yo yo yo brenna didnt take an entire eon to update more like only half an eon so praise me also like can we take a fucking second to admire that gif wowie
+
recap; carter thinks calum was with other girls when they were together and calum thinks carter was with other guys when they were together thanks to amandas lies and carter and max are kinda a thing and jess is having a party so yay
+
*Carter's POV*
"That looks like a giant penis." I hear Calum's voice cut through my concentration.
I glance out of the corner of my eye to where Calum sits next to me, looking condescendingly at the sandcastle I was attempting to sculpt. Caden sits obediently next to him, occasionally going in to lick Calum's cheek, but the boy doesn't even blink. I guess he's used to my dog assaulting him by now.
"Shut up, it's not done yet." I grumble back, filling another bucket full of sand and patting it down.
"Hey don't be sassy, it's not my fault it looks like a dick." He laughs, sliding closer to me and grabbing a bucket.
"Well it's not my fault you are a dick," I taunt right back, attempting to shove him away from me even though he only scoots closer.
He doesn't say anything back, instead sitting shoulder to shoulder next to me. I can feel him staring at me but I just ignore him as I continue to pile sand into the bucket. Flipping over the bucket, one of my sand structures crumbles immediately and I groan. These things are impossible to build.
'Here, you're doing it wrong," He chuckles and starts to shovel sand into his bucket.
"Since when do you know everything about sandcastles?" I scoff, but I let him help my gigantic failure of a creation. He stays concentrated on the golden brown sand but answers my question.
"Since I won a sandcastle building contest when I was eight," He says proudly. "Bobby Finstock didn't stand a chance," He boasts and I burst out laughing.
"Oh my bad, go right ahead supreme sandcastle ruler..." I say sarcasticaslly and he glares at me and snatches a sand tool from my hand.
"I will." He sneers and turns back to the sandcastle, working to add more towers along the edge while I sit there and pet Caden, letting "the master" do his work. By the time he seems to be finished, it doesn't look much better than mine did, but the penis shape was gone at least. Caden starts to squirm in my arms but I try to control him as Calum turns to me with a smug grin.
"Now look at tha-" He starts to say but Caden suddenly surges out of my arms, barreling right through Calum's newly built sandcastle and bounding towards a stray seagull that was waddling by the water. The castle came crumbling down and shock takes over Calum's face.
'Shit!" He shouts, popping up on his feet. "Come back here you fucker!" He takes off sprinting after the dog, racing towards the edge of the water where the border collie attempts to wrangle to bird, though it immediately flys away.
"Calum it's just a sandcastle you idiot!" I shout to him with a laugh, looking between the demolished creation at my feet and the showdown between Calum and my dog. My dog gave up on the bird and was now focused on Calum, his tongue hanging out of his mouth while Calum circles around him, his face lit up in laughter.
"It's not just a sandcastle, Carter, it's my dignity!" He shouts back, and I climb to my feet, already jogging over to him, but my dog gets to him first, tackling him to the ground and sticking his tongue out to lick his face. I can't help but be reminded of the first time me and Calum met, when Caden tackled him for his ice cream, and I bursrt out laughing.
I stand over Calum, whose eyes are clenched shut as Caden furociously licks his face, giggles erupting from his mouth.
"Deja vu, huh?" I laugh and Caden stops licking Calum enough to give him the opportunity to sit up and wipe the slobber off his nose.
"I'm just irresistible, what can I say?" He smirks.
"Well, I wouldn't go that far..." I tease and a playful glint overtakes his eyes.
"That's it..." His arms wrap around my legs and I go flying into the sand right next to him, practically landing on top of him while he wrestles me to the ground. "No one sasses the sandcastle master."
"I'd like to see you stop me," I laugh from underneath him, trying to break free from his hold, but he doesn't let me go.
'Is that a challenge, Carter Stevenson?" He squints his eyes at me.
"Yes it is, Calum Hood."
+
*Carter's POV*
"Carter I'm going out!" I hear my mom shout from downstairs. I don't bother to move out of my bed or pause my episode of Psych, but I just yell back a response.
"Ok, I'm just gonna stay in tonight!" I holler back. (A/N; but she aint no hollaback girl am I right ladies)
"Alright hun, don't wait up," She calls back her response and I hear the door slam shut, leaving me alone with Netflix and frozen pizza. Perfect.
I return my attention to the show and snuggle even deeper into my bed, losing track of time as I hop from one episode to the next. Before I know it, a soft whine comes the foot of my bed and I look down to see Caden sitting there dejectedly, a small piece of paper in his mouth. I pat the bed beside me, beckoning him up.
"Hey buddy, watcha got there?" He leaps onto the bed, climbing right onto my lap (pushing my laptop out of the way in the process) and dropping the slip of paper onto me. I pick it up to see that it's an old picture of Calum and I from the summer, a photo booth set of pictures from the time that we went to the movies together.
