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I was taking out my books from the locker after the lunch was over. Carter was gone to talk to his football buddies about the practice. As I took out all of the stuff I needed, I closed the door. I felt a pair of arms wrap around my waist and realized it's no one else but my boyfriend. Carter rested his chin on my shoulder after kissing me lightly.

"Are you sure you've not eaten anything stupid today?" I turned my head to look at him.

"Why do you keep asking me that?"

"Why do you keep acting that way then? You know, all clingy and sticky and I mean-"

"It's not like you don't like it," He cut me off, a smirk lining his features. I smiled at him and turned around to face him, his hands still planted firmly on my back.

"You're right there, boyfriend." He chuckled and started kissing me again. But this time it was long, hungry and desperate.

"So, you up for mall today?" He asked between the kiss.

"Umm.... I think so," I replied before moving away from him as I started walking towards the class.

"So after school it is then!" He caught up with me, held my hand in his and walked me to the class. After waving a bye to me he turned around to walk towards his own.

Classes without Carter were boring. Extremely boring. Yeah, this was coming from the girl who hated that particular human being some months earlier. When this hatred changed into love, no one knows. It was as if today I hate him and tomorrow I'm madly, insanely, totally, completely, In love with him.

I couldn't wait for the classes to be over so that I could go to the mall with Carter. I was not concentrating on lectures and I knew it was not like me. But my mind was always occupied with his thoughts. Specially since he had been a super-duper-sweet, sweetheart boyfriend to me.

"Does not your mouth pains smiling so wide, all the time?" I heard Lia speak from beside me. I had no idea when she came and sat there. Confused, I looked at her and realized I was actually smiling widely. And, not to mention my jaw was paining a little bit too.

What I noticed different in her was the way she was dressed. Yeah, she did have a great fashion sense. But she was, more of a shorts and mini skirt kind of a girl. What she was wearing today, was a jeans pants. And it was not what Lia would do.

Maybe she had realized I was right all this time. Or maybe she didn't get time to wax away the- "So, now you are the girlfriend of the BadBoy of The Midwood High! Wow!" Lia interrupted my thoughts.

"Lia, forget about me. What is up with you and Jack Walker?" I asked, wanting to know the thing going on between the two of them since past weeks as I crossed my arms over my chest.

"What's up with me and Jack Walker?" She replied looking everywhere but to me.

"Lia, am I pasted on walls? I don't think so," I stated, examining her closely with my eyebrows raised.

"He is just.... behaving nicely... I guess? And I enjoy while I'm with him." She admitted hiding her face with her hair but I could clearly see a blush lining her cheeks. I smirked, knowing that it was my time to tease her now.

"You like him, don't you?" I suggested.

"I like to spend time with him," Lia corrected me with a closed-mouth smile and a nod. I knew Lia liked Jack. I was happy for them, I really was. But there was something eating me. I couldn't help but feel worried about Lia. Jack wasn't the nicest person to have feelings for.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I saw Lia snapping her fingers at me.

"I'm really happy for you Lia. But just be careful okay? You know, Jack doesn't have the best reputation. You understand what I'm trying to say? He almost dropped burning acid on me the other day," I tried to explain.

"I know Sophia. But I think he has changed. And why do you always see the bad in the guys? There's no one who's perfect. Carter bullied you in the past, didn't he? But now he's good. Jack is a good guy. He almost burned you, but did he actually burn you? No. You just-"

"Hey, hey, Lia. I'm not against you liking Jack. I just asked you to be careful, okay? I care for you and I can't see you getting hurt," interrupting her, I continued to say, squeezing her hand. She smiled at me and nodded.

"That means you do like him!" I coughed.

"Yes yes, I do. I do like him. Happy? He's got a really nice heart Sophia."

"I hope so, Lia, I hope so..."

The classes went by fast and there I was, standing outside the school gate, waiting for Carter. Carter, like always was called in the office for a 'talk'. I had my bag loosely hanging on my shoulder as I waited, my eyes trained on the gate. Slowly, everyone was out of the school and there was only me standing there. I was about to head home, realizing Carter wasn't going to be out soon.

But there I saw him, finally, coming out of the school as he shut the door with force. I waved at him, all of my worries washing away and being replaced with a wide smile. Carter, however, did not smile back, neither did he wave. I settled myself with the excuse that maybe he hadn't seen me, but in actual truth I knew he had seen me.

Carter stopped before me and sighed. I smiled, again, but he didn't. That sting. He started walking ahead of me and I couldn't process anything happening. I walked up to him. I wanted to take his hand in mine. I wanted him to pull me close to him like he always did. I wanted him to kiss me, hug me, smile at me lovingly like he always did.

He reached to his car and sat inside, leaving my mouth wide opened. Carter did not open the door for me. I went to the other side and sat in there without saying anything. He started to drive the car and I tried to start a conversation. "Hi..."

I was met with silence. Complete and utter silence. As I looked at his way, I noted his clenched jaw and popping veins. That couldn't be because of something I had done, could it? To come over this uncomfortable deadly silence, I reached out for the tape and started the music. This action of mine got a reaction from Carter and he increased the volume beyond my bearable limits. The blasting music was making my heart beat extremely fast.

