Heart and Soul [bxb]

Chapter Sixteen

"Do you want to ask him to sit with us?"

Carter's head shot back toward Mel, with a wide-eyed look of questioning confusion. She smiled slowly, directing her gaze to where Carter's own had been slipping since they'd sat down at the library.

"Do you want to invite Johnny to sit with us?" She whispered again, more clearly. "You barely paid any attention to me or Calculus since we sat down. And you did the same yesterday. If you want to ask him, it's fine. He is in the same class."

Carter's lips parted. He was a little taken aback. It's not that he thought he was being stealthy in his constant glances and longer, lingering looks at Johnny. But he also hadn't realized he was that obvious.

"It's just," he started, pausing for a while. "He's always alone." Carter shrugged. "And I think Coach worries about him a bit."

It wasn't a lie. A full lie, at least. Carter did think Coach Mason worried about his son. And Carter himself worried. Especially after his suspicions—almost turned findings—from the week before. Surely, a small unspoken kiss and a tiny meaningless dream were nothing compared to those more relevant aspects. Almost like footnotes. Not the reason why he stared.

Mel shrugged, putting her pencil down. "I think some people like to be alone. But I can still ask," she said. "And then he could say no," she added.

Carter nodded silently as Mel stood up and walked quietly to Johnny's corner of the library. 

Johnny peeled his eyes away from the laptop screen when she leaned onto the table smoothly, and removed his earbuds to listen to what she was saying. There was a light electric jolt in Carter's chest when Johnny glanced his way for half a second before his shoulders jerked with a quick shrug. That little thread of electricity came back, running down Carter's back and straightening his spine, when Johnny shut his laptop and got up carrying it under his arm with his backpack perched on the opposite shoulder.

"Have you studied this last module?" Mel asked Johnny, once they were both sitting down.

"Yeah," he answered to Mel's right, across the table from Carter.

"Carter and I were just starting. He and Roy already finished the homework problems at the end of class though, so we were going to start with the extras Mr Thomas emailed. Have you done those?"

"Not yet," Johnny replied.

Mel smiled. "Okay, good."

And that seemed to be an uncontradicted statement that they would all work on those problems. Carter took out his phone to get the document from his email because, unlike Mel and Johnny, he hadn't printed the problem sheet yet.

Mr Thomas had a habit of emailing his students a tone of extra exercises at the beginning of the week, regarding the content he'd teach in the following classes. Most of those problems worked as preview of what they could expect in tests.

If he and Mel hadn't scheduled these post-practice study sessions, Carter would never have been able to cover so many materials. But they had finally caught up to the rest of the class in their revisions, and Carter had been able to work with Roy through their class work that day at an impressive pace.

During this study session though, he was having a little more trouble getting anything done. In the sense that he hadn't gone beyond picking up his pen and trying to read the enunciation of the very first problem. He kept cutting himself in the middle of the second sentence—sometimes the first—by lifting his eyes from the screen to glance at Johnny.

When Johnny had been in his corner and Carter had Mel talking him through her methodical thought process, unknowingly battling for his attention, it had been easier to focus. But when Johnny was sitting within reaching distance, Carter's gaze kept getting pulled in.