Web of lies [ Carl Gallagher ]

Part 5 - friends

"What the hell are you guys? Don't tell me your 'just friends' nova."

At the party me and Carl were just talking when I see Debbie on the couch with some guy.

"Ok yup we are gonna go-" carl says while leading me up the stairs.

We found a room with people and joined them. We sat on a couch just watching them. They were playing seven in heaven.

"You two wanna join?" Some girl asked carl with a Thirsty expression while looking him up and down.

"Uh...sure-" he said while looking at me.

I just nod and after a few minutes and the last people come out of the closet the two girls spin the bottle. It takes it a minute to stop spinning but eventually it lands on carl. A lot of the girls suddenly get excited. They spin it again and i gotta be honest i wasn't paying attention. I was more focused on the fact that carl had his hand on my thigh. But when I feel him tap it twice I look up to see it landed on me.

We both just look at each other and stiffen up.

"I mean they are already dating so can't we just spin again?" A guy says looking me up and down.

"We aren't dating. We are just friends." Carl says reluctantly.

"Plus rules are rules" I shrug.

Carl was the first one to get off the couch and I follow him to the closet. It was smaller than normal. I just lean against a wall and watch him.

"So..." he says.

"So." I say mocking him.

"What do we do now-" he asks before someone yells

"Fuck, kiss, confess, do something man! If you don't claim her I will." Some guy yelled.

"She's not a object no one's claiming her." He yells back.

By now we were already kinda pressed up against each other because of how small it was. My chest was pushed against his chest. He just turns back to me and now our faces are inches apart. I can feel my heart pounding faster and I can see a smug smirk on carls face.

"What's the smirk for?" I ask.

He just puts a hand on my face and tucks hair behind my ear.

"Nothing." He says.

"Ok?" I say while looking down.

Carl just backs up some after a second and we just spend the rest of the time in there telling really bad dad jokes.

"Ok, what did the bison do to say goodbye to his son?" I ask.

Carl laughs.

"Oh god. What?"

"Bi-son." I say while trying to hold in a laugh.

Carl just slaps his hand over his mouth and shakes his head.

"That was so bad, nova." He says after laughing.

"You laughed asshole!" I say laughing loudly.

"Yeah, yeah. Hey." He says.

"Yeah?" I answer.

"You wanna watch a movie together after this?" He asks.

"Sure. Yours or mine?" I ask smiling.

"Yours ok?" He asks with hesitation.

"Oh yeah that's fine. My mom finally got into rehab, so she isn't home." I say.

"That's good right?" He asks.

"Yes, you dumbass." I say.

After that we were leaning in, for whatever reason I wanted to kiss him. I don't know if the feelings were mutual or not. After a few seconds we were almost face to face when someone yelled from outside.

"Times up."

Me and carl quickly pulled away when the sound of the cleat opening erupted through my ears.

"Oh come on." Lip says while recording what's happening with my phone.

"Where'd you get my phone?" I ask laughing while leaning onto carls chest - still laughing.

"Oh you know, around." He says trying to make a harmless joke.

"Wait. What? What do you mean?" I ask.

"Some kid named Jayden had it." I ask while the blood runs cold in my body.

I step away from carl and become suddenly way more on edge. By now Debbie, carl, Sean, lip and Fiona were looking at me and trying to speak to me, but all I hear is ringing in my ear. The room starts spinning and I go to walk and almost fall over. My vision is blurring by the second, and carl has to hold me up. I turn to lip, grab my phone, and look back at carl. By now I had tears streaming down my face and the worry that coated his face grew.

As I stumble out of the room, carl tries to grab my arm but I pull away and walk out the door. I only make it to the door frame until Fiona comes up to me and cups my face. I put my hands over her arms and look at her with frantic eyes. My heart best picked up and I couldn't breathe. I could only get out shallow breaths and I was hyperventilating. I was having a panic attack.

Fiona slowly sits down on the ground with me while still making me look at her.

"Hey, it's ok! Your ok! Just look at me. Ok?" She says as I look around frantically at everyone.

Everyone was starting to look at me like I was crazy. Eventually carl yelled at everyone to get out, with the help of Debbie.

"Hey! I know what your going through! This happened to me too!" Fiona says.

I snap my head toward her and give her a apologetic look. By now carl had kneeled down beside me. I was now sobbing, my breaths were still shallow. I mouth a 'thank you' to Fiona and lean into carl.

He instantly wraps his arms around me as if he was waiting for me to do this. He puts his hand in my hair and starts running his hand through it while resting his head on me.

"It's ok. I'm right here. I'm not leaving you." He says before kissing the top of my head.

My breaths were slowing down and I hugged him tighter as I just cried. We stayed like this for about 15 minutes before i calmed down totally. After he slowly pulled away and looks at me.

"What happened? Do I need to kill Him?" He says.

I kinda laugh at that last part.

"No don't kill him." I sniffle.

"Then what do you want me to do." He asks in all seriousness.

"Stay with me tonight..." I say.

"I was planning on that anyways, babe." He says.

I instantly hide my face at the nickname because of the red coating that filled my face. I can see Fiona smiling and Debbie and lip crying.

After a second I look back at carl and hug him.

"Thank you." I say.

"Don't thank me yet. Not until your ok." He says.

"I am ok. I'm ok when I'm with you." I say.