Heart and Soul - Chapter 21: Chapter 21

"And they actually had a real water balloon fight. Even though Frankie's arm was probably broken. They didn't even take him to the hospital until after the match. Jack and Bella's team won, by the way, but I don't think it was fair with one of their opponents injured."
Johnny smiled back at Carter from across the table. It was past library closing hours and it was just the two of them in there. Even Mrs Lewis had gone somewhere.
"Where was your stepfather in all this?" Johnny asked.
Carter rolled his eyes. "Keeping the scores," he muttered.
Johnny snorted. "And your mom?"
"She was working," Carter answered. "She has to work some Saturdays."
"Was Frankie okay at least?"
"Oh, yeah," Carter waved him off. "It wasn't actually broken. Or it was, like, a mild fracture. He doesn't even have to wear a cast, just a sling."
"I'm starting to see why you feel your home is like a war zone," Johnny mused.
"What about you? How was your weekend?"
Johnny smiled slyly, playing with his pen. "Finished my book report for English class, even though it's not due until the end of the semester. Then I read up on what NASA's been up to for the past week. Then I re-watched the entire first season of How I Met Your Mother."
"Sounds fun," Carter said lightly.
"It was a crazy weekend," Johnny agreed sarcastically.
Carter laughed, letting Johnny's bright gleeful eyes hold his gaze for a second. Or a few of those.
"You're really into NASA," he eventually said.
Johnny nodded. "I am. NASA is awesome," he stated.
"Is it, like, your dream job?" Carter asked.
"NASA isn't a job per se," Johnny said. "But I guess. I want to be an aerospace engineer. NASA is kind of the goal employer."
"Have you always known that?" Carter asked curiously. "Like, when you were little and all the boys said firefighter and police officer, did you always say aerospace engineer?"
Johnny breathed out a soft laugh. "No, I used to say astronaut," he admitted. "But then I learned that's more of a physical job and decided engineer was probably a better fit for me. I guess what I always knew is that I really wanted to work with space."
"Why space?"
"Because it's everything," Johnny said, unable to contain a small smile. "Literally. There's so much about it we don't know and I love it. I can't imagine a job that would give me more satisfaction that helping explore the deep void everything."
Carter grinned. "What's so appealing about the deep void everything?"
"What isn't?" Johnny shot back immediately and Carter relished in the dreamy smile on his face. "Everything out there is so big, it makes everything here look completely small. It's sort of comforting, knowing all this shit we care so much about, like school dances and dates and homework, is completely insignificant compared to the immensity of space. One relatively tiny rock a few meters off and it would all just stop existing."
Carter raised his eyebrows without ever letting his smile waver. "That's comforting to you?"
Johnny laughed, biting his lip like he always did whenever he noticed he'd been rambling. Last time it happened, it had been over the soundness of Newton's laws.
"I guess... it's the perspective that's comforting. Nothing feels so serious if you hold it up to those standards," Johnny said with a shrug. "Plus, it's just cool. The best picture of a sunset out there couldn't top any image of any nebula—these huge interstellar clouds of dust and ionized gas glinting light-years away from us. Nothing Man can make could ever look that amazing."
The dreamy smile had settled back in and Carter's heart filled up at the sight. He smiled playfully.
"I get the feeling you're the type of guy who has a favorite nebula," he teased. When he saw the look on Johnny's face, he leaned over the table. "Oh, my God—you do!"
"Whatever." Johnny rolled his eyes, but he was still smiling. "I'm not the weird one for having a favorite nebula. You are if you don't."
"Tell me," Carter asked.
Johnny scoffed. "Not after you made fun of me."
"I didn't," Carter assured him, putting his hands up. "I'm not making fun, I promise. I want to know."
Johnny trapped his bottom lip between his teeth apprehensively and Carter's eyes zeroed in until he released it. He met Johnny's gaze again, unapologetically.
"Heart and Soul."
Carter shot him an inquisitive look.
"It's technically two nebulae. One is Heart and the other is Soul," Johnny explained. "They're like two giant star-making factories. When you see images from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, it looks actually breath-taking."
Carter's lips slipped into a big grin and Johnny bit down on his own smile, self-consciously.
"It's late," he said. "We should help Mrs Lewis clean up and go."
"Right," Carter agreed, looking around. "Where did she go?"
Johnny shrugged. "Let's just put the books back in the shelves and leave."
They did as he said, in silence. Carter would not have believed it if somebody told him in the beginning of the year, but he was starting to learn where each book went and how the library's organization system worked.
Mrs Lewis came back when they were almost done, thanked them with a smile and they bid her goodbye. None of them said anything until they were inside Johnny's car.
He tuned the key in the ignition and the car roared in hiccups before it faded to still and quiet again. Johnny tried again, and then again, before he huffed slapping both hands on the wheel.
"Are you kidding me," he mumbled.
Carter watched him try one more time, before he asked, "Should I call Mike or something to pick us up?"
"No, it's fine," Johnny told him. "Sam does this sometimes. Likes to act up, but never lets me down. You don't know this, because she's been in her best behavior when you're around."
Carter looked at him with his eyebrows raised. "Sam?" He repeated.
Johnny shot him a daring look. "My car has a name and that's also not weird. You're the weird one if you don't name your cars."
Carter laughed. "I don't even have a car," he said.
Johnny just rolled his eyes before trying to start the car once again. Sam didn't give in. Johnny let out a loud sigh and Carter pursed his lips around a smile.
