Heart and Soul - Chapter 39: Chapter 39

Christmas was loud, and chaotic, and for once Carter didn't mind.
Seth came over for Christmas Eve and he stayed the night. Tony's brother and his family joined them for the meal as well, so the whole family could open presents at midnight, which was apparently a tradition. As was a variety of seafood recipes, in accordance to Italian tradition.
On Christmas morning, Tony video called with his relatives in Italy, who were just finishing lunch on their end. Seth left early too, so he could visit his sister at Morningtide.
Richie Santoro was staying in Mike's room in the attic, but Jack had set up his makeshift bed in Bella's room this time. A third camping mattress was rolled out on Carter's bedroom, for Seth, who stayed the night on Christmas day as well.
On the day after Christmas, Bella's friends, Lauren and Roy, came over. Carter and Seth ended up spending the afternoon with them and Jack, in the Santoro backyard, before they all went out to get something to eat in the evening.
Joey invited them over the day after that, and Seth brought Bella with him. She seemed to get along nicely with Jenna and Mel, while the boys passed a football around on Joey's lawn.
On the twenty-eighth, Carter and Seth went out with the others alone, while Bella spent the day at Lauren's. At the end of the day, Seth dropped Carter at the Santoros' and went to his own house, though Carter told him to prepare a bag with clothes so he could stay the rest of the winter break with them.
When he opened the door and walked into the living room, almost all the Santoro siblings were scattered across the room. Jack, Richie and Mike were sitting on the couch, a little tightly seen as they were all big guys, while Bella was comfortably sprawled across the armchair. Frankie and Luca sat on the floor in front of her, setting up a board game on the cleared out coffee table.
"Hey, C-man," Luca greeted.
"Your timing is great," Frankie said. "We were just about to start a game of Monopoly. It's a big Santoro sibling tradition we kind of skipped on Thanksgiving."
"Wanna join us?" Jack asked.
Just as he made the invitation, Frankie and Luca looked over their shoulders at Bella behind them. She looked up from her phone, taking notice of their stares, and rolled her eyes impatiently.
"Why is everybody looking at me like that? It's not like I'm going to tell him he can't play!"
"We were just making sure, Belz," Frankie said.
Bella huffed. "For fuck's sake—"
"Swear Jar," Richie called from the couch.
Luca grinned. "You missed that, admit it."
Bella shot them a glare. "I was going to say he can play on my team," she deadpanned.
"Oh, damn. Plot twist," Frankie gasped.
"You're always with Jack," Luca exclaimed. "This is a tradition game. We can't shit all over tradition."
"Swear Jar," Jack said. "Also, I call Mikey if I can't have Bella."
"But Mike's my dude," Richie complained.
"Not anymore," Jack shot back, sliding his arm around Mike's shoulders.
Charlie came charging into the living room from the kitchen then, with a Twizzlers in his hands. "Can I play?" He asked, before jumping onto the couch, between Richie and Jack's thighs.
"Yes," Richie said, grabbing his youngest brother around the waist and pulling him onto his lap. "Yes, you can, little man. You're on my team. We'll teach these backstabbers how to play."
"Backstabbers," Charlie repeated with a grin.
"Hell yeah," Richie cheered, lifting his palm so Charlie could meet it for a high-five.
Luca and Frankie moved over so they sat on the floor, between the turned off TV and the coffee table. Carter sat on the carpet where they had been, at Bella's feet. The Santoros' Monopoly board was different from any other he'd seen before. He realized why when he read the center of the board. Monopoly: International Euro Edition.
Great. Foreign currency.
"Okay, golden boy, let me lay it out for you," Bella said. "I have a record to maintain and I need you to focus. Grey is five, orange is ten, blue is twenty, lighter orange is fifty, green is one hundred, purple is five hundred. Coins are one euro. If you get lost, the numbers are literally stamped on it."
"I can see that," Carter mused dryly.
"Good. Means your eyes are connected to your brain," Bella praised sarcastically. "Now, Frankie and Luca are idiots. They only ever want the high-price properties, like Brussels through Paris, or airports. It'll get them broke in no time."
"We won once," Frankie exclaimed.
"Sheer dumb luck," Richie mumbled.
