Chapter 3: Chapter 3

My car’s engine fell silent once I pulled the keys out from the ignition. After gathering my belongings, I opened the door and kicked it shut behind me.

At the front door of my house, I impatiently fumbled with my keys for a minute—all but ripping apart the key chains attached to the ring as I tried to find my house key—before I eventually found the one I was looking for and stuck it in the door and twisted it.

I scowled when I turned the knob only to find I’d only succeeded in locking the door. It must have already been unlocked.

Pressing my lips into a tight line, I took a deep breath to calm my nerves and stuck the key back in. Once the door was open, I let out a growl when the strap to my bag caught on to the door handle as I passed.

“Grah!"

“Carson?” a deep, masculine voice called, cutting off my bitching.

I gently untangled my bag from the door and closed it before I took a stride forward and put myself just in front of the archway leading to the living room. Peering inside, I spotted my dad lounging on the couch in front of the television, his feet propped up on the coffee table in front of him and two bags of popcorn lying beside him. I knew just by observing the sight that my mother wasn’t currently present in the household. The last time she’d caught my father in a similar position, he had earned a cookbook to his head.

Looking away from him to the show he was watching, I frowned with what I saw. Spanish soap operas. I cleared my throat, putting aside the fact that my dad didn’t know Spanish to save his life. “Yeah?”

“How was school?” He kept his eyes on the television while he spoke.

Pouting, I wondered what could possibly describe my day the best. “Um,” I started. “Do you remember when Darren attacked a squirrel with the lawn chair because it was annoying him?”

My dad flicked his eyes away from the screen to look at me, one of his eyebrows rising in curiosity at the mention of my older brother. “You want to attack a squirrel with the lawn chair?”

I shrugged. “Pretty much.”

He nodded slightly and then turned back to the TV. “Just don’t hurt yourself, kid.”

With a small smile, I backed away from the living room and made my way up the stairs to my room. Once the door closed behind me, I tossed everything onto my bed and then brought a hand up cradle the back of my neck as I eyed the worksheets sticking out from my bag. It took quite some time to get them all done—especially since I lacked the enthusiasm to do homework in the first place—and by the time I’d packed them back up, nightfall had already befell the house.

After changing, sneaking back downstairs to steal some popcorn from my dad, and then laughing at him when my mom returned home and scolded him about the mess in the living room, I shut off the light in my room and crawled under the covers to sleep.

And then suddenly, behind my closed eyelids, a mental image of Jesse and Katrina together made me snap my eyes back open.

I let out a shaky sigh and rolled onto my back so that I was lying parallel to my ceiling.

Either Jesse was desperate to see me with a gun in school or he was absolutely bored to death. If he actually thought I’d allow him to toy with my best friend’s feelings, then I wouldn’t hesitate to bomb his car.

I flinched.

Okay, maybe not bomb the car. Maybe, instead, I could place a ticker somewhere in it and scare him into thinking there was a bomb though.

I pulled the covers over my head.

What was I even thinking on this for? I knew Katrina well enough to say that she wouldn’t succumb to Jesse’s ways. She knew better than that. However much faith I had in her though, it didn’t stop me from worrying. There had been girls who used to despise Jesse as much I do and they ended up joining his fan club anyway. I didn’t doubt Katrina’s knowledge or judgment, but I also didn’t doubt Jesse’s persistency either.

I screwed my eyes shut.

Katrina would never buy his act.

I knew she wouldn’t.

Right?

* * *

By the morning, I tried imprinting it in my head that Katrina was her own person and that if she wanted to date Jesse, she was more than free to. But as the images of Katrina undergoing the aftermath that was sure to be chaotic after Jesse left her, I felt a sudden need to run to Katrina’s house and escort her to every one of her classes like a bodyguard.

Not even a second after thinking it, I decided to go through with shadowing my best friend. But when I showed up early to school to wait by her locker until she showed up, I was more than just annoyed with what I found.

As soon as he spotted me, Jesse raised a finger and narrowed his eyes as if he were thinking hard on something. “Candice?” he tried.

My face twisted into a scowl. “Carson,” I spat. Jesse rolled his eyes at the correction and crossed his arms, relaxing back against Katrina’s locker. “What are you doing here?” I demanded.

“Asking your friend out.”

“Yeah, that's not happening.”

“And why not?”

“Because I said so.”

Jesse looked at me and smirked in a way that he clearly thought flattered me. Unfortunately for him, the effect he was looking for was lost in me. If anything I wanted to slam a door in his face in response.

“You’re jealous, aren’t you?” he asked.

“Didn’t we already cover this?”

“You’re pretty hostile over something that doesn’t concern you. I mean, I’m just saying, but it looks like you’re mad that I’m not asking you out instead.”

I felt an overpowering urge to poke him with a pair of scissors. “Maybe I’m hostile because I don’t like you. Maybe I’m mad because you’re here waiting for someone I clearly told you to stay away from. Do you want to know more reasons? I have more.”

Jesse let out a laugh—as if he thought I was just kidding around—and pushed himself away from the wall. “Fine. I’ll leave. Alright?” I crossed my arms over my chest as he began to walk backwards. Before he could fully turn around to walk through the doors leading out to the courtyard though, he said, “By the way, you look nice today, Carson.”

I just watched him walk out, all the while holding back an eye roll, a sarcastic retort, and maybe even a middle finger. Once the doors shut behind him, I let out a sigh of relief and relaxed back against the spot he had been occupying in front of Katrina’s locker.

After a few minutes of waiting, I started to consider dropping this bodyguard charade. Was there a point anymore? Jesse had basically surrendered.

I made a move to leave, but then stopped.

Maybe I’d been quick in assuming and he was just trying to throw me off by making me think he backed off when he was really planning on returning.

I glanced at the doors he left through. When I didn’t see him, I looked over to the other side of the hall, and then I shrieked.

Katrina stared at me, wide eyed and dumbfounded. “Was that Jesse you were talking to?”

Oh, hell.