6 years ago
5 months before
"How did you get that?" Carter asked in surprise after he had opened the door for Josh. His cheek was bruised, almost purple colored and side of his face was swollen as well . "I fell from my bike again," Josh said with an awkward smile, and he scratched the back of his neck.
Carter let his friend in and closed the door behind him. "Again? That is the second time this month," he said. "If you can't ride your bike properly without hurting yourself, you should do it at all."
"I need to learn it," Josh shrugged jumped down onto the couch. "Where are your parents?" he asked after he had buried his face into one of the pillows.
"They're out tonight," Carter answered and went to sit down next to the other. "Dad got off work early for the first time in months so they used the opportunity to go out together. My mom left Mac and Cheese in the fridge. If you haven't had dinner yet I can warm it up for you."
Josh nodded his head. "Warm it up please. I'm starving."
Carter let out a soft chuckle before walking to the kitchen.
Josh was going to spend the night here again. They had been having sleepovers almost once every two or three weeks now. Not that Carter was complaining; the more time he spent with Josh, the better. He had realized he was in love with him after all, yet was trying to do a good job not to show it. Though the more he was around Josh, the more he really started to notice his feelings towards him. He wondered how Josh would react if he knew about his feelings. Would he be disgusted? Would be be confused? Would he be happy or angry? Carter was curious yet at the same time terrified.
During the night, after they had finished watching a movie, the two of them laid in bed together, and Carter was a bit surprised that Josh was already so tired. Though if he wanted to sleep, Carter would let him.
"...Hey, Carter?" Josh asked softly.
"Hm?" Carter hummed, turning his head on the pillow to look at Josh, noticing his swollen cheek in the dim light of the moon that shone through his bedroom window.
"I'm really glad that we met," Josh said, his eyes were closed and Carter could hear from his voice that he was about to fall asleep.
"Same here," Carter smiled and he turned to lay on his side to face Josh, their faces now close to each other and he could feel Josh's breath against his skin.
"Please don't ever leave me," he said. "You're all I have...."
Carter listened to Josh and frowned a little at his remark. "Of course I won't leave you," he said. "You're one of the most important people in my life."
Josh's lips curled up into a smile and he shifted a little closer to Carter. "Thank you," he whispered.
Now.
Carter nearly fell asleep again when he was in the school bus. He hadn't had much sleep that night, the events of what had happened yesterday kept replaying in his mind. The conversation he had with Josh in his boat, and what happened after that. The thought that they almost kissed kept flaring Carter's cheeks up, and for some reason, each time he thought about it, he caught himself smiling.
He now knew that the old Josh was still present, but that he was hidden away for some reason, and Carter still didn't understand why. Though he was determined to find out. Not just because he was curious, but because he needed to know in order to bring the old Josh back.
Once arrived at school, he walked to his History classroom, wondering if maybe he had this class with one of his friends, or that he was at least able to make new friends. As he walked into the classroom, he looked around before seeing Alyssa sitting next to another girl he didn't know. She looked at him and smiled, waving at him and motioning for him to sit at the desk behind her. Carter returned the smile and walked up to the desk, putting his bag onto the ground before sitting down on the chair.
"Good morning," Alyssa greeted him.
"Good morning," Carter said. Even though he felt a bit awkward seeing her like that after what had happened yesterday, he also couldn't help but feel a little sad. Alyssa was still also one of his best friends, and despite her dating Josh, she really was a good person. Which was exactly the reason why he couldn't bare to tell her the truth. He knew he should, but he couldn't just hurt her like that. She was also in love with Josh, after all.
"Carter, this is Sasha," Melanie said, referring to the girl sitting next to her. Carter looked at her. She had blonde hair tied up in a ponytail, and seeing by how long the ponytail was, she needed to have quite long hair.
"Hi," he said, forcing his lips into a small smile.
"Hey," Sasha smiled at him, and Carter could see Alyssa giving him a look.
Of course, he immediately realized that she wanted to hook him up with her. It was nice of her to do, but she had no chance with him. He wasn't going to say that out loud, though.
"Carter just moved back after he had been to Minnesota for five years," Alyssa tells Sasha. "We've been friends since Elementary School, along with Josh."
Carter shifted in his seat a bit, feeling slightly uncomfortable talking about Josh at the moment. Had she told her friends about their relationship? Knowing Alyssa, she probably had.
The rest of the week went by smoothly and so did the one after that. The first class he had with Josh again after what had happened on the boat was a little awkward, nothing much was said and frankly, Carter almost blushed each time he saw the other.
Though he was glad that he was slowly finding his place again, and that it had gotten a lot less scary now, being the sort-of-new-guy.
Should he have feel embarrassed, having told Josh about his feelings? No, he didn't so himself. He had already told Josh a long time ago.
