YOUR SONG | steve harrington

013

Alicia had grabbed paper towels and rushed over to the bathroom with Carmen, trying to clean the throw up on her shirt. "It smells so bad," Carmen grimaced, plugging her nose so she didn't have to smell it.

"I can't believe he vomited on you," Alicia commented, even though she would rather talk about what Carmen had witnessed. But, she didn't know how to get around to it.

"Well, either he did because he was drunk or because he saw Bev making out with Billy," Carmen revealed and Alicia's eyes widened as she stopped cleaning Carmen for a second. "I know."

"She cheated on Chris?" Alicia asked in shock before she continued to clean the costume again.

Carmen shrugged. "I don't know, maybe something happened before then but...she was kissing Billy. With Chris watching. Honestly, it was kinda hot, but Chris looked like he was going to throw up. And he did it on me so..." Carmen trailed off and Alicia laughed quietly. Carmen then licked her lips, wanting to ask Alicia about what she saw, but didn't know how to. She just decided it would be better to not jump around it and just ask. "So...are we gonna talk about it?"

"Talk about what?" Alicia played dumb even though she wanted to talk about exactly that.

"What I saw," Carmen enlightened her even though she could tell that the girl was acting. "It's okay, you can tell me."

Alicia sighed, throwing the used paper towel into the toilet along with the other ones she had used. "Look, Car...please don't hate me."

"I don't hate you, Alli. I'm just...kind of surprised, is all," Carmen told her softly.

"The reason why I always rejected your efforts to try and find me a guy to get with is because...I don't like guys at all. I've been wanting to tell you and Bev, but...I didn't want to ruin our friendship if you guys would look at me differently," Alicia told her as she started to cry.

"Please don't cry," Carmen said sadly, not wanting to see her best friend break down like this. "I would you pull you into a hug, but I don't wanna get throw up on you." Alicia laughed through her sobs, rubbing at her eyes. "Alicia, I love you so much and there isn't anything you could do to make that change."

"But—"

"No," Carmen cut her off, shaking her head. "No, buts. I don't care who you like, Alli. As long as you finally get with someone, I don't care!" she exclaimed. "Speaking of which, nice job tonight. She was pretty hot."

"Oh, shut up," Alicia said as she shoved her friend lightly, calming down a bit. "Thank you, Car. But, uh, can you maybe not say anything to Bev about this yet? I wanna work up the courage to do it myself. And she may be freaking out right now anyway with what she did so I don't wanna freak her out even more."

"Don't worry, my lips are sealed," Carmen told her with a smile. She went to go pull her into a hug before she stopped herself. "Yeah, no, I'm not getting this vomit on your costume."

✦ ✧ ✦

The next day at school, the ABC trio sat on the bleachers in gym as they talked and watched the basketball game between the shirts and skins go on. Billy was a skin, so Beverly found herself glancing at him every now and again as she recounted the story from the last night to the two girls.

After she had gotten home, she continued to cry her eyes out until she fell asleep. Thankfully, her mother and step father were already sleeping, so they couldn't hear her weep.

But, it seemed like she had gotten all of her tears out because she forced herself to walk into school, her head held high. Not a single inch of sadness etched on her face whatsoever so that if, just in case, she saw Chris in the hallway, she could show him up.