The Richardson List

“You know that you’re my best friend in the entire world?” Carter asked with a hopeful smile, surreptitiously peering over at the glass coffee table and then quickly snapping her gaze back onto the boy seconds later.

A chuckle passed through his lips as he shook his head at her attempt.

“Yeah, of course, I mean it’s me. But I’m still having the last sour key.”

Parker smirked at her fallen face, her mouth slightly ajar with disbelief. That was just cruel and unusual.

She stared at the porcelain plate with hungry eyes; all that was left from the small bag of sour keys they bought were a few tart crystals and one last sour key that look awfully scrumptious from where she sat. Sour keys were her favourite kind of candy, but they were Parker’s too, and this is where the problem aroused.

She lifted her eyes to his once more, darting from his face to the candy and back again. Carter couldn’t dare take her eyes off of it, knowing of Parker’s fast reflexes.

“Well,” she began, her hands searching frantically behind her before finally grasping a decorative pillow. “If you aren’t going to give it up by choice…”

She smiled devilishly before chucking the pillow at him in full force.

He laughed once again and brought his hands up in defence, blocking the hit before it could make contact with his head. The ammo fell to the ground and she glared at the useless cushion, crossing her arms.

“But I want it!” she whined childishly, a pout forming on her lips.

Parker leaned down and picked up the pillow, throwing it on one of the other unoccupied couches. Brushing his hands off together he turned back to her.

“Okay, how about this,” he reasoned with her. “We settle this fair and square.”

Carter nodded her head, thinking over the idea. “Rock, Paper, Scissors?” she proposed, a small grin slipping onto her face. He agreed and balled his hand up into a fist, a challenging smirk on his lips.

With that Carter did the same; curling her fingers and feeling her chewed fingernails dig into the palm of her hand. Their eyes met and a tension seemed to form between them as she bit her lip slightly, bringing up her hand.

“Rock,” they chanted in sync. “Paper, Scissors!”

Both glanced down at their hands anxiously, wondering who had won the battle. A smile quickly formed on Carter’s lips as she saw the outcome, punching her hand in the air.

“Yes! I win!” she cheered with enthusiasm as Parker glared at the spot where her hand occupied moments ago.

She picked up her prize, slowly bringing it to her mouth in a teasing manner. Carter was going to make this as painful as possible for him.

“Okay, okay, eat it already!” he demanded irritated, causing Carter to giggle. She popped the delicious treat into her mouth, savouring the sour flavour on her tongue. Sour keys really were the best.

“Mmm,” she hummed with a smile, only to have Parker grab the pillow she had used before and throw it at her, eyebrows knitted and pouting.

Carter gasped and quickly brought her hands up to protect herself, laughing as it bounced off her wrists and fell to the floor. “No need to get violent!” she exclaimed through her laughter, watching as he too soon broke down.

While catching her breath, small pants all that she could manage, her cell phone in her back pocket vibrated, indicating a text or a call. Slipping her hand into her back jean pocket she grabbed her phone and it read she had gotten a text from Audrey.

This made her think of the night before events, and how she had left the party to go hang out with Skye. After they had vanished from the party scene they arrived at the small little McDonalds that shone brightly through the night air, the contrast causing Carter to squint.

Conversation was unusually easy between them, Skye always asking questions about what she said, carefully adding his on input whenever it was needed. There were never any awkward silences, and whenever one seemed to be appearing it was quickly murdered by Skye’s deep voice.

He had stood by his word and bought her an ice cream cone, winking at the cashier in a way that wasn’t supposed to be seen by Carter but still was. It didn’t matter though, for she didn’t take this as a romantic date, and she felt he could flirt whomever he felt like.

In all honesty, she did feel a little betrayed in a sense, but quickly cursed herself afterward and ditched the thought at the counter. After that, all attention was focused on her and the conversation passing through them. She learned that he had moved because his father had gotten better work here and they had to arrive immediately. That was all he said about his past life, asking more about Carter’s than anything else.

After they had spent a good part of the hour she realized that she best be getting home and he agreed before walking her to her bus stop. There they exchanged the first awkward moment of the night, the goodbye. Settling on a hug before Skye walked away into the night, leaving Carter to be engulfed by her thoughts.

She hadn’t talked to either of her friends since the party, instantly falling asleep after her nightly routine that she performed the moment she had gotten home. In the morning she had woken up later then usual, around eleven, and was ambushed by Parker.

That led to Carter sitting on Parker’s couch, reading the white text on her phone sent from Audrey. It asked where Carter had run off to the other night and she remembered that she had never really specified why, where, or with whom she was leaving with.

She knew that she should have told Audrey about how she was with Skye. In fact, it was as if the shiver that travelled up her spine afterward was a reminder that she should when she slipped her phone back into her pocket. Carter didn’t know why, but she didn’t want to tell Audrey or anyone for that matter about the night before events. As if it were a delicate secret between the two of them, shattered with just a low whisper.

The thought nagged her in the back of her mind but was quickly triumphed when Parker picked up the remote, the television flashing to life.

“Let’s watch a movie,” he suggested, switching to the movie channel and letting the red swathe the screen.

“Um, what movie?” Carter asked, settling herself in the couch cushions, getting herself comfortable.