The first frame is just us smiling, the second is us sticking out our tongues. But in the third frame, Calum's lips are suddenly planted on my cheek and a look of surprise is etched across my face; it was the first time he had ever kissed me (well, sort of kissed me). The fourth frame included Calum, a huge smile on his lips as I reciprocated the kiss on his cheek, this time taking him by surprise. We were so much happier back then, I never would have guessed we'd end up here.
A sad smile overtakes my face just thinking about it.
"I know buddy, I know..." I sigh. "But he won't be coming around anymore." I put the picture down on my lap again, but Caden uses his nose to push the picture towards me again, emitting a soft whine.
"We're better off without him, Caden, I promise. He's not really who we thought he was." Caden groans and snuggles into me, and I just look at the picture, thinking about how happy we used to be together. It feels like years ago.
He's so much different now, it's like the old him form the summer is completely erased. He's arrogant and obnoxious, and especially now that I know that he was with other girls when he was with me, I feel like I never even knew him at all.
Sick of the sight and the way the picture makes me feel, I drop the picture into the trash can.
+
Most of my Friday nights consisted of me staying in and watching movies or reading a book or something, but not this Friday. No, tonight was the night of Jess' party.
She'd already texted anybody that's anyone in the entire area code and handed out some flyers around school, creating a mass hype that I thought only existed in movies. My party experiences were next to none, most of the ones I've been to have been before I was ten years old, and always included frilly decorations and mini cupcakes, so I'm guessing Jess' party will be a change of pace.
Jess was requiring all of us to go over early to her house to prepare for it, so I wasn't surprised when my phone dinged as I was leaving the school that day.
Jess; eight @ my house losers, bring whatever alcohol you can find
Another text lights up the screen a second later.
Jess; be ready for the party of the fucking century my friends
+
"Alright guys, game plan-" I hear Jess say as I step through the door of her gigantic house. Jess, Amanda, Rebecca, Michael and Luke are standing around Jess' kitchen island but their attention is averted to me the second I step through the door.
'Oh hey Carter, we were just going over the plan once more." I nod silently and slip in next to Luke in the group huddle. Jess has a clipboard the size of a small elephant leaning on her hip and I'm kinda surprised how much effort she was putting into this party. I thought that all it took was a few kegs of beer and an empty house but not in Jess world apparently.
She continues with her speech. "Alright, so Ashton and Calum are out getting the beer and Macy and Stacey are spreading the details last minute to everyone they can think of so I think we're basically covered. All we have to do now is party proof the house, you know, putting valuables away and everything, and the party starts at nine so we should be good by then."
'What kind of beer are they getting?" Rebecca pokes in.
"I don't know, does it matter?" Jess asks. "It's not like you're picky. With beer or boys." She snarks and Rebecca rolls her eyes.
"Hey, it won't be a party without drunk Becca though..." Michael laughs, taking out some of the tension between the two girls. "Remember summer 2012 with the giant blow up turtle and the mayonnaise-" Rebecca cuts him off.
"No need to bring that up Gordo," She glares at him.
"I never should have fucking told you my middle name was Gordon..." Michael curses under his breath but the door opens and four individuals stream into the kitchen.
"Guess who scored the good beer!" Calum exclaims, hoisting some sixpacks above his head in a victorious smirk. "We got a few kegs in the back of the car too, don't worry." He drops the beer into a cooler and joins the huddle.
"Guess who scored the good boys!" Macy exclaims as she trails behind him, Stacey and Ashton behind her. "That's right, I got the whole Briarwood basketball team to come."
"Well shit, I owe their point guard a blowjob," Rebecca mutters under her breath but eveyone ignores her.
Jess finishes up her speech, Calum and I glare at each other, Michael makes fun of Luke and everything seems to be going normally until Amanda says something that catches my attention.
"Girls, how about we go change now, and we'll let the boys take care of party-proofing the house?' Everyone nods their agreements like they expected this but I wasn't prepared to change, I just figured we'd wear what we're wearing.
"Change?" I decide to pipe up.
"Oh honey, you didn't bring party clothes?" Amanda scans me up and down thoroughly.
"These are my party clothes?" I look down at my skinny jeans and black tank top. It's not like it's an ugly outfit, I figured it'd be fine wore the party.
"Maybe if you're going to a party at a convent, but we do things a little differently here sweetie." She says condescendingly and I feel like an eye roll is needed but I avoid it. I feel it's better to stay on Amanda's good side.
"Don't worry Carter, I have somethings you can wear, you look around my size." Jess speaks up and all the other girls nod their agreements.
"I'm seeing a nice burgundy color," Stacey adds, looking me over.
"No way, she's definitely more of a carmine girl," Macy disagrees and they look at each other in disgust.
