“What do I owe the pleasure, you two?” She looked between Dylan and me.
“I realized that I haven’t seen you in a while, so I decided today I would come over and hang out with you. These two just decided to tag along.” I pointed to Car and Dylan.
“And I wanted your famous homemade lasagna,” Dylan said a dreamy look upon his face.
“Either way, I am glad you guys are here. I swear both you boys grow every time I see you.” I smiled at her, glad that I had such a wonderful grandma. It was times like these that I was reminded of how lucky I was to have someone like her growing up. To have her support me with whatever I did. I liked to think my mom would be the same way if she was here today.
“Enough of this chitchat nonsense. What shall we do?” Rose asked, looking at each of us.
“We could play a board game?” Carter offered, looking almost shy.
“Wonderful idea! Gage, won’t you go pick one out for us?” Grandma waved me off as she stood up heading to the kitchen. “I am going to grab us all something to drink and more cookies, since Dyl ate them all.”
“Dude, don’t pick Monopoly, okay? That game can go on for hours and we know how Gram can get with that game,” Dylan pleaded.
“Good call.”
“She doesn’t like Monopoly?” Carter asked.
“No, in fact she loves it so much and we always have to play the long version, which takes hours upon hours,” I explained, definitely agreeing with Dylan. One time I decided to choose it to play, and we spent three days playing the stupid game. Three days! Grandma wouldn’t let any of us quit until someone went absolutely bankrupt. Let’s just say it was the worst three days of my life.
Leaving behind the two of them as they talked about Monopoly, I headed for the hallway cabinet that held all of our board games. Grams had quite the collection of games, a lot of them older than I was. There were some that my mother and uncle played when they were little kids.
Seeing one of my favorites, Yahtzee, I grabbed it and headed back to the living room. When I entered, I saw Grandma handing Carter a glass of her famous lemonade. It was so amazing that I used to ask her to make it all the time growing up. When I was little I thought she made it by hand with real lemons, but years later, I found out it was from those frozen cans you can get at the store. Before Mom died we would visit, and I would always get a small glass of it along with freshly baked cookies. It was always fun visiting Grandma and Grandpa.
“Here we go,” I announced coming back to sit beside Carter. I placed Yahtzee on the table in front of us while Grams and Dylan gathered around.
“Oh, I haven’t played this game in forever!” Carter exclaimed, leaning forward excitedly. Snickerdoodle was still in her lap, so when she moved, she meowed in protest.
“This one along with Uno were always Gage’s favorite games,” Rose said, sending me a smile.
“Can’t go wrong with Uno.” I shrugged.
While I got the game ready, I looked over at Carter to see her saying something to my grandma with a grin on her face. She seemed a lot happier than she had been earlier. She was now more herself and I was glad. I hated seeing her cry. I just hoped the reason wasn’t that dick Ethan again. The guy clearly didn’t know what was right in front of him.
Carter glanced over at me and sent me a shy smile. She was already enjoying herself here. I was glad I brought her.
***
“Sorry!” Carter sang as she knocked my pawn back to square one. Okay, I take it back. I was not glad I brought her here.
“That is not fair!” I protested. “I just barely got back out!” I pointed to my last pawn on the board that was now back at the start. We were in the middle of playing the game Sorry, and Carter kept picking on me; well, everyone was picking on me. They were all just jealous that I won in Yahtzee and Uno.
“So? Rules are rules.” She shrugged, turning back to the board. It was Grandma’s turn now. In the game you had four pawns that you had to make it around the board and up “home,” where you are safe. If you get all four up, you win. But if you pull the card labeled “Sorry,” that person could pick one other opponents pawn to go back to start, where they have to try and get a one or two card.
I only had three safe and had been working on getting my last one home, but every time I was close one of the other three had to knock me back to the start. It wasn’t fair because Carter had three safe, as did Grandma. Dylan only had two, but even he was ganging up on me. It was not my fault I had a knack for board games.
I leaned back on the couch crossing my arms across my chest, huffing. I could almost swear they were cheating and moving the cards around to make me lose.
“Aww, don’t pout,” Carter said, leaning over to poke at my cheek.
“I am not pouting.” I slapped her hand away.
“Yes, you are. You are a sore loser.” She smirked at me.
“Am not,” I grumbled.
“Then what do you call this?” She gestured at me.
“It is called sitting down.”
“Well, sore loser, it is your turn again,” Grandma butted in, pointing to the board. I glared over at her, but it didn’t even faze her. Of course, she was listening to us.
The next few turns went by smoothly, and I was finally back to almost winning again when Carter jumped up yelling.
“Ha I beat ya, sucker!” She pointed right down at me a huge grin on her face. I looked over at her colored pawns and saw she had all four home and had in fact won the game. When did that happen? I wasn’t even paying attention! “You lost!”
“Hey, everyone else did,” I pointed out. “Why aren’t you saying that to Grams and Dylan?”
“Because I want to say it to you only.” Carter stuck her tongue out at me. She did a small victory dance, waving her arms around like a dork. I watched her, not finding it in myself to be mad at her.
