Heart and Soul - Chapter 61: Chapter 61

One year later, Senior Year
There was a taste of thrilling suspense and gut-wrenching trepidation in the air around them.
Johnny hung off Carter's arm, close enough he could hear that second heartbeat as one with his own. Jenna's expertly drawn eyebrows were shot up toward her hairline. Joey and Roy were practically holding each other's hand. Next to them, Lauren was leaning over Bella's shoulder, who was leaning over Seth's.
"I'm sure you passed," Mel spoke softly, between Johnny and Roy.
"And if you didn't, that's fine too. You'll have Frankie to keep you company," Lauren added flippantly.
The grateful look Seth had shot Mel morphed into one of reproof toward the blonde. Lauren shrugged with a coy smile and Bella shoved her non-too-gently. Her dark-brown eyes zeroed back in on her boyfriend immediately.
"Just check your grade, you're making me nervous," she blurted, squeezing Seth's bicep.
Seth's pale green eyes moved from the screen of the phone between his hands to Carter, standing directly to his other side.
Carter aimed for a reassuring smile. "Whatever's on there isn't going to change by delaying it," he said. "Might as well just look now."
Seth replied with the slightest of nods before he turned back to his phone. His fingers moved to refresh the page and his expression turned to stone after a quick glance. He stood motionless for a couple of seconds, before Bella and Carter exchanged an anxious, disheartened look.
"I passed."
Gray-blue and ebony-brown eyes widened at the same time, before Bella and Carter leaned over each of Seth's shoulders to check his Algebra grade on the online platform displayed on his phone.
C+.
He passed.
"What?" Bella spat, taking the phone from his hand. Lauren instantly leaned over her shoulder to take a look. Joey, Roy, Mel and Jenna stared at them in vibrant expectation.
"Why would you scare us like that, asshole?" Bella cried, shoving Seth's phone into his chest. He took it into his hands, grinning widely at Carter.
"I'm graduating with you, guys," Seth declared. "I passed," he repeated with a clear note of disbelief in his tone.
The whole group shared a collective sigh of relief, while Carter peeled himself from Johnny to hug his best friend. Because he had actually fucking passed the math class that had been his Achilles' heel for his four years of high school.
"So much drama for a fucking grade," Jenna retorted, as Carter and Seth parted with mirroring beaming smiles.
"Should we assume you passed everything too?" Johnny asked.
Jenna smiled cockily. "Fucking honors roll too," she said.
"I still don't know how that's possible," Joey mused.
"I didn't have linebackers stepping on my head for four years, that's how," Jenna shot back.
"I passed too," Joey threw in, as an irrefutable defense.
And Carter guessed it was. Joey, like Seth, like all of them, had passed. And now they were all graduating together. The first step toward the rest of their lives, post-high school. One last summer all together awaited them, and then college. Which meant separating after a year forging the most amazing friendships neither one of them would ever have predicted.
As they laughed, and joked, and basked in the unmatched bliss that came before one had to face reality, Mrs Abrahams—the uptight, but nonetheless competent, Algebra teacher—walked by them. She stopped in the middle of the hallway, peering at their careless tumult from over rimless glasses.
Seth was the second one to notice her, after Carter.
"I passed Algebra," he said with a smile.
Mrs Abrahams smiled too. "I'm aware." She had, after all, been the one to grade him.
"Thank you," Seth said.
Mrs Abrahams's eyebrows shot up. "I only typed in the grade you worked for, Mr Queens."
Seth laughed. "Yeah, I know. Just... Thank you. For the patience, I guess."
The teacher's expression softened. "You're very welcome." She looked around their group. "I wish you all the best of luck in the future."
"Even me?" Joey tried.
"Yes, Mr Ashley. Even you," she said. "Please, refrain from accidentally setting off fire alarms wherever you're going."
"I will definitely try," Joey promised.
"I will keep an eye on him," Roy offered, lacing an arm over Joey's shoulders.
Joey grinned happily, draping his arm over Roy's shoulders as well and patting his chest with his free hand. "Roy's got me."
"You're not even going to the same school," Lauren pointed out.
"But we'll be in the same state," Roy argued.
"Different cities," Jenna countered.
"Distance is nothing when the bromance is real," Joey declared.
"The bromance?" Bella repeated, as though spitting out something sour. "When did this happen exactly?" She asked, pointing between the two boys.
Lauren shrugged in resignation.
Jenna crossed her arms, her face mirroring Bella's displeasure. "I'm not sure when it stated, but I don't like it," she said.
"I hate it," Bella asserted. "This friendship is a menace to humanity."
"The situation needs to be rectified."
"I agree."
"And just like that," Johnny mused, "I think we've witnessed the most unlikely bromance and the most dangerous alliance being formed on the same day."
Carter laughed along with his friends. His friends—actual friends—the people who knew him, with whom he spent his final high school days, to whom he could talk, who not only accepted him for who he was—all of it—but appreciated it as much as he appreciated them.
