Chapter 8

"Carter?" I called him quietly, the excitement I had a second ago diminishing. I can't get in here, I have a huge fear of snakes, they freak me out. He turned around, masking a confused looked as he looked at me at the door, "What happened?" he asked.

I shook my head and pointed to the snakes, "I am not so comfortable around them, so sorry, I can't get in." I said, slowly backing away.

A small smile appeared on his face, "Do not worry, they are non-poisonous. They might bite, but they cause no harm," he says.

"Oh, they just bite? I thought they would kiss me." I reply in humor. He clearly didn't understand what I am trying to tell him, just looking at them crawling on each other gives me the cool chills. He looked at me deadpanned, "If you do not come here, then be assured, I will make one of them kiss you today." he warns. I glared at him, folding my arms and huffing out loud. He is the worst, the fucking absolute worst.

I shut my eyes and did as he said, trying not to look at the snakes and walk past them. But ahah, no, of course no, Carter held my wrist and spun me around to look at him, "I promise they do not hurt at all. Come, let me show you," he says, trying to take me nearer to those snakes. I shook my head like crazy at him and almost succeeded in pulling my wrist away. Oh hell no, I would not ever do it. What if one of these snakes, worse, all of them sprinted on me, then I sure as hell know that I will be dead and everyone has to get ready for my funeral.

"Carter, no, no, Carter, no!" I shook my body and bit his hands to let go of me, but he is one of a human made of stone.

"Stop overthinking it, I promise they do not hurt," he takes my hand and pulls me closer to them, oh my...

We are in front of this huge glass box where the scary looking snakes are kept in, and the lid is open, they could have a big chance of jumping on-

"Fine? Good, follow my hand, okay? That one over there," he pointed to a very big, green and grey colored snake, almost like an army color, "It is called a bull snake. Yes, they bite but they are not venomous to us. And that one at the right corner," he points to a bright orange, grey and black striped snake, "That one is called milk snake, again, they are not harmful to humans, but are to animals."

"Do you study about snakes all the time?" I asked, making him chuckle, "Ben has his ways of telling me about them." was his answer before he continues, "And when we come to-" Carter was interrupted by the clicking of a gun, an actual fucking gun.

I quickly clung to Carter and burry myself into his chest, my new favorite smell welcoming me. I didn't dare to look at who was pointing the gun at us. As much as I fear snakes, guns are on my top ten most feared list too.

"Who the fuck are you?" the guy questions, almost making me piss my pants.

Carter's chest shakes as he laughs silently and says, "Ben, it is me." my eyes widened, wait, so the guy is that so-called friend of his?

Embarrassed, I moved away from him and looked away, "Well, well, isn't this Carter Harrington! Come here boy!" Ben says, pulling him into a manly hug.

Ben isn't as I imagined him to be, he is way too far from it. He is short, compared to Carter. He has a very long beard that it's tip is braided, his bronze and silver hair tied in a low ponytail, and his arms have lots and lots of tattoos. Well, I imagined him as a boy with the same muscular structure as Carter. He has a weird collection of friends, which may or may not include those gangsters.

"And who is this beautiful Chica? Your girlfriend?" Ben asks and I snorted, making both of them look at me with their eyebrows raised. I cleared my throat, "Sorry, I meant by, no, I am not his girlfriend." I replied. This day is full of embarrassment, it didn't even start yet.

After a cup of tea, a little awkward chitchat, and a major debate in my head, I finally had the courage to open my mouth and asked, "Can I look around here?" He looked up and down at me, then nodded his head, "As long as you don't sneak one out. You know, we don't have one of those beeping shit for animals." Ben jokes and I laugh.

"I definitely won't," I said and started to walk away from them and to the pets. My very favorite thing to have is a pet, but my parents won't allow me to, they say it would distract me from reality. I totally disagree with that but there is no point in arguing about it.

