Carters Pov
"Cant we just walk right through the house, make a statement or something?" Mila asks and I shush her.
"No. Your clothes are ruined from the rain and... if we go into the house by the front door? Then we have to put on a show to all those people inside, and talking to our parents party guests doesn't particularly sound fun to me..."
She sighs as I usher her to keep up, I'm taking her around the back of the house and using the back door into the kitchen. That way we can get warmth from the stoves and out of the rain, without making small talk with serial killers and my parents friends.
I hold the door open for her and hurries in, kicking off those heels she loves and grabbing one of the kitchen towels from the top cabinet.
"Will you pass me one?" I ask and she shakes her head. "Don't be lazy Crawford."
She's so irritatingly amazing. It's incredibly frustrating.
I go to take off my hoodie and she immediately stops me. "No. Not happening. You're not gonna strip off in front of me."
I glance from my hoodie and then back to her hand on my arm, fucking butterflies.
Pull. Yourself. Together.
Her big eyes stare at her hand on my arm before she yanks it back as if I was the one who just forced her to. "C'mon Emilia. Scared you cant control yourself..."
I tease and she rolls her eyes, ignoring me while she hovers her hands above the stove. "Nope. Not a problem."
"Alrighty then..." I turn around, grabbing the ends of the hoodie and pulling it off.
Underneath it, my white top is stuck to my chest and stomach. And it's currently painfully see-through.
She glances at me, then her eyes move downwards, but once I grin Mila turns back around.
"You wanna make some food? Like one of those brownie mixes?" I question and she nods.
I slip out of the kitchen, taking the long way around the halls until I'm at the first storage closet of many that are located in this house. My mom keeps a mint, green, electric mixer in our house although she never uses it.
I find all the pieces connected to it afterwards and make my way back to the kitchen, yet I stop in my tracks before my body makes it through the door way.
My dads voice is conversing with Emilia, talking about god knows what.
"I'm glad you're enjoying the school experience..." He remarks and she just gives a simple 'mhm' back.
"You want to know something funny, to get that brain of yours working?" I peep around the doorway and he's grinning to himself with her standing opposite him, crossed arms as usual.
"No. But I have a feeling you'll tell me anyway, just to piss me off." She snarks back and he chuckles, nodding his head as if he's impressed.
"Correct, Emilia." A silence lingers between them as he takes a breath before speaking. "August of last year, Carter approached me in my office, he had a powerpoint..." A long pause and she sighs, again.
"Gabriel, get to the point." My dad places a bottle of wine on the counter and walks to the other side.
"He begged to go to that school Emilia. It wasn't my choice or my advice, just him. He presented a powerpoint on all the reasons why we should let him go. Adeline said yes since she has a soft spot for him."
Well shit. What's the big deal? So I wanted to go to the same school as Mila? So do hundreds of others...
"He said that you forced him to attend the school..." She whispers and he pops off the top to his beer and takes a small sip.
"Just thought you should know... Carter you can come in now!" He shouts out to me and I freeze out of reflex.
My dad walks back out of the kitchen, patting me on back while he smiles to himself. "Great hiding spot."
"Fuck you, dad." I flip him off when his back is turned as I hear him laugh down the hall, before putting the mixer down on the countertop.
"Is that true? You went to boarding school for me..." She questions, her eyes having a slight sparkle of emotion that I couldn't quite put my finger on.
"Wherever you go, I go." She smiles and the voice in my head shout at me to remember what this is.
"If I left you alone for too long, your ego would have gotten too high." Mila rolls her eyes, assembling the mixer together. "Oh yeah... What other excuse you got?"
"I cant challenge you to competitions from an Italian boarding school...?" I attempt another lie and she just shakes her head, seemingly unconvinced.
It doesn't matter, I don't owe an explanation of why I wanted to be in close proximity to her, that's an obvious question in which she fears the answer to.
"Will you help me? This thing is difficult." I grab the top and pull it down as she drops her hands in defeat.
She passes me the eggs, I crack them, I hand her the flour, she measures it. We work in silence, making sure our calculations make sense so the brownies don't turn out like total ass.
We just shuffle around the kitchen really, not speaking, somehow we enjoy each other's presence in silence, while working.
I guess that's why we bicker so often in school, it can be such a loud environment that you get so stressed and worked up, like our friend Mila here.
