Zac sat indian-style in Carter's bedroom, three feet away from the giant gaping hole in her wall, holding a large pole. "Ok, so what are these for, exactly?"
Carter grabbed the pole from him and whacked him in the side with it. "It's to hold up the tent, retard. I can't believe you've never set up a tent before."
He shrugged and looked over at Taylor who was playing with the zipper of the tent. "I'm not the only one. Who's idea was this anyway?"
"Yours." Carter laughed and grabbed the tent from Taylor.
"Ok, but I didn't realize how depressing it would be to set up a tent in what used to be your bedroom."
"Yeah well, if Isaac and my dad had any mechanical know-how, it'd be fixed by now." Carter sighed. "Ok, Taylor, grab the pole and slide it through the little hole over there."
Taylor chuckled.
"Shut up! How old are you?!"
"You would have laughed if I had said something like that."
"Yeah." Carter laughed. "Ok, all jokes aside. Take the poles and run them through all of the rings on the sides of the tent. Then after you get the last one through, it should just stand up on its own."
"Right." Zac laughed and watched as Taylor slid the first pole through the rings. He grunted as the pole got stuck on one of the rings. After pulling it a few times, the ring broke and the pole snapped back and hit him in the face. "MOTHER FU..." He growled and rubbed his forehead.
"Smart. Very smart." Carter laughed and rolled her eyes. She gathered the rest of the polls and finished putting the tent together in just a few seconds. Then, she stretched out the fabric and positioned the tent so it was standing upright.
"Wow." Taylor nodded, very impressed. "You got it up faster than I ever could."
Zac chuckled and ducked when Carter and Taylor both took a swing at him. "Sorry! It was just so obvious!"
Carter unzipped the door to the tent and looked inside. She popped her head back out and made a face. "Zac... it smells like ass."
"Don't look at me. Taylor was supposed to air it out."
Taylor shrugged. "I didn't know how to air it out without actually setting it up. So then I figured I'd wait and we'd air it out later on... but... ok yeah I forgot to air it out."
"That's ok." Carter patted him on the shoulder. "Hopefully it will smell better in a couple hours."
"So is it just us tonight?" Carter asked, staring solemnly out of the hole in her bedroom wall.
"Melissa said she'd join us after she gets home. She's been spending a lot of time at Justine's house lately." Taylor added with a shrug.
"What about Isaac?" Carter still felt an overwhelming amount of concern for him after Beth dumped him and he started talking to Gabi. Still, nobody knew what was going on with the two of them.
"He's going out."
"With?" Carter winced. "Nevermind. Don't answer that."
Zac laughed as he played with the zipper on the tent. "I think it's starting to smell better."
Carter shoved him away from the tent. "No, you're just getting used to the stench." She giggled and pulled him out the door. "Come on, let's go order the pizza. Maybe the hot guy will come."
Taylor rolled his eyes and sighed as Carter and Zac disappeared. He still felt like he was getting nowhere with her. He wasn't even sure if she felt the same way about him.
"Quick, Zac, how do I look?" Carter jumped up after the doorbell rang and straightened her clothes.
Zac looked up and down at her. She was wearing a pair of black pants that hung very low on her hips and a plain white halter top that showed off a tiny bit of her waist. Her hair was pulled into a low ponytail that came to the nape of her neck. Zac thought she looked stunning as usual. "Nice."
She rolled her eyes. "Thanks." After taking a deep breath, she opened to door to reveal her favorite Pizza Hut delivery boy. He smiled shyly at her, almost like he was intimidated. "Oh, hi." He said, looking like he had forgotten who lived there.
"Hi. How are you?"
"Ready for work to be over."
"Yeah. That must suck, I never had that with my job." She smiled and handed him the money as he checked to make sure he'd brought the right pizzas.
"Really? Where do you work?"
"Well, I haven't been there in a while but I used to sing at a club."
The pizza guy raised his eyebrows. "Oh my gosh! You're the girl that sang at 'Dillie's'! I remember you!"
Carter looked surprised. "Really?"
"Yeah. I used to go there all the time. It's kind of the only place you can get in to without being 21. You were always great but... you look different on stage."
Carter felt self conscious and nervously tugged on her shirt. "How?"
