Chapter 8 - Loveable Joke
“First of all,” I was laying down all the rules for Carter. We were going downtown for the afternoon because he wanted to see the town. School just got out so there wouldn’t be any suspicion.
“Don’t talk about the Tigmas or history or your world or anything. When people ask just tell them your name and say you live across town.”
“I tell them I’m Carter Lanson and I live across town, but I’m here to visit you?”
“Exactly. They won’t suspect anything. Except my mom, but I’ll explain it to her later.”
“You’re still coming with me this weekend though right?”
“Yes,” I smiled, “I’m coming this weekend.”
He kissed me softly on the lips, “I’m ready.”
We went out the door and I locked it behind us. Carter held my hand and our fingers intertwined with each other. The closer to town we got the more everyone stared, but no one actually came up to talk to us. I showed him all the shops and we went into my mom’s company.
Are you sure this is a good idea? Carter thought to me.
There’s a lot of people around I replied She won’t yell.
He laughed quietly and mom’s assistant let us in to her office. She took her glasses off and her eyes got larger when she saw Carter and even more when she saw us holding hands.
“Who is this young man?” My mom asked.
“I’m Carter Lanson,” he replied.
“I’ve never seen you before.”
“I… I’m from across town.”
“Why am I just hearing this?” she directed her gaze back at me.
“This is the first time he’s been to this side of town,” I answered.
“And you didn’t want to tell me?”
“No,” I replied, “But I did now.”
“This is like your hair thing right?” she asked.
“It’s nothing like that.”
“Because it’s not a joke. Next time I’ll take you right to the police.”
“I promise it isn’t a joke!”
“He’s real?” she asked.
“Yes,” I replied, “He’s real.”
“Then it’s nice to meet you,” she looked back at Carter.
“You too,” he answered.
“What are you two doing?”
“We’re just walking around town,” I said, “We were bored.”
“Want to do the shopping tonight?” She asked, “I don’t know what time I’ll be done here.”
“Sure! I’ll impress Carter with my cooking skills.”
“Oh dear,” Mom laughed, “Keep water close.”
Carter laughed, “Should I be scared?”
“Yes,” Mom said at the time I replied, “No.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said.
“She just doesn’t like my favorite food. I make it whenever she’s not home.”
“What is it?”
“You’ll see,” I smiled, “Bye mom!”
“Be good! Call Brittany!”
“Yeah!” I yelled from the hallway.
We walked back out to town and laid against the boundary like we’ve done before.
“I thought we were supposed to go shopping?” Carter asked.
“We are but I don’t want to yet.”
“Why not?”
“If we go right now we’ll run into my really annoying neighbor.”
“So what’d your mom mean about the hair thing?”
I smirked, “Blonde isn’t my natural hair color.”
“It’s not?” he looked confused, “It looks good on you though.”
“Thanks,” I chuckled, “Growing up my mom never let me change my hair so when I turned 16 I went with Brittany after school to change it.”
“Why blonde?”
I shrugged, “It’s the opposite of black.”
He chuckled, “You’re really willing to disobey your mom that much?”
“Oh,” I smirked, “I didn’t disobey her.”
“Okay you’ve confused me.”
I shook my head, “If you tell anyone this I’m going to have to kill you.”
“Not that you could,” he smirked, “But I’ll go with it.”
I shook my head and laughed a little before reaching my hand up to my head. I pulled on the blonde strands of hair long enough for the wig to come off and fall into my lap revealing my black hair in a bun.
He started laughing, “So she only thinks you did.”
“Exactly and that’s good enough for me.”
“And here I thought you were a rebel,” he teased me.
“There’s a good explanation,” I said, “I chickened out. I was too scared of how it would look so Brittany just took me to buy a wig.”
“And your mom thinks it’s real?”
I nodded, “She comments on it almost every day. She hates it.”
“You always seem like you’re competing with her.”
“It’s complicated. Brittany’s the same way. It’s illegal for us to think what we do, but we can’t help it.”
“Think what?”
“Think what they’re doing here is wrong. It’s wrong to block the rest of the world from us and it’s wrong to protect us from everything. They take everything too seriously and our parents refuse to tell us the truth because they don’t know it either. I don’t want to live like this. I don’t want to live here. Something’s changing here, I can feel it. I want everything to break through. I want everyone to find out the truth because they deserve to. We deserve to be free too.”
“Maybe that’s what this is for,” Carter said, “Maybe this is just the beginning because sooner or later people are going to find out I’m not from around here and when they do it won’t be good. They’ll think I appeared out of thin air and they’ll try to tear us apart.”
