Zac stared at the front door for a while. Taylor sighed. "I guess that wasn't really the best time to do that."
"No kidding, dumbass." Zac stood up. "I'll go talk to her."
"I don't think so." Taylor shook his head, stood up, and shoved Zac back down to his chair. "You've done enough by breaking up with her and then ignoring the fact that she was hurting."
"I didn't... I... Oh." Zac frowned and looked over at Lizzie, who was shaking her head.
"So that's why she was giving me death glares."
"You think?" Taylor glared at him. "If anybody is going to talk to her, it's going to be me."
"Why? You're the one that inappropriately asked her out." Zac glared right back.
"It wasn't inappropriate. It was just... Ok I'm not talking about this anymore."
"Good." Zac grumbled and grabbed a bag of jelly belly jelly beans from the floor. He opened them up and started digging through them. He handed Lizzie a handful and she made a face when she came across a brown one.
"What flavor are these ones?" She asked, not sure if she wanted to try it.
Zac shrugged. "Ass... I think." He took it from her and popped it into his mouth. "Yeah. It's ass."
"Good to know."
The rest of the room stayed fairly quiet until Taylor jumped up out of his seat. "That's it. You guys are awful. Carter's upstairs in her bedroom pissed off or sad or... something and you're all just sitting here like it's nothing. Even Zac, her best friend, is just sitting here munching on his ass-flavored jelly beans, pretending he doesn't know how mad she is, probably at me, but that's not my point..."
"And your point is?" Isaac asked, scooting over so that Tanis would be more comfortable.
"You all suck!" Taylor stomped his feet on the floor once more before leaving the house to find Carter.
Zac sighed and threw a hand full of brown jelly beans into his mouth. "He's the one that told me not to go after her." He grumbled and then made a face when the flavor of the jelly beans hit him.
Taylor took a deep breath before knocking on Carter's closed door. There was no response from the other side so he waited a few minutes before knocking again. He jumped back with he heard something hit the door. Thinking this was his "ok" to go in. He turned the nob and peaked inside.
On the floor in front of the door was a pack of gutiar strings. "Hey." He almost whispered as he looked at Carter.
She was sitting on her bed with her guitar in her lap, staring at nothing. "I was going to come and open the door but I didn't want to get up. So I just threw whatever was closest. I figured you'd come in after that."
"Yeah. How'd you know it was me?"
"Because I know you and I knew you'd come after me." She looked down at her guitar. "There's no music. Nothing comes out when I try to play. It's been this way for a couple weeks now." She sighed. "Ever since..."
"I'm sorry."
"Why? You didn't take the music out of my guitar." She looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Or did you?"
He laughed. "No, I mean I'm sorry about what I did downstairs."
She nodded. "I didn't know what to say because I wasn't sure if you were serious or joking. I didn't want to laugh and make you feel bad. But then I didn't want to answer it seriously and have you laugh at me if it was a joke."
"Why would I joke about something like that?" Taylor put his hand on top of his head and straightened his hair. "I mean, I don't joke about everything. Especially not that."
"I just didn't know."
"So you're not mad?"
Carter shook her head and stared at her window. Rain was falling harder and the clouds were getting darker. Wind was picking up and they could hear tree branches hitting the side of the house. "I'm not mad at you. It's Zac. I've spent my whole life having him right there and whenever I was sad or something, he'd be there even more. But he doesn't even realize it this time." She shook her head. "I don't even know."
"You know if I could help, I would."
"Do you think she's pretty?" Carter asked, referring to Lizzie.
"No."
"That helps." She smiled.
He smiled back. "I was serious, you know. But you don't have to give me an answer right now. I guess it was just something for you to think about. When you're over Zac, and when you're... ready... I never stopped... I never really quit..." He couldn't find the right words and when she looked down at the carpet, he knew that he had no idea what else to say to her.
She stared at the carpet for a few more seconds before looking up at him with a smile on her face. "Tay..." But before she got the chance to answer him, she heard a gust of wind, followed by a sharp crack, and then Taylor grabbed her and pulled her to the ground as something flew threw her bedroom window, shattering the glass and soaking them with rain.
Zac looked in the direction of Carter's bedroom. "Do you think she's ok?"
"I'm sure she's fine." Melissa nodded. "The wind's getting really bad out there. Maybe Lizzie and Tanis should get home before it get's worse." She offered, thinking more about getting Lizzie out of the house and away from the wrath of Carter.
"Maybe." Zac looked outside. "You know what I was just thinking?"
Isaac grinned. "That ass-flavored jelly beans leave a weird aftertaste?"
"No. It's March."
"Genius." Isaac rolled his eyes.
"No. It's March. 6 days into it, right?"
Melissa's heart jumped. She knew was Zac was talking about. She had a conversation with Carter at the end of February about how March was a cursed month for them. "Right. But that doesn't mean something bad is going to happen."
"What month did Carter's mom die? March. What month did her grandmother die? March. What happened two years ago in March? Me and Tay were in a car accident? And last March Carter almost died... Every year we miss Carter and Taylor's birthdays because one of them is in the hospital."
"So what?" Isaac shook his head. "You guys are way too superstitious. Just because bad things happen to us around a certain time of the year doesn't mean we're cursed. And it doesn't mean something bad is going to happen."
Zac shrugged, trying to believe him but he still hated March. He was going to mention that three years ago in March, Isaac was in the hospital with pneumonia but he didn't get the chance. The wind picked up outside and he heard several tree branches crack simultaneously. Then, he heard a loud crash coming from the second floor of Carter's house.
"What... the hell was that?" Tanis asked, standing up and looking at the ceiling.
Zac nodded. "That... was the beginning of March."
Everybody in the room grew tense and jumped up when they heard a loud siren in the distance. "And that," Zac glanced out the window. "Is the tornado warning."
Taylor rolled over onto his stomach and pushed up with his arms until he was in a seated position. Carter grabbed his arm and tried blowing her hair out of her face. Wind was whipping through her bedroom, blowing leaves and shards of glass towards them. "Are you ok?"
"Yeah. You?"
She nodded. "I think so. Tree." She pointed to a large branch that was sticking into her room.
Taylor reached forward and ran his hand across her face. There was a small cut on her left cheek that she didn't even notice. For a second, he felt the need to kiss her. He probably would have if it hadn't been for the siren that sounded at that moment, warning them both that a tornado had touched down.