Birdie

8. The Enabler

Carmen could tell the second that Chancellor figured out what she had done. He was watching her like a hawk, and it made her skin crawl. His gaze was too heavy.

They were back at his place, and she was in the room deemed hers unpacking her belongings. Chance was reclining on the bed, propped up against the headboard with his ankles crossed. The second lunch was finished, he'd trailed behind Carmen like an oversized puppy, and had been watching her for the past hour. Her skin had only started to crawl seconds ago. His gaze wasn't hard until seconds ago. She could practically feel his contempt, waves of it, all directed at her. It made her itch.

"What did you do for him?"

Carmen didn't turn around, she did, however, stop moving. The knit shirt in her hands just hanging limp and heavy like a dead body in her hands.

"I don't want to talk about it, Chance," She murmured, running her fingers over the cable stitch of the maroon sweater before folding it up with care, then unfolding it, after deciding to hang it in the closet.

He scoffed, a dark, irritated noise, and when he spoke again, "Carmen. What the fuck did you do for him?"

She decided to go for the obvious answer, "I went to jail for him."

It wasn't enough, not even close.

"Don't be enigmatic. What did you do for him that got you in jail?"

Carmen couldn't form the words in her mind, how the hell was she supposed to tell him.

"I'm not going to repeat myself again, I'm asking you out of respect, but if you don't fucking answer me, I'm going to ask Wesley."

He could see how uncomfortable Carmen was, why was he doing this?

It took everything in her from keeping her voice from shaky. It betrayed her.

"It's not my business to tell."

"Well it's my business when it's about the woman who is living with me. A woman who also went to jail for someone else, making it her business as well. You knew it was the second you decided to do whatever it is you did."

"Misdemeanor. Possession."

"Of?"

"Coke." Carmen spit the word out.

It tasted like venom on her tongue. It burned her tongue like it was venom.

"Tell me what happened." His voice was hard and unforgiving, and Carmen found that she didn't want to tell Chance more now than any time in the past when he asked, and it had nothing to do with Ira or his virtue, and everything to do with Chance and his judgment.

"He...asked me to take him to some store in the county I was arrested in, so I picked him up from my parent's house and we went. He doesn't have a license."

"Why?"

"Because he liked to walk or ride his bike wherever he went. He always said he didn't feel the need for a car. I dropped him off at the mall he wanted to go to- he had to get a gift for his girlfriend at the time. It was her birthday the next day. I was irritated, but had my own errands to run, so I did them in that town. I got pulled over for speeding, and when the police stopped me I had an attitude. He gave me a hard time, and demanded I must have been on something, I was fidgeting and my eyes were red. Chance, I was so tired. I worked at an elderly home, and had pulled a shift over twelve hours. Hadn't been to sleep.

He made me get out the car, cuffed me, and dug around inside. Found a gram. I pleaded down from a felony to a misdemeanor after learning I could do some serious time, and ended up with a year."