Dealing with Karter

Chapter 17: Bathroom

After playing with Harley a bit, Maddy went to put her to bed. I went to Karter's room and sat on his desk chair spinning in circles. Karter's usual organized room had a messy desk. It was filled with a whole lot of papers and folders scattered. I started looking through them. At first I thought it was homework but I realized it was bills, calculations, news clippings, court cases, and a few letters. This was his father's case. I wasn't a lawyer, but I could see it didn't look good.

I could hear loud voices downstairs. Loud footsteps came up the stairs. Suddenly Karter barged into his room. His once angry face turned to shock upon seeing me, but the tears in his eyes remained.

"What are you doing here?" He asked. His tone was rather confused than angry.

"I didn't want to go home..." I said quietly. My problems felt like nothing now that I've glimpsed a little more into his life.

What happened to him? Why was he so angry?

He furrowed his brows and took a step forward grabbing my hand. "What's wrong?"

He was worried about me?

"Me? It's not important," I shook my heead squeezing his hand. "What's wrong with you."

He turned his head to the side. "Nothing."

I cupped his cheek guiding his gaze back to me. "It's not nothing. Don't shut me out Karter."

The storm was brewing in those eyes I've grown to love. I knew that look. He was unsure what to do.

"He was doing so great. He was staying out of trouble, his record was flawless. Now he's in the infirmary, I can't even see him, and he's going to be denied parole," the words fell out of his mouth, he sounded so shaky and stressed.

"Who?"

"My dad," He croaked.

"W-what?" I stuttered. "Is he okay? How much time does he have left?"

"A year," Karter sighed. "A damn year and he was going to come back to us."

My heart was breaking into a billion pieces. Karter's finish line was so close and now his hope was crushed all over again.

"Can't his lawyer do something about it?" I asked desperately.

He shook his head. "The only lawyers we could afford now are idiots."

I knew I couldn't offer him money, but I can offer him one thing. "You need a good lawyer?"

He nodded his head. "Obviously."

"Well last time I checked I lived with two of them," I offered.

Karter shook his head. "I'm not using your family."

Using. That damn word again. Just how I was using Karter to avoid Jared.

"You won't be using them," I told him. "They're my parents. The least they could do is help the guy I'm with, right?"

A little smirk creeped on Karter's lips at the mention of us being together. "I really don't want to make you feel like I'm using you."

I knew that perfectly well after gifting Harley.

"You're not, I promise," I told him. "Plus, you still need to meet my parents. It's been hard putting it off."

They kept pressuring me to bring him over. Kept asking me questions. When is he coming over? Why are you hiding him? Why can't he make time for us? Why won't you tell us anything about him?

"I don't know," Karter hesitated rubbing the back of his neck. "I can look some more for a lawyer, there needs to be a good cheap one somewhere out there."