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"Neither of us have cancer, right?" Carter looked up at me, his eyes wide as he bit his lower lip. I looked at him with a confused expression but then I understood what had happened to him.

"No Carter. None of us do." I smiled comfortingly as I squeezed his hand lightly. "Just relax okay?" Carter nodded at me pecking me lightly on the lips before walking towards his bed. I walked after him and placed myself down beside him reaching out for the left over popcorns when my eyes caught something under his bed.

"What's that?" I called out as I took the thing out. After staring at it completely confused, I turned it and showed it to Carter. His face looked horror stricken as his eyes landed on it. I couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"Hey! Give it back to me! Hey! Sparkle! Aye!" I pulled the thing behind my back and walked backwards. He was standing on his bed while warning me. But I knew better than to return the thing to him. It was a painting. I weird one. A really extraordinarily weird one with it's weirdness reaching to extreme levels.

I ran with the painting in my arms around his room, trying to defend it. Carter was after me and I knew I was bound to get caught but I still ran like shit. Because I didn't want to let a chance of teasing Carter go. As I jumped up the bed after running around his room, the painting fell from my hand. Carter, as he was following me, crashed into me from behind and I fell down on the bed on my face. Carter landed beside me with a huff.

To say it hurt would be a lie. It hurt like a bitch. Without lifting my head up from the bed I pressed my palms on Carter's face as a tight slap. "Owww!" Still breathing hard, I slapped him again before looking at him. "Ahh!" His hands reached out to rub his cheeks which were red by then.

"You slap so hard.... are you sure you're not a vampire or something?" His sentence made me laugh lightly but when my eyes caught the painting from earlier the laughter turned into wild screams.

"Oh my God, ahaahahah! Hahaha! Seriously Carter?! You painted that? Ahahahaha! Bahahahaha!"

None of you would've expected that I found a painting of Donald Trump laying under his bed. It wouldn't have been so funny if it were simply a picture. It was no where near a normal painting.

Sure there was a Donald Trump but half of his head contained hair on the top while the other half was bald. The background of bald headed area was a desert while the background the other part of his face was showed as a garden. Below his face were written two sentences.

What exactly got me laughing was the major heading on the canvas: I bursted out laughing again. I was laughing so hard that tears were leaking uncontrollably out of my eyes.

"I was just sixteen, okay?" He stared when I was still laughing my stomach off.

"Well, you had a creative mind back then," I whispered and started doubling up again. Carter frowned as he ran and took hold of the painting before dumping it inside his cupboard. He came back and laid down beside me the frown still present in his face.

"You are never going to forget it are you?"

"No, ahahhahahaha! I mean who the hell paints such things?!" I starting banging the head of the bed while roaring with laughter. "I never knew you were so thoughtful Carter!" I said when my laughter died down, turing my back to the head of the bed to face him.

"I was nothing but an idiot back then. And that's a living example of it." He pointed at his cupboard. I started to laugh again but Carter pressed his palm on my mouth. "You are not here to laugh. You are here to spend some quality time with your boyfriend. So stop with this laughing!"

I pouted. "You don't like it when I laugh?"

"I love it when you laugh. But the topic shouldn't be me, you know?"

"Okay, I'm not laughing. So, let's spend some quality time, what do you say?" I said, playing with his shirt's button as I wiggled my eyebrows.

"Is my Sparkle trying to be seductive?" He raised his eyebrows with amusement dancing in his eyes as he stared at me. I giggled lightly.

"Maybe," just as the words were out of my mouth, Carter jumped upon me and kissed the life out of me. I ran my hand through his hair while he was still kissing me when abruptly, he pulled away. I frowned at him as I tried to understand his face expressions.

"Are you sure none of us had cancers in the past?" I sighed out of relief after hearing him.

"I didn't have. What about you?"

"Not that I remember of." Carter answered as he climbed off me. I reached out for his hands and took them in mine.

"Nothing is happening to you and nothing is happening to me, you get it? Now stop bringing up cancer, will you?" He gave me a tight smile and nodded. It wasn't fifteen minutes before Carter started with his paranoia again.

