Becoming Carter (The Carter Series) (Volume 2) by W. S. Greer

just stressed, and in a hurry, and trying to get this shit in order. Cut me some slack here.” I felt tension creeping up into my neck as I spoke.
    “Geez. What crawled up your vagina this morning? I’ll take care of it, okay?”
    “Don’t worry about it, Lex. I’ll call my aide and let her know. She’ll take care of it. Sorry I bothered you.” I hung up the phone and immediately dialed up my teacher’s aide, Kelly Butterfield, and told her I’d be late and to take over until I got there.
    After my quick conversation with Kelly, I sat down on the edge of my bed and covered my face with my hands. I didn’t mean to take all of my stress out on Lexy, and I knew that was exactly what I’d just done.
    Kelvin slipped on a pair of boxer briefs and came over and sat next to me, placing his hand on my knee. “You okay?”
    I uncovered my face and looked up at him as I exhaled loudly. “I don’t know, Babe. I feel so stressed out since the shit at Red Lobster. I’m just trying to get my bearings back. I need things to settle down. I need to settle down.”
    “I think you’re right. You need to just breathe. I told you, everything is gonna be fine. We still have some stuff to figure out, but we’ll figure it out. I promise. You need to just go to work, and let me take care of everything, okay? I have to hook up with James as soon as I leave here, and then I’ll talk to my uncles about what we’re gonna do. When I know what’s going on, I’ll let you know so you can stop worrying. Alright?”
    I leaned over and kissed Kelvin on the cheek. “Okay, Babe. Thank you.”
    He unleashed his flawless smile as he answered. “You know I got you.”
    Ten minutes later we were both dressed and rushing out the door. We both exited the house through the garage, and as soon as the door was up all the way, I looked down the street to see if the BMW was still there. It was gone, and I couldn’t get over the feeling that there was still something that I needed to be worried about when it came to that car. I didn’t have time to worry about it in this exact moment, however, so I turned my attention to Kelvin, who was buttoning up the jacket to the all-black suit he’d chosen to wear this morning.
    “Okay, Baby,” I said as I hugged him. “I’ll talk to you soon. Please find out what you can, okay?”
    “I will, Babe. Talk to you soon.”
    We kissed quickly, and I hurriedly jumped into my car and backed out of the garage faster than I normally would have. By the time I closed the garage door, Kelvin was already driving away in the Chrysler 300 I hadn’t seen before last night. I did a quick scan of the street, making sure there weren’t any BMW’s waiting for me to pull off so they could follow me, and then I stepped on the gas.
    When I arrived at the school, the parking lot was full, but there wasn’t even one person still outside. All of the students and teachers had already made their way in, and I was stuck by myself trying to figure out how I could walk past the office without being seen by the principal, even though I knew the school was equipped with cameras all over the place.
    I was just under half an hour late, and if I walked fast enough, I figured I could go unnoticed, which seemed to be exactly what happened, because I made it to my classroom safe and sound. When I walked in, I was surprised to see Lexy standing at the head of the class, while my aide, Kelly, passed out papers I’d graded yesterday. Lexy shot me a confused look when I rushed in and walked past her, tossing my purse onto my desk. While she glared at me, I turned my attention to Kelly.
    “Thanks, Kelly. I really appreciate it,” I said with a sincere expression. Then I turned to Lexy. “Hey, can I talk to you outside for a minute?”
    Lexy followed me into the hall and I closed the door to the class as we exited.
    “Listen, I really have to apologize for having a shitty attitude this morning. I didn’t mean to take my stress out on you.