'The people you love become ghosts inside of you, and like this you keep them alive.'
Chapter 2:
The last few days had gone by in a rush. The house was cluttered with boxes and bubble wrap. Even though we were keeping the house, there was a decent amount of things that needed to be kept safe. My schedule literally consisted of waking up, going to school, coming home, packing, dinner,packing, sleep. And the whole routine was repeated the next day. So on the day before we had to leave, my boyfriend, Carter decided to take me out on a date.
Me and him hadn't got a lot of time to hang out this week so he took this opportunity to help me relax. Quite honestly, I did miss him a lot and hanging out with him would help me unwind all the stress I had been carrying around lately.
Carter is the perfect boyfriend anyone could ever ask for. He's a gentleman, he listens to me, he takes care of me and he treats me right. Plus he gives out the whole boy-next-door vibe and it's all the more endearing. His good looks are just a bonus.
I straighten my wavy brown hair and tied it into a messy side braid before looking at myself in the mirror. I was wearing white skinny jeans and a mint green elbow length top. I don't have much makeup on, just a little lipgloss and mascara. Just as I had finished giving myself a once over, a car honked, signalling that my date was here.
I skipped downstairs and passed a very moody looking Jai and I knew exactly why. He had been that way since I told him about my plans for the day. Jai was the poster boy for an over protective brother and for some unknown reason he hated Carter's guts even though he had the least reason to since Jai's girlfriend Darcy is Carter's elder sister. No amount of convincing could change his mind about Carter so after a while I had just stopped trying. "I'm leaving. Bye!" I called out and walked out of the house before waiting for a reply. Carter stood against his black Audi a6 wearing faded blue jeans and a black graphic t-shirt.
"Hey baby." Carter greeted me with a smile when I reached him, he leaned down to kiss me.
"Hi." I smiled back and kissed him quickly before getting in the car. Don't get me wrong, I would love to just stand here and make out with him all day long but doing that while in such close proximity with both my brothers would literally be suicide.
Carter started driving with one hand on the wheel while the other held mine, our fingers intertwined. I smiled at the sight of our fingers before looking up at him, "I missed you."
"I missed you too love. It sucked to be so close to you yet so far away." He glanced at me once before looking ahead again. "Are you done packing?"
"Yeah. I just had to pack my clothes and stuff. If I forgot something I could always come back to pick it up." I shrugged. "It was Alex that needed help, seeing as he won't be back anytime soon." That thought saddened me but I had promised myself that today, nothing would put a damper on my mood and I was planning on sticking to it. "Anyway where are we going?" I looked out the window to see that we were in the central part of the city.
"We're going bowling. That's ok right?" Carter looked at me and raised an eyebrow cautiously.
"Yeah it's perfect." I smiled but honestly it wasn't. I mean I wasn't expecting anything really extravagant but a bowling date was a slight disappointment. I tried not to let my disappointment show and smiled, at least it was something. He seemed to have believed my answer as he smiled back and parked the car in the parking lot of the local bowling alley.
"You know you can still come and live with me." Carter said when I got out of the car and made my way to his side.
I laughed, "yeah yeah sure." I said sarcastically. Over his dead body would Jai let me live with Carter for over a year. Probably even then he'd come back and haunt me.
"Well think about it, the option is always open. And you can get Jai also, I mean it's not like he would complain. He'll get to stay with Darc." He took my hand in his and intertwined out fingers. I didn't say anything because I knew for a fact that no matter what the temptation was, Jai would never agree. He just wouldn't and even if he did, I didn't know if I wanted to. A few days or weekends is fine but I need my space too and maybe that makes me sound like a bitch but that's true. Me and Carter are literally joint to the hip when we're together. We're always attached and that's exactly why I think living with him wouldn't be the best idea.
We walked in and the smell of pizza overwhelmed me and made my mouth water. After getting our shoes, we picked the lane at the end because it was the only one which gave us some privacy. "You know I'm going to beat you." I smirked at him as he got up to pick a ball.
He scoffed, "yeah right."
"I do win, ya know." I sipped at my coke and looked at him.
"Yeah that's because I let you."
"Whatever makes you sleep at night Carter." I smiled and an evil plan started forming in my mind. As he got into position and took his aim I screeched "CARTER!"
The ball left his fingers and made it's way into the gutter. I laughed and clutched my stomach. He grumbled, "you're such a cheat!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"You're just mad because your first ball landed in the gutter." I smirked and got up.
"That was just because you yelled." He leaned back in his chair.
I stuck my tongue out childishly at him and picked out a ball before walking to the lane. I took a minute to take my aim and then I released the ball with ease "Spare!" I did a happy dance before making my way towards him again.
"It wasn't a strike." He pointed out.
"It also didn't land in the gutter." I sassed.
The game went on like that, with us trying to outdo each other but at the end he won and he wasn't letting me hear the end of it.
"Shut up!" I put my hand over his mouth as we made our way back towards the parking lot and he wouldn't stop his teasing. I wasn't really mad because I knew he was just having fun pulling my leg.
He licked my hand and I pulled my hand away immediately "Ew Carter!" I whined and wiped my hand on his shirt. He laughed and put his hand on my shoulder and pulled me into his side. I immediately relaxed and placed my head on his shoulder. He kissed my forehead and we got inside the car and we drove towards my house.
I actually had a lot of fun today. Even though we came over to the bowling alley quite a lot, today was indifferently different. If that made sense? Today was actually the closest thing to a fun night I had had in the last few days.
I looked out the window and saw that we weren't heading anywhere near my house, "Carter where are we going?" I asked him and raised an eyebrow.
"Well dates are never complete without ice-cream so we're going to get your favourite." He said and smiled widely at me.
