Rebel With A Cause (10 page)

“Happy now?” she snapped at him. She just couldn’t understand why Carter wouldn’t let her use nitro.

He rolled his eyes. “Katie, there’s no need for your dramatics.”

She jumped out of the car and walked inside, slamming the door behind her.

“Katie!”

Carter was alone that night. He’d left Katie at home while he went out and raced; it was a welcome break.

Not that he didn’t love Kaitlyn,
but
he was sick of the game playing. Lately it seemed like everything had strings attached, something he wasn’t comfortable with. He was beginning to think asking Kaitlyn to marry him was the wrong thing to do. They
were
only teenagers after all.
He was well on his way to realising that Kaitlyn was too young to make her own decisions, and that so was he.

“Penny for your thoughts?”

Carter looked to his left to see his cousin settling herself on the hood of his car.

“What are you doing here Bex?” he asked broodingly.

She folded her arms across her chest and eyed him suspiciously. “I thought you’d be at the races still. I thought you loved the atmosphere. That’s always what you told me.”

Carter lit up his roll-your-own
, brought it to his lips and inhaled.

“Since when did you start smoking?”

He shrugged.
“Since I made the biggest mistake of my life.”

Bekah sighed. She looked out at the marshlands
below the Overlook, where she and Carter used to play as kids. It was the only place where they had truly been happy, before their lives went to pieces.

It was also the last place where Carter saw his parents alive.

“Oh yeah?” she asked. “What was that?”

Carter exhaled the smoke. “I asked Kaitlyn to marry me.”

Bekah’s eyebrows shot up. “Are you serious?”

Carter nodded.
“Yeah.”

“Holy crackers, Carter, I never thought I’d see the day when someone made an honest man outta you.”

That earned her a small half-smile. “Yeah, me either. But I don’t think she will. As much as I love Katie, I get the feeling that she
’s too immature to make that decision. I shouldn’t have asked her.”

Bekah hugged her cousin. “What would
your parents think?”

Carter frowned. There was no way he could fool Bekah. She knew the real reason
behind him coming. The truth was that
Carter missed his parents intensely. He’d been fourteen when they died, and he’d gone into such a deep depression that he’d screwed up his life even more. He played the field, screwing anything with legs, and took up street racing. He’d ended up in hospital quite a few times before he met T-Man, his best mate, and the one who taught him how important it was to do a defensive driving course.

“They’d probably think I was growing up,” he said after a pause. “I know my mum would be happy.”

Bekah smiled. “She would. Katie’s been the girl to tame you. She’d love any girl who could make you settle down.
”

Carter gave a kind of half-smirk. “She hasn’t tamed me though, not really. I mean, I love her and all, but I still want other girls.”

Bekah rolled her eyes. “Of course you do, you’re a teenage guy
.”

There was a pregnant pause, while Bekah eyed her cousin admiringly.

“What?” he asked, feeling her eyes on
him.

“You’re growing up. I always worried that you’d never be happy again, but maybe Kaitlyn can help you regain some control of your life. Maybe she can make you into the sweet guy you used to be.”

He chuckled and took another deep drag on his cigarette. “I doubt it.”

Bekah was stumped. In the past few minutes she had glimpsed a view of her old cousin, the old version from when they were kids. She could picture him playing on the old swing
set that used to be at the Overlook, and sliding down the slide with her as a toddler.

Only the arrogant Carter that was often showing through was pissing her off.

“What went wrong, Carter?” she asked him. “Why are you so down on yourself?”

Carter barked a harsh, bitter laugh. “That’s a dumb question, isn’t it?”

Bekah just eyed him sadly.

“My parents died, Bex, right when I needed them the most. And what’s worse, I hated them the day of. My dad was supposed to come and watch me play soccer, but he decided that he and mum would
rather go out for brunch than see me play. They sent me off with the coach and his son.”

Bekah felt like she wasn’t getting it all. It was one soccer game, and his parents had been to countless others. What was so special about this one?

“It was the first time I ever won Player of the Day. I got a trophy, a certificate and a free lunch. And they didn’t even care.”

“I’m sure they did, Carter. Maybe they were just busy?”

He snorted. “Yeah, right,
busy
. If they were busy, why had nothing in the house changed? Why was everything as it was when I left? The only difference was that they weren’t there.”

Bekah sighed internally. “Did you ever find out why?”

“Why what?”

“Why they’d gone out for brunch
?”

He shrugged.
“Nope.
But I really don’t care. They left me, and now I just have to deal with it.”

“So, what does this have to do with not wanting to marry Kaitlyn?”

“Everyone I get close to leaves, Bex. My parents left, you left, my friends, my grandparents…everyone. They all leave. I don’t want Katie to leave, but if we get married, something bad is going to happen, I know it.”

“Where’ve you been?!”
Kaitlyn was angry with him. She was furious. Standing there
in the lounge
in her stripy grey pyjama pants with her baby pink tank top
and
flushed cheeks
, she was tempting Carter more than usual.

He saw her mouth move and heard the anger in her voice, but he couldn’t bring himself to distinguish the words.

He stared at her, muted by her beauty. He noticed the little crinkle between her eyebrows that she always got when she was angry or upset; he found it sexy.

He noticed how cold it was, and how her tank top was very revealing. Her creamy, soft skin had goosebumps scattered along it where her bare skin touched the frosty air.

