Leading You Home

Seventh

"Ouch!" I grimace as Clark Haynes runs right into my shoulder, causing my books to scatter the hallway floor.

He bends down with me to collect them, his shaggy dirty-blond hair falling into his eyes. "God, I'm sorry, I didn't even see you. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I tell him, reaching for my biology book. "It was partially my fault anyway, my mind is somewhere else today."

As soon as his eyes meet mine, he smiles brightly, which I find odd considering he just about ran me over. We stand and he hands me my copy of Four Past Midnight, the book I've read four times and still can't seem to get enough of. I look at him steadily. There's a nervous glint in his blue eyes that make me wonder if running into me wasn't entirely an accident.

He opens his mouth to talk but I quickly cut him off. "Thanks for helping me with my books," I say with a curt smile and walking away. I breathe a sigh of relief when he doesn't call after me.

"What are you doing?" Carrie hisses, coming out of nowhere to walk beside me. As I look at her, all the memories from the party Saturday night come flooding back to me.

"Walking to class," I tell her, shoving books into my bag. "What are you doing?"

"No, you goof. I meant with Clark. He was about to ask you out. You didn't even let him form the words."

I smile to myself. A piece of me feels bad but I was going to say no to Clark anyway, so why make the fella waste his breath?

A stinging pain shoots through my arm from the back of Carrie's hand slapping it. "Ouch! What the hell?" I glare at her.

"That was romantic, Georgie. Come on! Give love a chance."

"Romantic?" I scoff. "More like cliché. All that scene needed was a sappy love song playing in the background and it would've been a perfect Lifetime movie."

"When was your last boyfriend? Sophomore year?" Carrie grabs my shoulder to stop me. Staring deep into my eyes she says, "Clark Haynes is hot. And he's totally into you."

"Does it matter at all to you that I'm not into him?"

Carrie chuckles and brushes a piece of hair from her face. I inspect it, searching for a bruise or anything  that could show me prove of what Bradley told me. Nothing's there. Not that I can see. Her skin is powdered up with her favorite foundation, perfectly blended. Was Bradley telling the truth about Kyle slapping her?

"Sometimes I just want to shake you," she tells me, shaking an invisible person with her hands.

I laugh. The bell rings and Carrie's face lights up. "Gotta go find Kyle for lunch. See you in English!"

My face falls. "Wait, Kyle?" I ask. She looks back at me with a confused expression.

"Yeah, what about him?"

"You two are still together?"

This time, her face falls. She glances around us, almost nervous that someone will overhear. "Of course we're together. Why wouldn't we be?"

"Well, at the party Saturday, I heard-"

Sharply, Carrie cuts me off. "No, Georgia. Nothing happened at that party." Giving a shaky smile, she says, "Everything's fine, okay? I'll see you in class."

I watch her leave. Why would she hide this from me? Does she think I'll judge her? Or is she embarrassed? She couldn't be trying to protect Kyle, could she?

I've never known Carrie to be like this. She's always been one to stand up for herself, no matter what. When we went to the Haunted Hoochie together freshman year, her and I somehow managed to get ourselves cornered by two scary ass clowns with chainsaws. Carrie must've gotten tired of screaming in fear because she stared the clowns right in the faces and shouted, "How dare you corner two fourteen year old girls! You outta be ashamed of yourselves, you big bullies!"