Phil's Kid

Ch-31-Ok-?

. . .

I was so confused about what Karter meant about him letting the rumor spread, about Phil being famous. How would anyone know? Maybe it really was a stupid rumor? But then why would Karter apologize? I almost couldn't sleep thinking about it. But of course, I eventually did pass out, because me and Richard stayed up late the night before calling a lot of the night.

.   .   .

"And she avoided you?!" Jamie laughed. "For the whole day." I nodded. "Can we please continue the homework?" Richard asked. "No!" Me and Jamie said. "My house, my rules. And besides, I didn't get any homework so I'm bored." "That's because your hurt." I said. "You lucky, that you didn't get any work I mean." "But you can still study." Richard said. "Hey, I thought when you guys wanted to come over you would want to hand out, not study."

"Fine, you want to talk?" Richard asked. "Alex got scared today he literally jumped." "Richard!" I said. "It wasn't like that!" Richard chuckled. "All-cause he didn't see Karter in the tree." "How was I supposed to know Karter would be up there?" "Sorry." Karter said. "No it's ok I was just surprised."

"What happened?" Jamie asked interested in the story. "Let me tell or else Alex will lie about it." "Fine, since you don't trust me." I huffed acting mad.

"So we were going to eat lunch with Karter, right? And we went to go look by the tree Alex said Karter would be in. And when we didn't find Karter we went over to our tree to eat. That's when... bam!" Richard yelled startling Jamie. "Karter jumped out of the tree to greet us! Smart kid." Richard said then ruffled Karter's hair who didn't seem to mind.

Jamie started laughing. "And Alex was scared?" "He sure was, he literally jumped up this high." Richard took his hand off of Karter and stretched it above his head. "I'm still here guys..." I said. "We know." Richard and Jamie said. "And I didn't jump that high!" I said pulling Rochard's arm back down. "Ok fine." Richard said bringing his hand back to his pencil. "Sorry time over." "Noooo. I don't want to work right now, I want to hang out." I wined. "Me tooooo." Jamie joined me.

"Alex." Richard turned to me. "Why can't you be like Karter and finish your homework?" Richard asked me. I glanced over at Karter who was doing something on their phone. "Hey Karter, you already finished?" Karter nodded their head not looking up from the phone.

"What you doing?" Jamie asked leaning over to. Me and Jamie gasped then looked at each other. "Richard." Jamie said. "What? I'm busy doing my homework." "Just come look." I pulled Richards's arm. Richard sighed and looked at what Karter was playing on their phone.

. . .

Five minutes later we were all playing on Minecraft. Richard deleted the old realm and made a new one just for us four, and maybe Noah if he wanted to join later.

Karter was good at Minecraft, especially for someone who plays on the phone. Karter was like our Redstone geek, Karter could make really cool traps for mobs and secret rooms for everyone.

We spent the next hour playing before we had to say good buy and leave Jamie's house. Apparently, she needed more rest, but she seemed fine to me.

Richard went his way home and I walked with Karter. The park we dropped Karter off the other day was on my way home, it was a bit of a detour, but I needed to talk to Karter.

"Hey, Karter?" I asked walking next to them. "Yeah?" Karter asked. "I've been wondering, why would you be sorry for people thinking my dad was famous?" Karter stopped walking so I stopped too.

"I didn't mean to." Karter mumbled looking down. "It wasn't my fault." Karter grabbed their head. "I tried, I really did." Karter bent down hugging their knees. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's all my fault, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

"Karter..." I said squatting in front of Karter. "It's ok, I would never blame you for anything." I said placing my hands on Karter's shoulders. Karter looked up at me like they were about to cry.

"C'mon let's go sit down." I said. I took both of Karter's hands and led us to a nearby bench to sit on. I let go of Karter's hands when we sat down and they pulled their hood over their head leaning back on the bench.

Karter sighed. "I knew someone who knew something... about your dad." Karter glanced at me before looking at the sky. "I knew they wanted to tell others or spread the rumor, they told me countless times." Karter pulled the strings to their hood closing it up some. "I didn't even tell them not to do it. I just sat by and watched. But when they started to tell people, it felt wrong to me."

"I saw you sometimes in the hallway, and they would point you out, going, that's the kid. And I thought you seemed cool, so when they told people I didn't like it. I went to the people after and played it off as a bad joke." Matter rubbed their checks. "But eventually they found out, and got upset with me, we were supposed to be friends, but I couldn't stand by them."

Karter sat up and turned to me with teary eyes. "I'm sorry, I should have stopped them sooner, but I-I didn't. And I'm so sorry about that."

I hugged Karter. "Thank you. You stopped the rumors from spreading too much, now basically no one knows." Karter hesitantly hugged me back. "I'm sor-." "Don't say sorry, don't say sorry for helping, don't say sorry for doing a good thing."

I break the hug and held Karter's shoulders. I looked Karter in the eyes. "And don't ever say sorry for being my friend, ok?" Karter nodded. "O-ok..."

. . .