Heart and Soul - Chapter 17: Chapter 17

Carter stretched his arms out over his head to release some of the tension around his stiff shoulders.
Since they'd won their last game and they had been pushing themselves in every practice for the past week, Coach had let them out a little earlier on Thursday. But only at the cost of a more intense practice.
Johnny looked up to watch him rub the area where his shoulder connected with his neck.
"Are you all done?"
Carter nodded.
Johnny looked down at his papers before leaning in over the table, toward Carter. "I'm not too sure about my twenty-five. Can I take a look at yours?"
"Sure." Carter slipped him his notebook, stopping the soothing motion on his strained muscles.
Johnny's eyes skipped between the two resolutions before they came back up to meet Carter's, a little smile shining through. "How come I never saw you in any of the advanced math classes before?"
Carter shrugged. "I usually get put in Seth's class so I can help him. Math is kind of his worst subject and he needs my help to pass. Your dad always sorts it out with the administrative services."
Johnny hummed under his breath as way of wordless reply.
Carter bit his lip. "Did we just run out of Calc problems to solve?" He asked.
"Looks like it," Johnny said. "Don't you have anything else to study?"
Carter leaned forward crossing his arms over the table and resting his head on top. "I have a Physics test next week," he mumbled unenthusiastically. "But I was just planning on praying for a C to fall on from the skies."
Physics had never been his favorite subject. Or his best one. It didn't come easily to him and he didn't quite have the motivation to work harder on it. Johnny, on the other hand, seemed genuinely appalled at Carter's take on it.
"Physics is life put into formulas," Johnny gushed. Carter propped his chin on his forearm to smile up at him. Johnny shook his head. "Seriously, what's there not to love?"
"It's all abstract," Carter murmured. The weight of his own head onto his chin, still supported on his arms, strained his speech a little so he sat up. "Math is concrete and unchangeable, right? No matter what you do, two plus two will always be four. But Physics is all half-proven theories and unrealistic suppositions."
Johnny shook his head again, firmer this time. "Physics is beauty," he declared. "And I'll fight anyone who argues otherwise."
Carter laughed, despite his better judgment, and quickly pressed his knuckles over his mouth to muffle the sound. They weren't alone in the library that day, so he couldn't be loud.
He leaned forward on the table to whisper, "I think you might have to fight me then."
Johnny narrowed his eyes at him, in spite of the little smile tugging at his lips. "You think I can't handle you, champ?"
Carter pulled back, lifting his hands next to his head, fingers spread in surrender. "I know you probably could."
Johnny snorted with an eye roll. "Do you want me to go over the stuff for your test with you?" He offered in a low whisper.
Carter smiled, biting his lip. He nodded. "That'd be awesome, thanks."
Johnny adjusted in his seat while Carter took out his Physics book to open it on top of the table. They started with whatever Carter said felt harder to understand and kept going well past the school library's closing time.
Johnny was helpful and patient, but he didn't dumb anything down. Carter couldn't help a certain feeling of gratification. He often had the unpleasant impression that he came off as a little slow when he was around Johnny. But it was good to see Johnny wasn't treating him as though he was dense.
Carter rubbed a hand down his face, leaving it in front of his mouth to cover a yawn, right after Johnny finished saying something. The other boy smiled, leaning back on his chair, pencil still bouncing between his fingers.
"Take it that's enough for you."
Carter nodded, rest his chin on a closed fist, elbow propped up onto the table. "Why don't you ever seem to have homework or things to study?"
Johnny shrugged. "I do my homework during lunch," he said. "And I don't usually go out in the weekends. That leaves me time to study."
Carter's eyebrows pinched together. "You do your homework during lunch?" He echoed.
Johnny gave him a lopsided grin. "On this exact table," he confirmed.
Carter sat up, drawing his eyebrows further in. "You can't eat in the library."
"No, you can't eat in the library," Johnny countered. "Mrs Lewis loves me. She lets me do everything in here." Johnny laughed when Carter's lips parted slightly. "Probably because I'm adorable," he added matter-of-factly.
Carter rolled his eyes. "I'm sure all you have to do is flash those pretty eyes at her," he mused.
Johnny's grin froze and Carter tensed. The full implication of his words slowly downed on him as he watched Johnny's smile fade to a closed-lipped inquisitive look.
Johnny tilted his head lightly to the side. "Pretty eyes," he repeated. It sounded like half a question and half a reaffirmation.
Carter could only blush. Johnny pursed his lips around a smile, watching him squirm in his seat before clearing his throat.
"If you ever want to eat in the cafeteria with the rest of the school, you could just come sit at my table," Carter offered, forcing his best casual tone, trying to move the conversation along. What he said didn't have to be a big deal if he didn't freak out about it like it was.
Johnny snorted. "Thanks, but no, thanks."
Carter's eyebrows shot up. "Okay..."
The movement in Johnny's eyes looked dangerously close to a roll. "Nothing against you. Just the rest of the whole table."
Carter's eyebrows went back to their previously drawn in state. "Seth is alright," he felt the need to say.
He understood Johnny wasn't overly acquainted to the generality of the people who sat at his table, and the majority of them probably didn't exactly come across as the most approachable. But Carter's friends weren't that bad. The ones he talked to outside of school at least.
"Mel's nice too," he added. "And Joey, and Jenna."
Johnny actually laughed at that, audibly. "Jenna Torres was the one who came up with the nickname Scolio Johnny in freshmen year."
