A Story For Forever

Chapter Three

            It had been hours and Alice’s ankle only looked worse. We hadn’t even gotten that far. It was too difficult for one person to carry Alice alone, so two people had to lift her together. At that moment, Sean and I were working together on Alice. The twins carried the rest of our luggage.

            “I don’t see why we can’t just find real people to take us back,” Greg complained.

            “Do you want to get arrested?” Sean snapped.

            “Yeah, I mean, no. I don’t want to get arrested, but Alice needs medical attention.”

            “You don’t say?” Alice grunted.

            Sean ignored this and continued walking. I was fortunate enough to have to lift Alice’s wounded side. Every now and then, Alice would scream in pain or cry. I tried to shirt my grip quickly whenever this occurred.

            Sean suddenly dropped his hold on Alice. She screamed in surprise and yanked me so that I almost dropped her too. “Sorry!” Sean was apologizing. He was barely heard over Alice’s hysterical crying.

            “Are you okay? I’m sorry! Oh god,” I heard Sean say. He tried to lift her back up, but she thrashed an arm out punching him in the nose. He stumbled back and fell. In the meantime, I was slowly lowering Alice onto the ground while keeping her leg as far away from the ground as I could.

            Sean wiped the blood from his nose and smeared it across his cheek.  His face was a mix of confusion and rage. “What the hell? I was only trying to help!” he shouted.

            “I didn’t mean to,” Alice whimpered.

            “Dude, calm down. Hasn’t she been through enough?” Jack said.

            “No one asked you,” Sean stood up. “I’m sick of all of you. I mean, we go out here to have an adventure. To have a good time. What do I end up with? A mute, two nerds, and a klutz who can’t even count to ten. All of you were a disaster waiting to happen.”

            Alice cried even harder, but I only felt angry. “Well, maybe you should have done what was right,” I shot back at him. I had never involved myself in an argument like this. It was a feeling I could never describe. Pure hate and anger bubbled in my chest and exploded from my mouth. “Honestly, we all followed you because we trusted you, but we were stupid. All that’s happened since we’ve listened to you is trouble. I should have known that I never would have real friends. I should have known you would put us in this mess. We are days away from anywhere safe and I trusted you. This is far from anything we need and you alone put us here.”

            “Really Carrie? Are you serious? Do you even hear yourself?” he laughed forcefully, “You don’t do anything! You’ve never been useful. All you do is stand there and wait. You act all innocent and just tag along. If you actually knew that this was wrong, you should’ve said something. Actually, all of you! What’s wrong with you all?”

            “Please don’t bring me in this,” Greg protested.

            “I don’t care, just take me home,” Alice begged.

            “Shut up!” Sean screamed, “Just all of you, shut up! I’m still in charge here.”

            “No, you’re not,” I challenged.

            “Really?” Sean walked up to me and stopped so close that our foreheads were practically touching. I glared up into his eyes. For once in my life, I was going to be strong. “Yes,” I answered coolly.