“’Cause it’s Carter. He’s this weird enigma that I can’t figure out for the life of me. I don’t know if he’s a good guy or a bad guy. He’s just…” Her eyebrows furrow together and I know she’s thinking. She throws her hands up. “I don’t know what he is but now he’s all gung-ho over a girl.”
“That’s not normal?” I poke around a bit remembering my thoughts from a few minutes ago. It is still hard to believe but Aly is here all but confirming it.
“He doesn’t give anyone the time of day unless it messes with something that he’s doing. Football is actually the only time he socializes with anyone from school. If you consider him barking orders at people socializing. Yet, when he does it, everyone falls into line because I think his family might own this school or something. I don’t know.” She shakes her head. “I mean, he’s a dick at times but I have to admit he gets shit handled if it’s out of line. I have a little respect for that. Sometimes someone has to be the asshole and it’s good if the asshole is on your side,” she says, shrugging her shoulders. Making it seem as though Carter is the lesser of two evils sometimes.
“So let me get this straight. He doesn’t talk to anybody unless it’s necessary and he’s never dated anyone here?”
“That about sums it up from what I’ve seen.” She shrugs again. Her words make me sad for a minute. What a lonely life he must lead with not having any real friends. I guess we are the same in a lot of ways. I didn’t really have anyone that I was close with in my other school but it wasn’t because I chose it. My mother had made my bed for me way before I had a chance for people to get to know me. Her ways made people assume automatically that I was my mother’s daughter.
I do have to admit that the confirmation that Carter doesn’t date has a warm feeling coursing through my body.
“Come on. Let’s get to the Shake Shack before Owen is bursting down the door.” Her cell phone dings on cue. “They are waiting for us.” She pulls her keys out of her pocket. “I’ll drive. I don’t normally skip class but I’m sure Carter will get us all passes. Plus I want to see this.” I follow her out of the locker room while she types away on her phone. She starts laughing.
“Carter let Owen ride with him so you can ride with me.” She shows me her phone. “I guess Carter told Owen not to say one word about the mess.” He might not have said a word about it but Owen took a picture to send Aly of the mess I made in the car.
“I can’t help it if croissant breakfast sandwiches are flaky!” I say in my defense. Aly laughs as she shakes her head.
“Carter doesn’t let anyone in his car. Now he’s letting you eat in it and giving someone a ride so you have one. They say there’s someone out there for everyone. It looks like Carter has finally met his match,” Aly says, teasing me as I follow her outside. She continues to walk until she gets to a fancy white Tesla, which for some reason I wasn’t expecting her to have. She must see the look of surprise on my face.
“My stepdad is a surgeon,” she says, explaining the fancy car. I open the door and climb in.
“Are there any car rules?” I ask. We both burst out laughing.
“Why, so you can break them like you do Carter’s?”
I smile, knowing that Aly and I are going to be great friends.
“Let’s go see our men,” Aly says as she pulls away from school. I remain quiet because Carter isn’t mine. Not yet anyway. Though I’m pretty sure he thinks I’m his.
Chapter 17
Carter
“I had a visit from Mayor Al yesterday,” my dad says as I enter the gym.
“Great,” I grunt and down the kale and banana smoothie. It tastes like ass, but it’s healthy and good for my body. I’ve started working out three times a day to burn off the excess energy I have from wanting to fuck Mallory all the time. It works but only because by the end of my third workout, which I do right before I go to bed, I’m so completely exhausted, I can barely muster up the energy to say goodnight, let alone jerk off in the bathroom.
“He said we may be harboring a criminal.”
I almost trip on my way to the treadmill. “Don’t know how that’s possible,” I manage to get out as I climb up on the rubber mat. “What’d you tell him?”
Dad steps off of the elliptical and wipes the sweat from his face with one of the gym towels, embroidered with a fake crest and his initials. “That the plans for the fall festival needed more attention than what was going on at our home. I’m glad that you are finally interested in someone and we’re comfortable enough that I’m not concerned with the young lady pilfering from our wallets. Although I hope that if you have anything valuable that you do not want to collect from the secondhand market you lock it up. No judgment.” He holds up his hands. “I speak from experience. Do you remember Deborah?”