Carlton ✔

23| The Implausible Secret

His smile kind of lost the joy at that moment. "Nobody."

"Oh c'mon! You can tell me, Price!" I punched his shoulder playfully, wanting him to cheer up because he was suddenly so silent.

His eyes closed as he inhaled deeply, visibly hurt by something. "Can you guess?"

I swear if it was Ivanna, I would lose my fucking mind.

Or was it another one of Avery's other friends?

Oh fuck.

What if...it was Breanna?! Oh God, no. I would have to kill myself to get over that.

I was taking so long to "guess" that Damien looked at me impatiently and then broke the silence. "Couldn't guess it, could you?:

"No," I chuckled.

But he didn't look a least bit amused, making me think that this girl was probably someone I knew and his answer was going to make the ground slip from beneath my feet.

He was very reluctant but he smiled nervously. "That's the thing about you Carlton. You never understand relationships. You might be the smartest guy in the world, but you never observe the people who care, because you're selfish."

He said it so seethingly, so abhorishly that it almost made me lose my temper.

What is with people being so confusing?! Why did everyone like to beat around to bush and never get to the point?!

And then he had the audacity to fucking stop talking and walk away like it was nothing.

I stopped him, yelling, "So I'm selfish and you're not?!"

He turned around, matching my voice, "Yes! Because I notice and I help you! You've never done that for me!"

"Tell me one thing I haven't noticed about you!"

"That I'm in love with you, damn it!"

"You-"

What?

My whole body froze on hearing that.

I couldn't move as my stare dug deep into my friend's deep blue amiable eyes, that were beginning to glisten now.

Oh no.

No, no, no.

This shouldn't have happened.

Damien Price was...

Time slowed, and within those few seconds when everything around me felt like it was falling apart, I heard the crackling of the flames in the fire pit.

A tear slid unheeded from Damien Price's unfamiliar eyes.

Did I know him at all?

I had never seen him cry, or even whimper before. Yet, here he was.

"Are you happy now?" He asked in the softest, most stiffling voice, "You made me say it!"

I didn't know when he turned around and left, because I was in a haze.

Maybe it was the mind-boggling, too expensive to be real, red wine, or the fact that one of my closest, childhood friends just told me he was in love with me.

Is this why he was distancing himself from all my friends? Is this why he loved to keep to himself all the time?

Who was Damien Price, really?

Was he just a manifestation of my desires to have a powerful, rational and a mastermind partner in crime?

Had I really been that ignorant?