Killing Carter

Chapter Five - Friends???

Chapter 5

Bright blue and yellow surrounded me.  I hadn’t seen so much colour in one place in a while and I found myself wishing I had my sunglasses.  This place really needed some black paint.  Feeling his eyes on me I dragged my screwed up gaze from the walls to look at him.  His jaw still looked red from where I had punched him earlier and I felt guilty especially when I couldn’t remember if I had apologised or not.  This maybe wasn’t such a good idea especially since I couldn’t afford to have any kind of relationship with him even friends.

“Is your food ok?  We can go somewhere else if you want.”  He said his voice more gentle than someone like me deserved.  I looked down at my paper plate that had an untouched burger and a portion of chips that was getting cold.  I then looked at his plate.  He had covered his chips in tomato sauce and eaten half of them, the burger floppy in his hand a few bites taken out of it.

He had told me about this place as we walked to it; the Burger Shack, a spinoff of Pizza Hut.  He said they made the best burgers in town and that I had to try them so of course I agreed.  I apparently hadn’t lived until I had tried their ultimate burger.

“Sorry I was just taking it all in.  The place is very...um...interesting.”  I replied looking around again at the carnival of colours on the walls and the vintage American style booth and tables.  The place was buzzing with the chatter of families and teenagers and smelled like tasty unhealthy food.  I took another whiff before looking back at those hypnotic grey eyes.

“Interesting?”  He said pressing for more.

“Yeah.  It kinda reminds me of you.”  I smiled at him and I meant it.  The Shack was buzzing with energy and it was so bright and cheerful that you wanted to smile and laugh, not caring that your life sucks or that the food you’re eating contains more than half your daily calorie intake.

“In what way?”  He smiled back flashing his overlapping front teeth.  His imperfect teeth were one of my favourite things about him because it is your flaws rather than your perfections that make you who you are.  However I could tell that it was what he was most self conscious about as he almost always smiled with his lips.

“Well you’re at home here aren’t you?”  I said gesturing around me.  He looked around his eyes glazing as if he was reliving a memory about this place.

“Yeah I guess I am.”  His face looked sad for a brief moment and I felt guilty for somehow bringing up what I’m guessing was a touchy subject for him but he wiped the look away and smiled at me.  “And the burgers are so good, so try yours.”  He took a huge bite of his moaning deeply as he swallowed making me laugh.  “Hmmmm, hmmmnnnn.”  He continued making the satisfied moaning noises each one louder than the last his eyes flashing mischievously as the deepening blush on my cheeks and the squirming on my red cushioned chair made it obvious that he was embarrassing me.  He took another bite, sauce rimming his lips and I couldn’t stop staring.  I had the urge to kiss the bright red sauce off his mouth but I managed to resist looking at the faces of the people around us that could hear his moans that were now beginning to sound more and more like sex noises.

I slowly picked up my burger and brought it to my lips making sure I had his undivided attention.  His moans stopped abruptly, his gaze locking with mine and I knew I had him.  The corners of my lips twitched with the briefest of smiles before I parted my lips seductively and took a bite of my burger.  I was hit by an assault of tastes from the juiciness of the burger, to the watery crunch of the lettuce and cucumber, the smokiness of the bacon, the tang of the mustard and finally the crispiness of the seeded bun.  He wasn’t wrong; they were the best burgers in town.  As I chewed I began making the same noises he had but he didn’t react the same way I had.  I had gotten embarrassed.  He was getting turned on.  And had I been the Kimmy Scott I was pretending to be that would have made me happy instead I just felt guilty for stringing him along.  Guilt was becoming a familiar emotion these days.