I walked and headed to the cat's section, which was at the very front of the pet store. I knelt down and almost all of the cats came towards me, cute. I reached and petted the black and white striped cat, which was purring the more I scratch it below its ear. The others were jumping on top of each other, trying to get to me in a cute filled hurry. If I got the chance to take all of them...

I stood up and went to the puppy section, which was right next to the cats. A bad placing of them, I thought looking through the metal net. Most of them were laying and didn't notice me coming, so I passed from them. Coming next is the fish section, there are numerous water filled tanks, fishes of all kinds swimming in it. There are blue, green, orange, red, and golden colors. They are so beautiful, it made me think of all the wonders and beauty that mother nature has blessed us to look at and interact with.

"Do you like it?" I quickly turned around to see Carter looking down at me, his bright hazel eyes lingering at my facial features. I gave him a half smile and nodded, "This place is huge for a pet store in a mall. And everything looks so, spectacular, from those snakes," he laughs, "Really?" he asked, clearly not believing me.

"Yeah, just because I am terrified of snakes doesn't mean they aren't beautiful. I actually like the milky snake, it has very attractive colors." I said. He stared at me for a second, then tilted his head back and laughed an original sounding laugh. It's so real that I would never get tired of this voice.

"What?" I asked as he is still laughing, which made me laugh too, "It is not milky, it is Milk Snake," he said and I giggled, "And that is what made you laugh? Idiot, I thought there was something on me or you just remembered a joke." I said.

Suddenly, his smiley face dropped and in an instant got serious. He looked up at the top of my head and opened his mouth. No, if he is seeing something there then I swear...

"Do not panic but," he said and pointed at my head, backing away. My insides are getting ready, to get whatever that shit is down from my head by my very impressive, not, karate skills.

"Carter, what is it?" I asked as calm as my nerves can be.

"There is a big spider on you head!" he yells and I scream. I put my head down and swayed it back and front, up and down. I even jumped up and down and let loose my ponytail, still screaming. I hit on my head to get the spider down, but I don't feel anything on my hands, nor I can see anything on the floor. When I look up, Carter is clutching on his stomach, laughing hard, as if his life depended on it. What. The. Heck.

He was playing games with me then, bastard.

"Got you." he said as he sobered up from his crazy laugh. I don't think I will ever see him laugh like this again.

"You are such an asshole," I said and he shrugged, looked down and muttered something. I catch on 'asshole' but nothing more.

"What did you say?" I asked him and he shook his head, "Nothing, come on, there is one thing you have not seen since we got here." he says and walks to the darker side of the store where I spotted a huge black metal door. It looks terrifying, and since this could be the back of the whole pet store, and maybe the mall, made it worse.

"Carter, I swear if you try to play games with me again, I will surely have no mercy on you this time," I said in a warning tone, which made him stop walking. He turned to take a look at me, "I promise you, there is nothing scary in there." he said pointing to the large metal door.

"I still don't trust you... but, okay." I walked up to Carter who was still on his tracks, waiting for me.

"Ready?" he asks, looking at me in the eye, I nodded at him. He took a couple of steps towards the door and opened it with such force.

"How could there be something good behind this... woah." I trailed off as I stepped into the room along with him. I thought it would be dark, scary, and gloomy, just like my dreams, but...

The room had large, colorful, and gorgeous cages, the walls are painted in baby blue and pink colors, striped with golden and silver glitters. It does not look like a professional painters' work, but still, it looks amazingly done. There is a huge chandelier, hanging in the middle of the room, and dried grass and colored bowls littering the spray painted rugged floor. When I got closer and looked at what was inside those elegant huge cages, I squealed, eek!

Bunnies!!

"Oh my god! Bunnies!" I crouched down and looked at those very cute, fluffy, and breathtaking bunnies. I love bunnies so much, they are my spirit animals. One of my top ten most loved things that I like, bunnies are on the top of the list.

I looked at Carter, I can't seem to wipe off my excited and happy smile from my face, he was smiling a dimpled smile looking at me with a tilted head.

