EMILY
"Where would you go?" I asked.
Seth paused dumping his clothes into the suitcase to look at me, "Before mom needed me to take her place here, I had a place to stay. That's where I'll go."
"No..." I whispered.
He went back to packing his things.
I jumped out of bed, not caring that I was still completely naked, and hugged him from behind. "Please...please don't leave me."
I didn't care that I was begging. I didn't care that I was sobbing uncontrollably.
I looked so pathetic.
I clenched his t-shirt. "I don't want you to leave me!"
"Emily..." His voice turned soft. He turned around in my embrace so we were facing each other.
"I'm sick and tired of living here all by myself. I'll go mad if I have to endure that again. I can't..." I choked on a sob, "I don't want to be alone."
Seth would most likely take pity on me and I didn't care as long as he stayed.
"Do you want to leave because of me?" I blurted out.
Maybe he wasn't liking that I was giving off a completely different vibe. Maybe he picked on the fact that I wanted us to be more than whatever we had, and he was now finding it annoying.
"You're tired of what we're doing," I mumbled under my breath.
"I'm not tired. I'm just a greedy asshole."
I didn't understand what he meant by that. I cupped his face in my hands, "If you don't want me to visit your room at night, I won't. I promise you, but I don't want you to leave this house."
"You'll be fine, Emily. Carson would always be there for you anyway. He carries your stuff to class, share his pudding. You won't miss me." I tried to keep the bitterness out of my tone.
"He doesn't matter to me. Not like you do." Emily said. "Carson is...he's just Carson."
*~*
SETH
Why did that make my heart beat faster?
"He doesn't matter to me, not like you do."
Stop trying to find meaning in every single word she says. It could mean nothing, I told myself.
Emily had gotten used to having me around so the thought of staying alone again in this gigantic house didn't seem like a good idea to her.
"I think putting some distance between us would be a good thing. Mostly because I don't know how long I can keep the pretend game going."
"Then let's not pretend." She said, placing her head on my chest. "Why would anyone care what we are doing? It's not anyone's business."
"You're right but we can't do that, baby. People are already talking. If your dad finds out, I'm going to take the fall for it."
She didn't argue because she knew that I was telling the truth.
"Don't go." She whispered again, tightening her arms around me.
If this was someone else, I wouldn't have a problem untangling from the girl's arms and telling her off but this wasn't just some girl. It was Emily! The girl I'd been nuts for since I moved here, and now she was asking me to stay with her.
'Begging' was a much suitable word. Not that I was taking pity on her, I liked to believe that I was doing this because I pitied the poor lonely girl when the reality was so much different.
She didn't understand that she was my weakness. That this weakness of mine would ultimately be my downfall.
I found my voice a few minutes later, "We have to be careful. And I mean really careful."
"I know."
"One more thing," I said.
"What is it?"
"I think you might be giving Carson the wrong idea."
"I don't understand."
"I have a feeling that he thinks he's your boyfriend by default because of your past with him."
Emily had the audacity to laugh, "that's ridiculous."
"Hey don't laugh!" I said folding my arms across my chest. "I'm jealous."
In other situations, I might never admit this to her but I had chugged a good amount of alcohol before she came into my room which caused my tongue to loosen.
I swiped at her cheek, wiping her tears. She was fully naked and it was an amazing view from my vantage point especially when she was laughing like that. I don't know how many times she'd caught me staring at them, and I was shameless enough to continue doing it. Her tits were nice and pink.
"What's so funny?"
"The fact that you're jealous? I mean you're Seth Monroe, the power forward, star of the team. Why do you have a reason to be jealous of Carson or anyone for that matter?"
"Um...I don't know. Maybe because someone wants to steal my girl?"
There was silence. I'd rendered her speechless with just that one sentence.
"I mean...the girl I'm with."
Something else crossed her features that I wasn't sure about. "Right."
I should never touch a drop of alcohol ever again, not unless I wanted a ton of slip of tongues.
"Carson won't be a problem." She assured me, "I promise you."
"I feel like shit for almost having sex with you," I admitted. "I entered into some kind of a zone. I wasn't thinking straight."
She giggled, "maybe you wanted to one-up him."
I cringed. "Sorry. You don't deserve to be treated like that. I promised it would be after your birthday, and that's when we'll do it. I mean...if you still want to, that is."
She nodded earnestly, "I want to."
I smiled. "Okay."
*~*
EMILY
"Hey, did you know? There's a type of mushroom. If you eat it once, it keeps you alive for your entire life." Carson said when we were heading towards the parking lot.
"Where can I find that mushroom?"
Carson laughed, "I read it in the encyclopedia. I can give it to you if you want. You can come over to my house and get it. It's got a lot of cool facts in it."
I remembered my conversation with Seth yesterday. He was jealous of Carson just talking to me, he'd be screaming like a banshee if he found out I visited his house.
