Page 10 of Carter

I felt my stomach plummet. That bed was being marked by some random girl I’d never seen before. It was probably going to smell like her too.

Tears stung my eyes, but I held them back. I wasn’t a crier. That had never been me. I was a tough cookie. I mean, look at my life; you needed thick skin to handle the shit I did.

Breathe, Leah.

Breathe.

And Iwasbreathing, and yet—

Operating on anger, I grabbed his window and slid it up. Without waiting a beat, I quickly climbed through it, shoving aside the blinds and practically breaking them in the process. Their mouths broke free, and the girl’s head turned in my direction, her gorgeous blue eyes popping out as I stood there, panting from anger.

“What the hell?” she squeaked out, immediately jumping off him to grab her shirt. She shoved it against her chest, hiding her giant boobs—boobs that made my average ones seem all the more sad—and gawked at me with horror.

“What is she doing here, Carter?” she hollered.

But Carter didn’t respond. He was sighing and shaking his head, his eyes directed to the ceiling.

Avoiding her now malicious stare, I pointed to the window and growled out harshly, “Get out!”

Her jaw dropped and she looked at Carter for back up. But he was still not saying a word, and it had quickly dawned on her that I was in charge now.

“Do something,” she stressed to him. “Get rid of her!”

He wasn’t going to do that.

I knew my place in his life.

I was far more important than some random girl he’d picked up. I was taking advantage of this, I know, but in my heart he was mine and I wasn’t going to share him, especially in a place that I felt wasours. This bedroom held too many memories for me to ignore. We’d talk for hours until the sun came up, and I was not willing to taint it with some random chick’s touch.

“Are you deaf?” I snapped out, my nostrils flaring as my anger continued to climb. “I said get out!”

She jumped at the spike in my voice and hurriedly threw her shirt on. Her face was red from embarrassment as she slipped her flats on. Angrily, she stood up and looked down at Carter. “You’re an asshole, Carter Matheson!”

Yeah, yeah, we’d heard this how many times before?

Then she was shoving past me to get to the window. She climbed out clumsily and I listened to her footsteps scurrying away. Now that she was gone, I felt a wave of remorse for how cold I’d come across to her. What had come over me? It wasn’therI was pissed with.

I crossed my arms and turned to him. If I was attempting to look intimidating I was failing spectacularly because Carter was amused. His blue eyes glanced at my face and his mouth spared into a wide grin.

“God, Leah, you are being over the top,” he remarked.

“I’mbeing over the top? How could you do this to me? Sneaking girls into our room—”

“It’smybedroom, Leah –”

“You knew I was coming around!”

He shook his head, disagreeing. “No, I didn’t. It’s after midnight. Since when have you ever shown up this late? I didn’t think you were going to come around, so I called Pomposa up.”

I froze. The hell did he just call that bowling ball chested girl?

“Pomposa?” I snarled out with disgust. “You chose a girl with the namePomposaover me?”

“I didn’t choose anybody over you.”

“You did with Pomposa.”

He burst out laughing, and the infectious sound already began to warm me up. I swallowed back the smile twitching atmy lips. It only took Carter to laugh to make me forget why I was so angry.

---