Chapter 22

"Kate!" Jenny whispers my name in my ear, snapping me away from my thoughts.

"What? Did she say something to me again?" I asked, moving my eyes to the back of Mrs. Walters, who is writing notes on the blackboard, her endless notes.

"No she didn't, you looked deep in thought, so I saved you before you drown in there, thank me later," she says, winking at me. I roll my eyes at her then smiled, this girl.

Today is the day he will be coming back, and we see each other for the first time in a long time. Xavier texted me 'to get ready' yesterday, which I still didn't understand by what he meant. I am nervous about how I will be reacting when I see him again. The last thing I heard from him say anything was almost two weeks ago. And the reason this time differs is because I was super busy with my speech writing and some other home works and assignments that were given, and I just wanted to give him the space he needs. And right now, I am both excited and scared to see him again; excited because the part of me that likes him misses him, and scared because I dodged every text he sent, and I don't know how to make an excuse for it. He kept on sending me one message in the morning and another in the middle of the night as if it was his job to do so. And from all of those text messages, one of them caught me completely off guard,

1:29 AM *cuz you are unforgettable, I need to get you alone*

There was a knock at the door of the classroom, Mrs. Walters sighed and walked to it like she is being pulled from the opposite side, geez this woman. As she opened it, there he is, Carter.

"Well well, welcome back Harrington." she says, "Get in and have a seat, let someone help you out with the notes, if no one does, then inform me."

"Yes, Mrs. Walters," he says smoothly. Holy moly, his sound made inside me buzz. While he was looking for a seat, our eyes held each other right at the second of making contact. I felt like I'm on the spot, being watched by everyone. He smirked slightly and walked up to me across benches and tables where the students were staring at him, but his only focus is me.

"Jenny, can I sit with her?" he asked Jenny, which she huffed and shook her head, "Find a seat for me first." she says.

"Marc, move to the front? Jen needs a seat here," he asks as politely as he could, but his eyes are speaking differently, almost threatening. Poor Marc nodded his head and moved to the front of the class.

"Happy? Now you can sit behind her, now stand up." he says. She mumbled something like, "One day I will be beating the shit out of you" sort of thing and took her new seat, and it made me chuckle silently.

"Something funny, love bunny?" Carter asks as he settles himself down and opens his bag, "Oh fuck, I forgot my history book, we can share right?"

"Sure," I said, putting my book in the middle of the table and turning from page to page.

"So, how is your wound?" I asked quietly, not expecting an answer from him, yet asked. "It is healing, no worries. I am doing good." he said reading from the textbook.

"What are you reading?" I asked in confusion.

"What do you think I am reading? The book, duh." he said in a mocking tone.

"Do you know where we are?"

"Page hundred and forty-seven, about those Roman people, where we could be?"

"Carter, we are at page seventy-two." I corrected him, trying to suppress my laugh, "You must have taught yourself that much at home because I don't remember any Roman people we learned about."

"I am sorry, my genius mind could not resist reading all of this boring shit and having fun studying it," he said sarcastically, this made me giggle silently.

"I agree, I hate history too, it is not my jam at all," I said, taking the textbook from Carter and opening the right page.

"The first time I saw this teacher, I thought we are in a disciplining class rather than what that principal told me," he said.

"You are not wrong, she always tries to pick up the slightest thing you do, then, bam, you got yourself in trouble," I whispered, realizing the class went quieter than usual, it felt denser.

"In my old school, believe it or not, our history teacher was a hot chick." he says lowly. I pinched him under the table, which he didn't even look like he felt it, "Can you please speak decently? Just say that your old teacher was younger, that's better."

"I keep forgetting that you have an innocent ear, love bunny." he says and tries to put his arms on my shoulders, but both of us stopped talking when we hear a throat clearing loudly. Mrs. Walters is looking at us, but no anger or annoyance is seen, just... tiredness and vexation.

"Will you two stay quiet and continue writing the notes?" is all she says, and I am taken aback. She never left me without a fight or some form of punishment, but now all she asked was to keep quiet.