"This is so great, Carter. How in the world I didn't know about this pet store before? Jenny and I come to shopping here, but we never knew about this place. This is like my... my," I couldn't finish my sentence, because, in a swift moment, Carter was on the same level as me, still looking at me with that dimpled smile.

"You love bunnies?" he asked. I eagerly nodded my head, my smile stretching more. Bunnies are my always and forever favorite animal in this whole universe.

"Yes! I really do love bunnies, so so much." I said sitting on the floor beside the bunnies, the cages are the only thing separating us. They don't seem to acknowledge our presence. Looking at what are they doing, one of them, with the brown and white fur, is hopping from side to side, while the other, with jet black fur, is eating a carrot. The other two, with snow white fur and grey fur cuddling each other with their eyes closed, so cute.

"When I was a child, I had a little bunny, his fur was golden, soft, and fuzzy," I suddenly started. I don't know why I am telling him this, but I feel like telling him, not that I trust him, my instinct isn't telling me to stop. Or maybe it's just because I wanted to roll off a bit of weight off my shoulders.

"We never got to separate, whenever I come back from school, I always look for him first, play with him and, you know, he was like a best friend to me." I stopped and look at Carter, he is intently looking at the bunnies, I hope he is listening to me.

"One day, when Bunbun and I were playing," Carter chuckled a bit and looked at me, "Bunbun, cute name." he said and I gave him a sad smile.

"One day, we were running around the yard of my grandma's home, then we took it too far and started to run to the main road," I gulped in the air and exhaled, it is a very hard time for me back then, even now, I just take in the blames and imaginary scenarios that keep flashing by myself.

"You do not have to tell me," he said staring into my eyes, "If it hurts you to talk about it, then do not." I shook my head, "But I need to," I replied.

He inclined his head and gestured for me to continue, "Well, when we were playing on the main road, the ties of my shoes untied, I stopped on my tracks and knelt down to tie them," I stopped and wiped the tears that I wasn't aware of them rolling down my cheeks.

"A car was coming, coming in my direction, and I really didn't see or hear it coming, I don't why or how, but Bunbun was making weird noises that I never heard from him. He was on the other side of the road coming to me, and when I looked at him, he was gesturing, I guess, for me to come to him instead. Happily, I started marching to where he was, you know, because he wanted us to continue playing, but that wasn't the reason why he was calling me, because at the exact same moment I moved from my spot, the speeding car passed me, and before I can grab Bunbun, another car-" I sniffed and rubbed my eyes, the lump in my throat making it hard for me to finish the tragic story of me and my fluffy best friend, "Hit him," I whispered. "He saved me, while he couldn't do the same for himself. That showed me that he truly loved me, and I was a bad friend because I myself couldn't do the same for him." I sobbed, I don't know why I am being an emotional wreck for a moment that happened a long time ago but seeing the bunnies triggered it... maybe Carter too.

I felt Carter's strong arms wrap around me, pulling me closer to his chest. His cinnamon, warm vanilla, and aftershave mixed scent engulfed me and my senses.

"I am sorry you had to experience that," he said "Hope your Bunbun is up there, eating all the never ending carrots, and playing all around," he said and made me laugh a little. I looked up at him, he was already looking down at me... geez.

His smile faded, so did mine. He looked into my eyes, his bright hazel eyes shining something I can't decipher. My lips felt dry, so I tucked them in and licked them, wrong move. Carter's gaze dropped to my lips and his arms lower to my smaller back. I looked at his lips too, full, pink and they look so soft. I felt myself drowning at this moment, melting between his arms.

"Love bunny," he said, snapping my eyes back up to his, "Hm?" I asked and he repeated, "You are a love bunny." and leaned into me. I felt myself leaning too, his hot minty breath fanning my face. My mind is screaming at me to stop it and move away from him, but something is pulling me to him. And it is already too late for a backup.

We are merely centimeters away from each other, I fluttered my eyes close, and,

"Well, well, love birds!"