Page 2 of Carter's #Undoing

Carter had always been the golden boy. The all-American favorite who’d helped our local high school see the first basketball victories they’d had in decades. We’d been homecoming and prom king and queen, and I always knew the only reason I ever won was because our school and entire town had been obsessed with all things Carter. I hadn’t blamed a soul because Lord knew I had been the president of his fan club. Cranberry Heights townsfolk still spoke of him with high regard and constantly talked about how proud they were that he’d gone into the military even though none of us had heard from him since he enlisted. That was the thing about small towns. Memories went deep and certain people would never be knocked off the pedestal they were placed on.

Yet, the Carter standing before me had snatched any words from my mouth that I was about to say. Standing before me, he wasn’t just the asshole who broke my heart or the son who hadn’t made an effort to see his parents in years. He was an imposter. A fraud. A fucked-up replacement of the man I’d loved for most my life because I could see in his eyes that my Carter was gone. My sweet, kind, would never do anything to hurt the people he loved Carter had been replaced with the man whose eyes were cold and unnerving. A man who looked like he didn’t know the meaning of good or noble.

Yet, the main problem I had as I stood there in a stand-off with the first man who’d ever kissed me so passionately my soul had wept in satisfaction, was that I still feltit. Whether it be anger or attraction or downright irritation over the fact that I still didn’t understand why he was here, the point was, he was still making me feel everything.

Even more upsetting, I hadn’t felt this strongly about anyone or anything in my life, except for one other time. The summer of 1998.Thatrevelation was almost as unsettling as the dark eyes staring back at me.

Twenty-two years ago…

I could hearthem running down my block before I even saw them. The Madden triplets, loud and rowdy as usual.

When I’d initially seen them through my bedroom window I hadn’t known who they were. Although we’d lived in Cranberry Heights, Arkansas when I was little, I didn’t have too many memories of it from back then. Now that we were back, I’d assumed that not much had changed since Cranberry Heights still seemed the same to me.

However, last month, I heard from a girl I knew, Kat, that the only new people who had moved here since we moved away was the Madden family. I hadn’t known who she was talking about at first, until a couple weeks ago, my mom was bringing in groceries and I’d heard them from inside of my house offering to help.

She declined, and when she came into the house, she warned me that twelve was too young to be talking to boys. I’d told her I hadn’t even met them, but she punished me for no reason other than the fact that she felt like it. She said if she was punishing me for nothing, imagine what she would do if she caught me talking to one of those boys. That was my mother. I was sure if she had her way, I’d never leave the confines of our front yard. Yet, my stepfather didn’t want me around when my mom was at work and always told me to go play in the front yard. Surprisingly, that is exactly where the Madden triplets found me today.

“Hey,” one of them said, followed by similar sentiments from one of the others.

“Hi.” I waved back, surprised they even stopped to talk to me.

“I’m Caden,” the first one who’d said hi introduced himself as.

“I’m Crayson, and this is Carter.”

Carter.My eyes went to Carter, the only brother who hadn’t introduced himself to me yet. It was kind of weird since the others had, but then again, I knew who they were. When I watched them from my window when they passed by sometimes, Carter always seemed so friendly. Like if I were to meet the triplets and get to know them, he’d probably be my favorite. I wasn’t really sure why I always felt that way, but I just had this feeling about him. I’d never even had a crush on a boy before, but after they passed my house a few times, I knew I was crushing hard.

It was how he walked and talked. The fact that I swear I would catch him searching our yard sometimes, and I always wanted him to be searching for me. Although he’d probably just been looking at my chalk drawings since I usually covered as much sidewalk as I could.

Sometimes, when I opened my bedroom window, I could hear him and his brothers talking. It didn’t matter what the topic was, Crayson always had a crazy spin on the subject. Caden constantly took a safer, more realistic approach. But it was Carter’s words that I hung on to. His point of view was always positive and optimistic. It wasn’t black and white for Carter, but grey depending on what they were talking about.

I never felt like I thought about life the same way other kids did, and Carter didn’t sound like he did either. And he was clearly a leader. When Caden and Crayson would argue about a topic, Carter always diffused the situation. He seemed like the glue of the triplets to me.

Realizing they were all staring, I remembered I hadn’t introduced myself. “I’m Serenity.”

“We know,” Carter said, catching me off guard. He looked to his brothers before returning his attention to me. “I mean, Caden’s friend, Kat, told me who you were. I mean, tolduswho you were. Not that we were asking. We were just glad we weren’t the new kids anymore.”

“I lived here before,” I explained. “We just moved away for a little bit, but now we’re back.”With my stepdad who I hate, but I didn’t add that last part.

Carter nodded. “Kat told us that, too.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure you didn’t ask her about me?”

“I did,” he confessed before his eyes widened. “I mean, I didn’t. You know Kat. She’s a talker.” He laughed all awkwardly and I got the impression that he had indeed been asking about me.

I shrugged. “If you say so.” I was trying my best to remain cool, but I wanted to squeal in excitement that he knew who I was, too. Caden and Crayson started laughing while Carter sheepishly looked anywhere else but at me.

“Did you guys want to draw on the sidewalk with me?” I asked, breaking the awkwardness.

Crayson shook his head. “I suck at drawing. Our older brother, Malakai, is great at it and has tried to teach me, but I still suck.”

“We’d just mess up the nice drawings you already have here,” Caden said, before slapping Carter on the shoulder. “But our brother here is pretty good at art. I’m sure he’d love to draw with you.”

I looked expectantly at Carter, waiting for him to confirm or deny what Caden was saying, but instead, he just stood there staring at me. His eyes pinning me in place in a way that made the palms of my hands sweaty, which was terrible considering I still had chalk in one hand.

“I’ll stay and draw with you,” he finally said.

“Great!” My smile filled my entire face, but I didn’t care. His brothers seemed cool, but he was the only one I actually wanted to spend time with. The only one who I’d thought about drawing with and talking to ever since I first saw the Madden triplets outside of my window.

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