Attention

11

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Part 2

I guess I fell asleep because when I wake up it's dark outside and Carter is driving down a street. I slowly lift my head from the window and look at Carter. His eyes weren't red and his nose wasn't either which, is what I was expecting.

He notices that I had woken up and glances at me before looking back at the road. "We're heading to a motel since it's about to be late."

I nod. "Okay." I check my phone and the time is eight-thirty.

We pull up to a motel called Eagle Motel and from the outside it looked better than the first one we stayed at.

Once everything is set, we get our key and make our way to our room. Carter opens the door to the room and when we walk in we both see it's much nicer than the first one. And no disgusting stains on the wall.

I put my bag on the floor near the bed and so does Carter. He was being quieter than usual. Meaning he was still down about not finding his mom. But I can't expect him to be okay. It's only been a few hours and it might take him a few days before he's his normal self again. This makes me wonder how he was when he first realized she wasn't coming back three years ago.

I hear Carter's keys jiggling and I look up when he comes to stand in front of me. "You like Chinese food?"

I raise my eyebrows, nodding. "Yeah."

"Alright, I'm gonna go get us some. I'll be back in like twenty minutes."

I nod, sitting down on the bed. "Okay, thank you."

He smiles at me. "You're welcome." And then he walks out the door.

With him being gone, I take that as my advantage to start getting ready for bed. I take off my clothes and go to my bag, taking out a t-shirt and shorts to sleep in.

True to his words, he does come back twenty minutes later with Chinese food. He walks over to me as I'm putting my hair into a ponytail. "Here you go." he says, putting the food next to me on the bed.

I thank him and immediately dig in. I was starving. The room is quiet as we both eat. Even though, I started eating first Carter is already done with his after ten minutes. Boys and the way they eat will forever be a mystery to me.

He stands up from the small couch he was sitting on and begins to take off his shirt. My eyes immediately widen and I almost choke on a noodle. I put my hand up to cover my eyes. "Woah, uh, what are you doing?"

"Getting ready for bed." he says with an amused tone.

"You could've warned me first." I mumble but still keep the image of his shirtless body in my mind.

He chuckles. "Am I really that bad to look at?"

I quickly uncover my eyes to deny his question but when I do he's taking off his pants and instead of covering my eyes with my hands, I just turn around. "What? No, I've just never had a boy undress in front of me before."

He hums in realization. "Well, you can turn back around. I'm done."

I turn back around to see him still shirtless. "I thought you said you were done."

He shrugs. "I sleep shirtless."

I look down at the bed I'm sitting on. The only bed in the room. "Speaking of sleep, how is this working?"

He walks over to the bed and sits down on the opposite side. "Well, we can both just sleep on the bed."

Us sleeping in the same bed together? Okay, I don't ever want to wake up from this dream. "Okay, I was just asking to make sure you were comfortable with that." I explain.

His eyebrows raise and he lets out a laugh. "You're asking me? I should be asking you, Miss 'I've never had a guy undress in front of me before.'"

My cheeks heat up and I look down at my food, finishing up my last bite. I swallow the food, setting the box down on the floor. I look back at him with fake confidence. "No, whatever, I'm fine. Let's go to bed."

He smirks and pulls the blanket back. "Alright, get under."

I look down at the pulled back blanket and then back at him. I gulp nervously, grabbing the blanket and putting it over my body. I lay down, the back of my head hitting the pillow.

He looks down at me. "You good?"

I nod and shut my eyes. "I'm great. Goodnight Carter."

He chuckles and I hear the click of a button and see the room get darker behind my eyelids, meaning he turned off the lamp. The blanket shuffles and I feel the weight of his body sink the bed. "Goodnight Ava." he whispers back.

-

I wake up to the sound of sniffles. I open my eyes in confusion and notice it's still dark in the room, meaning that it was still night time.

I hear the sound of sniffling again and realize that it's coming from beside me. My eyebrows scrunch and I try not to let Carter know I was awake. I slowly turn my head just in time to see him wipe his face with his hand. My face softens once I realize what's happening.

Carter is crying.

He must have been waiting til I fell asleep to let out all of his emotions because he was being strangely calm about the situation. Unusually quiet but calm.

I couldn't just go back to sleep knowing Carter was next to me having a hard time sleeping because of his disappointment of not finding his mom. So, I do what is right.

I turn my body over and scoot my way closer towards him. I look at the back of his head first before I proceed with caution, lifting my arm up and putting it around his waist. He gets stiff and I can tell his breathing has stopped. I grab his hand and interlace his fingers with mine so, he knows he can go to sleep instead of talking about it if he doesn't want too. But I can tell he's embarrassed from getting caught crying.

Shockingly, Carter starts to turn around in my arms to face me. When I see his face, it immediately reminds me of when I found him at the park. Completely heartbroken.

"Sorry, I woke you." his croaky voice says.

I shake my head. "It's okay."

I reach my hand up that was around his waist and cup his cheek, using my thumb to wipe his tears.

He sighs in content, shutting his eyes closed and moves his head closer to mine where our foreheads are touching. He brings his hand up to grab mine, stroking his thumb on the back of my hand. "Thank you." he whispers.

My heart aches in affection for him and a soft smile appears on my face. "You're welcome." I whisper back.

A/N:

they're too cute, it's making my heart hurt 😭

don't forget to vote plzzz