My Best Friend, The Bad Boy

3 | Disbelief

Kaillie Adams: (not edited)

            When I was sitting on my bed doing my homework tonight, Abby called me and told me to guard my back and my heart, then hung up. She seemed nervous. Weird, eh?

            So weird, I call Carter. He picks up on the third dial tone, sounding stressed. "Hey," he says tensely.

            "Hey..." I start to say trailing off, "Abby just called to tell me to watch my back and my heart, do you have any idea why?"

            After a colourful string of curses, he says, "Yes, I know why."

            "Could you tell me then please?" I nag. Carter should know the best of all that I hate to be kept out of the loop.

            "No," he says tensely, and I imagine him putting one of his hands over his face, as he usually does when he's like this. I would usually leave him be, but I have a gut feeling this time isn't like all the other ones.

            "Yes," I argue back. If it involves me, which I'm pretty sure it does, he needs to tell me.

            "No," he fires back.

            "Why not?" I say with the volume of my voice increasing.

            "Because it'll hurt you!" he yells over the phone to me angrily. Whatever it is apparently has him all riled up.

            "I don't care, I obviously need to know!" I shout back. Great, now we're having a shouting match over the phone. "Carter..." I say softly, begging him to tell me without really saying anything.

            "Fine! Meet me at the park in ten minutes," he says roughly and then hangs up the phone without giving me a chance to respond.

            Five minutes later, with my coat and boats on, while I'm walking out the door after telling my parents that I'm going for a walk, my phone vibrates in my pocket with a text from Abby. It says:

Believe Carter, he's telling the truth, no matter how much you want to deny it.

            What the hell? What's with my best friends and being so vague right now?!?! I silently ask myself as I walk to the park. When I was a kid, the park was where I meet Carter for the first time. Our houses are under ten minutes apart, and the main thing that divided our houses was this park. It's pretty big, making up most of the walk. Carter and I even have a spot. It's in almost the middle of the park, on the bench under a huge oak tree. As kids, we used to play on it, just like all the other kids; it's the place where we met for the first time. When I turn onto the corner of the path where the bench is, I see Carter already sitting on the bench, waiting for me to appear. He's trying to appear calm, sitting upright, staring up at the trees and path in front of him, but after knowing him for so long, I know that deep inside he's nervous, yet angry and frustrated. He's wearing his blue coat with thin gloves, which tells me that maybe I should've dressed a little warmer. I didn't know how long I would be out here for. But obviously Carter does. Silently sitting beside him on the bench, he passes me a pair of his gloves without a word, as if he knew I wouldn't think to bring any. Putting on the gloves, he also passes me one of his beanies to wear on my head, because I didn't think to wear a hat. He didn't even look at me, he just knows!

            As I'm putting on his beanie, in a voice too low and quiet for my liking right now, he states, "You're not going to like what I have to say."

            "And why is that?" I ask softly yet curiously.

            "Because it'll hurt you, all the way to your core," he says, putting his head in his hands. Maybe I should just abort my mission? That doesn't sound good. But I need to know.