When You Least Expect It

13

"Hey, I'll be back," muttered Harry as he slid out of his seat.

"Where you going? The game's gonna start."

Harry silenced me with a chaste kiss to my mouth. He walked off the field and disappeared out of sight. After Harry left, I looked back at Carson. Carson's previous smile had grown more taut, and he pulled his eyes away from me.

"Want some?" Dad nudged me, pulling me out of my trance. I turned away from Carson and saw that Dad was holding a bar of chocolate.

I wrapped the blanket tighter around myself and shook my head.

Holly Dae dropped down in the seat beside me, her brother Brodie perched in her lap. She asked me where Harry was, to which I shrugged. "How scandalous," she said, her eyes falling pass the bleachers where Harry was chatting up a couple girls.

I threw the blanket over her shoulder. "Coming from the girl who said she wanted to start a scandal."

"It's not my fault nothing interesting ever happens here. Even the most recent car crash on the news didn't happen in our town."

Raising a brow, I glanced over at Dad. He was engrossed in a conversation with my Biology teacher beside him. "A car crash is what you define as interesting?"

"I mean, no one died, so yeah."

"I didn't hear nothing about a car crash. Am I living under a rock or something?"

"It was a minor one, that's probably why you didn't know about it. This happened a few weeks ago. Apparently, he crashed his car right into a tree."

I didn't hear anything about that. You'd think Dad would tell me, given that his head was always buried in a newspaper. "He is from what town did you say?"

"Davenport, I think. The guy was probably driving under the influence anyway."

It clicked in my head straight away. "That's where Carson's from."

"Who?"

"Sorry, I meant Cole." That's what people knew him as.

"Oh, that's the dude who fainted in gym class, right?" Holly Dae scanned the bleachers, searching for someone. I followed her gaze, finding her fixed on Carson, who was enjoying popcorn with his dad. "Poor thing. He should sue the school."

"Well, he's down there. You can go offer him your legal advice if you want."

We all sat and watched the game. We lost. Our town were known to be sore losers. Some parents started to riot and throw stuff, crying out obscenities.

Harry returned just as the game ended and sat down beside me, out of breath. He stole a bunch of popcorn from me. "What'd I miss?"

"A lot." I stared at him. The buttons on his top were undone, and he was huffing like he had just ran a marathon.

Harry stood up, shrugging his jacket on. "You're coming to my place now, right?"

Dad was throwing our trash away and asked me if I was ready to go. Behind him, Carson stood with his hands tucked into his jacket pockets. He looked like he had something to say.

"Dad, don't wait up for me," I said, peering over his shoulder at Carson, who kept glancing between Dad and me. "I'm hanging out with some friends."