I start looking for Creed Foster in the places where he usually hangs out at school.
I hadn't been his official boyfriend, we hadn't even talked that much. Now that I thought about it, I'd just kind of jumped him and we fell into bed together.
But then there was the date that we'd had at Waffle House over pancakes when I told him about my dad. And the bouquet he had bought me when he thought nobody was looking; sunflowers, my favorite.
So you can see why I needed some answers as to why the hell he'd banged Luke Asher after we argued about seeing each other, or at least becoming passing friends.
I search the gymnasium first and find the basketball team practicing, squeaky shoes chirping as the players bounce across the floor. Then I check under the bleachers, glancing at the time on my phone every five minutes. When I finally showed up half an hour early for practice, Coach was going to wring my fucking neck.
So where the heck was Creed?
I search a little longer and end up finding him near the science wing, exacting misery on unsuspecting kids as usual. "You see something you like, asshole?" Creed demands, then there's a loud bang and laughter as he slams someone against the lockers.
I round the corner and find him pinning Eddie Garcia against the wall. The smaller boy is cowering when Creed raises his fist like he was going to pound his face in.
"Hey, Creed! " "Don't you have anything better to do than torture small children?" I yell at him.
Creed looks over at me in surprise and lowers his fist in an instant. "Why don't you mind your own fucking business, you dumb little ginger?" He demands.
Eddie slips out from under Creed's muscly arm and runs past me. "Thanks! I owe you big time! " The boy whispers to me as he jogs past.
I watch him go for a second, and then I turn back to Creed and smile my award winning smile at him. The one I'd flashed him before we slept together, and he totally lost his mind.
"We need to talk, Creedence," I say.
"About what?" Creed asks, his lip curling slightly.
"About you and Luke Asher," I reply, and then I shrug a little, as if it's no big deal, even if it was.
Creed stares at me for a whole five seconds, and then he laughs this sharp, barking laugh. "Are you..." he stops, catches his breath, then laughs again. "Are you serious right now?"
"Luke told me all about you guys," I say, my cheeks flushing slightly. "What's going on? I thought you didn't want anybody to know about you, Creed. That's the whole reason why we broke up. "
"Really?" Creed scoffs, "You're a fucking asshole for bringing this shit up. You know that? We're done, Carter. We had fun, you went back to your perfect life, and I went back to living in a shithole and failing half my classes. So, what if I slept with Asher? What are you going to do about it? Huh? Is the little baby boy jealous? "
"Piece of shit!" I close the distance between us when I march up to him and slam him into the lockers using one hand. He was bigger than I was, and stronger, but I wasn't weak or a pushover.
"Oh, Carter's mad!" Creed laughs, our faces inches from one another. He was this unshaven grease ball with stringy brown hair, but for a whole two days, he had been my grease ball.
I guess I'd wanted to fix him.
Maybe I thought that loving him would make him a better person. I mean, not love-love, because we hadn't known each other that long. But caring for him, and listening to him talk over stacks of pancakes. Maybe I was the one who was messed up.
I curl my fingers into Creed's shirt and ball it up between my fingers, then pull him forward slightly so that he's leaning over me, his long hair forming a curtain around our faces. "Did anything that we did mean anything?" I question.
Creed's lip twitches. His thick eyebrows pull together, then he shoves me off of him, "Get lost, Carter."
I stumble backward and trip over my sneakers, ending up sprawled on the floor, legs splayed out.
"What about Luke?" I ask Creed when he turns to walk off. And yeah, I'm upset, but I swear to God, I wasn't about to cry in front of that asshole, Creed Foster.
"What about him?" Creed replies, his broad back turned to me. He has holes in his KISS T-shirt that reveal cream colored skin and a splattering of freckles and scars. I'd kissed all of those freckles that night, all of them. But it didn't mean shit, and I was a total loser for thinking that it did.
I open my mouth to reply, but before I can, Creed looks back at me again and sneers.
"Just a word of advice," he says, "Luke Asher is off limits." You got that? So if I hear a rumor that me and him are having a thing and I find out that you spread it, I'm going to kill you, Carter. I'm going to literally tie you up and dump you in the ocean. "
I stare at him as he walks away, hands in his pockets.
Damn.
How the hell had I ever seen anything good in Creed Foster?
I'm still sitting there with my face in my hands when something flutters down and lands on my knee. It felt like a leaf, but I was obviously indoors, so that was impossible.
Sniffling, I look up after a second and spot a single post-it note resting on my leg.
"Carter."
Another note drops from over my head, and I look up and see Fish standing there with a pen and a pad of paper, his blonde hair slicked back from being in the pool, I assume.
"Fish? How did you find me? " I murmur, and then I pick up the note and examine it.
"You cry very loudly."
"Wow, thanks..." I say, rolling my eyes and standing up, handing him his notes back. "What happened at practice while I was gone? Did you make the team or what? "
But, of course, Fish doesn't answer.
Instead, he reaches down and grabs my hand, dragging me back towards the pool area. It was time to face the music, and the wrath of Coach Freeman.
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