You Belong With Me (26 page)

Carter ran his hands over his semi-buzzed hair and laughed.

"Guess that's your answer to everything, right? Not now. When, Casey? When is 'now' going to be?"

"Carter!" she said harshly. Bo looked at her confused then he made a face like a lightbulb had gone off in his head.

"Oh, I get it. So you finally got in her pants, huh, Carter. No big surprise. You always had a thing for her and everyone knew it. That's why you set her up to find me with Drea, right? You always wanted her for yourself."

Carter stepped aside Casey and got right in Bo's face so they were nose to nose. Carter spoke softly but firmly.

"You. Are. A. Fucking.Prick." He stated each word and then flicked the collar of Bo's very expensive shirt. "You're a piece of shit and always will be. Casey please." He waited for her answer with anxious eyes.

"Carter go back and finish playing. I can't talk to you right now." She waved her hand a bit to dismiss him but Carter wasn't having any of it.

"Oh, really? Bo's here and you can't talk to me. Still holding a candle for the prick are we?" He crossed his muscular arms over his chest and fixed his eyes on her.

"You're an asshole and you're drunk. Get lost Carter because I'm not in the mood for this."

"Fine!" He spat the word in her face and made his way away from them. She turned back to Bo.

"I'm sorry about that, Bo. I don't know what's gotten into him."

"I'll tell you what it is. You. You got into him." Bo replied.

Carter downed another beer before he took his guitar back over his shoulder. Those piercing blue eyes of his were still throwing flames at the two of them talking. He felt like if he took one step forward with Casey, he always wound up taking two steps back.

Casey just wanted to leave. She wanted to escape this circus. After what Bo said to her, she looked up at him.

"I'm not really going to discuss Carter and my relationship with you, Bo."

"Well, all I know is the whole time we were together he wanted nothing more than to be with you and it was surely obvious. Now, to me it looks like whatever this little thing was between you two is over, so why don't we go somewhere and really catch up." He moved his slimy body closer to Casey and rubbed his already hard front on the hem of Casey's dress and she felt it on her thigh. He got close to her ear and whispered, "Remember how I made you feel baby? How I made you scream my name."

Carter saw the interaction through his drunken haze and he flexed his fists in and out. Tommy noticed.

"Lond, calm it down and look away. Let's finish this shit."

Then he saw it happen. Bo leaned in and took Casey's mouth. She wrapped her hands around his upper arms and it appeared to Carter that she held onto Bo's arm to press the kiss in even further. Their heads were tilted and he wasn't sure if he saw correctly but It looked like Bo snaked his hand around her waist to hold her even closer. Carter knew he couldn't just jump off the stage and pounce on Bo because to Carter it looked like Casey was kissing him back willingly. He walked over to where Jake's drums were and downed whatever was in the little shot glass next to his beer. He wiped a dribble of liquid off his lips and motioned for Tommy to come over to him. Jake leaned in and so did Tommy.

"Change of song plans my friends." His words were rather slurred. " I want do another and don't tell me no, cause I'm in no mood to be disagreed with. So don't fuck with me."

Casey pushed Bo away from her and slapped him. Lyla, Nikki and Noel saw it and ran over to her.

"Don't you ever touch me again, Bo Adler. Who the hell do you think you are? You are nothing more than a slimy bastard and I feel so sorry for your stupid wife whoever she is."

"How the hell do you know I'm married?"

She picked up his left hand and pointed to the white ring mark on his tanned hand.

"Get lost asshole before Carter comes down off that stage and goes bat-shit crazy on your ass," Lyla yelled to him.

Bo laughed maniacally. "Fine, he can have my sloppy seconds." He turned to walk away and Lyla with her big four inch heels shoved him in the ass so hard that he flew into one of the tables. Glasses went flying and he wound up falling again and landing on his Republican loving ass.

Lyla dusted off her hands and her dress.

"Well, I've wanted to do that forever." She gave Casey a shoulder hug. They started making their way to the table again when Carter got on the microphone. His words sounded muffled and Casey recognized his tone and knew he was straight up bombed.

