Dealing with Karter

Chapter 6: Bad Crowd

I came home to find Jared and Manny our family room watching a movie. They jumped up upon seeing me. "Liv!"

I put my hands up trying to get them to calm down. "Don't get your panties in a bunch. I am perfectly fine."

"Please tell me you didn't do something stupid," Jared groaned, clearly annoyed with me.

"Please tell me you did something stupid," Manny countered only to earn a dark look from Jared.

"Bro, you were supposed to be on my side," he said, crossing his arms.

Manny shrugged his shoulder. "You're her brother, it's your job to make sure she's safe. I'm her best friend, it's my job to laugh at her stupid moments and give her advice afterwards. Circle of life."

Jared shook his head, not liking the answer. He looked back at me urging me to go on.

I dropped on to the nearest couch, throwing my feet up. "You know, for a boy so obsessed with Madeline, you should at least be on her brother's side. Maybe he'll like you if you weren't like all the other rumour starting losers at our school."

Or in other words, his friends.

"You heard what dad said, rumours have had to start somewhere," Jared countered.

I waved him off. "Yeah, yeah. I don't believe that. Karter is too busy for any of these rumours to be real. The boy works like all the time."

"Well maybe in the day time, but he's always asleep in class. What does he do at night?" Jared raised a brow challenging me. I opened my mouth and closed it realizing I had no answer. I didn't know what he did at night.

A look of triumph crossed my brother's face.

"I'll figure it out," I thrust my chin in the air.

Jared's eyes widened. "No! Livia! That's not what I meant!"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Too late, my mind is set."

Manny who was sitting silently burst into laughter. "Watching you two fight is almost better than watching Keeping Up With The Kardashians."

"I'm glad our pain is entertaining to you," Jared and I said at the same time, which only made Manny laugh even harder.

"Man, I love it when you do that," he said. Even though Jared and I were twins, we were very different. Occasionally, our twinness did come out.

"Look Liv," Jared let out a loud sigh. "I'm just asking you to fake date him, don't make it so confusing."

"Confusing?" I asked exasperatedly. I was confusing things? Not the boy who devised this stupid plan. "If anything is stupid it's this deal we made!"

"If it's so stupid then I guess you wouldn't mind if I broadcasted a very specific picture of you?" He threatened once more, a stupid smirk on his face knowing he's won.

I pointed my finger in his direction. "You are a dead man Jared, mark my words."

He rolled his eyes not believing me. He turned to look at the intrigued Manny. "Are we finishing this movie or what?"

Manny looked back and forth between us, as if asking me permission. I sighed and motioned to the door giving him the thumbs up to abandon his best friend duties. I followed them downstairs and threw myself on the couch bringing 43 with me, the book Karter recommended.

I was so into it that I didn't notice my brother, Manny or the the sun leave. I was only aware of the time when my dad found me in the family room. Kissing my parents goodnight, I went back to my room and finished the book. I couldn't put it down, it was captivating. Karter knew his books, I had to give him that.