Page 63 of Carter

“Yeah, well, he didn’t say anything crude to me. He was actually a nice guy.”

“A nice guy?” He looked at me with disgust. “That’s why he was talking about bagging you to his friends, right? Real fuckingnice, Leah.”

I froze, and my cheeks heated.

Great, so now I felt foolish.

“Didn’t you fucking notice how he was touching you when you were all over each other, dancing to my fucking song?”

“He lowered his hand a little—”

“He touched your ass and stared down your top, all the while smirking to his friends over your shoulder!”

My heart picked up. “I didn’t know all that.”

“Well, you should’ve!”

“Yeah, because I’ve got eyes on the back of my head, right, Carter?”

His eyes narrowed. “I’m being serious, Leah. You need to be mindful.”

I stared despondently at him, feeling the ache behind my eyes begin to form as I weakly said, “Okay, so you’re probably right about him.”

“Probably?”

I exhaled. “Fine.Completely.”

He nodded furiously. “Exactly!”

“But how could you think that was all a show to makeyoujealous, Carter? Why are you looking for the worst in me?”

“It’s because of what happened before,” he replied carefully. “At the table, when I referred to you as a friend. Since then, you haven’t been yourself.”

“And why do you think that is?”

“You’re pissed at me.”

I scoffed. “I’m not pissed enough at you to want to make you feel jealous. That’s not me and you know it.”

His chest moved quickly as he let out, “Then I don’t understand! What is with you lately? Why can’t I get a single word out of you, Leah? I’m losing my mind here!”

I stared at him for a long moment, contemplating my next words. I thought of that incident, thought of what Melanie said, and my earlier thoughts about school coming up. All of it compounded into one and I felt crushed by the weight of it.

“I can’t do this anymore,” I told him quietly, staring down at the floor. “I can’t be around someone who’s unable to acknowledge who I am to him in front of other people.”

His jaw tensed. “Who you are? Leah, I already told you I don’t do relationships.”

“I never signed up for you fucking me on the side and letting girls crawl all over you the next.”

He made a face. “I don’t ask them to be all over me.”

“It might help if you told them you were taken.”

He inhaled sharply, and I could see the frustration in him begin to rise. “This is fucked up.”

“Why? Do you enjoy the attention or something?”

“I don’t enjoy the attention at all! You’re the one that dragged me into this band shit, remember?”

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