I toss the bloody wipe into the trash before unwrapping the band aid and placing it on my thumb, the door opens as I close the first aid box. Of course it just so happens to be the six foot guy that I'm trying not to fall for, "How's your thumb" Carter fills the silence as he leans on the door

"Fine" I put it back inside the mirror cabinet

"I'm sorry"

I turn around before folding my arms, "For what?"

He scratches the back of his head awkwardly, "Eliza"

"You really pick and choose your women don't you?"

Carter frowns, "What's that supposed to mean?"

I slide past him. "Whatever you think it means"

"So is that how you get away with all your dinners?" He suddenly asks, I frown as I turn around

"What?"

"You cut up your food into tiny little pieces so it looks like you've eaten"

I cut it up so that it slows down my eating process

"No I have other ways of doing that" I reply before walking away

Eliza's helping Melissa clear away the table, "Did you find the band aid?" Melissa asks, I nod

"Your dinners in the microwave if you decide to have it later" She says softly

I half smile, "Thank you"

Melissa then pulls me aside as Eliza continues to converse with Carter, "Aaron did warn me about her before dinner, now I see what he meant" She says lowly

Gotta love Aaron

"She's very self-centred isn't she"

"Indeed" She replies before picking up her purse

"Alright I'll be going now, Eliza it was nice meeting you"

Satans spawn turns around, "You too Mrs Miller"

If my eyes could roll back any further then they would, "Make sure she leaves soon" Melissa mouths at me

I smile a little, "Where's Grace?"

"In the front room, I'll see you later"

I wave as she walks away, although I wish it was satans daughter leaving instead. The front door finally closes and Eliza's smile immediately drops, I honestly don't get how Carter doesn't see this shit. I lie besides Aaron and he moves over to give me space, Moana is currently playing on the tv, "So what did you guys talk about when I left"

"Oh you didn't miss much, it was just Eliza talking about herself.... as always"

Surprise surprise

"No I just don't get why you needed to go check on her, it was a little cut" I hear Eliza scoff

She's using a hushed tone but I can still hear her, it's honestly sad that she feels so insecure about her relationship with Carter. "Can you relax" He replies

"Do you like her? Cause if you do then just tell me"

I raise my eyebrows with surprise, "No" He replies

It's not like I wanted him to say yes but hearing him say no was a little disappointing.

"It's bull shit, of course he does C"

I look back at Aaron, "What?"

"You heard me"

"Shut up-

Eliza overlaps us, "If you didn't like her then you wouldn't have gone to the bathroom"

"Alright I guess it's time for me to step in" Aaron gets up and I frown as he walks over to them

"Eliza why don't I drop you home" He suggests

Oh thank god

She frowns, "What? No-

"I live right by you so I might as well" He shrugs

"Carter can drop me home" She scoffs

"I think Carters a little busy, let's go" He guides her towards the door

"Don't touch me" She shrugs him off before walking out first

"Thank you" Carter mouths at him with relief

"You owe me" He replies before following her out

I look down at Grace, "Ding dong the witch is dead"

She audibly giggles and I smile, Aaron is like an Angel sent from heaven.

Carter sighs before sitting down at the far end of the couch and taking out his phone, I still wonder why he's with Eliza.

For the rest of the night Grace and I had a Disney movie marathon, I told her about why I think rapunzel is the best princess and why I think the worst is Snow White, to be honest I don't think she likes her either.

Anyway she fell asleep on my lap halfway through Frozen, it seems that her brother has too. I carry Grace up the stairs before gently laying her down onto the bed, I make sure she's comfortable before lifting the comforter over her body. "Night" I say softly before shutting off the light

I then make my way back downstairs, technically I should be leaving now but apart of me wants to stay. I sit down besides Carter before crossing my legs, he's still asleep so he hasn't noticed me yet. Sometimes I wonder what goes on inside that head of his, "Done looking at me yet?"

"It's uncomfortable isn't it"

He opens his eyes, "Nah I actually don't mind you staring, it's cute"

I roll my eyes as he sits up, "So how can I help you Rodriguez?"

"It's my turn to be curious"

"Only if I get to ask questions too"

"You can't do that"

"Why not?"

"Because I didn't do that with you" I reply

He shrugs, "You could've"

I turn so that I'm fully facing him. "So.... Are you generally blind or can you actually see how much of a bitch Eliza is?" I ask

He snorts, "Yes I know what Eliza's like"

"Then why are you still with her?"

"We're not together" Carter replies

"Does she know that?"

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were jealous"

"Can you be serious for once?"

"I mean you didn't deny-

"Carter" I say seriously

"I don't know what goes on in Eliza's head, but I know that if I stop talking to her she'll start bitching and crying, so it's best to just leave things how they are"

I narrow my eyes at him, "She loves you doesn't she"

He doesn't reply and I widen my eyes before scoffing, "Carter!" I hit him on the shoulder and he winces

"Ow, what the fuck C!" He rubs his shoulder with annoyance

"You can't keep pulling her along when you know you don't love her"

Not gonna lie this makes me feel a little bad for her, "It's not my fault that she loves me" He says defensively

I frown, "Yes it is"

"No it's not-

"Yes it is, girls are more emotional than guys meaning you could've ended things before she got too attached"

"We've only fucked a few times-

"That's not the point-

"Why are you getting so mad?-

I scoff, "I'm not mad I just wish you weren't so ignorant"

"You don't even like her, did she not steal your best friend or something?"

