Just Revenge

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Second Thoughts

Luckily for me, I never had to find out what I would've said to him after that. Or if I would've said anything at all for that matter. The stretch of silence was broken after just a moment by a shout from the top of the hill. I shout I was quickly learning how to recognize anywhere.

"Carmen! Cort! Hey!"

I know I probably shouldn't have been, but – to be honest – I was kind of nervous to see Max again today. I wasn't really sure what would happen between us, where we were supposed to go after yesterday. Like I'd told Cort, I'd never really done this before, and I had no idea how this normally went. Lucky for me, Max wasn't the type of guy to let me wonder for long. The second he hit the bottom of the hill, he grabbed my hand and pulled me off the edge of the stage and into him, wrapping his arms around me and giving me a quick kiss before pulling back, a huge smile stretched over his face.

"I could get used to doing this." His arms still had not moved from their position on my waist as he smiled down at me. "In fact, I plan to."

I smirked at him before losing my nerve and glancing down, "Oh yeah?"

He pulled one hand away from my waist to lift my chin back up so my eyes could meet his again, "Yeah." And so, help me, but something in my stomach didn't understand that that was a promise he wouldn't be able to keep.

His eyes darted away from mine after that, although his other hand still lingered around my waist, keeping me pulled against him, and drifted over to Cort, "Where'd you disappear to last night, man? You ghosted without even saying goodbye."

The unidentifiable expression lingering on Cort's face was quickly replaced with derision at Max's question, "My apologies, I was unaware I had to alert the media every time I wanted to leave a party."

Max rolled his eyes at the snarky response and laughed it off, "Whatever, it just seemed a little odd that you and Harper disappeared together, that's all I was asking." He paused, "You know I'd be fine with it, if the two of you got together, right? Like, you wouldn't have to hide it from me, I'd be happy for you guys, really."

I'm not proud of it, but I genuinely could not hold back the laugh that came from me at that suggestion. From the look of utter shock and disgust on Cort's face he also did not appreciate the thought.

"Who the HELL said THAT was happening?" Cort's question was something between an accusation and a shriek and it only made me laugh harder. Max even couldn't help himself but to laugh at it as well.

"Okay, OKAY" Max's arm left my waist as he put his hands in the air in a mock surrender, "I was just saying! Ya know, you guys have never really gotten along that well, so I kinda figured, what with the leaving the party together and early and being really secretive about it... I just kinda thought that maybe you two had... well, ya know..." he trailed off rather than finish the thought.

"No." Cortland still seemed to be processing his disgust at the thought, "Just NO"

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry for assuming then." I could see Max trying to conceal his laughter at the situation.

"See this is what happens when you try and do the thinking. This is why we leave the ideas to me. I'm incredibly wrong a lot less often, ugh" Cort shuddered with disgust and I broke into a new wave of laughter.

"Glad to see someone finds this all amusing, at least. You'll have to excuse me if I feel less like laughing and more like vomiting though."

I couldn't even stop laughing long enough to properly respond to him, "Sorry, sorry... Just imagining... you and Harper trying to... kiss each other..." I could barely push out my words, but the mental picture of the two of them both trying to tell the other one exactly how they were doing it wrong was cracking me up. Honestly, so was the thought of them trying to make it through a date.

As if he had the same thought, Max chimed in through his laughter, "And can you imagine the date???"

"Cortland, why would you pick this place? The view is all wrong!" I pushed out in a fake squeaky voice.

Catching on, Max joined in with a fake deep voice "Harper, darling, was I expected to take into account that you would be able to SEE"

"You're disgusting, both of you" Cortland's voice was trying for a harsh tone, but the smile on his face softened it too much, "And juvenile." We could hear the laughter he was fighting through his tone.

"Maybe," I smirked at him, "But what we're not, is wrong."

He rolled his eyes at me and shook his head, "As if that wasn't the whole point I was trying to make? Or do I need to remind you that I was never the one who thought of this in the first place?" He turned an accusing eye to Max and raised an eyebrow at him.

"HEY! Sue me for being wrong, okay? I didn't think it through completely... I just, ya know, assumed." He shrugged.

"Well, you know what they say about assuming things, don't you..." Cort sneer was too forced to be anything other than funny.

"Yeah, but he can't make an ass out of you if you already were one." I joked back at him.

"Nice", Max wrapped his arm around me and pulled me into him quickly, laughing as he congratulated me.

Cort's smile dropped for a moment and a clearly forced one took its place. He rolled his eyes at me, "Whatever, I have to check my costume anyways. I'll see you two children later." And with that he stood up and stomped off towards the boys' dressing room.

"Ah shit." I muttered, "CORT!"

I didn't understand why, in particular, this insult had gotten to him, but I did feel kind of bad that it had and like I should probably go after him for some reason, but when I made a move to follow him, Max stopped me.

"Just leave him, he does this all the time. He probably just needs a little space and he'll be fine."

I shrugged and let Max pull me pack into his side, but I couldn't shake the feeling that I should check and see if Cort was okay. It was in this moment precisely that I realized I was screwed. If I felt this bad after a random mean comment, I'd never survive this revenge plot. I couldn't believe it, but somewhere along the way, I'd started to care about that asshole – all these assholes and now I had to find it in myself to hurt them and, for some reason, I didn't think I had it in me anymore.