Her auburn hair had never looked more attractive.

Without consciously realising what he was doing, he roughly grabbed Kaitlyn’s hips and pulled her to him, gently squeezing. He moved one hand from her waist to her lower back, and the other one to the back of her neck. He dipped his head
and pressed his lips gently to hers.

Fireworks exploded.

In the pit of her stomach, Kaitlyn felt butterflies erupt. Not only were there butterflies though, there was also an intense heat
spreading throughout her body. The heat seemed to be radiating from her lower abdomen.

Their breathing sped up as the heat from Kaitlyn passed between them. Carter tightened his hold on her while she gripped his shoulders as if she was holding on for dear life.

She gave a little moan in the back of her throat, and Carter responded with a groan. He picked her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist
, unconsciously grinding herself against him.

It was her turn to let out a groan as Carter’s tongue massaged hers. She felt like she’d died and gone to heaven.

She didn’t really notice when Carter had started walking towards their bed until
her broke the kiss and abruptly threw her down on top of it.

She panted heavily, eyeing Carter lustfully. He was turning her on, and by the looks of it, she was turning him on too.

Carter watched as her eyes travelled down to the front of his jeans, where his excitement was clearly visible.
When her eyes met his again he raised his eyebrows and watched in amusement as she flushed with embarrassment.

“Like what you see?” he asked huskily. All Kaitlyn could do was nod.

He gave her a slow smile that flamed her cheeks even more. He roughly pushed her up the bed and climbed on top of her, watching as she subconsciously lifted her hips to meet his. She groaned when her ‘downstairs’ came into contact with his.

He lowered his head and once again their lips connected, allowing another pool of desire to blossom in the pit of Kaitlyn’s stomach.

His lips moved from her lips and along her jawline, down her neck
and across her shoulders.

“C-Carter,” she moaned breathlessly.

He briefly sat up and ripped off his shirt, giving her a perfect view of his toned abs. Kaitlyn made to trace the lines of his six-pack with the tips of her fingers but she was too slow. Carter grabbed her wrists and pinned her arms above her head. This left her at his mercy and he rubbed himself against her, earning him a groan in return. He grunted as he thrust against her and she ground her hips on him in return.

His hands left her wrists and trailed down her body, over her tank top and back up under it. He trailed his fingers lightly over her burning skin and kissed her with all the passion and love that he had.

As the night got more heated, both Kaitlyn and Carter lost themselves in the passion and desire that they had for one another. Each touch brought forth a burning sensation. Each kiss brought forth their love for one another. As the teenagers they were, they gave themselves over to their hormones, their minds shutting down as the spark between their bodies turned from a
dormant ember into a full blown explosion. With grunts, moans and lots and lots of sweat, all the confusing feelings that they had been harbouring these past few weeks had gone, washed away or sweated out.

Finally, after five rounds in which they’d both run dry, they fell asleep, each curled up in the others embrace, both content with the way their lives were headed.

Once upon a time there was a cheeky, sports-mad young boy.
He had dark hair and
coffee eyes, just like his father. The only thing he had inherited from his mother was her light skin. His father’s Māori heritage did not show through.

This young boy particularly loved soccer, despite his father’s insistence that rugby was a superior sport. The young boy practiced every day
, and he was getting quite good.

His favourite trick was bouncing the ball on one knee, and seeing how long he could keep it in the air.
He had almost mastered it.

“Dad!
Look!” he cried
. He was in the back yard with his cousin, showing of his skills. His father was at the barbeque,
grilling the hamburger patties
and chatting to his uncle
, and his mother was chatting with his Aunty.

“Yeah, I’ll be there in a second, son,” his father called back, barely even looking his way. The young boy noticed and dropped the ball, a deep frown etched onto his face.

Carter woke with a start. It had been years since he’d dreamed about
his parents. Usually he’d been able to forget, but going back to the Overlook
last night
had awakened all of his
old anger towards his parents.

Kaitlyn stirred in his arms, and he looked down at her, expressionless.
He loved her, and she was too good for him. He needed to set her free. He didn’t want to lose the only good thing in his life right now
, but she deserved better.

“I love you,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry. You deserve better than me.”

As if sensing his distress, Kaitlyn stirred gently. “Carter,” she murmured. She sounded as if she was in pain. “Please,” she begged.

Carter fiercely hugged her to his side and placed a quick kiss on her forehead. He hated himself for what he was about to do, but he knew that he was going to do it anyway.

He allowed himself one more moment of content
ment before he did a selfish thing – he left her.

He got up, pulled yesterday’s jeans on and walked into the kitchen. He grabbed a pen and a piece of paper from by the phone and scribbled a note to Kaitlyn. He hesitated, but knew – or at least he hoped – that he was doing the right thing.

He left the note on the kitchen bench and stared at it a minute. He was throwing away the one good thing that had ever happened to him, but he knew he couldn’t stay with her. He was damaged goods, and he would corrupt her, poison her even, if he hadn’t already.

He turned away and grabbed his keys off the hook in the kitchen then went into the laundry. He pulled a fresh singlet and hoodie out of the dryer and threw them on then ran out of the house. He couldn’t stand to be in there one more minute, not with Kaitlyn still asleep in his bed. He couldn’t face her, not yet.