--Day Twenty Nine--
Elliot cracked his eyes open, only to screw them shut again when the light from the light bulb they had left on carelessly last night pierced his eyes. Seen as though Jasper’s room was in the basement there were no windows, so Jasper relied purely on the light from the light bulbs in his room.
Elliot lifted his head from the pillow; his eyes squinted as he regarded his surroundings. Callum was passed out on the Couch his cheeks a little red, Jasper was laying on the floor with a blanket wrapped around him – his shirt was still missing. Liam was out cold on a cushioned arm chair with Marissa snuggled to his chest, a blanket was wrapped around the two of their bodies. Samantha was at the foot of the bed, alongside Lillian who had her arm draped across Samantha’s face. Dylan was nowhere to be seen but judging by the sounds of splashing water it was no guess to Elliot that she was in Jasper’s bathroom.
Elliot shifted uncomfortably at the weight on his chest and looked down to regard the slumbering Carl with his head on his chest. Elliot leaned his head back on the pillow, his fist coming up to rub at the sleeping dust at the corner of his eyes.
Wait...Elliot’s eyes widened and he snapped his head back up to, again, watch Carl. Why is Carl sleeping on me?
His movement jerked Carly from her pleasant sleep and she raised her head, her eyebrows scrunching in confusion. She wiped at the drool that had been accumulating at the corner of her mouth and rubbed the sleeping dust from her eyes. She gave a fleeting smile towards a stunned Elliot before scratching her cheek.
Wait...Her hand stilled and her eyes widened as she snapped her head to stare down at Elliot. Why is Elliot in my room?
The past events caught up to her still hazy mind and she yelped as she jumped away from Elliot’s still laid down posture. She ended up getting her feet tangled in the bed covers and toppling off of the bed. Unfortunately, Samantha got caught up in the scuffle and ended up falling alongside Carly with a surprised cry.
Samantha groaned and lifted herself onto her hands; she blinked when she saw Carly between her arms. A smirk caught her lips as she stared down at the flustered girl, “Well Carl if you wanted me this badly you should have just asked,” She said in a sultry voice as she wiggled her eyebrows.
Carly laughed and shoved Samantha’s body off of hers, “You wish.”
Samantha giggled and sat up, her hair was in all directions and her lipstick and mascara were smudged. Carly laughed at the dishevelled girl and pulled at the ends of her hair that was sticking up. The ruckus they created caused everyone else to wake up, soon there were groans filling the room as each person opened their eyes to the light from the ceiling.
“Carl?” Elliot called as his head peered over the edge of the bed, “Are you okay man?”
“Yeah I’m fine,” She said as she stood with Samantha.
Mirissa yawned and looked down at the sleepy face of Liam; she chuckled at the pout on his face. That is, until, she realized just where she was sitting. Her cheeks reddened as she tried to scramble to her feet. Her heels caught on the fabric of the blanket and she started to fall forward. However, Liam – startled by the sudden movement – moved his hands forward and wound them around her waist before she could slip off from his lap.
Mirissa smiled sheepishly, “Good morning.”
Liam chuckled, “It really is,” He sighed, at Mirissa’s disbelieving laugh his cheeks reddened, “I-I-I mean Good morning!”
“You’re too cute Liam,” She chuckled as she patted down a stubborn strand of hair that was sticking up.
“So you losers are finally up?” Dylan grinned as she leaned on the doorframe of the bathroom, “About time, oh, and not to worry anyone but school starts in fifteen minutes. Good luck.” With the damage done Dylan stepped away from the door and watched as everyone scrambled for the bathroom.
*********************
Dylan, Jasper, Callum, Carly and Lillian waited outside of Jasper’s house, leaning against the wall of his house. What were they waiting for? They were waiting for Samantha to finish from the bathroom. Elliot had said that he was going to catch a ride with some other friends, and Mirissa and Liam had decided to walk the ten minute walk to school, so that there was more space in the car. That had been fifteen minutes ago...
“How long does it take to ‘freshen up’?” Callum groaned.
“This is Samantha we’re talking about,” Lillian said as she pulled on the end of her floral dress, “She needs to keep up appearances.”
