Work Text:
He should probably stop staring.
He knows how she gets when he looks at her; overwhelmed by all of that attention and shy underneath the smothering gaze of his scrutiny. She had caught him staring unabashedly at her one day in the library, undaunted by the room full of their peers at their surrounding tables—his attention was heeded on her instead of the paper that he was supposed to be writing for his English class.
Carrie, who’d been about fifty pages deep into the book she was reading, seemingly glanced up when she felt the smothering heed of Tommy’s eyes watching her so intently. Her cheeks blanched, flushing in chagrin at the way he watched her; how his eyes seemed to follow her every movement with his gaze never wavering.
She bit on her lower lip, worriedly looking around the room to assure no one had seen him looking at her.
He wasn’t supposed to be looking at her.
And he’s reminded of that when he feels Sue’s fingers brush against his hand as she sought out his attention. Tommy’s eyes linger briefly on Carrie, stealing one last glance at her as he noticed the rosy blush deepen in its color on her high cheek bones. She swallows softly, eyes wandering to where Sue was nearly holding his hand before lowering her eyes back onto the pages of her book.
“Do you want to come over later?” She whispered, gauging a quick glance up at where Mrs. Grosbeak, the librarian, stood behind her post at the front, with narrowed eyes and pointed ears, avid to reprimand anyone who spoke too loudly and disturbed the room’s peaceful silence.
It’s so quiet that the only sounds emanating are the sounds of pages turning and pencils scribing in notebooks. Whenever she wasn’t paying attention however, students would quietly engage in conversation defying against her strict rules — like Sue was currently doing with her eyes shifting curiously between Tommy’s face and Mrs. Grosbeak’s desk.
“I can’t,” He says, “I’ve got homework.” He gives her an apologetic smile and brushes his thumb over her knuckles before he’s loosening his hand from her grip so that he’s able to pick up his pencil and resume writing (starting) his essay.
He could see the fleeting look of disappointment marring on Sue’s face at his rejection. She slumps back in her chair, defeated, before muttering her understanding.
Tommy stares at his blank sheet of paper, hoping that he could miraculously conjure the words from his brain onto the paper but his mind was distracted, unsurprisingly, with Carrie in such close proximity.
He notices new things about her every day; like how her lips move in accordance to her brain whenever she reads something—every purse and pucker of her pink lips that formed around the words piqued Tommy’s attention. Or, how she bites down on her bottom lip and furrows her brow whenever she’s concentrating or confused about something—and it’s such a rarity that she’s ever confused because she was undoubtedly the smartest girl in the entire school.
Carrie feels his eyes on her again and she looks up at him with that stern expression written across her face that he’s come to read all too well recently. Her lips purse in a pout as she shakes her head, her eyes wandering around cautiously again. Stop! She mouths, the reprimand clear and definite.
The thrill of the bell ringing in the overhead speakers above them averts everyone’s attention as they began hastily gathering their books and binders. Noise disrupts throughout the once quiet room as chairs scrape against the floors and students talked amongst themselves over Mr. Morton’s voice as he said the midday announcements.
Mrs. Grosbeak’s face contorted in annoyance at their defiance.
At their table, Sue stood to her feet as she held her book against her chest. She peered down at Tommy, waiting to accompany him so that they could walk to the cafeteria together.
“You can go ahead. I’ve got to ask Mrs. Grosbeak a question about this book that I need for my paper,”
Sue shrugged, “I can wait for you.”
Tommy smiled halfheartedly as he shook his head in opposition. “I don’t know how long it’s going to take besides, I wouldn’t want you missing out on meatloaf day just for me.” He teases playfully, watching as Sue’s face fell briefly into a dejected expression before substituting for a false smile.
She stared longingly at him, like she was anticipating him changing his answer. But once he didn’t, she nodded again and murmured an okay before eventually walking away.
Guilt about his dismissal and aloof behavior towards her arouse as he watched her disappear through the double doors, then, through his peripheral vision he sees Carrie standing to her feet and walking towards the aisles that has him momentarily disregarding all thoughts of Sue.
