Microplastics (3/3)

After a long (and rare) bout of silence at the table, June figured it was time to change topics. She had already taken over most of the conversation with her complaints about Carter, after all. She started to think of something new, and then Bri looked her dead in the eyes. She leaned forward and pressed her fingers onto the wood, the pose that said she had a plan. “What if,” she said in a low voice, “we broke into your house?”

“What?” June furrowed her brow.

“Hear me out: the four of us all go inside your house, we make a mess of the living room and the kitchen, and when Carter’s about to come in, we kill the lights and hide. We make just enough noise to let him know someone’s inside, and then we try to jump him.”

“Jump him?” Even July and Caro looked skeptical.

“We wouldn’t actually hurt him. But if we’re able to get close to him and take him down, how hard would it be for an actual criminal?”

June pondered for a moment. “I wouldn’t want you guys to get hurt.”

Bri waved a dismissive hand. “You can always step in if you need to.” Her eyes flitted between everyone at the table. “Well? Thoughts?”

The girls all toyed with their glasses for a short while. Caro smirked. “It would be pretty funny.”

“And telling,” July said. “You wanna be sure you’re safe, right June?”

June tapped a finger on the table. Maybe it was too much. But then again, this might be the shot in the arm Carter needed to really show his worth. And no one was actually getting hurt. June shared looks with the girls, all red faced and eager to make a move.

“Let’s fuckin’ do it.”

Their plan was quickly patched together as they tore through the streets of Edith. Park a block away from June’s house so Carter wouldn’t notice the car. Get inside and hide any valuable-looking items in the guest room. Find four places to hide on the first floor, and then turn off the lights. Finally, once Carter opens the front door, make a little bit of noise and then go silent. Make him think the intruders can hear him so he doesn’t try calling the police. After that, just try to get close and incapacitate him. June would watch everything play out, but she wouldn’t interfere once Carter was in the house; she wanted to study him more than anything. If their plan worked, it was a win for the girls and a loss for June. If Carter looked like he was about to get the upper hand on them, June would jump out of her hiding place and announce that he wasn’t in danger. Their first working excuse was that June told them he wouldn’t be back until tomorrow and they thought he was an intruder. The second one was that they were just playing a prank on him and didn’t mean to scare him that much. The second one was half true and more believable, so they went with that.

Just before reaching the neighborhood, June sent Carter a text saying she was already back home. She wanted him to walk inside and think she was in danger; it should have given him some extra motivation.

They parked and sprinted down the sidewalk in a herd. They were hidden under the cover of darkness, only sometimes broken by a functioning streetlight. June skidded to a halt in front of her house and narrowly avoided July slamming into her. She led the girls up the steps and unlocked the door, and from there, they got to work.

They started with the small stuff: figures and ornaments on top of cabinets, the fancy looking napkin holder in the kitchen, and the cooking utensils Carter’s grandparents gave him. They went for the living room TV next. It was more of a group effort to move, but they managed to hide it in the guest room in a matter of minutes. They had to stop and think about what to do next. The elliptical would have been too much effort to move, as would most of the furniture. They decided to go for the paintings on the wall, with each person splitting up to take a different room. June took down the ones on the stairwell and the hallway leading up to the main bedroom. The frames were all dropped into a pile on top of the bed.

“Do you think that’s enough?” July asked once they were all together.

“We could always do more,” June said. The issue was, Carter could arrive at any minute. “We should figure out our hiding places first.” The girls saluted her and walked out of the room. June took a moment to kneel down and search for the rifle under the bed. She felt its cold barrel on her hand and felt around to make sure. It was extra important that it stayed well out of Carter’s reach.

She rushed back downstairs and July showed her the hiding places they had come up with. Two of them were in the kitchen: one spot behind the island, and one under the dining table. The table cloth was pulled further down on the side facing the front door. She and June decided to place a baking sheet at the edge of the table that someone could quickly knock over once Carter stepped inside. The third hiding place was the guest room. The door was left slightly ajar, with the plan being to ambush Carter if he went past it. Without too many options left, the girls went through the living room for a fourth place. They eventually settled on using an armchair as a wall, though it wasn’t the most secure place to hide. June claimed this spot, assuming Carter would check the kitchen first after hearing the baking sheet fall. She stuffed a blanket under the chair’s legs to keep her own legs hidden.

Bri volunteered to kneel by a window and wait for Carter to arrive. “He drives a gray Nissan,” June told her. The street wasn’t especially active late at night, so it was likely to be the first car she saw.