"I'd like to send this next song out to one very special girl. One who ripped my fucking heart out of my chest and crushed it like a teeeeny, weeeeny sand dollar." Carter pinched his fingers together to make the remark.

"Case... this ones for you sweetface."

The band began to play Buck Cherry's
Crazy Bitch.

The lyrics called out to Casey and stabbed her like a thousand tiny knives. He looked directly at her when sang the words:
You're a crazy bitch, but you fuck so good, I'm on top of this, When I dream of doing you all night, scratches all down my back, come on...
The daggers came in full force out of his eyes and Casey wondered if he really intended the words to speak to her. Could he really think of their time together as just a fuck? Meaningless and cold. Casey's hand went up to her mouth and tears welled in her eyes. Lyla braced an arm on her as the scene before her became too real and painful. She thought about how Tommy was going to get an earful about allowing Carter to sing that song directly to Casey. The message flowed through his teeth as he was enunciating each obnoxious word. When Carter was at the mic, he licked it at one point grabbed his crotch in a suggestive way. Professor Hughes then came onto stage and threw the microphone away from Carter's face and yelled at Tommy and Jake to stop playing.

"Mr. London, you need to get off this stage and leave the premises immediately. This kind of behavior will not be tolerated at this reunion."

Carter gave him the one finger salute and jumped down into the crowd. He stumbled towards the exit doors. He bypassed Casey and snickered at her.

"Casey, do not go after him. He needs to cool off," said Lyla.

Casey wiped her face full of tears and her expression changed from sadness and embarrassment, to good old fashioned, passionate anger.

"Lyla, If Carter London wants to see a crazy bitch, well wait till he gets a load of me."

CHAPTER 13

Brothers

Carter stumbled through the exit of the hotel and tried to hail a cab back to his hotel. He heard the sounds of running heels behind him and ignored them as he stuck his arm out for a cab's attention.

"What the hell were you thinking, Carter?" Casey was behind him speaking out of breath from chasing after him. He didn't turn to look at her. His focus was on a cab.

"Go back inside and enjoy your little reunion with Bo. Just leave me alone." She went and put her hand on his upper arm. He spun around.

"What do you think you're doing? I said leave me alone."

"No, Carter! We need to talk about your little performance in there. How could you sing that song? Those.... those words?"

He had no luck with a cab and he just really needed to get away from her. He crossed the street, almost got run over by a car, and made his way to a park that was across from the hotel. She followed closely behind him. Carter had no idea where he was going or what to do. He knew she was behind him. Every move he made, she was on his heels. He tried to dodge her several times and finally when he moved in a slick basketball type move, she crashed into him.

"Sweet Christ, Casey. Leave me alone! I don't want you here."

"Why, Carter? Give me a reason. What did I do wrong? Is it because I didn't say yes to your proposal? Were you embarrassed because you asked and I wasn't ready? Just tell me why?" He was turned away from her. He leaned his hand against a tree and tried to focus but the alcohol he consumed was clouding him. He turned to her and pressed his forehead against hers. She closed her eyes thinking he was about to come to his senses and apologize. He closed his eyes briefly and then opened them looking into her beautiful eyes. Carter opened his fist and grazed her bottom lip with his thumb. She felt the familiar shiver she only received with his touch. Her eyes closed in temporary ecstasy. He whispered against her lips, his thumb between their mouths.

"Because you are a fucking whore." He took his hand away slowly and clapped his hand in front of him one time as he stepped backwards away from her and her eyes widened. She slapped him across the face with the strength of ten men. Her nails ripped across his skin in the process and big, red, welts appeared on his cheek. He raised his hand to his cheek and pulled it away to find traces of blood.

She was too angry to cry, scream, or run away. She spoke in hushed tones like something was holding back the volume of her voice.

"I hate you, Carter. I hate you with every ounce of my being. You think because you stand on that stage and you look the way you do, you can just treat people this way and not expect them to react to you. You never really loved me. I was an obsession to you, a dream, a conquest. Something you could use and throw away like all the others. If you ever claimed to love me, it was all an illusion. You think you're a God. Overpowering and delusional. If I ever see you again in my entire life, it would be too soon. Forget you ever knew me, because at this moment I loathe you and I WILL forget you ever existed."

