𝚝𝚘 𝚍𝚒𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛 || 𝚊𝚗 𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚕 𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢

| 𝚝 𝚠 𝚘 |

Carter never stayed home for long, always using every excuse he could to avoid it. He'd never liked staying home, and the move had only made things worse for his family. At least back in New Hampshire his parents' arguments had occurred late at night, when Kylie couldn't hear them. He saw the effect they had on his sister, and he hated it, knowing he couldn't ease her pain. He couldn't fix it.

And then there was the issue of his mother constantly breathing down his neck. It was like so matter what Carter did, she was never pleased. It was like nothing he could ever do would be enough, no matter how hard he tried. He had stopped trying to make sense of it a long time ago.

He convinced himself it didn't matter. So what if his mother would be eternally disappointed in him and he didn't even know why? It didn't bother him. It wouldn't. It couldn't. Because this was something that was out of his control, he couldn't fix it.

No one could.

His solution was simple: avoid home like it was the plague. And when he was home, he would try to avoid his parents as much as he could. Not that they noticed, they were too busy arguing with each other to notice much these days. His father still hadn't found a job here, and it had been six months since they had moved, so it had fallen to his mother to bring home a steady income, which resulted in more hours of work, which resulted in less sleep, which resulted in tensions running higher for both of them. Much higher than they had in New Hampshire.

It wasn't like their life had been argument-free in New Hampshire, his parents had argued. But their vicious spats had ocurred late in the night, and the only reason Carter knew about them was because one night, when he was about ten, he hadn't been able to sleep, and when he had gotten down to get a glass of water, he had found himself watching his parents screaming curses to the other, glaring hatefully. They hadn't noticed him, thank the gods, but ever since then, Carter had started to notice the cracks in his parents' perfect facades. How his mother went rigid with tension every time his father entered the room, how his father always relaxed after his mother left it. Carter suspected, that if it weren't for Kylie they would have gotten a divorce a long time ago.

But Kylie had always been.....sensitive, and Carter knew that if their parents did separate, she would take it the hardest. And Sam knew that their recent fights were taking a toll on her, although she was.....different lately. She was stronger, less unsure of herself, more outgoing, which he was relieved by, since back in New Hampshire she used to tag along with him and his friends (not that he had ever minded). He credited her new friends, Zoey, Maven, and Luna for the change. (a/n: aaaaahhhhh, Mavena mention....check out Aron, Not Aphrodite by chronic_dreamer if you already haven't done so, it's amazing, one of my favorite books on here).

So, to avoid his house as much as possible, he had gotten a job at the local tutoring center. Math was his best subject, and Carter had decided it was the most productive use of his time (and a little extra spending money never hurt anyone).

That was when the last person he had expected to come in walked right in.

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The A,NA cameo is still happening lol cuz I have it plotted out in the story, and I like the way it's going lol.

Thank you all so much for reading and please vote!