“That won’t happened,” I interrupted him.
“What if it does Lily? What will they think?” he snapped.
I sat silently for a second, “I don’t know,” I admitted.
“It won’t be good.”
“I know but they won’t tear us apart.”
“Why not?” he asked.
“I’ve already told you,” I replied, “They take anything related to love very seriously. As soon as they know its love they wouldn’t dare tear us apart. It’s like an unspoken rule or something.”
“Let’s just drop it. It’s too early to be thinking about this anyway.”
“Yeah I guess you’re right.”
“Should we go to the store now?” he changed the subject.
“Yeah my neighbor’s probably home now.”
“Will you tell me what you’re making yet?”
“Sure.”
I stood up and held out my hand. I helped him stand up and we started walking to the store. Carter reached over to take my hand and I looked at him with the corner of my eye. I held onto his hand back and I saw him starting to smile. We lost complete track of time walking to the store, talking to ourselves most of the time. We practically ran into my neighbor on the way into the store.
“Well Lily how nice to see you! Where’s your mom? Probably working right? Oh silly me, who’s your friend? You’re holding hands! Is he a boyfriend?”
I smiled trying to hold in my annoyance until she was done talking.
“Yeah,” I replied, “Mom’s working again and this is Carter.”
“Nice to meet you young man! Where are you from? Where do you go to school? I don’t seem to remember you.”
“I’m Carter Lanson. I live across town.”
“That must be why. Have a nice day you two!”
“You too,” I smiled back.
I started pushing Carter further into the store so we could get away from her. The look on Carter’s face was of pure amusement. We waited until we were at the back of the store to start talking.
Carter was the first to start laughing, “And you have to live next to her?”
I started laughing too, “It’s not funny!”
“Then why are you laughing?” he asked between laughs.
“Because you are so stop!”
“Okay,” he said, his laugh lowered to a chuckle, “She was interesting though.”
“Yeah and the news of us will be all over town by tomorrow.”
“I’m okay with that.”
“Me too,” I smiled.
I held onto his hand tighter and rested my head on his shoulder. Carter took a basket and we started shopping. We were almost done when I heard shouting coming from the door.
“Lily! Best friend answer me!”
When I turned around Brittany was coming towards us. Her pace slowed down when she saw us holding hands.
“How’s it going?” she asked.
I smiled, “Carter, you remember Brittany.”
“Hey,” Carter smiled.
“Hey,” she said back, “Should you two be here? The school thinks Lily was sick today.”
“We’re shopping for my mom. She’s working tonight.”
“Ooh!” she smiled, “It’s pizza fries night!”
“Shh!” I laughed.
“What?” She asked.
I looked at Carter.
“Pizza fries?” he asked.
“Brittany and I made it up,” I said.
“And they’re really good,” Brittany added.
“At least all these ingredients make sense now,” he replied.
“Hey guys!”
“Oh no!” Brittany shouted at a whisper.
“It’s Mike.”
“He’s gonna be so heartbroken,” she added.
“Stop! I told you he doesn’t like me!”
Before she was able to respond Mike approached us.
“You comin’ tonight?” Mike asked.
“Not tonight,” I answered.
“I might though,” Brittany said.
I didn’t think he even heard Brittany respond. It took him a few seconds to realize he had no idea who Carter was. I didn’t have to read Carter’s mind to know he was jealous. After all, practically everyone in town has always thought I’d end up with Mike.
“Who is this?” Mike asked me, “I don’t know him.”
“I’m Carter,” he answered for me, “I live across town.”
“How do you know Lily?” he looked over at Carter.
“I just do.”
“I’ve known her my whole life you know?”
“Yeah and that’s good for you,” Carter responded.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Things were starting to escalate fast and the last thing I want is a fight. Mike might be a lot bigger than Carter but Carter’s more experience at fighting.
Carter held onto my hand tighter, “This isn’t some contest to see who’s known her longer. I really don’t care.”
“Maybe you should start.”
“I think you’re the one that needs to worry,” Carter replied.
“Why’s that?”
“Guys stop!” I interrupted them. “I don’t want a fight.”
“How’d you meet this guy?” Mike asked.
“We just did,” I told him, “So can you stop the fighting? We have to get home.”
“Who’s we?” Brittany smirked at me.
I smiled, “Don’t start. Come on Carter.”
“It’s gonna be an interesting night,” Carter said.
I pulled on Carter’s hand and started walking past Brittany and Mike. Carter smiled at me and I smiled back at him. It probably wasn’t a good idea. Mike caught a glimpse of our hands and grabbed Carter by the shoulder, turning us both around.
“Are you dating him?!”