Chapter 3

I was greeted by a very excited Molly, our six year old shih-tzu, as soon as I opened the door and I scooped her up into my arms and snuggled her. I kissed her while she squirmed around in my arms to lick me anywhere she could.

"Molly!" my mom laughed as I set her down and she then ran up to my mom. I took a deep breath and headed to my room to pack up what I needed for the week. I first collapsed onto my bed and sucked in a great lungful of air. I'd moved back home after college graduation and my junk was literally everywhere. I looked up as my door opened and Molly came prancing in, hopping onto my stomach.

 

"Oh God, Cara, this room," my mom sighed in horror and I nodded as I gazed around my room. My mom sat with me and pet Molly.

"Hopefully everything will go back to normal soon, yeah?" my mom asked, smiling at me and I nodded, looking up at the itty-bitty cracks in my ceiling. It reminded me of when I was younger and would decipher little shapes from the cracks like you would with clouds sometimes.

 

“Well, just get settled in, alright? If you need anything dad and I will be downstairs,” she breathed, kissing my head and messing up Molly’s fur. Molly chased after my mom as she left my room and shut the door. I slid onto the floor, and plopped among all my crap. I didn’t want to get settled back at home; all this stuff was supposed to be here for a few days until I could get some moving trucks and get out of the stupid, dinky town. I chewed on my lip and forced myself to not cry. It wasn’t fair that all of this had to happen to me.

 

“No problem!” I heard someone shout outside my window, and I slowly walked over to the window and peered out. I saw our neighbors talking to someone and I squinted my eyes to see what was going on. It looked like they’d hired a landscaping crew, and one of the guys looked extremely familiar. When he turned around, I knew who it was and there was no mistaking him. Mike Evans. We’d gone to highschool together, and I had the unfortunate pleasure of being a target of one of his and his friends jokes they planned daily.

 

Mike wasn’t the leader of the pack, but he was a close second. Nick Tetra was the ringleader and he was ruthless. It was soon clear to everyone that they were up to no good, but it didn’t leave everyone unwilling to fall for their games-including me.

 

It was the end of sophomore year and a week earlier my friend Carly had been roped into a prank involving another rat in the pack, Ryan, to kiss her as a bet, but she hadn’t relayed this information to me until I’d already been sucked into one of their traps. I remember being at my locker, gathering my books and getting ready to get on the bus when I felt a tap on the shoulder. Nick was standing there, and I began to sweat. I knew he was a d****e, but he was an incredibly attractive d****e and he was a senior d****e, so my brain kind of just forgot all the bad stuff whenever he was in close contact. I know it makes me seem like some weak girl, but I had always been shy and confrontation wasn’t my thing AT ALL.

 

“Hey, erm, Cara?” he asked, and I should’ve known just by his lack of barely knowing my name that something was off, but I was frozen in place, intimidatingly staring up at him.

 

“Well, you know prom is coming up in a week-” he started and I began to feel nauseous. Nick was asking me to prom? Maybe it was because he saw me in our Health class and watching me explain all that intimate stuff during our sex ed lecture.

 

“And I wanted to know if you’d go with me, that is if you haven’t already been asked?” he smiled and I just stood there, stuttering. I tried to find words, but I was literally just mumbling and gasping for air. He looked uncomfortable as he held his fake smile and then he sighed, shaking his head and stopping me before I further embarrassed myself.

 

“Look, I’m sorry. I knew this was going too far. Mike dared me to ask you to prom and I didn’t want to go through with it. I feel awful about this, Cara,” he spoke and I swallowed hard, looking down at my feet and trying not to cry after making a huge fool out of myself.

 

“Hey, you’re a beautiful girl and if I didn’t already have a date for prom, I’d definitely ask you to go with me,” Nick continued and I nodded, shuffling down the hall as quickly as I could. I heard laughing and I looked back just in time to see Mike hand Nick some money.

 

So after that, I just tried to get through school as fast as possible so I could run away and never look back. I avoided nearly everyone, besides my few super close friends, but even they vanished once college started. I chose to go out of state for college, in the hopes of starting my life anew and forgetting the lame-a*s s**t I had to deal with in highschool…

 

I stared at Mike as he pulled his long, brown hair into a man bun and I scoffed. He didn’t look like he’d changed a bit! I rolled my eyes and I saw him glance over at my house. His eyes moved to my window and I quickly ducked and hoped he hadn’t seen me. I looked back out the window and found him gone. I sighed in relief and looked back down at the mess on my floor and slowly began to tidy things up.

 

“Cara!” my mom called from downstairs. I mentally groaned, climbing over boxes to get outside my room and to the staircase.

 

“Would you like some lunch?” she asked and I chewed on my lip and shook my head. I knew my mom had “promised” to not baby me, but she was secretly overjoyed to have one of her kids home to spoil them. I appreciated when my mom made me food, but I didn’t want her to pity me.

 

“Oh, well just let me know when you’re hungry then,” she said softly, walking away. I slumped against the railing and brushed my hair out of my face. Maybe it’s because I really didn’t want to unpack my room, but I decided that I wanted to take a shower. I went into the bathroom and turned on the shower. I stepped in and I sighed happily as the warm water ran over my skin. It felt nice to wash all the sweat and germs off myself and to enjoy a moment where I didn’t feel like I was all that different. After cleaning myself up, I changed into something comfy and put my hair up into a messy bun. I swiped some mascara on and walked downstairs and found my mom in her favorite chair, soaking up the sun. She smiled at me as I flopped on the couch and pull my laptop onto my stomach. As soon as I opened it, I tried to groan, but all that came out of me was air. I couldn’t search or read anything. I shut the laptop and looked over at my mom who had shut her book and looked at me with sad eyes.

 

“Come on, I made some lemonade,” she said, pouring me a glass as I stood up and grabbed the glass from her.

 

“Mary, get the back door would you?” my dad called from the garage and I frowned as my mom opened the door.

 

“Oh, come on in!” she exclaimed and I watched as I kept my elbows on the counter and drank my lemonade. I saw someone come in and my heart dropped when I saw Mike stepping inside. I swallowed hard, averting my gaze to my glass and trying to keep calm.

 

“Thank you, Mary,” he panted and she walked over to me. I met her eyes quickly as she grabbed another glass.

 

“Would you like some lemonade?” she asked and he nodded, wiping his forehead, still not looking at me.

 

“Mike, this is my daughter, Cara,” my mom chirped and we met eyes and he licked his lips. I knew he recognized me and I gave him the quickest smile I could before looking back down at my glass. Mike walked closer to me, holding his hand out and I wanted nothing more than to slap it out of the way, but I reluctantly took it.

 

“We went to school together. I remember Cara very well,” Mike spoke, a forced smile on his face. I gave my best attempt at a smile, but I knew I didn’t look too happy.

 

“Oh, that’s great! Cara, we hired Mike’s landscaping company for the summer along with the Robber’s to keep the neighborhood in tip-top shape,” my mom explained as Mike drained his lemonade.

 

“Do you mind if I use the bathroom real quick? I just wanted to take a quick break and then I’ll be back to trimming the hedges,” he grinned, his eyes darting to me briefly. He probably expected me to say something, but he also didn’t seem like he really wanted to make conversation with me as it was.

 

“It was nice to see you again, Cara,” he spoke, winking on his way to the bathroom. I grit my teeth, finishing my lemonade and sulking back upstairs. The was going to be one cruel summer.