He scrambled hurriedly to his feet, looking around the room for any spectators before he walks through the aisles. He rounds the corner, seeing Carrie searching through the collection of books on the shelf, completely unaware of his presence.
“Hey,” He whispers softly; soft enough for no eavesdropper’s attention but loud enough for her to hear.
She jumps slightly, startled by his stealthy approach, her hand rests over her chest as she glared at him in incredulous bewilderment. Her eyes wander around the room, cautious of any lingering bystanders.
“What are you doing—”
“There’s no one here,” He avers assuringly as he began sauntering towards her. The look of apprehension still stretched across Carrie’s face. “I checked. There’s just Mrs. Grosbeak and one other girl who has even looked up once from the book that she’s reading,”
He’s thankful that nearly no one (aside from Carrie) enjoyed being in the library outside of the time that they’re required to be because it gives him time to actually talk to her at school instead of always having to steal occasional looks at her.
Carrie bit down on her lip, wary as she watched Tommy’s stalk approach.
“Still. We shouldn’t be seen talking to each other,” She whispered; her big, doe, baby blue eyes look up at him underneath the long wisps of her eyelashes and Tommy swears he feels his heart lurch at the sight of it.
There’s something about her that’s so innocence. It’s the way she looks at him when they’re alone—shielded away from everyone and in their own private seclusion—like no one’s ever looked at him before; like he’s something of importance and delicacy to her that makes Tommy feel warm. It’s her soft spoken voice that playfully reprimands him whenever he gets too greedy with their kisses and she has to gently tug on his hair and reproach a stern, “Tommy,” to revert him back.
It’s her that makes him feel like he’s the luckiest guy on earth.
Tommy nods wearily, remembering of Carrie’s rules. They couldn’t be seen talking to each other at school. She didn’t want anyone to know that they’ve been secretly dating for the past two months, saying that her torment would resume if people knew that he’d dumped Sue Snell for her and that his own reputation would be tarnished just for his affiliation with her.
Tommy repeatedly told her that he didn’t care what others thought of him or their relationship, he hadn’t had one ounce of regret or embarrassment about this or her but Carrie was adamant. She didn’t want to run the risk for either of their sakes, because then they’d be the topic of conversation and she preferred to go as unnoticed by everyone as possible.
Tommy wanted to be understanding.
He was sad that he couldn’t talk, look, or kiss her like he wanted but he knew that her rules were cemented for a reason and he didn’t want to interfere with anything that would inadvertently cause her more harm from anyone. So, he complied to her rules and maintained his distance from her.
Carrie’s bullying, as far as he’s aware, had ceased because he told everyone that if they messed with her that he’d personally kick their asses. And after the incident at the prom, no one dared to even look at her at the risk of expulsion by Mr. Morton who still had some the students responsible serving time in detention for their involvement in the prank.
“I know,” He sighs, “but-”
Carrie shook her head as she took a step away from him, maintaining their distance. “No. No, buts, Tommy Ross!” She admonished softly, pointing her finger sternly at him. “People are going to be wondering where you are if you don’t leave soon.” And it’s easy to know exactly who she’s referring to.
“I told her I was staying behind to ask Mrs. Grosbeak a question,”
“It doesn’t take this long to ask someone a question.”
Tommy shrugs as an impish smirk crosses his lips. “It does when you want to waste time so that you can see your girlfriend,” His smirk deepens when he notices the blush coloring Carrie’s cheeks again. She always did this whenever he referred to her as his girlfriend. It was adorable, watching her nervously flush before him.
“Thomas,”
“Carrietta,”
She huffed, shaking her head as she bit back a smile. He was so stubborn sometimes it was unbelievable. “You can’t wait two hours until school’s out to kiss me again?”
