*This chapter contains multimedia relevant to the plot*
Carter had built a new routine.
He went to school, either with Seth if he made it to first period, or with Mike. He sat through his classes, had lunch at the usual table, then went to Calculus where he stared at the back of Johnny's head a lot and his stomach did a little flip every time the other boy looked over his shoulder to meet his gaze.
Then he went to practice, which was getting increasingly challenging the farther down the season they got, and rushed to get to the library and be with Johnny. After they were done studying, or pretending to studyâwhatever they were in the mood for that dayâJohnny drove him home.
That particular Wednesday night, Tony was supposed to have the night shift at the restaurant he ran with his brother, so Carter was surprised to find him in the kitchen when he arrived.
"Hey," he greeted Carter, barely lifting his eyes from the list in his hand.
Grocery bags littered the kitchen table and floor. Mike moved around, stocking shelves with its contents. He shot a smile over his shoulder at Carter, while stacking packages of spaghetti inside an overhead cupboard.
"So," Tony spoke up. "Abby will be late today, so I need you to feed everyone. Get Frankie and Luca to help with dinner. Have Bella do the dishes after. And put Charlie to sleep before elevenâhis teacher kind of busted my nuts today at the parent-teacher conference for not making him sleep at least eight hours a day." He looked up suddenly, pointing his pen between Mike and Carter with a warning look. "Don't tell anyone I used those words."
Mike smiled, storing gallons of milk by the fridge on the floor. "Your secret is safe."
"Good. Abby will meet me at the Ristorante when she comes from work and we'll eat there, so don't wait for us," Tony continued. "I'll need you to run things at the Ristorante tomorrow too, while I'm at your school. Abby and I are trying to manage five meetings between the two, but I'll need you guys to man the money-maker."
"Got it. I'll ask Frankie and Bella to work a shift after school," Mike said smoothly.
"Do you need any help from me?" Carter asked. He had sort of forgotten parent-teacher conferences were happening on Thursday, but he could imagine how that would be a stressful day for Tony.
"It's fine. You and Luca have practice, so I won't ask anything from you," Tony said. "But I do need someone to pick up Charlie."
"I got it," Mike said, picking up a new grocery bag. "I'll run the Ristorante, get Frankie and Bella going with it and then I can make a quick run to Charlie's school."
"Thanks."
Mike smiled. "Of course. You should probably go, now. Uncle Robbie will not extend his shift much longer on his night to have dinner with his family. I got everything covered here. Carter can help me with the groceries before he goes up."
"Yeah, sure," Carter said promptly.
Tony nodded. "Don't forget," he reminded, folding his list into his pocket. "Charlie in bedâ"
"âbefore eleven," Mike finished.
"Angelo," Tony shot back before leaving.
Carter helped Mike through the piles of groceries. When they were done, Mike asked him to get Frankie and Luca down when he went up.
Carter showered, while his stepbrothers cooked, then sat at the dinner table to eat with the usual bustle that had also become part of his new routine.
After dinner, while Bella did the dishes and Mike engaged in his valiant efforts to get the youngest Santoro to bed, Carter sat in his room at his desk working through the English homework he had been ignoring until the last minute. He was starting to remember why it was never a good idea to leave his worst subject for last, when there was a knock.
The doorknob turned slowly and Luca's head poked inside.
"You busy?"
Carter shrugged. "Just finishing last-minute homework. Why?"
"It's just, I..." he trailed off abruptly.
Carter put his pencil down and spun his chair to face him. "Wanna come in?" He offered.
Luca gave him a little tight-lipped smile and entered. He closed the door behind him, moving to sit on Carter's bed.
"I have a question."
"Okay."
"About girls," Luca clarified.
"Sure..."
Luca pulled a face. "I don't wanna ask Frankie, 'cause he'll just laugh at me, and it feels weird to talk to Mike about these things, so I thought..."
"Yeah?" Carter urged.
Luca adjusted his position on Carter's bed. "How do youâ" he cleared his throat. "When do you..." his voice trailed off again. Finally, his shoulders slouched and he gave Carter a resigned look. "How do you make a girl feel good?"
