you// c.g.

16

I tried getting in touch with him for hours, but he was no where to be found. He wouldn't pick up the phone, he wasn't at Sean's obviously, with Debbie, Kev and V's, Lip, and definitely not with me at the Milkovich's. Where the fuck could he be?

"Hey, thought you'd be with Carl?" Lex's voice sounded as the front door closed shut.

"Why?" I said with a nasty tone in my voice. I didn't mean to I was just angry. After what we went through yesterday, why would he just leave me all alone.

"Someone's in a bad mood." She giggled, moving her dirty blonde hair to the other side of her head. "You alright?"

"Yeah, Carl won't answer me. I don't know where he is." I spoke honestly. She half-smiled.

"Aw, someone's worried about their little boyfriend." Alexia teased.

"He's not my fucking boyfriend!" I snapped. I didn't really know why I had, I was overwhelmed entirely. "Sorry, just feeling a lot."

"Anything you wanna talk about?" She questioned with a trusting look in her eyes. For a moment I contemplated telling her about Nick, but I shoved the thoughts to the back of my head as I shook my head. "I'm sure he'll turn up-"

Her phone began to ring, a picture of her and Fiona swallowing the screen as it continued to buzz. It was one of her favorite pictures with Fi, on the boat Jasmine had dragged her, V, Fiona, and Kev on to see Jimmy/Steve. There weren't a lot of good memories that day, but they really looked happy together in that picture.

"Hey!" Her voice was energetic. "No fucking way-- How? Where'd he get that kind of money?"

They continued to talk but I just ignored it, turning my attention back to the cartoons playing out on the Milkovich's tv. 

"Well, your boyfriend turned up." Alexia retorted as she planted her phone on her exposed thigh.

"What? Where? Is he okay?" Her terminology literally scaring the shit out of me. She chuckled giving me an odd look.

"He just bought the house back." She laughed, "Why wouldn't he be okay?"

A sigh of relief escaped me as I slumped back into the couch. For the 100th time I checked my phone, only to find the same blank screen I had been staring at all day.

"Aren't you excited?" She nudged my shoulder. I showed her a kind, but false, smile. "Maybe this will brighten your day."

Alexia pulled out a bag of pure light from her pocket. Marijuana. My eyes lit up as she handed it over to me. Alexia was pretty chill when it was just us. I smiled grabbing it from her hands and grabbing papers off of the coffee table before us. 

The next day I found myself lonely in the halls of the shitty public school I was forced to attend. I still hadn't seen or heard from Carl. I had no idea why he was ignoring me, all I knew was how bad it had hurt. 

At lunch I was sat outside by myself. Shitty lunch and tons of homework to finish before my next set of classes. It felt like a death wish.

The whole time I had been earning skeptical looks from that girl Carl dissed me in front of. Soon enough she made her way over to me and I knew already I didn't like her.

"Hey you're Jamie right?" Her voice was giving me a headache and she had only spoken four words. 

"Jane." I corrected her, giving a cocky look before returning to my homework.

"Right... Well have you seen Carl around today?" She asked. Did I have a fucking sign on me saying 'Carl's Keeper' or something?

"No." I answered shortly, not taking my eyes off of my Algebra.

"Oh, well when you do tell him to call me, yeah?" God I wanted to hit her. I just side-eyed her and she left. What did she want with him anyway? And when did he get her number? Why do I even care?

When the final bell of the day rang and I still had yet to hear or see Carl, I decided to pay the Gallaghers a visit. Walking there the sky turned grey. I thought for sure it was going to rain, but not a single drop fell from the promiscuous clouds.

"Carl?" I called, shocked to see him home already, attending to the house. He was having slides put in and alcohol moved inside. "What are you doing?"

"It's my house now." He said proudly with this ugly, smug look on his face. "Just making a few renovations."

I rolled my eyes as I watched him so ignorantly take advantage of the household. "Can we talk?"

"About what?" He responded dumbfoundedly. My eyebrows furrowed together, a disgusted face sprawling out on my face. I hadn't even seen what Nick did to that poor kid, but I was still traumatized and confused. But here he stood so gallantly as if nothing had happened.

"Nevermind Carl." I scoffed beginning to turn around and head back to the Milkovich's.

"Hey wait," His hand grabbed ahold of my arm. It felt like all of my nerves swelled around where he touched. "I'm throwing a party tonight. Come."

"Are you fucking serious?" I almost yelled, turning to look at him. In someway his image had changed, at least in my mind. He was being such a dick, an asshole. 

"In honor of Nick.. Jane he's gonna be gone for a really long time. Please come, I need you here." Suddenly my body softened in his grip, the tension completely gone with just those words. In his eyes I could see his pain.

"I'll think about it." I responded, still wanting him to realize he was being a dick. His eyebrows raised in surprise. I had never really said 'no' to Carl before, I usually just went along with whatever he wanted. Not to say it was always about him, because he seemed to automatically agree to do the things I wanted even though he loathed some of the things I wanted. 

I walked away from him and back to the Milkovich's. In my mind I knew I was going to go to the party, but it felt empowering to leave him guessing my moves. It gave me power to see him weaken when I didn't immediately agree with what he wanted because he was being an ass. It was kind of liberating.