Carson P.O.V
"Chris! Gordie! Someone!"
At this point the coyote was so close I could feel it's heavy breath. I'm dead. I saw Chris run towards me.
"Wha- holy shit." Chris pulled a knife from his Jean pocket.
He ran at the coyote with the knife and it backed down. As it ran away Chris put the knife away in his pocket.
I gave him a bear hug. "Jesus, you saved my life."
"Hey Chris do you-" Gordie went silent when he saw us hugging. It probably looked a lot less innocent then it truly was.
We immediately let go of each other. "We...Uh...coyote."
Chris tried to fix it, but he just stumbled over his words making the whole situation worse.
Anger flickered through Gordie's eyes. "We should've left you with Ace. A whore like you would fit right in."
I stood there and stared at him. I'd never been called anything like that, and coming from his mouth, it stung.
"That was screwed up man. I saved her from a coyote and she was just thanking me." Chris finally found his words, but now it was to late.
My eyes threatened to water, but I held it together.
Gordie looked at me with sad eyes, but I walked right by him. I refused to be treated like that by any boy. Name calling would lead to yelling. Yelling would lead to hitting, and I wasn't gonna let my feelings lead me to do something stupid again.
_____________________________________________________________Gordie P.O.V
The words flowed out of my mouth like a river. They sounded so dark and full of venom that I was taken aback by it myself.
Her entire face dropped and a single tear fell. I just stood there staring. I had just acted worse than Ace himself. How could I have said that to a girl?
We continued our journey later in painful silence. I tried to think of a way to apologize.
"I'm s-sorry." I choked out.
"Little fucking late for that." Carson didn't even bother to turn around.
I'd only heard her swear a few times, but it was never directed towards me.
I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. "I'm sorry. I'm really- I am sorry."
Chris turned around to look at me.
"Let it go."
I glared at him. My best friend, my best friend since as long as I could remember, the best friend who'd found a dead body with me, the best friend who always was by my side, the best friend who just betrayed me.
"What is all this talk about?" Teddy looked at each of us.
"Nothing." Carson bumped Teddy off the tracks.
"Yeah, pick on the cripple." He chuckled and pushed Carson.
It turned into a flirty push fight which made me want to kill him on the spot.
Teddy tripped Carson but caught her before she fell. "Sorry."
Carson laughed and stood, Teddy still having his arms around her.
I'd had enough.
"Stop it!" Everyone whirled around to see me.
"Wha-"
"Your flirting with her, and you fucking know that I like her. What kind of friend does that?" I shoved Teddy backwards.
"Bastard." Teddy said under his breath before jumping on me.
He punched me twice before I switched our position and punched him.
I kept punching. And punching.
"Stop it! Gordie your gonna kill him!" Chris pulled me off Teddy with all of his strength.
I looked down at him. Blood was all over his face.
"I'm..." I was at a loss for words. I'd never hit any of these boys. We'd only fought once, and it was over a quarter.
Teddy spit blood onto the grass. "You had your chance."
I took a step back. How could he have known about our little incident ?
Carson looked at her shoes. I saw a small tear roll down her cheek, but she wiped it off immediately.
I didn't know I'd hurt her. I just wasn't ready to love someone, I don't know how. I was just trying to protect her from me.
"I'm sorry."
No one met my eyes. I wished life could go back to being this simple thing. I wanted to go back to the summer of 1959. I wanted to crack jokes with Chris and Teddy. I wanted to hear Vern whine. And most of all, I wanted Carson gone.
"Why don't you go home." I gave Carson a look of pure hatred. Because of her, I'd turned on when of my best friends.
"It's not my fault." She spat at me.
"Actually, it kind of is."
She ran her hand through her hair and sighed. "Why are we doing this?"
"What?"
"Why are we fighting? We barely even know each other."
Carson didn't exactly say it right, but I knew what she meant. We had kissed, but maybe it didn't mean anything. I guess I shouldn't have caused all this because I thought I was in love.
"Yeah. Yeah your right. I'm sorry, man." I slung my arm around Teddy and he smiled a little.
Chris laughed but then his face got serious again. "We need to get moving."
I nodded and started to follow him.
After about 15 minutes Chris stopped and looked down at the Royal River.
"Let's take the short cut. We can use a boat or something for the leeches."
Teddy started running towards the forest shouting random commands.
We all jogged behind him laughing at his sweet arrogance. Funny how just a half day ago he had nearly snapped his leg off.
"Wait up." Chris called to Teddy, who'd already entered the forest.
As we increased our speed to try and reach Teddy, my nerves got to me. We could barely see through the lush trees and I began to trip over every root and twig.
I fell down hard on the dirt and Gordie stopped to help me. As I got to my feet, two splashes came from close by.
Gordie and I ran to see what had happened.
Chris and Teddy were screeching and trying to get out of the water. They both had looks of sheer terror. What was so bad about the water?
"Shit!"
Teddy and Chris practically ripped their clothes off. I covered my eyes and went behind a tree.
"I wasn't watching were I was going. Stupid. Stupid." Chris was talking to himself.
I peeked at them from behind the tree and saw they were covered with leeches. I would've screamed, but then they would've known I'd been watching. And the last thing I wanted was to be known as a girl pervert.
"Are they gone!?" Teddy asked with terror still evident in his voice.
"Yeah....yeah your good." Gordie checked him for leeches as I went back behind the tree and pretended like I hadn't been watching.
"You can come over. We are all decent." Chris said after a few minutes.
Something occurred to me as we continued our walk.
How exactly did the boys know that Vern would be where they'd found the body?
"You sure Vern is gonna be there?" I looked to Gordie.
"No. But it's where I would go."
After that we were silent until we reached the Back Harlow Road.
"This is it. If Vern's here, he's close by." Chris stated before beginning the search for the boy's long lost friend.
"Vern?" I heard Teddy's voice a few feet away from me.
"Oh my god!" Teddy screamed at the top of his lungs.
We all ran towards him and saw something a kid should never have to see.