"You don't have any other deathly disease, right, Sparkle?" I rolled my eyes at him as I shook my head. What's got him so paranoid is The John Green. Yes, you got it right, the fault in our stars. I'm not blaming the movie for getting Carter like that. I blame myself because I was the one who forced Carter to watch it with me.

When he called me that day, I had to convince him to not come to the party. He had taken a promise from me. The promise of spending a whole day with him. And his condition was that I had to be in a dress.

Of course, I didn't wear a dress but spending a day with him was not a bad idea. I had to get dropped at Lia's house from where Carter picked me up. My Mom was pretty much impressed by Lia and I took it as an advantage.

Carter hadn't watched that movie earlier and I forced him into watching it with me. I hadn't known he would become so fearfully insecure. He kept bringing up cancer again and again. And it was annoying the hell out of me.

"You'll never leave me yourself, will you? I need to know that because I can't live without you Sparkle. You're my daily dose of sanity. You're my sunshine and I need to know that you'll not leave me. I'll give up painting. I'll be a businessman or whatever you like. Because I love you so much it hurts even thinking about you leaving me."

His speech made me remember our conversation from the other day when he was drunk. He kept mentioning Liam that day and I had no idea who that was. Obviously I was curious but that day he was already hurt and bringing up that topic didn't seem like a good idea.

I rested my head over my arm, using it as a pillow as I stared at him intently. "I won't leave you Carter. Even if you fall in love with Donald Trump or something, I'll be okay with it." That got him giggling lightly.

"I love you." He said, stroking my cheek.

"I love you more, Carter," smiling, I answered him. We stayed there staring at each other in a comfortable silence when I was notified by something inside my mind.

"Hey, Carter?"

"Hmm?" He said, turning his face to the roof of his room as he played with his fidget spinner.

"Who is Liam?" I asked while my eyes were shut due to fear of him slapping me or something. The movements of his hand stopped when he heard the question. I, opened my eyes, one at a time as I looked at him. His jaw was clenched and his hands were balled. I could see his knuckles turning white. The only person near him was me, and I didn't want to get punched at all so I moved away.

Snapping his head at me he gulped. "A bastard! A douchbag! A fucking prick! He was a dick! He was a fucking chicken!" I flinched at each sentence he said.

"Okay..." I replied awkwardly.

"And why the fucking hell are you so scared?! Come 'ere," Carter patted the empty space beside him. Fearfully, I made my way towards him and laid beside him.

"Carter, it's okay. I- you kept mentioning him the other day. You know what? We can talk about Donald Trump or-"

"Liam was my brother..." Carter stated not meeting my eyes as he kept staring at the roof of his room. "He no more is," he continued, looking at me this time. I could see beads of tears appearing in his eyes but he blinked them back. I had no idea what to say so I waited for him to continue. "Liam is dead Sparkle, he is dead."

Those beads of tears appeared again but he did not let them fall. "Carter it's fine. We don't have to talk about him, okay?"

"It was six years ago Sophia. I'm over it now. But if someone mentions him, I loose it. He died in a car crash. He was drunk driving. He was sad, because his girlfriend had been cheating on him, that bitch! He was in love. I didn't know how much it would've hurt him, but now I do."

"I didn't want to fall in love, not at all. But at some point, between all the time we've spent together, I fell and I keep falling everyday, again and again. Every time I see you, your eyes, those damn eyes, it's like falling in love all over again." He sighed as I smiled at him.

"Everything about love is beautiful. And everything about love is sensitive. If one thing gets out of place, everything falls apart. And it hurts. I was a wreck when Liam died. Never had I expected that I would see such a day. And now when I've got you, I don't wanna loose you. I do not wanna go through that hurt again."

"I'm scared because right now you mean more to me than any other person. You are everything I think about, everything I want, everything I need. So do not dare leave me." His words were so soft I didn't know what to say to him.

I just pressed my lips to his in a passionate kiss. "Never," I answered pulling away lightly pecking his cheek.