"Sorry." I mumbled and started writing the notes on the blackboard, "Do not tell me we are going to write all of this." Carter mutters as he opens his untouched notebook and scribbles the date.

"Wait, don't write anything now. You still got a load of stuff to fill." I said putting my hand on top of his.

"What if I asked you to write for me?" he asks, smiling smartly at me. Oh, I know this smile, and the very reason why he is smiling at me like that.

"Don't even think of me agreeing to it," I said highlighting a sentence I just wrote, just in case I need to revise it because it looks important, "I don't need or want anything, and I would never write anything. Work hard for yourself."

"Come on love bunny, it will be fun."

"Ha, fun writing a three week long notes? And let's make it better, history notes." I said faking a laughing smile.

"Fine, I did not think you would fight me off like this." he said closing his notebook and stuffing it into his bag, "I believe that you saw those texts that were sent to you?" he asked leaning straighter then staring in my eyes.

"Yeah, they are cute, what about them?" I asked.

"I sent one of them, meaning it."

"Which, they are like more than ten," I said sighing in relief as I quickly finished the note, I am the fastest writer of the class if you ask.

"Cuz you are unforgettable, I need to get you alone. I meant it in a literal way." he says, moving his chair slightly closer to mine, then tilting his head to look more in my eyes, "I want to take you out on a date."

The bells rang signaling for our next class, which is Biology, but I stayed put. I clearly and fully understood what he just threw on me, but I got confused. Did he just say that he wanted to take me on a... date? The idea itself made butterflies erupt inside my stomach, then this giddy sensation on how I would feel like if we were together. I tried to look deeper into his light chocolate eyes, whether what he just said is meant from his heart or if it is another game where I would be the doll, but I can't see anything. His eyes hold no emotion, just honesty and, trustworthiness, and oh shit, this is one of my greatest weaknesses. If anyone even a stranger showed me if he could be trusted, then voila! I immediately hook up with them or be extremely friendly until they find me weird and leave me with a broken personality.

"What do you say? Agree?" he asked when I didn't reply for long, I glanced at my bag then thought about it. The thing people do while dating is have a nice dinner then go watch movies, after that they would maybe kiss each other or do another stuff.... which I will definitely never ever do, so I think it would bring no harm or any form of a bad thing to eat then have fun, instead, it might be fun

"Where will you take me?" I ask making his smile widen and his dimple deepen. One of his very attractive features of his is his cute dimple on his left cheek, I would not get tired just staring at them and thinking it is the most adorable thing.

"I know a place you would like, and since today is Friday, it will be a great one I promise, see you later." he said and quickly left the class. My heart is almost leaping out of my throat from this strange excitement because Carter freaking Harrington just asked me to go out on a date, and I am sure he isn't thinking of it as a real 'date', or just a casual one where we will get know each other. That would be great, I am so curious and eager for tomorrow to come, then I remember, shit. Tomorrow is the Saturday Movie Night with Harris and Jenny, I never missed one. How can I tell them that I am going to go out with Carter? They will surely hate me for ditching them because of a boy, I should call Carter and tell him, maybe later.

"So, what were you and lover boy talking so happy about?" Jenny peaked from my back and linked her arm with mine, "I bet it's something so hot."

"Actually, I don't know how to tell you this... I'm so sorry but..."

She gasped and pushed on my shoulder, "Are you two....? Are you preg—"

"Jenny, No! What the hell, how could you think like that? We are going on a date that's it! Oh my gosh." I scrambled and stuttered on my words, oh God... me being...? I don't even want to think about it.

"What? A... date?" she asks shocked.

"Not like an actual date, it is more like a 'Let's get to know each other' type of date. And I don't know why he asked, I never spoke to him about stuff."

"Maybe he is growing feelings for you and wants to know if you could be the perfect person for him?" Jenny suggests we walk down the hallways.

