Heart and Soul - Chapter 56: Chapter 56

The new sitting arrangements ended up working impressively well. One week and a half in, it felt like they had been eating lunch together for years.
If anyone had asked Carter, eight months before, whether he imagined himself getting along with Bella Santoro, he would have rolled on the floor laughing. Same thing if somebody told him his dorky AP Calculus partner would be switching lunch foods with his loud-mouthed teammate, every day. Or if someone suggested Jenna Torres would be accepting the challenge from one of the debate club girls to try out volunteering at an animal shelter, without Melanie forcing her. Or if anyone warned him his boyfriend would develop inside jokes about him with his best friend.
None of it made sense in theory. But in practice, it felt too perfect to doubt. All the reasons that seemed to promise this group wouldn't be compatible appeared to be exactly what made it work so smoothly.
Of course, smoothly didn't mean without a hitch.
"For the love of God," Jenna huffed, dropping her fork. "Will you two please stop being all couple-y, right in front of my salad?"
Bella scoffed, pulling away from Seth. They had been whispering in each other's ears, leaning really close, for the past ten minutes.
"We are not being couple-y," Bella shot back, defensively.
Jenna smiled cynically. "The stench of your lovey-doveyness is getting on my hair."
"Someone's pissed because she got broken up with," Joey mused aloud, over a helping of tater tots he was sharing with Roy.
Jenna glared at him, grabbing her fork tightly. "Are you asking me to stab you in the eye with this fork?"
"Aren't you supposed to try to be nicer?" Joey exclaimed.
"Aren't you supposed to try to be less stupid?" Jenna clapped back.
Joey huffed, flailing his arms in outrage. "How is this not bullying?" He asked the rest of the table.
"You should just know better by now, dude," Seth said.
"How is this my fault?" Joey screeched. "Do not blame the victim. Never blame the victim. Johnny boy, back me up here!"
Johnny raised his eyebrows. "She's clearly in a bad mood," he reasoned. "You enticed the beast."
Jenna nodded. "Which was a really dumb move."
"Have you considered Pilates?" Lauren chimed in, softly. "My sister started taking me to a new place and it does wonders to the soul. Your soul could use some wonders."
Jenna scrunched up her face. "My mom does hot yoga. It's all middle-aged women sweating away in a room, throwing thirsty looks at a guy just old enough to be their son."
"I promise there's no high temperatures in this place," Lauren assured her. "And the instructor is a woman."
Jenna's attention spiked lightly. "She hot? I could use a rebound."
Johnny snorted, shaking his head. "I aspire to that level of confidence," he mused.
"Please." Jenna rolled her eyes, flicking a lock of coal-black hair over her shoulder. "You don't need confidence when you already scored the ultimate boy toy."
"Hey," Carter complained.
Johnny smiled, laying a hand on his shoulder. "No, champ. That was definitely a compliment," he said.
"Bella has an invitation to make," Seth declared loudly.
As soon as the words left his mouth, the back of Bella's hand collided with his chest harshly. He laughed through it, but still rubbed a hand over the afflicted area.
"You haven't asked them yet?" Lauren said, a little astounded.
"Will you two shut up," Bella grumbled.
"Ask who what?" Joey piped up, head whipping between Bella and Lauren a little too fast to be healthy.
"Nothing to do with you, Joe," Seth said.
"I wasn't invited either," Roy admitted miserably, head cast down. Joey patted his back empathetically.
"It's a slumber party," Lauren let out, through an eye roll. "You are not slumbering with a bunch of teenage girls, as long as I live." She gave her boyfriend a stern look.
"It's not a slumber party," Bella contradicted sternly.
"It sounded like one, when you described it to your dad two nights ago," Carter mused aloud.
Bella glared at him. "I will poison your dinner tonight if you don't shut up," she threatened.
Carter laughed. "Tony would never allow you to do that to his food."
"I think we got off point," Seth pointed out. He shot Bella a waiting look, and she rolled her eyes.
"It's like... a girls night in," she tried. "At my place. This weekend. Because Tweedledee and Tweedledum will be out with friends, and Mike's studying, and Carter's staying at Johnny's," she finished with a look up at Melanie and Jenna in front of her.
"Okay," Mel spoke softly, as though expecting Bella to continue.
Bella blew out a long puff of air. "It's just me, Lauren, Johnny's little sister and Reggie, so far," she proceeded. "I was wondering if you two would like to join us."
"Who's Reggie?" Jenna asked.
"Frankie's friend. Biker girl," Bella answered, gesturing toward the dumpster table across the cafeteria where, sure enough, Reggie had her boots on the table.
Jenna tilted her head. "She single?"
Bella laughed. "She's straight."
Jenna smiled deviously. "You sure? Carter was too, a few months ago. Sometimes it just takes the right nudge," she said, topping it with a wink Johnny's way.
Carter felt his own face heat up as Johnny laughed.
"A slumber party sounds fun," Mel said. "I haven't been to one in ages."
"Yeah..." Jenna sounded reticent. "I'll go, but we cannot call it that."
"We're not," Bella asserted. "It's a girls night in."
"Great. Count me in," Jenna said.
"Me too," Mel followed.
