Chapter 37:Ahliyah

Carter's legs were entangled with mine and his head was laying on my chest. I slowly sat up and ran my hands through this hair. I covered myself with a blanket picking up some clothes. I took a quick shower and put on the clothes, and I made some coffee for myself.

There was a gentle knock on the door, I got up to answer it and it was Mercedes. " I finally decided I'm just going to stay in Florida and get everything transferred over. Girl, you won't believe what I've done with that used to be shop that belong to you. Oh, you can come and see it now." She said as she walked in.

She stood near the door and she raised her eyebrows. She slowly smiled and then she started to squeal, I ran quickly to her to cover her mouth. " Shhh. He's sleeping." I whispered.

" Girl, you wearing his clothes and you and him did something last night. You're not waiting to tell me anything. Let's go, don't leave anything out either." She said grabbing my hand pulling me out of the apartment.

The shop was nicely furnished with small couches and the walls were painted different shades of colors. I sat down on the couch and she sat down smiling waiting for me to tell her what happened.

" I can't believe you did it. Oh my gosh. I don't want to know the details I want to know what happened until that point." Mercedes said.

" He was going through some of his boxes and I don't know I was comfortable with him. We danced and one thing led to another, here we are." I laughed.

Mercedes smiled. " I knew when I met you that you were going to be good for him. I knew that you were going to bring that light back to him. Hearing that you and him are comfortable with each other it's.. it's beautiful. I wish I had that when I met Lorenzo."

I laid on my stomach and nodded my head. " What happened with you and Lorenzo?" I asked.

" We messed around and I didn't understand what he was going through, I guess I thought I could save him. For us things got worse before they got better, his first time was with another girl not me. Then I moved to Texas and started over." She said.

" So.. Did you ever find someone new? Did you ever fall in love again?"

" I learned to love multiple times but I will always love Lorenzo even if we're aren't together," she sighed. " I guess I'll find someone again, soon."

We talked about boys and what we wanted love to look like for us. I told her some of the things Carter and I did to keep ourselves happy. We shared things with each other until Carter texted me asking me to come home.

" I'll be fine. I'll find love again at least I think I will. For now, I think I'll live through you until I do find that love or self love for myself." She smiled.

Carter was making lunch in the kitchen when I got home. His hair was wet and he had the brightest smile on his face. " Where not eating lunch here, I thought this time we could on the beach again. We'll be eating at a beach house on the beach."

I watched as he packed the basket with food and other fun things for us to eat. " How long will we be staying at this beach house?" I asked.

" Only for tonight. Lorenzo and Mercedes will coming later." He said.

I grabbed my pajamas and texted Mercedes to bring her pajamas too. I wanted to finish our conversation about her and Lorenzo and there was so much more I wanted to know about her. I wanted to know if she's found someone new for herself, or if she is learning to love herself and appreciate herself more before she moves on.

The beach house was beautiful. There was a spiral staircase and a kitchen island for us to sit and eat at. The balcony hung over the beach and it was beautiful. We went on the balcony and ate watching the view hours before the sun started to set.

" Last night was special. I don't know how to not talk about it, but it was special for me. I mean we didn't have to do any of this for me to realize that I loved you. Talking about it makes it feel real." He rubbed his neck and blushed.

Last night was special and comfortable for me. It seemed like everyday we were together we were always getting to know something new about each other and we loved ourselves enough to get past everything we did go through.

After we ate, Lorenzo and Mercedes came over. Mercedes and I ran upstairs and laid on the floor with our snacks talking about our relationships.

" You never answered my question. Did you find someone new to fall in love with?" I asked.

" I guess but it not really love yet. We're still figuring things out and I don't want Lorenzo because I don't want it to hurt him." She said.

She quickly talked about the mysterious guy happily and we ate our snacks. Mercedes quickly stopped talking to find out more information about Carter and I. " Enough talking about me. How was lunch?" She asked.

" Lunch was good, he spoke about what last night meant to him." I smiled.

Mercedes sat up grabbing some chips hesitating to put them in her mouth. " It's important that he feels loved. He's been through a lot that's why last night was special for him. He already knew he loved you and he knows how much he loves you, but he felt loved in that moment. Nothing will be able to erase that moment for him."

" Well, he did go to his parents house and left all his memories there. There still with him but he's working through it." I told her.

" He loves you a lot and you might not be able to see it. I know sometimes he still has those terrible nightmares or he fighting with his panic attacks, but he's able to control it now, all because of you. It's so sweet." She gushed.

In that moment, I wanted to run into Carter's arms and kiss him. I wanted to whisper I'm sorry to him because even though he went to his parents house, he still had those memories with him. He was not going to be able to get rid of that.

Tears fell down my face and I wiped them away quickly. I wasn't going to make this a sad moment for us. We were supposed to be celebrating friendship and new beginnings. We were celebrating and I wouldn't dare cry and ruin something that was supposed to be happy for us.

" I know he loves me. He proves it everyday and we've been through a lot. I was scared for us when I thought we were going to break up, but if we broke up today I would be okay." I smiled.

" Why? Why would you be okay?"

" I would be okay because I healed my wounds. I burned the skeletons in my closet and left everything where it belonged."

I hugged her smiling to myself because we had so much to celebrate for. We still had so much to learn but we were going to do it together.