"I think he is playing with me, and tomorrow is our Saturday movie night, I can't go."

"How did he say it? I mean the way he asked you to go on a date?"

"Well, he got straight to the point with no hesitation. there was a hint of nervousness, that wasn't hard to spot, but that's not the point here." I said. She held on to my hand and stopped me to walk further.

"Kate, I know I could be a bitch about my love life, but I can feel yours starting to bloom. If Carter asked you to get to know you and treated you differently from other girls then what more hints do you want that he might be into you? He doesn't even look at me properly when he talks to me, the point is that he might want that 'cha-cha'." she said her face serious.

"No way, I am not a likable person, Jen. Think of it, the last time I asked Chase to be my date on Valentine's day, he made the whole school call me names for a whole week, so no, and besides, I don't think I have a great standa—"

"Here we go again, can you just shut up about that? Be a little loose this time, if it happens then let it, if not, then forget about it and move on! You know what? You will go tomorrow, I know it's Saturday and it's our night, but you need this, go and have fun with your date, who is, in case you forgot, a hottie." she whispers the last part. I smiled a small smile. I am indeed happy that someone asked me to go on a date, any type, I really don't mind. Because one way or another, they had an eye on me, so it really could be a sign, as Jenny said, to loosen myself a bit.

"Will you put my makeup on?" I asked smiling at her. She nodded excitedly and hugged me, "At least one of us will have one." she says and both of us walked into the Biology class in each other's arms, people were shooting us weird looks, but at that moment we couldn't have cared less. We know it, we always will be like this.

~°~°~°~°~

"I don't know about this guys, I have this tingly sensation that it won't be good," Harris speaks his suspicions for the thousandth time today.

Carter texted me very early in the morning that he will be coming at six, which got me a little annoyed. Just to tell me to get ready in the evening, he has to text me and wake me up at eleven. But I did the total opposite instead of getting ready and being all anxious about it, Jenny and I went to Harris' house and played Crash the whole time featuring lots of junk food. As much as I don't know how to play video games especially those shooting games, I am a pro at playing Crash, it is my best of the best video games ever made, and never get tired of it. Jenny was just sitting in a corner with her phone, rarely giving me comments like 'You should've gone right.' or 'I thought you would lose!', other than that, she is very unusually staring and tapping away on her phone. Harris was the moody one throughout the day, one of the reasons probably might be because I didn't let him play much, but I'm sure it was because I am not staying and going to the person he is growing to dislike.

"You will see how her face will glow when she comes back, Harris, don't be her mood killer," Jenny tells as she finishes the last touch of my makeup as she promised will do.

"When will you come back?" Harris asks, appreciating Jenny's work of my face afterward.

"I will come back before midnight, and stop making those stupid hints Jenny, they are ridiculous."

"Well, right me if I am wrong, but I have never seen a girl frown after her very first date with someone she has feelings for." she says putting my hair up in a ponytail and taking some strands out to frame my face.

"You're wrong, bub. Remember this one time when Dalia and I went on—"

"You are an exception so shut the hell up." Jenny silences him. I laughed and shook my head remembering the funny incident that occurred between dear Harris and his first ever date.

When we were in our sophomore year, Harris was so desperate to have a girlfriend, so we decided on playing the role of the assistant of Cupid and started to hunt for one. When we almost gave up, suddenly someone caught our eye, who was Dalia, a hijabi who is very sociable and friendly to everyone. So that lightbulb lightened above my head and made Harris as close with her as possible, and since both of them have an Indian ethnicity and can speak it well, they agreed of getting to know each other well, then after almost a month, they started dating. But not for long after her aunt finds them kissing at a restaurant booth. And according to Harris' explanation, her family went crazy and immediately made her transfer to another school, making Harris embarrassed and confused about what to do. Eventually, when we were having fun at his house, her father came to him and said rained down curses in Arabic. Harris told us the translation back then after he bid him goodbye with a sincere apology, which made us burst into laughter.

