Just Friends. (A falling in love with my best friend story)

Chapter 19: Becoming a good friend

Genna's POV:

        "Okay, no defense Genna, but you look horrible." Carter told me when he walked up to me. I tried to make myself as late as possible this morning, so maybe I wouldn't have to go to school. By kissing me after I kissed him, Parker had just confused me more. I don't even know what that was. Affection? Crush? Romance? Randomness? So after taking a good twenty minutes to clean my cuts and apply coverup and shit, and taking another to get dressed, I arrived still way too early.

        "You're no Johnny Depp yourself." I said shortly. He smirked and I noticed there was no hyper Chelsea bouncing around near by.

        "Where's Chels?" I asked. He smiled sadly.

        "She got sick." He answered.

The bell rang and we walked to first period study hall and I thought about the comment I made. Honestly, Carter was very cute. He was tall, just as tall as Parker, and had black hair with green eyes, just like Chelsea did. I caught Parker's eye as I walked in and he gave me a silent questioning look, asking if I was okay. I nodded and sat down next to Carter, who motioned towards Parker.

        "Your brother or something?" He asked. I shook my head. I didn't know what Parker was to me anymore. I mumbled that I was going to read, so I didn't have to make awkward conversation with Carter. Both of them and I weren't very close yet, mostly because they haven't gained my trust yet. It seemed Chelsea didn't notice that I wasn't very close with her, just as long as I was nice. Carter knew, and he kept his distance.

As the school bell rang, we both stood up.

        "Um...do you..wanna hang out after school today? I really don't want to have to watch over Chelsea." He said. I nodded, since I really had nothing better to do. His face seemed to light up a tad and he smiled at me, telling me he'd meet me after school. I nodded and he left the room. I gathered my stuff and saw Parker at my table.

        "I won't be free this afternoon." I said, letting him know. He nodded and we walked to our next class together.

***

        "I'm afraid it'll be just us alone in the house. When Chelsea got sick, our grandparents took her to the ER, since they overreact to everything." He said, giving me a quick smile. I smiled back and awkwardly sat on his couch, not knowing what to do or say. He came over with a glass of lemonade for each of us and sat down next to me. I didn't want there to be awkward silence, so I decided to make conversation.

        "Grandparents?" I asked. He nodded.

        "Yeah, our parents died when we were 11. Boat mishap." He said, sadness filling his expression. Finally, someone I could relate to about a parent's death. I decided to open up about mom.

        "My mother just died right at the beginning of summer, after we dropped my friend Parker and his family off at the airport to leave for Spain." I told him. He looked at me and nodded.

        "It's heartbreaking isn't it?" He asked. I nodded, feeling tears come to my eyes.

        "Very." I answered.

We went back and forth, kind of ranting to each other about how things changed dramatically for us after that. I didn't tell him about rehab of course, but I told him I did have therapy, and how I recently moved in with Parker because my dad became a drunk.

        "Ain't life just rainbows and sunshine huh?" He asked softly, handing a Kleenex to me. We had both shed a few tears during this rant session, and even admitted that it felt awesome to rant to someone about this. I liked Carter more for this, because as sweet as Parker was, he was actually a closed feeling person, like his dad.

        "Yeah." I said, letting out a short laugh. He smiled at me and I smiled back, bigger than I'm used to. He looked down at my arms, which I hope had stayed covered up during the day, and took the tattooed one, reading it slowly. He told me he took french class, but wasn't very good.

        "If only....I...had the strength..to..." He started, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion.

        "Carry on." I finished for him. He looked back up at me and smiled.

        "I like it." He said. I nodded, and hesitated before showing him the other. He read it in his head, then looked confused.

        "So it goes? What does that mean?" He asked.

        "My mother always said it when something went wrong. Like, all the time. It was her way of saying I had to move on with life." I said. He nodded, and we sat in silence for a few minutes before he turned to me.

        "Hey, uh..I know you're not so comfortable around Chelsea, but....just give her a break. She's been through the same things I have, and it's worse for her because she shut everyone out, including all her friends when our parents died. Now that she's recooperated, she's desperate to get her old friends back but they're still sore." He said.

I nodded.

        "Don't worry, I just need to get used to her that's all, I'm used to quietness." I said. He nodded and I got a text from Mary, and saying "excuse me" before reading it, I got up.

        "I have to be home. Mary's worried." I said. He stood up as well and nodded.

        "Yeah, gran will be home soon to check on me and she doesn't know you're over." He said. I got my jacket, which I had taken off since it's very warm in here, and he put it on for me like a gentleman would.

        "I hope this makes you a bit less tense around us. You seem like an amazing friend. And from what you've told me about your mom, you do seem like her." He said. I smiled at him and nodded.

        "Thankyou. And of course this does change things. I'm glad to have friends who...understand better." I say. He nods and before either of us stop it, we're hugging very tight. His chin touches the top of my head and I close my eyes, trying to make the moment last. 

We both let go at the same time and he smiled down at me.

        "I'll see you around Genevieve." He said, using my full name as a joke.

Even though I absolutely hated being called by my full first name, from him it sounded awesome. And...I really liked it.

        "Good bye." I said, walking out.