Carter had never had great expectations for his prom. He expected to spend it with teammates and perhaps a date he'd forget as soon as he left for college. Instead, he'd been surrounded by people who cared about him as much as he cared about them. And a boyfriend he loved as much as Johnny loved him.
It all felt too right to put into words.
When the sweltering heat of the Miami summer eased into the warmth of autumn, they'd all be leaving to separate places. Bella was off to School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Seth would follow her to study at Chicago State University, now he knew he would be graduating. Mel had been admitted to Cambridge, to no one's surprise except her own, and she'd be leaving them for English tea and cold rainy days.
Jenna was going to Louisville, to join their elite cheerleading program, while Joey had accepted a football scholarship to UCF. Which put him within driving distance from Gainesville, where both Roy and Lauren were going next year to study at University of Florida.
Johnny had been accepted into Michigan, just as everyone expected. And Coach Mason had helped Carter get in touch with scouts for the same school. He'd be starting practices with them in a couple of months.
Which also meant he and Johnny would be within driving distance to Bella and Seth, in Chicago. Four hours, give or take. Carter had googled it.
Their last hurrah, the final goodbye to their high school selves before the last summer all together in Miami, was a final camping trip to the Everglades. Joey was still living mosquito bait, Jenna and Bella still hated what the humidity did to their hair, Seth and Carter were still hopeless with tents, Roy and Lauren were still not fans of camping food, and Johnny still despised everything outdoorsy.
But they would be together. And making fun of each other for all of the reasons listed above would make up for their own torture.
"Truth or dare!"
"No," Jenna shot down Joey's idea.
"Never Have I Ever," he suggested instead, sitting between her and Mel, who were both leaning on each of his shoulders.
Lauren twisted her nose, with Roy's head resting on her lap.
Joey crossed his arms and pouted like a child. "You say something, then."
"Stargazing. In quiet. Just enjoying the silence," Johnny spoke up, practically laying down on top of Carter, sitting between his legs with his back on his boyfriend's stomach, head on his chest.
Carter smiled down at him, admiring the curve of his cheek, basking in the scent of his hair, relishing the feeling of warmth where their bodies met.
"If I shut up, all I can hear is the buzzing of mosquitoes trying to eat me alive," Joey complained swatting at an angry swarm around him.
"Think the buzzing comes from your brain. Like an old computer that needs time to process information," Bella mused. Seth was sitting up next to Carter, leaning back on his arms, and she had her head laid on his stomach.
"That was mean," Roy said.
"It really was," Mel agreed.
Jenna rolled her eyes. "I thought it was hilarious."
"Mildly funny," Lauren chimed in.
"Let's play Never Have I Ever," Jenna said, sitting up. "Couples' edition."
"I just suggested that. You shot it down," Joey exclaimed in outrage.
"I suggested it better."
"I'm in," Lauren said.
"You've got to be friggin' kidding me," Joey spat, leaving his jaw hanging open.
Sneakily, Johnny's hand slid into Carter's and intertwined their fingers, resting both hands on his stomach. Carter bit back a smile. He loved touching Johnny. He loved that Johnny touched him so much. He loved that he was getting four whole years of Johnny all to himself.
"Never have I ever kissed a boy," Jenna chanted.
"We have no drinks," Seth pointed out.
"Do you need a drink for that?" Roy asked curiously.
Seth smirked subtly, but Bella grinned too obviously.
Carter gasped. "You said you didn't! My room, junior year, you said you had never!"
"You were asking if I'd had sex with another guy," his best friend stated calmly.
"No. I was asking about everything."
"You should've been clear."
"When?" Carter squeaked.
Seth shrugged. His hand played absent-mindedly with Bella's hair, already puffed up from the humidity in the air.
"Summer before sophomore year. He kissed me. I just didn't pull away," he gave in.
"Hey—you and Carter have something in common then," Johnny joked.
"Come again," Jenna asked.
"Everyone stop helping him deflect," Carter said. "You kissed a dude, dude."
"A dude kissed me, dude," Seth mocked his tone. "But unlike you I wasn't that into it."
"Isn't it just the same as kissing a girl?" Joey asked. "Asking for a friend."
"Less exciting, if you ask me," Seth replied.
"Significantly more exciting, if you ask me," Carter countered. Johnny smiled, squeezing Carter's hand in his. That wasn't enough though, so he tilted his head up and claimed a kiss.
"I'll try not to be offended," Mel said as they parted.
Carter's eyes widened and Johnny burst into laughter.
"I didn't mean that you weren't exciting."
Mel tilted her head. "It was just kissing me that was unbearable."
"At the time, it was the best I knew."
"Geez," Joey cried.
"Wow," Mel said simply.
"Even I could tell that was bad," Roy said.