"You should tell me more about Heart and Soul," he mused after they sat in silence for a couple of seconds, in the emptying parking lot of their school.
Johnny narrowed his eyes at him. "I sense humor," he accused.
Carter put an honest hand on his chest. "I would never," he gasped. "I'm the least funny person ever. Couldn't make fun of you if I wanted to."
Johnny rolled his eyes. "You're full of shit, Parrish. That's what you are," he murmured.
"Hey!" Carter complained. "No need to be hurtful."
"Your ego could do with some hurting," Johnny countered.
Carter scoffed. "My ego is perfectly managed, thank you very much."
Johnny cocked his head. "How, though, is completely beyond me," he mused in agreement.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
Johnny took a second to assess his expression, before shaking his head with a smile. "I'm not doing this again," he said. Then clarified, "This thing where you pretend you don't get what I said, so you make me say it, even though you could get there perfectly well on your own."
Carter's eyebrows drew in, because he really wasn't sure he was following. "Maybe I'm not as smart as you think I am," he said quietly.
"Don't undermine yourself. You know you're not slow."
Carter shrugged, leaning his head against the headrest, still facing Johnny. "Maybe I am."
Johnny's eyes seemed to measure his face carefully. "Yeah, maybe for some things you are," he contemplated with an unreadable look in his eyes.
Carter smiled slowly. "What is that supposed to mean?"
He watched Johnny's Adam's apple bob before he charged forward to close the distance between them, steadily but slowly enough for Carter to stop him if he wanted to. He didn't though, and their lips connected.
Carter stayed still.
Johnny pulled back half an inch, his eyes searching Carter's face for any sign of reluctance. Carter assumed he must not have shown any, because Johnny kissed him again, this time a little more surely. Carter didn't move until the very last second, when his lips stirred to return the kiss. Johnny broke away, as though he'd been shocked by electric current.
Carter's head was frozen in time and space. He stared back at Johnny with a kind of waiting passiveness he never knew in himself.
"You're really confusing me," Johnny whispered, his face still close enough that Carter could feel his breath fan his own lips.
Carter gulped. "Why?" He croaked out, with a shaky voice.
Johnny licked his lips, drawing Carter's gaze in. Then, as though choosing to answer Carter with actions, he leaned in until almost-contact, lips brushing over Carter's, promising to touch but never delivering.
"You're not pulling away," Johnny breathed against Carter's lips.
Carter shook his head lightly. Johnny pushed back a little and Carter was surprised to feel himself chase after the other boy's lips. He gulped, subjecting himself to Johnny's profound scrutiny. He had no idea what his expression might have conveyed. He wasn't even sure what there was to convey. It was hard to know anything when Johnny looked at him like that, with the ghost of his touch still tingling in Carter's lips.
"What is this for you?" Johnny asked quietly.
"I don't know what you mean."
Johnny shifted in his seat, with a shadow of impatience threatening to break through his blank mask of expertly contained emotions.
"What was that at Jenna's party?" He asked, probably referring to the episode Carter had half-expected to be left to hover above them without mentioning, like the homecoming dance night.
"Were you just... drunk?"
Carter shook his head before he even had time to process his answer. "I knew what I was doing."
"Then why did you do it?"
"Because I wanted to," Carter said with a reluctant shrug. He bit down on his bottom lip, adding, "because it felt right."
Johnny's attention visibly perked up at that particular choice of words. Carter could see him lean in again and he tried to meet him halfway. A knock on Johnny's car window jolted both to opposite ends of the car, though. Carter's heart nearly jumped out of his ribcage.
Johnny rolled down his window. "Hey, dad."
Carter's stomach roiled painfully. Shit.
"You're leaving late," Coach Mason said.
"Stayed to help Mrs Lewis after hours," Johnny replied instantly.
Coach hummed gruffly, landing pale blue eyes on Carter, while he desperately tried to contain a deep flush. "Parrish, have you heard from Queens?"
Carter cleared his throat, inconspicuously. "What about him, sir?"
"His teachers told me he skipped half his morning classes again today. Some of them are getting impatient," Coach told him.
Carter chewed on his bottom lip. He had barely spoken to Seth since Friday. "I don't know anything about it, Coach," he admitted.
"You didn't talk to him during practice today?"
"No, sir."
Neither of them had a habit of talking much, at practice. On that particular day, Seth had been a little testy, so Carter didn't push any conversation. He may have also had his head on seeing Johnny in the library, at the time.
"Maybe you should check on him," Coach said. "I heard from Mrs Abrahams that he skipped a test. She says if he doesn't schedule a new date with her, she'll give him a zero."
Carter nodded solemnly. "I'll talk to him, Coach."
"Good." Coach Mason nodded approvingly, before turning his attention to his son. "Is the car alright?"
"Yeah, it was just acting up a bit earlier," Johnny said, giving the key that had been somewhat forgotten in the ignition a second go.
Coach's bushy blonde eyebrows practically knitted together, when the car failed to start. "Do you need me to drive you?"
Suddenly, Carter's chest bubbled with inexplicable anxiety. He really didn't want to drive home with Johnny and his dad, in Coach's car. Thankfully, Johnny gave it another try and the engine ignited with a sound that had never felt so sweet to Carter's ear.
"Told you." Johnny shot Carter a sly smile. "It just needed a bit of rest," he told his dad.
Coach nodded. "Drive safe, boys. See you at home soon, son."
Johnny let his dad walk away before pulling the car out of the parking lot. He shot Carter a sideways glance, smiling shrewdly, once they were on the road.
"That was interesting."