"True," Bella agreed. "Now, Richie never sells. It's a bitch when he has something you want, but it also works against him. When he used to play with Mike, they were the ones to watch out for, because Mikey knows how to manage his low-income properties. Like Vilnius through Warsaw. Those are our initial round goals. It's practically a statistical given that people land there every round and infrastructures cost less, which means more profit. We don't have to worry about Mike now though, because Jack will weight him down. He only ever cares to get Rome, Lisbon and Madrid, because he likes the fucking languages."
"Ouch."
Bella ignored her brother. "If we got money, we buy. Full neighborhoods are important, but we can't get caught up in that. If somebody else gets it, we can always try to trade or buy later. Airports are key. Parliament and Court can be a real blessing. It's always better to wait out jail time and try our luck with the dice, unless it's the initial rounds. In those, we buy out," she powered on.
"Rules go as follow. We all throw the dice, highest sum starts the game and we keep going clockwise. First round, no one can buy. Each time we cross the starting point, we get two hundred euros from the bank. Richie manages the bank, because he's the oldest and it's tradition. Got all that?" She looked down at him.
Carter raised his eyebrows. "You really got this game down to a science," he mused.
"I told you. Santoro sibling tradition," Frankie said.
"Santoros don't kid around with tradition," Luca added.
"If you want to be one of us, you gotta keep up," Richie finished.
Carter smiled. "Got it."
And what he didn't get, he picked up along the way.
The Santoros really did take their Monopoly seriously. Carter was somewhat surprised to learn Richie and Bella were, in fact, the business masterminds in the game. Frankie and Luca changed strategies every other round, but they did it out load, so it never worked.
Richie really did refuse to sell whichever property came to his possession. Which became a sore spot after he acquired all four airports, buying the last one from Frankie and Luca. Bella nearly strangled them. Mike and Jack had a much more relaxed stance, but they were the firsts to complete a neighborhood and buy houses for their properties.
Regardless, Bella still managed to get them ahead. Carter couldn't understand how she was so bad at math in school, but so resourceful in the game. She traded Berlin for Athens and Madrid from Frankie and Luca, completing the red neighborhood, and successfully assuring they owned that full side of the board. Except for the airport.
When Jack and Mike went bankrupt, they sat back and kept watching the game, joining the immersive banter. Frankie and Luca lost next.
Carter was already half-asleep when the game finally ended. Charlie had curled up across Jack and Mike's laps hours before and was soundly asleep, even through his siblings' noise. Which meant it was really all Richie and Bella until the sun started to rise outside, at which point they called it quits and counted their possessions.
Bella won. Narrowly. Which kinda meant Carter won too. But he was so tired he didn't even care.
As Jack picked Charlie up and took him upstairs to his bed, Mike and Richie started cleaning up the game. Frankie and Luca had already curled up on the carpet and were halfway asleep. Carter decided it would be a good idea to follow their example and laid back across the floor to close his eyes for a little bit.
He woke up a couple of hours later, as light flooded the living room. Mike and Richie sat on the couch with bowls of cereal in their hands and matching frameless glasses on their faces. Carter blinked sleepily at them, noting the muted TV playing cartoons.
"Sorry," Mike whispered, smiling down at Carter. "Did we wake you?"
Carter shook his head. "I don't think so."
Richie put his index finger to his lips, shushing him. Wordlessly, he pointed to the carpet, between the coffee table and the TV, where Frankie was spooning Luca. Both sound asleep.
"Jack carried Bella upstairs after she fell asleep. Your mom's still downstairs with our dad," Richie whispered. "Do you want breakfast, or are you going upstairs get some more sleep?"
Carter sat up, rubbing his face. "Think I'll sleep," he mumbled quietly.
Mike and Richie smiled at him as he stood up and dragged himself up the stairs to his room.
He didn't come down until lunch time. As he crossed the living room, he found Frankie already awake, sitting on the couch on his phone. Tony had slowly started lifting his punishment at the beginning of winter break, after Frankie submitted every homework, missed assignment and extra papers his teachers asked for.
Luca was gone, probably upstairs showering, since Carter had heard the water running.
