Accidentally in Love

Jealousy and Apologies

Tension.

That's what the room felt like when I walked inside. It was practically radiating off of Carter and Charlotte. I'm not talking about the delicious sexual tension type, the kind that seems to fill up the air whenever me and Carter are in the same room, rather the kind that made me feel like I was walking in mid fight, and had made me immediately regret not knocking on the door first. Kind of made me regret coming to her room altogether.

"I'm sorry," I muttered when their eyes fell on me. "I didn't mean to intrude."

"You didn't," they said in unison. They glanced at each other, and I had the feeling if they were ready to bite each other's head off, they might have laughed.

"I uh, I was just leaving," Carter said, moving his gaze between me and Charlotte.

As he walked across the room and out the door, there was a huge part of me that wanted to follow him to see what had happened, to make sure he was okay. By the way his eyes were burning into mine, I knew that's what he wanted me to do.

However, Charlotte was looking equally as upset, and I knew in my heart that it was my sisterly duty to stay behind and talk to her first. Her eyes were on mine, and my heart started to race when I thought I saw a flicker of suspicion in them. Oh god. Carter didn't tell her about…whatever it was we were doing, did he?

I was just about to freak out when the logical side of my brain reminded me that he would've warned me first. He definitely would've warned me.

"Sorry, I should've knocked," I said finally, trying to air out the awful feeling the room.

Her facial expression soften and right away I felt relieved. "You don't have anything to be sorry about. In fact, we probably should both be thanking you. If you hadn't walked in when you did, who know what we would have said to each other. Things we didn't mean."

"What was going on?" I tried to manage the level of concern in my voice. I wanted to sound like I cared, but that I wasn't bursting at the seams, like I currently was.

She rolled her eyes. "I don't even know. It was just Carter being Carter when something has temporary climbed up his butt."

"Oh. He looked really upset though," I said, the hurt in his eyes still haunting me.

"He'll be fine in about thirty minutes, probably after he gets something in his stomach. Trust me, I know him better than anyone."

And just like that, I didn't feel the tension that had once been in the room. Instead, there was a new feeling pressing so hard against me I wanted to scream.

Jealousy.

I have been jealous of Charlotte before, mainly for how she always knew what she wanted in life, how intelligent she was, and for how effortlessly she made mom and dad proud. However, I had never been jealous of Charlotte over a boy, until this very second.

I never forgot that Carter and Charlotte were best friends, but I never really thought about what exactly that meant until Charlotte muttered those words. She was right. She did know Carter better than anyone else, probably more than he did even.

They had an endless amount of insides jokes, she knew what he was going to do before he did it, and I swear sometimes they could read each other's minds. And even though they had always been nothing more than platonic, how in the world could I compete with that? It would take years to know him at a level she did, if it was even possible.

Right when I was wondering how I would be able to stand here and talk to her, when I was sure my skin was about to turn green, when her phone went off. Saved by the bell. She walked over to pick it up off her bedside table, and by the smile on her face, I didn't have to ask who it was.