Carter's confused frown deepened. "Scolio Johnny?"
Johnny drew back a bit. He let out a reluctant breath. "I had scoliosis as a kid," he said quietly.
Carter's features softened. He had no idea.
"I even had to wear that horrible back brace in seventh grade. People used to call me Hunchback Johnny," he said, lips drawn into a grim smile. "Then I got surgery and they found other stuff to make fun of. Until Jenna called me Scolio Johnny in freshmen year. Then everyone called me that for two years."
"I didn't know you had surgery," Carter whispered softly. Lamely.
He had no idea.
He hadn't known Johnny had scoliosis. Or a back brace. Or anything.
Maybe that was all too clear in his face, because Johnny's smile twisted sourly as he said, "It's okay. Hard to know something about someone you never noticed."
Carter didn't like what Johnny's tone did to him. He tried making sure his expression conveyed his sympathy as he leaned in to say, "I'm sorry."
Johnny shrugged.
"Does she still call you that?"
Johnny exhaled a sound of dry humor. "Jenna Torres hasn't spoken another word to me since that day," he said dully. "No, wait—That's a lie. There was that day in sophomore year when she said 'scooch, nerd' in the beginning of the year."
Carter barely resisted the urge to wince. "That wasn't very nice," he muttered.
"No, it wasn't," Johnny said plainly. "But she's not a very nice person either."
"She can be," Carter tried reasoning.
"Let me guess," Johnny cut dryly. "She just has a strong personality? Like your friend Joey just has a goofy personality? Never takes anything seriously—never mind if he made up I like to eat people's leftovers from the trash bins in the cafeteria, during freshmen year. Because it was just a joke. Who even cares people actually went along with it, just like they went along Jenna's fucking comment. All because they're the 'cool kids'—" he mimicked air quotes, "—If they think it's funny, then it must be."
Carter did wince this time. "I didn't know about that," he confessed. "They're never like this when I'm around."
"Right," Johnny spat.
"Seriously," Carter urged, leaning farther in. He needed Johnny to see he was telling the truth. He knew his friends could be... difficult people, at times, to put it kindly. But they weren't always.
"The Joey I know walked miles in the rain without a coat, after Seth's first car got towed, so I wouldn't get sick before my first big game as starter. Because I forgot my jacket. And Jenna took the blame for me when we skipped our first class in freshmen year. She told the Principal she decided to skip and I was trying to get her back to class, so I wouldn't get benched."
Neither story served as an irrefutable example of a virtuous personality, but they did match a little more the idea of his friends Carter held in his head.
Jenna and Joey could be mean and selfish and callous, on occasion. But they weren't bad people. Carter didn't mean to excuse them, but he also sort of hated that that was the only image they passed to everyone looking in from the outside.
"That's because it was you," Johnny shot back. Impatience contorted his facial features. "It's not just Jenna and Joey either. Most people will bend over backwards to please you."
"That isn't true," Carter murmured defensively, shaking his head almost reflexively.
"Sure it is," Johnny laughed dryly. "Most people act like you're a God just because you have a good throwing arm and you look the way you do."
Carter's frown returned. He still wasn't sure how their conversation had taken such a bitter turn, or even when. But he knew he didn't like it at all.
"What's that even supposed to mean?" He asked, not quite meaning to sound so wounded.
Johnny rolled his eyes, but his face softened a bit. His voice still held something akin to disdain as he said, "It means you stand on that fucking pedestal because people can't compute the fact that someone who knows how to throw a football and looks fresh off the hottest new teen drama also knows how to say 'please', 'thank you' and 'sorry', and mean it. All while looking at you with that fucking dreamy smile. And apparently—God be good—the quarterback can also do math! Bet the rest of the school hasn't heard or they'd lose their shit."
Carter couldn't stop the little smile that curled around his lips despite the accusatory words. While the sarcasm in Johnny's voice had spiked his humor, his interest peaked at something else.
He cleared his throat softly. "Dreamy smile," he echoed, half-question and half-reaffirmation.
Johnny snorted again, but this time there was no scathing edge to it. His face broke into an honest smile to match Carter's.
"Shut up," he muttered.
Their smiling contest was interrupted by Carter's phone vibrating. Kicking down the pinching disappointment at the intrusion, just as the mood had taken a lighter course, he looked down at the caller ID.
"It's my stepfather," Carter told Johnny, pointing to his phone. "Do you think Mrs Lewis lets me take this?"
Johnny shrugged. "It's over an hour after closing time," he said.
Carter hadn't realized it was so late. When he pressed the green icon, sure enough, that was precisely the nature of the call.
"Hey, sorry to bother," Tony greeted from the other side. "It's almost six-thirty. I thought your practice ended at four. Just wondering if you're thinking of coming home soon."
"It's okay, I'm sorry," Carter rushed out. "I lost track of time, but I texted my mom earlier to say I would stay after practice to study with a–" he coughed too briefly to be worth noting, "–with a friend. I didn't remember to text you. Sorry."
"No problem," Tony assured him breezily. "If you texted your mom, I guess it's fine. I just got home now and Mike told me you weren't back. I was only calling to see if you might need a ride home."
"Uhm, no, it's fine," Carter told him. "I got a ride back."
"Okay, then. See you soon?"
"Uh, yeah. Sure."
When the call ended, Johnny was staring at him with an indecipherable look, arms crossed over his chest.
"I hadn't noticed the time," Carter said.
"Yeah," Johnny agreed. "I guess we got carried away."