Tony was in the kitchen. He smiled at Carter warmly, tying his apron around his waist. Next to him, a wet-haired Jack had an apron over fresh clothes and was already setting a pan filled with water and a pinch of salt to boil on the stove.
Bella sat at the kitchen table in the day before's clothes and a messy ponytail. To Carter's surprise, Seth sat next to her.
"Crazy night?" Seth teased.
"The craziest."
And, in a way, it was sort of true.
"Where's my mom?"
"Outside, with Mike and Richie," Jack answered. "We kinda decided we're eating outside, while you were asleep."
"Have you been up long?" Carter asked.
Bella shot him a look ready for the grave. "No," she rasped.
"She was sleeping like a rock when I got here, a few minutes ago," Seth said with a smile. When he looked at Bella, his eyes seemed to warm up with fondness, despite her glorious morning state.
"I told her it was extremely rude, to sleep in when she has guests," Jack said.
"So, he woke her up with a bucket of ice," Tony added, to fill Carter in.
Seth laughed, even as Bella glared at him.
"He's technically Carter's guest, not mine," she barked.
"Ice?" Carter repeated, scratching the side of his head.
Tony nodded. "I raised animals," he concluded.
"You lead by example," Bella retorted.
"Just go shower," Tony told her. "You too, Carter. And tell Frankie and Luca they need to do that too. No dirty kids at my table. Seth will think we're cavemen."
"I see Carter after practice. I'm immune."
Bella snorted and Carter scoffed.
They all did shower though, and when they came back down lunch was ready. It was a sunny day, and relatively warm for December. Carter hung out with Seth, Bella and Jack all afternoon and the whole family went out to eat at the Ristorante, at the end of the day.
Seth stayed in Carter's room until New Year's Eve. Joey invited them for a small gathering at his house that night. When Seth and Carter pushed him, he assured them it really was a small gathering. Just them, Mel and Jenna, since Joey's parents had gone to Tampa for the holiday. Seth asked to bring Bella too and Joey didn't raise any objections.
So, on December thirty-first twenty-seventeen, at ten-thirty, the six of them sat in Joey's living room with five finished pizza boxes, three emptied six-packs of beer and an unopened bottle of champagne—courtesy of Jenna's mom—waiting for midnight to strike.
"Oh, yeah, I know who Lauren Santiago is," Jenna finally exclaimed, after Bella tried to describe her best friend to her for twenty minutes. "Blonde, bilingual hot chick. Argentinian, right?"
"Yeah, she has family in Buenos Aires and Santa Cruz," Bella said.
Jenna shook her head. Besides the beer Joey had gotten for them, she had also been drinking from her own personal stock of Smirnoff, mixed with orange juice.
"Never been," she said. "I got relatives in San Juan on my dad's side. Puerto Rico, not Argentina. My mom doesn't talk to her relatives in Venezuela though. Telenovela-style drama I never really cared to learn about."
Seth and Joey had gone into the kitchen to get more napkins, a few minutes before, and Carter was left alone with the girls. In reality, Joey got up to get napkins and Seth went after him, because he was a little tipsy already. Joey could drink his weight in alcohol without passing out, but he got tipsy really quick.
"Wasn't Lauren in the debate club too, last year?" Melanie asked.
"Yeah." Bella smiled. "She loved it, but she got involved with this off-school volunteering program this year and stopped having time."
"And that girl is dating what's-his-name?"
"Roy O'Brien," Melanie corrected.
Bella laughed. "Yeah, Roy was my best friend since first gradr. Lauren and I became friends in fifth grade and they kinda hated each other at first," she told them. "But then sophomore year, they got together. It was actually really funny, because they tried to keep it from me for a full year. But Roy's the worst liar."
Seth and Joey came back then. With napkins and a half-peeled orange, which Joey was trying to eat. Seth rolled his eyes as he secured Joey with a hand around his arm, before he could miss the couch as he tried to sit down.
"So, the hot chick and the nerd got together because they were both friends with you?" Jenna asked.
"I guess." Bella shrugged.
Jenna cocked her head curiously. "And you sure she's a hundred percent straight?"
Bella snorted. "As far as I know."
Jenna smiled lewdly. "It's high school, though. Everyone can be at least a little secretly gay," she mused.