“Carter, continue on bragging while I go see if the lasagna is done,” Grandma said, standing up and patting Carter on the shoulder.
“Hey!” I yelled after her.
“Lost to a girl.” Dylan shook his head at me while standing up as well.
“What? You lost to her too!”
“I had all my pawns safe and only needed one more card, while you had to go all the way around the board.” With that he turned and went into the kitchen with Grams.
“Why is everyone picking on me?” I asked Carter as she finally sat down.
“Because you won the last three games! Finally, someone else won.”
“Not my fault I’m amazing.” I smirked in her direction.
“Please, we all know the amazing person is me.”
“Keep telling yourself that.”
Carter rolled her eyes at that but didn’t reply. We sat side by side silently, fine with each other’s company. We didn’t need to speak. I could feel the atmosphere shift as we settled down. With the silence around us, I could tell Carter was thinking deeply about something.
“Thank you for making me come over here with you guys. I am having a great time,” she said suddenly, breaking the silence.
“I’m glad you came,” I said sincerely. Gram definitely liked her, and we were able to make her stop thinking about whatever made her cry, which was a good thing.
“Your grandma is great.” She smiled fondly in the direction of the kitchen.
“Yeah, she is. She is my favorite person,” I admitted. And it was true.
“Why haven’t you asked me why I was crying earlier?” Carter switched the subject so suddenly.
“I uh…” I was caught off guard and I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t think she would be the one to say something about it first, nor so soon. “It is your own business. If you want to talk about it, I am here; if not, that is fine too,” I finally said.
While it was her own business, I could not help but want to know. Something about Carter made me want to know everything about her and everything that went on in her life. I didn’t want her hurt. Whenever she wa
s ready to talk I would listen, even if it was a week from now or tomorrow.
“Thank you,” she whispered, playing with her fingers. I had noticed she did that when she was shy or nervous.
“No problem.” Sitting here with her face tilted in my direction, she looked so innocent. If she was wearing any makeup it’d come off when she cried, but I thought she looked better this way. I could make out a handful of freckles across her face, probably from being in the sun. Her brown hair was piled into a messy bun on the top of her head with a few pieces framing her face. Without any makeup, she looked even more beautiful to me.
I stared at her face, almost memorizing it. I hadn’t realized how pretty she was until now, and it struck something inside of me. An unknown feeling was bubbling up in my stomach the longer I stared at her. I felt myself move closer to her unconsciously.
Our eyes were locked on one another, not once looking in another direction as our heads dipped toward each other. I never wanted to know what a girl’s lips tasted like more than in this moment. I almost knew they would be soft and would fit against mine perfectly.
Just as we were not even an inch apart, a loud, very annoying voice interrupted us. Carter jumped back, her face starting to glow a bright red. Dylan yelled our names again, and all I wanted in that moment was to strangle the shit out of that kid. Once again, he ruined a moment between Carter and me.
Without looking at me, Carter stood up and headed for the kitchen. I let out a loud sigh and rubbed a hand over my face. I was literally about to kiss Carter. Even though a small voice was yelling at me, wanting to kiss her, I didn’t pay it any mind. I did want to kiss her but damn it, it got ruined.
Hearing Grandma call my name again, I finally stood up. Don’t worry, Carter. I will get that kiss eventually.
Chapter Six
Carter
That morning…
I grinned down at my finished drawing. It had taken me a while to finish it and I was beyond satisfied with the end result. Although the drawing did no justice for the actual person, I would have to go with it. With my art portfolio being pushed up to Monday, I had to hurry and finish up the pieces I wanted to put in it.
After going to the Empire State Building with Gage, I was struck with some inspiration, or at least it sparked some creative juice. For my art portfolio I needed three pictures, and thankfully I was able to sketch all three in the last few days. And I had to say they were my absolute favorites that I wanted to get back after they were graded.
One was of an up-close view that showed some of my favorite things: the New York skyline, the moon, and even a Ferris wheel. I mean, who didn’t love the fair when it came into town?
The next one kind of went with my photography. It was a sketch of a girl holding up a camera. To me it showed that there was beauty in doing something you love; for me it was drawing and taking photographs. This one took me a little while as I tried to get the hair just right and the camera.
And the final one was of Gage. I hadn’t even realized what I was doing until it was finished with it. I only drew half of his face. In a way I almost hated it because it did him no justice. At first, I wasn’t going to add it in with the other two, but to me Gage was beautiful, in a masculine way. The professor wanted a peek into our minds and wanted us to be real about what we chose. She better appreciate this one because even I didn’t know I would sketch Gage at first.
With my art sketches done, all I had to do was put them in a binder. I already got the other half done earlier before I added some finishing touches to my drawings. Now all I had to focus on was my photography portfolio, which I hoped wouldn’t take me too long, I mean, I already had quite a few photos I was going to use.
Setting aside my drawings, I looked over at the clock and sighed. It wasn’t even ten yet and I was already getting bored. I knew I could keep doing homework, but there was only so much you could do before you just want to chuck it against a wall. Getting up early never helped because by the time ten came I was bored and ready to do something, while others were just barely getting up.