With the time they had left, they made a mess of the living room. They knocked over furniture, tossed the contents of cabinets on the floor, and Caro had the idea to grab some of the plants and throw their soil down. Caro and July went into the kitchen to repeat the same process, and June took Bri’s place at the window. Bri went into the guest room to hide.

June turned off the lights in the living room and told July and Caro to shut off the kitchen lights once they were done. She only barely pushed the blinds open, in case Carter decided to look this way while he drove. The light coming from the kitchen shut off.

It wasn’t too much of a wait before she heard a car approaching her limited view of the street. Sure enough, it was Carter, alone on the road, probably blasting more Lady Gaga behind the windows. “EVERYONE GET READY!” she yelled. She watched him slam the car door and walk up the first few steps. At that point she ducked away from the curtains and made for the space behind the armchair.

The front door creaked open. “June, I—” The baking sheet hit the floor. Carter abruptly quieted, and June watched him take in the state of the house. How were they going to do it? June wondered. Would they rush him while he was out in the open? Would they try to sneak up on him when he went further inside the house?

Carter took a step to the side, blocking the light from the still-open door. He knelt down and quietly pulled the welcome mat aside, all while scanning the room with his eyes. June leaned in as he pulled out one of the floorboards and took something from the gap. Gleaming in the faint, distant streetlight was a pistol. Something squirmed in June’s stomach. In all their time living under the same roof, he had never mentioned owning a second gun.

She started to reach for her phone, but she hesitated. Would Carter actually shoot them? He’d said many times that he never wanted to use his rifle. And he would never hurt anyone. He was Carter, friend to spiders, ladybugs, and smart-mouthed douchebags alike. Still, the way he held it, the way he moved. There was a level of confidence and precision in him that she wasn’t used to. June decided that she would call out to him if she got too worried.

Carter took heavy, deliberate steps forward, continually looking from side to side. June recoiled every time he looked her way. The hardness of his gaze sent a tingling sensation down her spine—and through the rest of her body. Her breaths stuttered, her body felt warm; she had to wipe her palms on her jeans to dry them.

    He closed in on the kitchen. June clutched at the fabric on the armchair and tightened her grip. Maybe it was too risky to let him keep going. Her legs twitched. Maybe, she should call out his name to get his attention. There was an oddly comforting void in her gut. No—a disturbing void. She ground her teeth together as she was overtaken by the heat blowing into the room.

    He disappeared through the kitchen’s entrance. June slammed both of her hands into her face. What was she doing? She had to do something to protect them. June breathed a long, jagged sigh and stood up. It was time to call this off—

    A shot rang out from the kitchen. And something dropped to the floor. June felt her ears ringing. The whole house was ringing. Bri threw the guest room door open and thundered across the living room. 

    “Carter!” June staggered away from her hiding place, reaching for the nearest light switch. She had to shield her eyes as she stepped through the mess she helped create. Carter appeared outside the kitchen, eyes wide. His baggy pants were bloodstained and he kept a death grip on his pistol. June pushed past him and turned on the kitchen’s lights.

    July and Bri knelt next to Caro. They pulled up her hoodie to reveal a bullet hole in her side, leaking a pool of blood onto the floor. Caro stared at the ceiling like she’d seen a ghost.

    “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,” Bri repeated it over and over. 

July fumbled with her phone, trying to call 911. Every tap on the screen sounded like it would crack it. She struggled to form a single coherent word.

    June slowly turned and faced Carter. He looked like he’d just been forced out of a dream. His hands twitched and his mouth hung open. He met June’s gaze and gradually came back to reality.

June couldn’t believe it. Just for a moment, he looked like the man she remembered. They stared at each other as an overwhelming itch came over June’s body.

She charged towards him and threw her arms around him, squeezing like she wanted to crush the life out of him. She kissed him on the lips, and then every other part of his face. He put two uncertain hands around her back. 

July whimpered behind them. “M-my friend is—she’s on the floor. She was shot just below her ribs. She’s bleeding—she’s gonna bleed out.”

June pushed Carter against the wall and began to peel off his jacket. “June,” he tried to speak, but she put a finger over his lips as she brought her mouth to his neck. She forced him down until he fell onto the hard floor, knocking over the trash can. She got on top of him and put a hand down his pants. His gun clattered to the floor and he pushed it aside.

“Yes, she’s—oh god! Caro, are you still there?”

“Relax, she’s not dead yet! Help me patch it up!”

June pulled off her tank top and threw it aside. Carter was still hesitating. She held his face with both of her hands. “Come on, I’m right here,” she said. He started to unzip her jeans, his eyes still wide from shock. She carried him to the knocked-over couch to get away from all the blood.