Chapter 22

My phone rings just as I walk into the Clarke’s house after school. I glance at it warily before picking up, only to hear someone roar at me, again. I have no idea what’s happening, but all day people have been calling me only to roar into the phone and hang up.

Carter looks up when I walk into the living room and bursts out laughing when he finds me staring at my phone in disbelief. I look at him through narrowed eyes and glare at him when he takes his phone out of his pocket to take a photo of me.

“You,” I say through gritted teeth. “It’s you! Why have weird people been calling me all day?”

Carter laughs, and my heart flutters a little. It’s one of those loud, deep and uninhibited laughs that totally transform his face. My lips tug up at the edges as he rises from his seat and walks up to me. Just watching Carter laugh like that makes the butterflies in my stomach go wild. I can’t even stay annoyed at him.

He pauses in front of me and I can’t help but check him out. He’s wearing a tight black tee that showcases his muscles spectacularly, and I long to be closer to him. It’s been so long since I was last in his arms. Ever since I told Carter that I just wanted to be friends, we’ve stayed away from each other. We’ve been dancing around each other, toeing the line of friendship, both of us fighting our desire and our feelings.

Carter stands a little too close to me and wraps his hand around my waist. He leans into me and I place my hands on his chest, my palms flat against his pecs. I’m dying to run my hands over his body and to feel him tense underneath my touch.

“Have people been calling you and doing this?” he says, right before roaring loudly, right into my ear. I push against him and he bursts out laughing again.

“What did you do?” I say, shaking my head. Just seeing him so pleased with himself makes my annoyance melt away.

He bites down on his lip cheekily and my mind wanders back to when he lifted me onto my desk and kissed me all those weeks ago. His eyes darken and his gaze drops to my lips. He inhales deeply and closes his eyes before looking away. Is he thinking about that kiss too?

“Yes, that. Why have people calling me and doing that?” I say, my voice far more husky than I meant it to be. Carter grins and my heart skips a beat.

“I printed out fifty pages of an ad that promises a lucky winner a hundred dollars for the best Chewbacca impression. I stuck them all around town and put your phone number on it with instructions that said to call you, do the impression and then hang up. I wrote on it that we’d call back the winner and that we’d disqualify any phone call that lasted more than four seconds.”

I close my eyes and try my best not to burst out laughing. It’s funny as hell — I’ve gotta give him that. Annoying, but funny.

I hear Kate’s laughter behind us and I take a step away from Carter, my heart filling with unease and guilt.

“You didn’t,” she says. She walks up to us and high fives Carter, earning herself a glare from me.

“Kate, you’re supposed to be on my team,” I whine. She laughs and wraps her arm around my shoulder.

“I am, Milly, but this one is really funny. Don’t worry though, I’ll help you get back at him.”

She winks at me, and I smile back. I love it when Kate helps me pull pranks on Carter. When we join hands against him, the pranks are always extra epic. Kate smiles as though she already has something in mind.

She grabs my hand and pulls me up the stairs. “Okay, I have the best idea,” she tells me, a wicked grin on her face. I laugh and follow her into her room — I can’t freaking wait. Kate walks to her desk and googles images of large bugs before picking one randomly. She prints it out and gives it to me to cut out. It looks gross and I shudder .

“What exactly are we doing with this?” I ask with raised brows. Kate grins and tips her head towards the door.

“Come on, you’ll see. This is going to be awesome. It’s so simple, but it’s going to be fantastic.”

I follow her into Carter’s room, both of us on our tiptoes. We try to be quiet, but our constant giggles totally defeat the purpose. Kate takes the cutout from me and then sticks it on the inside of Carter’s bedside lamp. She then turns it on and I gasp. It actually looks as though there’s some large disgusting bug inside the lamp. She turns it back off and I smirk.

“You evil genius,” I say, shaking my head. She looks smug and holds her hand up. I high five her and laugh all the way back to her room. Carter is going to be freaking terrified.

“Milly?” Helen shouts. I pause and stick my head into the hallway. “Milly?” she shouts again. I rush down the stairs with Kate on my heels. Helen is in the kitchen and has a bunch of baking supplies spread out on the counter.

“I want to make apple pie, could you help me, honey?” she says. I nod and walk to the sink to wash my hands. Kate stands in the kitchen, frozen, her jaw locked.

“Why didn’t you ask me to help too, Mom?” she asks.

Helen pauses and looks at Kate in surprise. “Oh sweetie, I’d love for you to help, but you hate baking.”

Kate clenches her jaw and looks at me angrily. Even though I haven’t done anything, I feel horrible.

“You still could’ve asked,” she says to Helen. Kate walks towards me and washes her hands so roughly that she splashes water all over the counter. I’m suddenly tense and on edge, even though I know I didn’t do anything wrong.

I get to work as Helen gives Kate some instructions. We’ve made this pie so many times that I can do it in my sleep. I pretty much work on auto-pilot, and Helen and I move in sync. She adds small amounts of butter while I use two forks to work it through the dry ingredients. We learned long ago that the mixture gets too warm if we use our hands.

Kate slams the apples down on the counter and glares at both Helen and me. “Looks like you don’t even need or want my help.”

I shake my head just like Helen does, but Kate’s expression tells me nothing we say will placate her now. Lately her temper has been a bit weird and I’m not sure what to make of it.

She grabs her phone from the counter and turns towards the door. “I’m going to Gabby’s house,” she tells us. I drop the forks and wipe my hands on my skirt.

“Kate, no, please. Just stay and help us. It’ll be so much fun,” I tell her, my tone pleading. Kate shakes her head and looks from me to her mother.

“Nope, thanks. You two have fun,” she says, her eyes flashing with bitterness. I don’t know what to do — should I follow her or should I let her go? I move to chase her, but Helen grabs my hand and shakes her head.

“I’ll talk to her, Milly. Just let her be for now. You know as well as I do you won’t be able to talk any sense into her when she’s mad.”

I nod and take the fork she’s handing me. My heart is in agony. It feels like my friendship with Kate keeps getting worse and I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong. I don’t want to lose her, and I have no idea how to hold on to her when she pushes me away so vehemently. She’s been hanging out with Gabby more and more often, and the more time she spends with her, the more she seems to resent me. The distance between us seems to increase every day, and I’m terrified she’ll soon be out of reach.