"Some other day maybe."
"Cool."
We reached my car, and he suddenly leaned in towards me. It took me a while to realize he was about to kiss me.
I stepped back. "Carson...I'm sorry."
He quickly masked the disappointment of the rejection.
"What's that mark on your neck?"
I touched the spot, "Oh, this." I tried to come up with some excuse. "It's uh...it's a mosquito bite."
Why couldn't I remember to put some concealer this morning?
Carson wasn't buying it. "Mosquito bites don't look like that." His voice had taken an angry tone.
"Probably some bug then."
"Does that bug happen to wear Waterford High Captain's varsity jacket?"
My gaze turned to where he was looking at. He and Seth were staring at each other, both refusing to blink.
I felt my blood freeze. How had Carson figured that out? I never suggested or mentioned that Seth was anything more than a friend.
"I can't tell you who it is."
"Well, I deserve to know. How could you do this to me?"
I turned around fully to regard him. "Excuse me?"
Seth was right. I'd missed the signals that Carson was giving me and I'd assumed it was friendship.
I had to be the dumbest person on this planet to not notice the subtle arm caresses, the sideways hug, the constant hearts in the text, the chocolate pudding at lunch? It wasn't only friendship. Carson was hinting towards more.
"I thought we had something going. You told me you were single the first time we met, and I waited for you every day after school. We called and texted every single day." His voice took a demanding tone. "I deserve a second chance after what happened between us and I assumed you were game. Isn't that what this was all about? But you won't let me kiss you and now you have a hickey on your neck given by some other guy!"
"We are friends, Carson. There was nothing more than that."
He looked in Seth's direction again who was talking to someone I didn't know but his gaze was trailed on us.
"He's a tool."
"You don't know him," I said defensively.
"Emily..." Carson said, "that's exactly the type of guy who made me move here! He's a bully!" He made a frustrated noise, "We made a pact that we would never associate with jocks! We are better than them. And you're letting him use you?"
"He's not using me! And why are you classifying him like he's some kind of ugly insect species?"
"He probably is." Carson said heatedly, "The entire hockey team is a bunch of pricks along with this...this...guy you're hanging out with. He has a history with girls, many of em. They do a lot of smack talking and I've heard it!"
"Did you hear Seth talk about me to his teammates?"
Carson hesitated, "Not him, but the others."
"What did they say?"
"That you're a sweet-potato...that..."
"I can handle the truth."
His face was red as he said it. "One guy said you've got a nice ass that could use a pounding."
"And did Seth say something?"
I was actually curious to find out. I didn't care what others thought about me, I'd learned to ignore their vile words and making me seem like I was only an object of their fantasy.
"He...he told them to shut up."
"That goes to show Seth is not one of them so why are we having this conversation?" I asked.
"Purple, the girl in our Spanish class told me that—"
"Wait, there's no one in our class called Purple."
"Pretty sure that was her name."
I rolled my eyes. "Do you mean Violet?"
"Yeah, same thing. She told me that Seth used to sleep around a lot."
"So?"
He gave out a laugh, "so, he probably still is." Then suddenly his expressions changed, "wait, did you fucking sleep with him?"
"Carson, that is none of your business." I started opening the car door when he grabbed my hand violently, stopping me from entering my car.
"He's not a good guy."
"Let me go!" I warned him.
"Do we have a problem here?" The familiar voice drifted from the side.
Seth stood beside Carson. Shoulder to shoulder. Eye to eye. Both were shooting ice-dipped daggers at each other.
"It doesn't have anything to do with you," Carson told him with so much authority, I was surprised by his ability to stand ground in front of Seth.
Seth took my hand out of his grasp and pulled me away. "If the lady asks you not to touch her, don't fucking touch her. Did your daddy not teach you manners, big boy?"
"You're going to teach me manners now?" Carson said, and his gaze drifted towards me, "Emily, tell him to leave."
"Seth's not going anywhere," I said a little weakly.
My arm had fingerprints on it by now. Carson hadn't even realized that he'd used brute force, that he was capable of hurting even with the slightest of a jab.
"You're being manipulated by him. Emily, he's not the right guy for you." He told me like Seth wasn't even standing in front of us.
Seth guffawed. His voice was barely a whisper when he taunted, "That's rich coming from a guy who couldn't even make her cum."
Carson's body shook with anger when he attacked Seth.
I didn't see it coming. I stared at the two in horror.
Seth's body hit the ground with a loud thud, Carson being a martial arts gold medalist, sat on top of him and went completely ape-shit on Seth with his fists, throwing blows after blows. The two were rolling on the ground, and a lot of kids gathered close watching the two wrestle. Seth punched him a few times square in the jaw.
Phones were pulled out, recording what was going on.
Some girls were screaming. Some boys cheering.
Tears began pooling in my eyes. The two were pummeling one another.
"Stop it!" I yelled at them but they were beyond hearing.