I forced myself to get up and head to the living room to see if Macey was around. Lately, I hadn’t seen much of her other than when I got home from classes or in the mornings. What was great about us though is we didn’t have to always see and talk to one another. We both got that we were busy and sometimes couldn’t see each other during school hours.
Seeing a note that said Macey left to go to the gym, I glanced around. Great, now I was home alone bored. Not wanting to be here all day, I decided to get dressed and see what my brother and Ethan were doing. Better than nothing.
It didn’t take me long to get dressed. I mean, I wasn’t dressing to impress, so I didn’t bother looking my greatest; just a simple pair of jeans and a t-shirt was fine. It was not even ten minutes later, and I was leaving the apartment and heading in the direction of my brother’s dorm room. If anything, I could just hang out there for a few hours.
Not wanting to look like a weirdo, I grabbed my phone from my pocket and started scrolling through my Facebook. I always felt like people were silently judging me if I was walking alone, or if I was at a restaurant and Macey went to the bathroom, they would think I got stood up. That was why I always looked like I was on my phone because I didn’t want to be that person who sat alone. Same went for this.
There wasn’t anyone out, which didn’t surprise me. It was a Sunday after all. Most people were either home hungover, studying, doing last-minute assignments, or even still asleep.
Because it was so quiet, when I heard a giggle it made me pause. For a split second I thought I imagined it, but it happened again and louder this time. What was weird was that laugh was familiar to me. Confused, I headed in the direction the noises were coming from. You know what they say: curiosity killed the cat.
The closer I got, my stomach clenched. There was a small warning in the back of my mind telling me I should turn back and just keep walking, but like usual, I ignored it. It was almost like my body was on autopilot and I couldn’t stop myself.
I knew I should have expected the sight that greeted me. Like I already suspected it, but I didn’t fully comprehend just exactly what it was. But no, seeing the two people in front of me playing tonsil hockey made my heart shatter and fall to my feet.
It was none other than Ethan, my long-time crush, and one of my best friends, Amy; they were making out. It wasn’t gentle, either; it was full-on spit-swapping kissing. Ethan had Amy pressed against the wall of a dorm building, with his arms caging her against it. She of course was pressed firmly against his front side and had her hands all over him.
The sight of the two of them made me sick, but I could do nothing but stand here staring. It was like I was watching my worst nightmare come to life and I could do nothing to stop it. My crush and best friend were kissing…right in front of me.
The pain I was feeling in my chest was something I had never felt before. Not even when my ex-boyfriend cheated on me. No, this was way worse. It almost felt like a betrayal. About a week ago Ethan and I went on a date, and now here he was with Amy. Yes, it wasn’t even technically a date, but it had felt like it to me. Clearly it didn’t to him.
I might have been fine seeing Ethan kissing some other random girl, but seeing him with my best friend felt like someone stabbed me in the heart and just kept going. The pain blossoming in my chest felt just like that.
My eyes stayed firm on both of their figures, as they were ignorant to my presence. I was a good few feet from them, but they never stopped once to think someone might be watching them. They were in their own bubble, oblivious to everyone else.
As I stared at them, realization seemed to hit me. Was this why Amy had been avoiding me lately? Had she been seeing Ethan behind my back then avoiding me because she felt guilty? I wasn’t sure if she was aware of my crush on Ethan, but even if she was this was low.
Feeling my throat starting to close up and my body to shake, I knew I had to get out of there. I co
uldn’t stay watching these two a second longer. With tears starting to burn my eyes and roll down my cheeks, I physically had to make myself turn my head and look away from them. With as much force as I could muster, I moved my legs to go back the way I came from.
As I walked away, I felt like I was leaving a part of my heart back there, that I would never be getting it back. Once I was back on the other side of the building, my legs had a mind of their own. I didn’t even try to fight it; before I knew it, I took off running. This time I was not forcing myself to run. I wanted nothing more than to get as far away from here as possible.
I ran blindly as tears rolled down my face. It was all starting to sink in, and the pain was coming in waves. I was grateful no one was around to watch as I ran across campus sobbing like a madwoman. With no idea where I was going, I just ran in the total opposite direction as Ethan and Amy. I almost felt like I couldn’t get far enough away from them.
My vision was blurry as I let my legs take me to a destination I wasn’t quite sure of yet. I wasn’t even aware that I had come to a stop in front of a familiar door until my hand hit it rapidly. My body shook, as did my hand, as I repeatedly hit the door. What if he isn’t home? my inner voice asked, but I instantly pushed it back, not wanting to even think about that. If he wasn’t home, I didn’t know what I would do.
I was in the middle of knocking again when the door flew open and my fist hit a hard chest. I blinked to clear my vision although that didn’t help me any; the tears were coming faster now.
“Carter?” Gage asked, surprise clear in his voice. The moment he spoke was like a switch flipped on my self-control. Not even thinking, I lunged into his arms and wrapped mine tightly around his body, pressing my face to his chest. My body shook as I clung to Gage like a lifeline.
I can’t believe this is happening. It just can’t.
Silent Love [Part 2]_Forbidden Series Page 9
