Perfect Strangers

45| Knots

Chapter 45: Knots (Alex's POV)

I walked out of creative writing and headed straight to the field for lunch. I got there and noticed the entire field was empty. "What the-" I mumbled under my breath. I caught Jamie running inside so I just followed him in quietly. He was rushing to the cafeteria where literally everybody seemed to be. 

I pushed past the crowd, having to climb onto some tables on the way. I finally spotted Hannah and walked over to her. "What the hell is going on?" I asked. 

"Nothing, Alex get out of here," she began pushing me backward. 

"No, what? I- what is going on? Where is Carter?" I asked. I heard a loud clatter and jumped up on the table to look above the crowd. My mouth fell open while Hannah pulled me back down to the floor. "He- what is- why is he doing that?!" I yelled. 

"He went to confront Hudson. Then- I don't know, it just became chaos," she huffed. 

"Is nobody gonna stop him?!" I exclaimed. 

"I think it's best not to," she said, wincing while looking at the scene unfold in front of us. 

I tried watching but I couldn't, just looking at the blows they were throwing at each other, the way the other would yell in pain, the way they grunted at any movement, the way they were both bleeding, I couldn't look at it. "Hannah, somebody needs to stop them, they'll kill each other!" I yelled. 

My stomach was turning into knots, I could feel my heart pounding against my ribcage. 

"Carter!" I yelled. I watched him hesitate to throw the next punch and Hudson took that as an opportunity to throw a few punches at Carter's face. I turned around, not being able to watch. 

I watched as Zach entered the room in confusion, looking for us probably. He ran through to the middle of the crowd and his eyes widened. "Carter!" he yelled, trying to pry Carter off of Hudson but neither of them would budge.

"Carter!" I yelled. Carter grunted before letting Zach pull him away. I winced looking at Hudson's bloody nose and the gash on Carter's eyebrow that had blood trailing down the side of his face. I watched as some guys from the team pulled Hudson out of the cafeteria while Zach pulled Carter aside to talk to him. 

Connor got everyone back to their seats before we all left the cafeteria, leaving Zach and Carter behind. We were standing out there, waiting for them to come out and once they did, I noticed immediately that Carter's eyes wouldn't meet mine. We all stood in silence before Connor, Hannah, Zach, and Abby left us alone. 

"I'm going home, are you coming?" I huffed. He silently nodded before following me. Zach stood in front of his car so he held the door open and we both slipped into the back. 

He drove us out of there and we sat in silence the whole time till we reached our neighborhood. "Where am I dropping you two off?" he asked. 

"My house," I answered. He pulled over at my house and we climbed out. He drove off and I turned to Carter. 

He couldn't even look at me. 

I shook my head before going inside, Carter trailing right behind me. I went straight to the kitchen and washed my hands before grabbing the first aid kit from under the sink. "You are unbelievably stupid," I huffed while opening the kit and grabbing some cotton and antiseptic to clean his eyebrow. "And I'm sure you don't think you've done anything wrong, am I right?" I scoffed while pulling out a barstool. 

He sat down on it and I stood between his legs. 

"Carter, you could have told me, you could have told me what you were going to do," I huffed while wiping off the blood from the side of his face, working my way up to the gash.