Smoke and Mirrors

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

"Are you okay?" Trent asked. It was probably the most appropriate thing to ask considering the circumstances. While he had been completing the tasks of his morning shower, Carmen had burst in and vomited in the toilet.

He pushed open the glass shower door and wrapped the lower half of his body in one of the white towels hanging on the rack.

"Yeah better." Carmen stood up from where she knelt to take a look at herself in the mirror. Suddenly there was a shooting sensation in her head. She reached out to Trent for stability. He grabbed her shoulders holding her still.

"Do you want a Aspirin or something?" Trent said watching her closely. She cupped her hands taking a drink from the tap.

"Yeah that would be good." Carmen wiped a clear spot away in the steamy mirror. She looked like such a hot mess. Her eye-makeup had successfully turned her into a panda overnight. There was a smell of weed and urine sticking to her. She was dressed in one of Eli's Kings of Leon tee-shirts that was a bit too short to be modest considering it was the only thing she was wearing. And was that chewing gum in her hair?

Carmen saw Trent was watching her too in the mirror. Maybe he thought the same things she thought when she saw herself. But before Carmen had time to seriously contemplate her direction there was another lurching sensation in her stomach.

Again she found herself face down in a toilet bowl,emptying her stomach, Trent kneeling beside her holding back her hair. She took a deep breath before slouching down on the bathroom tiles. She rubbed the palms of her hands against them. They were ice cold and made her feel in control.

"Why do you bother Trent?" Carmen said after watching him for a while.

"With what?" Trent replied.

"Why do you bother holding my hair back? You've seen what a mess it is." Carmen asked.

"I guess it's still your hair." Trent said, he understood what Carmen was saying but he couldn't really explain it to her.

Trent opened his mouth like he was about to say something. But he never did.

"What the actual fuck." Trent said the only appropriate thing to be said when he returned to his room to find a random girl lying in his bed. While Trent like most teenage boys wanted to get girls into bed, he was a hunk so he could afford to have standards. And those standards were very clear. And thanks to Carmen's messed up family this was achieved regularly. However this did not include plus ones. "Carmen. What do you call this?" He gestured to the girl. He wasn't about to admit it to himself but he actually did recognize her. She went to school with Carmen and him. He knew she was a slut. She was one of Arnold's victims. The only thing Trent knew was that he hated her.

Carmen followed Trent into the bedroom wondering what he was going on about. Then she remembered that Hadley had stayed the night. "Calm down. She's just a friend of mine."

"Yeah and what is she doing in our bed?"

"She's in my half." Carmen shrugged. What exactly was his problem she did not know. Most people their age would be more than happy if they woke up to find a girl as hot as Hadley undressed in their bed.

Trent proceeded to pull the duvet covers off the girl. He meant for this to be a big gesture. That would send her flying into the sky and out of their life, like how it happened with Team Rocket on Pokemon. But Hadley didn't even stir. If anything it back fired. The girl was not wearing a top. And even though she was wearing white cotton underwear somebody seriously needed to introduce her to waxing.

"What made you think that you could just invite her to stay the night in our bed?" Even though Trent was painfully obsessed with pleasing Carmen, even she didn't get special treatment when he was pissed off. When Trent was pissed off, he was pissed off full stop.