Carter's eyebrows shot up. "Good, as in..."
"Like, touching her."
"Oh, wow."
"Is this weird?" Luca asked. "Are we not this close?"
It was Carter's turn to adjust in his chair. "No, it's, uhm... It's fine."
"So?"
Carter thought on it for a second. "I don't think there's, like, a formula that works on every girl," he said. "They're all different."
"So, how do I know I'm doing it right?" Luca asked with a kind of naturalness Carter certainly didn't recognize in himself when talking about these topics, at Luca's age. Or even at his own age.
"You talk to her, I guess," Carter replied. "Find out what she's comfortable with."
Luca nodded to show he was following. And that he expected Carter to continue.
He cleared his throat. "Then you just kind of pay attention," he said, slowly. "It's normal for first times to be a little awkward. That's why it's important that you're both on the same page."
"Got it."
Carter pursed his lips, watching the way Luca's body appeared to convey no insecurity or discomfort. Without letting himself think too much, he asked, "Have you...?"
"No," Luca said easily. "Not yet. But I kinda want to."
"You're young," Carter said. Almost as reflex.
"How old were you?" Luca asked, curiously.
Carter bit down on his own lip. "Started around your age," he muttered. Then, to indulge his own curiosity, he asked, "Have you had, like, the sex talk?"
Luca laughed. "I have four older brothers. I had four talks. One from my dad when I turned fourteen, and the other three from Richie, Jack and Frankie."
"Right." Carter assumed out of all those 'talks', only Tony's had been serious. He couldn't know first-handedly, but he imagined big brother talks weren't exactly about educating responsibly. Especially knowing the big brothers in question.
"Is this about Jessica?" Carter asked.
Luca winced slightly. "Not really. I'm not that into her anymore. But there's this girl Kylie, in my English classâI think she's into me." He grinned.
"Right," Carter repeated. He could have left it at that; he didn't have to, and probably shouldn't, butt into Luca's life any further. Still, he added, "I'm not your dad or your brother, but since you came to me, do you think I can give you some advise you didn't ask for?"
"Sure." Luca shrugged.
"Girls aren't solo cups," Carter said. Luca raised his eyebrows in question. Carter smiled. "You're young, and it's okay to have fun, but try to make sure you're not the only one having fun." He snorted, as he saw the look on his stepbrother's face. "I don't mean that sexually," he explained. "It's just not really cool to be the guy who treats girls like trash. Some guys might think it makes them cool, but it only makes them assholes. So, I guess, just don't be an asshole."
A slow smile formed on Luca's lips, something Carter couldn't pinpoint shining through in his eyes. "That sounds a lot like my dad's talk, actually," he mused.
Carter sat back, not sure how he felt about that. "Right." He cleared his throat. "So..."
Luca got up. "I'll let you finish your homework," he said, moving to open the door.
"Maybe finish yours too," Carter suggested.
Luca rolled his eyes. "Don't be a dad," he warned. "That's Mike's job. You're supposed to be the cool brother."
Carter bit back on a smile as he watched him leave. That was the second time he heard Luca call him his 'brother'. No prefix.
When he finally finished his homework and slipped into bed, he was actually anticipating waking up in the morning. So he could repeat his daily routine. And, despite being parent-teacher conference day, Carter didn't really notice it.
Until he got home at the end of his day, that is.
The quiet should have been his first warning. It always was with the Santoros.
He was surprised to see Bella leaning against the living room door frame. Arms crossed, crease between her eyebrows and mouth shut. But that was nothing compared to the shock of what he heard next.
"It's not just the grades and the detentions. Those were always bad. But your teacher told me you might actually be held back a year for skipping classes," Tony's voice sounded from the living room.
It was all it took to make Carter's expression match Bella's. Cautiously, he walked to stand next to his stepsister and get a look at the scene displayed in the Santoro living room. Mike stood next to the stairs, where Luca sat on the bottom step with his head cast down. Carter's mom sat at the dinner table, next to Charlie, who appeared to be playing on her phone.
