Songbird

Four: Lennie

I barely had time to realize what was happening as Carter pressed his lips into mine. I all but froze in place for a second, not sure what to do or how to react until a shatter from somewhere into the bar, brought me back to Earth. I placed both my hands on Carter's chest and pushed.

Hard.

"Carter! What in the hell are you doing?!" I shouted as I stared at him, wide eyed and shocked. My eyes darted around in a panic, seeing the stunned looks on all of our friends' faces.

Carter, however, had a shit eating grin on his face. "Testing something."

"Testing what!?" I practically squeaked with rage.

"That." Carter nodded toward the bar and my eyes followed just in time to see Colt stalking off like someone had tossed a beehive into his pants, shoulders stiff and imposing, posture ramrod straight. And angry.

Very angry.

"Oh God... oh no..." My head was spinning as I looked to Cora, who looked just as horrified as I was. "What do I do? What the hell just happened?!"

"I don't know," she answered, waving her head ever so slightly.

I was trembling as I flew back to our table. "Why is he so mad?!"

"Lennie." Cora stopped waving her head and gave me a deadpan stare. "Really? You have to ask?"

"What? He's been nothing but a jerk to me since I got here!" I cried. "Oh God. Get me out of here." I buried my face in my hands as I sank back into my seat. "I want to go home."

"I think you should probably go talk to him," Carter stated with a chuckle that made my blood curdle.

"I think YOU should probably go talk to him!" I shouted back, slapping his chest sharply. "You're the idiot that did this! What were you thinking?!"

"Seriously, Cart, what the hell?" Travis spoke up from the seat next to the wall. The man had barely said anything all night, but it was pretty evident he and Cora had something going on, even if it was something no one but her life long best friend could see.

Carter shrugged as if the answer should've been obvious. "He won't admit he has a thing for her, so I wanted to see."

"He doesn't have a thing for me!" I screeched defiantly. "He barely speaks to me!"

"The glass he smashed begs to differ, darlin."

"Screw this. Move." I pushed on Carter's hip before he had a chance to sit down. Carter, still grinning like the damned idiot he was, took a deep breath as I stood up with a huff.

"Where are you running to?" Cora shouted after me.

"I'm gonna go prove to y'all that Colton Hayes's latest temper tantrum ain't got shit to do with me." I marched out the back door like I owned the place and headed into the alley where I found Colt pacing and clutching a towel to his hand, muttering curse words under his breath.

"What in the hell was that?" I snapped at him.

"Lennie, go back inside," he commanded without so much as glancing at me. His voice was quiet, but his tone was stern, as if he was standing on the precipice of exploding.

"No! What are you breaking shit for?" I asked, walking up as close to him as I could get. I looked down to the towel, once white and now stained with blood. All the bravado wooshed out of me when I realized he was truly hurt. "Colt, lemme see."

"I'm fine."

"That's a lot of blood for being fine," I sassed. "Let me see it."

"Lennie, for Christ's sake go back inside!"