Tommy shook his head as he stepped closer, now invading her space and standing athwart from her. He’s not tall by any means, but Carrie still has to crane her neck up just a bit to look up at him. His heart stutters against his chest as he looks down at her. She’s so fucking beautiful words couldn’t even begin to describe it; everything about her was delicate and effervescent. From the warmth of her eyes, to the slight pout of her pink prim bow lips, it’s like she was crafted with a delicacy that no one else could mimic.
He hears her breath hitch softly in her throat.
Her eyes stare up at him; soft, wide and innocent and it has his cheeks warming. He too was just as smitten with her as she was with him (but admittedly probably way more.)
“It’s hard to wait when I always want to kiss you,” He admits softly in a murmur, watching as Carrie bit her lip and shyly lowered her eyes.
Tommy’s standing closer now to where their faces are mere inches apart. He reaches his hand out to touch her, her skin trembles at the contact. He brushes his fingers against her wrist, tugging her closer to him. Her feet shuffle as she steps forward, overwhelmed by his heightened figure that seemed to tower over her. “Tommy,” Her hair curtains messily over her face and when he reaches up to brush it behind her ear, Carrie’s eyes wander up to his before briefly lowering to his mouth.
(He resists the urge to laugh.
She wanted to kiss him as much as he wanted to kiss her.)
Carrie licks her lips, instinctively leaning into his touch. “Just one kiss!” She bargains, placing her hand against his chest as she gives him a pointed look. “Then you have to go,”
Tommy nods, not even bothering to restrain his mirthful smile. “Just one,” He reiterated as he pulled her against his chest and craned his neck so that he’s able to lower his mouth towards her. He could feel the little wisps of her hitched breath wafting against his cheeks, could smell the minty scent of her breath from where she’d been chewing gum earlier still lingering freshly in her mouth.
Tommy’s hands hold her gently against the waist, eliciting a soft whimper from Carrie.
He holds her chin with one hand, tugging it upwards for reach while the other held onto her. He leans down, fluttering his eyes close as he inhaled softly, pressing his mouth against hers. She had soft, pillowy lips—every time they kissed he had to refrain himself from biting too roughly on them. Her lips were his weakness, from the way they felt pressed against his so soft and chaste, or the way they tasted it always had Tommy dizzying.
She gasped softly into his mouth, her hands reached out and gripped his forearms to steady herself. Tommy’s mouth pressed firmly against hers, brushing and nipping at the flesh of her lower lip. It’s then that Carrie finally reciprocated his kisses and opened her mouth, parting it wide enough to where he’s able to lick his tongue inside of her.
He inhales deeply through his flared nostrils, removing his hand from her waist so that he’s able to fully cup her face within his grasp. He tips his head down, chasing after her lips.
“Tommy—” Carrie reluctantly pried her mouth away from his, her breathing’s labored as she tried to lull the erratic beating of her heartbeat. She rests her forehead against his chest that pounded loudly in its wake. “Sue’s waiting for you,” She whispered, the tremble in her voice has him brushing his fingers through her hair as he tugged her head up to meet his gaze.
This was the part that he hated; that he had to lie and pretend with both Carrie and Sue. It wasn’t fair to either one of them and he despised any of them being inserted in this position.
“Car, Sue’s my friend. We broke up after—”
“Prom, I know,” She nods, sighing. She pulls away from his chest and looks up at him, licking her lips again and fuck he wishes she’d stop because it was so distracting and just made him want to lean down to kiss her again. “But she still loves you. I overheard her talking about you in the locker rooms,”
He didn’t give Sue a reasonable answer of why he decided to break up with her. He just offered her some trivial excuse about growing apart. It hurt him having to say those words to her because they’d been together for so long and at one point in time, Tommy truly thought they’d be high school sweethearts who got married after graduation.
But then, he got closer to Carrie after prom and he couldn’t deny his feelings for her any longer. He knows Sue deserves the real reason for why he broke up with her especially after hearing what Carrie’d just told him, but he couldn’t necessarily do that without revealing his relationship with Carrie.
It was a complicated situation.
This time, it’s Tommy who sighs in a deep exasperation.