I slowed down the volume but it wasn't long before Carter increased the it again. "What the fu-k, Carter?!"

He did not react. "Carter! Are you crazy?!" I switched off the song, taking a sigh of relief. "If you're planning to open it again, tell me, so that I can walk out of the car!" I screamed at him after which I turned my head to look at the road with my arms still crossed over my chest. I knew he was there with his mood swings again, so I calmed myself down. Because knowing him, me screaming and shouting at him would do nothing but create more trouble.

"Hey, Carter, is everything okay?" I reached out for his hand and grabbed it in mine. This needed a whole lot of courage, I tell you. He hissed and pulled his hand away. It hurt, it really did, but then I noticed the bruise on his knuckles which was looking pretty bad and I couldn't help but worry about him.

"Everything is fu-king perfect, can't you see?!" He snapped at me, briefly observing me after which he trained his gaze towards the road again. That was the first thing he had said to me since we sat in the car.

"Everything was fu-king perfect Carter! It was! But it isn't no more!" I snapped back. "You know what? If you want to be this way, be this way! Just drop me here! I don't need to go anywhere with you anymore!" Carter, like the bitchy human being he was, ignored my presence completely and kept driving. "Just get over your mood swings, Carter! I didn't do anything wrong! Why do I deserve this behaviour from you?!" I was aware, I couldn't get any answer from him this way so I kept quiet. All my shouts we're doing was driving him crazy and all that did was increase the speed of the car.

I tried the other trick. I did not want to die that day and I also wanted to know what was so bad to get him all insane, monstrous person. I wanted to help him. "Okay, Carter... what happened? I know something really bad happened. But what was it? Did you- did you, fight?" I asked, my eyes fixed on the bruise on his knuckles. After waiting a fortune for his answer, I sighed again. "Carter, you can share. Sharing always makes us feel better...."

"Please?" I asked, softly. "Carter, please?" I attempted, more softly this time. And, claps for me, because it seemed to work, pretty well.

"It's nothing you should be concerned about," he shook his head briefly.

"If it's got you to behave like this with me, I think I should be very concerned," I objected.

"Sophia, it was just your turtle of a friend! He couldn't keep his shitty mouth shut and we got into a fight.... " he answered.

"And you got yourself hurt...." I touched his knuckles lightly, looking at him, concerned. His lips curved upwards in a little smile. Though it was just for a moment but it was there. And it was that moment when my heart beat became normal. My breathing became normal. My worries faded away.

"Yeah, I had to knock the turtle down!"

"What did he say which got you so rilled up, huh?" Isaac didn't know how to watch his mouth. I had no doubt he would've said something that got Carter all furious.

"Drop it Sophia, will you?" Carter was starting to get irritated and so I decided to drop the topic. I didn't want any arguments again which led me to forget about the fight– and Carter's behaviour earlier. Though I didn't actually forget, I was just pretending to.

"But only if you promise to be the sweetheart boyfriend again," I smiled at him as he chuckled.

"Okay, I promise." We stopped by the mall where Carter parked his car and this time came to open my door but I was already out. Carter held my hand in his and hugged me tightly.

"I love you. Just know that I do." He massaged my head while I hugged him back, wrapping my arms firmly around his neck.

"I know, I know Carter. I love you too, very much." We stayed in the position for a while but this was beginning to freak me out a little. Why would Carter hug me out of the blue and say such things, was completely out of my mind. Hugging me was fine, but not letting go was what troubled me.

"How long are we supposed to stay in this position, Carter?" This caused him to move away. After putting his keys inside his pockets he grabbed my hand and dragged me along with him. "Why are we at the mall, by the way? Did you need to shop?"

"Ah... Yes I did, and I needed you to know what I like and what I dislike. I needed your opinion. It was actually Mom's idea. Mom does the shopping thing with me but she says you'll have to do it with me now...." he answered, shrugging his shoulders.

"So, what colours do you usually wear? I know that you wear blue, light green, purple and black. But tell me." I found myself asking as I gazed around the shop, my eyes examining all kinds of shirts and pants hanged and some of them kept folded on shelves.

"You know what, Sparkle? Choose anything you like. I'll like your choice. Just see the price tag first, okay?" Carter answered and hearing it, a plan formulated inside my mind. I had planned to find all of the neon, bright, unattractive, uncool tops for him. One of them actually looked like a bee's costume.

Pulling up an extremely innocent face, I walked towards Carter. "Hey, Carter! What about this one?" I showcased the shirt to him, grinning widely. Carter, just rolled his eyes and laughed falsely.

"You want to make fun of me, Sparkle, don't you?" Carter had his arms wrapped around his chest. "You know, that if I look bad, you will look bad too! Because then I'll be your extremely retarded boyfriend!" I knew that Carter was referring to the kind of shirts I'd sorted out for him.

"Come on we'll figure this out together!" Carter took me to the shirt's rack and started rummaging throughout them.

"See this t-shirt?" It was a yellow shirt with checked collars. Carter looked at with a twisted face and shook his head.

"Carter doesn't wear yellow. You should know that, Sparkle!"