Frankie was the only one sitting on the couch. Tony stood in front of him. They both wore mirroring sullen expressions, their physical similarities presented in the worst possible way.
"My attendance was always shit too," Frankie murmured grumpily.
Next to him, Carter saw Bella purse her lips tensely. Wrong answer.
Tony's face hardened in a way Carter had never seen. The tension around his jaw looked foreign in place of his usual friendly smile. His dark eyes had never looked darker.
"Your teacher told me you've been to less classes than those you missed," he hissed. "She said you haven't turned in any assignments since the year started, and all your teachers have nothing but bad things to say about you. Things like 'lazy', 'uninterested', 'insolent'..." Tony had to take a pause then. "Insolent?" He repeated, in a lower tone. "I raised many kids and none of you is perfect, but I did not raise insolent kids!"
"They are overreacting," Frankie spat.
"It doesn't matter," Tony shot back immediately. "It's your teachers' opinions that counts here. They are the ones who decide whether you pass or not."
Frankie scoffed at that, looking up at his dad with contempt in his look. It felt as foreign on his face as the scowl on Tony's. "If what I say doesn't matter, why are we having this conversation?"
"Because I was hoping to see some regret from you. Some sort of redeeming attitude," Tony said.
"I'm sorry I'm failing," Frankie mumbled unconvincingly.
Tony pursed his lips and Bella squirmed to Carter's side.
Of all the times Carter had felt like an intruder on personal family matters in that house, this was decidedly the worst. Tony's unintelligible Italian cursing only added to the feeling of strangeness.
"You're supposed to be sorry because you acted wrong," Tony said.
"Then I am sorry for that too," Frankie exclaimed.
Tony moved his hand to his jaw, closing his eyes for a moment. It looked as though he was trying to keep himself from crossing some sort of self-imposed line.
"Can I go now?" Frankie huffed, getting up. The silver chain around the pocket of his dark jeans jingled in the heavy silence of the room.
"No," Tony said. "This conversation isn't over."
Frankie rolled his eyes. "My bad. Thought you were all done yelling at me."
Tony's eyes burned with something new. "That wasn't yellingâthis is yelling," he boomed.
Bella actually jumped next to Carter and he was surprised to see her look away. Next to Carter's mom, little Charlie lifted his head from the phone for the first time and Abby put her hand on his shoulder. By the stairs, Mike and Luca exchanged a tense look.
"Yow know whatâyou're grounded," Tony declared, his deep voice quaking through the walls.
Frankie's face melted into utter disbelief. "What the fuck?"
Bella inhaled a sharp breath, biting down on her thumb nail. Carter had never seen her this anxious.
"If you're not at school, I want you home or at the Ristorante," Tony dictated. "Micah and Reggie and any other friends aren't allowed in the house until I say so, and you'll turn in every assignment you've missed so far, even if your teachers refuse to grade you. Plus, any extra works they might give you. There is no phone, no computer and no Xbox."
"I need my phone. What if something happens and I need to ask for help," Frankie argued. He still looked like he couldn't quite believe what was happening. Carter had a feeling Tony wasn't the punishing type of parent. The expressions on the other Santoros seemed to support that theory.
"You have your siblings at school and you'll be with me at the Ristorante every time there's no one else home. Mike will drive you from place to place," Tony replied. His tone was back to the usual volume, but it held none of the normal lightness.
"And how am I supposed to do the assignments without a computer?" Frankie shot back.
Tony didn't budge. "You can use the one at the Ristorante and then you'll use my laptop at home."
Frankie scoffed. "This is crazy. You never grounded anyone like this."
"I never had these problems with any of your brothers or Bella," Tony said plainly.
Frankie's face froze at that. Turned into a block of stone. "Can I go to my room now?" He asked, coldly.
Tony shook his head. "We're having dinner. Your brother brought food from the Ristorante."
"I'm not hungry," Frankie mumbled.
"Then leave your phone here and you can go up," Tony said. "You have until the end of the day to turn in the computer."
Luca looked up at his father then. "Uhm, we share that computer," he tried, quietly. One look from Tony was enough to make him recoil back into his corner of the stairs.
