Heart and Soul [bxb]

Chapter Two

*This chapter contains multimedia relevant to the plot*

Living in a house full of teenagers, Carter had expected at least the mornings to be the calmest. But, with the Santoros, every morning seemed to break out like a trench war.

Apparently, the rooster gene ran in their family line. They didn't even need alarms to be up and running before seven. Fully functional. In a good mood. 

All of them, of course, except for one.

"Move."

Carter turned slowly. "I got here first," he said.

"And I got here next. Now move," Bella barked.

She was a sight to behold, in the earlier hours of the day. Her hair stuck out in random directions from a sloppy ponytail; an oversized t-shirt hung awkwardly from her shoulders, crinkled and at the wrong angle; and there were red pillow marks on her sleep-swollen face.

Her mood was about as pleasant as her aesthetic.

When the necessary adjustments had been made to the rooming system, after Carter's moving in, the bathroom arrangement had been shifted as well. Bella used to share the upstairs bathroom with Frankie and Luca, while Tony shared the master bathroom with Charlie, who slept in the small 'annex room', which was really just a walk-in linen closet. The eight-year-old didn't seem to mind, though.

Then, Tony renovated the basement into a new master bedroom for himself and Carter's mom, freeing his old one for Frankie and Luca so Carter could take their room. The only catch was that, now, Carter and Bella had to share the upstairs bathroom. To say it was a difficult arrangement was a major understatement.

Just like every other time a new fight between them was about to ensue, though, Carter stepped aside with a resigned sigh. Bella pushed past him, shutting the door in his face without a word of thanks. Definitely not a morning person.

Somewhere in the background, Carter heard Luca and Frankie's argument over who between the two of them would shower first too. Mike approached Carter then, already dressed, and extended a friendly smile.

"You can use the shower in the attic," he offered.

"Shotgun on that," Luca yelled, running past them to reach the retractable stairs drawn out from the trapdoor. Apparently, Frankie had won their dispute.

Carter noted, upon moving in, that the attic was something like the Santoro house's nirvana. It had been the oldest Santoro brother, Richie, who asked to turn it into a bedroom for himself, after Charlie's birth. When he moved away for college, it became an aspiration of the eldest Santoro living in the house to move up into the attic. In the current days, Mike held that privilege.

Carter shot him a thankful smile, appreciative of the intention. "It's okay." He shrugged one shoulder. "I showered yesterday after practice anyway."

It wasn't entirely okay, though. Unlike the Santoros, Carter was not a natural morning person. He could get up early but he depended heavily on a morning shower to fully wake him up. It was his equivalent of morning coffee. Today, though, actual coffee would have to do the trick.

Carter followed Mike down the stairs to the kitchen. As he did, he took out his phone from the front pocket of the jeans he had slept in. There was one unread message, from Seth.