Carter closed his locker door, glad that he just had his last class of the week, and for the weekend to start again. He already had a pile of homework to do and figured he'd best get to it.
Upon closing his locker, Paxton suddenly walked up to Carter and swung his arm around him.
"Carter! Just the guy I needed," he smiled, starting to walk while dragging the shorter male along.
"Pax?" Carter said in slight surprise when he was pulled along, almost stumbling a bit as he had to keep up with the other while his side was pressed against Paxton's chest. "What do you need?"
"Well," Paxton said, "I have been made aware of the fact that it's your birthday next week," he said.
"Oh, right..." Carter had almost forgotten about his birthday. Which was probably strange since he was turning eighteen, after all. He suddenly felt old. "So? I'm not going to throw a very big party or anything. I'll probably just invite you, Chris, Melanie, Alyssa and Josh."
"Nah, you don't need to throw a big party or anything," Paxton said. "But there is something I do want to make happen."
Carter looked up at him at curiosity, needing to balance a bit as they were walking off the steps outside the school building. "And what would that be?"
"Well," Paxton said and he then stood still on one of the last steps, leaning against the stone railing. "I'm not sure if you're aware of Chris' affections towards Melanie."
Carter raised his eyebrows in surprise. "I was not aware of that, no," he said, though now it was starting to make sense. He had alway thought Chris looked a lot at Melanie, and smiled a lot more when she was with him. "So, I take it that you want to hook them up?"
"Correct," Paxton said with a smirk forming his lips. "Now, I'm not asking you to revolve your entire birthday around those two, but I've been working my ass off to get those two together ever since Chris told me at the start of summer vacation. I've even managed to get them on a date together, but Chris was still too shy to confess to her. So, I had an idea that during your birthday, we get those two alone for a moment. Like, maybe having them meet up at the beach together and then we "accidentally" go to the wrong side of the beach," Paxton explained. "And then we let them be alone for a moment, on the nice, warm beach, while they can figure out together where we are. It's evil but brilliant, right?"
Carter let out a soft chuckle at the plan his friend had worked out. "Sure, I'll go along with that," he said.
"Great!" Paxton grinned and ruffled Carter's hair. "I'll think out some more details of the plan later on, okay?" he said. "But I have to go now. Need to catch my bus." He walked off the steps and Carter followed him.
"Alright. I'll try my best to follow up. See you on monday," Carter greeted him before he also walked to his bus. Paxton gave him one last wave before getting into the bus that went to the center of Hayland.
Carter walked up to the other bus that drove to Port Hayland and got in, wondering for how long Chris had liked Melanie. Of course he was going to help Paxton. Chris and Melanie were both amazing people and he thought they'd be good for each other.
As he walked into the bus, he noticed that it was rather full already until he saw an empty seat somewhere in the back, though he felt a sudden tingle going through him when he saw the blond male who sat next to the empty seat.
Not having any other choice, Carter walked up to him and went to sit next to him. "Hey," he said, giving a quick glance at Josh and flashed him a smile.
Josh looked back and sat up a little. "Hey," he greeted back.
The bus took off and Carter looked at Josh's hands which were placed on his lap as they drove. His hand was large, and firm looking as well. He thought back of when it was placed on his neck, and remembered how warm and soft it was.
"I'll be celebrating my birthday next week," Carter said and cleared his throat. "You're coming as well, right?"
Josh turned to him and his blue eyes met with the chocolate colored ones of Carter. "Of course I'm coming," he said. "It's not everyday that you turn eighteen." Josh gave the other a small smile.
"No, not every day," Carter said and returned the smile. He leaned back against the seat and looked out the window. "Though I'm glad that I'm finally turning eighteen. I've always been the youngest of everyone," he said with a soft sigh. "And Halloween is also coming up."
Josh gave a soft huff. "You'll always be younger than us. That's not going to change," he said with a smirk, his knee nudging Carter's. "Alyssa is probably going to throw another Halloween party. She likes dressing up."
Carter remembered how Alyssa also always threw Halloween parties in Middle School, and how fun they always were, so he was looking forward to that.
"...Remember how we were playing spin the bottle, the last Halloween party before I moved away, and your bottle pointed at mine?" Carter said, smiling at the memory. He had ended up giving him a kiss on the cheek, though it was still enough for Carter to get so very flustered.
"Yeah, I do remember," Josh said and chuckled.
Carter looked up at him, at his lips and remembered how soft they had felt. They were still soft looking, and he wondered what they would feel like now, after all those years. He wondered how Josh would react if he said his thoughts out loud, and looked at his reflection in the mirror, only then seeing that he was looking back at him.
"I almost can't believe we're eighteen now," Josh mumbled and his eyes traveled to the back of the seat in front of him.
"Yeah," Carter said with a soft sigh. "Eighteen..."