The Richardson List

With her head held high, and a smile creeping on her lips, Carter neared the large building that was her school. Cole had ditched her for Lily, as per usual, however on that day his absence was much less distinct than it had been on the other days. Most likely because a few events, one in particular maybe, had been chronically playing over in her mind since the moment it had happened.

The weather had also decided to cooperate, and on that day she was able to where her short sleeve t-shirt and shorts, which only added more to her delight. Granted, it was the familiar navy and white ensemble that she had grown used to, but her mood was already lifted and it seemed that nothing could bring her down. She even found herself humming.

Skye and her weren’t dating; in fact they hadn’t even talked about the kiss at all after it had happened. However she found that she could care less, because he kissed her. Skye Richardson kissed her, Carter Rousseau. Not Lily, not Annabelle, no one else. Just Carter.

She couldn’t even believe it.

It wasn’t like the movie screen kisses, no butterflies erupted and her knees didn’t suddenly become J-ello, however her stomach did churn as it always did. But it was a kiss no less and she still revelled in the moment over and over again.

The moment that his lips layered hers they were gone again, a familiar voice ringing through Carter’s ears.

Then, she turned her gaze with confusion marked upon her face to see Audrey and Zack advancing towards them, Audrey frantically waving her arm in the air as if Carter hadn’t already seen her. For a moment she wondered if her friend had saw the kiss that Carter and Skye had exchanged, however her face betrayed nothing of the sort.

For the rest of the time they spent at the mall not a word about the kiss was voiced, and it remained a secret between the pair. Skye was himself as usual, but Carter was quieter, fumbling with the hem of her shirt constantly. She said things occasionally when it was needed but otherwise was silent.

This wasn’t a problem because Audrey seemed to do enough talking for the both of them, her lips continuously moving throughout the hour. Carter was grateful because she didn’t think she would be able to form more than a few coherent thoughts.

During the time that Audrey was blabbering, Skye was constantly casting her knowing smiles and inconspicuous winks that only Carter caught. Unlike she expected, no blush rose to her cheeks as they would have before, but her stomach mimicked its earlier reaction as she returned the smile shyly.

After when they were forced to part, Skye didn’t kiss her but he did brush his lips against her ear, causing a shiver to crawl up her spine as she returned his hug. As all his other flirting, it had gone unnoticed by Audrey or Zack.

Carter had been observing the pair the entire time also when she wasn’t thinking about Skye, and was trying to find any signs of Zack liking the blonde. She didn’t find many; they got along well and shared a few inside jokes, but it seemed that they were only being friendly towards each other.

Audrey had too tried to make a few subtle moves towards Skye too, which Carter had caught onto, but when he dismissed them she grinned inwardly. Even more so when he sent her a smile of his own.

Deep down, Carter knew that she should tell Audrey about everything, but she just didn’t how to word it. At least, she kept telling herself that to try and melt the guilt away. It worked, for a little while anyways. Then she just began thinking of other things, Skye presented to be a very good distraction.

As she entered the school the familiar buzz of students rang through her ears, a swarm of her peers in the halls or getting to their lockers. On any other day she would trudge up to the third floor and find Cole, grab her pens for the day and find Audrey at her locker.

Today was different though, she made a bee-line straight for her locker. The reason why, well, she wasn’t quite sure. She just wanted to do something different, step out of her fixed routine that she had grown so familiarized with. And on that day she continued to press down the hall to where her locker lay.

On her way she felt a light tap on her shoulder and turned her head, her hair flying haphazardly. While clutching onto her books she inhaled deeply, secretly hoping that it was a certain boy.

It wasn’t, it was another boy though. Cole was grinning down at her and she noticed that he hadn’t talked to him in a bit.

“Hey Cole,” she greeted, noticing that today his hair was falling into his eyes slightly, not enough for him to need a hair cut but soon he would. Then Carter felt bizarre for even noticing such a trivial thing.

“Carter, Carter, Carter,” he hummed disappointed, shaking his head with a smile to show there was no real emotion behind it.

“What?” she asked defensively, a smile slipping onto her face as she loosened her grip on her books. Her whole being relaxed when she knew it wasn’t Skye. She always felt so tense around him she found.

“Tsk, tsk, are you avoiding me?” Cole asked, mock hurt portrayed on his face as he placed a hand over his heart.

She began denying the statement furiously, mumbling about how ridiculous that sounded and not catching on that he was joking. Her frantic faltering was adjourned when she heard him chuckle, clearly finding her reaction amusing.

