Absolute Truths

Chapter Twelve

I wake up the next morning disheveled and disoriented. I hadn’t meant to spend the night, but I lost track of time.

            I look at my phone and see that I have missed calls from both of my parents and the house phone. “Shit,” I mutter, clambering off the bed.

            “What’s wrong?” Carter asks, rubbing his eyes.

            “My parents are looking for me. I never called.”

            “Jesus,” he mutters, leaning back against the pillows and pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes. I call home to assure my parents I’m alive. Mom answers the phone, and I tell her in a frantic rush that my phone died last night, followed by a flurry of apologies.

            She is alarmingly calm. Apparently Todd vouched for me. He told her I crashed at his house when she called him wondering if he knew where I was.

            After a minute’s lecture for my carelessness and another wave of apologies from me, I tell her I will be home soon and hang up. I go into the bathroom and stand in front of the mirror. My skin is pale and tired and my hair is a mess, my bangs all out of place. If only we could wake up like people do in movies… I pull my hair up into a ponytail, mess with my bangs a little, and splash some warm water on my face.

            Carter tells me to give him five minutes. He’ll walk me home.

            When we get to my floor, Grace is standing outside my door waiting for me. I can tell immediately that something’s wrong. I turn to Carter and tell him he should go. I’ll call him later. He nods and kisses my forehead before turning and leaving.

            “Hey,” I address Grace. “Is everything okay?”

            She leans against the wall, folding her arms over her chest. I don’t like the way she’s looking at me. It makes me feel like I’m in trouble or something. “I’m fine,” she says in a way that lets me know that she is not fine at all. “But let’s talk about what’s important here, which I guess just didn’t happen to be important enough to tell me about it. Why is that, by the way?” Her eyes narrow.

            I am at an absolute loss. “I’m sorry, what important thing are we talking about?”

            She flushes, which only happens when she’s angry. She’s mad at me? Why?

            And then it clicks. Carter. I duck my head. Now my face is the one the flushes. I think about what she must have heard. Todd must have told her what he saw last night. Of course he told. Why wouldn’t he? What was stopping him? Nothing. That’s what. Not Carter, and certainly not me.

            “You didn’t think to mention, not once, that you have a boyfriend? And that it’s Sullivan of all people? Bex, you’re my best friend. You know everything about Todd and me. Everything!”

            My stomach twists. I haven’t told Grace all that much about Carter and I. She knows that we’re friends, but as far as she knows, we only hang out when all four of us are together. But she doesn’t know about our long afternoons together. She doesn’t know that he slept in my bed. Twice. She doesn’t know about the kiss on the roof. I close my eyes. Why didn’t I tell her? “It was an accident,” I say lamely.

            She laughs. I cringe. “An accident?” she asks. “What are you, five? People don’t lie accidentally. It’s not like forgetting to do your homework.”