Frankie dropped his phone on the coffee table in front of the couch and stomped up to his room without another word. Carter glanced at Bella. She still looked tense, even as she moved aside to let her dad pass. Mike followed to help bring in dinner.
"I take it parent-teacher conferences didn't go so well," Carter muttered.
Bella looked at him, but there was no snarky comeback.
The dinner was different that night. Foreign. Carter hadn't realized how familiar dinner with the Santoros had become until it no longer felt like dinner with the Santoros.
When they were done eating, Tony excused himself and went to his room in the basement. Carter's mom followed. No one said anything against it. It looked as though Tony was as comfortable yelling at his kids as they were having him yell at them.
Carter helped Bella and Luca clear the table and load the dishwasher, while Mike took Charlie upstairs. When they were done, they shuffled back to the living room in silence and Luca and Bella plopped down on the couch simultaneously, letting their heads meet in the middle.
Mike walked down the stairs quietly to join them. Carter watched Luca and Bella move to allow him to sit between them, organically.
Without a word, Carter sat on the armrest of the armchair pushed to the side.
"That's Frankie down, only you to go," Bella finally said.
Luca shot her a palish look. "Hopefully I'll get through high school without that."
Carter didn't want to ask for clarification. He was pondering moving up to his room, when to his surprise, Bella spoke.
"The old man yells at all of us at least once in our lives," she explained. "Mine was last year. I forgot my phone home and went to Lauren's after school without telling anyone. He tried to contact me for hours. When I came home, he was livid."
"I think Jack's was the worse," Luca mused. He looked at Carter. "He sneaked out of the house junior year to go to a nightclub with his friends. They all had fake IDs. Jack passed out in a friend's car and wasn't in his bed when Dad woke up."
"Geez," Carter whispered.
"I still think Richie was the worst," Bella countered.
"I don't remember," Luca said.
"You were only nine or ten," Mike told him. "It was Richie's senior year. Like, a week before college acceptance letters started rolling in. He genuinely thought he'd gotten a girl pregnant. Dad yelled and then Richie yelled back. It was a fucking mess."
Carter's eyebrows shot up. He had never heard Mike curse.
"I don't remember yours," Bella confessed, looking at Mike.
He looked at her with a small smile. "Richie and Jack took you upstairs when it happened. I was actually the first," he said. "I was thirteen. It was only around a year after mom died. Dad wasn't really in the best of places yet and he relied a lot on Richie and Jack to take care of you. One day, Richie and Jack were both working at the Ristorante with him and dad trusted me with you, because I said I could handle it."
Mike's smile looked a little ashamed. "I stopped watching you two and Frankie, because Charlie was crying. He was maybe three, and he cried a lot after mom died. You and Frankie broke a glass playing around. On Luca's head," he added with a gulp, turning to his brother. "You were bleeding a lot and I panicked. Frankie and Bella started crying, Charlie yelled louder, and I didn't even call 911. I just called dad. He was so mad after he came back from the hospital with you."
Luca whistled. He put his index finger on the small, lightly discolored mark he had on the right side of his forehead. "Is that how I got my Harry Potter scar?"
Mike snorted. "Yeah," he said. "Dad yelled at me that night, but he also came to apologize soon after. After Richie and Jack calmed him down."
"I bet Luca's is going to be something real stupid," Bella said.
Luca scoffed. "Can't be dumber than yours," he retaliated.
Carter watched them clip comebacks back and forth, for a few seconds, while Mike laughed. Slowly, without making a sound, he got up and moved to his room. At a given point he couldn't quite pinpoint, that had started to feel as another private family moment he was intruding.
He laid on his bed, feeling like his day had taken a very unexpected turn.
He checked his phone, and immediately ignored three texts from Joey, one from Mel and a snap from Jenna to click on the name who always lured him in. Johnny.
Carter smiled, despite everything.
And, even after all the mess, Carter did have a good night.
***
This one got kinda long and kinda tense toward the end. Also, there wasn't a lot of Johnny in it, but I'd still like to know your thoughts on Carter's family dynamics. What did you think of his conversation with Luca?
Thanks for reading!