Dealing with Karter

Chapter 13: Photobooth

I peered up at Karter who was red in the face. His wide eyes met mine. I looked away suddenly feeling embarrassed. I looked at the other pictures and they were very cute and silly. Other than our first picture, they were perfect.

"I wanna see!" Harley said excitedly, tugging her brother's shirt.

Karter bent down showing her the film. She giggled at the pictures, approving of them.

"Shall we go home and put on a movie?" Madeline asked. Karter shrugged and Harley nodded. Movie night it was. As soon as we were outside, Karter put Harley on his shoulders and was walking ahead of us. Maddy and I walked side by side staring at the two ahead of us.

"Livia," Maddy called out to me. "Thank you for trying with Karter. You don't know how much this means to me. It's been a long time since I've seen him smile this much."

My heart ached at her words. "You don't need to thank me. He's a good guy, he just needed a chance."

"Well thank you for taking it," she smiled sincerely. "Out of all of us, Karter had taken our situation the hardest. He put all the burden on himself. It warms my heart to see him happy again."

I smiled at the boy in front of me. I was happy to be his friend. "He's a good person. He deserves to be happy. You're good to him, giving up your chance at love, I could tell you like Jared."

She blushed at that. "It doesn't matter how much I like Jared, I would never go against Karter's words, not after everything he's done for us. I just hope he could see Jared the way I do."

"Maybe one day he will," I said trying to give her hope. "He gave me a chance after all."

Maddy smirked. "Well of course he gave you a chance."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I furrowed my brows.

She shrugged her shoulders, that smirk still on her lips. "You Murphy's... have your charm."

Maddy and I talked as if we were old friends catching up. She was easy to get along with, much different than her brother. Where Karter did his best to push away people, Maddy was always ready to make friends much like Harley.

We made it back to the Pierce's home. Karter plopped himself on the couch and Harley sat down in his laps.

"Oh no you don't," Madeline said in an authoritative tone. "You need to shower first."

"But Maddy..." she whined, but Maddy wasn't having it. As funny as it was sad, both Maddy and Karter grew up too fast. They were parents to their little sister.

I went and plopped down beside Karter feeling him tense up. "You better not stay this tense throughout the movie Karter, I'm a cuddler and you need to be comfortable."

He chuckled at that. "Anything else your highness?"

"Please don't choose Frozen as the movie?"

He threw his head back in laughter. "Oh trust me, that's one thing you don't have to worry about."

Karter was flipping through the channels. I would get excited about something and he would keep it on but after five minutes he would start switching channels again. He kept doing this, it was driving me insane.