Carter didn't really talk about Liam but whatever he told me was enough for me. I was happy he did share some stuff with me. And talking to him about old memories would only increase the pain and make him miss his brother more which was no where near what I wanted.

I looked at Carter and found him already staring at me. God, I love this guy so much. I'm totally crazy about him. He makes me feel things I've never felt before. Thank you so much for this blessing of yours.

"Arf! Arf! Arf!" And thanks for this blessing too.

* * * * *

"What you're telling me is that Josh is going to be with us just for today and I have to wear this?" I stared at Rebecca in shock as I tried to take it all in.

"You forgot the dinner part, Sophie!" Rebecca corrected me.

"So you're telling me that there's a dinner where I have to accompany Mom and Dad, wearing that dress and that Josh will show up there too?" I took hold of the sea-green dress hanging on my cupboard.

"Yup. Kind of a family bonding dinner, I guess...."

What a joke. I died laughing!

"This dress is so inappropriate, Rebecca! Are you sure this is a family bonding dinner?" I started pacing in my room like I had been doing in the past hours. There seemed something terribly wrong with everything happening. I was too shocked to process anything. I was too lost to show happiness over the fact that we were actually having a family bonding dinner and Josh was going to be there.

I got myself inside the dress as I stared at myself in the mirror. I looked nothing but slutty. "Why do they always have to select dresses for me?! What the hell us wrong with pants and shirts?"

"Dresses are more sophisticated." Rebecca said plopping a strawberry inside her mouth.

"I Mean, look at this! It's so.... tight...." I kept pulling it upwards then downward, again upwards and again downwards. Sighing out loud I tied my hair in a ponytail and wore my lenses.

"Why can't we have a family bonding dinner at our house?!" I breathed out ironing my ponytail after wearing small ear studs.

"Wear your hair down Sophia," Rebecca placed the bowl of strawberries on my table and approached me. But before she could touch my hair, I stopped her.

"No." I was annoyed to the point that I wanted to rip the dress off my body. Shrugging her shoulders, Rebecca went back to eating strawberries. I applied a little lipgloss on my lips and mascara on my eyelashes. With my shoes on I made my way outside the house where Rony was waiting for me.

Mom and Dad were to reach there by themselves because they had to go to a meeting before that. Now, if you'd ask me, I would totally refuse to accompany my parents to dinners and parties and meetings. I felt so glad that I was saved from this torture seventeen years of my life.

But atleast something was good about that day. I was going to meet Josh after almost one and a half month. Thinking about him, I couldn't keep the smile off my face. Long forgotten was the discomfort the dress was giving me. "Hey, Rony? How long is it before we reach there?"

"We're here Miss Sophie." I nodded as I sighed and braced myself to face my parents and to meet Josh. As the car stopped I jumped outside and made my towards the restaurant without any delay.

It was the first time I had seen that place and I had no idea what kind of a restaurant that was. Once I entered inside I looked around to find my parents but they were no where. All the background screamed was one thing: rich. I gulped trying to locate my parents but then I was met with a warm hug. "Oh my God. Look at you, you've grown into such a pretty woman, Sophia!"

Startled, I stumbled a little. A sweet smell of expensive perfume hit my nostrils. When she pulled back I stared at her face. It felt familiar, like I had seen her somewhere but I couldn't point out where. "I'm so sorry, I didn't greet you. I'm Angela Woods."

"Woods? You're Amber's sister?" I asked my mind wrapping around the fact that I had not seen her somewhere but she had similar features like Amber. Hearing my sentence she started to laugh.

"I'm her Mom, Sophia," she stated grabbing my hand as she lead me along with her.

"It's nice to meet you Mrs. Woods. You're very sweet." I smiled at her, letting out the truth.

"Awww, where have your parents been hiding you all your life? I'm already loving you. And please call me Angela." We stopped near the elevator and went inside. My family was seated on the second floor.

"How are you here, Angela?"

"We planned a family meet up today. Our family and your family," grinning, she answered. Listening to this I became extremely self conscious. I had my hair tied in a ponytail and was wearing absolutely no makeup. Don't even ask about my jewellery.

