"Is this about leaving you? I... I thought you were okay with us breaking apart." Jamie managed to whisper.
"Breaking apart? Breaking up? Whatever, what do I care. You never meant anything to me." She said hurting him further.
It was painful but he had grown a little bit deeper into this type of treatment. That day when he had walked in on her with Austin, they had been so engrossed with each other that they had not noticed him enter. It was not the first time she had been caught with a man but it certainly was the first time he had seen her in the actual act. When she had noticed him standing there at the entrance, she glared at him.
"Are you going to keep watching or start wanking?" She demanded.
"Carrie?" He simply muttered.
"Or he could join us." Austin had said.
"You're unbelievable." Jamie had managed before turning away to leave.
"Now, you stand right there." Carrie had said to him but he ran away.
He sent her a text message saying he was done with the relationship afterwards and drowned himself playing the game until it was way past midnight. The next day, he returned to school but it would turn out to be that with his break up came a sudden pull of his protective shield. Carrie had successfully restored him to his former life of bullying and worse. He could not understand how easily she could make all his pain returned that he nearly started contemplating against his decision to dump her.
He had been at work one day after a good tongue lashing from his boss when Carrie arrived with her new boyfriend and it was not Austin. This begged the question of who Austin was to her as everyone knew he was dating the cheerleader's squad deputy and one of Carrie's friends. The new guy was the football captain and he had never been nice to him.
"Hey, diner boy, can we have some drinks here?" He had suddenly called out to Jamie.
Jamie could have dodged easily but just then, he met with his boss glaring at him and he sure was not seeking for strike two that day. He grabbed the order board and strode across to them.
"Erm, what do you want?" Jamie had demanded.
They called out their orders and then he went to fetch it. He had just been retuning with the tray when someone tripped him and he fell right into a customer. The entire content splashing on her clothes as she screamed. Jamie had fallen to the ground and quickly rose up as he pleaded.
"I'm so sorry, ma'am. I'm so sorry." He was muttering as he took a piece of towel and tried to clean her in nervous frustration.
She suddenly raised her arm after looking down and dealt him a heavy slap across the face.
"How dare you?" She demanded.
He stood there like a beaten down puppy and then his manager surfaced.
"I'm really sorry ma'am." He said.
"Does it look like sorry would cut it?" She demanded and the man turned to glare at Jamie.
"That's it boy, strike two. You're out." His manager said and Jamie fell on his knees pleading for his job.
He sure as hell could not lose it now as he was only a couple of months from completing college. But his manager's mind was made up and that was his code. Jamie eventually had to pick himself up and leave the restaurant solemnly.
He was walking outside when he heard the door open and the chattering. It was Carrie and her bullies and they came towards him.
"Hey!!!" Carrie called out to him.
"Leave me alone." Jamie said.
"Wait, did the dog just bark?" Carrie's new boyfriend asked and they started laughing loudly.
They walked up to him and one of the boys tried to grab him when he pulled away.
"Leave me alone!!! What do you want from me?!!!" He demanded angrily.
The so called boyfriend had come up close and grabbed him by the collar as he punched him right to the face.
"How dare you raise your voice at us, eh? You got a death wish or something?" He demanded while a dejected Jamie tried to hold it all in.
He was already crying at the time.
"Ohhhh, I told you he was a big baby. He's crying." Carrie said.
They all started laughing at him as the boyfriend let go of his collar.
"Woah!!! How did you deal with him?" He asked Carrie.
"Same as I deal with babies." She responded and her boyfriend laughed loudly.
"Hey, is everything alright here?" A man had asked as he pulled up suddenly and Carrie went to hug Jamie.
"Yes, my little brother is just hurt." She said patting him.
The man drove away and although he stood there dejectedly as she hugged him, he managed to whisper.
"What do you want from me?" He asked nearly pleading.
She broke the hug and straightened out as she faced him.
"You see, I only want to help you." She said.
"By costing me my job?" Jamie asked.
"No, you just need to aid Micheal here and the rest of the boys to break entry somewhere. No one would suspect you." She had said.
"That's all?" Jamie asked her.
"That's all." She said and started leading him away and around to the place.
It was where a local money remittance service was being held and all he needed do was pose a distraction. Jamie had been told all he had to do.
"I'm warning you, Jamie. No funny business or I'll sting." Carrie warned.
He agreed but the minute he got there, he wondered why his should be helping her after all she had done to him. He got to the woman and spoke to her.
"Ma'am, can you help me please?" He asked her.
"Jesus Christ, child!!! What happened to you?" The woman asked.
"They're some people out there and they want to rob you." He said.
"What?" The woman whispered.
"I'll pretend, you play along while you dial 911." He said as he shadowed the woman.
She started dialing the emergency number and gave all the details while pretending to check something underneath her counter. Micheal and the rest entered the place bearing arms as they started their robbery while Carrie waited in the car.
It was the sound of the cops car approaching that gave her time to escape. She went off leaving the rest of them at the mercy of the cops. He was released eventually and when he returned to school, she did not speak anything about it or threaten him that he assumed she had forgotten.
It was just a week to the final exams that this was happening to him.
"Remember now?" She asked him.
"This is about that night?" He managed.
"Ding dong!!! Someone's thinking finally. Yes it is and you know why you get to pay for this with your life?" She asked him.
"No..." He managed.
"Because yesterday, Micheal died in jail." She said and nodded to Austin who came and stood in front of him.
Before Jamie could plead, he felt the searing pain of the knife going through his chest.