Before reading this, make sure you take note that I've started a new story. It will probably be ten chapters long (one of my shortest) and I'm really proud of it so far. THANK YOU ALL for helping to get Carter up to 40 some thousand hits!
Zac held onto Carter's arm and helped her through his doorway. Diana walked behind them, carrying seven large bags of groceries, mostly soda, potato chips, and other various heavy foods. She looked exhausted, but pleased that Carter was going to be fine. As much as she never said it, she thought of her like a daughter. Sure, Melissa was easier to handle, but Carter made her laugh and her son was never happier than he was when he was with her.
Carter stepped inside and grinned when she saw everybody sitting around in Zac's living room, smiling back at her. "Hey girl!" Jade jumped up and hugged her. Carter was glad they were friends again.
"Hey. How long has everybody been here? We would have been here sooner but we needed rations!" She motioned toward Diana who was dumping bags of junk food onto the dining room table.
Carter looked around at everybody and talked to them for a few minutes. Everybody was there, Isaac, Zac, Melissa, Abbie, Todd, Bianca, Tanis, Jade, Carter's dad, Beth, and several other people that Carter didn't even know. She paused, grinned, and turned to Jade. "Taylor?" She asked, almost in code.
"Don't worry. He's all covered."
"Good. That'll show him not to lock me in a closet."
Melissa and Tanis walked over to Carter and Jade. Melissa looked around the room. "And that'll teach him to piss me off."
"And me." Tanis smiled at Melissa. "So we're cool, right?" She asked. The night before Tanis had called Melissa and apologized to her for what had happened. The two of them came to the conclusion that neither was to blame and that Taylor was just a dickhead.
Isaac sighed and leaned back against the couch with his arm around Beth. Apparently he had forgiven her. "Can't you guys just be normal?"
"Being normal is not necessarily a virtue. It rather denotes a lack of courage." Carter quoted Practical Magic. "Besides, Taylor deserves what he has coming to him. The most horrible punishment of all time."
Zac looked at her nervously, overhearing the conversation. "You... what did you do to my brother?"
"Nothing." She smiled and nervously, Zac noticed that Nique was nowhere to be seen either.
Taylor sat on the couch in Nique's living room, looking around nervously, biting his bottom lip. The room was decorated elaborately, complete with food and a huge banner that said, "Welcome Home Carter." Nique was sitting across from him in an armchair, her legs crossed, and her eyes narrow. She was wearing a long, red skirt with a black tube top that showed off her newly pierced naval. Her hair was pulled back into an elaborate twist and she was wearing more makeup than Christina Aguilera at an awards ceremony.***
"When did you say they'd be coming?" He asked, quietly, glancing out the window.
"I'm not sure. Carter planned the whole party. She thought it would be neat to have it here." But the truth was, it was almost her idea. Carter came to her out of desperation, trying to find a way to continue the eternal prank war. Nique suggested a fake party where Taylor would be trapped in a room with blood sucking leeches. She was kidding, obviously, but Carter figured the next best thing to a blood sucking leech was Nique, herself.
He looked down at his watch and yawned, trying to keep his eyes open. He hadn't slept the night before. He wasn't sure why, but he thought he heard menacing voices coming through his walkie talkie. Strange. The menacing voices sounded a lot like Meli and Tanis. "So uhm... how are you?" He asked, finally making eye contact with her. He was suddenly aware that she'd been staring at him the whole time. He wasn't sure, but he thought she saw her lick her lips.
"I'm great. How are you?" She asked, smiling.
"I'm uhm... yeah." He looked away again. Strange... there were a lot of cars parked in front of his house.
Nique slowly pushed herself away from her chair and walked across the room. She sat down next to Taylor and turned sideways so that she was facing him.
"Hi." He smiled nervously.
"Hey. I was just wondering... are the rumors true?"
"What rumors?"
"Are you single?"
"Nique, I'm single 98% of the time. But yeah, apparently I'm single now." He grumbled.
Nique smiled and before he had the chance to react, wrapped her arms around him. She pressed her lips against him and kissed him as passionately as he'd ever been kissed before... forced of course.
Taylor returned her kiss for a moment before pushing her away. "What are you doing?"
