When You Least Expect It

17

Chapter 17

   Holly Dae butchered Britney's song from the passenger seat, forcing me to regret choosing this carpool to escape Miles' band.

"Fuck, I hate her!" Holly Dae shouted suddenly.

Nik turned down the music. "...Britney?"

Holly Dae sighed. "No. My cougar of a mom. She's a fucking pain in my ass."

"What happened?" I asked.

"We had a fight again. This time it was about my loud music."

"That makes two of us," I muttered.

"You and your dad?" Nik peered at me through the rear view mirror. "You guys practically never fight."

Holly Dae had a dubious look on her face as well. "You never fight with your Dad." She sighed then. "Is this about moving away again?"

"Yeah, you know how it is," I responded instead. The truth was, we rarely fought, but the unspoken tension about moving away lingered beneath the surface.

"It's always something with you, Max," she replied, picking at the split ends in her hair.

"You're really persistent about moving away, huh?" Nik said. His old Jeep rattled and shook with us in it.

"Look, it's just a thing I always say but know will never happen." I flattened my mouth like I had tasted something sour."Can we talk about something else?"

Thankfully they both dropped the subject. We got to school and Holly Dae said bye to me and dragged Nik to the nearest stairwell. Lord only knows what she was planning to do to him there.

Fortunately, they dropped the subject. At school, Holly Dae bid me goodbye, dragging Nik to the nearest stairwell. Lord only knows what she had in mind for him there.

First period was AP English Lit, and when I walked in, Carson was already there. He seemed a bit better than the last time I saw him, with a hint of color returning to his face, though still looking kinda ghostly. He was slouched over his desk, lost in thought. When he noticed me, he blinked a couple of times and mumbled, "Yeah?"

This caught me off guard. Considering our weekend reconciliation, I expected a warmer response. With a forced smile, I greeted him, "Is it okay if I sit with you today?"

Carson blinked, then mumbled, "Yeah, sure. If you want."

I sat beside him and pretended to be sifting through my belongings in my backpack. "Are you all right?" I asked Carson. I remembered the antidepressants I discovered on his nightstand.

"I'm fine," he said quietly. He looked at me, his gaze stony. "How about you?"

The intensity of his gaze had always been a weakness of mine. I turned to face the front of the class, where the teacher had arrived, and replied with a quick, "I'm good."

As the teacher started the lesson, I couldn't shake the tension in the air. After a moment of silence, I decided to break it. "You seem a bit off today," I noted, stealing a glance at Carson.

"I'm fine," he said quietly. He looked at me, his gaze stony. "Just some lingering flu symptoms."

"You know, if there's anything on your mind, I'm here," I assured him.