For Forever

Chapter five

  "You WHAT?!" Erin screams over the phone. Leah giggles and sits up. She rubs her eyes and stretches.
  "Erin it's 6:30 in the morning stop screaming." She says and straightens her legs to the cold wood floor and stands up. She picks up her phone and puts it to her ear and goes to her closet. The two girls talked an hour this morning, giggling and laughing at jokes, oohing and awing  at Leah and Carson's experiment from the night before. Then Leah got quiet. She wanted to tell herself she hated him, but she couldn't. She liked him, had strong feelings for him quite enough.
"Lee?" Erin asks softly, "You still there?" She falls silent.
  "Yeah I'm sorry. I'll see you at school." Leah hangs up softly and tosses her phone on her couch chair. Leah sits down. Running through everything that happened the night before. Running with him, holding him, kissing him. She blushes tremendously. She had liked him so much already. Leah shakes her head and goes to the bathroom to do her makeup. She puts on a light winged eyeliner and does her mascara. Her alarm blares and she looks at the time.
  "10 minutes till class." She said and knows she's going to be late. She throws on a ripped pair of converse and grabs her keys. She goes downstairs and finds a note on the table.

hey darling,
     we went out of town for a little while. Make sure you do your weekly chores and remember to feed vicky. Feel free to have company over, there's gas money on the fridge for you and some for groceries too. See you in a couple weeks.
                                                   <3 mom and dad

"Love you too." She says with a roll of her eyes. She puts down the cats food and water and then left the house. She gets into her car and heads to school.
When she got to school Carson locked eyes with her as she walked into the building.
"Hey Leah." Carson says walking up to her. She hesitantly looks up at him.
  "yes?" She asks. Carson gives her a small smile and a wink. She gives him a confused look.
  "can we meet at the park by my house after school for some studying?" He asked and she nods.
  "We could even go to my house? my parents are gone for a while so it'll be quiet." She smiles and he nods.
  "Whichever one! See you later." He says giving her smile and walking off to class. He's being so nice. She talks to herself, thinking once again about everything last night. She smiles to herself and walks into first period.
The class went by slow and she just couldn't wait for fourth period to start. When the bell rang she sprang up from her seat and walked to second period. She had finally found herself happy to go to fourth.
When the lunch bell rang she smiles softly and heads to find Erin. She had always eaten lunch with Erin and some of the football players, really no one else.
"Hey there m'lady." She hears and she turns her head to the left and gasps.
"Carson! You scared me!" She pushes him away a little. He chuckles and scrambled to stand straight. That feeling in her chest burns up again. Her face flushes with color and she tightens her grip on her books. What's wrong with me? She asks herself very confused on what was going on in her mind, in her chest. Leah struggles to find Erin in the hallway through her tear soaked eyes. But when she does she quickly makes her way over to her, leaving Carson behind.
  "Erin thank god." Leah says and grabs Erins arm.
"See you later..i guess?" Carson says to Leah as she starts to walk to Erin. He was so confused as to why he couldn't read her. Why he couldn't get the courage to ask her.
"Erin can we talk?" Leah asks and stops in the hallway next to a locker.
"Yeah what's up?" Erin asks putting her phone away. Tears start to fall from Leah's eyes. She clenched harder onto her books and whimpers. Erin gasps.
  "Leah oh my god." She says beginning to walk Leah to the bathroom. The girls sat in there for the next hour. Leah had explained everything, how confused she was about Carson, why she had that feeling in her chest every time she had talked to him, why she had liked him but had no chance.
"I'm so sorry Leah.." She says wrapping her arms around her best friends neck. Leah weakly puts her arms around Erins waist and sinks her head into her shoulder. They fall to the ground and Leah begins to sob again. She begins to hiccup and stumble on her words, not making a coherent sentence. Erin starts to cry, seeing her best friend like this hurt her deeply.
"I wish I could help you Leah.." They hug each other tighter on that cold bathroom floor.
Fourth periods beginning bell rang and the girls start walking to their class. Leah's eyes were slightly puffy, and her nose was stuffy and red. She gets to her seat and puts her head down on the table. Erin comes up and sits down next to her, in Carson's seat. She begins to rub Leah's back.
"Devin I'll never get this project...done.." Carson's voice fades to a whisper as he walks into the classroom and sees the two girls. Devin looks at Carson and then Erin. Erin looks at Devin and nods.
"Carson, sir next to me today. You can meet up with Leah later to work on the project." He says leading Carson to their seats.
The rest of the day went painfully slow for both Carson and Leah. But when the last bell rang Leah rushed home. Leah had been so upset with the fact of her liking Carson, that she couldn't get her mind off him. Her phone starts buzzing, notifying her that she was getting a call. She flips her phone over to see who it was. Carson. She picks up the phone and clears her throat.
"Hello?" She asks quietly
"Hey..Leah?" He asks. She sighs quietly.
"Hi Carson, what's up?" Leah asks, trying to hold herself together again.
"Are you okay? I didn't get a chance to talk to you today because you rushed home." He says, fiddling with his rings. She choked up.
"Yeah I uh," She clears her throat, "Have to babysit today." She lies. She didn't want to tell him that she was upset about him. She didn't know how she could tell him, anything about how she felt.
"Are we still on for studying today?" He asks.
"I could ask the baby's parents if I can reschedule with them." She lies once more. Carson smiles and chuckles into the phone. Leah smiles at his small laugh. They talked for a little and then decided to meet up at the park. She had put on sweatpants, a small crop top and put her hair into a messy bun. She met up with Carson at the benches. He greets her with a smile and they begin to study.
  "Look Leah..I'm sorry if i've ever hurt you or pushed you too hard. I don't mean to. I really just want to be friends with you." He said looking at her. She looks up at him from her book. Friends? She asks herself and puts on a small pout.
  "Yeah me too." She says and looks back down at her book. This is going to be a long junior year.