"Are you fucking blind or just dumb-" Stacey starts to argue with her twin sister but Jess, Rebecca and Amanda whisk me off to the stairs while the boys (who weren't really paying attention to our girly talk, instead discussing Xbox) head off to party proof the house.
"We'll just leave tweedle dee and tweedle dum to sort out their fashion emergency on their own." Jess rolls her eyes and continues up the massive staircase.
I'm not surprised when Jess' room is the size of my house, or when her walk-in closet is filled to the brim with expensive clothes and outfits, but I am a little taken aback when (after a little searching) she pulls out a small, shimmery blue dress and chucks it at me.
"Try this one on," she says and shoves me into the adjacent bathroom without another word. I shimmy out of my current outfit and tug on the dress, looking into the mirror to see that it's about half the size of any other dress I own, but actually hits my curves in all the right spots. It's hot, but not slutty, which is nice. It looks good, and I'm a little shocked.
I step out, and all the girls (most of them already changed into their equally revealing dresses) turn to look at me.
"Damn, Stevenson, you wear that dress better than I do," Jess compliments, a surprised look on her face. She's dressed in a sleek silver dress, the v-neck low and the price probably more than my college tuition.
"Yeah you do," Rebecca laughs and Jess glares at her, not wanting anyone else to agree. "Max is one lucky guy, is he coming tonight?" She asks and all the girls immediately move closer.
"Um, I think so, he said he might stop by," I reply, not really sure. We haven't gone on another official date after Calum ruined our first one, but we see each other in school and he walks me to class a lot. We're not really dating yet, but we've kissed so it's kind of at that awkward level where we're not really defined yet. But I like him, he's sweet and cute, and basically everything that Calum's not.
"He better, the more people the more epic this party will be," Jess exclaims, already pumped for the party and all the girls murmur their agreements while heading towards the stairs that lead to the main floor and the boys.
All the guys are sitting down at the kitchen island when we come down and they immediately look towards us when we appear. It couldn't be more obvious when they scan over all of our bodies, taking in our tiny dress and looking at us in shock.
"Well shit ladies, are you trying to give me a boner?" Michael laughs and Rebecca groans.
"Can you keep your pervy comments to yourself for one fucking night Gordo?" She glares but can't keep the annoyed smile off her face. They start arguing, Jess and Amanda go off to check on some last minute party crisis, Ashton and the twins start dragging in the kegs and Luke looks down at me.
"Damn New Girl, you clean up nice," He ruffles my hair again and I bat his hand away with a laugh, preparing to reply when an obnoxious voice cuts through.
"Isn't that dress a little short?" I swivel to see (of course) Calum standing there with his arms crossed and his lips in their natural angry pout. He's looking at my dress and practically glaring, as if it did something to offend him, but what I wear and what I do is none of his damn business anymore.
"Yeah, it's modeled after your dick," I glare back at him Luke bursts out into laughter, earning a cold glare from Calum and a satisfied smirk from me. Serves him right.
"Fuck off," He looks between Luke and I, "Both of you can suck a-" He starts to go on a rampage but Jess suddenly storms into the kitchen in a panic.
"Party emergency, we never bought any chips or food at all and we need to go out and get some asap or nobody will even have anything to eat and a Jess Connelly party can't disappoint. Who wants to go to the store?" She looks around at all of us and Luke speaks up hesitantly.
"I guess I'll go," He shrugs, "Anyone else wanna come?" He raises his eyebrows at me.
"Yeah, I'll go too," I shrug as well. Why not, it's better than staying around here until people start to come.
"Sweet," He smiles at me then looks at Calum. "Bro, we'll need your keys." Calum's the only one with a car besides Jess and Jess swore that no one would lay a finger on one of her Bentleys unless they wanted their genitals chopped off.
"Fuck no," He looks at us in defiance. "No ones touching that car but me." Everyone groans at him.
"C'mon man, we need to get the food." Ashton persists but Calum just shakes his head.
'Well it's either you give us your keys or you come with us, so make a choice." Luke adds in. Everyone looks at him expectantly and he rolls his eyes, digging his keys out of his pocket and swinging them around his pointer finger.
"Fine, but I'm driving, and she," He points to me, "is sitting in the back."
+
not edited fyi
I had this whole other segment but I promised I would update tonight so I'll just add it next chapter soz
also this is dedicated to all of you bc you are all honestly so cute and nice and supportive and I didn't think it was possible for me to even love so many people at once but I do and you guys are the reason I smile everyday so I lava you and I promise I'll do normal dedications soon
quick question; who's your fav character? bc tbh I like rebecca but I want to know so hmu
LOVE, brenna
ps ENJOY YOUR HOLIDAY BREAK AND SEASON IM YODELING IM SO EXCITED I lOVE CHRISTMAS ONLY NINE DAYS TO GO HOLLLLA