Carrion (The Bren Watts Diaries #1)

Chapter 58

It was midnight when I saw Peter Gauthier last, hard rain swept against the autumn pacific breeze, cold and shivering as I stared at his second-story window, begging him on the phone that he should come out and talked to me. I guessed I had hoped for some reassurance—that we would be okay—and people like Carson, or Natalie, or even Logan Hardy could not come between what we had.

Perhaps I was delusional, thinking my life had finally grasped the kind of romance as I had seen in the movies, but Peter was the one who understood how the world worked all along.

I remembered how he opened the window in his gray shirt and jeans, eyes red and puffy. I remembered how my heart swelled that finally, after days without a word, without seeing him wandering the halls of our school, I got to see him at last.

He did not say anything.

He didn't have to; I knew the look of someone who did not want anything to do with me anymore. The next day, I learned that he was moving out east for some military boarding school, unfollowing all my social media profiles, cutting me out in the cold like that night without a word and a goodbye.

The split-second image swarmed my mind as I stared at the behemoth standing in front of me. I couldn't believe it was Peter at all. He had changed the past year and a half drastically. His muscles had filled, his chest had broadened, his face had hardened yet distant, no longer the shy, skinny tall kid who sat at the back of the class, well-liked by everyone, even the popular kids. I swore he had grown a head taller than the last I remembered him, making me doubt my sanity. This couldn't be him.

"Watts," Peter whispered.

It was him.

"When I saw Aria back there, mentioning some friends, I thought, man, what luck, huh? Karma has found my way at last. But I thought it'd be that ball-headed dick Carson, or that bitch Natalie, or even that asshole-shmuck Logan. I didn't realize it'll be you following me. It's kind of a bummer."

I caught my jaw off the ground, trying to maintain my composure. "Um, surprise, I guess."

"I never imagine you to be friends with Aria Cho. You hanging with them now? After what they did? You have some bullshit amnesia or something?" He seethed.

"I never forget. Why would I?"

"Good. I'm glad we're on the same page then. Are they here with you? I know your mom's an alumnus from Columbia, so I assume you guys came from New York. That's some superpower luck, escaping the bombs."

"You can't distract me."

"Well, Nat's been going on and on about going to Columbia U. over Insta, same with Carson, so, I assume they're here. They haven't posted an update for weeks now. I didn't realize it was because they're quarantined."

"They're dead."

"Ah, that sucks. Sick people got to them?"

I didn't answer.

He shrugged. "Well, they got what they fucking deserve, at least. You know, they're the ones who posted that video that almost ruined my life, so I hope they died very painfully. But it just fucking sucks that here I am, so eager to reunite with good old Carson and Logan again so that I can finally punch them on the face until they bleed and beg right on my feet. Ha! I've dreamt over that every day. That, and also slice off Natalie's perfectly smug face—her pride and glory. Ha! What a bitch."

I shifted on the spot. If Logan heard all of this, I didn't know what he would do if he were here. Peter seemed eager to carve him a new one. I realized he held tighter to grudges more than I did. "I've never known you for a sadist," I said.