that Carson was avoiding the topic scared me even more. Was he afraid to go home?
Carson’s jaw tightened. “He acted like he was walking away, then he threw a fist at me.”
My stomach churned. How was Carson driving right now? Keeping the car between the highway lines? I could barely sit up straight. “Are you okay?”
The second the words left my mouth I realized how dumb they were. Of course he wasn’t okay. The one person who should have been there for him no matter what, who should have kept him safe, had injured him. Now Carson had to wear the evidence of that betrayal on his face.
“I'm not,” he said. “But I will be.” He didn’t even sound like he believed the words.
There was something he wasn’t telling me. I could see it in the tightness around his eyes. In the hesitancy of his voice. “Carson, what’s going on?”
Instead of answering me, he silently pulled into Emerson Shoppes and stopped in a parking spot. Once the car was off and his seatbelt undone, he turned to me and said, “My mom said I could go with her or stay with my grandparents.”
His words practically opened the ground underneath me. “You’re moving?”
“I can’t stay with him.”
The ache in his voice hit me straight in the chest. “Don’t go,” I said, scrambling for ideas. “Stay with us. You know the spare room’s yours.”
He took a deep breath and met my eyes, his a dark, stormy blue. “I don’t want to ruin your last summer at home.”
I blinked, not understanding him. “You know what would ruin my last summer at home? Not spending it with my best friend. You have to stay.”
So much of my heart was on the line here. I may have had a crush on Nick, but Carson was everything to me. He’d been there for me, right next door or even in our house, since I was ten years old. Losing him would be like losing a part of myself.
“My dad will be mad—he’ll know I’m next door. I wouldn’t want him taking it out on you guys.”
Anger flared within me at the way that man had made my best friend’s life so miserable, but he was right. Staying with us would just put him more at risk. “There has to be a solution. Can you stay with Beckett?”
He shook his head. “They just have a two-bedroom, and I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t like me bumming it on their couch for three months.”
“Think about it,” I said, reaching across the car and holding his hand. It was big and warm inside both of mine, but he still seemed so vulnerable. “I don’t want to lose you, but I don’t want to see how far your dad would go either. He’s evil to put you through this. What kind of person would lay a hand on another...” I shook my head in disgust. “It’s awful.”
His jaw trembled, but only for a moment, and he nodded. With a sniff, he looked out the car window and said, “Now, let's go get me some new board shorts.”
I wanted to talk to him more about everything, to let him know I was here for him no matter what, but there would be time for that eventually. There had to be.
As I got out of the car, my leg stuck to his leather seats, and I cringed. So not sexy. Not that I was really worried about Carson thinking I was sexy, but it was just a reminder of how unattractive I was. How much I really had to lose if Carson left.
We walked quietly across the parking lot and into a big department store. The line of doors let us into the women's section. I scanned the scanty summer pieces and shook my head. The thought of wearing something like that, showing the scaly skin on my neck and arms, made me feel ill. I could almost hear people at the pool calling me the Loch Ness monster and making fish faces at me.
Carson didn't seem to notice my expression as we walked toward the men's section of the store, which was buried so far back I almost thought it didn't exist.
We passed a big display of purses, and I paused, running my fingers over a silver buckle.
“Oh no you don't,” he said, gripping my fingers and pulling me away.
“But it’s so pretty!” I reached for it, but it was a losing fight.
“You told me you were trying to cut back!” he