"Damn, Zac, you just have the cutest ass in the world." Melissa noticed he was wearing a pair of very tight, black pants and a dark maroon shirt. Carter had a joke about how every guy looked hot in maroon, so she always made sure she had her maroon blankets on her bed just in case anybody wanted to "look hot in maroon". She licked her finger and touched his shoulder, making a "ssss" noise.
"Excuse me?" Zac turned around abruptly.
"What? I didn't say anything." Melissa blushed.
Taylor snickered from his spot on the couch and reached over to the coffee table to pick up a an open book with some scribbles in it. "What's this?"
"Something Carter was writing I think." Zac shrugged. "But... I don't think she meant to leave it out..." He reached over and tried to grab it from him.
Taylor pushed Zac's hand away and sat the book down on his lap. "It looks like a song. I didn't know she wrote lyrics. I thought you did that for her."
"She's been trying lately." Zac shook his head. "But I'm telling you Tay, Carter gets really mad when people read stuff out of that book."
Taylor sighed, "But I'm sure she lets you read it right?"
"Yeah but I ask first."
Taylor looked down at the lyrics and his eyes widened. The writing was very sloppy, Carter called it her code. She figured nobody could read her handwriting, so nobody would ever read her book. The book was more important to her than any other material possession. She not only used it as a journal, she used it for poetry, pictures, collages, she spent a lot of her time adding to the book. Taylor had never seen it before, and that bothered him.
He scanned the lyrics that he could read, coming across things sentences like, *"I was lost in my troubles when you came to my rescue." and "You told me I was special, And that I should never change. You told me I was pretty, Something I had never heard before." He smiled. "This is really good."
"I haven't read it."
Taylor handed the book to him but Zac pushed it away. "And I'm not going to read it until she hands it to me and says 'Hey Zac, read this.'"
Taylor shrugged and started reading some more. His eyes widened when he read the chorus, which he could see plain as day. "You were supposed to save my life. You were meant to be me hero. Picking me up and holding my hand, It should have lasted forever. You could have saved my life." Taylor looked up at Melissa with his mouth wide open. "This is not a happy song."
Melissa shook her head.
"Have you read this?"
"No, but she was fooling around with her guitar last night, messing around with the melody."
"My girlfriend is writing angry songs about me." Taylor put the book down and stood up angrily as Carter walked into the living room with a 2-liter of Coke in her hand.
Zac laughed. "Little drink?"
"Hey, I'm thirsty." She looked over at Zac. "Why does your brother's face look like that?"
Zac shrugged. "We've been trying to figure that out for quite a few years now."
Taylor ignored Zac's smartass comment and handed Carter her book. "Nice song."
"You were reading my book?!"
"Well, yeah, but just because it was laying here."
"YOU READ MY SONG?!" Carter's face turned beat red as she looked around the room from Zac, to Meli, and back to Taylor.
"I think I had a right too!"
"WHAT THE HELL GIVES YOU THE RIGHT?! Just because you're my boyfriend you think you can read my book?"
"Zac gets to read it."
"He's my best friend!"
"So when do I get to be your friend?"
"You ARE... or at least you WERE until you READ MY BOOK!"
"I only read part of that one song."
"Which SONG?!"
"I only saw one! It was opened up to the page with that one song."
"WHICH ONE, TAYLOR?"
"Save my life."
Carter blushed wildly again and felt like slamming the heavy book into Taylor's face.
"I think I have a right to read a song that's about me."
Carter stood deathly still. She blinked a few times before running out the front door with her book in her hand.
Taylor sighed. "Dammit, somebody has pms."
Melissa held a confused look on her face while she ran the lyrics of the chorus over in her head. "Oh my god."
"What?" Zac and Taylor asked in unison.
"You guys are so dense."
"What?" They said again.
"That song isn't about Taylor!"
"Well if it isn't about me then who..." Taylor stopped suddenly and turned to Zac. "YOU!"
Zac's eyes widened. "What?! I didn't do it, I swear!"
"No, you dumbass, that song was about you!"
"No way!" Zac grinned. "Cool."
"Dammit Zac! My girlfriend is writing songs about you!"
"Hey you said it yourself, it was an angry song."
"No. It takes on a whole new meaning when the song is about you. When it was about me, it was mean. When it was about you, it only means one thing."
