Carter sat at Zac's kitchen table with the icepack over her left eye. The left eye hurt more than the right one.
"What happened?" Taylor walked into the kitchen and sat down next to her. Zac sat in another chair.
"Why do you care?"
Taylor ignored her. "Who started it this time?"
"She did. I went into our room to help her clean and she hit me with an encyclopedia."
He shook his head. "I can't believe she did that."
"I don't care if you don't believe me." Carter sighed.
"I believe you. Trust me, I do. Want me to go talk to her?"
"I don't care."
"I'm on your side."
Zac grinned. "For once."
"Thanks." Carter said coldly.
Taylor sighed and got up. "Sorry I yelled at you earlier. Maybe it was Mel's fault."
"Gee, you think?" Carter asked, pulling the ice from her eye. Taylor had already left the room.
He let himself into Carter's house and walked slowly up the attic steps and knocked on the door.
"Come in." Melissa answered, her voice sounding muffled.
Taylor turned the nob and pushed the door open to see Melissa laying on her bed with her face burried in a pillow. "What happened?"
"Carter hit me."
"No she didn't."
Melissa lifted her head up. "You think I'm lying?"
"I saw Carter. I know what you did."
"She hit me first."
Taylor shook his head. "You know that you hit her first."
"She hit me harder."
"Melissa, stop lying. You hit her in the face with an encyclopedia. She might have called you a bitch yesterday, but you don't just go hitting people with books."
Melissa sat up. "I thought you hated Carter."
"I don't hate anybody. I just know when somebody is wrong. You were wrong."
"What do you want me to do about it?"
"You could apologize."
Melissa looked shocked. "She rammed my head into the floor!"
"You hit her with a dictionary!"
"Encyclopedia."
"Whatever. Did you see her face?"
Melissa stood up in front of him. "Do you see mine?!"
"Yeah. You've been crying for an hour. Your face is red. Carter's eyes are both black and blue, her lip finally stopped bleeding, but her nose hasn't stopped."
Melissa put her hands on her hips. "I didn't hit her in the nose."
"You hit somebody directly in the face with a book and you expect it to not hit their nose?!"
Melissa shrugged.
"God. You know what? I can't even believe you did that. You're supposed to be the sweet one. The nice one. That's why I liked you so much. But now you turned out to be even worse than Carter."
Melissa's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. "Get out." She said calmly.
"Why?"
She shoved him backwards towards the door. "GO HOME TAYLOR! NOW! GO AWAY!"
Taylor shook his head at her and left her alone in the attic.
Later that night, Carter was lying on the loveseat on the balcony, staring out at the stars. Her eyes didn't hurt as much, and they weren't as dark. There was only a small cut on her lip.
"Does it still hurt?"
Carter looked up to see Taylor standing over her. "Not much." She shrugged. "I didn't even see you come out."
"Can I sit down?"
Carter laid still for a moment and then finally sat up. She moved to the side of the loveseat and covered her whole body with her maroon blanket. It was almost as if she was shielding herself from him.
Taylor sat down. "Melissa hates me now."
"Oh?"
"I told her that she was wrong to hit you."
Carter smiled. "Bad move, she hates hearing that she's wrong."
"Well yeah. I know that now." Taylor looked over at her. "Why do you always sit as far away from me as possible?"
Carter laughed. "I think you can answer that yourself."
"You've hated me since we were 5 haven't you?"
"Oh no. It was much earlier than that. I think I hated you even before Zac was born."
Taylor sighed. "Oh."
"Oh hey. It's nothing personal or anything." She smiled.
"Oh no. Nothing personal."
"How long have you hated me?"
"I don't hate you. I just go along with whatever you do."
"Oh really? What about when we were 5?"
Taylor blushed. "I didn't mean that. Really. It was an accident."
Carter nodded. "Oh I see. You didn't mean to push me under the water and sit on me. Total accident huh?"
Taylor blushed some more. "It was a dare. Isaac told me to do it."
"Stop lying."
"I apologized though!"
Carter laughed. "That's right. You did. Diana said, 'Apologize to Carter and mommy and daddy will give you a cookie.' You're right. I remember."
"I would have anyway."
"Ok."
"I really would have. And I let you up after a minute."
"That's cause I grabbed your..."
"We were only 5. How come you haven't forgiven me."
Carter shrugged. "I dunno. I guess it's just in my nature to despise you." She added a smile to her sentence.
Taylor laughed. "We'll never get along will we?"
"Highly doubt it."
"Ok then." He stood up and smiled at her. "I wouldn't sleep in your bed tonight if I were you."
"Go to hell."
"Bite me." Taylor laughed and went outside.
Carter laughed to herself and pulled out the picture of her mother. "Nite mom." She smiled and closed her eyes.
About a half hour later, Zac shook her shoulder softly. "Hey....hey." He whispered as if trying not to wake her up.
"What?" Carter asked, groggily.
"Move over."
"K." Carter sat up and let Zac sit next to her. When he did, she laid back down and put her head on his lap.
"You too tired to talk?" He asked quietly as he leaned his head back against the head of the loveseat.
"Hmm?" Carter sounded as if she was half asleep already.
"How's your face?"
"Ugly as ever."
Zac laughed. "I'm the ugly one."
"Ok. Nite Zac." Carter yawned and shifted around on the loveseat for a while.
"You comfy?" Zac asked after she finally stopped.
"Very."
"K. Nite."
"Nite." Carter rolled over onto her other side so that she was facing the back of the loveseat, and Zac. She giggled. "You are ugly."
"You're uglier."
"Ok." She smiled and closed her eyes.
Zac pulled the blanket up over him too and fell asleep, still with Carter's head on his lap.