“Yeah, I know her. We’re friends. Or, I guess, more like acquaintances. I’m friends with this girl, Harper, who is also on the tennis team, so sometimes we have dinner with Kerry.”
“Maybe we could double date sometime. Unless Garret doesn’t do that type of thing.”
Another dig at Garret. What is with this guy? Why does he keep putting Garret down like this?
When lab is done, he walks back to the dorms with me and I confront him. “Listen, Carson. I don’t know what your problem is with Garret, but I need you to stop saying bad things about him. What happened at the party is not how he normally acts. He never gets into fights. He only got in one last Friday because he was trying to protect me. That’s it.”
“How well do you know him?”
“What type of question is that? You’re basically implying that I don’t know my own boyfriend or that he’s hiding stuff from me.” I walk faster.
Carson holds on to my jacket, forcing me to stop. “What do you know about his family?”
“I’m not dating his family, so it doesn’t matter.”
“That chemical company they own is always in trouble for stuff, but they never get charged with anything. It just goes away. Doesn’t that concern you?”
“No. It doesn’t. And why are you so interested in their company?”
“I’m into that type of stuff. Company cover-ups. Conspiracy theories. My uncle got me into it a couple years ago. He’s a reporter in Chicago. Anyway, he’s followed Kensington Chemical for the past few years and when I told him I was going to school with Garret Kensington, he sent me some stuff to check out online about the company and the Kensington family.”
“So you’re some conspiracy nut? You really believe that stuff? I have to tell you, Carson, I’m thinking less and less of you the more we talk.”
“You think less of me because I want to know the truth? So you think people should just go around believing whatever lies some company PR rep says? Lies the media tells us on the news? Kensington Chemical and companies like them pay people to spread their lies. To cover up stuff they don’t want people to know about. Or they get their rich, powerful friends to help them cover it up. Garret’s dad is already doing this. And soon Garret will be doing it, too, if he’s not already.”
“Garret has nothing to do with the company.” I rip my jacket from Carson’s grasp and start walking again. “I’m not talking to you about this. And I don’t want to hear anything else about Garret or his family. Just keep it to yourself.”
He steps in front of me. “Okay. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to piss you off. I just really like you and I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“What do mean you really like me? Like me how? Like a friend? Like a girlfriend? Because I’m telling you right now that I’m not breaking up with Garret.”
“I told you before that I wasn’t trying to date you. I’m just looking out for you.” He pauses. “You just remind me of someone. That’s all.”
“Who? An ex-girlfriend?”
“My sister.” He says it quietly as he leads me over to a bench to sit down. “You remind me of my sister. You talk like her. You sound like her. You have similar mannerisms.”
I remind him of his dead sister? Wow. I wasn’t expecting that. How do I respond to that? I’m not sure, so I sit there not saying anything.
“You remind me of her so much that I’ve felt this urge to protect you ever since I met you. Just like I used to protect my sister. Now that I say it out loud, it sounds crazy.” He lets out a nervous laugh and stares down at the ground. “Maybe I need to see a therapist. I didn’t realize I was so fucked up.”
“Carson, don’t worry about it. It makes sense now.” I lightly kick the side of his foot. “And I don’t think you need a therapist. You’re just a good older brother who misses his sister. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“Yeah, but now you want nothing to do with me.”
“That’s not true. I like you, but I don’t like it when you say bad things about Garret. You barely know him, so it’s not fair for you to judge him like that. And as for Friday night, Garret only reacted that way because of Blake.” I lean forward, wrapping my fingers around the bottom of the bench and swinging my legs back and forth. “I didn’t want you to know what happened with Blake, but now that you do I hope that doesn’t make things weird between us.”
“Why would it make things weird?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. It’s just that I feel like you look at me differently now. Like you wonder how I ended up in that situation. And then I feel like I have to explain what happened and I don’t want to explain. I just want to move past it.”
“You don’t have to explain anything, Jade. That guy should be in jail for what he did. When Garret told me what happened I wanted to go back inside and beat that guy up myself. I understand why Garret reacted like that. I would’ve done the same thing.”
“Then why do you keep picking on him?” I sit up and start to lean back but notice Carson’s arm is now behind me on the bench so I lean forward again.
“I’m just worried about you. It’s that protective instinct like I had with my sister. I don’t want someone like you getting involved with people like the Kensingtons.”
“You don’t know anything about them, Carson. You’re just believing stuff you read on the Internet.”
