“He’s gonna banish you even further if you keep botherin’ his girlfriend,” Brianna states. “What is wrong with you people? Just leave Zoey alone and Carter will leave you alone. It’s not that hard!”
“Yeah, well, we don’t all enjoy bein’ Carter’s bitch as much as you do, Bri,” Jake tells her. Then to me, he nods. “You better watch this one. Anyone this eager to do Carter’s bidding sure wouldn’t say no to his dick—again.”
Brianna flushes, glaring at Jake. “Stop tryin’ to cause trouble and go away.”
“Is there a problem over here?”
My eyes widen and I look up as Carter’s father makes his way down the aisle, his eyes on us.
“Nah, Mr. Mahoney, no problem over here,” Jake tells him.
“Good,” Carter’s father clips, giving Jake a stern look. “Why don’t you go find a seat before you miss the game,” he suggests. Ignoring Brianna entirely, Mr. Mahoney puts a hand at the top of my back and nudges me toward the row he just exited. “Come on over here, honey. You can sit with us.”
Honey? I wasn’t entirely convinced by Carter’s mom’s assurance that Mr. Mahoney would be more accepting of me, but he went from “She’s going to drag you through the mud, just like she did Jake” to “honey” pretty damn quickly.
“Hi Zoey,” Chloe greets brightly as I approach.
“Hi, honey,” I offer back, looking at the row where they’re sitting.
There’s really not room for me, but Carter’s mom notices they need to make room and grabs Chloe, pulling her on her lap. Flashing me a smile, she pats the now empty bench and tells me, “You can sit here.”
I settle my things on my lap, but now that I’m not sitting alone, I would feel too awkward ignoring them to study. The view from this row is a lot better than my seats before, too. The cheerleaders are right in front of us. Carter is too far down the field to get a good view of now, but when they move back this way, I’ll get an eyeful of his butt in those football pants. Carter has such a nice butt.
“Want some of my popcorn?”
I pull myself out of lusty thoughts to glance over at Chloe, holding out a paper cone full of popcorn. “No, you can have it, but thank you for the offer,” I tell her.
Shrugging, she tips the cone back toward herself and grabs some popcorn to shove into her mouth. Her attention returns to the field, but mine lingers on her. This is the first I’ve seen her since Carter told me the truth about her shitty mother. I’ve never heard of something like that happening to anyone I’ve known before, but I guess it’s not the kind of thing most people would share openly. I wonder if he will ever tell her the truth. If not the traumatizing part, at least that she is actually his daughter, not his sister. I wonder if she’ll go to live with him in New York, although without me or a babysitter—which apparently he won’t allow—I don’t see how she could. Social life aside, he’ll have classes, and they may not all coincide with kindergarten hours. Or maybe they would, I don’t know.
I wish our schools were closer together. I wish the only considerations were what we want, and not what is possible.
“Did you bring a coloring book?” Chloe asks me.
“A coloring book?” I ask, confused. “No. Was I supposed to?”
She points at the notebook in my lap. “What’s that?”
I place a palm on the cover. “Oh, this is schoolwork. I’m trying to cram as much information into my brain as humanly possible, so I keep these with me pretty much everywhere I go.”
Carter’s dad pipes in with, “Carter tells us you’re on track to be class salutatorian. That’s quite the accomplishment.”
He must not have told them he was the one on track to be salutatorian, and he blew it so I could have the spot. I still feel a little guilty about that, but I keep telling myself Carter doesn’t need it like I do. Besides, it was his choice.
Over the course of the game, both of Carter’s parents chat with me. Chloe gets bored by half time and asks if she can use my highlighters to color pictures in my notebook. She winds up in my lap, drawing blue stick people with yellow hair and green clothes. Thankfully, I keep a multitude of colored highlighters and pens in my purse for note-taking purposes.
When the game is over, despite Chloe’s numerous requests to leave, Carter’s parents remain behind with me until Carter comes out to claim me. I get the feeling they don’t want to leave me alone in case anyone else tries to cause trouble. They certainly never bothered protecting me before, but after tonight, I feel more officially Carter’s girlfriend than I ever have before.