Chapter 26 Late
POV: Carly
She changed in seven minutes flat.
Red floral dress, jean jacket, sandals. She freshened up her makeup in the mirror with hands that were moving faster than her brain and tried not to think about the conversation she had just had with Tommy on the field.
She was not cheating.
She was going to a music festival with a classmate and project partner and that was the complete extent of what this was and she was going to stop standing in this locker room justifying it to herself and just go.
She texted Niko that she would be at the gate in five minutes and got nothing back.
She stared at the screen.
Nothing.
She grabbed her bag and walked out.
The campus had mostly cleared out after the game. The crowd had scattered, most heading to The Hole or back to the dorms, and the path toward the front gate was quiet and dark and lined with the amber lights that made everything in Black River Falls look like it was from a different century.
She told herself if he wasn't there she was going back to her room and going to sleep and that would be the end of it and she would not be disappointed about it at all.
She walked faster.
She spotted him before she reached the gate.
He was leaning against one of the dark trees just past the path, back facing her, one hand in his pocket and a trail of smoke rising above his head into the cold night air.
She exhaled.
He was there.
She told herself the relief she felt was just because she hadn't lied to Tommy for nothing.
She walked up behind him. "You know those things can kill you right."
"Lucky for me I beat them to it." He said it to the tree, still not turning around.
She scrunched her face. "It's a disgusting habit."
"Noted." The smirk was in his voice even without seeing his face.
She crossed her arms. "I thought you were blowing me off."
He turned around then.
"You would've missed me?" He said.
She kept her expression flat. "I was texting you and you never replied. I wouldn't exactly put it past you."
He tilted his head. "You should take some responsibility yourself, love. You were late. If I had any self respect I should've left you to fend for yourself."
"Excuse me?"
He chuckled and flicked the cigarette to the ground, pressing it into the dirt with his shoe. "All jokes. Mostly." He looked at her properly for the first time.
His eyes moved over her slowly. The dress. The jacket. The curls she had freshened up. His expression shifted into something quieter and more genuine than his usual arsenal and she felt it immediately and hated that she felt it immediately.
"You look really nice tonight." He said. "I'm starting to feel underdressed."
The heat hit her face before she could stop it.
She shoved him lightly in the chest. "Shut up."
He absorbed the shove and looked mildly delighted by it and she turned away before he could see what her face was doing.
He offered his hand to help her over the wall.
She took it.
POV: Whitney
Sierra's room was empty.
Whitney stood in the doorway and looked at the very un-slumber-party state of it. No junk food. No movie on. No girls piled on the bed. Just Sierra's tidy room and the distant sound of music coming from somewhere down the hall.
She pulled out her phone and texted Sierra.
Whitney: Hey are you guys doing the celebration thing tonight still?
The reply came back in under a minute.
Sierra: What celebration thing? I'm at The Hole lol
Whitney stared at the screen.
She read it twice.
Then she put her phone in her pocket and stood in the empty corridor outside Sierra's room and thought about Carly's face on the field tonight. The way she had spaced out during the victory cheer and come back with that smile she used when she was covering something. The way she had kissed Tommy goodbye and walked to the locker room a little too quickly.
Whitney had known Carly since they were twelve years old. She knew every version of her. The real laugh and the performed one. The genuine smile and the one that meant everything was fine, everything is always fine, please stop asking.
Something was going on.
She didn't know what yet and she wasn't going to spiral about it because Carly was allowed to have things she wasn't ready to say out loud. Whitney respected that. She always had.
She texted Carly.
Whitney: Hey. You okay?
She watched the two grey ticks turn blue immediately.
No reply came.
She put her phone back in her pocket and walked toward The Hole to find Tommy's pack and spend the rest of the night pretending she wasn't thinking about it.
She was absolutely thinking about it.
Author's Note:
Whitney standing in that empty corridor after Sierra said what celebration thing is the kind of quiet devastation that hits harder than any screaming match. She knows something is wrong and she loves Carly enough to wait for her to say it herself. Drop a like and tell me in the comments, how long before Whitney figures it out? Add us to your library !