*This chapter contains multimedia relevant to the plot*

"Why do we have to do this again?"

"Mom decided," Johnny mumbled, without opening his eyes.

"It's dumb," Lydia whined.

"Don't be like that," their father said from his seat on the couch, next to Johnny. "Your mom says family time is important and I agree."

"But why does Tuesday have to be family night?" Lydia asked. "It's so random!"

Johnny opened his eyes, lifting his head from the couch back cushions. "And why now?"

"Because I decided more family time was my New Year's resolution for two thousand eighteen, and Tuesday night is as good a night as any," Johnny's mom finally came into the living room. She brought a game box in her hands and wore a bright grin on her face. "It's a rule and it's settled," she asserted after taking a look at her children's faces. "Tonight—scrabble."

"Please, don't." Lydia rolled her eyes, letting her head loll back dramatically.

Their mom gave her a well-known look. A carefully brewed mix of hurt, challenge and determination. Johnny and Lydia exchanged a look of their own. Yup. Lydia had learned the skillful art of emotional manipulation somewhere.

"Are you going to choose the activities for these things every week, or do we get a say too?" Lydia asked.

"If you play scrabble tonight, I'll let you choose next week," Johnny's mom said.

Lydia grinned. "Deal."

"Do I get to choose some day?" Johnny asked.

"If you put a smile on for the rest of the evening," his mom retaliated.

Johnny forced himself to oblige. "We're watching Cosmos: A Personal Voyage," he said through a phony grin.

"Then we're reviewing every Auburn Tigers game of the season on my turn to pick," Johnny's dad warned.

"No TV on family night," Johnny's mom declared firmly. "We have too many screens in our life already. Especially you, mister."

Johnny faked a hurt gasp at the personal accusation. He had just the right amount of screens in his life. Starting with his phone, which he fished out of his pocket to text back to Carter's latest reply.

Just as he was about to type something back with a smile on his face, his dad snatched the phone away. There was a flash of panic in Johnny's mind as his dad held his phone while the message string with Carter was still open. The screen went dark and Johnny held in the sigh of relief. 

"You heard your mom. No screens."

Johnny nodded innocently. "Got it. I'll keep it in my pocket," he promised, extending his hand out to get his phone back.

His dad gave it away, as soon as Daisy, the damned fur ball, waddled into the room to jump onto the couch and nestle in her owner's lap. Fucking flatterer.

Johnny was just happy to get his phone back. The texts weren't exactly inappropriate, but they weren't the kind Johnny would want his dad reading, namely the ones a little farther up the thread. Especially when his dad happened to see Carter in the locker room and on the field every day.

Playing scrabble with his family wasn't exactly the best Tuesday night plan Johnny could have come up with, but it wasn't the worst either. He would have even won if Lydia wasn't such a cheater and their parents weren't such pushovers when it came to her. 

Once the game was over, his mom got up to use the bathroom and his dad went into the kitchen to discard his empty beer bottle in the trash. When he left, he carefully laid Daisy down on the couch, next to Johnny. 

Johnny pulled a face, as she lifted her snout to look at him with round, doe eyes and scoffed. "I am not going to pet you," he said.

Daisy seemed to take that by heart. She stood up and jumped down from the couch to sniff at the coffee table, where the game board was still set. Then she jumped on the table and rolled over on the board, staring at him with her tongue flailing out and her belly up.

Lydia laughed. "Daisy."

"Stupid dog."

"Take a picture, Johnny," Lydia urged.

"You do it."

Lydia jutted her bottom lip in a pout. Johnny rolled his eyes, but his hand was already reaching into his pocket to get his phone. He opened the camera and filmed as Daisy kept rolling on the board. Lydia got down from the armchair to rub her belly and Daisy seemed satisfied, for a second, before she decided she'd had enough and left.

"Let me see," Lydia said, sitting next to Johnny.

