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Quietly making my way out of the bedroom, I close the door behind me and find Carter sitting on the couch. He's drinking a beer and looking like he aged a hundred years tonight. Then again, over the past year, he probably has. I've only been dealing with this for a couple months. Carter, on the other hand, has been here the whole time—watching his best friend fade further and further away.
"Is he okay?" he asks.
I shrug. "He's sleeping. I wouldn't say he's okay, though."
He nods and leans forward with his elbows on his knees, holding a beer in one hand. "I'm sorry I pulled you into this. You didn't deserve that."
"No, you were right to," I counter. "I guess after he broke down in front of me, I didn't know what else to do. I can't leave him. That's not an option for me. But I also just want him to be okay, and he managed to convince me that the drugs help him. That they make him okay."
"Because that's what addicts do, Paige," he says. "They lie and they manipulate. They make you think that by letting them do what they want, that you're helping them, but you're not. You're only making it worse."
"I know that now." I walk around and sit down on the couch. "I just wish I knew what happened that night."
Even after everything Carter tried to get out of him, all I know is that there was a girl in Tallahassee, who was with Jace on a roof, and then ended up dead. My mind has run through almost every possible scenario and it always comes back to the fact that I don't know what happened, and I might not ever know. Not if he refuses to tell me.
Carter sighs. "I wish I could tell you. I really do. But honestly, I wasn't there. Even I don't know exactly what happened up on that roof. All I know is she ended up on the ground, and he was never the same again."
"Who was this woman?"
He smiles only for a second, like he's thinking of something comical, and then swallows the rest of his beer in one go. "My fiancé."
My jaw drops, but he doesn't give me anything else—just gets up and goes into his bedroom, shutting the door behind him. Meanwhile, my entire world was just rocked.
FOCUSING ON CLASSES THE next day is almost impossible. My head keeps running through all the information I got last night, but no matter how much I try to piece it together, it's like I'm missing three-quarters of the puzzle. Even Charlotte looks at me like I've lost my ever-loving mind as I write down everything I know. When she tries to read it, however, I cover it with my arm.
I finally get to Jace's a little after four, only to find he must have skipped his last class. He's already in his bedroom when I walk in, but Carter is nowhere to be found. Honestly, that's probably a good thing. The last two people that should be alone together right now are those two.
"Hey babe," I greet him carefully. "How are you feeling?"
He shrugs. "Like Carter is an asshole, but what else is new?"
If I didn't know any better, I'd think he was perfectly fine, but I do know better.
And he's not fine.
"I was thinking we could go out to dinner?" I suggest.
Putting his phone down, he hops off the bed and comes closer. As soon as he's standing in front of me, he wraps his arms around me.
"We could," he singsongs. "Or we could do something else."
As he leans back, his hips grind against mine, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know what he's insinuating. After last night, though, I'm not sure I'm ready to just pretend everything is normal again. Not yet, anyway.
I arch up to kiss him quickly and then give him a sweet smile. "I'm really hungry. Maybe after?"
He huffs, but I know he's only playing. "Okay, just one second."
As he turns around and starts to open his nightstand, I know exactly what he's doing. Dread fills my stomach, knowing that no part of last night helped at all.
"I thought the one you took last night was all you had," I say, well aware I'm walking on thin ice.
The chuckle that bubbles out of him is alarming to me. "I went and picked up more this morning. It's not hard."
My brows furrow. "You skipped class to go buy drugs?"
He stops for a second like he's getting frustrated with me. "I couldn't sit through classes. Not after last night."
I watch as he finds the pills he was looking for and smiles triumphantly. But instead of sitting back and letting him do it, this time I make an attempt to try to stop him. I grab his arm and pull him away.