Seth eyed Bella with a little smile. "Did that hurt?" He asked, a tad to patronizingly to go unaddressed by his girlfriend.
Bella glared, punching his chest again. This time, Carter could hear the thump echoing in his ribcage.
"Did that hurt?" She shot back.
"We talked about this," Seth groaned, rubbing his chest. "Violence isn't the answer."
"You're one to talk," Bella retorted.
Seth rolled his eyes. "I never lifted a finger at you."
"Do it once and you won't live to tell the story," Lauren threatened with a sweet smile.
"Yeah," Roy supported emphatically, before he saw the look on Seth's face. He recoiled a little in his seat. "I mean, I'll hold your arms back, while she destroys your face." He pointed at Lauren through a bashful grin.
Seth cocked his head. "You sure about that?"
Bella swatted his shoulder. "Don't intimidate my friends."
Seth diffused his menacing stance. "Sorry," he said, leaning over to kiss her cheek.
"What about that," Joey piped up. "Seth Queens is fucking smitten and Carter Parrish is gay. This year has done a whole three-eighty turn."
"What the fuck," Jenna deadpanned.
"How would that even work, Joe?" Carter asked, slowly.
Johnny put down his fork and swallowed his mouthful to explain. "So," he started. "It did a full turn, the whole three-sixty degrees, went back to where it started and then turned just a little more—but just those extra twenty degrees." He smiled proudly. "It's basic math, champ."
Joey's eyebrows were slightly furrowed in confusion as Johnny delivered his sarcastic explanation, but he shook it off and grinned happily at the end anyway. "My boy Johnny gets it," he said.
Jenna rolled her eyes. "He's just feeling all excited, because his parents are out of town for the weekend, and apparently Bella is taking his sister out of the house too."
Carter blushed, while Johnny ducked his head to hide the smile. Bella snickered next to Carter.
"Do your parents always leave town for their wedding anniversary or is this a big one?" Mel asked, deviating the attention from the implications left in the air.
"Twenty-five years," Johnny answered. "They usually just go out to dinner somewhere nice, but this year my dad went all out. He's got some big plans, from what I hear."
Jenna grinned lewdly. "Coach got big plans for his wife and you got some big plans with Carter," she joked.
"Did I miss something?" Joey asked as everyone else laughed.
"Other than a couple pounds of brain matter?" Jenna asked. Joey rolled his eyes.
"Carter and Johnny have the house to themselves," Bella clarified. "All weekend," she stressed that last part.
"Oh, I see," Roy, who apparently had also yet to understand, mused.
"I still don't," Joey said.
"Can we stop?" Carter mumbled. "It doesn't matter."
Lauren hummed. "From what I hear, it does matter. You guys have been waiting quite a while."
Carter's eyes widened as he looked between her knowing look and Johnny's guilty one. His lips parted.
Johnny winced. "We have History together," he explained. "She asked, I answered."
Carter let his face sink into his spread hands over the table, while the rest of the table laughed. He felt Johnny's hand rubbing soothing circles on his back, but it wasn't enough to stop the raging blush from spreading from his face to his neck.
"Oh!," Joey piped up. "I get it! You two are going to pound-town."
Carter visibly cringed at that particular word choice.
"For the first time, apparently," Bella added. "That's something I didn't need to know."
"You probably really do have big plans," Jenna mused. "Knowing Carter, he wants to make it all special and whatnot. Right, Mel?"
Carter's head shot up and his eyes bulged as he stared at Mel's compromised look. Next to him, Johnny's face indicated he didn't really want to know what they were talking about. Even if it was obvious.
"I think Cart was already embarrassed enough before you brought that up," Mel spoke softly.
The laughter rang in Carter's head and he rubbed a hand down his face.
"Please, can we not," he pleaded to his friends.
"So you don't wanna make it special?" Johnny asked, tilting his head, teasingly.
"Little friendly advice," Roy offered. "Candles might seem like a good idea, but it's a fire hazard. Trust me."
Lauren looked a little taken aback by her boyfriend's revelation and she shoved him gently in indignation. Bella cringed, like she really didn't want to learn that much about her friends' relationship.
"I once used rose petals and all," Joey recounted. "She still didn't put out." He shook his head.
"I think Johnny's already planning to put out," Lauren mumbled under her breath.
Even Johnny laughed at that, along with his friends. The only one having trouble joining in was Carter, too flustered to cope.
"I know I kinda started this, but we should stop," Jenna intervened. "Look at Carter, he's all red. He might have trouble performing this weekend."
That elicited another loud round of laughter around the table and Carter's head fell onto his spread-out arms, to hide his face again.
"Don't worry, champ," Johnny muttered, running his fingers through the hair on the back of Carter's head. "I'm sure you'll perform beautifully."
That earned them more laughter.
"That's enough," Seth's voice overlapped everyone else's. "Lay off, now. Even I would have trouble performing, with all this."
Carter lifted his head, letting out a relieved breath. Count on Seth to have his back.
"I don't know about that," Bella mused. "I haven't had reason to complain so far."
Carter's jaw slacked. "I did not need to now that!"
"Now, Cart will have trouble performing, because he'll be thinking about Seth and Bee getting it on," Lauren commented.
Carter huffed. "I'm leaving."