I waited, and waited, and waited. But Carter didn't show up. I had ten minutes left till my next period so I grabbed my cup, feeling angry and disappointed at the same time before heading out and back to the school. I used the back gate, which led me to the hallway where the boy's locker room is. I entered the hallway and stopped. 

Carter stood there, leaning against the wall with Abby standing in front of him, going off. He tilted his head and saw me, immediately straightening up. 

I stepped closer to listen in and Abby was so engrossed in her rant, that she didn't even realize I was standing there. 

"You are lying to me, Carter. Tell me why you won't go out with me! Tell me!" Is she insane? 

"Because I have a girlfriend!" he blurted. 

"You have a girlfriend? Who?" 

He stalled. He was stalling. He was trying to think of someone. His eyes met mine and I knew I should have run out of there. My eyes widened and I slowly shook my head while beginning to head back to the exit. 

"Alex! There you are!" 

Idiot. 

I halted and turned around, plastering a smile to my face. "Hey," I smiled. 

"Is it her?" Abby questioned. 

"No." 

"Yes." 

"Why is she saying no?" She looked at Carter quizzically while he walked over to me. 

"Because we weren't planning on telling anybody, right babe?" he asked, looking down at me. "Please, please, please, Alex. I will buy you a thousand chocolates, please," he whispered. 

"I don't like chocolate that much," I mumbled, looking up at him. 

"I will buy you a thousand teddy bears, please, please, please," he begged. 

"Hmm," I smirked. 

His arm went around my waist and his grip tightened. 

"Yeah, that's right. We weren't planning on telling anyone." He let out a sigh of relief as soon as those words came out of my mouth and his grip relaxed a little. 

"You are his girlfriend?" she asked, incredulously. 

I sighed and turned to him, "You wanna explain?" I asked. The bell rang and saved us, so both of us, quite literally, just ran. We had Spanish right now so we headed straight to class. "Are you insane, Carter? Like seriously, why would you do that?" I whisper-yelled as we walked into class and to our seats while everyone stared, probably wondering who the hell Carter Reed had just walked in with. 

"I didn't know what else to say," he defended himself. 

"So you-" I stopped talking when Mrs. Rodriguez walked in. "So you said I was your girlfriend? Are you stupid?" I whisper-yelled once again while crouching down and grabbing my books from my bag as he sat in his seat behind mine. 

"Sorry. She won't do anything though," he mumbled, "I think." 

I am going to kill him. 

"Numero doce!" she announced and we all opened our books. 

"I'm sorry, Alex," he whispered, poking my back with his pencil. I flipped him the finger and he chuckled before I heard a thud. 

Everyone turned to him. He had put his head down on the table a little too hard for his own good. "Ow," he winced while rubbing his forehead. I shook my head and bit back a laugh while Mrs. Rodriguez glared at him. 

"¿Quieres ir, señor Reed?" she asked. 

"No, lo siento," he winced.

She got back to teaching and after a while, I turned to him. "You understood what she asked?" 

"No, but I assumed it wasn't good. What did she ask?" he whispered. 

"If you wanted to get out," I answered. 

"Then I said the right thing, hey, high five," he grinned. 

"¡Señor Reed!" she yelled. 

"Great," he mumbled. 

"Can you please get out of the class? And Ms. Lockhart, you are free to join him." She only speaks in English when she's extremely mad. So, I'm guessing someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. 

"Sorry," we said in sync. 

"Not another word." I nodded and she resumed her teaching. About thirty seconds later, he tapped my shoulder. I turned around and he handed me a note. 

I shook my head and scribbled down my answer. 

I gave it to him and a minute later he handed it back. 

I huffed and wrote down my answer. 

I gave it to him quickly and he huffed before crumbling it up and tossing it on the floor. I kicked it under my desk with my foot before anyone took it and continued working. She was done with her little bit of teaching and now we were just doing textbook activities. 

"I don't understand any of this," he whispered. 

"How do you pass the tests?" I mumbled without turning to face him. 

"I don't know. I cheat. A little bit. How do you do this?" he asked. 

I sighed before sitting at an angle where he could read my answers. I heard shuffling before he tapped my shoulder again. I held my hand out and he placed something in it. 

A Hershey's kiss. 

I bit back a laugh and continued working, giving him my answers. I did what I understood and left the rest to complete at home and then the bell rang and we saved ourselves from her wrath and escaped the classroom. 

We had lunch now. I was heading to the library and I thought he would go to the cafeteria, but I guess not because he began walking with me. "I hate her with a passion. What is her problem?" he groaned. 

"Just deal with it and learn the language. At least a little bit. I should too," I said while opening the doors. 

"Aren't you hungry?" he asked. 

"Yeah, I brought my lunch," I whispered while heading to the back. 

"But aren't you-" 

"Shh! What is wrong with you? You're supposed to whisper," I turned to him. 

He was not whispering. At all. "Sorry," he shrugged. 

"Yes, we're not allowed to eat here, but who's gonna tell her?" I asked while sitting down and enjoying my carrots and hummus. 

"Can I ask you something?" he questioned after ten minutes of silence and him stealing my carrot sticks. 

"What?" I asked hesitantly. 

"What happened with you and Hudson? I mean, he wasn't this psycho earlier. When he got on the team, he was just like everyone else, and then after a while he just... I don't know," he shrugged. 

"He wasn't like this when we started dating either. He was normal, he was nice, he took me out on dates, he would compliment me," I paused, not knowing if I wanted to tell him. "But he became toxic." 

"How?" he questioned. 

"He started showing up unannounced like he was trying to catch me doing something wrong. He would start talking to me like he was accusing me of cheating. He would show up randomly and start looking through my house like I would be hiding a guy in there. He started telling me how to act, what to wear, who to meet. He became overly possessive. 

To the point where he wouldn't even like me going out with Hannah. He always wanted to come along. Always wanted to know who I was talking to, what we were talking about." I closed my now empty lunchbox and avoided Carter's gaze that I could feel following my actions. 

"I would have to ask for his permission for everything. It became too much. So I broke up with him, but he wouldn't let me. As if I wasn't allowed to until he said so. He begged to give him another chance, said he would change, stop doing those things," I sighed. 

"Did you?" he asked. 

"I was stupid, so yeah, I did. And then it became mental torture. I felt like I was being locked in a cage. Like I would have to be his little puppet for him to let me do anything. And he wasn't like that at all in the beginning. I went through hell and back to get him to leave me alone and he never would. 

I got so much anxiety from that and I would be terrified to come to school just because he was here. Then you kicked him off the team," I looked up at him, "And then he left. And slowly, everything went back to normal for me." 

"Why do you think he started acting out?" he questioned. 

"I think he liked being in control. He didn't like anyone disobeying him and he didn't like losing either. I don't know what happened to him, but when I tried breaking up with him, he probably felt rejected and that pissed him off." 

"Why do you think he's back?" he asked, his leg brushing against mine. 

"I have no idea. And that is somehow ten times worse than knowing." 

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