One By One (editing)

Chapter Fifteen

Teddy was gone when I woke up at six the next morning. I rolled over to hit the snooze button on my alarm clock and groaned. The bad news was it was only Wednesday. The good news was that today was a half-day. I could survive several hours in school, even if I was extremely distracted. I reached to turn my phone on and found several concerned texts followed by a few calls from Gabe. There were about five texts from Mandy telling me that she had finally broken up with Liam. Then about half an hour later there were ten more asking where I was and saying how Gabe had called her asking what the matter was followed by more calls. I fell back on my bed. I didn't know how to deal with all of it.

The alarm clock went off again like a fire siren and I jumped out of bed. To distract myself from thinking about how I was going to act after what I had witnessed last night, I got ready for school. As I brushed my teeth, I decided that I had absolutely no idea how on earth I would, should, or could be around my family. So I shouted "Seeya!" and headed out the front door. Before heading to school, I stopped at a Starbucks for a pick-me-up coffee and a breakfast sandwich. I used the stop as a staller to help me procrastinate arriving to school, and to give me more time of what I was going to say to Gabe and Mandy once I got there.

But it didn't matter because by the time I pulled into a parking spot in Ashville High School's student parking lot, I was on the verge of tears. I hadn't had any time to prepare for what I saw last night. I wasn't supposed to call Luke before 5:25 p.m. today. Gabe and Mandy had no idea what I was going through, nobody did. I felt like an absolute mess.

Quickly and silently, I blinked back any threatening tears. I grabbed my school bag and locked the car door as my phone began to buzz. Checking the caller id, I found that it was Mandy.

"Hello?" I answered, clearing my throats to make sure my throat was clear and free of any signs that I was just about to cry.

Mandy rasped, "Hey girlie!"

"What's up? You sound awful."

"Gee, thanks. I'm sick," she laughed and I felt a small smile sneak onto my lips. "Look, you haven't arrived at school yet, have you?"

"No, I have. I'm walking across the parking lot right now, actually. Why?" Crap, this is probably about Liam. Be a good friend and mention it before she does! "Is this about Liam?"

"Ugh, yeah. Hang on, let me tell you this before you go inside."

"Ok." I slowed my pace and headed towards the edge of the parking lot, taking the long way around to the building.

"So ever since Friday, Liam has been texting and calling me. Of course I never answered so he stopped by my house Sunday when I wasn't home, and then on Tuesday, so yesterday." She paused to blow her nose and I felt mine wrinkle up in disgust.

"But you had work, right? Did he go to your work?" What a creep. Boy am I glad I punched his cheating nose.

She laughed humorlessly. "No, I'm sick so I was home. Unfortunately." I could practically hear her roll her eyes. "My mom was tired of me avoiding him so she let him in."

"Why would you want to avoid him? He cheated on you!" I felt anger simmer in my blood at the thought of how he thought it was okay to cheat on his girlfriend. But at the same time I felt relief flood through the pit of my stomach that I was distracted with something other than my mixed emotions from last night.

"Carter, I had absolutely no idea what to say to him because he cheated on me. Liam and I had gone out for such a long time, and he was my first real boyfriend. I didn't know if we should've talked it out, fought it out, waited to confront the problem, or confronted it right away."