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.

Smacking his hands away with a laugh I responded; "Um nothing really, I just shake it out and don't brush it."

"Really? Let's go suss this out for ourselves," he turned the camera on himself with a wicked grin as he ran to my bathroom. Shaking my head at him, I followed him to make sure he wasn't causing too much mayhem.

"My my, you're a naughty boy playboy carti!" he said mischievously as he picked up a box of aspirin from the cabinet. "Oooh! Extra-small," he joked.

"You're an idiot," I snorted, catching on to what he was doing. I kept condoms in the nightstand thank you very much, and they were definitely not XS. He was probably going to edit an over-the-top fake label on to it to make it interesting for the lols, alongside other scandalous items. Luckily though, he never made it look legit, otherwise it would tarnish my reputation and he was responsible enough to know not to go too far.

"Hey the viewers love it when you're on and I give em' juicy deets!" Xavier had a YouTube channel with millions of subscribers, where he posted prank videos and a ton of vlogs. He was very popular with his endless supply of energy, humour and happy-go-lucky personality that made his videos entertaining to watch.

Another knock on the door came, as Xavier made his way towards it with his vlog camera, probably so he could also mess around with Alec a little as well.

"Hey man," I greeted him, doing the typical bro handshake as he came into the living room.

"Hey. Nice video you just uploaded by the way," he looked at me with a smirk. "I noticed Valerie pop up a few times, she looked good."

Okay... maybe I didn't hide her well enough as I thought. Woops. And he seems interested in Valerie, I frowned.

"How do you know Val?" I asked him, wincing at the slight bite in my tone.

Alec had such a smug look on his face, as Xavier snickered from the lounge. "I don't, we just chatted about you that day," he grinned. I invisibly smacked myself. Alec's not a snake and I know that. "Jealous Carter? I think you're in deep man," he raised his eyebrows at me amusedly.

I groaned. Don't I know it. "Shit was I that obvious?"

"Nah, the video was okay. It was mostly cause we all know you have a thing going on with her," he chuckled. "Relax dude," he said, grabbing my shoulders and giving them a strong shake as we made our way to chill on the couch.

"Oh I haven't seen it yet." Xavier commented as he set the camera down to take out his phone. "This was Sommer's right?"

"Yeah, I wasn't planning on filming, but it was a good op." I replied.

"Ugh I wanted to come, but she purposely had it on the day I would be busy," he rolled his eyes. We both sniggered at his remark.

Sommer and Xavier were like the two people that irritated each other to no end, but at the same time they obviously had feelings for one another. Maybe they'll both figure it out one day.

~

Valerie P.O.V.

I ended up telling Ellana everything that happened the next day when we went to go for a walk together, grab lunch and get our nails done. During the day, she even showed me the video Carter had just uploaded on his Instagram, where I was featured more than once. I couldn't help but smile and blush the whole time as I watched how he captured certain angles of me, and the fun that we all had on that day. Ellana was absolutely ecstatic, leaping up and down with so much vigour, she could probably go run a marathon if she wanted to. I on the other hand, was walking around in my own happy little dream state, trying to ignore the tinge of anxiousness that accompanied my growing feelings for Carter. I have no idea what this whole thing was between us.

~

It was now Friday night, and I was cosied up doing some leisurely reading in the living room.

"Valll," a distressing call from Ellana rang through the apartment. "Could you come in here please?"

I promptly put my book down and walked down the hallway before popping my head through her bedroom door. "What's up?"

"Please help me find something to wear tonight over the lingerieee," she looked at me with sad, round puppy dog eyes, hopelessly sprawled out on the ground amidst piles of clothing. Tonight was her big fancy dinner date with Kean, in honour of his birthday. He was also having a pool party on Saturday as well, but this was their own little intimate celebration.

"Yeah sure no problem." I laughed at her current state. She could be so dramatic sometimes, but that's why I loved her.

"Thankyou! You and your sixth fashion sense are a lifesaver!" she cried as she jumped up from her position.

"All good," I quickly scanned over the clothes on the floor to see if anything stuck out to me that she could wear. Finding nothing, I opened up her walk-in to flick through the racks. "I'm thinking we should keep it simple, so the lingerie will really be a surprise. Do you have any plain dresses?"

"Oooh yes! That's a good idea," she said as she entered the closet to pull out some options.

Spotting a plain black slip dress with thin straps and a V neckline, I decided that was the one. I made her try it on and pop the lingerie underneath so we could see how it fit. The dress curved over her waist nicely and fell elegantly over her slender figure to mid-thigh, luckily covering enough to hide where the garter belt attached to the sheer black stockings. I added a thin satin, cream waterfall coat she could wear slouched in the crook of her elbows, or fully on her shoulders in case it got chilly. I also teemed it up with some black suede skinny high-heeled sock boots, a belt to accentuate her waist, and a thick diamonte choker to finish off the look.

Observing herself in the mirror at the chosen outfit, she turned to me and squealed excitedly; "I love it! You are seriously so good at this Val, I never would have been able to style the stockings without looking like a boring office lady."

"You're welcome!" I chuckled. "I think you should also do a half up, half down hairdo with big bouncy curls on the end- kinda like the Ariana Grande look?" I suggested. Nodding keenly, Ell took off the outfit and set it aside before we proceeded to do hair and makeup.

After just over an hour, Ell was ready. "You look incredible!" I clapped my hands excitedly.

"Thanks to you!" she said with a grin, gracefully twirling around in a circle. "Do you mind taking a few pics for me?"

"Duh, of course! What else am I here for?" I exclaimed, flicking my hair over my shoulder dramatically, as she passed her phone over to me.

"I'll make sure to tag you as styling credit & photographer," she responded humorously.

"How are you feeling?" I asked her after we ended the mini photoshoot.

"I'm pretty nervous, I hope tonight goes well," she said as she made sure Kean's gift was ready to go, and her cards and apartment key were tucked into the invisi-pocket of the coat.

"I'm sure Kean's going to love it." I smiled at her for reassurance.

Kean arrived about 5 minutes later, absolutely gob-smacked at Ellana's appearance. Boy, he was going to be in for a big one tonight. Ell properly introduced me to him for the first time in person, as I pretended we hadn't totally been gossiping about him for the past couple of weeks.

They were absolutely smitten with each other, I had no doubts he seemed to genuinely like her, which made me very pleased. A happy Ell made the world go round. I couldn't help but take a few candid pics of their interaction, and offered to take a few more posed ones before they set off.

"See ya tomorrow Valerie, you coming right?" Kean asked me as they were leaving.

"Yep I'll be there," giving him an affirming nod.

"Thanks so much again Val, love you!" Ell gave me a quick hug that I returned.

"Have a good night guys," I smiled and waved as I shut the door and made my way back to the sofa to continue my literary escapade on this fine evening.