Serendipity (Book 2)

iShould've Told You by Edio

Chapter 2

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Freddie, Carly and Sam always tried to get their lockers close to one another, but this year Freddie's locker ended up on another floor entirely. Recently, he found himself thankful for that. He looked around before he opened his locker and started to unload his bag. Hiding did nothing to make him feel better, it just made it easier. Sam knew already, and he could tell the strain of sharing his secret was wearing on her. There were a few times that he was convinced Sam truly hated him for it - most other times, she was just indifferent. It may be better that way in the end - he just couldn't decide for whom. He shook of the now familiar melancholia; he'd had enough of that for two lifetimes. If only - he smirked at his little joke.

Freddie had just placed his Calculus textbook in the locker when the door slammed shut, narrowly missing his fingers. Startled, he yanked his hand backwards and turned to face an upset looking Carly. "What is going on?" she fumed.

All of the kids in the hall stopped and stared. Wide-eyed like everyone else, he said, "Hi Carly." while trying to puzzle out what she just said. He tried to keep his tone as level as possible to try and diffuse the situation. It didn't really work.

She poked him in the chest as she said, "Don't 'Hi Carly' me. We need to talk." Her eyebrows were drawn together as she looked darkly at Freddie.

As angry as she was, he couldn't help but admire how she looked. Carly Shay was arguably the prettiest girl at Ridgeway High. Between the three of them, she seemed to have changed the least. Overall, it lent to her cuteness - she still had the same cherubic face and snow-white complexion. To Freddie, her lips were always Carly's most attractive feature. He liked how full and perfectly shaped they were. Right now though, they were pursed tightly while she glared at him. Carly absolutely hated the fact that she looked younger that her two best friends, so she tried to look older in other. Her clothes were more mature and severe than you would expect a teenager to wear. Today, she was wearing black slacks with a long sleeve, cream colored peasant blouse. She looked like a very short teacher. He easily towered over her now, as did Sam. It was like she was stuck at that same height for two years now.

He leaned down closer to whisper. "Don't you think we should go somewhere else to talk about this? Everyone's watching us." Freddie looked around with just his eyes to emphasize his point.

"No and I don't care," she answered curtly, lowering her voice like he did.

"Well," replied Freddie at the same volume, "apparently you do because you started whispering too."

"Stop being cute, Freddie. I'm serious," Carly threatened and punched his shoulder to punctuate her last statement.

Freddie decided that a smart-ass remark about the 'cute' comment would be ill-advised. Besides he could her temper was building up again so he said "Carly, be reasonable. You're acting crazy right now and anything you say is going to be all over the school in no time."

"Fine!" she yelled and yanked him by his arm. Freddie barely had a chance to pick up his bag before she dragged him down the hall.

They walked like that for a while. Carly led him around or through the other students in the hall. He apologized to everyone Carly shoved out of their way. He considered that this wasn't any less conspicuous than yelling in the hall. Eventually they came to a more or less deserted section of the building. Carly opened one of the doors and peered in. After a moment, she flung Freddie inside ahead of her. Freddie caught his balance after stumbling a bit. He tried not to sneeze from all the dust he kicked up into the air. He muttered soberly about crazy strong girls and their penchant for tossing him around whenever they wanted to.