Zac pushed the door open to Carter's bedroom and peeked inside. He saw her body with the blankets pulled up over her head. He tiptoed to the bed and grabbed the blanket. In one swift move he pulled it off the bed and threw it off the floor.
Melissa sat straight up and let out a light scream. "What are you doing?" She yelled, reaching for the blanket to cover herself up. She was wearing a tanktop and shorts and to her, that was too little to be wearing around Zac.
Zac jumped back, surprised. "Why are you in Carter's bed?"
"Why are you in our room?!"
"Because it's 4 o'clock in the afternoon and I couldn't find Carter so I figured she was in bed."
"I decided to sleep in her bed last night. It's softer."
Zac thought for a moment. "You know, I've always wanted to ask this but I've never had the chance. Why do you and Carter sleep until three or four everyday? Are you like superheroes and we don't know about it? Are you up all night fighting crime?"
Melissa rolled her eyes and put her head back down. "You're retarded. Now let me sleep. Please?"
"Wait. You said you slept in her bed last night."
"Yes, that would explain why I am in her bed now."
"So, that means she didn't sleep in her bed."
"You're a genius." Melissa closed her eyes and pulled the blanket back over her head.
"Taylor didn't sleep in his bed last night either."
Melissa stayed compeltely still. There was no answer from Melissa. Zac couldn't even hear her breathing.
"Where did they go?"
"I don't know."
Zac grabbed the blanket and pulled on it again. "Where did they go?"
Melissa mumbled and covered her face with her hands. "I'm not allowed to tell you."
"Why aren't you allowed to tell me? Did they go out to eat? Or the store? What?"
Melissa sat up and stared at him. "Yes, Zac. That's exactly it. They left last night to get cookies and they've been gone since then. They're just at the store."
"You're being a smartass." Zac glared. "You're never a smartass. Carter is the smartass. Why are you being the smartass?"
"Holy hell, man. You said smartass so many times, it's beginning to sound like a foreign language. Did you know that if you write the word "sofa" over and over again, by about the 400th time it starts to look like a foreign language?"
Zac grabbed the sides of Melissa's face and yelled. "WHERE DID THEY GO?!"
Melissa looked away from Zac and stared at the wall. "Uhm. Carter was kind of sleepwalking and we didn't want to wake her up."
"She went outside?"
"Yeah."
"WHY DIDN'T YOU WAKE ME UP?!" Zac yelled in her face and made her back up a foot.
"Taylor said not to. He knows you get all kinds of worried when Carter sleepwalks and when she leaves the house you freak out and try to wake her up."
"So what? She went outside and he followed her? Why are they not back by now?"
Melissa yawned and pulled the covers back over her head. "I don't know, Zac. But you're really starting to bug me. I've had like three hours of sleep and if you think it's deadly to wake up Carter when she's had three hours of sleep, you have NO idea what you're getting into with me."
Zac made a face and backed away from her bed slowly. "Alrighty then. Don't mind me. I'll just go roam the streets searching for my brother and my best friend who may be dead by now because she went outside while she was sleepwalking and walked into heavy traffic and got hit by a bus or a volkswagon beetle or one of those really dorky looking PT Cruisers or maybe I'll just..."
Melissa threw the blanket off of her and smashed her pillow against Zac's face. "DAMMIT ZAC!" She swung her legs over the side of her face and grabbed a sweatshirt off of the floor. "Fine. We'll go look for them. But only if you shut the hell up." She mumbled, pulling the sweatshirt over her head.
Carter shoved the rest of her cheeseburger in her mouth and grinned at Taylor. He was sitting across from her at a small table in a video arcade that they hadn't been to since they were ten years old.
"That was a very large bite."
Carter nodded and attempted to say something but part of the bun fell out of her mouth and onto her lap. She giggled, picked it up, and shoved it into her mouth again.
"That was... classy." Taylor laughed.
Carter wiped her mouth on her napkin after swallowing the huge bite of burger. "So do you think they'll be mad at us for sneaking out last night?"
"Zac will. But everytime we go out we end up taking all these people with us. I just wanted a day to ourselves. You know?"
Carter nodded. "Seems like we're never alone." She turned around and looked over her shoulder at the ten pinball machines that lined the back wall of the arcade. "Pinball tournament?" She jumped up and nodded excitedly.
Taylor stood up and pushed her chair in for her. "Ha! I thought you'd never ask. I must warn you though. I'm really good at pinball."
