Chapter 64: What The Hell Carly

POV: Carly

She heard Enzo say it first.

"Incoming." He said quietly. The amusement gone from his voice entirely.

She looked up.

Tommy was crossing the cafeteria.

Not the purposeful controlled stride he usually had. This was different. This was the stride of someone who had been sitting somewhere processing something for thirty minutes and had arrived at the end of his patience and was now moving with his eyes the specific amber shade that meant the wolf was closer to the surface than the person.

He was looking directly at her.

Then at Niko.

Then back at her.

She felt Niko go still beside her.

She felt the whole table go still.

She did not move.

Tommy stopped in front of them and his chest was heaving and his jaw was so tight she could see the muscle jumping and he looked at the two of them sitting side by side with their hands still loosely connected on the table and something in his face fractured.

"What the hell Carly." His voice came out low and controlled and somehow that was worse than yelling.

She let go of Niko's hand.

Not because she wanted to. Because Tommy was looking at their hands with an expression that she did not want to make worse and she owed him at least that much.

"Tommy." She said.

"Him." He said. Not a question. His eyes moved to Niko. "You."

Niko looked back at him with an expression that was completely neutral and completely present and completely prepared for whatever came next.

"I should've known." Tommy said. Still that low controlled voice that was costing him something. "Every time I turned around this semester. Every time something felt off." He laughed once. Short and hard. "It was him."

"Tommy this isn't the place." Carly said.

"You made it the place." He said. "You sat down here in front of everybody and made it very much the place."

She pressed her lips together. He was not wrong.

"How long." He said. Looking at Niko now. Directly.

Niko said nothing.

"I'm talking to you." Tommy said.

"Tommy." Carly said sharply.

He looked at her. "How long has this been going on behind my back."

"That is not a conversation for here." She said.

"You literally just kissed him in front of the entire school." Tommy said. His voice cracking slightly on the last word. "You think I'm going to wait for a better venue."

She stood up.

Not aggressively. Just so she was not sitting while he was standing because the height difference was making this feel worse.

"I know you are angry." She said. "You have every right to be angry. I handled this terribly and I am not going to pretend otherwise. But I need you to hear me when I say this had nothing to do with how I feel about you as a person."

"But it had something to do with how you feel about him." Tommy said.

She held his gaze. "Yes."

He looked at Niko again.

Niko was still sitting. Still neutral. Still completely prepared.

Tommy's jaw worked.

She watched the specific internal battle moving through his face. The part of him that wanted to make this loud and physical and the part of him that was still Tommy Lancaster who had been her friend for years before any of this and knew how to be better than his worst impulse even when his worst impulse was very loudly present.

She waited.

She let him have the moment.

She owed him that.

"You're making a mistake." He said finally. Quiet and certain. Not cruel. Like a statement of fact he genuinely believed.

"Maybe." She said. "But it's mine to make."

He looked at her for a long moment.

Something moved through his face that was not anger. Something underneath the anger that she recognized as the thing that had always been true about Tommy Lancaster even when everything else was complicated. He had genuinely cared about her. She had genuinely cared about him. That was real even if everything else had not worked.

She wished it had been enough.

She could see from his face that he wished so too.

He stepped back.

One step. Then another.

His eyes moved to Niko one more time.

Whatever passed between them in that look was something Carly did not entirely see but felt in the shift of the air.

Then Tommy turned and walked away.

Back through the cafeteria. Back through the doors. Gone.

The room stayed quiet for another five seconds.

Then the noise came back in gradually like a tide returning.

Carly stood beside her chair and breathed and looked at the doors he had walked through.

Niko was beside her.

He did not touch her. Did not say anything immediately. Just stood there close enough that she could feel the cold of him against her arm and she found that more steadying than any words would have been.

"You okay." He said finally.

She thought about it honestly.

"Yeah." She said. "I actually am."

He looked at her sideways.

She looked back.

She sat back down.

He sat back down.

She picked up what was left of her taco.

Enzo was staring at both of them with an expression that suggested he was significantly reconsidering several life choices.

Mauricio was looking at the table with the careful expression of someone who had decided to be Switzerland and was committed to it.

The cafeteria hummed around them.

Carly ate her taco.

Niko stole a chip from her tray without asking.

She looked at him.

He looked back with absolutely no remorse.

She shook her head and looked forward and felt the corner of her mouth pull up despite everything and thought that for a day that had contained a breakup and a public declaration and Aurora's exit speech and Tommy's confrontation, this moment right here was not bad at all.

It was actually pretty good.

She was going to let it be good.