by Zara Rivas
"So," Laura said, finally taking a seat at the table with her plate. "It's a gorgeous day outside; I thought we could all go to the zoo today."
"The zoo?" Emily asked as if she had just suggested we go to the playground.
"Yes, the zoo. You guys used to love going there when you were kids,"
Emily put her fork on her plate, staring at her mom. "We aren't kids anymore, and now I'm old enough to see that the zoo is so barbaric-"
"The zoo sounds great," Charlotte cut her off, giving her a look before smiling at her mom.
"I'm in," Harper said, putting the apple to her mouth to take a bite of it.
I couldn't help but watch, thinking that her lips were even more delicious than these pancakes. God, I wished she was about to take a bite out of me instead of that apple. I was pretty sure I would taste better, at least I hope I would taste-
"Carter? Did you hear me?" Laura asked, ripping me from my glorious thoughts.
I cleared my throat, realizing four different pairs of eyes were on me, waiting and watching. "Uh, sorry, what did you say?"
Laura gave me a soft smile. "I was asking if you were up for a trip to the zoo."
"That sounds great," I told her, trying to keep my eyes on hers for as long as I could before I felt them fall back on Harper.
"I'm going to take a shower then," Harper said, taking another bite out of her apple.
I tried not to groan out loud. Was Harper trying to kill me here? I watched her walk out of the kitchen, knowing it was going to take a hell of an effort to keep my mind from following her up there.
It took me forever to eat the pancakes, but that was okay, I had to stall for time before I went up to Harper's room anyway. Plus, if Laura saw there was food left on my plate, she absolutely knew that something was up with me. Food was never left on my plate.
As I walked up to Harper's door, I glanced behind me to make sure I wasn't going to be caught again before I tapped lightly against it.
"Come in," she called out, and for some reason, my heart started to race.
I opened her door and walked in. She glanced up at me, clearly surprised that it was me walking into her room.
"Hey," she smiled at me.
I walked up to her, and even though her hair was a wet mess, and she didn't have a drop of makeup on, she stole the breath right out of my lungs. I couldn't get over how beautiful she was.
"What's up?" She asked slowly, giving me a look.
She was probably wondering why I was standing there, gawking at her. If she asked, the answer would've been really simple.
How could I not?
I cleared my throat. "I um, know that we are going to the zoo with your family, but can we do something tonight?"
"Like last night?"
"Or like a date," I said, and there was instantly a look in her eyes. I couldn't read them, even though I wished I could. Badly.
She bites her lip, and I knew she was stalling for time. Stalling for time usually wasn't a good thing.
"In case you lost track, this is the second time I'm asking you out," I reminded her, giving her my most charming smile. "And I'm going keep asking you out until you say yes."
Her lips spread into a smile, and I felt myself exhale, even though I wasn't aware I had been holding my breath. "I'm going to the movies with Emily."
"Right, of course. I mean, you came home to see your family after all. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have…" I let my voice trail off when she took a step closer to me.
"I don't want you to think I don't want to, cause I do."
And just like that, those words made my disappointment vanish. "Yeah?" I grinned at her.
She shrugged. "I guess you could say that," she said, giving me a flirty smile.
I couldn't take it any longer. I pulled her into my arms, kissing her deeply, running my fingers through her wet hair.
She tasted like apples.
"That was such a predictable ending," Charlotte complained as the ending credits appeared on her TV.
"And the chick flicks you watch don't ever have those?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
"We should've gone to the movie with Emily and Harper," she continued, ignoring my point because she knew I was right.
"Yeah, well, you wouldn't have been able to text Noah the entire time then."
She broke into a smile at the mention of his name. "I have not been texting him the entire time."
I snorted a laugh. "Right."
She shook her head at me, her short hair falling in her face. "You just don't get it; you've never been in love."
That wasn't the first time she's said that to me, but it was the first time it hurt. Almost like a kick to my stomach, the kind where it takes away your breath for a second.
"You don't think I'm capable of loving someone?"
She narrowed her eyebrows at me. "Uh no, that's not what I said-"
"Then what are you saying?"
"I just said that you've never been in love, which is the truth. I mean, look at your track record-"
"What about my track record?" I interrupted her, stunned to hear how harsh my tone was.
She stood up off the bed, placing a hand on her hip. "Carter, why are you getting so defensive?"
"Because you're pretty much telling me that I'm only capable of hooking up, not being in a real relationship."
She walked over to me and stood on her tiptoes, reaching her hand up to my forehead. "Are you sick or something? You are overreacting. I never said that."
