Save Me 《Carl Gallagher》

fight

It's been about two weeks that I've had class with carl. We haven't gotten to talk a whole lot since our teacher teaches literally past the dismissal bell half the time. But in the mornings I sometimes hang with Dylan, and Carls always there. He's really not that bad other than when he tries to act all wigger and shit. The other day I met his friend Nick, who was this big black kid who was surprisingly quiet. I think he's one of the people carl does drug deals with.

Since it was cold today I didn't hang outside, so the first time I saw carl wasnt until the end of the day in class. Carl walked in after I'd already been in my seat and I noticed something was off. He had an angry look on his face with a slowly forming black eye under his left eye. When he walked past me he avoided eye contact and remained silent the entire period. When our teacher dismissed us, instead of walking to our lockers with my girls I told them to go ahead that I was gonna stay behind a moment. I waited outside the room until carl walked out and grabbed him by his arm gently.

"Hey are you alright?" I asked in a hushed voice, to keep the conversation private.

"Yeah I'm fine." He responded in his hood accent.

"Yeah well you don't look fine. What happened to you?"

"Don't worry about it homegirl. It ain't your business, I'm ight." He said brushing my arm away from his, walking away.

I rolled my eyes and made my way to the parking lot where I let my car heat up for a few minutes also waiting for people to clear out a bit.

Today I had dance, so I stopped and got food after school before heading to the studio.

I didn't get done at dance until almost nine. As I was driving home I drove through the better part of South side instead of taking the boring highway.

A little bit down the road my headlights flashed towards a familiar figure walking. The cornrows. That's what gave it away. It was carl. Once I approached him I rolled my passenger side window down and stopped til he looked over.

"Get in, it's freezing, what the hell are you doing?" I called out the window to him.

He stood there for a minute contemplating getting in or not, then finally jumped in.

After a minute of silence he spoke.

"What are you doing in south side?"

"Oh, I was on my way home from dance and I decided to take the scenic route. The highway gets boring after a while sometimes." He just nodded.

He gave me directions to his house and within a few minutes I was parked outside the infamous Gallagher house.

I went to touch the button to unlock the doors but he grabbed my arm.

"Wait.. about earlier.. I'm sorry I blew you off. I was just in a really shitty mood and I didnt want to take it out on you."

"It's okay, I understand. Do you want to talk about it?"

He hesitated for a moment but then spoke.

"I got into a fight. I don't even know the dude he just started talking shit on my family and I don't play that fuckin shit. He got his though. That's for sure."

"Yeah well you didn't come out of it unharmed either you know." I said brushing my thumb over his bruised under-eye.

He put this hand over mine on his face and leaned in whispering in my ear,

"Yeah well those are battle scars, sweetheart."

Just then he did something unexpected.
He intertwined our fingers and pressed his forehead against mine. I could feel his breath against my mouth as he gently put his lips on mine. They were warm and soft despite him being out in the cold minutes earlier. After a few seconds he pulled away with a nervous look in his eyes.

"W-was that okay?" He asked stuttering out of nervousness.

I just giggled looking at him, making a confused look come onto his face.

"What, a Gallagher boy is actually nervous and acting genuine about a girl? Don't worry I won't tell, it might ruin your reputation."

He kind of looked mad for a second but realized I was just messing with him.

"You're different. I like that."