Zac threw his arms up in the air. "Ok call me retarded but I'm lost."
"SHE STILL LOVES YOU!" Melissa and Taylor yelled at Zac in unison, leaving Zac standing in the living room with his jaw three inches from the floor.
"Hello?" Justine answered the phone with a yawn.
"Is Justine there."
She recognized the voice on the other line and sat up straight. "This is Justine."
"Hi, This is Zac."
"Hi."
"I was wondering if you could do me a big favor."
Justine could hear it in her head, she'd dreamed of this moment for so long. He was going to ask her out. "Sure."
"Can you call Carter for me?"
"Uhm. Why?"
"Because she has caller id and she won't answer any calls that are coming from our house."
"Why not?"
"Long story. I think we embarrassed her though. I was hoping you would call her and tell her I really want to talk to her but I don't want to just go over to her house."
Justine sighed. "Sure, I'll call her for you."
"Thanks." Zac smiled. "Call me back then ok? I wanna talk to you about something."
"Sure." Justine clicked the reciever and thought about not calling Carter. But she couldn't do that to Zac. She cared about him so much, she had to do this for him.
Within a minute, Zac's phone rang. "Carter?" He answered, assuming it was her.
"No, it's me."
"Oh hi."
"Nobody answered."
Zac sighed. "She knows me too well. She must have known why you were calling."
"Probably." Justine felt the urge to tell him right then that she was Gabi's younger sister, that the name Tarren came up on the caller id, and that was the reason Carter didn't answer. "So you said you wanted to talk to me about something?"
"Right. Yeah. Are you busy?"
Justine looked over at her blank page of homework. "Nope."
"Can you come over?"
"Yeah." Justine smiled.
"Ok, I'll be here. I'll wait on the porch."
Not long after their phone conversation, Zac decided he had to go to Carter's house to talk to her. He found her sitting on her bed with her book opened, writing something on a blank page. "Hey."
Carter looked up at him and blushed. "Hi, look, I'm sorry I didn't answer the phone, I figured it had to be Taylor, and I just don't wanna talk to him right now."
"So you aren't mad at me?"
"No."
"And that song... look you don't have to be embarrassed about it."
"Zac..."
"I'm serious, it's just a song right?"
Carter nodded. "Right."
"And it's not really my business until you tell me right?"
"Zac..."
"So don't be embarrassed ok?"
"ZAC!"
"What?"
"The song isn't about you."
"What?"
"It's just a song. Like you said. It wasn't about anybody."
"So then why..."
"I left cause I was pissed at Taylor, one, for reading the song, and two, for thinking I'd write that about him."
"So it wasn't about me?"
Carter laughed. "Geez, Zac. You look so pathetic. You actually wanted that to be about you?"
"Well... no... but Meli said you still loved me."
Carter leaned over and gave him a hug. "Of course I do." She smiled. "Now go outside and wait for Justine."
"Huh?"
"Oh come on. You know I could hear you. My moniter may have been off, but we still have really thin walls."
"Then why didn't you answer when Justine called?"
Carter's eyes widened as she looked down at the caller id and saw Gabi's last name. "I... couldn't get to the phone in time."
Zac shrugged. "Oh well. See ya. I'm gonna go meet Justine."
"Are you gonna..."
"Yeah."
Carter grinned. "Go you."
"Yay go me."
Zac sat on the banister on the front porch waiting for Justine. When he saw her, he waited for her to walk up the stairs in the yard. Then, he stood up slowly, took too steps forward, and kissed her. It wasn't one of those mushy gushy kisses, it was more like a kiss you see in the movies. But he'd been planning that kiss for at least a week now. They'd been hanging out quite a bit, sitting around, watching tv and laughing. And he'd fallen for her, this was his way of admitting it.
After they parted, barely, standing 2 inches apart, Justine took a deep breath and smiled at him. "Hi."
"So do you want to go on a real date tonight?"
"I uhm, have a 10 page report due tomorrow on... some Indian tribe.... what time?"
Zac kissed her lightly on the lips again. "7:00. But you can hang out here until then."
Justine nodded. "Ok." Her breath had been taken away and she couldn't wait for it to be taken away again.
Home
Carter
Mill Creek
Other Stories