Casey stepped away from him and crossed the street back into the hotel. Carter stood there and knew that it was final. She would never enter back in his life. Even if she
was
his life, it just ended there in the middle of a park, across from a hotel that held their reunion.

Two weeks went by. There was no word from Carter. Casey managed to go back to work. She tried to stay focused but the remnants of that fateful night haunted her. She did her twelve hours, ordered take out, watched T.V. and went to bed. Lyla would come over sometimes and sit with her. She tolerated her silence and her obsessive need to watch the Royal wedding once a day. It was by far the only time she could get a smile out of Casey.

Carter left the hotel he shared with Tommy. He was always out with people Carter didn't know or with Lyla and for some reason Carter didn't want to be alone. He went and stayed at Dom and Eva's house. He thought the one thing that would brighten up each day before he went back on tour would be Haley. He tucked her in every night, read her a bedtime story, left the room, sat at the kitchen table with Domenic and Eva and cried. Sometimes the sobs were uncontrolled. He wanted the pain in his chest to go away. He wondered at times how he would go on. His mom would come and sit with him and hold him in her arms like he was a little boy.

"Carter, why don't you try and talk to her before you leave? How are you going to go on tour for three months without rectifying this?"

"Mom, I called her a whore and dedicated a song to her about being a good lay."

"I've never heard of the song you refer to."

"Trust me when I tell you the words I just used could possibly be out of the bible compared to what the lyrics of that song are."

Jane looked at him with disappointment.

"Oh, baby. I just don't understand how you could do that to her."

"Drunk and stupid mom. To top it off, I find out later that her snake of an ex-boyfriend forced her to kiss him and she shoved him away. I had my beer goggles on and I wasn't seeing clearly." Carter sat back on the sofa and let out a huge sigh. He struggled with the fact that it was hard to tell your mind to stop loving someone if your heart still does.

Jane got up from the sofa they were sitting on and went to make some tea. Haley breezed in from her day at pre-school and immediately went to Carter's lap.

"Unky, I missed you." She kissed his cheek and he melted.

"I missed you too, monkey. Did you have a good day at school?"

"Yep. I made a picture." She pulled it out of her back pack to show him.

"This is beautiful Hales. Who are these people?"

She pointed first to stick figure who had black hair and was holding what looked like a guitar.

"That's you, Unky. This is me." She pointed to the little stick figure in the center with yellow hair.

"Look how pretty you are. And who's this?"

She pointed to a taller stick figure with blonde hair as well and Carter figured it was Eva.

"Is that mommy?" He asked.

"No silly. That's Auntie Case. She is your girlfriend."Jane came out of the kitchen with Eva and looked at Carter and Haley on the sofa. He looked up back at them and smiled back to Haley.

"Can we call her, Unky? I miss her."

Carter was at a loss for words. How could he explain to this little angel that he didn't think she would see her again? She was not going to be in their lives anymore. He felt another piece of his heart break right then and there knowing he was the cause of it.

"Auntie is busy right now helping sick people, Haley. I'm sure you will see her soon," Jane said from the doorway of the kitchen.

Carter looked at his mom with eyes that said not to bring false hope to the little girl. He would most likely regret everything he did and said to bring his life to this point. Next week, they would be leaving on tour for three months. He would eventually be back in Florida and maybe he would run into her somewhere. Maybe he would happen to be at Beach Bums when he got back and see her in the crowd. Would she be receptive if he approached her and tried to talk to her or would she turn a deaf ear and that would be that? He fantasied about it especially late at night when Domenic and Eva had gone to bed and after he tucked Haley in. He swore if he tried hard enough he could smell her, feel her, and hear her laugh. He often closed his eyes and imagined her touching him and the endless shivers he felt when flesh came in contact with flesh. Carter craved it like a drug. He missed her smile. The brightness it gave her eyes. The warmth it gave his heart. It made his soul feel complete but now he felt like his soul was empty. Many nights he laid there feeling a tear drift down his cheek. Gazing up at the ceiling and missing seeing her face above his. Her blonde waves flowing over her shoulders and her bronzed skin shimmering against his. It was nothing more than a hallucination.