Carter sat on the couch in the Hanson living room with her feet up on the coffee table and a book on her lap. She wore a pair of short, freyed, demin shorts and a long sleeved black t-shirt. The front was studded with the word "punk". On her left arm she wore a black coil bracelet, stretched all the way up her arm. She turned the page of her book, studying for her last physics test. One more test and she would be finished
Zac turned around on his chair in the dining room and faced Carter. "So why are you sitting in there again?"
"Because if I sit with him I'll end up with my face glued to the table."
"Oh. That's a good reason." He nodded and went back to his test.
Taylor chuckled and continued to scribble the answers to his test on a piece of paper.
"Eh shut up." Carter muttered. "You know you just secretly want to have sex with me."
"No. That would be my brother." Taylor rolled his eyes and continued to write, trying a little too hard to be cool, and knowing it would backfire.
Carter paused and looked to her left at Melissa, and then to Zac, and then to Taylor. "You secretly want to have sex with your brother?"
Taylor's head shot up and Zac and Melissa fought back laughter, wanting desperately to stay out of the 18 year feud. "What?" He thought for a moment... "DAMMIT NO!"
Carter chuckled this time and turned the page in her book.
Taylor blushed wildly and fought desperately for the perfect comeback. "Yeah well, you're the one that secretly wants to have sex with me."
Carter rolled her eyes and didn't bother to look up at him. "Tay, just because your hot doesn't mean the whole world wants to have sex with you."
Taylor looked down, blushing, and Zac looked up. "You think he's hot?"
Carter searched for the answer to that question. Of course he was hot. That was no big secret. Unfortunately, there was no right answer to the question. Humor, She thought to herself. Humor was the answer to everything with Carter. "Well, yeah." She smiled at Zac. "But it's different. See, the world could revolve around your hotness, Zac. But with Taylor it's more like, you walk down the street, see him, and say, "Gosh he's purdy."
Melissa tried to fight back her laughter again. She looked up to see Taylor glaring at Carter. Melissa couldn't hold it any longer. She cracked up and dropped her book on the floor. Taylor turned his glare to her and she blushed. "Sorry, Tay. You have to admit, that was pretty damn funny."
"No, it was stupid." He mumbled and looked down at his paper.
Carter laughed and jumped up. She ran over to Taylor and threw her arms around him, plopping herself down onto his lap. "Awww. Poor Taylor broke his ego. You know I love you, Tay. I love you so much I just want to hug you and kiss you and squeeze the loser right out of you." She leaned her head over and burried it in his hair, making kissing noises.
Taylor grunted and repositioned himself, shifting his weight so that Carter wound up on the floor. "Ouch." She laughed to herself and then sat at the dining room table next to Zac. She reached to her left and took his hand, holding it in her own. Sometimes she just felt the need to do that, like being more than 20 feet away from him made her heart hurt. Most of the time she ignored the feeling because it made her feel stupid, but sometimse she just grabbed Zac's hand and she felt ok again.
Zac, of course, never minded. He smiled and squeezed her hand lightly.
"So, Tay, what's up with you and Nique?" She smiled and turned around to Melissa, winking, to let her know shew as just kidding. She knew how much her sister cared for Taylor.
"Nothing. Now shut up, taking a test."
"I'm just kidding. She wants you bad though. I'm surprised you didn't let her have you when I trapped you in her living room with her."
He put down his pencil. "You wanna know why I don't want her?"
"Please, enlighten us."
"There's two reasons actually. The first is that she's a rich snob. I don't know how she and Jade come from the same blood, but it's insane. And she brags about it. When we were... somewhat of an item... she'd offer me money. It was like I was rent-a-friend or something. I was afraid she'd sneeze one day and money would shoot out of her gold dipped ass and hit me in the face."
Melissa laughed loudly from the living room and pretended continue reading her book.
"Then one night she never came over and I was actually worried but I convinced myself she was probably out having her shit bronzed or something."
After he said this, Carter, Zac, and Melissa burst into fits of laughter. They'd never heard Taylor be so funny before. It was a huge change of pace.
"So that's why you and she broke up?"
"Basically. We were never really together though."
"Oh." Carter sat there for a minute, watching him answer several questions wrong on his test. "Wait, what was the second reason? You said there were two reasons that you would never go for her. What's the other one?"
He blushed. "That's not really important."
Carter looked at Zac and smiled. "Oh come on, tell us. What's the other reason? Secretly in love with man?"
"No." He grunted. "There's no reason. Geez. Forget about it."
Carter shrugged. "Fine."
Taylor tapped his pencil on the table, knowing that Carter was purposely trying to get it out of him by staying silent and staring at him. Finally, he couldn't take it any longer. "FINE! DAMMIT! IT'S MELI!"
"Huh?" Carter asked and she looked over at Melissa. Taylor definitely had Meli's attention now.
"It's all her. I'm in love with Meli. That's why I got off of the couch and came home even when Nique was laying on top of me with her.... all hanging out. I'm in love with Meli." He blushed wildly and looked over at Melissa. Her eyes were wide and she looked stunned.
Taylor stood up and walked over to the couch. Without stopping or thinking, he leaned over and kissed her on the lips.
Carter's eyes widened and she looked at Zac. He shrugged and smiled.
Taylor sat down on the couch next to Melissa and stared into her eyes. "I'm sorry I screwed things up with you but I... I meant what I said. I've been in love with you for a long time. I was just always too afraid to admit it. So I screwed everything up. I tried covering it up and getting over you because I knew you'd be going off to some big college far away and I wouldn't be... I didn't want to hold you back but I can't just keep pretending I don't care anymore. I'm sorry. Can you forgive me?"
Melissa fought back tears, hearing the words she'd been waiting to hear for years. Then, she threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly. "Of course I forgive you. " She grabbed her book from the coffee table and followed him back to the dining room table, sitting next to him for the first time in over a year. She held onto his hand and looked over at his paper. She smiled.
"They're all wrong, aren't they?" He asked, sighing.
"Yeah." She nodded and laughed, but Taylor no longer cared whether he passed of failed his stupid math test.
Carter
Hearts of Fate (Experience the wonder. DAMMIT READ IT!)
Carter Characters (pics)
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