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Carter was pretty sure he had a crush on Wesley in 9th grade.
It wasn't because she had changed her appearance, he was sure of that. It was just her. He had always thought she was beautiful, ever since he first met her; her slightly pink cheeks, the crinkle in her eyes when she smiled proudly, her deep hazel eyes that were endless pools you'd willingly dive in even with the risk of drowning, her soft pink lips—they were all just her and he liked her.
He sort of was starting to get this 'crush' phenomenon. It was being in the state of limerence, thinking about them all the time, unconsciously linking them to things totally unrelated. Even so, with things completely related to her too.
He was back at their childhood park, looking at its sad, abandoned state.
The year before this one, a little while after Wesley had undergone her style change, a little girl playing in the tunnel slide had gotten badly injured. One of the sections of the tube had a loose screw and all was hell when the slide dismantled on its own when she was sliding in it, and faster than the speed of light, she was rushed to the hospital.
No one dared to bring their kids here anymore after that, not even when the other parts of the playground worked perfectly fine. And since it was a public one, no one really cared to fix the problem. Carter stared at everything in slight despair, breathing in a puff of air. His eyes zeroed on the pair of swings he and Wes had always gone for, then sooner than later, he was sitting back on the right swing, the one he always occupied and looked up at the sky.
From coming here almost everyday, as they grew up, Carter noticed that they barely came here anymore. He still did, though it was extremely rare, just to relive the memories and what it was to be a child before education, stress, exams came about.
He hadn't expected anyone else to come but was suddenly jolted out of his daydream when a rustle that couldn't just be caused by the wind alerted his ears. He snapped his gaze to where it came from and was relieved to see that it was just Wesley. Her hair was down now and she was dressed in dark grey sweatpants and a black crop top with a picture of a cat printed in the centre.
It was jarring how she went from wearing colourful dresses everyday to wearing things like these, but Carter didn't mind it all that much though it surprised him. She still looked good and she was still Wesley. No matter how hard she tried not to be.
She smiled at him when she caught him looking and he grinned back, unable to hold it in. That was one of the effects of these crushes, he noted a while back, that whenever he saw her smile at him, he would have an irresistible urge to return one from himself. He threaded his fingers through his blonde locks, his eyes following Wesley's silhouette as she sat down on the swing next to him.
"I didn't think you'd be here," Wesley murmured, looking up at the sky like how Carter used to do as a child—he still caught himself doing it now pretty often, but to think that Wesley had somehow caught the habit made him feel warm inside.
"Ditto." Carter held onto the chains of his swing more securely, kicking his feet off the ground, and began to swing. "I'm pretty sure no one else comes anymore."
Wesley didn't reply, and the only sounds punctuating the momentary silence was the creaking of the chains rubbing against where they were held and the sound of muted traffic from maybe a block or two away. When she finally spoke, the sound of Carter's swinging stopped because the boy himself had abruptly done the same too.
"Jeremy Fitzgerald asked me out." She uttered, her fingers fidgeting with the thick chain on her right.
Carter looked at her, now completely still, with raised brows. His heart was beating because he was anticipating what she was going to say, but he knew that she wouldn't say yes, right? She was too focused on school to date anyone, so she wouldn't agree. She did the same thing the last time Jeremy asked her out, though that was years and years ago. And she was still the same Wesley.
She wouldn't say yes.
And Carter would have more time to process his feelings properly.
But that hadn't been the case.
Carter hadn't even opened his mouth to question what she did as a response when she said it herself, tucking a lock of her brown hair behind her ear as if she were shy. "I told him yes."
Carter's blood went cold. "Didn't he ask you out in 5th grade? I thought you said no."
"Yeah, but that was four years ago. I like him now. I think he's cute." She smiled shyly and all Carter could think was that this was all going downhill and that the real Wesley wouldn't say that...right?
"Oh," Carter mumbled. "Well, um, what are you guys planning to do on the date?" He didn't know why he was torturing himself. He was surely new to this liking people stuff, but it was obvious that asking his crush's date plans really wasn't going to help ease the pain. In fact, it was going to do the opposite, and Carter felt it right in his chest—a clean fissure down his heart—when she answered the question.
"He said he's going to bring me to the movies," She leaned her cheek in the palm of the hand wrapped around the swing's chain. "and we're going to watch that new rom-com that just came out."
Carter was extremely confused, hurt—and there was a jumble of indiscernible emotions in his heart. "I thought you hated those types of movies."
"I've had a change of heart." Wesley said simply.
Carter stared and stared and stared, and slowly began realising that he'd lost her. He wasn't sure which part or how it happened, but it did. And the feelings he had for her only made him feel worse about it.
