Zac Hanson grabbed another peanut from his backpack and raised it in the air between his two fingers. He closed one eye to aim and threw it as hard as he could, 10 feet across the park. "Dammit!" He shrieked and pulled another peanut from his backpack and looked around him to make sure nobody was looking. "I missed!"
When he missed his intended target for the three hundreth time he let out a frustrated grunt, grabbed a handful of peanuts out of his backpack and chucked them across the park. They flew in every direction and one managed to hit a bird right on the top of it's head causing it to fly away.
"HAHAHA! GOT ONE!" He clapped and then jumped when Katie's voice came from behind him.
"Uhm, Zac, what are you doing?"
Zac blushed and closed his backpack. "Feeding the birds."
"You so weren't feeding the birds. You were throwing peanuts at their heads!"
Zac shrugged. "I'm just trying to rid the world of unnecessary evil, as Carter would say."
"The weird things you would do for that girl. It's cute and yet... a little creepy."
"I try." Zac smiled and patted the ground next to him. "You can come sit and help."
Katie smiled and sat down next to Zac. She wasn't very fond of birds either so she figured it was a good idea. Not to mention, Zac looked very good. He had recently cut his hair fairly short, which most people had hated and made fun of, but she liked it. It showed off his face more. And his arms. His arms were great. Which of course she would have to stop thinking about before she started to go into convulsions.
Zac waved his hand in front of Katie's face. "Hello? Katie?"
"What? Where?" Katie looked around.
"No, see, Katie would be you." Zac laughed.
"Right. I forget that sometimes."
Zac smiled. "You were totally zoned there for a minute. Were you plotting my demise?"
Katie laughed. "No. I just zone out every once in a while I guess." She blushed slightly, just enough for her to feel her own cheeks getting warm. Then, a thought occurred to her and she suddenly felt miserable. Zac must have seen her frown.
"What?"
"What's today?" It had been a few weeks since she'd seen Zac. She'd had the flu for a while and had been hibernating.
"Like the day or the date?"
"Date."
"October 24th."
"Dammit." She frowned again. "I freakin ass missed your birthday. How did it get to be October so fast?!"
"Time flies when people stop keeping track of your life." He smiled. "Don't worry about the birthday thing. It was nothing really special. Next year will be the big one."
Katie smiled. "Well, if it makes me feel any better, you forgot mine too."
"Dammit!" Zac went to throw another peanut but instead he hit himself in the head and caused the peanut to fall about 2 inches in front of him. He made a face, picked it up, and popped it into his mouth.
"Ew."
"What?" He asked, chewing it up. "It's just dirt. Can't hurt me."
"No, I meant ew cause you didn't even offer me any."
Zac laughed. "You can be really funny sometimes."
Katie wrinked her eyebrows. "What like, when I'm not being weird and freaking people out with my stupid predictions?"
Zac's eyes widened. "No! That's not what I meant at all. Why would you think that?"
"Well, Taylor told me you think I'm a little... scary." Katie looked sad at the thought.
"Ok, I thought all girls were scary until I was like 14 years old. I think Taylor's just confused."
"So you don't think I'm scary?"
"Not at all. I mean, I'm not going to lie and say I believe in all that psychic stuff just to impress you. Cause I don't. I've never believed in it."
Katie smiled. "Why would you want to impress me?"
"Uhm. Did I say that?"
"In my own twisted world, kind of."
"Dammit. Ok you need to stop me next time I start rambling. Cause chances are I will do that a lot around you."
Katie blushed again. "Why?"
"Dammit! See I did it again!"
Katie looked off towards the end of the park. Zac shrugged and threw another handful of peanuts. "See... I get that way around girls... that I uhm... yeah."
"Zac?"
"Yeah?"
"You're rambling."
"I know. Sorry. I just about embarrassed the ass out of myself."
"Hey I'm used to embarrassing myself." Katie shrugged. "Like the last time I saw you, I could barely talk to you because Taylor told me that he told you that I liked you."
"You like me?"
Katie brought her hand up to her mouth and bit the side of her finger. "He didn't tell you that?" She mumbled through her skin.
Zac shook his head.
"Right. Note to self: Kick Taylor's ass." Katie covered her face with the sleeves of her sweater.
Zac reached over and pulled her hands away from her face and smiled his goofy smile. "So Taylor never told you that I was interested in you?"
"No. Why?"
Cause he told me he did."
"Eep." A high pitched squeak escaped Katie's mouth. "Insert words here..."
"Yeah. Well, I guess he's smart. It was probably the only way he would have gotten us to tell eachother."
"Yeah. But I'm still going to kick his ass."
"Oh me too. Definitely." Zac laughed and handed Katie a peanut.
"What is your problem today?" Carter asked Taylor, as she sat across from him on his bedroom floor. He had been sitting on the floor reading a book while she laid on his bed staring at the ceiling. She decided it was time to get in his face and ask him what the hell was bothering him. He had been insanely quiet and Carter's ears were starting to hurt from the silence.
"Nothing. Why." He didn't even look up from his book.
"Well first off, you aren't reading. You're just staring at the book."
"How do you know?"
"Because you're reading an instruction manual for your cd player."
"So? I could be working on my mechanial skills." He muttered and almost growled.
"You have no mechanical skills."
"So?"
"Seriously. What is WRONG with you?!" Carter asked, louder this time.
"Nothing is wrong with me! I just have stuff on my mind. That's all." He put his book down and stared directly into her big, bright eyes.
Carter waited for him to say something, but when he didn't, she sighed and climbed up onto his lap, sitting sideways. She put her arms around his waist and her head on his chest. "What is going on with you? You haven't really talked to me since I got here today. You're out in 'lala land'. I'm worried."
"I'm ok." He kissed the top of her head. "I've just been thinking a lot lately."
"About what?"
"You."
"Me?"
"What better thing is there to think about?"
Carter smiled into his shirt.
"I just... I keep thinking about before, a long time ago, when you told me that Zac was your soulmate."
Carter sighed. "Do we have to get into this again? I'm with you. Isn't that what matters?"
"Yes. But, I guess it still makes me wonder if a person can have more than one soulmate. Or if a person... I don't know. If a person can have a soulmate and then not have it returned. Do you know what I mean?"
"You're saying I'm yours and you're afraid that you're not mine?" Carter was glad that she had positioned herself so that she didn't have to see Taylor's eyes as he spoke. Sometimes when he was sad, they tore her apart.
"I don't know what I'm saying. Forget it."
Carter sat up and slid off of his lap. She sat down in front of him again. "Look. Things change in life. Things that we thought were true when we were 16 and 17 can turn out to be not true as we get older and really start to live life. I'm not saying that Zac is not my soulmate and that you aren't the absolute love of my life. What I'm saying is that I still haven't experienced..." Carter paused and tried to find a way to word what she was going to say. "I still haven't experienced certain aspects of life and I still haven't lived life long enough to really understand who I am and what I want and how I'm going to live the rest of my life. I love you, with all of my heart. I loved Zac as well. And if a soulmate is somebody who you're going to spend the rest of your life with along with the rest of your other lives with, then yes Zac is mine. But if that's the definition of a soulmate, then you're mine too. And so is Meli and my Dad, my mom, Isaac... all of these people that I love so much it hurts. I think you can have more than one soulmate."
Taylor smiled slightly. "I think so too. I'm sorry I've been so mopey today."
"It's ok. Just don't be mopey next time. You need to tell me what's on your mind, even if it's something that might piss me off. You should know by now that I don't judge people."
"I know." Taylor leaned forward and pulled Carter back into his arms. "I love you."
"I love you." She smiled and kissed his forhead before snuggling against him again.
Carter
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