“She shouldn’t care about what others think of her,” Carly said as she absentmindedly kicked at a rock on the pavement, “I think she’s fine just the way she is, I wouldn’t care if she came into school looking the way she did in the morning, I would still want to be with her.” A small smile crossed Dylan’s lips as she looked down; a spark of respect for the small girl fizzed and bubbled in her heart.
Ten minutes went by and each of them found small activities to entertain themselves. Callum and Lillian were playing rock, paper and scissors, Carly was seeing how far she could kick a stone. Jasper was playing with the ends of Dylan’s black hair and, surprisingly, Dylan allowed it as she contemplated the excuses for why they were late.
“Okay I’m done!” Samantha shouted as she closed the front door behind her.
“At last!” Callum cried.
“Jeez Samantha,” Dylan said, “You took the piss.”
“Yeah Samantha,” Carly agreed as she followed them to the car.
“Shut up,” Samantha sang, “You bitches praise the land I walk on.” She laughed at the disbelieving comments they voiced as they piled into the car.
**********************
Students in both junior and senior years walked into school on that Monday morning in a zombie like state. The party on Sunday had been a massive hit and the looks on those students that went were evidence enough. Carly and her band of friends were amongst those students. They silently greeted their other friends in school, waving weakly in acknowledgement at the ones down the corridor.
Carly sighed and took her books from her locker; she had stupidly placed them in her own locker on Friday after classes ended. She grimaced when her locker made a loud noise while closing it. She contemplated just calling in a sick day but brushed it off when she realized that she only had three precious days left as being Carl.
“Hey you!” Carly turned at the shout and took in the presence of Alex from the party marching towards her. She backed up a few steps and turned to run but his hand reached out and grabbed her arm in a vice like grip.
“I have a bone to pick with you,” He seethed, “I know it was you and your friends who threw that beer cup at my head.”
“Listen asshole, you have ten seconds to let go of me before I shove my foot so far up your ass you’re going to be shitting through your teeth,” Carly hissed, as she yanked her arm out of his grasp.
Alex’s eyes turned to slits as he glared at Carly, “You little sh-”
He broke off mid-sentence when he saw the figures standing behind Carly. Joshua and Benny both moved forward and leaned their arms on either side of her shoulders, “Have you got a problem buddy?” Joshua asked.
“We’d love to help you out with it,” Benny supplied as they both grinned innocently.
Daniel strolled forward and bent down so that he was eye level with Alex, “Get out of here before we make Carl’s statement a reality,” He warned with a blank face.
They watched in amusement as Alex scrambled away from them, “Bye bye asshole,” Adam said in a monotone voice with a mocking wave to match.
“Thanks guys,” Carly breathed.
“Hey we protect our own,” Joshua said as he punched her shoulder.
She chuckled and rubbed at the abused muscle, ignoring the stab of guilt at his words. “So are you heading to class?” Chris asked.
Carly shook her head and gripped her reading books tighter, “Cool,” Daniel said, “Neither are we, come on, we’re going to head to the canteen to procrastinate.” Carly nodded silently and allowed them to drag her with them.
***********************
“You’re gay?!” Joshua spluttered after his coughing fit when he had choked on his drink.
Chris stared dully at Joshua, “Yes you idiot I told you guys at the beginning of the year.” At his team mates blank stare he spluttered in disbelief, “You have got to be kidding me.”
“We’re sorry,” Benny tried to amend, “I guess we were more distracted with football.”
“Distracted?” Chris questioned in confusion, “It’s the first practise, the Coach is always easy on us on the first practise, mainly because he has to deal with the fact that he has to see our faces again. The only other people there were the cheerleaders-” Chris cut himself off as he stared in disgust at his so called friends, “You assholes, you absolute assholes! I told you guys one of the biggest secrets of my life and you were too distracted by the cheerleaders to even listen to me.”
Joshua, Benny, Daniel and Adam avoided eye contact and instead stared down at the canteen table in guilt. Chris sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, “Forget it, forget it,” Chris waved his hands, “You know now, just tell me do you guys know who the guy I was with was?”
Chris was asking about the guy that he had been with him at the party. Unfortunately for him, he had been too hammered to remember what happened at the party in the morning. Therefore, he had no idea what the guy looked like, just that he had an awesome time with him. Making out...
