"Bye," he smiled.

"Bye," I waved.

Carter was nice enough to walk me home after school today. He says he wanted to, but somewhere in me, I felt that he only did it because he pitied me from what I told him at lunch.

I was a little worried, not regarding Carter, just in general. I had a bad feeling. I just hoped it wouldn't be disastrous.

◆:*:◇:*:◆:*:◇:*:◆

My phone rang and I groaned, looking around for it blindly, refusing to turn any lights on. It was two in the morning, who would be calling me? "Hello?"

"Alex, where are you right now?" Hannah's voice broke through.

"I'm at home, sleeping. Where else would I be?" I asked, sitting up against my headboard.

"There was a party tonight at Abby's house," she huffed.

"And? Did you go? Did you have fun, Hannah? Cause I'm trying to sleep here," I groaned.

"She announced it last minute. I didn't go but Jake did and- she told everybody that Carter rejected her for another girl."

I rubbed my eyes, pulling myself into consciousness while crawling out of bed. "What?" I asked.

"She said Carter rejected her for his girlfriend, Alexandria Lockhart." I fell right off the bed when I heard that. "Jake heard it himself, Alex. Is it true?" she asked.

"Of course, not! I just started talking to him like two weeks ago," I huffed while pulling my flip flops on and grabbing a hoodie.

"Alex," she paused, "Hudson was at the party."

I ran my hand through my hair in frustration. "I gotta go." I hung up, grabbed my keys, and dashed outside. I sprinted to Carter's house.

I thought back to the night I was here for the party. I grabbed a few pebbles from the front yard in the plants and did the math. "Which room is yours, Carter? I say that one," I mumbled to myself before tossing the pebble at it. Then another one and another, and another.

The window opened and revealed a shirtless Carter in nothing but black sweatpants.

All the girls like talking about grey sweatpants, why does nobody talk about black sweatpants?

"What the fuck are you doing?" His voice came out hoarse and husky.

Not right now, Alex.

"Get your ass down here!" I hissed.

"What happened?" he asked while pulling a shirt over his head.

"Just get your ass down here!" I repeated, throwing the remaining pebbles in my hand at him.

"Jesus, all right," he sighed before closing the window and coming downstairs, the front door opening moments later. "What?" he asked. His hair was a mess. It looked kind of cute.

"You told Abby today that I was your girlfriend," I stated.

"Yeah, you were there. Do you want it to be true?" he smirked.

"Not right now," I said warningly, "She decided to have a party tonight. A party where she decided to announce that Carter Reed rejected her and has a girlfriend. A girlfriend named Alexandria Lockhart."

He simply stared at me blankly.

"Why are you not freaking out?" I asked.

"Because it's two in the morning, and," he said while stretching, his shirt riding up a bit. "All I have to do is say I never said that to her. And no one is going to believe her anymore," he shrugged.

"Carter. You are lying. To everybody." He can't do that. "Look, I get that she has a big mouth, but you can't lie," I said.

"If you can handle the rumors and ignore them, then I won't. Can you?" he asked.

"What am I supposed to do when someone asks me? Because I'm sure they will," I huffed.

"Tell them no, tell them it's just a rumor. It is in one way," he explained.

"A rumor that you started yourself." I folded my arms across my chest.

"I did. And I apologized, now what?"

He was being immature. I understood that he didn't like taking things too seriously, he liked living carefree, but he can't always mess up and apologize. Some things can't be fixed with an apology, someday he'll understand that.

"You shouldn't have told her I was your girlfriend because I'm not," I sighed.

"I'm sorry. But I already did that, so let's move forward and come up with a solution rather than dwelling on the problem."

I guess it takes being immature to understand the immature.

"You created the problem, now you find a solution," I said firmly.

"Alex," he whined.

"I'm being serious, Carter. Do something," I huffed.

"I'll tell her the truth, okay?" I looked up at him, surprised. "I'll tell her that you aren't my girlfriend, you're just my friend, but I said that you were because I was sick and tired of her not giving up. But I want something in return," he smirked.

There's the Carter I've come to know.

"You made the problem but I have to give you something in order to make you solve it. That makes sense. What?" I sighed in defeat.

"I want a date," he stated.

"Oh, my God. We are still on that? Carter, no."

"Well, then as far as anybody else knows, you're my girlfriend," he shrugged before turning around to leave.

I grabbed his shirt and pulled him back. "Why a date?" I whined.

"Why not a date? Why don't you want to go? If you can answer that, I'll stop asking."

I turned my head inside out trying to find a logical answer but I couldn't. I thought of saying because I wasn't ready to date anyone yet, but he was asking for one date. That didn't mean I'd be his. And that would also be a lie because I have no problem with dating someone.

"See," he smirked at his victory.

"One date. You plan it. Otherwise, I'm not going," I huffed.

"Fair enough. This Friday, eight o'clock," he winked.

"Nothing fancy, please. I don't think you'd be stupid enough to blow money on me, but yeah. Just casual, okay?"

He nodded in agreement. "Now go home, and go back to sleep. You won't be my girlfriend by sunrise," he smirked before heading back inside.

I was walking but stopped when I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around and saw Carter. "I'm sleepy, but I'll still walk you home."

"Why?" I chuckled.

"Because I'm a gentleman," he grinned, "And it's rude to let a lady walk home alone."

"Says who?"

"A gentleman," he replied.

I shook my head while laughing. Once we reached my door, we said goodnight and bye, and then I came back in and went right back to bed, relieved. I trusted that he would keep his word.

He better, otherwise, I'll kill him.

I woke up the next morning to my alarm, got ready, and headed for the cafe like I always do. I walked in there and went to order my drink.

"Carter has it," Katy said without even looking up.

I tipped the jar anyway before walking over to him. "Why are you buying me my tea?" I asked while sitting down.

"Because I have good news for you," he said while sliding my tea over to me with a tissue. I opened it and it was a little sketch of the teacup with my name written on it. I smiled before looking up at him. "You are, officially, not my girlfriend anymore," he grinned.

"From two o'clock last night to now, you managed to cut out the rumor completely?" I asked, extremely shocked while fiddling with the tissue.

"Yes, ma'am. It just took a few texts from me. The others finished the job for me," he shrugged before grabbing another tissue and beginning to sketch.

I watched the whole time as he sketched a spiderman figure, adding every little detail to it. We stood up and headed out together to get to school, but he stopped at the counter where a little boy was sitting with his dad, eating pancakes from the cafe, a spiderman figure sitting beside him.

Carter tapped his shoulder and he turned around. He handed him the tissue and he opened it up before grinning and showing it to his dad with excitement. "Thank you," he said, smiling so big.

"No problem," Carter smiled before holding the door open for me. "Shall we?" he asked.

"That was very sweet," I stated, "You probably just made that kid's day."

"I like seeing people smile. I usually hang around to see the reactions of people who do find the sketches. It feels nice knowing I make someone smile every day," he shrugged.

"Well, sure you make someone smile every day, you've made me smile every day since I met you," I said, not thinking my words through.

"As I should," he replied, "Your smile is..." he trailed off with a soft laugh, "It's beautiful, you should wear it all the time."

No one has ever said that to me before.

"Someone has to make you smile, might as well be me."

I like it being him. The one to make me smile.

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