"Kinda like Scherzinger's cat," Joey chimed in jokingly.
Jenna rolled her eyes. "You mean Schrödinger?"
"Sure, him too."
"Just like that, the IQ on this conversation dropped to negative figures."
"Guys, come on, chill," Mel said. Truth be told, she'd had a bit of Jenna's vodka-OJ mix too. While she wasn't a drinker at parties, where there were people all around, Mel did enjoy drinking when it was just them.
"We should play a game," Joey suggested.
"I vote on hide and seek," Jenna offered. "You even get a head-start. Go on, Joey. Go hide now."
"You're a mean drunk," Joey accused.
Jenna smirked. "You're a dumb drunk." She then tilted her head. "You're kinda like that sober too."
Joey squeezed his orange a little too hard, squirting a little juice in Carter's eye. "You, listen—"
"Okay, stop. I'm with Joey, let's play a game," Mel intervened. "Bella, you pick."
Bella raised her eyebrows. "Do you know Bullshit?"
"Is this something you play with your brothers?" Carter asked, still rubbing his burning eye. "Because, if it is, I'd rather not take my chances."
Bella scoffed. "Why?"
"I saw you play Monopoly. You're vicious," Carter argued. "I don't want to take my chances with cards."
"Monopoly brings out the capitalist lobbyist in me," Bella said cynically. "Cards is about discipline of mind."
"I'd love to meet the capitalist lobbyist in you," Jenna mused.
"She's a shark." Bella grinned devilishly.
"Yeah, she is. Nearly bit my arm off, and I was on her team," Carter mumbled.
Seth chuckled. "You're all ridiculous. Just get the cards, Mel."
And so they played cards as midnight approached. To no one's surprise, Bella and Jenna won in alternate rounds almost every time. Joey never even fully understood the rules. And Seth didn't even seem to be trying. He still smiled at Joey and Jenna's banter, chuckled every time Bella said something, and winked at Carter each time Bella chastised him for losing.
When the people on the muted TV started getting ready for the countdown, Mel got up to get glasses for everyone and Jenna grabbed the champagne bottle. Seth and Bella adjusted on the couch, so they were closer together, so subtly it was almost unnoticeable.
As the clock struck midnight and the celebrations erupted on the screen, Jenna popped the champagne and started pouring it on the glasses. Next to Carter, Bella and Seth kissed. It was short and innocent, no blatant PDA, but it was still enough to make Carter's stomach tighten. It wasn't about them though.
When he looked at his friends, he saw with a look of slight surprise Joey and Jenna exchange a chaste kiss on the lips. It wasn't the same as Bella and Seth, no romance or passion in it, almost like a joke between friends. Still, the discomfort in Carter's gut intensified. He felt that pebble he hadn't felt in a while return to his throat, clogging his airways.
A glass of champagne was handed to him and he smiled at Mel gratefully, before staring down at the bubbly liquid within. His friends' cheerful wishes of a happy new year played in the background, muffled and indistinct.
Somebody nudged his side and Carter turned his head. Seth smiled at him.
"Feeling sorry for yourself?" He asked.
Carter nodded grimly. "Something like that."
"It's a new year, Cart. Just ask yourself how you'd like to go into it."
Carter thought about it for a second, and took out his phone. Without giving himself the time to overthink it, he typed and pressed send.
He stared at his phone for a full ten minutes without a response. Biting his lip, he brought his champagne glass to his lips and downed it in a single go. He regretted it after, because of the gas that came back up all at once.
His phone buzzed a few dozen times after that, with messages from friends, family and acquaintances. Each time, Carter was disappointed to read the sender's name.
Jenna and Joey went crazy after midnight, deciding to kill all the vodka—skip the orange juice. Mel saw fit to help them. While they drank, Bella and Seth slipped away to the privacy of Joey's kitchen and Carter sulked in the couch. When his phone vibrated after one in the morning, Carter wasn't even hoping anymore.
So his heart nearly jumped out of his chest when he saw the reply.
Carter's eyes skipped over those three words, over and over. Without thinking, he typed again.
Time appeared to slow down to painful proportions for the next sixty-three seconds, before a new text appeared on Carter's screen.