Kissing Carter: A College Romance

by Zara Rivas

  Whatever goofy smile I had on my face, I'm sure it grew times ten when I read his text. I went to reply when I felt Charlotte's hand on my shoulder.

  "I think Carter had fun today," she said with a smile. "And he ate about three pounds of cake. I guess I was right about that frosting, huh?"

  She didn't say it in a mean or condescending way. She sounded proud and hopeful. I looked down at his text, re-reading his words.

  "I guess you were," I said with a smile. Cause sometimes, she has to win.

  Me: I love you too.

  Carter replied almost immediately, and I couldn't help but burst out laughing when I saw what he sent. There was a picture of him, with this super cheesy smile on his face. Under the picture, he said: How I looked reading your text.

  "What is so funny?" Charlotte asked, so I handed the phone over to her. "Oh jeez, talk about sappy!"

  And then she gave me a real smile, one I haven't seen since she found out about it. And it felt so good.

  "Are you going to answer that?" Harper asked, breaking free from my lips and rolling off of me onto her back.

  "It's not important," I muttered, trying to pull her against me again.

  She stopped my advance. "Carter, that is like the fourth time it has gone off in the last fifteen minutes. I'm starting to think it might be."

  "Has it?" I was too distracted by how close those full lips of hers were to mine.

  She rolled her light blue eyes at me, but I could see a twinkle of amusement in them. "How did you not hear it?"

  I shrugged, not wanting to tell her that when those soft lips were against mine, how was I suppose to think about anything else? Especially when I would tug on her bottom lip with my teeth, and she would make that little sigh of hers.

  "Earth to Carter!" She snapped her fingers in front of my face, causing me to come back to reality. "Check your phone."

  I groaned, placing my feet on the floor. It was funny when I first got to Bexley. I almost turned around and went back home when I saw the size of the bed we were given in the dorms. Coming from a queen bed at home, a small, measly twin bed seemed like the worse punishment.

  But now, after having Harper in my bed, I have come to appreciate the size. We had to be proximity at all times.

  I walked over to my desk, pushing the home button on my phone so the screen would light up. Sure enough, I had four missed calls from Charlotte.

  My eyebrows narrowed in confusion. "It was your sister."

  "Really?" She climbed out of bed, pulling her phone out of her purse. "Nothing for me. Call her back and make sure everything is okay."

  "Can't I just send her a text so we can continue?"

  She placed a hand on her hip and gave me a look that I've learned meant I was dangerously close to being in trouble.

  I used to feel bad for guys that would give in whenever their girlfriends gave them that look. Now I fully understand why they retreat so quickly.

  "Fine, fine." I slide my finger across her name, calling her back.

  "Hello." She answered on the second ring.

  There was an obvious annoyance in her voice, and while I knew that meant I did something wrong, I was also relieved that nothing was majorly wrong.

  "Hey, Char, what's going on?"

  "What's going on? Oh, I've just been waiting around in my room for the past forty-five minutes, waiting for my best friend that forgot we were going to watch a movie."

  Icy. That is the only word I could think of to describe her tone.

  "Shit," I said, nervously rubbing the back of my neck. "I completely forgot."

  "Yeah, so I've noticed," she replied. "What are you doing?"

  I glanced over at Harper, who was busy looking at something on her phone, her way of trying to give me privacy. I had a feeling if I told Charlotte I was busy hooking up with her sister, she might get a little upset. Then again, even though Harper appeared to be distracted with Facebook, I knew if she heard me lie about what I was doing, she would be offended.

  When did life get so complicated?

  "I uh, I just lost track of time."

  She snorted a laugh at my lame excuse. "Are you with Harper?"

  If I were a dog, I would have my tail between my legs. "Uh, yes."

  Charlotte sighed heavily. "Let's just forget it; I'll let you get back to-"

  "No, no," I said, cutting her off. "I don't want to forget it. How about I come over in about ten minutes, and I'll take you out to dinner to make up for me being a moron?"

  She paused, and I knew she was thinking it over. "I guess I am hungry."

  "Good. See you soon!" I hung up my phone before she had a chance to change her mind.

  When I glanced over at Harper, it hit me that I would potentially be in the dog house with both of the Jones' sisters.

  I cleared my throat, causing her to look up at me.

  "I um, you probably heard, but I had plans with Charlotte tonight that I forgot about."

  She laughed softly. "I heard."

  "Are you upset that we have to end things? I mean, maybe you should come too, it would be fun."

  Harper walked across the room towards me, and I couldn't read her facial expression. "No, it's okay. You go ahead."