I knew Mom would be angry at me for showing up this way but I was stuck now. They should've let me know the Woods were going to be there too. When the elevator's door opened my eyes caught the sight of a smiling Josh. Without thinking, I went and kneeling down, I hugged him tightly, "Cake!"

"I missed you Sophie," he said hugging me back. When we pulled back I could see Mom towering above us with a dearly glare lining her features. When I looked towards Angela she held a confused expression on her face.

"Why do you have to be so dramatic Sophia? Don't act like you've met each other after a decade!" Mom hissed and I nodded as I took a step away from Josh. Angela started to walk towards our table followed by Mom. Josh and I went after them.

A smile automatically crossed my lips when my eyes landed on Lucas. He smiled back at me. Josh was seated beside Mom. The seat after Josh's was empty and I placed myself there. Opposite to me were sitting Amber and Lucas.

"Hi Amber! Hey Lucas!" Lucas waved back me the moment I opened my mouth to great him.

"Hey Sophie. Looks like you guys have already met each other?" Amber asked, eyeing her brother.

"More than once," Lucas winked in my direction which made me blush. "Y-yeah."

I looked beside me to see josh playing with the napkin. "How have you been?" I whispered lightly so that nobody hears.

"I'm good Sophia, how're you? How's everyone?"

"Everyone's great Josh. I really missed you." I looked at him as I said.

"I missed you too. I missed everyone, Carter, Lia, Rebecca, Frank, my other friends... and.... Nina..." Awwwww. Taking Josh's hand in mine, I squeezed it.

"Do you think you're staying this time or going back?"

"I don't know Sophia. That is why I need you to give this to Nina." Josh took out a small folded paper from his pocket and handed it to me. Staring at it, I whispered with a small smile, "Nina?" He nodded a little blush creeping on his cheeks.

"Okay, done, sweet cake!" Pinching his cheek, I said. He swatted my hand away huffing out. His lips curved downwards as he stared at the plate.

"Why do they not let me live here? I do not like to live there!" Josh got a little loud causing Mom to divert her attention to us.

She gave us those eyes and we knew we had to shut our mouths now. I gulped and looked up to meet Lucas' eyes. I smiled sheepishly at him. "You look lovely today," he said all of a sudden.

"I know, right? She looks great!" Amber chirped in.

"You look greater Amber." I stated returning the same smile.

"And what about me?" Lucas asked, pouting, making me turn towards him.

"You look..." I started to think of something to say when he interrupted. "Great? Handsome? Hot? Sexy? Jaw dropping? Panties dropping?.... Ravishing?"

"No....You look.... creepy." I answered making Amber and her Mom giggle. Lucas groaned, mouthing a 'why' to me. I smiled, shrugging my shoulders.

The empty chair got filled by a handsome looking man. My eyes stuck to him as he began chatting with my Dad. It didn't take me long to realize this that he was Mr. Woods. Mom nudged me with her elbows demanding me to greet him.

When Mr. Woods was done talking with Dad, I sighed, "umm, hello, Mr. Woods. I'm Sophia."

"Sophia!" He exclaimed gracing me with his welcoming smile. "It's so good to finally have your company. And please call me Daniel." I grinned and nodded.

"So... how's school for you?" I asked Lucas trying to make conversation because amber was busy talking to Mom and talking with Josh wasn't an option. He chuckled at my question and shook his head in amusement.

"How old do you think I am, Sophia?"

"Ummm... 23, no 22...ugh... 21. Yeah 21, I guess." I answered fighting a mental battle to decide his age as I prayed for my guess to be correct.

"Add four more to that and there you have my age." He said smiling from ear to ear.

"You're 25?" It was hard to keep myself from gasping. He nodded as a reply and smirked. Dad ordered steak for me after I agreed for it while Mom and Josh had fish. Lucas ordered something that I couldn't remember. Amber had to go somewhere so she excused herself. Josh went to the play area due to Mom's persuasion which made the atmosphere more awkward.

"How is school for you, Sophia?"