Page 34 of September Lessons
Everyone wanted to know what Carrie and Leigh-Ann were doing in the barn. Trespassing, of course, but what was the ulterior motive? While both parents and authorities begrudgingly agreed that nonfunctioning barns were common hangout spots for the local youths, the fact Carrie was new in town and Leigh-Ann was rarely seen with people brought out the suspicions. Leigh-Ann knew she had no choice but to take a play out of Christina and Dillon’s handbook.
“We were makin’ out,” she mumbled. Her mother looked like she wanted to scold Leigh-Ann, but her silence ultimately won out. Nobody else looked surprised by such an admission. “It was my idea to find a barn. I wasn’t thinking of the fires beyond which barns weren’t around anymore. I’m sorry about what happened and for trespassin’, Mr. Connor, but I had nothing to do with the fire. Neither did Carrie.”
“What makes you think my son had anything to do with it?” Mrs. Musgrave asked.
“Carrie told me about him being a pyrophile or whatever.”
“Pyromaniac,” Ms. Tichenor corrected. “It’s true. We’ve had issues with him at school. The boy has been in trouble many times for carrying matches and lighters, which are not allowed.” Her countenance dared the Musgraves to deny that they had been called in multiple times about it.
As they continued to sling blame and demand answers from one another, Leigh-Ann cast a glance in Carrie’s direction. For a fleeting second, they made eye contact. While Leigh-Ann expected her girlfriend to shudder in fear, Carrie surprised her by flashing a giant grin.
At least someone was optimistic.
Chapter 17
CARRIE
The school sandwiches around her didn’t look much better than the one she brought from home. Leigh-Ann’s, for instance, was soggy with mayonnaise and had two thin strips of turkey to pass for protein. Carrie may have brought peanut butter and jelly, but at least the bread wasloaded.One did not skimp on peanut butter if they went out of their way to buy three jars of it when she saw it on sale at Wal-Mart.
What else am I using my paycheck for? Gas?She supposed “bail money’ counted as well, but thankfully she had not gone that far after taking a trip down to the city jail that past Saturday.
“You ever seen sadder canned peaches in your life?” Leigh-Ann poked her fork into the syrupy sadness in another corner of her tray. “I don’t want to eat these. You want them?”
“Now, Leigh-Ann,” Carrie said, mimicking the faux-authoritarianism of their homeroom teacher, “you know you’re not supposed to share your lunch with others. You could get in big trouble, sug.”
“Mrs. Cooper would never saysug.She would sayhon.”
“Excuse me.” Carrie picked at the crust on her sandwich. She wasn’t usually one to pull off the crust like a baby, but maybe certain bread manufacturers could learn to chill on the crust a bit. “I don’t want to offend Mrs. Cooper. My apologies to her.”
Leigh-Ann maintained her cool long enough to take another bite of her soggy turkey sandwich. Then, as if she remembered how funny everything was, she dropped her sandwich back into its tray and fell into a fit of laughter.
Carrie didn’t know what was so funny. Her joke? Her impersonation? Her inability to sit still once she realized she had gotten beneath her girlfriend’s skin?Boy oh boy do I get under her skin.That thought made Carrie grin wider. Their fooling around may have been minimum so far, but she was hopeful that things could get to homerun status by the end of that upcoming weekend.
There hadn’t been time for much else since that past Saturday, when Carrie ended up in lockup while her aunt, her uncle, and freakin’ Ms. Tichenor figured out what the hell was going on with Dillon and his fanatical fling with fire.The mayor showed up. The mayor!Granted, Mayor Rath had the loudest voice in the police station because she had her reputation and herdaughteron the line.I’ve never seen a seventeen-year-old girl cry like that before.Christina sobbed nonstop from the time she was brought into the police station until the mayor was finally allowed to take her home. From the way Leigh-Ann told it, she and Ms. Tichenor tracked Christina down and guilted her into telling the truth about Dillon, a boy everyone told her to stay the hell away from.
Shoot, his own parents said that, and they didn’t know about the coupling yet!
Where was Dillon now? He wasn’t at school, that was for sure. Rumors spread that he was in juvie, but that wasn’t true. The boy was at home, locked up in his room and under 24/7 surveillance while the investigation continued. It took his parents exactly four hours to find him Saturday night, and by the time they dragged his ass into the station, the sheriff was begrudgingly releasing Carrie from her cell. He had wanted to make an example out of her and Leigh-Ann for trespassing, but Mr. Connor graciously declined to press charges as long as it came out that they had nothing to do with the fire.“A couple of kids being kids doesn’t bother me when they’re not being destructive.”Unfortunately for Leigh-Ann, that meant Winston Connor knew about them getting busy in the barn, and the news was out as early as Monday morning. Alongside all the other drama, too!
None of that bothered Carrie. The police were up her ass with questions about Dillon and her possible involvement, but beyond that, she was a free woman. She had a girlfriend, since the first thing Leigh-Ann wanted to do when they were finally alone was give her a big kiss and hug her until their guardians pounded on the door to the women’s restroom in the police station.
Dillon maintained that he didn’t act alone, but he wasn’t giving up any names. This made everyone roll their eyes. It didn’t help that he finally admitted to setting the fire that weekend in the lamest move to impress his new girlfriend (who immediately dumped him) and didn’t have an alibi for any of the others. Not when a whole group of teenagers admitted they hadn’t seen him at Aiden’s party until right before the deputy arrived. Without anybody willing to put him there beforehand, it wasn’t looking good.
I have a feeling he’ll admit to more if he can get a good deal with the DA.Carrie didn’t want to think about that, though. She wanted to think about the girl sitting with her at lunch on Wednesday afternoon.
“So… you free this weekend? Say, Saturday afternoon?” Carrie wished she could say they could hang out Friday evening, but she needed to work. Like she had to work Saturday evening… but that didn’t mean they couldn’t hang out before that. “I hear the hill is a pretty nice place to go. Or, you know, I’ve got a car… and there are a lot of outlooks around…”
Leigh-Ann may have rolled her eyes, but it came with a big smile and a bite of her lip that made Carrie giggle like she never had a girlfriend before. “What are we gonna do in your car, huh?”
Carrie nonchalantly shrugged, although every bit of her wanted to shout,“We’re gonna bone, girl!”“I dunno,” was what she actually said. “Pick up where we left off before my cousin so rudely interrupted us on Saturday?”
They were the only ones who knew what that meant. Nevertheless, Leigh-Ann glanced around like someone might have overheard them. “I dunno,” she said, eyes averted and cheeks turning that beautiful shade of pink. “Maybe if you bring me pizza. Feed me.”
“On Saturdayafternoon?That pizza ain’t gonna be good.”
Before Leigh-Ann had the chance to say that was her price – because Carrie knew that’s where this was going – someone came up to their table and cleared her throat.
They were not expecting to see Christina, who tucked her light brown hair behind her ears and fidgeted her fingers together at the bottom of her sweater. Carrie sucked in her cheeks, but Leigh-Ann nearly melted into her seat.
