More Than A Game

Chapter 14

Walking towards my mother and Brayden, I forced myself not to make eye contact with either of them. My cheeks still burnt after Chad's stupid words.

His jealousy rambled my mind as I continued my way towards Brayden and mother. I wanted to desperately talk but no matter which way I tried, nothing would sound right.

"Where's Ch... Is everything alright Carmen?"

I could hear Brayden's frail tone ringing in my ears, I felt embarrassed and confused at the moment and didn't feel like I needed to talk to anyone. Brushing off his question, I wiped away the tears building up upon my eyes, quickly making my way back to my seat.

Watching my reflection from the base of the spoon, I stared in silence at my darkened blood shot eyes. The girl who I seen in the reflection was someone who I'd thought I would never see again. I believed that since the accident, I would become normal once again but all that washed away when I realised I was nothing but a vulnerable mess.

I could feel mothers' concerned stare watching me but once again forced any eye contact with anyone. Since I was killing the mood of the night, we all headed to car. Along the way, a small part of me hoped that Chad would still be here, awaiting my arrival and that this nightmare was nothing me than a nightmare but sadly, it was all reality.

During the car ride home, Brayden's questioning was droned out by the sound of Chad and the pathetic words of jealousy. Maybe I shouldn't have kissed you that day, then maybe we wouldn't have been in this mess.

I replayed those words in my mind, each time wanting to cry harder than I did the last time yet for some reason, the tears had felt as though they had suddenly dried up. The moment we got home, I stormed out the car and made my way to the backyard where I sat on the edge of the step, slowly sobbing to myself.

It was almost instantly I could feel a human presence next to me. Immediately I knew it was mother, who probably would have had a couple of words to say to me.

"Alright Carmen. I honestly hate seeing you this way. I thought I should leave you alone since it was nerves but then realised that Chad never returned. Did anything happen between you two? I really need to know."

Before I could reply, my phone suddenly began to ring. I looked at the home screen and put it back in my pocket once I saw Chad's name on the front. Why did he even think I would want to talk to him after finding out what we had meant nothing to him.

After spending the next several minutes explaining to mum what happened, I watched her facial expressions change dramatically as she came in for a hug.

"I just don't know what to think anymore. You'd always hear things about girls being the one to watch in a relationship yet after what Chad did I..." I paused, after realising that my conversation was going nowhere.

"It's alright Carmen. I know how you feel. When I was a your age, maybe a little younger, I was seeing this guy who had been in my maths class for a while now. We went out a couple of times and wanted to take our relationship to the next level when I found him suddenly finding hard to be around me. It wasn't until the night of the school dance, I knew I had made a massive mistake when I found him making out with another girl."

I was taken back and shocked after hearing the story mum so openly shared with me. I couldn't help but be thankful for her support even though I spend most of time keeping secrets from her.

"Thank you mum, thank you for just being there when no one else was." I could feel my voice shaking as I let out the last few words before looking out at the stars in the sky.

What Chad did was childish yet put me in a position that made me question every move I made. Suddenly, I remembered about the party, the party that Ollie invited me to. Honestly, it shouldn't even matter who invited me because we're just friends, nothing more. Chad was just going to have to put up with our friendship.

Mum gave me one last hug before moving back towards the house leaving me to my confused thoughts. Why didn't Chad just tell me he was upset, I would have been happy to talk about it yet here I was, feeling like a knife was slowly stabbing me in the back.