Page 92 of Steeling Her
I just stand there until Haley calls for me to help. “Carter! Fucking help me!” she cries with tears streaming down her face. I race over to stop Nick and hold on to his hand that cut the air behind him before he brings it back down to meet TJ’s face once more.
“Nick, stop! He’s your best friend!” I plead for him to stop hitting his best friend for so many years anymore. No, I’m begging him now. He’s strong, but he stops once I touch him, like he knows it’s me just by my touch. I pull him off of TJ, who is coughing. There’s blood everywhere around him on the floor. I push Nick back to the wall and crawl over to TJ to check if he’s okay.
“TJ are you—”
“Don’t touch him!” Haley yells at me and I’m so taken back by her response to helping TJ, her voice made me flinch. “How could you, Carter!” she cries, and I feel shaken by the look she’s giving me. “How could you do that to me! You know what the girls are like with my brother, and you’re now one of them! FUCKING TYPICAL! I should’ve known. I thought you were nice, but I guess I was wrong. You just used me like the rest of them!” Once she finishes, I start to back away from her and feel my own tears crawling down my skin, trickling little by little down my neck. Two big arms encase me, and Haley glares at me. “I thought I could trust you!” she hisses at me and I sink further into her brother’s touch.
“I could say the same about your little fucking fling, TJ! My sister? Of all the fucking girls on campus, it had to be Haley?” he roars at his best friend, making me wince. He felt me flinch, so he pulls me closer to his chest. “And for you”—he switches his gaze to Haley—“don’t you dare talk about her like that! It’s not like that between us! We like each other!” His sister looks so heartbroken by this encounter. I feel so bad for her. I didn’t want her to find out this way. Not like this.
“You like her?” Haley whispers and I drift my eyes back to face her as she adorns a shocked expression. She looks between me and Nick in confusion.
“Yes, I fucking do!” Nick barks back, and I see her slump on the floor. The silence surrounds us while Haley holds TJ’s head up to allow him to sit up. We’re all sitting on the floor of Nick’s room filled with silence and shock, confused about this entire situation. This day went from shit, to good, and now back to shit. There is so much tension in this room you could cut it with a knife.
“I’m sorry,” I say to break the silence, but Haley just huffs while tending to TJ’s injuries.
“You’re only sorry you got caught,” Haley says while grinding her teeth in betrayal at me. “I thought I could trust you, Carter. I thought you were different.”
“You can, Haley. I still value our friendship. I’ve always put it first!” I sob as Nick cradles me.
“Clearly, you haven’t. I’ll never forgive either of you for it.” Finally looking at me with so much disappointment on her face, I start to choke up. Those five seconds were the worst I’ve ever encountered. My entire body sinks down, crumbling onto the floor. I’ve just lost her as my friend.
“Stop being so fucking dramatic, Haley! Jesus Christ, your boyfriend fucking knew about us!” Her hair cuts through the air as she turns her head to face TJ. I shut my eyes, thinking Nick shouldn’t have said that. She yells in frustration then opens her mouth again to get even.
“Yeah, well your girlfriend knew about us!” she screams back at her brother. I hear TJ sigh. I join in as Nick loosens his arms.
“Will you both shut the fuck up! Jesus, Haley, I didn’t tell you because it’s not my place to. And Nick, Carter didn’t tell you because it’s not her place to tell you either. Yeah, this is a shitty way to find out that we all have feelings for each other. But it happened, accept it and move on or don’t, I don’t give a fuck. I’ve accepted it and I’m moving on . . . FUCK ME!” TJ yells as he leans his head back down on the wooden floor, covering his hands around his bleeding nose. We’re all emotional right now and I don’t know how to get out of this.
“I’m still annoyed.” Haley stands up and kicks her heels off, stomping to the bathroom. Nick kicks her heel out of annoyance.
“I’m fucking pissed at you for going behind my back, TJ! I thought we were friends!” He points to TJ lying on the floor in pain. The pained expression that flash across both of their faces at the last part of that sentence.
“Now I know how Ryan feels,” TJ mumbles back. Not a great time to say that.
“You got way worse buddy!” Nick says angrily back to him as he leaves the room. TJ sits himself up. I really see that he’s got it bad, way worse than Ryan.
“Is it that bad?” he asks me and I nod.
“You’re going to have to reset your nose, TJ.” I point at my nose, thinking it’s his. It’s crooked, and there’s blood all over his face. “I can clean you up if you want? I have first aid training.” He smiles over at me but hisses in pain. I wipe back my tears that have come free.
“Can you reset a nose?” I nod hesitantly to him. I only know how to do it because I trained in it over the summer and because I have seen the doctors doing it to my brothers countless times. We both get up off the floor and walk to the kitchen while I raid the cupboards for the first aid kit. I tell TJ to put some ice on his nose for the swelling. It’s been a while since I’ve done it, so hopefully he looks alright by the end of it.
I dampen a cloth and start wiping his face in silence, remembering when I did the same to Nick. Cleaning up the blood, I hear footsteps and see Haley. She snatches the cloth off me and tells me, “I can do that.” She bumps me out of the way. I nod and stand back, allowing her to clean TJ up. He sends me an apologetic smile, to which I send him one that tells him it’s alright. “Ugh, you can leave, I’ve got it. Unless you want a shot at him too?” I gulp down at the dig. I start to make my way back over to the kit to clean it up, seeing as she knows what she’s doing.
“Haley! Stop. That’s not fair, come on, she’s trying to help. She knows how to reset my nose.” TJ takes her hands to stop her and allow her to focus on him. I would be lying if I said that the line didn’t hurt.Is that what she sees me as?
She steps back and motions me to carry on, not without an annoyed huff. I reach across her to grab a towel and fold it over for him.
“What’s this for?” he asks innocently as Nick saunters into the room to watch with a triumphant smirk on his face. I roll my eyes at how childish he’s being.
“It’s going to hurt, you’ll need to bite into this. Trust me.” He nods, putting it in his mouth.
“We should put that in your mouth more often if it shuts you up. Oh no, wait. That’s why you’re in this stupid situation.” I sigh and stop to stare at Nick, who is riling him and Haley up even more. TJ signals me that he’s ready, and I place two hands on either side of his nose and count down from three. I crack it into place before so he doesn’t really feel the pain much.
“Fuck, Carter! You didn’t even reach one!” He whines like a child as he cups his nose. Haley reaches in to comfort him, rubbing her hand up and down his thigh. I see Nick tense out of the corner of my eye. He doesn’t like the look of the two of them liking each other.
“I know. If you were prepared, it would’ve hurt a hell of a lot more. Sorry, TJ.” I grab his hand for a quick squeeze but then quickly retract it, remembering that Haley is here and the comment she made. TJ notices my flinch but doesn’t say anything. “You’ll need to ice it,” I tell him.
With a nod, he disappears into the living room with Haley. I clean up the kit again and feel Nick’s eyes on me as I move around the counter.
