Reminder: Football = soccer
Yeah the football team wasn’t a one chapter thing. He legit joined the team, therefore football will be mentioned. I might have to do my research on football (meaning going into my brother’s room and asking him and hoping he doesn’t kick me out. Oh sibling love. ) but I’ve been to several football matches and I watched practices. *fingers crossed*
“Lift your feet higher ladies!” Carter rolled his eyes at the coach’s nickname for the team. He resisted the urge to glare at his football coach as he simply obeyed what he told them to do. He just wanted to be over so he could apologize to Lucky. She caught him at a bad moment yesterday but now he felt guilty. Yesterday would have been Sarah’s birthday.
“You okay man?” he heard Nick ask as they started doing the regular stretches.
“Yeah I’m fine” Carter grumbled out. He couldn’t explain why he felt so bad. Usually he wouldn’t have cared. He would rather push Lucky away before she got too close but he couldn’t explain why he didn’t want to do that to her.
“No you’re not. I know you’re generally in a bad mood but today it seems to be worse” Nick said.
“Yesterday I kind of snapped at Lucky and I feel guilty. Happy?” he explained, trying to balance the football on his knee. He was learning to love football again. His uncle had told him that sport is a good way to take your mind off something and it was true, although he still felt slightly depressed, he felt better than when she first died but it didn’t mean he still didn’t have his moments where he sat alone in his room and just thought about her.
“Why don’t you just try to make friends?” Nick asked. Carter sighed and started bouncing the ball on his knee and then passed it to another one of his teammates.
“You’re my friend, aren’t you?” Carter asked with a shrug and it was true.
“Yeah but besides me. You rarely ever talk to Maria or Daniel unless you have to. You talk to Lucky but it’s complicated since she’s the one who talks but you always seem more comfortable around me or her” Nick said, until grinning like an idiot. “Oh, I see.”
“What exactly does your sick mind see?” Carter asked, feeling amused.
“You have a little crush on Lucky” Nick said, wiggling his eyebrows, Carter’s eyes widened and he let out a string of denials. He’s only known Lucky for a month and his girlfriend only died two months ago. Lucky was nothing like Sarah and Sarah was his type.
She’s not Sarah.
“Oh really, c’mon you have to admit, Lucky is pretty. But don’t tell Maria I said that” Nick said.
“Yeah she’s alright” Carter muttered. The truth was: Lucky was extremely pretty but she wasn’t Sarah. No one could bring Sarah back. “Keep your voice down. Didn’t you say her boyfriend was on this team?”
“Yeah, so? Sam is on the other side of the field. We’re defenders, remember? He’s a midfielder. So relax” Nick said, looking amused.
“This is just warm ups Nick, he doesn’t have to stay in his position” Carter reminded him.
“Whatever. But you should think about what I said about the friend thing. I know you’ve been trying. I could tell because yesterday you actually cracked a smile at Maria” Nick said. “By the way, never smile at my girlfriend again” he said, giving him a stern look. Carter raised his hands in defence and took a step back.
“Promise” Carter said, patting Nick on the back, chuckling.
“Carter! I missed you” he chuckled as Sarah ran into his arms. He spun her around, laughingly.
“It’s only been a weekend” he said, kissing her on the cheek. The truth was, he had missed her too.
“Yeah but we had no school last Friday so it’s been three days” she pointed out. He chuckled and played with the ends of her hair. “Who’s that?” she asked suddenly. Carter cocked one eyebrow and turned around to where Sarah was pointing. His eyes widened when he saw Lucky, leaning against his locker, smirking at him.
“Lucky?” he asked, shocked.
“Hey Carter” she said, taking hold of his hand.
“What’s going on, baby?” Sarah asked with her hands crossed over her chest, glaring at Lucky.
“Carter, c’mon, we have to go” Lucky said, tugging on his hand.
“What are you talking about?” he asked her.
“It’s time to get over it, Carter” she said.
Carter jolted awake when he felt someone poking his ribs. He looked over to see Lucky giving him a weird look. He groaned and ran a hand over his face; he had fallen asleep in English again. Lucky cocked one eyebrow at him before turning forward. He hoped that he hadn’t been talking in his sleep. He stared at her profile, her eyes looked sleepy and she was staring at the teacher blankly.
“Thank you” he said, after a moment of hesitation. He felt a smile tug at the corner is lips when she gave him a confused look. “For waking me up” he clarified.
“No problem” she said with a shrug. He sighed, knowing why she was behaving the way she was.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped at you. I was in a bad mood and I shouldn’t have taken it out on you” he said, hoping she would forgive him. She scrutinized him for a moment before giving him a mischievous smile.
“You’re talking to me” she said after a while, confusing him even more.
“What?”
“You usually stick to yourself and let people come to you but now you’re doing the talking” she explained. That was true, if she only knew why he was like that. It would make things so much easier. He gave her a curt nod before turning back to face the teacher. They sat in a comfortable silence for the rest of the class.
'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'~'
“So my sister is visiting for the weekend. Sorry about the mess” Lucky said. Carter had hesitantly agreed to go to her house after school. He was terrified over her brothers and if they were here this time. He was leaving.
“It’s okay” Carter said, waving a dismissive hand. “Um. Are your brothers here?” he asked, feeling hopeful the answer was ‘no’.
“Just Daniel. I told you Mikael and Junior both have families of their own. They have no time for us” Lucky said. Carter let out a sigh of relief as she said that. Daniel already knew him and he was a nice guy so he should be safe. They sat in a comfortable silence for a while, he was looking around idly and Lucky was playing with a few strands of her hair.
“Why purple?” Carter asked before he could stop himself but he was relieved when she looked up and smiled at him.
“Purple is my favourite colour so I figured why not dye my hair purple” she said, her eyes shining with excitement. He gave her a small smile and looked down at the marble counter. “So who’s Sarah?” she asked suddenly. Carter felt a pang of grief and his head snapped up.
“What?” he asked, praying he had misheard her.
“Today when you were sleeping in class, you kept muttering that name” Lucky said, Carter thought he saw hurt flash across her eyes but he was probably just imagining things. He sighed as he tried to think of an explanation.
“She’s my girlfriend” he said, quickly.
“Oh, she lives here in New York?” Lucky asked, sounding interested which confused him.
“No” he answered, feeling depressed.
“So it’s a long distance kind of thing?” she asked, her eyes brightening up.
“Something like that yeah” Carter answered, giving her a polite smile. If she only knew.
Tyler Posey is attractive so he’s Carter as of now cuz wow. That man.