It's Not You. It's Me. And No! He is Not My Boyfriend!

I pulled up to Carter’s house. It struck me as kind of funny that he and I had been friends since middle school, and this was the first time I had been to his house. It was your stereotypical suburban house. White. Two stories with a chandelier hanging in the foyer. A porch stretched across the front of the house, only interrupted by the garage, and led one down to the perfectly green patch of grass.

Night was slowly descending upon the earth as walked up the perfect white concrete path up to the bright red etched glass front door. It was day five of Carter’s ‘Annoyingly Sweet Gestures to Say He’s Sorry,’ and this gesture was taking place at his house. I rang the door bell half expecting to be greeted by Carter doing some sort of strip tease, which wouldn’t be annoyingly sweet. It would’ve been more on the interesting side of the spectrum.

“HI!” a prepubescent voice greeted me as the door swung open.

Empty space filled my eye level. I looked down to find a smaller and cuter version of Carter standing at the door.

“OH NO!” I lowered down to be close to the same height as his younger brother, dressed in a light blue footy pajamas. “It’s happened! You’ve gone into Willy Wonka’s glass elevator!”

Carter’s younger brother, completely ignoring my reference to a book too advanced for his reading level, asked, “Are you Carter’s girlfriend?” while giggling.

“I sure hope so!” I replied. “Or else I’m about to make someone’s night very awkward.”

Before the little tot could continue to berate me with questions, much like young children are famous for, bigger and manlier Carter showed up to the door.

“Kyle!” he picked his younger brother up from the ground. “What have mommy and daddy told you about answering the door?”

“Well, someone had to do it?” he shrugged his shoulders, a mischievous smile on his face.
Carter just rolled his eye before turning his attention to me.

“Hey!” he exclaimed before giving me a quick peck on the lips and stepping out of the way to let me into his house.

“EW! YOU’RE KISSING GIRLS?” Kyle scrunched up his face as if he had just seen Carter have sex with a cockroach, which would be something I would pay to see considering the size difference. However, it was obvious that the youngster was at the age when having sex with a cockroach would be more acceptable than even touching a human of the female persuasion.

“I think it’s time for you to go the bed,” Carter laughed as he started to carry his brother up the winding staircase.

Kyle let out a big yawn while giving the ever convincing argument of “I’m not tired,” in reply.

“Sorry about that!” Carter wrapped me in a huge hug after returning down the stairs five minutes later. “You know how hard it is to get three-year-olds to bed.”

“Can’t say I do actually. I imagine it must be tough though, at least that’s how they make it look on TV.”

“Well it is some days, others its super easy. Anyway,” Carter started leading me through he perfectly decorated and immaculate house. “Shall we start tonight’s activities?”

“Does anyone actually live here?” I commented once we passed yet another room that was so clean I felt that it was truly just a painting of a room.

“My mom is a bit of a neat freak.”

“Apparently. Where are you taking me?”

“The sun porch,” we crossed into a mint green TV room which connected to a square room filled with window, which was probably the reason why it was referred to as a sun porch.
On the gray tiled floor of said sun porch laid a red and white checkered blanket(your standard picnic blanket) on which a picnic basket and two candles stood ready for the lighting.

“Awww!” I couldn’t help but let out a coo of delight. It had to happen on occasion. Even if I was one with a harsh and sarcastic demeanor, I had to let my sweeter side show when necessary. “An indoor picnic!”

“I know!” Carter flipped a wrist before leading to the blanket. “I’m pretty awesome!”

“And so modest too! Please tell me you didn’t do the cooking though.”

“Gee thanks!” Carter sat down across from me on the blanket. “But no, no I didn’t. I did the ever more romantic gesture and ordered out!” with that said Carter quickly lit the two candles and pulled out the food hidden within the contents of the square wicker basket.

“Pizza?” I stared down at the Papa Gino’s box that now laid in between us. One had to give him credit for trying I guess.

“Hey!” Carter shot an offended look in my direction. “I can only do some much! I exhausted all my romantic abilities thinking up this idea. There’s a point system you know! I’m pretty much drained for the entire month so don’t be expecting anything too great after this week.”