He passed her his phone and she pressed play on the video. Johnny let his head fall back again onto the back of the couch and closed his eyes. He opened them again, when he heard Lydia whistle.

"Hot."

"What?" He asked, trying to get a look. She moved his own phone away from him.

"Your boyfriend has some impressive abs," Lydia mused.

Johnny's eyes widened and he tried to reach for his phone, but Lydia stood up giggling. 

Johnny glared. "Why did you keep looking?" He asked. 

Who the fuck just keeps scrolling on somebody else's phone? Nosy little sisters with no notion of boundaries, that's who.

"I wanted to see if you had more pictures of Daisy," Lydia said.

Johnny stood up, extending his hand. "You can't just scroll through people's photos without asking. Give it back."

Lydia raised her eyebrows. "Why are you so testy?" She laughed, turning the screen toward him to show him Carter's naked torso picture. "You should not be embarrassed by this. If I had a boyfriend who looked like this, I'd put that shit on a t-shirt."

Johnny breathed in, irritated. "Well, I'm not you. And that was private."

"It's not really fair to keep all of this to yourself either."

"It is if it's mine and I don't like to share," Johnny shot back, narrowing his eyes. "Now give it back."

"Get it yourself," Lydia taunted. "It shouldn't be so hard for you to get your phone back from your little sister."

Johnny scoffed at that, charging toward her. Lydia hid the phone behind her back, trying to slither away from Johnny's grasp.

"Hey, hey—what's going on here?" Their father asked as he came back into the room. "Stop this, now."

"She has my phone," Johnny accused, letting go of his sister.

"I was looking at Daisy pictures," Lydia claimed innocently.

At the mention of pictures of his little dog, his dad's expression softened. "Let me see," he said, reaching for the phone in Lydia's hand.

"No, wait!" Johnny yelled.

It was too late. His dad took one look at the screen and his pale, bushy eyebrows rose up on his forehead. Johnny's stomach coiled. Lydia bit her lip sheepishly, just as Johnny flopped back onto the couch, face in hands.

"I hate you," he whispered at Lydia.

She gasped. "How was I supposed to know you keep his nudes on your phone?"

Their dad cleared his throat uncomfortably, handing Johnny his phone back. A couple of minutes too late, though. 

His mom walked into the living room then, taking in the scene before her. She didn't say anything, giving them a mere curious look.

"Carter is coming over this Saturday for dinner, isn't he?" Johnny's dad asked in an evident effort to sound neutral.

"No," Johnny mumbled.

"Yes, he is," his mom contradicted. "I asked you to invite him yesterday and you told me he said yes. I already have the meal planned."

Johnny sunk in his seat, wishing the floor would just swallow him. 

"Maybe it would be good if I get in a word with him," Johnny's dad said. He looked down at his son. "If you two are getting–" he cleared his throat "–more serious."

Johnny was mortified. His dad just nodded, as though satisfied with his decision, and moved along upstairs. Johnny's mom followed.

"Oh, God," Lydia whispered, sitting down next to Johnny. 

She looked at him through wide blue eyes. Johnny let out a pained groan.

Lydia's face looked caught in between a cringe and barely contained amusement. "Dad's going to give Carter Parrish the boyfriend speech."

Which was a situation that needed to be handled.

That is why the next day, on Wednesday, after they left their Calc class, Johnny tried to stop Carter in the hallway to tell him something.

"Can't you just walk with me to the gym while you talk?" Carter asked, through a smile. A handsome brilliant smile that nearly threw Johnny off for a second.

"It's about dinner on Saturday," he finally said, once he regained composure. "You should probably be expecting something."

"Just say it," Carter prompted, starting back through the hallway toward the gym locker rooms.

"It's absolutely imperative that you are never alone with my dad," Johnny stated, following behind him.

That made Carter slow down a little to give him a look. "I'm about to have conditioning with him," he pointed out.

