Harold said yes at the same time Marlena said no. They paused in surprise and glanced at one another. My heart nearly leaped out of my chest and my eyes bulged. I laughed weakly. “Don’t worry. He’s a lot more soulful than that. It’ll be light stuff, I promise.”

They were still staring at one another, Harold had a twitchy eye and Marlena was holding tight the pearls around her neck. The awkward meter went up by a thousand, I think.

“Excuse us for a minute,” Marlena then said with a hesitant smile. They stood up and walked to the other side of the room, talking in hushed tones that did little to make me feel like I’d convinced them of Carter. I stared at them from my chair, trying to catch some words while I studied their facial expressions.

“Maybe you should go and vouch for us,” I spoke to Rome.

“It would help if your friend here was a bit more polite,” he replied.

“I have been polite,” argued Carter.

“Oh, I hadn’t noticed between your glares and crappy attitude.”

“You’d notice the difference the second I punched your fucking face in.”

“Carter!” I pinched his arm and leaned into his side. “You do not just threaten to punch the son of parents you need help from!”

“I don’t need help from anybody,” he retorted defensively.

“What’s your problem, man?” Rome hissed with furrowed brows. “You don’t have to be such an asshole. Think of what Leah’s doing for you. She doesn’t have to try so hard for you. Wherever you go, she goes. Think on that. Would you rather a roof over her head, or would you rather her sleeping under some damn bridge ‘til you find some shit job? At least here we’re trusting and we’re good people. You wouldn’t need to worry about her safety.”

For once, Carter went silent. He didn’t say anything, but his face softened instead of tensing like I thought it might. He glanced at me before running a hand through his disheveled hair and sighing heavily.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered to me. “I’m just reacting out of anger. You’ve just forced a job on me, Leah, and I’m not happy about it.”

He was right. I had. I frowned and whispered back, “I’m sorry too. But singing is what you were born to do. You’ll get used to it, Carter. People are going to love you.”

“I don’t care about people loving me. I don’t care about the attention. I don’t want that.”

“Well, as your best friend I don’t want you to waste your talent singing by a creek for the rest of your life. You have no idea what you have and it’s time you let the world see it, even if it’s just in a damn bar every night.”

He considered that, and Rome, who’d been watching our exchange, softened too. He leaned over the table and stared evenly at Carter.

“Dude,” he started, “I don’t even remember why I hate you so much, so how about we put our past behind us and just start over? I can play the drums, and if you’re as good as Leah has always went on that you are, I’d be more than happy to be part of a band with you. It’ll give me something to do, and I won’t be too much of an ass to you.”

“You know why we hate each other,” Carter replied, and it made me stare between them with confusion. “But you’re right. I’d rather let the past go. For Leah, anyway.”

I didn’t get the chance to ask what the hell it was I didn’t know about because Rome then turned to me and said, “It’d help if you covered your massive hickey with your hair, by the way. My dad’s a bit of a nut when it comes to shit like that. If he’s seen it, don’t get weird if he starts to have a sex talk with you. He’s fucking crazy, alright?”

My hickey? I stared wide-eyed at Carter’s face and his mouth broke into a cocky grin. “You knew?” I asked in surprise.

“It’s pretty obvious, babe.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“It’s my little trophy. You don’t hide trophies.”

I glared at him and quickly covered the side of my neck with my hair, briefly remembering how hard he’d sucked it last night. I did it just as Rome’s parents returned.

“Well then it’s settled,” Marlena said with a bright smile, staring between Carter and me. “I’ll get everything sorted. You can look around the suite first if you’d like. It’s a little outdated, but there’s plenty of room in there. I’ll get the employment forms printed out and you can have a look through it, and Rome can help Carter with the ads for band members in the meantime. There’s no rush for it, so don’t feel pressured. We might also see what kind of casual jobs you can do around the bar, Carter. Rome will be going to College in the fall, so I might need another set of hands.”

Carter glanced at my hopeful face before he nodded slowly. “Alright. That works for me.”

I took him by the hand and squeezed it. I couldn’t believe he didn’t fuck this up! This was an occasion that needed to be treasured. Not that he was a fuck-up in general or anything, but his mouth landed him in trouble more often than not. He squeezed my hand back giving me a ghost of a smile.

“Thank you,” I mouthed to him.

For that brief moment, I thought I saw something shine out of his eyes as he stared back at me. It was something warm and beautiful. Something I didn’t want to say even to myself in fear of my hopes dashing.

And then just like that it was gone.

*

Things happened quickly after that.

I’d sorted through the lease papers with Carter in our new place. Marlena had given us spare furniture for our suite: an old couch she didn’t use, a couple mattresses, a dresser and kitchen utensils. It was enough to tide us over until we earned more money for new things.

After we signed the agreement, I went to the bar to look into the waitressing job they’d literally opened up for me. The gesture was beyond kind. I’d actually be earning money, and I was bursting with excitement at that. Marlena sorted out my schedule, introduced me to a couple other waitresses, and then gave me a few uniforms. My head was spinning by the time I’d gotten back. In less than a day my life had completely changed, and I owed it to Carter for whisking me out of the shithole we grew up in.

The weeks that followed consisted of me training for a job with some seriously long hours, watching Carter form a band while clashing with Rome, and catching up on a lot of homework from school after I’d returned from the break with nothing to show for it. I never allowed myself to think of Russell and Cheryl. I’d grown happier every day I moved on from that life, but I knew I wasn’t as far away from them as I’d like to have been.