“You should go,” She says again, pulling Tommy away from his thoughts.
He concedes, nodding defeatedly in agreement. “Can I drive you home after school?” He asks, hopeful in his approach. It’s really the only alone time that they get; her mother has a strict watch on her schedule to where he’s only allowed at least half an hour with her after school.
He takes what he can get but selfishly, he wished he could have more time with her.
Carrie nods, now smiling shyly at him.
Tommy rebels against his restraint and steals one last parting kiss, squeezing his hand on her hip as he relished in the sweetness of her mouth. “I’ll see you after school,” He says, whispering the promise before he’s reluctantly pulling away and disappearing down the aisle he arrived from.
…
His friends are already seated and eating by the time he arrives. Tommy goes through the lunch line, thanking the lunch ladies as they slapped a slice of solid meatloaf and a spoonful of carrots on his tray. When he arrives at the table, he greets everyone who stare at him with curious eyes.
He settles into the only empty seat that’s next to Sue. She scoots away from him, avoiding eye contact as she mindlessly prodded at her meatloaf with her fork.
“Tommy, you coming with us to the movies?”
“Tommy’s busy,” Sue says, interrupting him before he even has a chance to speak. “He’s always busy these days,” He recoils at her hostile tone, giving her a sympathetic look that she rolls her eyes at before standing to her feet and walking off.
He’s standing to his feet and going after her seconds later. Regardless of their relationship status, him and Sue are friends. He’s always valued their friendship and connection. He feels angry with himself that he’s been neglecting it.
“Sue!” He jogs down the hallway, catching her by the wrist just before she disappears into the girl’s bathroom. She doesn’t recoil from his touch as he pulls her aside towards an empty hallway. “Hey, wait.”
Sue stands there with her arms crossed against her chest and her mouth pursed in a dejected expression.
Tommy sighs, running his fingers through his curls. “I’m sorry,” He expresses forlornly, “I know that I haven’t been around much lately nor have I been much of a friend,” Her expression withers at the word friend—which had been something that he knew she didn’t want.
“What did I do, Tommy?” She asks, her voice breaking at the end adding onto his own guilted heart. “I thought we were okay but then after prom everything changed, you changed—” She shakes her head. “Is it because of what happened? Do you think that I had something to do with it?”
“No, I don’t!” He assures her.
He’d been furious with what happened at prom. He couldn’t understand how someone could be so evil to not only want to ruin Carrie’s night but embarrass her in front of the entire school. Though her dress had been ruined by the thick crimson pig’s blood that seeped through the fabric and hair, he’d been glad that Mr. Morton was haste in his assertiveness to track down the culprits.
It came as no surprise to learn that it was Chris who calculated the scheme in her revenge against Carrie. Sue’s the one who confessed to witnessing Chris pulling the rope that expelled the blood onto her, resulting in Chris’ expulsion.
Mr. Morton and Ms. Collins suspected that Sue had some involvement seeing as how her and Chris had been friends, but Sue assured them of otherwise promising no affiliation whatsoever. Tommy believed her because she’d shown so much remorse from her initial involvement in the bathroom debacle and had severed ties with Chris immediately afterwards.
“I know you’re not that kind of person, Sue.”
Her bottom lip trembles, eyes gloss with tears. “Then why?”
He can’t give her the answer that she’s looking for and that’s what complicated this the most. How could he tell her that he’s dating the girl she made him take to prom without hurting her feelings?
“You know that I care about you. That won’t change no matter what we are, you’ve always been an important person in my life.”
“But you don’t want to be with me?”
Tommy recoils. “I-”
“Is there someone else?”
The question aghast him. He couldn’t lie but the truth would be just as damaging. Instead, he avoids it as he rubs a hand sheepishly against the back of his neck. “Sue,” He grabbed her hand as he looked at her with a pleading desperation. “Can we please just go back to how we were? I don’t want to fight.”
