Like Yesterday (first draft)

Chapter Seven

Carter and I get to the school twenty minutes after everyone else. We took our time getting there. Luke and Dani sit on the swings while Sam paces back and forth in front of them. When he sees us, his pacing stops.

"What's going on? I need answers, so don't tell me you'll explain everything later. Just tell us what happened now!" Sam exclaims, walking quickly towards me.

"Okay," I snap, not at all in the mood to argue with Sam. "You want to know what happened? Well, Mike Johnson stole that paper and tracked Carter and I down tonight. He held a knife to her throat to get me to talk. Is that good enough for you, Sam? Is it? Or do you want more?"

"What?! You almost got my sister killed and you don't bother to tell me?!" Sam yells, running at me. He tackles me to the ground. I push him off me and pin his arms and legs to the ground. Sam struggles to get me off him. His right arm breaks from my grasp and he catches me off guard by punching my side with his fist. He takes my moment of weakness to push me off him. Before he can get me pinned to the ground, Luke rushes over and pulls Sam away from me. I stand up, keeping a safe distance between myself and Sam. He stops struggling long enough for Luke to let him go. As soon as Luke's hands are off him, he starts to run at me again. Before I can do anything, Carter is in front of me. Sam stops cold.

"Sam! Knock it off! What are you doing?!" She yells at Sam. "You have no need to start a fight  right now. James did nothing wrong! Now just cool down and listen before you start throwing punches!"

Sam gives me a cold glare that I return. Then he turns around and storms back to the swings, bumping into Luke on the way. Carter sighs and turns back to face me. I can tell her face is flushed. She has an angry scowl on her face, but she relaxes her face and asks if I'm okay.

"Yeah," I nod. I don't tell her that Sam may have bruised my rib from his punch. I involuntarily start moving my hand up to my rib. Carter notices my movement and removes my hand from my rib to touch it with her fingertips. I tense up from the sudden pain as she applies a little bit of pressure to it.

"James, you are not okay." She looks up into my eyes. "I think your rib is bruised."

"Great." I mutter. "This is just great."

"It will heal," Carter whispers. "I can't tell you how long it will take, but it will."

"I don't care about that." I reply. Carter gives me a confused look. "We are getting ready to leave for this thing, and Sam and I are fighting. This will turn out great, don't you think?"

"Hey, it will get better. I promise." Carter squeezes my hand before turning back to face Luke and Dani. Sam leans against the swingset pole, still scowling at me. Something in his look tells me that his outburst had more than what he let on to it.

"Okay, well... Now that you guys have that out of the way," Dani inhales, giving me an uncertain look. "What happened to you two?"

Carter looks back at me. I nod my head, signaling for her to tell the story. She explains everything up to our time together on the bench. I inform everyone on my thoughts of Mike wanting in on our running away. When I finish talking, a heavy silence fills the air.

"So in other words," Luke coughs, "We need to get our buts in gear and leave."

"Exactly," I say.

"When?" Dani asks quietly as if she already knows my answer.

"Tonight." I whisper. Carter takes a few steps back so she's next to me, then grabs my hand. She keeps our hands behind her back, not wanting to set Sam off again.

"Tonight?" Dani clarifies. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. We need to leave as soon as we can." Carter replies. "We don't want Mike running around trying to kill us anymore."