Let me tell you one thing about me, ice creams are my absolute weakness and he knew that well enough. I couldn't help the large grin that took over my face and I leaned over and put my hands on his face and kissed his cheek, "I love you!" I dragged out the 'you'.
"Liv I'm driving! Careful baby." Carter shook his head like he was annoyed but the grin on his face, which mirrored mine told me that he was anything but annoyed. "But I love you too." He winked.
I was so excited that I almost jumped out of the seat as soon as Carter parked the car. Carter laughed and stepped up beside me,"you're such a kid." He shook his head while chuckling.
I swat his arm playfully, "Hey! I just love ice-cream ok?"
"Not more than me though. Because I'm awesome." Carter said cockily and wrapped his arm around my waist pulling me close.
"Nu-uh. I love ice-cream way more and they're awesomer than you."
"That's not even a word." He flicked my forehead with his finger and stuck his tongue out.
I move forward to capture his tongue and kiss him lightly. He smiled into the kiss and pulled me closer to him. We stood like that for a while, kissing each other in the parking lot before I pulled away. I looked up at him and quickly pecked him,"Now that you're happy, lets go get some ice-cream." I clapped my hands once and walked inside the ice-cream shop.
After we ordered our ice-cream, we made our way towards a table which overlooked the street. We sat there for a while,in comfortable silence and just people-watched for a while. I was in my own little bubble until a paper aeroplane hit me in the head.
"What the-?" I looked at Carter who was trying to contain his laughter.
"Jerk!" I muttered and threw the paper aeroplane back at him but since I'm not a coordinated person, my aim was way off.
"Penny for your thoughts?" He asked and ate his ice-cream.
"Eh I was just thinking about how everyone starts as strangers. Like you could be walking next to your future husband or best friend and you wouldn't even know until the right time. And even then you wouldn't know that once upon a time, you crossed them and that time you didn't even know that they would become the most important people in your life." I shrugged.
Carter looked at me for a while, like he was contemplating what I was saying, "You're too wise for your age Liv. I don't even know where you think of these things but let me tell you that they are bloody amazing and they keep me up at night because I keep thinking about them."
I smiled wide because I was glad I got someone thinking. "Now give me a taste of your ice-cream."
I made a face at him, "you know I don't share." I licked my pink bubblegum flavoured ice-cream.
"Yeah I know but you can make an exception for your amazing boyfriend." He leaned forward to lick my ice-cream. I smiled innocently and moved the ice cream cone towards him but before it was going to touch his lips, I moved it slightly upwards so the ice-cream met with his nose. I giggled and moved it a little, spreading it.
Carter's mouth hung open and he closed his eyes, "oh you didn't."
"Oh but I did." I smirked evilly, knowing fully well that I'll have to run as fast as my short legs would take me to get away from Carter.
As he was wiping his face with a tissue, I sprang to my feet and a started running out of the shop while laughing.
"Come here you!" He shouted while he ran after me. Being on the football team, he was a very fast runner and even though I was in shape, I couldn't possibly outrun him.
"Never!" I yelled back and kept running and laughing when suddenly arms wrap themselves around my waist and I was hauled over someone's shoulder. That someone obviously being my giant boyfriend.
He chuckled deeply and I squealed. "Carter put me down!" I trashed against him but to no avail as he just tightened his arms around my legs and carried me towards the car while laughing.
"You should've thought about this before you decided to put ice-cream all over my face. Plus I quite like this view." He teased.
I blushed, thank god he couldn't see me. Perverted comments always made me blush.
He finally put me down when we reached his car. We were standing so close to each other that I could see the tiny patch of freckles scattered across his nose, making his perfect face all the more perfect. We stared into each other's eyes for what seemed like eternity and his minty breath mixed with mine before he finally leaned down to kiss me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back with all my might. His tongue licked my bottom lip for entrance which I happily granted.
We were lost in each other's embrace and I never wanted to let him go but we needed to breath so we pulled away and as we caught our breath, I saw a big goofy grin making it's way on Carter's face. I smiled back, "what're you grinning at?"
He shook his head and engulfed me in a warm hug, "God I love you so much." He muttered.
"I love you too." I said and smiled at him.
And with that, we pulled away and with connected hands, we made our way inside his car.
As we were driving home, I leaned my head against the headrest and looked at Carter and my eyes roamed over his face, taking in every little detail. His unruly mop of dark curly hair, which was slightly pushed out of his face in sort of a quiff. His long eyelashes and soft blue eyes, his straight nose and how his lips formed an 'o' when he concentrated on something hard enough. It was then that I realised how lucky I was to have Carter as my boyfriend. He was amazing in every sense of the way. I was lucky to call him 'mine' and I felt luckier that he chose me when he could have had any other girl.
He looked at me and raised an eyebrow as if to say 'what' but I just shook my head and smiled at him.
After Carter dropped me home, he did the whole kiss-your-girlfriend-on-the -doorstep-after-a-date thing which was very sweet of him because it wasn't anywhere near our first date. I entered the dark living room with a thousand watt smile on my face. Alex had probably gone to bed early since tomorrow is the big day and Jai was probably out 'working'. I went upstairs and changed into my pajamas and I couldn't help but think that being with Carter was easy. We didn't disagree a lot and we didn't fight a lot and everything with Carter just came easily. Our love was easy and simple with no complications. At this point there was only one thing going through my mind, it was something my parents used to tell me. They always said that nothing in life worth having comes easy but if what me and Carter have was real, why did it feel so easy?
I shook my head to rid my thoughts and closed my eyes. It doesn't matter because I love Carter with all my heart and even though our love was safe and easy, he was worth it.
~~~Author's Note~~~
Really long chapter! :D anyway what do you guys think about Carter? Also their ship name is Carivia <3 don't forget to vote, fan and comment!
Love,
Sanskruti.