Chamberlain Academy

9/12 - 3:40 pm

Carter slid into the booth next to Preston, fashionably five minutes late. He really should’ve gotten there on time, considering that he only had twenty minutes before he was supposed to meet Felicity. But that wasn’t his style. Camilla had called an ‘emergency meeting’, and considering that the group message had been between her, Preston, and himself, it probably had something to do with Verity. As typical, the other two were already there, seated on opposite sides. Carter smiled sheepishly as a form of apology. Preston nodded, but Camilla gave him a look.

“You could at least try to be on time,” She snipped.

“What makes you think I didn’t try?” Carter replied. He arched an eyebrow; Cam simply rolled her eyes.

“Moving on, why are we here?” Preston interjected.

Camilla sat up straighter, folding her hands on the table. “There’s a problem. With Verity.”

Carter leaned back. “And that would be?”

“Well, I don’t know about the two of you, but I’m not particularly fond of West.”

Carter shrugged. “I barely know him.”

“Same here,” Preston agreed. “She seems happy, what’s the reason to ruin that?”

Camilla groaned, giving them both a look. “When was the last time you talked to Verity? Not talked, but had an actual conversation. Went out for food? Just hung out?” Their silence let Cam continue. “I haven’t had a good conversation with her in nearly a week. She’s canceled on the three of us twice since Monday. She used to come out with us all the time, and now she spends all her time with West.”

“They just started dating,” Preston tried to reason.

“So?”

“So, they’re obviously going to spend a lot of time with each other.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean she should just stop speaking to the rest of us.”

Carter sighed. He could tell Camilla was upset about it. Verity was her best and really her only girlfriend, due to her honest and slightly pretentious personality. Not hanging out with Verity for Cam was probably torture for her, but it didn’t mean she should be angry about her best friend’s relationship. “You really should be happy for her, Cam.” Carter said. “Maybe it’s not even serious.”

The girl gave him a look. “I’m not saying I’m not happy for her, I’m saying if she’s going to ditch us for this guy at least let us meet him.”

“Technically, we did meet him -”

“Shut up, Preston!” Cam snapped. The two boys gave her a look, and she sighed before speaking again. “Look, all I’m saying is that I feel like I don’t even know him. And if she’s spending as much time with him as she is, they probably are somewhat serious. So I feel like as her best friends, the three of us have a right to meet him.”

“So, then it’s settled. We’ll have her bring him out to dinner. All five of us.” Carter said.

“But -”

“Cam, call her right now.”

The girl stared at him for a moment before finally agreeing and pulling out her phone. Putting it on speaker, she dialed Verity and they waited for her to pick up.

Her voice was preceded by a laugh. “Hello?” Verity greeted.

“Hey, it’s Cam.” Camilla answered.

“Hey! What’s up?” Judging by the laughing sound of her voice, Ver was probably with West.

“So I’m with the boys, and we decided -” Both of the boys shot her a look when she said we, but she didn’t change her words. “ - that we feel like we don’t know West well enough.”

“Okay…and?” Verity obviously didn’t understand what Cam was getting at as she trailed off.

“And, we were thinking the five of us could go out to dinner.”

“Um, well we have plans tonight.”

“Well, when are you free?”

“Um…” Verity paused for a moment, probably talking with West or checking her phone. “What about Thursday?”

“Yeah, Thursday works!” Carter made a gruntng noise to protest otherwise, but Cam said her goodbyes before he could protest.

Carter shot her a look. “I’m busy on Thursday, why -”

“I don’t care, you better show up." Camilla retorted before dramatically exiting the restaurant.

Both of the boys let out a breath, and Carter moved over to the other side. That had gone remarkably quick, and he still had ten minutes before he had to meet Aubrey. Since it was only a three minute walk, he’d stay for a few minutes.

“That was dramatic.” Preston sighed, running a hand through his hair.

“Yeah.” Carter chuckled, relaxing back into the booth. “Then again, it is Cam.”

“I guess Verity’s been busy lately, but I mean, it’s no different than when Chastity goes through one of her clingy phases.” Preston looked around, probably for a waiter.

“True, but I don’t think I piss Cam off that much.” Carter said.

Preston grinned. “True, true.” He finally flagged down a waiter, getting a water. “What’s new with you? I think we’ve all been busy.”

“Yeah,” Carter nodded. “Not much, you?”

Preston shrugged. “School.”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I should get going,” Carter said, standing up.

“Same here, I’ll see you.” The boys exited in oppostie directions. Luckily for Carter, Preston didn’t usually question things. So the fact that he was heading in the direction of only old people stores didn’t raise any questions. He checked his watch; he still had five minutes. Being early would definitely be good, considering that lacrosse practice had ran over yesterday and she hadn't been happy that she'd had to wait for him. They'd ended up rescheduling for today.

The walk this way was always really quiet and a little bit creepy. The was he was heading, this side of town led out onto the water. There wasn’t a beach, just a fence blocking you from falling off the rocks and a ten foot drop into the Atlantic. People never came down here anymore, so the air was always really still. Voices only came from behind, and it was a Monday afternoon, so even then they were a little bit rare. Carter finally reached the small shop. Upon entering, he saw two other people and Felicity, who was sitting at a set of two chairs and a table with books and her laptop spread around her.

“Hey,” Carter greeted, sitting down across from her.

The blonde wrote something down before looking up and greeting him. “You're early."

"Yeah."

"Right. I actually have a favor to ask -"

“I can’t come on Thursday.”

“Oh, good. That’s what I was going to say.”

“Great.” Carter was definitely relieved.

“We can meet on Friday, maybe?” Felicity suggested.

“Sure, as long as it’s in the afternoon.”

“Yeah, sure.” Felicity put a few things away before they got started. “Alright, so how far have you read?”