Andy leaned into her and kissed her jaw because her head was turned, but he was working his way to her lips.

"Kyle, what time do you need to meet your sister?"

MG made an exasperated huffing noise as Kyle pulled himself off of her, "11:30, why?"

"Um, cause it's after 11 now, and you still have to walk back to the parking lot." Kyle looked up at the clock. "Shit!" He hopped out of the pool and searched for his shorts and shirt. "Andy, come on, we gotta go!"

Andy glared at Carrie before joining Kyle on the deck, looking for his clothes. The boys took off in a run at 11:15. MG climbed out of the pool, dried off, then sat on the edge of a lounger and fell back, looking up at the stars and smiling. Carrie sat down on the lounger next to her.

"Are you mad at me?"

MG lay there smiling for a minute before answering, "This has been a great summer."

Relieved, Carrie lay back on her lounger and looked up, "Yeah."

"You don't like Andy anymore?" "No, not really. I, um, I kind of like Chuck."

"Who?"

"Chuck, you know, Blake's friend. He sells us wine at the gas station." "Oh, Chuck. Is that his name? Sure, he's cute." MG paused, and Carrie was afraid she was going to announce the he was hers first, but, typical MG, "and he can get us wine. Good choice."

Carrie smiled, "Thanks. You're right, this has been a great summer."

Chapter 8.

That was the end of Kyle and Andy. Amber came home, fighting tears, about an hour later. Instead of being mad that the girls were up so late, she came into MG's room to talk to them. She cried on and off, and slurred about a guy named Ian as she took drinks of some strong-smelling liquor she had poured over ice. Ian turned out to be the guy she was seeing behind Vin's back to make him jealous. She wanted Vin to leave his wife (he had a wife?). She fell for Ian, who found out about Vin, and that led to tonight's tear-filled confession. Now all she wanted to do was get out of town for a while.

Two days later, MG and Amber left for Miami for an undecided length of time. Carrie went home. Her only solace was that school would start in a week and a half, so MG would have to be back by then.

Her mom was almost four months pregnant now and just starting to show. She wore slightly larger normal clothes so other people wouldn't know, although Carrie was sure everyone would find out sooner or later. In her absence, her parents had developed a routine that involved them having as little interaction as possible. Earl left for work before Lana got up, and he returned briefly to change clothes and go bowling three nights a week. Other nights he would bring home a bag of fast food for himself and eat it alone in front of the TV. Lana kept living as if nothing had changed. She shopped, ate out, and spent most evenings with her bridge group, or doing more shopping, or attending any meeting they offered at the church. Carrie felt like an outsider to their stalemate, but it had its advantages. As long as she stayed under the radar, she could come and go as she pleased; not that she had anywhere to go.

She thought about walking to the gas station, but it was a long way to go alone, and she wasn't sure what she would say to Chuck when she got there. She mostly just lay in bed reading the steamy romance novels MG gave her before she left. She was pretty sure she had found her most secret place. It took some patience, but if she rubbed for a while she could build up to the most wonderful tingling release that made her whole body shake. It felt too good to stop, but she was sure she was breaking some commandment or committing some sort of sin. At least she felt guilty for it. That had to count for something.

At sunset on Saturday night, she was lying in bed, trying to decide if she should repaint the stars on her walls a brighter yellow, when she heard the Gorman's garage door. She could just make out the outline of Ben, rummaging through his dad's tool bench, loudly. When did he get back from camp? Ben pulled and tugged on something behind the large metal bench. The door to their house opened, and Carrie could just barely see Sissy's dress shoes standing in the doorway. Ben finally pulled the tool he wanted from a pile. He turned and started marching into the backyard. Sissy shut the door and Carrie turned over so she could see where Ben was going with a big axe. When he passed the elm tree she couldn't see him anymore, but, she could hear the crack of him using the axe on something.

Ben had most of the roof of the little fort chopped off when Carrie walked up. He was sweating and swinging the axe wildly. Carrie was careful not to approach him from behind. She made a wide arc and stood on the far side of the fort, out of range of the flying wood chips. Ben didn't even notice her, he just kept pounding away with the axe on the split timber roof of the fort. A large chip flew up and hit him on his cheek. He stopped mid-swing, and slapped his hand over the spot that was starting to bleed, "SHIT!!"

It was the first time she had ever heard him cuss. She considered going back inside, leaving him alone with his anger, but he noticed her. He looked down, embarrassed, rubbing his cheek and breathing hard.

"What's up?" The question sounded really stupid considering the situation, but she couldn't think of anything else to say.

"My dad is a fuck head, that's what's up." He practically spit the words out, shouting in her direction, but not at her. His cuss word vocabulary was bigger than she ever imagined.

