Page 72 of Carter

Work.

Hating Carter.

Those three things occupied most of my time.

It had taken him exactly a month before his eyes drifted from mine. A month before the girls were sitting in his lap and he was taking things to another level.

To say it made me feel like a used-up tissue tossed to the curb was a severe understatement. There was nothing more awesome than knowing you weren’t all that important to someone as you thought you were, and that they could easily replace you.

Fucker.

I glared at him as I paced back and forth. He was seated in his usual spot with the guys, and he was leaning into a girl, brushing her hair behind her ears as he spoke to her. When Jared turned around from his chair and lifted his hand up to me, I froze and hastily searched for Melanie. I wouldnotbe serving them. Hell to the no.

Unfortunately, Melanie was busy with a table.

“Leah!” Jared shouted out. The obnoxious bastard would keep hollering my name if that was what it took to get my attention.

I sighed and went to them. I tried to keep my eyes glued to Jared, but they moved on their own to Carter. And he was looking back at me, a grin playing at his lips as he lifted his beer and chugged a bit down. I was frowning by the time I stopped at their table, looking down at Jared, wanting nothing more than to strangle him.

“What do you want?” I asked roughly.

“Nothing,” he answered.

What the hell? “Then why call me, Jared?” I huffed out.

“I was just curious to know where you’ve been. I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever.”

“I cut back to part-time.”

“Why?”

“Because of the hours. I need more time studying in the evenings.”

Not being here and listening to drunks and watching Carter fondle the girls.

The truth was he was the major issue. It got to the point he was so distracting at work, I picked up another job as a cashier in a store close to my Uni. That way I was working mid-afternoon to early evenings there, and only here two nights of the week. I juggled between the two on top of being a full-time student.

Times were tough.

Even when I found spare time during the weekends, I spent it at the library, pumping out essays and going over chapters in my textbooks. Then I found an excuse to stay behind almost every class and go over my questions with the Profs, otherwise I’d be lost in a sea of confusion.

I was busy.

Drastically busy.

My head ached when it hit the pillow and my body sagged into the mattress like a limp noodle. I usually didn’t have a lot of time to think—which was exactly what I needed—and I ended up falling asleep minutes later. By occupying my brain, my heart couldn’t catch up to me.

Which was why standing at this table was getting on my nerves. It was forcing me to acknowledge the bastard standing two feet away from me, boring his mischievous eyes into me while one of his groupies leaned into him like he was hers.

I scoffed.Good luck with that, darling.

Living with him had been interesting. Despite our somewhat amiable truce, we were anything but amiable. We dodged each other at every opportunity and barely tolerated one another. We spoke, not often, but it was enough, and it was usually about rent and bills with a few snide remarks thrown in.

He wasn’t around much either. He was practicing with the band, taking up more gigs on top of promoting themselves. Their popularity was seriously on a rise, especially when they began creating more videos and demos. I only knew this through Rome, but even then I hadn’t bumped into him often for a good hangout.

Because Mel was getting closer to the boys than I was, the last update she filled me in on was they were negotiating over booking agents, and if one was agreed upon, it might mean uprooting their lives elsewhere.

Which was both relieving and depressing at the same time. The thought of him leaving made me nauseous. We’d fallen so far, if he left, we’d never recover. Which is interesting looking back on it. Somewhere very deep inside of me, I’d hoped for some way of mending this.

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