Heart and Soul [bxb]

Chapter Twenty-Two

*This chapter contains multimedia relevant to the plot*

Carter put his phone down on the kitchen table.

He couldn't talk to Seth on Tuesday, like Coach had asked, because his friend didn't show up to school that day. But he did offer to go with Seth talk to Mrs Abrahams about the test he missed, on Wednesday. She agreed to let him repeat the test on Friday, so Carter made himself available to answer any question Seth may have, on Thursday evening. Thursday night, to be fairer.

Frankie had gone out with his friends after school and still hadn't come back. So they were all waiting for him and Carter's mom, who had a delayed meeting, to have dinner. It was fine though, because Tony was still cooking. Santoros rolled on Mediterranean schedules.

Carter sat at the kitchen table, after setting the table on Tony's request. Charlie sat across from him, trying to teach him a finger game Mike had taught him. 

"Did you just win again?" Carter gasped around a grin.

Charlie smiled shyly, nodding.

"How do you keep doing that?"

"Guess you're just not very good at it, C-man," Luca chimed in as he walked into the kitchen, pulling up a stool next to Carter.

Charlie slipped off his seat, nearly crashing into Tony's legs as he carried a large tray straight off the oven, to jump onto Luca's lap. Luca groaned at impact, picking Charlie up beneath his arms to pull him onto his lap a little more gently. 

"You're turning into a real big guy, aren't you?" Luca teased, tickling his sides. Charlie squirmed but Luca's arm around his torso kept him from toppling over. "You might grow up to be bigger than dad."

"If that happens, I'll really have to expand the door frames," Tony said, setting the tray of food on the kitchen table to cool.

Carter smiled. The tallest members of the Santoro family—like Tony, Jack, Mike and, from what Carter had gathered, Richie—had some trouble comfortably slipping through the kitchen door that led out to the back yard. They often had to position themselves a little sideways and lower their heads just an inch. If Charlie grew up to be bigger than Tony, he would definitely have to expand the door frame.

Carter didn't imagine that to be a likely scenario though. Looking at them so close together, Charlie looked a lot like Luca. Same dirty blonde hair and amber-colored eyes. Carter assumed they both took after their mother, as did Mike. However, Mike and Luca had Tony's darkly tanned skin, whereas Charlie's skin was notably fairer. Luca was not yet as tall as Mike, but he did have the bulk around the shoulders, even for a fourteen-year-old, and he seemed to be growing still. 

Charlie, on the other hand, was small even for his age. He had never outright asked, but Carter suspected his developmental issues weren't only physical. Especially judging by the way the other Santoros acted with him. Either that or the special treatment for being considerably younger than the others made him behave as though he was younger, by comparison. After all, if Carter's math was right, Richie and Charlie—the oldest and youngest—had fourteen years between them. And Luca, the closest one in age, had six years on Charlie.