“It’s always nice to know that your boyfriend is willing to admit to his short comings,” I mused before leaning towards Carter to lightly graze his lips. “It’s fine. Pizza’s good! In fact, I’m a big fan of pizza! Especially on Friday nights.”

“Why Friday nights?”

I shrugged, moving myself next to Carter before grabbing a slice from its cardboard enclosure.
“I dunno, it just seems like a good day for pizzas. Pizzas on any other day don’t feel quite as right.”

“You’re weird.”

“Something you never let me forget.”

I cuddled up to Carter while I ate my pizza, the warmth of his body and the warmth from the candles made everything seem just right. I had to admit when he tried he was good. Sometimes it was hard to believe that he had never had a girlfriend before.

“The only thing that could make this better was if we could see the stars from here,” I mused, laying back on Carter’s chest.

“Yeah...” he sighed starring up to ceiling. “I think my mom would be mad at me if I cut a hole into the roof though. Surprisingly though, she’d be more made about the mess doing it would cause more than the actual doing of it. She’s weird like that.”

“Speaking of that, where are you parents?”

“Not in space if that’s what your thinking!” Carter tried to make a joke about me segueing from stars to parents.

“I wasn’t, but thank you for clearing that one up for me. But seriously?”

“I dunno,” he scoffed. “Some dinner at some place. A party for someone blah blah blah.”

“Wow! Your listening skills are awesome!”

“Hey! My mom should know after all these years to not tell me important information of my parents where abouts when I am playing video games. People’s lives could be at stake.”

“Seriously! You wouldn’t know who to call if you parents never came home or something!”

“More like innocent people could be turned into zombies!”

“It’s good to see you’re doing your part to keep the world running smoothly.”

“I try. I try. It’s a daily struggle.”

Silence took reign, and I cuddled further into Carter’s chest as he lay down on the blanket. It was pretty much perfect. I thought about how weird it was that only a month before Carter and I were ‘mortal enemies’. It seemed almost surreal to be laying there so close to him, knowing the relationship we’ve always had. A relationship that didn’t really change much with the exception that now making out was involved. When I used to day dream about being in a relationship with a boy the situation I was in now never crossed my mind. But when I truly thought about it, it was a lot better than my day dreams.

“Do you have room for dessert?” Carter asked after a long while. He sat up forcing me to do the same.

“DO I ever!”

“Perfect!” Carter ran back to his kitchen only to return two minutes later with strawberries and a bowl of melted chocolate.

“It’s a little cliche, but I like strawberries,” he explain re-taking his seat.

“Fine with me,” I dug into my first strawberry, smothering it in chocolate. I laughed as the first bite caused strawberry juice to dribble on my chin.

As I took the time to wipe away the rouge juice, Carter took my other hand and pulled it up to his mouth. With a mischievous grin on his face he took the next bite of the strawberry that I held. A giggle escaped my lips as Carter gently took the strawberry from my hand and fed me the next bite of the strawberry. We had made it through another strawberry in this manner before Carter interrupted the flow to ask,

“How did you manage to get chocolate on you neck?” his eyes smiled at me as he looked on amused.

“I dunno,” a tiny blush came to my face under his gaze. “Chocolate is a tricky substance you know! It’s all gooey and stuff in its melted state. Quite unruly if you ask me! Where is it? Can you get me a napkin?”

“Don’t worry. I’ll get it,” before I could react Carter had his lips against my neck. As he slowly began kissing upward I came to realize that there was, in fact, no chocolate on my neck. It was just Carter’s clever rouse to be able to kiss me.

“Hey! There really was no cho-” was all I could manage to say before Carter’s kisses reached my lips.

The kisses started out slowly as if we were trying to learn everything about each other from one kiss. Tenderly Carter parted his lips, and I mirroring his actions, did the same. As I ran my fingers through his hair, he slipped his tongue into my mouth. I pressed my body closer to his as our tongues explored each others for a moment before parting with the close of the kiss. Carter broke from my lips to once again shower my neck with kisses, only this time he pulled me on top of him while doing so. Our eyes met now that I laid on to of him. I gave him a small smile before leaning in for another kiss. This time our kisses were more passionate and hungry. Carter’s hands moved down my back, grazed my butt, and then moved back up again under my shirt.

I broke our kissing to jest, “Maybe you should let me take my bra off this time.” with a sly smile plastered on my face.