She looks abject by his neglect in reconciling their relationship but she nods as she sniffles, thankfully putting him out of his misery.
She looks up at him, a little apprehensive as she asks: “Do you still love me?” She looks wary like she’s afraid of his answer.
“You know that I do.”
They’d been childhood friends and dated for years, a love like that wouldn’t dissipate easily just because of a breakup. While he wasn’t in love with her anymore, he loved her greatly and part of him thinks that he always will.
Just as he’s pulling Sue in for a hug, she turns her head and presses her lips to his cheek. Her mouth lingers dangerously close to his but he averts out of the way just in time before an inadvertent collision. The squeaky sound of someone’s shoes gliding against the waxed floors has both of their heads turning.
Tommy looks, turning his head to see Carrie standing there with wide eyes and an indiscernible expression. She looks between the both of them before lowering her eyes to her feet as she brushed past them.
“Hi, Carrie,” Sue says, just as the breeze of Carrie’s hair trails behind her.
“Hi,” The soft voice of Carrie answers as she rounds the corner and disappears into their English class.
…
It’s 3:15 when he’s seated in his truck, leaned halfway out of the window as he stared at the front doors waiting for Carrie to come out. After the final dismissal bell, he’d usually go to the student parking lot and drive to the side entrance near the back of the school to wait for her. She didn’t want to run the risk of anyone seeing her getting inside of his car, so this was the safe method that she created.
He’d take back streets to avoid anyone seeing her in his car. It added ten minutes to the drive but he didn’t mind as he liked any additional time awarded to spend with her.
He’s been waiting for nearly ten minutes now and aside from the athletes that stayed behind for practice for whatever sport they were playing, students had already dispersed from the building long ago and he had yet to see her. And he’s starting to worry.
Just as he’s about to get out of his truck and go back into the school to search for her, he sees a view of her as she was walking down the street in the opposite direction. Confused, Tommy beckons her name trying to grab her attention. But she’s so far down the sidewalk that his words fall flat to her ears.
Tommy clambers back into his truck, turning over the keys as the ignition spurs.
Pulling out of the student parking lot, he drives down the street until he’s pulled up beside her. “Carrie?” She looks over her shoulder at the sound of his voice; she holds his gaze briefly before averting her attention forward again.
Tommy’s brows furrowed in confusion. “Hey, Car, what’s going on?” He looks out at the road to assure he wasn’t about to inadvertently hit someone/something. When he sees that the road’s clear, he turns his attention back on Carrie. “I thought I was driving you home today?”
“It’s okay. I can walk.” She says curtly, causing him to frown.
“Did something happen?”
She shakes her head. “No, I just prefer to walk—Tommy what are you—” He’s parking his truck on the side of the street and approaching her. Carrie looks at him wide eyed, bewildered.
“What’s going on? Talk to me. What’s this about?” There had to be something wrong; because there was no way she could go from agreeing to allow him to take her home to opting out to walk.
Carrie’s mouth purses as she shakes her head. “I just think that maybe this was a mistake,” She laments, her voice barely above whisper and he nearly has to strain his ears to hear her. But he does her hear perfectly clear, his mouth deepening in a frown.
“Me offering to drive you home—?”
She shakes her head emphatically, lowering her chin. “Us,”
It takes a moment for her words to register. When it finally does it feels like all of the air from Tommy lungs seeps from his chest; his mind’s wandering, attempting to make sense of this all, but it comes short handed in his efforts, blocking all sense of rationality and only directing its focus on one thing. Her.
He didn’t understand.
What made her come to this decision?
Everything between them has been going good these past two month, it’s the happiest he’s ever been in so long. Being with her has given him insight about so many things including himself. And now? Now it feels like he’s chest’s caving in so deeply that he couldn’t breathe. His throat clogged as it constricted tightly.
What was going on?
“Carrie,”
“It was stupid to think that we would work.”
And hearing that truly flabbergasted him because what initiated these thoughts? Why was she saying this?