At the voiced no’s from everyone Chris sighed in defeat and buried his head in his hands, “Great,” His muffled voice sounded through the gaps between his fingers, “Now I’ll never get to meet him.”
“Unless he remembers who you are,” Adam pointed out.
Chris snapped his head up, “You’re right! There may be a chance that he’ll remember me.”
Carly smiled at his enthusiasm, “Don’t worry I’m sure he’ll recognise you.”
“Now,” Adam said with a lazy clap, “I’m sure you guys would want some tea, what with all of that alcohol playing a number on you.”
“There is no way that you have tea in your bag,” Carly retaliated. Her eyes widened when she saw him pull out a flask along with tea cups wrapped in bubble wrap.
He stared blankly at her, “You were saying?”
Carly opened her mouth so say something but snapped it shut a second later, “Okay,” was all she said as she accepted a hot cup of sweetened tea.
**********************
Callum, Liam and Jasper found Carly in the canteen at break with a small flowered cup sitting on a saucer in front of her.
“I’d ask but then I don’t want to,” Callum sighed as he nodded towards the tea cup.
Carly shrugged and picked it up so that she could take another sip of the delicious tea, “Is there really any need for you to drink it with a raised pinkie,” Callum asked with a smile.
“I didn’t even realize I was doing it,” Carly laughed, as she tucked her pinkie under her fingers again.
They were silent for a bit as they watched other students walk into the canteen chatting with each other. “Three days,” Carly broke the silence as she took another sip of the tea, “I’m going to miss being Carl.”
“It was fun while it lasted wasn’t it?” Callum said with a reminiscing grin.
“Yeah,” Liam chuckled, “The soccer tryouts.”
“The fact that everyone thinks that Carl is gay,” Callum pointed out.
“Our little prank,” Jasper winked at Carly.
“Meeting Samantha, Lillian and Dylan,” Carly grinned.
They looked at each other, a glint in their eyes, “Bohemian Rhapsody!” They shouted together before bursting into a fit of giggles.
“What are you guys laughing about?” Samantha asked as she sat in the chair on Carly’s right. Dylan took the seat opposite Carly and Lillian took the empty one between Liam and Callum.
“The many adventures of Carl Prisms,” Liam chuckled.
“Oh!” Samantha exclaimed, “I’ve got one; the womanizer.”
“Ooh,” All of them, except Carly, widened their eyes, “The womanizer.”
“You guys are just jealous that I got more female attention in one day than you guys did in your entire life,” Carly retaliated, sticking her chin into the air.
‘Whatever’ ‘smug’ and ‘shut up’ were thrown at Carly, she only smirked in amusement. Lillian studied the pretty tea cup that was in front of Carly, “Where did you get that?” She asked curiously as she pointed at the object.
“This?” Carly asked picking up the tea cup, “Oh Adam gave me it.”
Lillian nodded absentmindedly as she continued to study the delicate craftsmanship of the tea cup and the excruciating care in detail of the flowers that were painted on it. It looks really pretty...Carly raised an eyebrow at Lillian’s apparent attachment with the tea cup and slowly slid it towards her. Lillian blinked and looked up questioningly, “You can keep it if you want,” Carly said nodding towards it.
Lillian’s eyes widened, “Really?”
“Yeah I don’t think Adam would mind, seen as though he left it behind so carelessly,” She said dismissively, waving her hand towards the tea cup.
“Thanks,” Lillian whispered as she carefully took the delicate cup and cradled it in her hands.
“Hey Carly?” Callum said uncomfortably as he rubbed the back of his neck. The others were too busy engrossed in the topic of Jasper’s shirt and how it had mysteriously appeared in his locker.
“Yep,” Carly answered, looking towards him.
“Was Chris with Adam?” Callum asked.
“Yeah, he’s been really bummed out recently about the party. Apparently he met this really cool guy there but he was too hammered to remember the guy in the morning,” Carly said sympathetically, too distracted with thoughts of Chris to notice the blush that had risen on Callum’s cheeks.
“O-oh,” He stuttered, “Yeah, that’s a real shame.”
This is just great, Callum thought, I’m the only one who remembered that freaking kiss and who I did it with but he can’t remember who it was? Why is fate against me? Maybe I was a serial killer in my last life...