Page 33 of Carter's #Undoing

Twelve

SERENITY

I woke up in a bed that wasn’t the one I’d been sleeping in, but it didn’t take me long to realize I was in Carter’s bed. In hisroom. The same room he’d told me was restricted.

As I stretched, I noticed that Carter wasn’t in bed with me anymore. And I was sure my hair looked like a bird’s nest sitting on top of my head since I hadn’t tied it up last night. After we had sex in the hallway, we kicked off round two in his bedroom, but I’d been too wrapped up in him to pay attention to anything else.

Rising from the bed, I threw on a T-shirt I found draped over a chair in the corner of his bedroom before I opened the curtains to let some sunlight in.

“This is so Carter,” I said aloud, taking in the grand, king-sized bed and wooden furniture with the same neutral colors he had going on in the rest of the cabin. Carter had always been a fan of large, wooden pieces of furniture, and clearly, that hadn’t changed.

“I wonder why he didn’t want me in here.” It didn’t seem like there was anything in the room that he would want to keep private. I made my way to the door, only stopping when something reflecting in the sunlight caught my eye. I walked over to his dresser, my heart already knowing what it was before I was able to get a good look.

I picked up the picture, studying the wooden frame I hadn’t seen since I made it for him when we were teenagers. Smiling, I ran my fingers over a chalk-faced Serenity and a cute Carter, baffled by how young we looked. Another flicker caught my eye, and I looked up to find several photos placed in groups of three on the wall.

“He kept all these photos?” Of course I’d kept several pictures of us that I had stored safely in a box in one of my closets, but Carter? Each picture was in black and white and seemed to be about the size of a sheet of paper.

When we were kids, Carter used to tease me about how much time I used to spend developing pictures, yet he always wanted a copy. I smiled, not believing my eyes as my mind transported back to a time when I thought there was never anything he could do to surprise me since I’d always known him better than he knew himself. Until he did … And what we’d experienced had been so special, I still remembered it to this day.

Seventeen years ago…

“Carter,you gotta give me another pose.”

He frowned. “Or, you can just stop taking pictures of me so we can see these fireworks.”

“The fireworks haven’t even started yet,” I reminded him.

“Isn’t it too dark for photos?” he asked.

“I have the flash on, so no.” Actually, it was kind of dark for photos tonight, but Carter didn’t need to know that. I’d convinced him to watch the fireworks by the lake, although watching them in town would have been better. But the lake was like our own private spot, and Carter’s pick-up truck was great for letting the back down and gazing up into the sky. Problem was, Carter was always fussy when I got to taking pictures.

“Why must you give me a hard time?” I asked.

“You’re way prettier than I am,” he said, pretending to bat his eyes. “Why don’t I take your picture instead?”

I glanced down at the olive dress, blue jean jacket, and flip flops I threw on before rushing out of the house and waiting for Carter at the end of my block. My stepdad had been on the verge of one of his moods, which meant, my mom wasn’t too far behind.

But if she thought she could hit me tonight when I got home without me hitting her back, she had another thing coming. I wasn’t a little girl anymore, and I couldn’t wait to graduate and leave the hellhole I called home.

“What is it?” Carter asked, sensing my mood change.

I shrugged. “Nothing I can’t handle.”

“Whatever it is, we’re in this together.”

“It’s just my mom,” I admitted. “The more I defend myself against her, the madder she seems to get. When I left today, she had this expression on her face like she was contemplating how she could keep me in the house.”

“Well, when we graduate next year, you’ll never have to deal with them again. We’ll go to college. Get married. Find us some good jobs. And then, we can live wherever we want.”

“But your family is here, Carter, and unlike mine, they’re really good people.”

“I love my parents, but my older brothers already moved away and there’s no way Crayson is staying in Cranberry Heights. They already expect me to leave, too.”

“No, they don’t,” I said.

“Yes, they do.” He scooted closer to me and placed his arm over my shoulder. “Besides, my parents know I’m crazy about you and they don’t want you staying here as long as your mom and stepdad are, too. It was my mom’s idea that we should go to college together out of state.”

“You never talk much about college,” I told him.

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