Loving Carter

8

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Elijah's POV

She left her jacket in his room.

Carter left her pink jacket on his chair.

That was the first thing Eli saw when he opened his eyes.

He glanced at the clock next to him. 07:43 AM. It was early. Too early. But he knew what woke him up.

That goddamn dream.

He slid himself out of bed. He was thankful he stopped drinking when he did, or he would have one killer hangover right about now.

He went to the bathroom and took a quick shower. He threw on black sweatpants a t-shirt, walking into the kitchen and making himself a cup of coffee. He hated coffee. But he knew he didn't sleep enough.

He surveyed the apartment, surprised to find it clean. Della must've stayed and cleaned up before she went home.

He checked his phone, replying to texts from Luke and ignoring the rest.

He heard a sound, looking up to find Porter stumbling out of his room.

"Hey man." He said, rubbing his temples with his index fingers.

"Why are you up so early?" Eli asked. Porter walked to the medicine cabinet, throwing a Tylenol in his mouth and stalking to the cupboard to get a glass for water.

"Headache. You?"

Eli said nothing, looking down into the black coffee in his blue cup.

He heard Porter's clattering through the cupboard stop. He looked up to find Porter analyzing him with his deep brown eyes, his eyebrows pulled together. He frowned when he saw what he was looking for on Eli's face.

"It's back, isn't it?" Porter asked, in a sad voice. He knew about Eli's recurring nightmare when it used to happen in high school.

Eli sighed, frowning. "Yeah."

"Anything I can do to help?"

"Nah, man. It'll go away eventually. It always does."

"I know, but I still worry." Porter shrugged.

"Don't, I'm okay." Eli hated people worrying about him. He needed to take a walk.

He went back to his room, May climbing out of his bed and purring around him while he put on socks and grabbed a sweater and his jacket.

Porter wasn't in the kitchen anymore, he probably went back to sleep. Eli sent a text to Della, asking her to text him when she woke up so he knew she got home okay last night.

As he took the elevator down to the lobby, he put his earphones in, putting on Frank Ocean's latest album and exiting the building.

He kept his eyes on the concrete, head down as he walked through the cool morning air, hands in his pockets.

Eli didn't really know where to go. Whenever he used to get nightmares in high school he would go to the lake near his house and just look into the water until he felt okay again. But he was far away now. In a busy city full of people and sounds.

Even this early on a weekend, the city was bustling and alive, people scurrying past him on the street, cars and taxi's driving fast and carelessly.

He sighed to himself. He needed somewhere to go, he needed to feel... safe.

Just as he had that thought, he passed by a little cafe. He frowned. It was tiny, he had never noticed it before.

He walked in and looked around. It was cozy, with only three little seating areas in the cafe. The walls were blue, and each seating area had three little sofas surrounding a tiny table. It was currently empty, surprisingly.

The lady at the front was kind, she was old and short, she had a motherly sense around her. He ordered a steaming cup of peppermint tea, putting the change in the tip jar, and sitting at the farthest sofa from the entrance.

It was quiet in here. He took out his earphones. He was almost finished his tea when he heard the bell at the door chime, signalling another customer had come in. 

"Mrs. Cartelli!" Eli flinched when he heard a familiar voice. There was no fucking way.

He inconspicuously looked back at the entrance, seeing Carter hop into the cafe, eyes on the lady at the front, who had a big smile on her face.

He watched as she started animatedly talking to the lady, waving her arms everywhere. She was wearing black leggings, and a pink sweater, a jacket was haphazardly thrown over them

He froze when her eyes moved from the lady to him. He saw her lips part. He couldn't take her eyes off of her as she said bye to the lady and walked over to him.

"Goldilocks." She greeted him, sitting across from him. He scowled at the nickname, turning his head away from her.

"Why do I see you literally everywhere?" She finished her sentence, curiously.

"Beats me." He muttered under his breath, sipping on his tea.

She eyed him for a second, looking at his body language; body hunched over his cup, a frown etched into his mouth, eyes downcast. She hesitated before asking;

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah." He scowled. "I'm fine."

She pursed her lips, clearly knowing he wasn't.

Carter stood up again, lightly tapping his shoulder. "Come on. Let's go."

Eli didn't move, "Go where?"

"Somewhere special." She said shortly.

Her eyebrows raised in surprise when he actually got up, following her out of the store.

She waved goodbye to the lady. "How do you know her?" Eli asked.

"I've always lived in New York, remember? I found that cafe when I was in high school. Mrs. Cartelli and her husband helped me through a lot of stuff, so I come to visit often. What about you? What were you doing there?"

He shrugged, "Just needed somewhere to go." He said, vaguely.

Carter glanced at him but surprisingly didn't ask anything. "I have somewhere we can go." She grabbed his wrist and lead him away from the cafe. Eli let her drag him.

Carter led them through the throngs of people, stopping at a raggedy looking fire escape on the outside of a very tall apartment building. She started going up the stairs. Eli halted.

"What is this?" He asked.

"Just trust me." She said. He gulped, looking up and guessing it was ten stories high. That was a lot.

"I can't." He told her. "You know I'm sc- you know I don't like heights." He mumbled.

"It's okay, just keep your eyes on me." She moved her hand from his wrist to his hand, holding it as she did on the Ferris wheel.

She guided him up the stairs until they reached the very top. Eli kept his eyes on her back. Her black hair was wavy, slightly curling at the end. And it looked soft. So soft.

He didn't even notice when they reached the top. She up climbed onto the roof of the building, letting go of his hand so he could too. He kept his eyes on hers, not looking down at all.

Eli hauled himself up, stopping to survey their surroundings. It was a plain roof, with a ledge surrounding the whole place. Carter walked to the end of the roof, plopping down and sitting back, leaning back against the ledge. She propped her knees up, resting her chin on them.

She patted the space next to her, and Eli cautiously sat down on his behind, pulling his knees up very slightly, and throwing his elbows on them in a careless stance.

They sat in silence, looking up at the sky as the cold breeze blew past them. Eli noticed how quiet it was up here. It was peaceful. Carter would never know how much he needed this serenity.

a/n anyone else tired of this year already?