  "I should've talked to you first about it. I just felt bad and didn't want to reschedule it for another day. I didn't mean-"

  I stopped talking when Harper kissed me softly.

  "I think it's really sweet you care about her feelings that much. You are a really good friend."

  For some reason, her words squeezed my heart a little bit. I rubbed my fingers against the side of her face, hoping she would melt.

  "I care about your feelings too. A lot," I told her.

  A soft smile spread across her lips. "I know. I'll be fine. Ashely and I will have a girl's night."

  "Girl's night? That means no boys, right?"

  She laughed, smacking my arm playfully. "There will be a ton of boys."

  I laughed as well, kissing her nose. "I will make this up to you."

  She shook her head, her light blond moving like silk as she did. I couldn't resist running my fingers through it. "You are making this up to her; I understand that."

  "Well, I think I owe you something too. Maybe lots and lots of kissing."

  She laughed, smacking my arm for the second time. "You would use any excuse for that."

  No truer words have been spoken.

  "I'm glad you came out with me," I told Charlotte, nearly drooling at the plate of food in front of me. I had a double bacon cheeseburger, an order of cheese fries, and an order of onion rings.

  "I only agreed because you are paying."

  Even though Charlotte wasn't as icy as she was on the phone, there was still a cold front. Unfortunately for me, having a girl mad at me wasn't anything new, and the one upside to that as I was pretty much an expert at charming my way back into their good graces.

  Ironically, there were only a handful of females I would care about mending things with, and three of them had the same last name.

  "I'm sorry," I told her.

  Rule number one when a girl is upset is to apologize. A hundred times. They never get sick of hearing it, and the more you say you were wrong, the sooner you are out of the dog house.

  "I know you are," she said before she popped a fry into her mouth.

  "It wasn't that I forgot about you."

  She rolled her grey eyes at me. "It sure seems that way."

  "I didn't! I just forgot what time it was. There is a difference."

  Almost as if it was against her will, she laughed softly. "Because you were too busy giving in to your hormones."

  I took her to laugh as a good sign.

  "Well, yeah," I laughed. "But c'mon, you know that is a flaw I have. And your sister… well, she makes time stop when I'm with her, so really, you should be mad at her."

  Charlotte stared at me with a blank expression, and my heart started racing that I had said the wrong thing. What if Charlotte was deb
ating if she should shift her anger over to Harper, who happened to be the innocent bystander?

  "What is it?" I asked, almost afraid to hear her answer.

  "That was just… sweet. I didn't think you were capable of having romantic thoughts."

  I shrugged casually, trying to play it cool, but I knew my grin gave it away. "Yeah, well…"

  She took a bite of her chicken sandwich, appearing deep in thought as she chewed. "I guess I was kind of jealous."

  I raised an eyebrow at her, surprised. "Jealous?"

  She rolled her eyes again. "Not like that! I wasn't jealous that you were hooking up with Harper, I've kissed you before and trust me, I do not want to try it again."

  I burst out laughing, nearly spraying her with the food that was in my mouth. That kiss had felt like kissing a sister.

  "It's just, even though you have been with a lot of other girls, they didn't mean anything to you, and so I was always number one, your best friend. I think it just hit me that you might really care about Harper, and I won't have that position with you anymore."

  Guilt hit me like a slap across the face when I realized it wasn't just the fact that I was late that had Charlotte so upset. It was an amateur move not to see the bigger picture, and I was disappointed at myself.

  Thankfully, I knew how to fix this. Rule number two, when a girl is upset, is to make her feel important.

  "You will always be my best friend." I reached across the table and gave her hand a quick squeeze to emphasis it.

  She gave me a small smile, but I knew my work wasn't done. "And we need to hang out more. It's just hard between work and your alone time with Noah."

  She blushed slightly at the mention of his name, even after all this time they were together. "I agree. Let's go to the movies on Friday."

  "Sounds like a plan," I told her, finishing off my sandwich.

  I reached over to her plate, grabbing a few fries off it. It was something I had done a million times before, and just like in the past, she gave me that annoyed look.

  "Really? You have your fries!"

  I gestured down my plate, which was empty. "In case you didn't notice, I finished them off five minutes ago."

  She shook her head at me, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "I don't know how you are not five hundred pounds by now."

  I laughed. "Well, I work out multiple times a week, and I also engage in a little physical activity with Harper and-"

  Charlotte groaned, wrinkling up her nose. "Ew, stop. You are going to make me throw up."

  I laughed again, motioning the waitress over so I could order another round of cheese fries. Charlotte sipped at her water, seeming to be thinking about something again.

  "You do, though, don't you?"