Johnny huffed. "Yeah, but that's in school. With the team. This Saturday, you should expect my dad to talk to you."

Carter's eyebrows drew in just slightly in a confused frown and Johnny bit his lip, because that was such a cute, Carter-typical expression.

"He's talked to me before."

"Not talk to you then," Johnny corrected himself. "More like give you a talk."

Carter didn't look more enlightened.

"It's really stupid," Johnny said, as he stopped walking. Carter stopped too, looking at him. "My dad's got this speech he's been practicing since Lydia discovered boys. Like a dad speech. For the boyfriend."

"Oh, that."

It was Johnny's turn to frown. Carter smiled a little, glancing over at the end of the hallway.

"I really gotta keep moving," he said.

"Right." Johnny nodded and started walking with Carter again.

"It's okay," Carter told him, once they were on the move again. "It's not my first time on the receiving end of the 'boyfriend speech'. Plus, I'm already kinda used to getting grilled by your dad."

That thought definitely threw Johnny off. Carter had been on the receiving end before. Because he'd been somebody's boyfriend before. Right. Johnny decided not to get stuck on that, focusing on the other part instead.

"Is this weird to you?" He asked quietly. Carter shot him an inquisitive look. "That my dad is your coach," Johnny clarified. 

Johnny had noticed it before. How Carter seemed to get uncomfortable every time Johnny's dad was around them, or whenever Johnny brought him up when it was just the two of them.

"A little," Carter admitted quietly. "But it's always been a little weird. It's probably because we had such a rocky start too. I mean, the first time he saw the two of us in the same room we were in the nurse's office after... you know what," he finished, scratching the back of his neck bashfully.

Johnny bit back a smile at that. Not the memory of that day, but that little Carter-like unassuming action. Johnny was so engrossed in it, he didn't even notice they were finally at the locker rooms hallway. His heart nearly skipped a beat as he heard a voice call out Carter's name.

"Parrish!"

He turned to see three senior football players. Bobby Gonzalez, Scott Meyers and Chaz Wheeler. The hot-headed offensive tackle, the ape-like center and the mediocre running back.

"You brought your new toy," Bobby mused appreciatively, smiling wickedly at Johnny.

"Back off, Bobby," Carter warned, stepping ever so slightly in front of Johnny.

Johnny didn't want confrontation of any kind, so he just looked down and muttered, "It's okay, Cart. I'm leaving."

"Yeah, you should,"  Scott jabbed. "This is the boys' locker room, you see."

Johnny bit down on his bottom lip as Bobby joined his friend on a laughing spree. Behind them, perhaps because his team captain was there, Chaz Wheeler was looking visibly uncomfortable.

"Is there a problem here?"

Johnny turned around to see Seth Queens stop in the hallway, glaring down at the three football players in front of Carter. Joey Ashley stood beside him, looking like he was missing a piece of the puzzle. In Johnny's mind though, he always looked a little like that.

Johnny wanted to roll his eyes at his own luck too. He wanted to avoid confrontation. Carter's best friend, on the other hand, was known to be a confrontation starter.

"Why don't we ask Parrish here?" Bobby shot back. "He seems to be good at deciding what's right and wrong lately."

"Want to say that again?" Seth asked, lowly. "Maybe a little louder this time, and step a little closer while you're at it."

"You're not the big shot you think you are, Queens," Scott hissed.

Johnny squeezed the edges of his jacket sleeves in his hands. He was trapped between a testosterone shit show about to blow up, and that was literally the last place he wanted to be in. There was a reason he never roamed this close to the gym. That's where moron, steroid-driven jocks could be found, and Johnny always preferred to be as farther away from that type as possible.

"I'm leaving," he whispered at Carter. He couldn't even meet those concern-riddled grey-blue eyes for more than half a second.

Before he disappeared around the corner, he could still catch Joey Ashley pat Chaz Wheeler's arm to say, "I don't get it. Did I miss something?"

What didn't he miss?