"June made that decision on her own"

"Really? Cause Eliza said that you used to make fun of her for her weight and then one day you just stopped talking to her"

Wait a minute, what?

"Why would I do that when I'm not even happy with myself?" I say confused

"I never thought about it that way"

"Wait did you believe her?"

"No, I know she loves to cause problems for fun" Carter replies

I don't know why it gave me relief that he didn't believe her.... It just did. I'm gonna have to talk to Eliza now though, "More of a reason to drop her" I reply before lying back

"Didn't realise that I signed up for advice from Carmen", He says sarcastically

"Well your locked in now and you can't unsubscribe" I reply in the same tome

It was quiet for a few seconds, but not awkward. I'm mostly just shocked that Eliza would lie to June like that, I mean why would she make all that shit up and what did she hope to gain. As far as I'm aware, I've never done anything mean or hurtful to the girl.

"Carmen"

"Carter" I repeat in the same tone

"What have you eaten today" He asks

I knew this question was coming

I try not to sound annoyed, "I thought we agreed not to talk about this"

"No we agreed not to talk about our previous conversation, we said nothing about casual questions"

"Stop being annoying"

He looks at me expectantly and I roll my eyes as I set the pillow that I was holding aside, "A Greek salad and two slices of toast"

"C" He says seriously

"Nothing" I eventually say

"If you keep doing this shit then your gonna pass out"

I look back at him, "I'm fine though aren't I?"

"Yeah? And how long until you start getting too tired to move" He scoffs

"Careful, I might actually start to think that you care" I say amused

"And you say that I'm the unserious one" Carter says annoyed

I sigh as I look up at the ceiling, "You just don't understand Carter.... I can't"

What he said next surprised me, "What would it take for me to get you to see what I see"

I let out a sarcastic laugh, "A different brain"

"I'm serious Carmen"

I bite the inside of my cheek before shrugging, "Alright fine, we'll do it one step at a time" He decides

I frown with confusion, "You'll eat with me now"

"Don't waste your time with that-

"It's not a waste if it's for a good cause.... And hopefully soon you'll be able to tell me whos been making you feel like shit"

I frown as we lie close to each other, "How'd you know I won't cheat my way out of this" I ask quietly

"Because I think deep down there's a part of you that wants to start eating again"

I play with the material of his shirt, "But I'll gain"

"And who said there's anything wrong with that?" His hand slides underneath my shirt before landing on my stomach and I widen my eyes a little

I'm a mess

It's only a matter of seconds before he starts drawing circles, "Carter.... I need to go home" I breathe out, he moves his hand away and I mentally sigh with relief

I sit up before looking back at him, "Don't forget what I said"

I nod before getting up and picking up my shoes.

I don't know what's happening to me, I was so close to folding right there and then, I can't do that. You know he was the first guy whose ever touched my stomach? And by that I mean I've never let any guy that I dated or had sex with do that, my shirt would always stay on whenever I had sex. Falling for Carter would be bad, I've seen the way he treats Eliza and I don't know if someone like me could handle any of that

~*~

I shut the front door behind me before letting out an exasperated sigh, "What the hell took you so long?" Zoe says confused

I take off my shoes, "I was babysitting"

"Hurry up"

"You guys did face masks without me?" I pout

Adriana shrugs, "You were taking ages"

After setting my stuff aside I get comfortable besides them on the couch, then I spread a blanket over the three of us, "What are we watching"

"Mean girls"

Of course

Zoe points at the screen, "Oh look it's Eliza"

Regina George

I laugh before taking her bag of chips.

After the movie we went upstairs, I learned that Adriana still isn't talking to Santiago. Anyway Zo and I changed into our pyjamas before getting into my bed, "Hows things with Aaron" I ask as we face each other

"You already know everything, I wanna know about the dinner"

I roll my eyes as I groan, "Don't even get me started, Eliza spoke about herself the whole time, then she started questioning me about Grace and tried to make it seem like I'm a bad babysitter. Then I ended up cutting myself by accident" I lift up my thumb to show her the bandaid and she scoffs

"She's literally the spawn of Satan, and Carter's still with her?"

"Well not really.... She loves him but he doesn't love her back"

It went quiet for a moment, Zoe was trying to study me although we're in the dark. "Is this giving you second thoughts on whether you should be crushing on him or not?"

I frown, "What? This isn't the second grade, I'm not crushing on him-

"You can't fool me, I'm a redhead"

And cue the psychic Zoe

She has a theory that redheads are secretly the smartest human beings on the planet and that they also happen to be psychic, crazy I know

"I-

"Carmen it's ok to have a crush, you can't help your feelings" She says amused

I turn around, "I'm sleeping now"

"Sweet dreams Mrs Miller-

"Shut up"

She laughs before turning to face the wall and I roll my eyes before picking up my phone that has just buzzed

I replace the phone number with a contact name

I snort

😊

I smile to myself before turning off my phone

Stop it Carmen