Connections | ✔️

Twelve

Carter P.O.V.

That was the best date I'd ever been on, hands down. It may not have technically been a date from Valerie's perspective, as I got her to go along under the pretence we would just hang and I'd get her ice-cream.

To me, it was real though. I felt it.

I decided to give us some space and focused on working instead, because she had a habit of running whenever we got closer and broke some boundaries. But since I had arrived back in L.A earlier that evening, I wanted to come to Bean Crushers to surprise her again. She completely took me off guard when she flew into my arms as if she had missed me. Usually I made all the moves, but it felt so good knowing that she seemingly did care. I guess distance did make the heart grow fonder.

I wanted to kiss her so badly ever since our first FaceTime call. Every time she licked her lips, every time she looked into my eyes, every time we innocently brushed against each other, the feeling intensified. But I had to hold back, I wanted her to be ready to move forward. It took every ounce of my willpower not to just grab her and kiss her. Well, until the very end that was, when I couldn't take it anymore and just went for it. I was trying to read her emotions as she stood before me, looking radiant under the moonlight, softly whispering to me.

I felt like I could, and should, have done it then. But at the same time, this was Valerie, and she was different. It made me hesitant to do something, so for once, I was the one that was going to back away. I'm glad I didn't go through with it though, because I would have been missing out on the greatest feeling I had ever felt when we finally kissed. It left me completely speechless and wanting more.

Resting my keys and wallet on the table of my spacious two-bedroom apartment, I picked up my carryon to go unpack. I literally got home from the airport that afternoon, dumped my stuff, had a shower and then made my way over to Bean Crushers. I was whipped, I know. I had missed her.

I didn't really care when she had ghosted me for the week during exams, but after she had finished, she still hadn't said anything which bothered me. Because, 1. She was avoiding me, and 2. I didn't want her to. Luckily, I had known I was going to see her again at Sommer's thanks to Kean. Kean and Ellana were the real MVP's of this relationship. I chuckled to myself thinking about how many times he had gotten information for me about Valerie through Ellana. Shoutout to Kellana.

After unpacking, I wasn't too tired because of the nap I had on the flight over, so I decided to try and get more editing done. I had a ton of footage from Sommer's that would be good to use in an IGTV video, especially the ones of Valerie. Picking through some music I could find on SoundCloud, I asked for permission to use it, and set the background for the video. I tried my best not to include too many clips of her and spaced them out appropriately in between the others. I loved that she always looked like she was in her own world, deep in thought, or the way she smiled as she watched others. After a few hours of editing, the final product was finished. Reviewing it one last time with a content smile, I went to bed.

~

The next morning, I woke up and hit the gym, stopping to get a breakfast protein shake before the boys came over to hangout for the day (minus Kean because he had to be on set). I sent Valerie a quick good morning text to ensure she didn't think I would just ignore her after last night.

A loud knock resounded through the door, soon after I had finished uploading my IGTV clip.

"YOO Carty!" Xavier hollered as he bounded into my apartment with a vlog camera held in one hand.

"Sup dude," I nodded at him as we slapped our hands and fist bumped in greeting.

"Tell my lovely X fam how the infamous Carter Lee Bryson gets his hair so lusciously tousled!" Xavier shouted boisterously as he went to go ruffle the top of my head.