CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE; CARTER MEETS THE NEW YEAR PRT 1
❝ to the moon and back, remember? ❞
.･:*:･ﾟ'✫,'✫'ﾟ･:*:･˙
THE WEEKS HAD flown by them all, but that didn't mean the previous events in Texas were anything less significant. Riley and Maya found themselves faced with a choice; Lucas's crossroads had morphed another road less traveled, Zay was still torn over Vanessa, and Farkle was still kind of bitter that everyone else seemed to love his girlfriend almost as much as he did. Especially since Carter furiously denied it all, but that became another reason to re-evaluate just how perfect she was to him.
Carter couldn't help but love it.
They'd spent the majority of the winter break together and with their respective parents, but a good part of the time with both the Skies and Minkus clans together. Which was a very well respected scenario, considering their parents only settled for the absolute best spots in New York for Farkle to treat Carter on any date they went on, including their anniversary. Which had been a dream.
The day had been nice, breezy and cool, as they were dropped off at an aesthetically pleasing cafe with Farkle's disposable camera in one pocket and his dad's credit card in the other.
He'd never forgot how he marveled over how her hair smelled like strawberries, and her vanilla bean chapstick lingered on his lips.
In that moment, the words i love you had been on the tip of his tongue, where they continued to be from that moment on.
In this moment, however, Farkle and Carter had been making out for at least twenty minutes now, and her lips were starting to get numb.
Today was a cold one, but the snow had finally let up, and the two of them had spent the entire day nuzzled up to each other watching anything that grabbed their attention on the television. Which was pretty much just Christmas movies. Constantly. On repeat. So much so they had an hour long discussion on becoming film makers and creating any other form of non-cliché Christmas movie.
That was their current reality. Not that he was complaining.
"We've been doing this a whole lot more since Texas, don't you think?" Carter asked him, brushing a strand of her boyfriend's deep brown hair out of his face.
Farkle tilted his head with concern, suddenly feeling nervous. "Is that okay?"
Carter smiled softly at him. "Of course it's okay, I was just wondering if it had anything to do with . . . Lucas."
There it was. Lucas. Despite the closeness of the two, Farkle found himself resenting his Texan best friend more and more as time passed them by, and at the sound of his name coming from Carter's mouth, he didn't even realize he rolled his eyes until she gave him a stern look.
"He's our friend, babe. And I'm with you now, not Lucas. There's no valuable reason to still be jealous." Carter argued with a soft tone, grabbing his hand.
The blue-eyed boy sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "I know, I'm working on it. I've hardly seen him this entire winter break, I thought we'd all be over this by now, especially after Christmas."
At the word Christmas, Farkle let a soft smile paint itself on his lips. That day had been amazing, Carter and her father had spent the day with his family out on one of their beach homes despite the cold weather. They'd taken so many candid pictures that day, which was actually at more of the request of Farkle's.
He felt a light kiss on his cheek from his girlfriend, and snapped out of his daze to look her in the eyes.
"Speaking of Christmas," Farkle said in a soft tone. "My parents love the picture frames you painted them. I swear they won't stop talking about it."
Carter's face lit up and she clapped her hands happily. "Yay! It took me forever to find the right color scheme. Did you like your Pinterest jar, babe?"
He laughed lightly. "Adorable, and your ring?"
They both looked down at Carter's right ring finger at the simplistic yet elegant gold band wrapped around it. Farkle lightly grabbed her hand and toyed with it delicately while she spoke.
"Farkle, you know that I love it. How on earth did you find anything like it?"
The brunette looked up at her with a sly smirk playing on his lips. "Oh come on you know who my parents are. Did you seriously think any antique ring would stay hidden for long from them?"
Carter snorted. "Yeah, your parents really are like sharks when they want to be, huh?"
"Yup," Farkle said, pausing afterward as he fell deep in thought. They sat in comfortable silence for a while as Carter played some of her calmer music they both enjoyed, and she let herself lean onto his shoulder and her eyes flutter closed.
When Farkle has noticed her sleepy state, he brushed her hair out of her face and kissed her head gently.
The blue-eyed girl lifted her head and pushed Farkle back to lay on her cool bedsheets as she rested her head on his warm chest.
"Babe?" Carter asked as the song ended and her playlist shuffled itself. "What do you think Riley and Maya are going to do now?"
She felt his chest rise as he sighed, and tightened his grip on her. "For once, angel, I have absolutely no idea."
.･:*:･ﾟ'✫,'✫'ﾟ･:*:･˙
RILEY AND MAYA now had a choice to make, and it wasn't an easy one. At least the some part of their world had stayed right side up after Texas. Including the part where the two girls isolate themselves every time a problem occurs and don't come back to the rest of the world until they've made up their minds.
Unless they make the wrong choice. Then they disappear again.
After avoiding practically everyone else but each other all winter break, they knew at some point they'd have to face each other.
But how were they supposed to act knowing that apart of the boy they shared feelings for had a good chunk of his heart with Carter Skies written all over it?
The question, and the girl, had been on Riley and Maya's minds all day, despite their continuous efforts to distract themselves with anything they could find in the house. Scrap booking, friendship bracelets, television, even bothering Auggie. Until he threatened to call Topanga.
At that point, they'd just given up and resorted to the one thing that never let them down before in their life. Food. More specifically, mac and cheese. According to Riley, Kraft never fails.