"I am over it, you should be sorry for her. She transferred schools just because she was caught kissing someone." Harris says as he picks one brush after the other, "Why do you have a lot of brushes?"

"Because there are types of brushes, Harris. Like, brush for concealer, foundation, eyebrow shaper, eyeshadow, blender, eye—"

"A brush is a brush!" Harris interjects, "I would've done a better art on her face with just one brush." he said holding the blush brush. Jenny and I shared a look that held the same meaning; 'Boys'.

"I hope you will like this, I tried to make it simple but yet noticeable and sharp," Jenny says handing me the hand mirror. I will never doubt Jenny's skill of doing makeup that I would confidently go out without looking at myself. Anyhow though, I looked at my reflection, and as she said, it is simple but can be told that I've put on some. The eyeliner was thin with no wings, coated with silver and nude-colored eyeshadows. She sharpened my jawline and cheeks, and the last touch was a pink lip gloss. And just as I said, I never have any doubt about her.

"But there is a problem, what are you going to wear?" she asked putting her hands on both sides of her hips, "Something causal, like leggings with a hoodie." I simply replied.

"You must be out of your mind. Do you think I spent an hour making your makeup to mask it with a freaking hoodie??"

"I won't judge her, you always do that don't you, Jen?" Harris says watching something on my laptop. I stood up and opened my closet, I took out my black leggings and grey top. I turned to them and showed it, "Nice?" I asked knowing exactly what they would say, "No!" Jenny whines.

"It's not bad, but what if he takes you to a posh hotel where you drink tea with your pinkie up?" Harris asks. Oh, I did not think of it.

"Good point you got there, boy," I said and started to quickly rummage through my clothes. I finally found one, it was a dress that my mom bought for me thinking I would go to prom, which I, unfortunately, didn't. It is a knee length blue-black silky dress that I have never worn. It looked casually elegant, meaning that either he takes me to somewhere fancy or to a simple restaurant, it hits two birds with one rock.

"Is this your dress?" Jenny asks taking it from me and looking at herself with it in the mirror, "Obviously, yeah."

"It is so beautiful, with black toms and a silvery purse, you are ready to go! But what time is it?"

"It's quarter to seven." Harris answers.

"What?? s-seven? But he said he will be coming at six! Shit, let me quickly wear this and head downstairs to wait, or maybe my phone is on silent mode and I couldn't see his text! Is he waiting outside on tha—"

"Kate!" both of them shout my name, stopping me from my rant, "And who said, 'I am chill about this, it's just a meet and talk,'?" Harris said.

"Sorry, I like things when they are as they have been given. And he is late a whole hour, so I can go on and on listing the possibilities that might make him to."

"You really do have problems, Katy, but of course, since we are your besties we will help you, for now, go and get dressed." Jenny says very sweetly, "But I don't-"

"Just get in that damn bathroom and change! Geez, can this girl get any worse on getting what I mean?"

"Okay, fine! I'm going." I said and slipped into the bathroom.

After getting changed and putting on my favorite perfume, I got out and saw that both of them aren't here, they are downstairs then. I grabbed the silver purse and phone to head downstairs and wait for him there. And as soon as I did, I can't believe what my eyes are seeing.

Carter is already here with Jenny and Harris sitting on each of his sides looking uncomfortable and giving each other signs. What makes this worse, is that mom and dad are sitting directly in front of them all. Oh my...

"There she is! Kate, here is he!" Jenny greets and reveals my entry, what a friend.

"Sweetie, we were just talking with your boyfriend about himself and your relationship." Dad says, a very remarkable fake smile plastered on his face, "It's actually, boy space friend." I said sitting on the edge of the sofa armchair.

"Pardon us, we thought so when he came dressed up and holding a flower asking for you." mom says, which made me look at Carter. He gave me a confident half smile and cocked his head to the side, gesturing to the door. Right, the date.

"Mom, dad, we should really go now. Or else we would be late." I said standing up.

