Beautiful Things Never Last (24 page)

             
But
instead,
it’s just me.

             
Sitting curbside outside of the airport, waiting for his familiar car to pull up.
 
 
 
 
 
But it doesn’t.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 
 
 
 
 
             
“Thanks for coming to get me,” I say to Carter as he tosses my suitcase into the back of his Jeep.
 
 
 
 
 
             
“No sweat, Qui
nn
lette. How was it?” He’s beaming back at me and I am so happy that someone is here and glad to see me.
 
 
 
 
 
             
“Amazing. Obviously. Where’s Ben?”
 
 
 
 
 
             
Carter glances over his shoulder before he pulls out into traffic and ignores my question.
 
 
 
 
 
             
“Carter?” I press. Heat simmers under my skin. What is going on? I search my memory for what I might have said wrong--
done
wrong--to make him not be here to pick me up after four weeks away.
 
 
 
 
 
             
“What, your brother isn’t good enough? I see how it is,” Carter jokes.
Carter rubs his palm on the back of his neck and looks everywhere but at me.
 
 
 
 
 
             
“What the hell is going on?”
             
“Fuck Ben for putting me in the situation that I have to be the one to tell you this, because I like the asshole, but you’re my sister—”
 
 
 
 
 
             
“Carter. Tell me.” I feel tears prickle in the corners of my eyes. He hasn’t even answered my question yet, but all sorts of things are flying through my mind that all involved Ben realizing what a loser I am, and packing his bags.
 
 
 
 
 
             
“He went to spend the holidays with his parents,” Carter finally says. He blows out a deep breath, but doesn’t look relieved to have that out of the way.
 
 
 
 
 
             
“Oh,” I say. I jerk my head back in surprise that that’s all he was worried about telling me. I’m surprised Ben didn’t tell me, but I’m glad he went home to see his family after all.

             
“But, I thought he didn’t end up going with you?”

             
“He didn’t.
Shay and I left on our own. We ran into him though, in Atlanta.” He says it in a leading way, like he’s baiting me to ask more, and it makes my stomach churn.

             
“Cool, did you guys hang out? Did he come to the house?” I know that’s not what Carter is getting at. I know it. But I still hope it’s something as simple as that.

             
He shakes his head and turns down our street.

             
“Shay and I went down to Little Five Points to grab a slice of White Pizza,” he pauses to glance over at me, “I know it’s not pizza in Napoli, but it was damn good, you know.”

             
“I get it, pizza…back to Ben.”

             
“So, we were sort of surprised to see him there.”

             
“With his parents?”

             
Carter gives a sharp, quick
shake of his head
.

             
“Who?”
 
 
 
 
 
             
“I didn’t recognize her, but Shay said she looked familiar. He seemed really…awkward. Maybe worried that we saw him? I don’t know how to explain it. He definitely wasn’t himself, though. He introduced her to us, and she was nice enough.”

             
“Who?” I press. My hands are shaking. A surge of heat under my skin rages through me.
What the hell is Ben doing?

             
“Caroline,” Carter says. He says it with regret, like he pit
ies
me and that makes
my
guttural rage and sadness take over every fiber of me.
             
“He
said he’d
to be back last night, but I never saw him. When you called, I
stopped by
your apartment to see if he’d just overslept, but he wasn’t there, either.”
             
“I understand,” I say.
 
 
 
 
 
“I tried calling him, but it went straight to voicemail.”
 
 
 
 
 
“Yeah, me too,” I say. My voice is becoming softer, weaker, it feels like the air has been sucked out of my lungs, leaving me struggling to breath and the world spinning out of control.

             
Because of her.

             
“So, you knew all of that, when I called you on Christmas? Why didn’t you tell me then?”

             
Carter shakes his head and sighs, “Quinn, that would have ruined the last few days of your trip, no way was I doing that with you that far away.”

             
The last few words make me pause. He was worried I’d do something stupid. Like the last time things were rough with Ben and I ended up in the hospital. But that was completely different and had little to do with Ben and more to do with the fact that I was seriously out of my mind for a while. I’ve done so much better since then. I went to therapy for months, I took the meds they gave me. I’ve changed.
Right?

             
“
What was the point in telling you anyway?
It could be nothing,
Quinnlette
. I mean, maybe they just ran into each other, I don’t know.”

             
I nod, swallowing hard, trying to drown the lump in my throat.

             
“Maybe he—”
             

             
“Carter, just stop.
”
M
y voice is barely above a whisper. “Please.” The last word squeaks out like air coming out of a balloon. Pathetic.

             
Carter obediently clamps his mouth shut.
I’ve spent my life worrying about losing people because of my own stupidity, it just never occurred to me before now that I could actually lose someone I love because of something completely out of my hands.

             
“I’m sorry for snapp
ing,” I say. “I’m just worried…H
e should be home by now, right? So where is he?”
             

             
Carter shrugs his shoulders. “Maybe bad weather or something out that way. I’m sure he’ll be back soon.”

             
And then what?

             
“Thanks again, for coming to get me.”

             
“Don’t mention it. You’d do it for me.”

             
And it’s true. I had rushed off to pick Carter up from the airport befor
e. That summer I met Ben, when everything had just begun. When everyt
hing was new and scary, but it was a
different the fear I have right now.

 
 
 
 
Ben didn’t even try to kiss me good-bye. What the hell? Does he want to keep this platonic or something? Because I sort of had the feeling
that
you could cut the chemistry with a knife. Did my hair look ridiculous? Was the braid too cutesy to warrant a kiss?

 
 
 
 
“Gripes!” I yell. I slammed
my hand
hard
onto the steering wheel as
I came close to sailing right
past my exit while pondering the reason behind Ben’s chastity.

 
 
 
 
I pu
l
led
into the airport drop-off lane and reach
ed
across
to
fling the passenger door open before even coming to a complete stop
, knowing the security guard was eyeing me with a warning  glare. 
 

 
 
 
 
“Late much?” Carter
said
. He thr
ew
his duffle bag into th
e cluttered backseat and tossed
several empty Mountain Dew bottles off of the passenger seat.