The Teenage Guide To Popularity [COMPLETE]

Chapter 11: Story Of My Life,

Something inside Carter had changed. Where she used to be calm and collected, optimistic and interested, she was now terrifyingly angry, and very confused. The anger gnawed at her insides, punishing her for letting Kiran kiss her. She was a bad, horrible friend. A backstabber. A two-faced bitch. She had crossed a line in her friendship with Leigh, and now she had to do everything in her power to make sure it never happened again.

When the night was crawling to an end, and the crowd was slowly thinning out, Carter found Aiden. He should have been the one to kiss her. He should have been the one to make her feel like her heart was on fire.  Not Kiran.

As she walked out of the mansion with Aiden's arm around her, it was like someone had placed a hazy blanket over her eyes. She barely even noticed if the other girls had said goodnight, if Ashton Rhodes had even seen her with Aiden, or if anyone had approached her for any given reason at all.

The haze was not enough to keep her from spotting Kiran in the end. He was standing in a small crowd made up of mostly his band mates and a couple of girls she didn't know. His head was hanging low, but he looked up for a moment, and their eyes met. He appeared tired and broken and completely perfect against the glorified garden of Elena's house. That's when she felt a spark, as if it had been waiting for the exact the right moment to ignite. The kiss was still amazingly fresh in her mind, and it kept playing over, constantly reminding her of the moment everything had changed between them.

Did Kiran like her? Did he only kiss her because he was lost in the moment? Did he really think she was perfect? Had he known that Leigh was in love with him, or was he actually completely clueless about it? But she couldn't allow herself to get lost in those questions, because the answers didn't matter. He was off-limits. No matter how good it had felt, now matter how much she wanted it to happen again, it couldn't.

***

The telephone rang like the bell of a fire station, warning Carter of a blaze that was threatening to destroy her. It was Sunday morning, and she didn't want to risk getting out of bed, lest she should fall over with regret and fluster. She had been up all night, trying desperately to forget the kiss. To forget Kiran. It was funny how one stupid moment could change it all. Then again, there was every chance that Kiran didn't really care, and that it had meant absolutely nothing to him.

When the phone rang again, Carter cursed and stumbled out from beneath the blankets.

"What?" she said into the receiver, irritated.

"Carter? Were you sleeping? It's almost two in the afternoon," said the voice of the girl Carter had betrayed.

"I barely slept last night. Leave me alone." Carter needed time to collect her thoughts. She wasn't prepared to handle Leigh just yet.

"I called your cell like a hundred times. I need to know everything that happened. Don't leave anything out."

What happened is I kissed the boy you're in love with. "Nothing big happened. It was kinda boring, actually. Elena made everyone play Seven Minutes."

"Oh." There was a lot of disappointment in Leigh's voice. "What happened with Aiden? Did Ashton see you guys together? What did she say?"

"I swear Leigh, it was such a dumb night. Aiden was off with his friends most of the time, and Ashton showed up an hour-and-a-half later than everyone else. She didn't even see us together."

"So, all in all, a total bust?"

"Pretty much."

"Then how come you didn't get any sleep?"