"Okay darling, and by the way, Carter, I invite you to come tomorrow for dinner, it is our family night, but we would love it if you can come." mom says, making my mouth drop. She did not just ask him to come to our family dinner night.

"It will be my greatest honor, Ma'am," Carter says smiling brightly at her. And oh Lord he did not just agree to come.

"Oh please, call me Ruth," she says standing up with me.

"Well, shall we?" I asked seeing that they would take at least a year to finish this polite and casual-looking conversation, ''Okay, see you tomorrow." he said.

"Repeat after me, eleven o'clock?" dad says as we were leaving the house, I gave Jenny and Harris a smile that asks if they would be fine, which both reply with a curt nod.

"Eleven O'clock!" Carter shouts and I slam the front door shut.

"I am seriously sweating. I did not know talking with your parents would be this much nerve wracking," he said starting the car.

"You looked quite confident. They even invited you over to eat dinner tomorrow,"

"Your mom was okay and seemed cool with me, but have you seen how your dad was looking at me? God forbid that look to anyone," he said, adding a fake shudder. I laughed at how good of an actor he is to fake his nervousness.

"He never saw me hanging out with anybody except Harris and Jenny, he is being the lovely over protective dad he is," I said.

"I see," he continues slowly, "But can I ask you why you do not want to be with anyone?" he asked.

"Why do you want to know?"

"I want to get to know you well, and you can get to know me well too," he said, opening his car door for me.

"It isn't that hard to figure it out, the main reason is that people judge me and think of me as a lower creature, it feels like that," I started, "I can't lie, I used to have crushes on students here and there, but quickly slipped it off because I know they will never even try to glance towards my way. When I was in Ethiopia, many people called me weird because I always sat in a corner reading or eating my meal. I wasn't a sociable person because I looked very different from the others, I was... big. That was and still is my biggest insecurity.

"When people come and stand beside me or just want to chill, I lower my posture to equal them, and then bam, a weird creature, plus, me being twice their size doesn't help, heh. After stuff happened, my parents and I moved here, which is my second homeland, and I became an antisocial person." I explained the summary of how I suck at being friends with anybody.

"Hm..." was all he said before silence falls between us.

"We were the total opposite when we were young," he started, grabbing my full attention, "I always wanted to be under the spotlight, and always got it. For some time, I just wanted people to know me all the time and just chant my name out loud, 'Carter, Carter'," he said so-calledring voice, making me chuckle. "This is my fourth time transferring schools, by the way. The first time was because of my own issues, the second time was because dad moved us here and wanted to start living here, the third time was because... of my behavior. I trusted and gave as much as I could to anyone I just met, and my fucking innocent self thought that people would do the same, but I was proved wrong. When I was fifteen, I had at least ten so-called 'best friends', and I used to tell them everything about me, and yeah shit went down. They used all of my secrets against me to deal with the same drug dealer that you met, and just like that, my trust issues and my mind shattered and scattered all over the place, so I went to Redsie High. But with my identity and name changed, not even a soul knew about me there, so when I met Cole and Xavier, I did not want them to know about me since I have those trust issues and stuff until now. Fuck, well that is the reason why I make them call me by Scott." he finished.

I never really thought we would start our night with deep conversations like these, and at the same time, I love talking and letting it all out, and I dearly hope he would feel and like the same.

"But..." I hesitated a bit to ask, not sure if he would blow up on me, "How did you trust me with this? Or even us in general?"

"Because."

"Because?"

"Because, you are a love bunny." he replied.

"That is the most ridiculous answer I have ever heard. But let it be." I said and looked out of the window, smiling for myself, "Anyway, where are we going?"

"To the land of your dreams." he answers very seriously, "And after this right turn we will be there," he said.

I rolled my eyes, "I can't do with you anymore, my dreams are way more.... woah, you must be kidding me." I stopped mid-words as I saw the unbelievable sight in front of me.

"Love bunny, welcome to the land of your dreams." he said, smiling cheekily.

This is surely not just a dream, but more like a... fantasy.