"Shit," Carrie now felt free to cuss around him, "What did he do?" Ben picked up the axe and swung at the roof again, one violent chop punctuating each word, "He. Brought. His. Whore. Girlfriend. To. My. Birthday."

Carrie's hand flew to her mouth, "Oh, crap!" Ben swung extra hard, and the blade of the axe stuck in the wood, "My mom was there," he struggled to remove the blade, "and my grandparents."

Carrie could just picture the scene, and it made her sick. What the hell was wrong with his dad? "We went to The Grove House. My mom said he might come by to bring me a gift, but he couldn't stay." Ben had given up on the axe and sat on the ground breathing hard. He was still holding his cheek which was bleeding a little between his fingers. As she was looking around for something to wipe the blood with, Carrie remembered her stash of clothes was still under the table in the fort. She bent over and reached in through the large hole in the roof and pulled out her shirt. She walked toward him to wipe his cheek, then reconsidered and tossed him the shirt. He glanced at her, shook wood chips off the shirt and pressed it to the cut.

As she leaned against the fort wall, she started to formulate a plan. "Go tell your mom we are going to get ice cream for your birthday."

"Huh?" Ben was as perplexed as she thought he might be, but that was part her plan. She needed him thrown off his structured, rule-following life to get him to let loose and have some fun. She was determined to give him a super fun birthday.

"Never mind, if you go in there she'll insist on putting band aids all over your cut. I'll go." Ben watched Carrie walk to his back door and knock. His mom answered, Carrie talked to her, then waved and said, "We'll just be gone a few hours," as she walked back across the grass toward him.

Ben guessed his mother was so worried about him she would agree to anything that might cheer him up. Walking to get ice cream with Carrie didn't seem like such a bad idea. It might be better if he could run, but there is no way she could keep up with him.

The walk was long, and Ben was sure they passed the way to the ice cream place about a mile back. But, he didn't really mind, he was telling Carrie all about camp and starting to forget about his dad. He asked her about her summer, and she was strangely silent and turned the conversation back to him.

They passed the house where he and Carrie had gone to the party earlier in the summer, but just kept walking. An hour later they came to a dirty, old gas station and Carrie stopped.

"We're getting ice cream here?"

"We are getting a treat. Do you like strawberry or peach?"

"Peach, but I don't want any food from this place." "Relax, it's not food," Carrie smirked that his keen sense of hygiene hadn't left him. "Stay here, I'll be right back."

Ben started to follow her, "Where are you going?"

"In there to get part of your present. Now stay here, or it won't be a surprise." Carrie was pretty proud of her fast thinking. She wanted to get some wine, but she also wanted to be alone with Chuck for a few minutes.

Chuck was glad to see her and asked how her summer was going. She smiled and blushed and stammered. He rang up the bottle of peach wine then Carrie realized she hadn't brought any money. Chuck's smile was devious and flirty when he said, "That's ok, you'll just have to owe me."

She almost stumbled out the door with the bottle of peach wine hidden in two brown bags.

"So that's my present?" "Yep," Carrie's eyes twinkled, she loved stringing out the fun, "but you can't have it here. We have to walk over there." Carrie pointed to the dark parking spaces in back of the garage.

When they were safely away from any lights, she handed him the bag. He pulled the chilled bottle from the bags and looked confused, "Wine? You got me wine for my 14th birthday?"

She hated the way he made it sound like a stupid idea. Clearly, he wasn't getting the big picture. "It tastes great! And, it will make you feel better. I swear." Ben didn't look convinced. "Just try some."

He twisted off the cap and took a small sip. "Tastes pretty good." He took another drink.

Carrie held out her hand for him to pass it to her.

"I thought it was my birthday gift."

She shook her head at his lack of liquor knowledge, "You can't drink the whole bottle, you'll get sick. We'll split it." Ben reluctantly passed her the bottle. She took a few swigs, wiped her mouth on her sleeve, then passed it back to him. When she started walking toward home, Ben followed. They traded sips of wine. When they reached MG's house, Carrie stopped and encouraged him to finish the last of the wine. She was just starting to feel her buzz, and she hoped he was too. He was definitely more talkative than ever before.

As she walked across the lawn toward the back yard gate of MG's house, Ben followed, whispering questions about where they were going.

Carrie reached over the gate, unlatched it, pushed it open very quietly and tip toed over to a lounger. Ben was still at the gate, stuck in place with shock. Carrie motioned for him to come in. He didn't.

She had to pull him inside the fence and push him over to a lounger. He finally spoke, "Carrie!" he whispered loudly, "We are going to get caught! Let's get out of here."

She laughed, and Ben shoved his hand over her mouth to quiet her. She pushed his hand aside. "It's MG's house. She and her mom are out of town. No one will see us."

Ben looked at the pool and back at her. "We're going swimming?"