It hurts in school to see her so sad over results and tests, it's like she tries so hard that when she doesn't, its seen as a total fail, when all she wants —and deserves— is a damn break.
"Carter?" Her fingers click in my face and I pretend to bite them so she yanks em' back. "You can't keep spacing out like that, it's stressful."
She continues to pour in the rest of the mixture and I continue to watch her fail miserably. "Christ, has anyone every told you you're awful at baking."
I get another roll of the eyes, a middle finger to the face and a sigh from grouchy little Mila over there, my grouchy little irritation.
"Mila?" She mumbles a small 'mm' and I prop myself up on the counter.
"You wanna watch the stars while it bakes... to pass the time?" I ask quietly and she looks out the window, furrowing her brows.
"There's no stars out tonight, too cloudy. So unless you want to lay in the rain?" Right... Lightbulb.
"Wait here. I'll be back in three minutes with a blindfold and you can't look." She lets out a small laugh as I hop off the counter.
"Kinky." Her eyes are slightly squinted when she smiles, they blink a couple times before looking away from me.
"Shut up. I'll be back." I state and run around the house to Blair's room, avoiding the main event area and any bathrooms in use by the event outside, I eventually find what I'm looking for.
I grab it out from Blair's and use one of our empty rooms in the house to set it up. The light switch is off as it sits in the middle of the room. I also put some blankets on the floor and pull across the curtains. It looks great... and Mila will love it. I'm positive.
I run back down the stairs and practically slip on the floor out of the pure joy this is bringing me. "Babe, slow down. I'm not going anywhere." She jokes as I grab onto the counter for balance before our eyes lock, and hold.
I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going anywhere.
"Right yeah." I rub the back of my neck, awkwardly holding eye contact with her until she claps her hands together. "So uhm, you wanted to do some kinky, sex, blindfold stuff?"
I sarcastically grimace and grab her by the shoulders, turning her body around so she is facing away from me. "Don't catch my hair. You'll pull it out."
Constantly complaining, it's weird that it's annoying yet hot at the same time. If someone asked me to explain that? No answer for ya.
I push a piece of the blonde hair behind her ear and wrap a small, grey cloth around her eyes. Making sure it's tightened securely as she complains a bit more about how it's 'digging into her head.'
Complain. Complain. Complain.
Pretty. Adorable. On my kneeees....
"Carter! Hurry this up." Right right. "Okay, hold my hand." Her face frowns and I mentally slap myself. She never wants to hold hands with me, as if now would be any different.
"You cant see this right now, because we are engaging in a kinky sex, foreplay, type act but im rolling my eyes at you right now- oh wait. That works too, rolling my eyes at you during our sex act-"
"Mila. Please god, stop talking about us, engaging in extremely... very, hot, kinky... sex." She giggles to herself, straight up giggles.
Heart? Melted.
"Right right, sorry. I forgot how easy it is to get you all riled up. Plus, I never mentioned our sex would be hot. That's your own minor input." Christ.
She smiles in success at making me flustered as I lead her up the stairs, clutching my hand so tightly I fear she might just break it.
"Take one step at a time, you're too eager and you might fall."
"Rolling my eyes again, you can't see." I'm smiling with her but she obviously can't tell. I take the little minutes where she isn't glaring at me to myself, looking at the small scar on her forehead she had gotten from running into one of Valentina's kitchen counters, the bridge of her nose and the way her once, freshly blowdried, wet hair falls over her face.
"Are we almost there? I'm bored."
Complaint? Adorable.
"Okay, hold on. I just gotta make sure everything looks good." I position her in front of the door and scurry in, straightening out the blankets and throwing some pillows down where her head would be.
This has to be perfect for her.
I open up the door, very quietly so I can admire her for just another couple seconds... she's pretty! So sue me.
Her nails are all manicured and painted a pale pink, although I'd expect nothing less than that from Emilia Violet. I go to put a hand on her, just to raise her head, before I see it all unfold right in front of me.
No defenses, nothing. Her hand balls into a fist, raises closer and closer to my face. Nothing I can do. Absolutely squat.
Her fist lands smack bang in the middle of my face. That's the third fucking time. "MILA."
"SORRY. Shit..." She pulls off the blindfold and holds my face with both of her hands, analyzing my nose and making sure it's not broken.
For a split second, her attention is on me and only me, so much so that I don't even remember the fact she just punched me. Until the second is over, and her eyes glide to the right, over my shoulder.