It really wasn't the best thing Carter could have said. "Can I go back? Please, let me take it back," he begged.
Mel grinned. "I'll forgive you, because you're cute." She winked.
"Back off," Johnny warned in a sing-song voice.
"Let's go back to that thing Johnny said about you guys' first kiss, though. I really wanna hear about that," Jenna taunted.
"It was just a kiss," Carter mumbled.
"You said it changed your life. Now I feel deceived," Johnny said in fake hurt.
In synchrony, Mel, Lauren and Jenna perked up and their heads did the same tilting movement as their eyes morphed into pulsing hearts.
"Aww," Mel cooed.
"Their first kiss changed his life," Lauren squealed, in the same tone she used for panda videos and puppies on the street.
"Wasn't it, like, super awkward and kinda drunk?" Bella asked.
Carter's lips parted and Johnny's chest quaked with laughter at his expression.
Seth tapped his girlfriend's shoulder. "I told you that in confidence," he said.
"You told Seth about our first kiss?" Johnny teased.
"You told him and you didn't tell me?" Joey shot back, sounding genuinely affronted.
Jenna smiled deviously. "It doesn't matter, because he's telling us all now. We want all the details, loverboy."
"I don't wanna."
"Why not?" Lauren whined.
"Because it's private," Carter said.
He told Seth, because the two of them had sort of gone from unsaid truths they never brought up to talking about everything. But he didn't want everyone else to know. He wasn't embarrassed—not at all—but he loved that his moments with Johnny were theirs, and theirs alone. The person Johnny saw when it was just the two of them was an especially candid version of Carter. One he enjoyed saving just for his boyfriend.
"I assume we just ditched the game," Roy spoke up, ending up—probably unwittingly—rescuing Carter from the ambush he'd brought on himself.
"What game?" Bella asked.
"The one nobody wanted to play when I suggested it," Joey said.
"Fuck the game," Lauren said. It was very blunt and unexpected from her.
Bella gasped. "Lauren Sofia Alonso Santiago, do you kiss your mother with that mouth?"
Lauren rolled her eyes and straightened her spine. That was one of the debate girl reflexes in her. She was about to make a speech. Carter could practically feel it in the air as they all braced themselves.
"I want to propose a pact," she announced.
There was a pause for dramatic effects. An attention-grabbing technique. Yet another debate thing.
"This year was so awesome it was almost unbelievable," she declared. "It kinda makes me wonder how much time we wasted not caring to know each other for almost three years. Of course, if we had met freshmen year, we might not have clicked the way we did last year. Everything that happened to us for the past four years, for better or worse, brought us right here."
"I don't go to church much, but is this where we say amen?" Jenna threw in at another pause.
"I'm an atheist," Seth said.
Carter and Bella both laughed, and Lauren threw her shoe at Seth's face. She didn't have her best friend's aim though, because it missed spectacularly and ended up hitting Carter instead.
"I mean to say," she started again, a little sternly. "This is too good to throw away after this summer. I don't care what everyone says about how high school friends never sticking around. We should stick around."
"Carter and I are kind of already committed to Ann Arbor," Johnny said.
"Same here for Chicago," Bella said.
"I don't mean physically, here, in Florida," Lauren spoke in a tone of slight exasperation. "Just stick around for each other. I mean, seriously, how hard can it be? It's twenty-eighteen, we should be able to keep in touch."
"Okay, so we'll text," Mel said.
"We can create a group chat," Joey suggested.
"Yes," Jenna agreed excitedly, which, honestly, should have been all the warning needed for what was to come. "And then we'll make another one without Joey, where he can't spam us with GIFs."
"Y'all are making this impossible. I don't even know if I want to keep in touch with you anymore," Lauren snapped.
"Fine, fine. Just continue what you were saying. You mentioned a pact," Carter prompted.
Lauren smiled. "No matter what, even if we all lose touch, every five years, we'll plan a reunion."
"Like a high school reunion?" Roy asked slowly.
"Fuck the high school reunion," Lauren said. Second strike on curse words. Post-high school Lauren was a savage.
"This one I'm proposing is just for us," she proceeded. "No matter where we are, we meet right here in the glades. First reunion is summer twenty-twenty-four. But we make a promise right now to honor this pact."
There was a beat of silence, and then...
"I'm in," Jenna surprised them all by being the first to speak.
"Sounds good to me too," Mel said.
"Hell yeah!" Joey hooted.
Bella shrugged, still leaning over Seth. "Sure, why not?"
"Guess that's a yes from us," Seth mused.
"Us too," Johnny said, raising the hand that was still holding Carter's.
"Loverboy has to say it too," Jenna told them.
"I'm in," Carter said.
"Me too," Roy said at last.
They sat in silence for a couple of seconds, grinning at each other. Then Joey spoke up in a mock-official tone, which hit far too deeply in the moment.
"And, thus, the summer pact of twenty-nineteen is sealed and binding."