He flicked through the options undecidedly, weighing his options carefully. “Um… I’m thinking The Mummy?” The bar highlighted the movie title as he looked over at Carter for confirmation but only received a fierce shaking of the head. “Why not?”

She wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Mummies? Ew, they’re not even scary. I’m thinking Quarantine?” Carter grabbed a pillow and hugged it tightly against her chest, ready to block her vision of any scary beings that would pop onto the screen while the movie was playing.

At this Parker laughed; shaking his floppy chestnut hair that was barely brushing into his steel grey eyes. “You would rather watch rabid cannibals than mummies?” he asked in amusement, smiling when Carter glared and pressed the cushion tighter to her body.

“Why yes,” she sniffed sounding offended, “yes I would rather watch it.”

He shrugged and played the movie, the hint of a smile still on his pale lips.



Carter’s cell phone vibrated against her thigh, causing her to jump in fright. Parker looked over from where he stood by the window, ripping apart the curtains to let the sunlight tumble into the room. He laughed as she picked up the damned thing and glanced at the screen with a glare in her eyes.

“Are you scared of the cannibalistic grandma?” he teased as he stepped into the kitchen where a fresh scent was wafting from, causing Carter to inhale deeply and smile.

The delicious aroma of freshly baked cookies wiped out her sense of anger from that statement.

“Parker, apologize!” she heard the high pitched voice of his mother yelling at him, a giggle tumbling from her lips when she heard a slight groan.

“I’m sorry Carter,” he apologized insincerely and obviously with force, with an exaggerated eye-roll at the end to make the confession that much more unbelievable.

This made Carter scoff as she stood up from the comforts of the leather couch, dropping her protective pillow.

“Oh yes, that was so sincere,” she said with a sarcastic undertone, the edges of her lips slightly turning upward.

His mother passed him a porcelain plate filled with freshly baked cookies, chocolate chip to be exact. She smiled at Carter before vanishing back into the kitchen, probably to clean up the mess that she had made because Parker’s mom had a mild case of OCD and would much rather die then let her kitchen go dirty.

Parker picked up a cookie, balancing the plate with another hand and stuffed the entire thing into his mouth.

“You better believe it,” he mumbled with the chewed up cookie in his mouth, smiling after he had swallowed it.

When he fell down beside Carter he was cautious not to spill any of the baked goods, checking on both sides of him after to see if any had unfortunately fell off.

When he was doing this Carter reached over and attempted to grab one for herself, having that in the morning she wasn’t able to eat breakfast since Parker had ordered her to get dressed and leave the house before she could do so.

But the boy beside her quickly gave her hand a light slap, lifting the plate high in the air and out of her reach.

“Bad Carter,” he scolded in a playful tone, a grin spreading across his face.

She gasped and stretched her hand out further, wiggling her fingers with her lips pressed together.

“Parker,” she whined, surrendering and resorting to a pout.

“Parker, you better be sharing,” his mother warned in a dark voice from the kitchen, instantly making a sour expression on his face as he lowered the plate.

At this Carter grinned and stuck her tongue out, relishing in his misery as she grabbed a cookie and took a bite. While he grumpily nibbled on another, she stuck her tongue out once more, a chunk of her treat settled on her taste buds.
“You shouldn’t do that,” he advised her. “Or I might be tempted to take it.”

She closed her mouth and stared at him horrified, earning a chuckle to leave his lips. “Chill, chill. I’m not going to eat you, just the cookie.” He raised his hands up in defence, the cookie going up in the air too.

Carter relaxed her face, plucking the chocolate-chip goodness from his hand and laughing at his now mortified face.

“An outrage,” he mumbled before standing up, taking the plate with him when he ambled to the kitchen.

She giggled slightly and leaned back into the couch, hearing hushed voices in the kitchen. The words were a blur but Carter could manage a ‘goodbye’ somewhere in the mix.

Seconds later a door slammed shut, indicating his mother leaving to her yoga class. Parker appeared once again, rolling his eyes. “You know, she doesn’t even like yoga,” he said pointedly, causing a smile to appear on Carter’s face.

His mother was one of the most inflexible people should could ever meet, but being single with a hot yoga teacher? Suddenly his mother had a unique interest in pulling muscles that shouldn’t be pulled and attempting to clamber into impossible positions.

“Aw, think about it. At least she’s really flexible now,” Carter raised her eyebrows in a perverted fashion. He scoffed and covered his face with his hands, gagging slightly at the thought.
“I can’t even, that is so… oh my god.”

A vibration erupted from underneath Carter and she looked down to see her cell phone hiding between the two burgundy cushions. Pulling it out she saw it was a text from Cole.

Don’t call today, can’t talk.

Her brows furrowed as she re-read it, trying to decipher the hidden meaning. Parker tiptoed over to the couch and leaned over consciously, trying to read the text himself.

“Is it Cole or Audrey trying to steal you away again?” he spoke in a teasing matter but Carter was still pondering over the text, not even bothering to start up a debate on the subject as she usually would.

“Nah, seems I’m stuck with you for the rest of the day.” She looked up and smiled, putting away her phone and using all her willpower to push it out of her mind.
But of course, her willpower was never that strong.