"Oh... Carter." She said my first name... butterflies.
"You uhm... you set up a star projector for me?" She walks around the blankets, looking up towards the roof at the stars, well, they're not real stars. Obviously.
They are from some galaxy projector that Blair had in her room. I clutch my face, checking for blood as she positions herself on the blanket. "Carter.. this is amazing."
First name flutters... That's what I'll call it.
"It's just a galaxy projector and some blankets, nothing special." I reply dryly and she frowns. "Are you ready? This is the one and only time I'm saying this.."
It takes me a second to process before I realize. "Oh my- you're gonna say it aren't you." I sit down in front of her, smiling like an idiot with my legs crossed. "Do it, do it, do it. Oo can I record it."
I plead and she puts a finger to my lips, smiling back at me with little stars projected onto her face. "Carter Crawford" First name flutters. "Thank you."
I throw my arms up in victory, kissing my muscles just because i'm an asshole while she —to no surprise— rolls her eyes.
"I will never, ever say that again. You hear me? Never. Not under any circumstances." Noted.
"You still said it first..." I tease and lie down on her pillow, putting a hand behind my head and staring up at her.
"You want to know something else.?" I muse. "Hit me."
"There's KitKats in the desk drawer over there, Blair got some the other day for you." She raises an eyebrow, grabbing them and then returning to her spot on the blanket. A safe distance from me but our knees are touching only slightly.
"Blair hm?" I nod, avoiding that suspicious look. Whatever, I bought her KitKats.
"You're so strange Crawford, it's like... I want to punch you but also, understand you at the same time? It makes no sense, truly." She observes and I usher her to lie down beside me.
Mila brushes her hair to one side of her shoulder and eventually lies down beside me. "That's actually quite a common thought..." I reply.
"Oh yeah?" She teases back and I grin. "Nah, well... you of all people know, it's normally just the first part." Her head shuffled slightly so it's resting against my chest and her legs are pressed to my left one.
The little galaxy stars shine down on our stupid, smiling faces. "I figured that."
We remain silent for a little while as she sits forward, munching on the kitkat as well as staring up towards the roof.
"How do you keep up with me anyways...?" She mumbles as I trace my thumb in circles on the side of her arm.
"Oh well... I study every single night, like non-stop, test myself, get ahead on the syllabus, extra credit and-" Mila shoves me in the arm, cutting off my sentence.
"No, you dummy. I mean with my... like-hate relationship with you. Sometimes I get annoyed at you, shout at you, then you hug me and we smile like idiots with each other. You're not tired of it?"
Not even slightly. The whole bitchy thing is actually quite intriguing, plus? It's Mila's charm... of which many people would never understand, But I do.
"I go where you go Mila. And I like to think it's more of a mix, you 'late' me..." She narrows her eyes, propping her elbow up underneath her head.
"Late? Like... L-A-T-E?" I nod, ignoring the suspicious tone.
"Like... then hate. It's a late relationship. So you... late me. Although I have no clue why, I'm quite the catch Blondie. You're really missing out."
She giggles to herself and I can't help but smile, again. That fucking laugh is so pretty.
"Okay... Carter Gabriel Crawford." First name.... last name and middle name flutters. "I late you."
"Emilia, Valentina Violet. I 'late' you more." I respond
She brings her pointer finger up to my arm that's laying in between our bodies, the space is small but it's still space, space that I so badly want to close.
"May I?" I nod once and her finger goes down my arm, going from each tattoo to the next. Although most would retract their hand when reaching the wrist area, she smiles and traces the little stars around each scar. "I love these."
Her hair falls in front of her face before I push it away, those eyes looking at me as if I'd ran into fire, although I suppose I did. Any type of contact we engaged in resembled that feeling.
Not knowing whether you would make it out the other end, but it's so hot and warm when you're there that it's hard to leave, knowing that outside is cold and... well? The outside doesn't include Mila.
Mila's the fire and I'm the idiot who's dumb enough to brave the walk through.
"Let me hold you, just for a minute. Then we can go back to hating each other." She nods and positions her back to my stomach, practically spooning but neither of us care.
"What if I don't want to?"
...
Authors Note
Praying there is no mistakes in here, and sorry to anyone who wanted them to not be together for a little while longer because i just cant wait anymore lmao. Mila and Carter >>
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Words -2811
Date - 17/05/22
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