Penny and I tried to follow Carrie home, but after driving up and down the path we thought she'd took, we gave up and went back home. I read through Penny's messages during the drive, a few of which were screenshots of messages Carrie had sent her earlier. As it turned out, Carrie had been surprisingly forward with her about her feelings towards us, but she couldn't build up the courage to ask me in person, so she asked if Penny could help her if she said yes.

"I'm such an idiot." I groaned as Penny pulled into my driveway.

"Hey," Penny said, "don't think like that. You didn't know. It was a small mistake."

"So small our friend is out there in the cold freezing to death."

She squeezed my shoulder, "It'll be ok. She'll turn up."

I hoped so. I'd been so confused and worried about what I'd done that I threw Carrie straight into a panic attack, making her think we both were rejecting her, and I was just trying to be nice about it. I'd never seen her like that. She was usually so guarded, uncaring, and unbreakable. She had to have been devastated when she thought we hated her, after making herself so vulnerable to Penny. I had never realized she felt that way.

I must have sent dozens of apologizes, "are you ok's" and "where are you's" while we were looking for her, I thought she was only ignoring them, but when I got back in my room I discovered the one thing she'd left on my bed: her phone.

Even if she wanted to talk to us, she couldn't.

Penny and I said goodbye, and she told me we'd figure everything out in the morning: where Carrie was and how to fix this. She tried to be optimistic, but after a day filled with a bunch of news anchors asking the same questions, she was exhausted, and her act wasn't very optimistic. Getting rid of the Tweakers seemed like an easier task than fixing all this. But we had to try.

I headed inside, and for once all week, I didn't come home to a worried mother. She'd taken a double shift and was back at work in the evening. Dad was still sawing logs on the couch, undisturbed by all the noise we had made, and Darwin was upstairs in our room playing a game. He turned away from the computer when he heard me come in.

"What was that all about?" He asked me.

"Carrie ran off."

"Is that why all our blankets are tied up like a rope?"

Carrie's escape route laid on the floor. Before we left, we pulled it in and threw it onto the floor without untying it. I sat down and started undoing the knots.

"What happened?" Darwin asked.

"Something happened at home." I lied, "She didn't tell me what."

"And she didn't want to take the door?"

"Guess so."

"There isn't anything happening between you two, is there?"

I looked up from the knot I was working on, "Absolutely nothing."

"You sure? You two were pretty close together in bed earlier."

"Just two friends, taking a nap."

"…" He looked away from me and shut off the computer, "I know I've been pretty hard on her the last few days. I'm sorry if you felt like you had to hide whatever was going on from me."

I went back to untying our sheets.

"I was joking about her being the killer the other day, but I almost convinced myself that was true yesterday. I think that's why we're been arguing so much over the last couple of days. She felt like I was attacking her."

The last knot went undone, now I just had to straighten them out.

Darwin got up from his chair and walked over to me, "I'd like to set things right. For you, and for Carrie. I know I've never been 'well-behaved' when you're around girls. Maybe that's why I was so hostile. But I'm not one to judge if you wanna go fooling around with… Dude, are you ok?"

Tears had been forming in my eyes since he first mentioned Carrie, but I couldn't hold back for very long. I fell into the pile of blankets I had just undone, muffling a cry.

Darwin fell down on one knee, trying to calm me down as I sobbed. He kept asking me what was wrong, if it was something with Penny or Carrie, and what happened. I couldn't say anything. Anything I did say came out delirious and unintelligible. When he realized I couldn't answer him, he wrapped his arms around me and told me everything would be ok while patting my back.

Eventually I calmed down, and pulled away from him and rested my head on the blankets I had just soaked in tears. We both sat in silence for a while, occasionally pulling out our phones to check something or message someone. I told Penny goodnight, I sent a message in vain to Carrie, and scrolled through old pictures of Carrie and I from years ago, before we drifted apart after middle school. We used to be so close, but after freshman year, she spent more time around other kids she knew — and Tobias. But halfway through sophmore year, she came back into my life, and into Penny's as well. I wonder how long she had felt that way about us.

Darwin pulled some pillows off the bunks and threw them on the floor, laying down next to me as I stared at a picture of Carrie and I together in her room. She was holding an empty bottle like she had downed it herself, and I had tried to look like I was impressed. I felt both embarrassment, and longing for those days.

I put my phone and told Darwin what happened. He seemed a little confused about the group thing, and I honesty didn't know everything about it either, but he started to understand it more as I explained why Carrie left.

"Do you and Penny feel the same way dude?" He asked me.

I shrugged, "I don't know. We didn't really talk about it. I'm not sure how I or Penny would feel about that. But I don't think we would have been as hard on Carrie as she thought we were."

He nodded, "You're a pretty understanding guy, Gumball. This was all just a big misunderstanding. I'm sure after you explain that to Carrie, this'll all go away and we can go back to being friends."

I had been staring at the ceiling, but my eyes quickly darted to Darwin, "We?"

"I said I wanted to make things better between the two of us, didn't I?"

A smile broke out on my face. Darwin wasn't always the brightest, but he had his moments. He was more than I could ever ask for in a brother: understanding, compassionate, and one of my closest friends. It felt bad putting him through so much worry and keeping secrets from him.

Darwin got up and turned out the lights, and grabbed one of the blankets we were laying on and pulled it over himself. Neither of us wanted to put all of the sheets and blankets back on either bunk, so we decided to just sleep on the floor tonight.

Darwin told me goodnight and turned away from me, but I knew I wouldn't be asleep for a while. I thought about sneaking out and going to look for Carrie, but I knew if I did I wouldn't get back before anyone woke up, or I might not be back at all. Something needed to be done before this day was truly done though. I sat up suddenly and Darwin turned back towards me.

"What's up?" He asked me.

"Darwin, can you keep a secret?"

End of Part 1

All reviews are read and appreciated. Thank you for supporting the story.