"But you think it, don't you?" I asked, not sure if I wanted her to answer or not.
"Do I think you can commit to a serious relationship?" She asked me, and I nodded. "I don't know," she answered slowly and with caution. "I mean, you never have before-"
"So now I never get the chance to?"
She placed both hands on her hips, which I knew meant I was reaching my limit. One hand was okay, but when a female placed both their hands on their hips, you were reaching a danger zone.
"Will you let me finish my sentences for crying out loud! You are acting crazy over a hypothetic situation…" She looked me over. "Are all these questions hypothetically? Or is there some girl?"
It was a perfect opening, a perfect chance to tell her. But, I never had a chance to tell her the truth, or even a lie, because right then, Harper walked in.
Tension.
That's what the room felt like when I walked inside. It was practically radiating off of Carter and Charlotte. I'm not talking about the delicious sexual tension-type, the kind that seems to fill up the air whenever Carter and I are in the same room, rather the kind that made me feel like I was walking in the mid-fight, and had made me immediately regret not knocking on the door first. It made me regret coming to her room altogether.
"I'm sorry," I muttered when their eyes fell on me. "I didn't mean to intrude."
"You didn't," they said in unison. They glanced at each other, and I had the feeling if they were ready to bite each other's head off, they might have laughed.
"I uh, I was just leaving," Carter said, moving his gaze between Charlotte and me.
As he walked across the room and out the door, there was a huge part of me that wanted to follow him to see what had happened, to make sure he was okay. By the way, his eyes were burning into mine; I knew that's what he wanted me to do.
However, Charlotte was looking equally as upset, and I knew in my heart that it was my sisterly duty to stay behind and talk to her first. Her eyes were on mine, and my heart started to race when I thought I saw a flicker of suspicion in them. Oh god. Carter didn't tell her about it…whatever it was we were doing, did he?
I was just about to freak out when the logical side of my brain reminded me that he would've warned me first. He definitely would've warned me.
"Sorry, I should've knocked," I said finally, trying to air out the awful feeling of the room.
Her facial expression softens and right away, I felt relieved. "You don't have anything to be sorry
about. We probably should both be thanking you if you hadn't walked in when you did, who knows what we would have said to each other. Things we didn't mean."
"What was going on?" I tried to manage the level of concern in my voice. I wanted to sound like I cared, but that I wasn't bursting at the seams like I currently was.
She rolled her eyes. "I don't even know. It was just Carter being Carter when something has temporary climbed up his butt."
"Oh. He looked really upset, though," I said, the hurt in his eyes still haunts me.
"He'll be fine in about thirty minutes, probably after he gets something in his stomach. Trust me, I know him better than anyone."
And just like that, I didn't feel the tension that had once been in the room. Instead, there was a new feeling pressing so hard against me; I wanted to scream.
Jealousy.
I have been jealous of Charlotte before, mainly for how she always knew what she wanted in life, how intelligent she was, and for how effortlessly she made mom and dad proud. However, I had never been jealous of Charlotte over a boy until this very second.
I never forgot that Carter and Charlotte were best friends, but I never really thought about what exactly that meant until Charlotte muttered those words. She was right. She did know Carter better than anyone else, probably more than he did even.
They had an endless amount of insides jokes, she knew what he was going to do before he did it, and I swear sometimes they could read each other's minds. And even though they had always been nothing more than platonic, how in the world could I compete with that? It would take years to know him at a level she did if it was even possible.
Right when I was wondering how I would be able to stand here and talk to her when I was sure my skin was about to turn green, when her phone went off. The bell saved her. She walked over to pick it up off her bedside table, and by the smile on her face, I didn't have to ask who it was.
"Hey, Noah," she said in a sweet voice, shooting me a look that told me to leave her room.
She didn't have to ask me twice. I pulled open her door and walked into the hallway, surprised to see Carter standing there. I took in his grey T-shirt that clung to his muscles, dark, worn-out jeans, and couldn't stop my heart from speeding up, even if I were to try.
"Hey, is everything okay?" I asked him.
He smiled softly at my concern. "Yeah, I think I just acted like a complete ass, and I was going to apologize to her."
"Well, that's a first."
He gave me a smirk and took a step closer to me. "Or maybe I've just had a good influence." His voice was low and sexy, and goosebumps instantly covered my skin.
"I…" I opened my mouth, trying to fire back something equally as flirty, but the hallway light hit him just right, and I fell into those eyes of him. Those green eyes splashed with a golden brown. Damn, those eyes were a weapon.
