silence.

Chapter 7

4:09 PM

Emelie

"Hold still," he grunted, his gaze flickering over my arm.

Bennett was cleaning the mess of the shots, wiping the blood off with a wet towel.

It stung.

Badly.

He silently cursed as I flinched. "God, why did Eve have to make it so messy?"

"If it looks bad to you, think about who had to feel it," I snapped.

He muttered something that could've been a 'they should've let me do it,' and finished treating my wounds.

"You should be fine now."

"Thanks," I shifted away from him.

The door slammed open and Luke stormed in, pausing when he saw Bennett.

"What are you doing here, Bennett? Isn't Joy being prepared?"

"I've done her shots already. I'm just cleaning the sh–" Bennett cleared his throat, glancing at me.

I rolled my eyes. "I swear too," I muttered. He ignored me.

"Mess Everest caused."

Luke snickered. "What'd she do this time?"

"She made such a mess of the shots! Are you seriously telling me you don't see this right now?" Bennett threw his arms into the air exasperatedly. "I have no idea why we let Eve do anything."

At that moment, Carter slunk into the room, hands in his pockets. He paused, stiffening when he heard 'Eve' and looked around quickly, before relaxing again once he saw no one else was here.

"Yo, yo, what's up?" he called to Luke and Bennett.

"Are you delusional? We learned from the same school, right? It's called a ceiling," Luke answered, grinning as he shook Carter's hand.

"Funny, bro, real funny," Carter's smile reflected Luke's.

I liked it a lot more when it was just the boys who were checking on me. They had a carefree, no drama air when they were together without Everest or Amber.

Everest and Carter having weird problems.

And Amber and Luke arguing.

"Hey, Mil!" Carter greeted me.

He had been switching between 'Em,' 'Mil,' and 'Milie' for years.

Ah, Carter.

I felt a slight affection for him.

I mean, he was practically my brother.

So was Luke.

Amber and Everest were not like sisters, per se, they were like long-time friends.

"Hey, Car," I smirked.

"Car? Come one, Em!" he yelped, faking offense. I laughed.

"The others should be here soon, we have to discuss the shots and alibis," Luke commented, glancing at his watch.

"Alibis? For what?"

"You'll find out," Bennett said, not looking up from his notebook.

"Okay, then," I hummed.

Everest threw the door open, apparently not surmising that Carter would be right there and happened to drop something from his pocket the moment she walked in.

Gasping, she tripped.

Carter cursed loudly and managed to clumsily catch her by the waist and pull her up.

Luke whistled while Bennett and I raised our eyebrows at the scene.

Everest swore under her breath and glanced at Carter, who was looking away.

"What. The. Hell. Carter." Everest snapped.

"It's not my fault you walked in," Carter growled.

So it wasn't one sided. I wasn't used to Carter and Everest talking to each other, but if they did, I had always surmised that their conversations would be like Amber and Luke's.

By Amber and Luke's, I mean Everest picking on Carter while Carter mock-defending himself.

But Carter had actually growled out his retort.

It had somewhat made me flinch, knowing Carter never did that.

I suppose they both had it in for each other.

"What else was I supposed to do? Patiently wait at the door, knowing you were about to drop something?" Everest asked him, arms crossed.

"Maybe don't come late," Carter retorted, his voice clipped.

I slightly shrank back at Carter's tone.

He never spoke like that.

"Guys..." Amber stepped in between them. "Relax."

Carter turned away pointedly, and Everest scoffed.

"Anyway..." Amber trailed off.

silence.