Chapter 9: Broken Trust

Kaelyn’s POV

“Yeah, I’ll be there in a few minutes babe,” Carter’s voice filled my ear. I hit the ‘end call’ button on my phone and sat down on my bed. Carter wasn’t in sixth period today, and I thought that was pretty weird. He’s not the type to skip class. I started setting up my books around me, I called it a ‘study circle’. Obviously it’s called that because it’s a circle of my textbooks, for easy accessibility to study. Carter was coming over so I could help him study for his geometry end-of-semester exam.

About ten minutes later, there was a loud knocking coming from downstairs. I laughed at Carter’s constant knocking and ran downstairs. My hair was in a high ponytail and I was in sweatpants and a tight graphic tee-shirt. I opened the door and was greeted with a kiss on the cheek. I was smiling, until I looked up and saw his forming black eye, and his bruised cheeks.

“Oh my god, Carter what happened? Are you okay?” My voice was trembling. Who would’ve done this to him? He wasn’t like this at lunch, this had to have happened recently. I took his backpack from him and put it on the ground next to him.

“I’m fine Kaelyn, don’t worry,” He assured me.

“No you’re not! You’re going to have a black eye tomorrow! I’m going to get you some ice and when I come back I want the whole story,” I demanded.

Carter nodded and he went to go sit on the couch. I made my way into the kitchen. I filled a ziplock bag with ice and then wrapped a paper towel around it. When I walked out of the kitchen and into the living room, I saw that Carter wasn’t even there anymore.

“CARTER WHERE DID YOU GO?” I yelled. There were footsteps behind me and then two warm arms wrapped around my waist. Carter threw me over his shoulder and then carried me up the stairs. “PUT ME DOWN!” I screamed.

"Can't do that, now can I?" I could practically hear the smirk on his face when he talked. And that should be impossible. Carter started laughing as he carried me into my room. When he went to shut the door, I saw that there were two bean bags set up at the foot of my bed and there was a movie playing. The movie was ‘21 Jump Street’. Carter set me down on my feet and I stumbled back a little; but he caught me.

I sat down on the purple bean bag, and leaned my head on Carter’s shoulder. We did this every week, one day during the week he would come over with a movie, and we would just cuddle together. But, it was nothing more than that. It just felt good to know that someone was here for me. Truly here for me. Someone that will always tell the truth to me, someone who will be there for me through thick and thin, and someone who would never manipulate me or take advantage of me.

I felt my hand start to get wet, and I forgot that I had the ice in my hands. How does someone even do that? I glanced at Carter’s face, his hair was covering his bruised eye. I moved out of his grasp and paused the movie.

“I um… I forgot to give this to you,” I laughed. Carter sat up and started laughing himself.

“How does one even do that? Your hand must’ve gone numb because there is no way possible to forget that you had a dripping wet bag of ice in your hand.” Carter took the ice bag out of my hand and pressed it to his eye. “That feels so much better, thank you Kali,” He used my nickname and smiled warmly at me. I returned the smile.

So….” I stretched out the word. “Are you going to tell me who did this to you? At least tell me what happened!” I said.

“I think it’s better if you don’t know,” He nervously laughed.

“I don’t,” I said. I was being particularly stubborn on purpose. I have to know who did this to my best friend.

“Fine. But, if I tell you, you have to promise me that you won’t go crazy,” He held out his pinky finger. I rolled my eyes and sealed the pinky promise.

“Start talking Marshall,” I used his last name.

“Okay, okay. So it happened when I was in the locker room changing for gym and Shane just came up to me randomly. He didn’t even say anything to me. All he did was punch me, many times, at least ten I think. The only time he spoke was before the last punch he said, 'New person everyday,' and then he walked out of the gym.” Carter said. I stared blankly at him. New person everyday? Does that mean he beats up a different person each day?

No, no, no, no. Shane wouldn’t do that! He’s been so nice and kind to me, I’d almost completely forgotten about his bad boy reputation. I guess Grace and Sierra were right, I can’t trust him. Not after he beat up my best friend for no reason. I was going to give Shane a piece of my mind the next time I see him. I can’t believe what a jerk he actually is. He was probably just toying with my mind so that I would give him what he wants and then he would ditch me like he did to all the other girls.

“Shane did it?” My voice was shaky. I couldn’t believe it.

“Yeah… This is why we told you that you couldn’t trust him.” Carter pointed to his face.

“I’m so sorry that I didn’t believe you,” I reached over the bean bags and hugged Carter tightly. He hugged back with his free arm. He set his ice pack down on the floor and pulled me up out of my bean bag and into his lap. I put my head on his chest as he ran his fingers through my hair.

“I thought he was different,” I said. I was referring to Shane. “I thought all those rumors were just rumors. But, I guess they were all true,” I mumbled into his chest. Carter tightened his grip on me and then kissed my forehead.

“It’s okay. I’ll always be here for you. Now, let’s finish the movie and then we can get to studying.” Carter picked up his ice pack off of the floor as I pressed play on the remote. He kept his arm wrapped securely around me, I could barely move.

I stayed in his lap the whole movie; we practically talked through the whole thing anyways. I felt more comfortable in someone’s arms, rather than being alone.