He shook his head as he took a step closer to her. “Car, it’s not a mistake.” When he reaches for her hand, she reflexively withdraws away from him like she’s scorned by his touch, like him touching her is the last thing that she wants for him to do. This wrecks him.
He’s not panicked anymore, he’s terrified.
“It is and it’s best we end this before someone gets hurt,” She avers softly.
Before?
Why was she saying this? And why wasn’t she looking at him? Surely she didn’t mean any of this that’s why she’s not looking at him. Because she knows that if he were to look in her eyes that he’d see that she didn’t mean any of her words.
“I don’t understand what’s happening. I thought you and I were—no, I know we were happy together.” He shakes his head, biting on his bottom lip. His eyebrows furrowed together. “Is this because of Sue? Because of what she said about still being in love with me? If it is then, Car, you know how I feel about you. I’m not about to dump you for her just because she still has feelings for me and I’m not about to fall back in love with her either. This, us,” He gestures a hand between the two of them for emphasis, “it’s special to me. You’re special to me,”
At this, Carrie finally looks up at him.
His heart swoons at the sight of her eyes, but there’s something far in her eyes when she stares at him; distant. Like…like he’s lost her.
“I can’t.” She whispers, her voice trembling. “I’m sorry.”
…
She cries herself to sleep that night.
Though her short lived romance with Tommy had been a good one (not that she had much to compare it to; he’d been her first and most likely, only boyfriend) she knew it had to end.
Them being together wasn’t meant to end well. He was high school royalty with girls flocking to him, a popular social status, and a future ahead of him. Who was she kidding to think that they could have some fairytale ending?
Graduation was only a few weeks away and Tommy was going to a school miles away in a different state and so was Sue, who she overhead talking to a friend, that her and Tommy had applied to and got accepted to the same school months ago when they were still together. Tommy says that his feelings for her were gone, but with them being at the same school and in such close proximity to each other it’s not far fetched to assume that feelings could arise between them again.
Carrie couldn’t compete.
Her schooling was limited to the local community college. Her mama wanted her to stay as close as possible.
She’d be here while Tommy and Sue were miles away falling in love with each other again. It was inevitable especially with the way Sue still talks about him. She’s determined to get their high school sweethearts relationship ending and Carrie knew no matter how much Tommy tried to assure her, there was absolutely no competing with someone he’s had such a long history with.
She’s already got into deep with this relationship to begin with; by inadvertently falling in love with Tommy Ross. It wasn’t expected but it happened and now she didn’t know what to do with it.
She’s never loved anyone before.
She has some deluded idea of love for her mother but there’s also deep rooted hatred there so it doesn’t really count.
But with Tommy there was real, genuine, scary and—
“Carrie?”
Carrie sniffles, wiping her snot nose and tear stained face with the back of her hand. Her head’s throbbing and her nose is clogged from crying so much.
“Yes, mama?” She hoped her mother couldn’t hear the trembling in her voice.
“Come on and eat. I’ve made dinner.” Her stomach churned at the thought of food.
She couldn’t eat. She was too love sick.
“I’m not hungry mama,”
She hears the wooden stair creak beneath the weight of her mother’s foot as she takes a step forward. Carrie silently prays that her mother couldn’t come up and inquire further about why she wasn’t hungry. She didn’t want her to see her like this.
Thankfully, her mother relents in her interrogations and only informed her to say her prayers before bed.
…
He’s miserable.
Really fucking miserable.
He hasn’t experienced heartbreak like this before. She broke up with him and left him mending the pieces. For the past two weeks he’s been trying, though futile in his efforts, to make some kind of sense about all of this.
And all he could think of that made some semblance of sense was that she was scared. Of him, of their relationship. Even with his assurances that he was one hundred percent in and that their relationship wasn’t something he took lightly, she was scared.
No matter what he did or said, it’s like she didn’t believe him.
If that didn’t make things worse, at school, she’s been purposefully avoiding him. He knows this because they always passed each other in passing in the hallways, but the only time he sees her is in the classes that they share. Not in the halls or the library.