"I don't know... Happier... like really happy. That's one of the reasons I'd stay to watch you perform. Most of the performers sucked, like they were there for the money. You always seemed to really like it. Why'd you stop going?"
"I... I don't really know. School kind of got in the way I guess."
"You should start going again. I'm sure they'd welcome you. You were great." He suddenly looked like he was blushing.
Carter smiled, for the first time feeling really nervous around him. Usually he was just somebody to flirt with, but all of a sudden she had a weird feeling in her stomach.
"Maybe sometime you could play and then we could like... have dinner or something afterwards. It could be fun."
Carter nodded and turned around slowly to see Zac smiling, trying to stay invisible, but still hear the conversation. "That could be... but..."
"Oh, you have a boyfriend?" He looked almost confused.
"No. Maybe." She felt like she couldn't say yes. "I'll see, ok?"
"Sure." He shrugged. "Maybe later." He gave her a quick smile and thanked her for the tip before leaving the porch.
Carter closed the door and sat down on the couch with the pizzas in her lap.
"Why didn't you say yes?!" Zac asked, shocked.
"I just... don't know."
Carter rolled over in her sleeping bag, tired, but not able to sleep. Zac, Taylor, and Melissa were all asleep in the tent with her. It had been a quiet night. Melissa came home very late and snuck into the tent after everybody else had fallen asleep. Carter was only pretending to be asleep, however, and now she lay restless on her side, facing her sister.
Carter whispered lightly. "Meli..." Then she tapped her shoulder and Melissa stirred quietly. She opened her eyes and sighed.
"What?" She whispered back, trying very hard not to wake Zac or Taylor up.
"How's Justine doing?"
"She's ok. Why?"
"I just wondered, I haven't seen her since Gabi... came back."
"They still aren't talking."
Carter nodded. "The pizza guy asked me out tonight."
Melissa's eyes widened and she almost sat up. "Really?! That's so cool! I'm glad. It's about time."
Carter sighed.
"What's wrong?" Melissa asked, yawning.
"I couldn't say yes."
"Why?"
Carter glanced almost inconspicuously at Taylor and then shrugged. "I just don't know. That's the weird thing." She glanced at him again and then made a strange face.
Melissa looked confused and then she looked over at the sleeping Taylor, his face was turned away from them. "It's Taylor, isn't it."
Carter bit her lip.
"Car, I need to tell you something." She whispered, making sure Taylor was still asleep. "Remember when Taylor and I almost hooked up again?"
Carter nodded and stayed silent.
"Do you know why we didn't?"
"Not really?"
Melissa's whisper fell even lower. "He's never gotten over you. When Jade liked him so much and he wouldn't go for her? It's because he liked you. I was so into him, Car. I really wanted to be with him again. But he told me he couldn't lead me on and that ... he told me he loves you."
Carter gasped lightly, not sure if she heard Melissa right.
"I know. I was surprised, too, but then I realized it's always been there. When he broke up with me the first time it was because he was protecting you. He was mad cause I hurt you. And now... you can't tell me you don't know how he feels."
"I know." She closed her eyes for a moment. "He's told me he still likes me and wants to be with me. I just..."
"What?" Melissa said, almost too loud. She thought she saw Taylor stir but she just looked back at Carter and smiled. "You can't tell me that there isn't something there. You can't tell me that even while you were with Zac, you still felt a twinge every time you walked past Taylor. You can't tell me that now that you're free, you don't want to just be with Taylor. Can you? Can you tell me that you don't want to be with him just as much as he wants to be with you?" Melissa didn't let Carter know that she saw Taylor move again with her last words.
Carter stayed silent before she finally whispered. "No. I do want to be with him."
"So what is the hold up?"
Carter closed her eyes again. "I don't know how to move forward. I don't know how to get past Zac and just move on. I can't figure out how to do it."
Melissa smiled and glanced at Taylor. "Just give it some time if you have to. Wait until you're ready. You never know, it might happen sooner than you think."
Carter nodded and thanked Melissa before closing her eyes.
On the other side of the tent, Taylor closed his own eyes and smiled slightly before falling back to sleep. He'd heard what he'd been wanting to hear for months.