"Nothing."
"Ok, I've had nothing before. that was not nothing. That was definely something."
"You want more?" She asked, leaning towards him again.
Taylor flinched and backed away. Unfortunately he made the stupid move of backing away so far that he ended up laying down on the couch. Nique took this oppourtunity to throw herself on top of him and shower him with kisses.
He would have moved but he couldn't. The only thing he knew to do was throw her off of him but he didn't have the guts to do that. Finally, she stopped and leaned up a bit, still laying on top of him. "See, you and me, we never should have broken up..."
"We were never together."
"Well, not officially. But we had some great times. Dontcha think?" She smiled menacingly.
Taylor blushed wildly and stared into her eyes. "Nique... uhm... I have to get up now... and so do you."
"Why?"
"Because your shirt is no longer covering the parts of your body that it was intended to cover."
She looked down, yanked her tubetop up, and giggled. "Oops."
Carter yawned and leaned back against the couch. Everybody was sitting on the floor now watching a movie, or they were behind her house, swimming in the pool that had just been recently uncovered. She was still too weak to swim and she hated that feeling. She watched as Zac turned around from his position on the floor, glanced at her, reached behind the couch to grab a large present, and sat down next to her. She smiled at him, glancing at the large gift in his hand. "Hey."
"Hey." He dropped the large, flat, box into her lap. He blushed. She'd never seen him blush before. "Sorry about the black, it was all we had in the house."
"It's ok..." She took the present and looked down at him. "You didn't have to get me anything."
"Well, I actually got it for you a long time ago. I saw it on the internet and ordered it for you but I never found the time to give it to you. I was going to give it to you for your birthday but I found that necklace and I gave you that instead. If you don't like it... Well you can't take it back because I think it's one of a kind..."
She smiled and undid the paper to reveal a brown box that was a foot wide, two feet high, and 4 inches thick. "What is it?" She asked, feeling stupid afterward. She hated movies where a person would be two seconds away from opening a present and then ask, "What could it be?" "OPEN IT YOU DUMBASS!" She'd yell at the tv.
She opened the box and stared at its contents. She didn't know what to say. She looked up at him and then back down at the present. It was a large, dark green book with a triquetra embossed on the front. The book was at least 4 inches thick and was the exact replica of the book used on Charmed. It was a copy of the Book of Shadows. "Zac... how did you find this?"
"It was on some webpage... I guess one of the creaters of the show had an extra and they wanted to get rid of it. So I bought it." He smiled. "Open it up."
Carter opened to the first page, expecting it to be a blank book. It wasn't. On the first page were the words BOOK OF SHADOWS in script writing. "Oh my God..." It was the real book. "Oh my God." She repeated. She turned to the next page. It was the spell that the girls used to get their powers. "It's the real freaking thing..."
Zac smiled. "I had trouble hiding it from you. Did you know it was in the closet the whole time you were in there? I was terrified you were going to find it."
"You... this must have cost so much. You don't have the money for this."
"No. I didn't." He laughed. "I'm permanantly indebted to Isaac and Taylor. It's ok though, if anybody should have this, it's you..." He didn't have a chance to finish his speech before Carter threw her arms around him and kissed him, right in front of everybody. She hugged him then, and didn't let go for a long time.
"I love you so much." He whispered into her ear and she felt chills go up and down her spine.
"I love you, too." She finally let go of him and started flipping through the book. "It's the real damn thing." She repeated, everytime she came across a spell that was used on the show. When she opened to the page with a picture of Melinda Warren, she jumped.
The front door flew open and then slammed shut. Taylor came inside with lipstick smeared all over his face and his hair sticking straight up. "For this, you must die." He glared at Carter and she laughed, jumping off of the couch and ducking away from him.
"Ok! OK!" Diana came out of nowhere and held onto Taylor. "What's going on?"
"Carter left me alone in a room with Nique!"
Diana looked at Carter, then back at Taylor. She bit down on her lip when she noticed the lipstick on his face. Then, she laughed loudly, turned around, and indiscreetly hi-fived Carter as she walked out of the room.
*** This is NOT a diss to Christina. I absolutely ADORE her.
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