"But this is cool Carter! If Carter doesn't wear yellow, he can for me, can't he?" I asked, batting my eyelashes at him.

"Don't give me those eyes Sparkle..." Carter said, ignoring me as he started to sort the shirts out.

"Please, Carter! Believe me, you'll look really nice in this!" I tried to persuade him to buy the shirt but I couldn't trick him.

"Do I not look nice to you everyday?"

"No, no! You look nice every day. And every noon. And every night. And every midnight. And every morning. And-" Carter stopped me, pressing a finger at my lips as he smiled at me.

"Hmm. I get it. Okay, I'll buy it, only because you want me to," Carter looked at the shirt with a disgusted face. After we were done shopping he took all the shopping bags from my hand. I wanted to hold some of them too but he wouldn't let me. I walked ahead of him and turned towards him, walking backwardly.

"Come on! Let me handle some of them," I drawlingly asked, but he refused again. "Carter this isn't because I want to help you. It's because I want you to hold my hand. So give some of them to me, hold my hand and we'll walk together." Carter chortled lightly and nodded before handed me two bags. The lightest ones, I noted.

As I held the both of them in my other hand Carter grabbed my free hand and intertwined our fingers. "Happy?"

"Happy." I nodded. We were walking towards the foodcourt when I turned towards Carter. "You only bought this much clothes? Like, what about the shorts and pants and whatever?"

"Afterwards. Right now, all I know is that I want something to eat. So, what would you like to eat? I'm getting myself a burger."

"Umm... I don't know Carter. I'm not really hungry right now. I'll just have a Mcflurry Oreo," I smiled sheepishly at him.

"Nope, that will be after we get something to eat. Fries? Yes fries! You wait here, I'll go bring it." I nodded, unable to refuse his offer of fries. I mean, who could refuse fries?! I placed myself on the seat as Carter left me there to bring the food. I looked around and found many people sitting in the court. I became engrossed in strumming a tone on the table, using my finger nails.

I hadn't realized when someone came and sat beside me until they cleared their throat. "Hello, Sophia, right?" He greeted in his husky, dreamy voice and I snapped my head at him. I stared at him, finding myself totally confused. I nodded lightly but I couldn't utter a single word and I started looking around for Carter.

Was he hot? Yes.

Was I attracted to him? Yes.

Was his accent extraordinary cool? Hell yes!

Was he creepy? Yes, yes.

He was good-looking. No doubt. He had the green eyes that could mesmerize anyone. His hair were styled messily on his head that made him all the more attractive. Not to mention the sharp jaw he carried made him a total package of 'hotness'. He was hot– but not more than Carter. He didn't look old but the attire he was in made him look mature. Yes he was in a suit.

"I-I don't think I know you...?" I managed to let out at last. The question was, who was he and how did he know my name.

"Oh. So they haven't told you yet. Don't worry Sophia. You will know me, soon." He winked at me, laughing lightly. To say that utterance left me flabbergasted would be an understatement. "So, what are you doing here, sitting all alone?"

"Uh- I came here with my boyfriend. He's collecting the order," I stated, my voice low, as I gestured towards Carter. I wanted him to look towards my way to tell him that there was some creepy guy sitting with me but he didn't.

"Boyfriend, I see." He gave me a tight smile and I tried to smile back. I wanted to ask that how did he know me. Who was he talking about when he referred to them as 'they', but I couldn't. I was scared. Creeped out. Weirded out.

"Sparkle! Here are your- oh who are you?" Carter's voice rang inside my head and I located him with the tray of food in his hands. His eyes were narrowed and he looked sharply at the guy sitting there.

"I'll see you around.... I guess. Bye Sophia." And just like that the creepy hot guy left with a smile after waving goodbye to me. Carter sat beside me, his face twisted into a scowl.

For a minute none of us spoke. "So, you'll tell me yourself or I'd have to ask?" Carter questioned positioning himself on his seat as he unwrapped his burger.

"You'd have to ask." I smirked a little taking my fries from the tray as I began munching on them.

"Who was that?" Hi tone was not a joking one like I had expected. It was a serious one and that made me gulp.

"I don't know, Carter. He just came out of nowhere and started talking. I have no idea who he was." I shrugged my shoulders, answering him.

"Fool someone else, Sparkle. How can he be a complete stranger and know that your name is Sophia? Obviously he was someone you knew." He smiled a fake smile and drank from his can. "I mean, okay, if you've to keep secrets, this rela-"

"Listen to me Carter! Before you assume anything, let me clear this that I did not know him. I have no idea who he was or where did he come from. If anything, he looked like a complete creep to me!" I sighed, whispering a little harshly to make him notice my point.

"It's not like I don't trust you, Sophie. I- um.... I'm just messed up in the head today. I'm sorry, okay?"

"But why are you 'messed up in head' today Carter? Like what was it that'd got you so messed up in the head?" I dipped the French fry into the ketchup and looked up at him only to find him shaking his head.

"Like I said, it's nothing you should be worried about. So about that guy– do you think you've seen him-" he started to say but I stopped him. "No I've not seen him Carter. Let's not talk about that creep, please?"

"Okay, baby."

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