  "What are you talking about?"

  She gave me an impatient look as if I should be able to keep up with the random thoughts of a female brain. "Care about Harper."

  I chuckled to myself because it felt like everyone was asking me that question when I thought it was pretty obvious all along.

  "I love her. I'm in love with her."

  Charlotte's face was full of surprised. Then, she started to smile. "I'm going to need you to repeat that because I'm pretty sure I am hallucinating."

  "Haha," I told her. "We've been through this already."

  "I know, but come on, Carter, this is you we are talking about. You being in love seems so unlikely. You would think someone would have a better chance of winning the lottery."

  I grinned at her. "I did. Harper."

  Charlotte started to giggle. "Oh gosh, that is so corny. Is that the kind of thing you say to her?" She let out another round of giggles before grabbing her phone. "I have to tell her you said that!"

  I shrugged, stealing some more fries. I didn't mind if Charlotte told on me because while she thought it was corny, Harper would secretly love hearing it.

  And I loved doing anything that would make her smile.

  Yeah, I know, that's corny.

  "Thank god it's Friday," my friend Julie said as we walked out of our biology class together.

  "I know! Do you have any exciting plans for the weekend?" I asked her as we inched towards the front door of the building.

  That was the problem of having a class located so close to the entrance when your professor never let you out of class on time. There was always a crowd of people.

  "Sure, if you call writing a seven-page essay exciting."

  I wrinkled up my nose at the thought. "Yeah…not really."

  She laughed. "That's what I thought. You know, people always talk about how fun college is and how great it is to have the freedom to do whatever you want. The thing is, though, I've been so busy with school work that I haven't even had time to do anything my parents would disapprove of."

  I laughed because that wasn't true for me.

  "And I'm pretty sure half of my professors are more controlling than my parents are," I added in.

  "What are your plans?" She asked, pushing open the heavy door, holding it open for me to walk out, which, of course, meant five other people took advantage of that.

  I lifted my shoulders. "I'm not sure, probably hanging out with Carter."

  "Oh right," Julie said with a laugh. "Of course, the hot boyfriend. I don't remember what it's like being around hot guys."

  I laughed, giving her a light shove. "You need to put down the books and go out one night this weekend."

  "Yeah, right, sure."

  "I'm serious! Meet some hot guys. You're too young to be this bitter."

  She paused as if she was thinking it over. "Maybe you're right. If I do-"

  "When you do," I corrected her.

  "When I do, I'll update you."

  I gave a victorious smile. "Have fun!"

  I started walking towards my dorm room, my mood lifting with every step. It helped that it was a perfect day out, warm from all the sunshine, with a cool breeze, and splashes of color starting to form on the trees.

  It was my favorite time of the year, hoodie season, which sadly only lasted a couple of weeks between the blazing hot months and the time we are up to our knees in snow. We wouldn't have many more days like this. That was for sure.

  I couldn't help but think it was a perfect night for a movie and a stroll around campus, preferably with ice cream.

  I reached into my purse, pulling out my phone. I went to my messages, opening the tab with Carter's name, laughing as I looked over the last few things we had sent to each other. It was mainly emoji's, the ones with the heart for eyes and the blowing kisses. Of course, at one point, I had to send a heart to him in every color, in which he replied with the guy and girl with a heart between them.

  I would be laughing at how lame we were if I didn't find it so adorable.

  He was so adorable.

  "Hello, Harper!"

  I glanced up from my phone to see Mrs. Brewer, my creative writing professor, walking towards me. I automatically put my phone in the back pocket of my jeans, as if I would get in trouble for being on my phone.

  "Hello, Professor Brewer."

  "I'm so glad I ran into you," she said as she took off her sunglasses. She folded them up and placed them into her coat pocket.

  "Really?"

  That had to be the first time a teacher had ever said that to me. I wasn't the type of student that teachers normally got excited about seeing outside of the classroom. Don't get me wrong, they always liked me, but that kind of excitement was usually reserved for the great students. Not the average ones.

  Mrs. Brewer chuckled. "Yes. I was going to send you an email, but your short story was incredible. The best I have read in the bunch."

  "Really?" I repeated, realizing how idiotic I was sounding.

  She gave me a soft, slightly impatient smile. "I was very impressed. Most students get off to a rocky start in my class, especially when they are freshmen. You should consider entering it into the writing competition."

  I opened my mouth, then quick
ly shut it again before I could respond with really for the third time. I cleared my throat, giving myself time to think of another response.

  "Thank you! I will think about it."

  She pulled up her right arm, glancing down at the watch on her wrist. "Think it over and let me know. I will see you next week!"