Heart and Soul [bxb]

Chapter Thirty-Four

*This chapter contains multimedia relevant to the plot*

Carter felt high on something new as he got home, after his date with Johnny.

He just couldn't shake the dumb smile off his face, nor did he really want to. As he stepped into the living room, he found his mom lying on the couch, with Tony's arm loosely draped around her shoulders while they watched TV.

"Hi, honey," she greeted him, reaching for the remote on Tony's lap to pause their show.

Carter stopped on his way to look at her. "Hey."

"Hey," Tony returned.

"Seth came over today," Carter's mom said.

"What did he want?"

"He's still here, actually," Abby told her son. "I said you were out, but he said he'd wait."

Carter frowned. "He's upstairs?" He asked. His mother nodded. "I didn't see his car outside."

"I think he walked," Abby said.

That was strange.

Carter walked around the couch to reach the stairs and hopped up the steps to the first floor. He heard animated talk from inside Luca and Frankie's room as he walked to his own. Upon opening the door, his eyebrows furrowed further in confusion. It was empty.

The bathroom door was open and the lights were out when he passed it, so Seth couldn't have gone there. Taking a step back into the hallway Carter looked over his shoulder to the door across from his. Bella's bedroom door.

He heard voices—plural—from the other side. Something in his chest sunk unpleasantly when he heard a female giggle followed by a male chuckle. He knew that second voice.

Without thinking, Carter stepped toward Bella's room and twisted his hand on the doorknob. As the door swung open, everything appeared to play out in three distinct stages.

First, Carter took in the scene before him like it was something happening on a screen, not real at all. Bella was lying on her own bed, on her back, and a second body was sprawled over her. Their lips were connected and it was nearly impossible to define where one body ended and the other began. Seth's leather jacket was discarded by the floor, next to both their shoes, and his hand was hidden beneath Bella's top. It was all intimately familiar.

Second, probably immediately after Carter opened the door, their heads turned to see him standing there. Confusion, shock and horror followed one after the other, before stage three erupted.

Carter let go of Bella's door, like he had been burned. He felt like he'd been burned, for some reason. At the same time, Seth jumped away from Bella, as though lightening had struck him.

"What the fuck," Carter spoke evenly. It was like his voice hadn't had time to catch up to the tornado inside his head.

Seth picked his jacket up from the floor with one hand, extending the other one in front of himself like one would to show a growling dog they were harmless.

"I can explain this."

"What the actual fuck?" Carter repeated, louder this time. "How?" He demanded. "When? Why? With her?"

"Carter, just let me talk."

"I'm pretty sure this is all very self-explanatory," Bella mused from the bed, where she had sat up with her legs folded over the mattress. Her brown hair was messy at the back still.

Carter felt white hot rage bubble up in his chest. Some of it felt like it had been there for a while, waiting to be ignited. 

"Shut up," he hissed. Bella raised her eyebrows.