Heart and Soul [bxb]

Chapter Thirty-Five

*This chapter contains multimedia relevant to the plot*

Carter drove with Mike to school on the Monday after Thanksgiving.

The morning sped by at usual pace and he took his regular seat at lunch. Mel sat to his side, with Jenna and Joey in front of them. Chaz Wheeler was one seat to Carter's left, with Sienna Mathers glued to his side in her full cheer uniform. The empty chair in between was empty. And Carter had yet to hear from Seth.

"Anyone seen Myers and Gonzalez?" Joey asked, with his mouth full.

To his side, Jenna rolled her eyes impatiently. "Who cares. Swallow before you talk," she chided dryly.

She wasn't in her uniform, but she wore a green and white Miami Hurricanes varsity jacket over her grey top, with #63 stamped to the left breast—Joey's number.

Carter shrugged wordlessly. In truth, he hadn't even noticed Scott and Bobby, their senior teammates, were missing. Mel looked at him, as though she was contemplating saying something, but then she stayed quiet. No one asked about Seth, because his absence was a recurrent affair.

Without explaining himself, Carter finished his lunch in a hurry and got up with his tray. His friends looked up at him as he hiked his bags over his shoulder, but asked no questions as he left the cafeteria.

It wouldn't be long until the warning bell sounded, so he made his way to his Calc class, expecting to find Johnny there. When he walked in, he saw Mr Thomas on his desk and Johnny's working partner in his seat, with a black hood pulled over his green hair. But no Johnny. A little downcast, Carter walked to his seat at the back and waited for class to start.

When it finally did, Johnny still hadn't arrived. 

Johnny had never missed a day of school. 

When the bell announced the end of the period, Carter sprung to his feet, sweeping his stuff into his bag haphazardly so he could rush to Johnny's green-haired friend.

"Hey," he said touching the boy's arm. The kid turned around to give Carter a strange look, the space between his eyebrows furrowing with confusion as one of his hands twiddled with the strings from his hoodie. "It's Forrest, right?"

The boy nodded.

"Do you know where Johnny is?" Carter asked. "Did he tell you something about skipping today?"

Forrest shook his head timidly. "We don't talk much," he murmured.

Carter forced a half-hearted smile. "Yeah, okay, thanks."

The kid seemed positively anxious to get away from him, after Carter said that, like he couldn't cope with standing in a conversation with Carter Parrish for more than a few seconds. Or maybe he didn't like conversations in general.

"Hey," a female voice called next to him. Carter turned to face Mel's warm smile. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah."

She gestured towards the exit. "Walk together to practice?"

And they did. Carter entered the locker room, meeting Seth for the first time since Saturday night. Joey stood next to him, with a grin on his face as he powered through some story. 

Seth's eyes landed on Carter as he dropped his stuff on the bench beside him. Joey went on with his emphatic narrative, without picking up on the tension between his friends as Carter finished changing.

Coach's hollering and his teammates' ragged breaths played only in the back of Carter's head throughout practice, as he switched off his brain and set his body on auto-pilot. Still, he was uncomfortably aware of Seth's presence at all times. It was the only thing he couldn't tune out. And it bothered him.