Lifelines

Chapter 12

We all casually walked up to the front door where Austin stood with Luke, conversing with some kids from school. James led us inside and I noticed Lucas, Austin, and Carson did not follow. We went all the way to the kitchen where James offered me a drink. I had never drank alcohol before but I figured it wouldn't hurt to try it.

As I took a sip my throat burned and I felt the heat spread through my body. "What is that?" I coughed and James shrugged. "It's some kind of mixture. Whatever it is, it does the job though, right?" James then let me finish my cup before dragging me out to the dance floor where everyone's bodies were smashed together.

"I don't dance very well." I shouted over the booming music and James put his hands on my hips, steadying me. "Just move to the beat." he said smoothly. So that's what I did. As the music blasted I moved along to it and before long I was dancing up against James like every other girl here was with their date.

I was up to my fourth drink when I started to feel a little off balance. "Hey, wanna go upstairs?" he asked me and I nodded my head. Maybe there was a comfy bed I could rest on. James held my hand as we walked up the stairs. We entered an empty room and I laid down on the bed feeling relieved.

James laid down next to me and moved a piece of hair from my face. "You're really cute." Woah, calm down drunk Cass. We don't need hormones getting in our way right now. James chuckled and moved in a bit closer. "You're pretty cute yourself." I felt myself blush and stared into his eyes. "I thought I loved you in middle school. How absurd is that? What does a twelve year old know about love?" I laughed and James laughed along with me.

"Maybe we could start over from all of that." he said and had a hopeful look on his face. "Yeah?" I asked and James nodded his head. "Yeah. Would you like to be my girlfriend?" he questioned me and I smiled a little too strongly. Damn alcohol. Maybe if I dated James, these weird feelings for Carson would disappear. "I'd like that." I told him and he leaned in a little more, pressing his lips to mine.

I pushed back with force and ended up straddling his waist. We probably made out for a good twenty minutes before James stopped us. "You're drunk and I don't want to take advantage of you. Maybe we can just lay here for a while." I agreed and pulled down the covers crawling in. I felt his arm go over my waist and sighed when my head hit the pillow.

I woke up to the sun hitting my face and rolled over into a warm body. I opened my eyes and saw James looking down at me. I smiled and heard a knock on the door. Carson walked in and saw us laying there with shock on his face. "What...?" Carson trailed off looking confused. "I just thought I'd spend the night cuddling with my new girlfriend." James said putting an arm around me and staring Carson down.

The room felt very tense all of a sudden so I smoothly got out of bed. "Did Austin make any breakfast? I'm starved." I pushed past Carson and bolted down the stairs. I ran into the kitchen, not even noticing the house was in mint condition. Lucas sat at the breakfast bar scarfing down a pile of scrambled eggs.

"How was your night?" Austin asked me and I looked by the stairs to see if Carson or James were there. When I saw they weren't I turned back to the boys and groaned. "Last night I was so drunk I basically assaulted James with my mouth and he had to stop it cause Lord knows I wouldn't have. Plus he asked me to be his girlfriend which isn't a bad thing, he seems like he's changed...for the better. I just can't shake this feeling that Carson gives us every time he's around James and me."

Before either boy could respond to me, Carson and James came downstairs with glares imbedded on their faces. James walked over to me and gave me a kiss before walking out the door and leaving. When he left I sharply turned to Carson, "What did you say to him?" Carson ignored me and walked into the living room. I looked to the other two for help but they shrugged their shoulders.

I marched into the living room and was about to yell at Carson but he had his back turned to me, trying to open something. "What are you doing?" I went to reach around him but he was too quick and turned the other way. We are not doing this today Carson. I reached again and grabbed what he had. I felt it was cold and read the label. "Why were you about to drink Vodka at eight in the morning?" I asked him.

Carson stared at me blankly and I gently put the bottle down on the coffee table. "What's wrong? Why are you acting like this?" he kept silent again and I felt my anger start to build. "Carson you know that's my biggest pet peeve. I hate it when people don't answer me like you're doing now. Why are you being such a douchebag?" Carson still stared at me and I started to back away when he finally spoke. It wasn't something I wanted to hear.

"Did you sleep with him?" he questioned me and I looked at him confusedly. Obviously I slept with him. Did he not see us in the same bed this morning? Carson must've noticed the confusion on my face because he spoke again. "What I meant was, did you have sex with him?" Carson thought James and I had sex? I started to giggle and Carson glared at me as I started to laugh uncontrollably. "No. I didn't. Why? Would that bother you?"

Carson stood there with a blank face again. "I don't care what you do." then he walked out of the house with the bottle of Vodka in his hands. I don't care what you do. The words echoed in my head over and over again. Why was Carson acting like this lately? Did he not care about me at all? Was he still mad at James for what happened in middle school? I just didn't understand. I didn't want my best friend to be mad at me anymore.