His smirk grew, knowing he had me right where he wanted me. However, his smile faded when I took a step closer to him, catching him off guard. I ran my finger down his chest, down his stomach until I reached the hem of his shirt. I could feel him shiver under my touch, and I knew I now had him where I wanted him. I tugged on the end of his shirt, trying to pull him towards my bedroom.
"Let's go watch a movie."
I could see the want in his eyes as they locked onto mine, but then he cleared his throat and looked towards Charlotte's door.
"I should apologize first," he said softly.
I nodded. "Well, you know where to find me."
Not even five minutes after I left Carter in the hallway, there was a light tapping on the door. I was sitting on my bed with my knees pulled up to my chest as I applied a layer of light pink nail polish to my toes.
"Come in," I called out, fully expecting Emily to open the door and walk-in.
I saw a flash of a grey shirt out of the corner of my eyes, causing me to smear polish across my skin, completely missing my nail. "Damn," I muttered, trying to wipe it away with my thumb. I looked up to find Carter locking my door, staring at me with amusement.
"That was fast," I told him.
"Yeah, well, what can I say? I know how to charm all the women in the Jones' family," he told me with a grin.
I rolled my eyes at him, trying not to smile. "Or so you think."
He laughed, running a hand through his hair. "Or maybe Char was so anxious to get back to fighting with Noah about who was missing who more, that she gave me a hug and shoved me out the door."
I laughed as well. "That sounds about right."
He cleared his throat, shifting his weight from one foot to another. "So, um, do I?"
I closed the bottle of nail polish, blowing at my toes for a second before I answered Carter. "Do you what?"
"Charm all the women in your family."
My heart rattled in my chest, and I let out a short breath, trying to steady my voice. "How do I know, I'm only 1/4th of that equation," I told him with a shrug.
He chuckled. "Well, isn't today my lucky day, cause that's the only part I'm interested in knowing."
My face started to heat up, so I quickly looked away from him so he wouldn't see me blush. I was pretty sure he did, and I also knew that my lack of answering was an answer in itself.
I felt the mattress move under Carter's weight as he sat down next to me on the bed. I finally made myself look over at him, and the look on his face told me he was about to say something that would be utterly irresistible. I couldn't take that right now, so I decided to speak up first.
"What was the fight about?"
His eyebrows narrowed in confusion. I knew he was probably wondering why I was picking this very moment to ask. "Uh, it was nothing. I think I was probably just hungry."
I felt another wave of jealousy when he said that. Charlotte had been completely right. "Oh."
He eyed me over. "You look disappointed. Were you hoping for details about how we pulled each other's hair and gave back our best friend necklaces?"
I couldn't help but laugh at the mental image. "Do you have best friend necklaces? Cause I'd love to see that."
"Oh yeah," he said sarcastically. "You know, the kind that when you put them next to each other, it forms a flower."
I laughed even harder, falling against the bed on my back. How in the world did he even know about that? "There's your mistake. It should never be a flower; it should always form a heart."
"Yeah, well, you could've told me this sooner. That was probably what started the fight."
I laughed even harder, the jealousy feeling I had melting away as I did so. He looked down at me and smiled, seeming proud he was the cause of my giggle fits. When I finally gained my composer, he let out a small sigh, leaning down to bring his lips to mine. My eyes closed with anticipation when a knock on the door caused them to fly open.
"Harper? Are you there in?" My dad's voice.
I sat up straight. "Shit," I whispered loudly, looking at Carter. "You have to hide."
"You can not be serious-"
I gave him a look that showed him I meant business. "Carter, trust me. Go into my bathroom and shut the door."
"Harper?" My dad's voice again.
"I'm coming," I told him.
Carter grinned and me and opened his mouth, most likely to make some perverted comment, so I slapped him on his arm before pushing him into the bathroom.
I walked to my door, unlocking it before I pulled it open. Dad's blue eyes glanced around his room as if he expected to see someone in here.
"Where are you talking to someone? I thought I heard you laughing."
"On the phone," I lied. "What's going on? Shouldn't you be in bed?"
He gestured down at his blue flannel pajamas. "I should be, I just wanted to talk to you for a second."
I sat down on my bed and looked up at him. The fact that he looked nervous was making me nervous.
"I… your mom hinted I might have hurt your feelings yesterday at breakfast. I just wanted to apologize if I did."
; I guess it was a night for apologizes. "You didn't," I told him, even though that wasn't exactly the truth.
He looked relieved. "I'm glad. I was trying to make you realize that even though you feel you have all the time in the world, the longer you wait, the longer it will take you to complete the courses once you decide on a major."