"How long are we avoiding this?" Riley asked as her and Maya sat in silence at the dinner table, stirring their cooling food.
"Not avoiding anything," Maya replied, grasping onto the important notion of remaining aloof. "Just life moving beyond that thing that happened with Lucas."
"We've got to talk about it sometime don't we, though?" She asked, reaching for the ketchup bottle nearby.
Maya's eyes widened. "If you put ketchup in that bowl right now I will never—"
Riley interrupted her with the squelch of the bottle as ketchup sprayed everywhere and she furiously swirled her spoon into the mix.
"—ugh, forgive you."
The brunette sighed, and after fighting with her best friend for a good half an hour about whether or not there was actually a kiss, their phones pinged.
A text from Carter. How ironic.
CARTER SKIES
CARTER: do you guys want to hang at Topanga's today? Smoothies are on Farkle for once!
read at 2:58pm
Maya looked up at Riley from her phone and the message with an eyebrow raised. "How are we gonna go about this?"
"She's our friend, she didn't do anything wrong," Riley repeated to herself more than to Maya. "Carter technically denied him too, and it's almost Farkle and her's, like, six month anniversary."
"Riles, they've been dating for a month."
Riley rolled her eyes. "I was close."
"You most certainly were not."
"Ugh," The brunette groaned, and sat back down at the dining table. "How are we supposed to look them all in the eyes again?"
Maya grimaced, and took another spoonful of mac and cheese. "With a lot of. . . patience?"
They sat down together and came up with a quick response for Carter.
CARTER SKIES:
RILEY:
can't, we're on auggie duty today,
def soon tho. love u :)
read at 3:01pm
CARTER:
gotcha! see you soon!
love u 2 :))
read at 3:02pm
"God, she's so nice," Maya grunted, putting the phone down on the table. "It's always so hard to turn her down."
Her best friend sighed. "Agreed. I feel bad doing this, are we sure we've been doing the right thing?"
The blonde looked up at her with a smirk. "Oh, since when have I ever been doing the right thing?"
Riley's phone rang again, this time, it was Lucas. She didn't even bother to open it. The game he was playing was dangerous enough as it had been, then he had to go and kiss her best friend? Worst of all, Riley still had feelings for him, and Maya's only strengthened.
Funny how the human psyche of a teenage girl worked that way.
Sure, now that all the secrets were out except for Riley's, everyone else felt a whole lot more relief and just wanted to move on. Of course, except for Riley, who couldn't bring herself to.
In some strange way, the chocolate brown-eyed girl had convinced herself that by making Maya repeat the situation over and over again, maybe her overloading feelings for Lucas would disappear. Maybe Maya wouldn't have to be hurt when she couldn't take it anymore and took what she had said at the campfire back.
Even if it had been for Maya's sake.
That she did still have feelings for Lucas. That he wasn't actually like her brother, that they were more than that. Like Lucas had said. Like Lucas had thought at that point, that it's what he wanted. Until he had seen Carter and Farkle kiss.
Funny how the human psyche of a teenage boy worked that way.
Maya snapped her fingers, unknowingly pulling Riley from her thoughts. "So, what did Huckleberry say? Or have you secretly read the message in your mind?"
The girl giggled and rolled her eyes. "Ha ha, very funny. I don't know what he said. I'm scared to look."
"Just hand me the phone then, I'll read it, and if it's bad I promise I won't tell you until you've had ice cream first." Maya said patiently, pulling the device from her hands.
The blonde swore she's done this routine with her best friend at least seven times this week, not that she was complaining. They got ice cream after.
Riley rubbed her temples in frustration. "What could Lucas Friar, the boy who started this all, what could he absolutely, possibly say that could change how awful we think of him right now?"
Maya rolled her eyes at her theatrics and pressed her thumb onto the home button of Riley's phone and watched as it opened, and clicked on her most recent notification. She had a feeling they were about to find out.
Riley belly flopped onto the couch and buried her face in the nearest throw pillow, making a bet with herself over how long her attempt to hide from reality would last.
"Oh god." The blonde said from the kitchen in a dreadfully dull tone.
Riley perked up instantly, as Maya suspected she would.
"What?" She asked suddenly, jumping up and rushing to Maya's side, almost crashing into her as her socks slipped on the hardwood flooring. "What did he say?"
Maya shook her head after regaining her balance, and handed her phone to her. "See for yourself."
She had opened her phone to Lucas and Riley's conversation in her Messages, and she scrolled down to the most recent message delivered five minutes ago.
LUCAS FRIAR
LUCAS: hey.
read at 3:30pm
.･:*:･ﾟ'✫,'✫'ﾟ･:*:･˙
I know, I know it's been forever believe me. I've missed you guys. I just entered junior year this year, and the Tik Toks are correct. Every other class except junior is living their best life. I also have a job, and a lot of boy problems. Go figure, seeing as how #Carkle is THRIVING! This is more of just a filler chapter to jump into Carter Meets New Year, hopefully i can get that out to you guys on the New Year incase any of you lovelies would love to spend the introduction to a new decade reading Little Skies.
I've seen all of your wonderful messages and votes and comments, and they are what keep me going. Thank you for over 140k, i love you all so very much. I'll see you all very soon.
Love, JJ