can’t trust me enough that you get people to watch me? Shit, I'm not your husband Kris. Get the fuck over it.”

“How many times have I told you not to curse at me?” Her face was red and filled with obvious anger. I tried to apologize and hug her but she pushed my arm away. “Don’t touch me! I’m leaving!” she yelled in her slightly annoying high pitched voice. “…and don’t call me or text me, or even look at me!”

“Okay, Kristen,” I said without the slightest bit of worry in my voice. This kind of thing happened almost every week. “If you wanna go, go.”

“So now you’re putting me out instead of telling me that you’re super sorry and to forgive you? Fine! Take your stupid necklace!” She yanked it off nearly breaking it and threw it into my lap. My reaction was to look at her sincerely until she felt the need to walk out of the door.

“Okay, Kristen,” I said holding the necklace in my hands. Personally, I thought that the necklace was too expensive to be throwing around. We got it from the Mall of Louisiana in Zale’s and it cost well over two hundred. It was a diamond heart, and a big one at that. I gave it to her when we made two years.

“Okay? All you’re gonna say is okay? This is bullshit, I'm gone.”

“Okay, see you tomorrow… Love you?” I said as she walked out the door.

Laken looked at me and laughed after Kristen was gone. “You’ll be back together in twelve hours, a day at the most.”

“Boys are all dicks. I’m going to check on her,” Blaine said. She kissed Laken and then chased after Kristen out of the house.