you and me, forever.

13. Surrender

"I won! Again!" He gleams to the defeated girl.

"Seriously you have how many more years of experience? How could I win?" She groans, not used to losing this bad.

"Oh cmon, don't be a sore loser," he says, pouting his lips before letting a laugh out.

"Well the least you can do is get another round and I will set up for one last game," she says, still determined to win.

"Will do..." he says walking towards the bar, before singing, "you're gonna lose againnnnn"

"Shut it."

She turns back to the table to reset the game, when she feels someone come up to her.

"Hey," Carter says, smiling brightly when she turned around.

"Hey! What are you doing here?" She asks, internally panicked not knowing how Damon would react.

"Just picking up some food for the family...are you here alone?" He asks, seeing that she wasn't with anyone at the moment.

"No, I'm here with Damon, we decided to hangout and play pool," she says cautiously.

"Oh..." he says, just as confused by their dynamic as they were, but before he could continue, Damon came back with two drinks.

"Hey man, how are you?" Carter asks, reaching his hand out to Damon.

Damon internally shoved down his temper, and quickly forced himself to play nice.

"Hey Carter, I'm good how are you?" He asks back, shaking his hand.

"Pretty good! Will we see you tomorrow night at the Lockwood's?" He smiles, making Katie panic. She hasn't told him they were going together yet.

"Yup...I will see you both tomorrow night..." he says, and she couldn't help but see his jaw slightly clench.

"Well great! I'm looking forward to it." He says before turning to Katie, kissing her cheek quickly before saying goodbye. She smiled sheepishly, almost wishing she had dodged it, continuing to wonder more and more why she continued to try and ignite a flame that was never lit in the first place.

"So you're taking him?" Damon says, surprisingly calmly.

"Yeah, he asked me earlier, I was gonna tell you," she says looking down.

"Hey, it's fine. Why don't we get back to our game?" He says smiling.

•••

The Forbes household had woken up early that morning, Caroline getting ready to go to school, and her mom finally having the morning off. Katie was making breakfast for everyone while they were seated watching in the kitchen.

"So, are you excited for your date tonight?" Caroline raises her eyebrow while sipping her coffee.

"Date?" Their mother asks.

"Yeah, you remember Carter right?" Katie says.

"Yes...you two were best friends once..." she says, clearly not addressing the fact he had cheated on her.

"Well he kinda asked for a second chance and I went on a few dates with him. He seems to have matured a lot and he asked if I wanted to go with him tonight."

"That's...great honey" their mom says, unsure of herself.

"Mom. This is a good thing!" Caroline sighs.