In class, she doesn’t look at him or in his direction. Whenever he turns around to look at her, she looks past him never once even sneaking a glance his way.
So, yeah, Tommy was heartbroken and miserable and it’s all because of Carrie White.
…
He’s looking at her again.
It’s hard not to.
Especially today, when she’s wearing a white dress that contrasts perfectly against her milky white skin. She’s gorgeous.
He’s tempted to walk over to her just so that she’s forced to look and talk to him. But he wouldn’t do that to her; not in a room full of people surrounding them.
“Tommy?” He looks away from Carrie, turning his head to see Sue approaching him. She smiles at him and before pulling out the chair next to him to sit down, she leans down and kisses him on the lips.
It takes a brief moment for Tommy to come to the realization of what’s happening; Sue’s mouth pressed firmly against his, in the library, in front of people, in front of Carrie!
He groans, hurriedly pulling his wet mouth away from Sue who looks down at him with a confused frown. But his focus isn’t on her for long because his eyes are searching the room for Carrie and when he she’s nowhere in sight it’s the sound of the library doors swooshing close that makes him realize that she’d run out when she saw Sue kissing him.
His chair nearly falls back with how fast he’s at his feet and running after her. He ignores Sue as she calls his name, pushing through the doors as he follows her.
“Carrie? Carrie! Car—” He sees her by the bathroom, she’s halfway inside until he grabs her by the wrist and tugs her to a stop. “Wait, please,” He begs, she snatched her arm away with her back still facing towards him.
“I guess it’s a good thing that we broke up when we did huh? Now you can be with who you really want!”
Tommy shakes his head, frustrated, confused. “What are you talking about—? I don’t want to be with her. I want to be with you!”
She scoffs, “Yeah, it really looks like it.” She tries to walk away again but he’s intercepting her path, standing in front of the bathroom door. Normally he wouldn’t be so abrasive like this, but she wasn’t even letting him explain himself.
He doesn’t know why Sue kissed him.
He hadn’t said or done anything to give her the impression that they were getting back together. Over the weekend, he did go to their house and they’d been studying in her bedroom and there was a brief moment where something was about to happen, but Tommy turned his head before the opportunity was granted to.
Maybe it was the comment her mom made about them reminding her of her and her husband when they were in high school; young and in love with a long future ahead of them. Tommy only nodded politely and smile at Sue, before returning his attention to his homework.
They’d been hanging out more recently; going to the movies and the diner after school and spending time together on weekends. But it’s been solely hanging out as friends nothing more. Maybe Sue misconstrued that into something deeper than what it actually was but he never explicitly said that they were back together.
So, hearing Carrie’s false and absurd assumptions not only offended him but hurt him deeply. How could she really think that after two weeks he’d move onto someone else? Did she really think that she meant that little to him?
“You broke up with me, remember? Fuck, Carrie if anyone should be upset here it’s me! I’ve told you and keep telling how much I care about you but you refuse to believe me and I don’t know what to do. I don’t love her anymore, I love you and it fucking kills me that you can’t see that!”
It just slipped out.
His frustration had been simmering, reaching its peaked height and it just spilled out of his mouth all at once. But he meant it. He means every word of it; that’s what makes it more painful. That she assumed the worst of him. That she didn’t believe his affection for her was genuine.
He loves her.
He’s in love with Carrie White.
But it seems like she didn’t love him.
She finally looks up at him—her eyes wide, mouth hanging open slightly agape. She blinks repeatedly, like she’s trying to make sense of what he’d just said. Tommy’s eyes search hers, trying to gauge her reaction. But it’s something that distracts him from doing so.
Someone.
Sue.
She’s standing at the other end of the hallway, her mouth’s open like Carrie’s but instead of looking at him in a wide eyed bewilderment, her eyes are glossed with tears.
She’d eavesdropped on their conversation and overheard him say that he didn’t love her anymore.
Fuck, just when he thought this day couldn’t get any worse.