"What are you talking about? You always sucked at pinball. I was the pinball queen!" Carter ran to the pinball machine that used to be her favorite and pushed a quarter into the slot. She pulled the handle back and let it go and watched as the ball shot into play. "Haha! Prepare to be amazed as I..." She frowned as she watched the ball fall right between the two flippers. "You know, it may have been computer pinball that I was the queen of."
"You suck really bad." Taylor laughed and put another quarter into the machine for her.
"That one was just a warm up. I'll get better. It's like bowling. I have to play twelve games before I get a score over 90."
Taylor raised an eyebrow. "90?"
"Ok, 70. Don't make fun of me." She laughed and hit the flippers twice before the ball fell out of play. "What the hell is wrong with this machine?" She screamed and brought her fist down onto the glass. The machine shook and the "tilt" sign lit up. "Oops."
Taylor laughed and put another quarter in. "Ok my turn. Watch the master." He watched the ball shoot up into the top and then fall straight back down between the center. "Son of a bitch. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS MACHINE?!" He yelled harder than Carter and kicked the machine as hard as he could. The front legs of the pinball machine, which was probably as old as he was, buckled and the machine collapsed.
"Oooh. That can't be good." Carter covered her mouth with her hand and looked around to make sure nobody had seen.
"What should we do?" Taylor asked, looking over Carter's shoulder to make sure that everybody who worked there was far away.
"We flee." Carter grabbed the sleeve of his shirt and pulled him around the corner. She pushed open the front door and ran out of it with Taylor's hand laced with hers.
"Did we just vandalize public property?" Taylor asked, worried, as they walked quickly around the corner. "And why did we not bring a car?"
"I think vandalism has to be on purpose and we didn't bring a car because it would have messed with my whole sleepwalking idea."
"You know, one of these days you're really going to be sleepwalking and nobody will believe you. Then we'll start throwing cheetos at your head because you cried wolf."
Carter laughed. "It's not like you haven't thrown cheetos at my head before."
Taylor held onto Carter's hand and pulled her across the street toward the entrance a small public park. "Hey do you remember when we used to play here when we were little."
"I made you eat sand."
Taylor wrinkled his nose. "I had forgotten about that."
"You made me eat mulch."
"Ah." Taylor smiled. "That makes it fair."
"Then Zac made you eat..."
Taylor covered Carter's mouth with his hand. "I wanted to ask you something."
Carter stared at him and paused before saying, "...what?"
"Remember a couple weeks ago when we were joking around about getting married?"
Carter nodded. Her face changed from pale to pink in a matter of seconds.
"Remember how you said you weren't joking?"
Carter nodded again. She seemed to have forgotten how to breathe.
"Look in your purse."
Carter moved slower than she ever had in her life and reached into her small black purse. She had no idea what he was talking about. Well, part of her did, but it didn't really make sense. There were only ever four things in her purse, lip gloss, her keys, a hairtye, and her wallet. But this time when she reached inside she felt a small velvet box. She swallowed hard and took a deep breath before she pulled it out. "Taylor..." She was scared. For the first time in her life she was shaking with fear.
"Before you say anything. There's not as much pressure here as you might think. It's small..."
Carter opened the box to reveal a thin, silver ring with a small diamond in the middle, with one red stone on each side. She had officially stopped breathing.
"You don't have to say yes or no. I know you don't want to do this until you're done with school. But... I wanted to give you this. I saw it, it seemed like perfect timing. We don't have to tell anybody. I figured the red stones made it look less like an engagement ring. That way there's less pressure. And then whatever you decide, whenever you decide... What I mean is... it can be whatever kind of ring you want it to be. Whenever ... you want it to be ... whatever you want it to be..."
Carter smiled and covered his mouth with her hand this time. "Taylor, I get it. Your mom might have a coniption and then your dad will take her side. My dad will be happy and that will make them all fight. Zac might possibly pee his pants."
Taylor laughed nervously. "So..."
Carter handed him the box and watched as his expression went from happiness to a look he'd have if somebody had just shot his puppy. "No no!" Carter laughed. "I'm not saying no. I was giving it to you so you can put it on my finger."
Taylor laughed and let out a deep breath. "Thank freaking God." The ring caught the sunlight for a moment and sparkled as Taylor pulled it out of the box and slid it onto her left ring finger. "I love you."
Carter wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned into him, burrying her face in his shoulder. "I love you, too."
"So, is it a secret?"
Carter nodded. "Secrets are fun. And I really don't want Zac to pee his pants."
Taylor nodded and smiled, kissing the top of her head. He was officially happier than he'd ever been in his whole life.