Wilted

f i f t e e n

I woke up on Carl's chest the next morning. His bare chest was something new that I've woken up to. It was nice. Before I could even lift up my head and move, he stirred from underneath me. 

Tilting my head up, I watched as his eyes fluttered open. A small smile appeared on his lips as he squeezed me a little closer to him. 

"Morning." I say groggily and he presses a kiss onto my forehead. 

"Morning Cheri." He replies. "Thank you for last night." 

"No thank you." I say with a small laugh placing a hand onto his chest. 

"We should probably get up." He tells me and I shake my head wanting to stay like this forever. 

"Or we could stay, just like this." I tell him curling into his side a little more. I wrap one arm around his stomach and another under my head around his shoulder. 

He squeezes my body once before gently laying me to the side. "Come on Cheri." 

Reluctantly, I get up pulling some clothes out of the drawer and dressing slowly. Pulling on a pair of jeans and t-shirt, throwing a flannel over it.  

Carl does the same and as he does I watch him lovingly. He notices and smiles at me lightly. 

"Got something to say?" He asks and I shake my head. 

"Just that I love you." I say taking a step towards him and running my fingers through his hair. I grab his cheeks and place a final kiss onto his lips before I head downstairs, leaving Carl behind me. 

I open the cabinets in the kitchen, choosing to have some dry cereal for breakfast. The coffee maker is on the counter, a freshly brewed cup sitting on the table. 

"Have fun last night?" Moms voice says from behind me. 

"What?" I ask playing stupid before turning towards my mom. 

"Don't worry, I won't tell Dad." She says chuckling before walking towards me. "I see Carl likes to leave hickeys." 

She adjusts my flannel so its covering the dark bruise on my collar bone at the base of my neck. I blush profusely as she just laughs. 

"I was a teenager once too you know." She says. "I didn't used to look this old." 

"Oh stop, you look pretty good for a mother of a 16 year old." I say grabbing a clean spoon to eat my cereal. 

"You're making me blush." She says rolling her eyes playfully. 

Footsteps come down the stairs, they belong to Carl and Mom looks at him knowingly. His eyes widen, looking between me and Elisa and I laugh. 

"Might want to leave hickeys in a less visible spot dude." Mom winks at him before grabbing her coffee and a book before heading to her room, which is right next to my dads. "Don't worry, I'm the cool mom! Just make sure to use protection."

"She knows?" He stutters. "Just from-?"

"Yeah," I say nodding and his eyes widen in pure horror. 

"Oh god." He says turning his back and running his hands through his hair. 

____

Later on when we take a walk through the neighborhood I can tell Carl is still mortified at the fact that my mother knows. Nothing I say will change that so eventually I give up and let him feel how he wants.

His hand is wrapped around mine and I smile from his touch. Eventually, we're called over by Rick who's teaching Ron how to shoot a gun.

I sit on the wooden table with Carl leaning against my shoulder from behind as Rick explains the mechanics of the gun to Ron.