“I’m kidding!” he assured her hastily through his laughter. “And I have your pens.”

She brightened back up, sighing in relief. The time they spent together was already limited, the last thing she needed was him to be mad at her. She doubted that he would even try to reconcile as she was becoming such a small part of his life. Lily consuming everyone else easily, Carter found it unfair.

He shrugged his backpack off his shoulder and handed it to her, too lazy to get the pens himself.

Once she had them in her hand she gave him back his grey plaid backpack, one with permanent marker scribbles courtesy of Audrey and Carter. He used to wear it everywhere and they had grown irritated with it. Feeling in a particularly devilish mood, the pair had skilfully stolen it and drew hearts and their names all over it. Now he refused to wear it in public, only in school because he had to.

“Hey, I gotta find Lily and walk her to class, bye.” He waved before disappearing down the hall.

Carter groaned, loud enough for him to hear, and earned herself a chuckle. “Man bitch,” she muttered under her breath teasingly, looking up to find that he was already gone.

Earlier on, when their relationship had first sprouted, it was a common name that Carter had used for Cole when him being gone and with his girlfriend was very foreign to her. It pissed him off, and at first he’d do anything to try and prove her wrong. But after a while he gave up and just rolled his eyes whenever she called him that name, not even denying it anymore.

She missed when he would deny it furiously. At least he wasn’t too down under, and she didn’t feel as if he was slipping through her fingers. It sounded selfish, that she wanted to keep him for herself, but she couldn’t control her feelings. A few times she had attempted to convince herself that Audrey had felt the same, but it was clear that the subject hardly bothered the girl.

And her hopes were futile for it didn’t ease when she was with Skye, as she had assumed it would when she got a boyfriend.

Except Skye wasn’t her boyfriend yet. They were just friends… who kissed.

“Carter!”
She heard her name being called and turned her head, expecting it to be Audrey. It hadn’t even registered that it sounded nothing like the blonde; her mind was too muddled with other thoughts.

It was a surprise when she saw Skye walking towards her, a hand up in the air. For a moment her being froze, contemplating on whether she had heard him right. Was he calling her name, in public? With people around to hear him?

When he caught up with her she had managed to move her muscles and wasn’t completely petrified any longer. Her mind though was working in over-drive, over analysing Skye’s every breath.

“Hey Skye,” she returned, keeping his pace beside him.

“I’d ask if you wanted me to walk you to class, but it seems I already am.” He smiled at her, his regular smirk-like grin creeping onto his face.

She laughed slightly and ran her fingers through her bangs, feeling her stomach flipping as per usual. Carter still found herself debating whether she liked this feeling or not, at the moment it was definitely the latter.

“Yea, I guess you are,” she muttered, finding herself at a loss for words. And she didn’t find herself liking the feeling at all.

Lifting her gaze she met Skye’s emerald green eyes, his amber hair falling into them slightly. Just like Cole’s, but a little more so then his.

The question of where their relationship stood ran through her mind, shouting at her as she tried to think of something to say. He was now walking her to class, something Cole did for Lily. Something a boyfriend would do for a girlfriend.

He gave off all those signs that everyone looked for when trying to see if a guy liked them, but he didn’t ever utter a word around the thought. Which caused her to wonder if maybe he was just going to use her?

But he seemed so genuine she quickly dismissed the thought. Sure she didn’t really know Skye inside and out, but it seemed stupid that he’d go through all this trouble to use her of all people when he could get some many girls with much less effort.
She felt a little bit of pride swell at the thought, he had chosen her. Not some other girl, but he was walking her to class.

And with that, all scepticism had disappeared.

“You know what I noticed…” Skye mused under his breath, looking over to see if Carter had caught on to what he had said.

She nodded her head, noting that she had, and her interest was piqued. Really, anything that left Skye’s lips caught her attention.

“We hang out at McDonalds a lot,” he noted, chuckling slightly afterward.

She gave a moment of thought to this and deemed it true. The night at the party, and yesterday at the mall. “
Yea, we do,” she conceded, smiling at the thought. McDonalds of all places.

“We kind of make it romantic,” he said with a wink for only Carter to hear.

She gaped at him for a moment before he pushed a door open to their homeroom, disappearing from her. Carter followed him, pressing her lips shut. She had no idea what to do with that. He had called the moments they had romantic, which would mean that he had liked her. But he had whispered it, as if he didn’t want anyone to hear. Did he not anyone to know about them, or was he waiting for Carter to spill?

Skye Richardson was the most confusing person the world has ever had.