One of the Guys

Chapter Three

 At first, I felt guilty riding to school and back with Lucas but he didn't seem to mind. Cheer practice usually ended about 30 minutes after his fall baseball practice clinic and he promised he didn't mind waiting. He said it gave him a chance to shower before stinking up the car and scaring me away. We spoke a lot as he drove and I learned about how he spent his last summer. I started going to sleepaway camp in middle school (another source of our separation) so I never really saw him outside of school anymore. He told me about his internship at our local hospital over the summer. My mom had already mentioned it to me when I got back but I pretended I had no idea. I asked him a lot of questions about the internship and his eyes lit up every time he talked about it. I could tell he really cared about what he was doing but he would always shrug it off as "not a big deal" if I tried to compliment him.

Every morning he came up to our door around 7:30, had breakfast to-go, and drove Katie and me. My mom would always thank him for his rides but he would tell her that he owed her for all of the breakfast she was feeding him.

Thursday afternoon, we were sitting at a red light on our way home from school when he asked me what I was doing the next night. I wasn't sure why he asked so I wanted to make sure I sounded available without sounding too available.

"Oh I don't know yet," I told him. "Probably hanging out with Piper and Logan. Why?"

"Carter's parents are going away tonight so he has his house to himself tomorrow. He's having a party." He glanced at me. "You're friends, right?"

Friends. That was sort of a loose term at my school so I guess we were. We said hi to each other and I guess I did usually drop by for his parties.

"Sorta," I answered. "We'll probably go."

And we did. The rest of the day rolled around. On Friday morning, Piper texted Logan and me to ask if we wanted to go. Of course we said yes. We always went to parties. There wasn't much else to do in this town anyway.

After cheer practice, we went to Piper's to get ready. Her hot, older brother, Kyle, was visiting from college for the weekend. He dated my older sister, Kelli, on-and-off in high school. We're still convinced they'll eventually get married.

He was sprawled across the couch, wearing sweats, drinking Coke out of a can, and watching Family Guy reruns. He never looked better.

"Hey, Pipes...Pipes' friends," he said as we entered the room.

Piper shrieked and jumped on top of him. "You didn't tell me you were coming home, Asshole!"

"And you didn't tell me you gained weight!" he laughingly pushed her off of him.

Their conversations may sound weird but they actually cared a lot about each other. "Dick!" Piper mumbled.

"Why are you here?" Logan asked. She flopped onto the couch beside Kyle.

"This is my house, right?"

I rolled my eyes. He was always so sarcastic. My sister hated that about him and I could see why.

"I'm babysitting," he informed us.

The three of us looked at each other in wonder. Who would trust their child with this man-boy whose diet had degenerated to cheap beer and cafeteria nachos?

"You," he answered the question we had not yet asked and pointed at his sister.

"We're going out," Piper told Kyle matter-of-factly. "Carter's having a party."

"No, you're not." He tried to stay firm but the two of them burst out laughing. "Carter Banks? Haley's little brother?"

"Yeah, that one," Logan answered.