In the week following dinner with Johnny's family, Carter felt he had once again found a new routine. 

He was spending a lot of time with his friends, like it was freshman year all over again. Bella's friend, Lauren Santiago, had somehow officially met Jenna and Mel and they seemed to have gotten along. They all ended up hanging out together at the Santoros', on Thursday.

Minus Johnny. 

Carter kept telling himself he was going to talk to his family soon. The more he repeated it in his head the more convinced he felt about it too.

On Friday evening, Carter found himself in his living room, texting Johnny, while Frankie and Luca played FIFA next to him. Bella sat on the armchair to the side, back leaning against one armrest with her legs swung over the other, phone in hands.

When the doorbell rang, Carter looked up to see no one standing. 

"Can somebody get that?" Tony shouted from the kitchen.

Bella, Frankie and Luca didn't move. Carter was considering getting it himself, when Mike appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

"Don't worry, I'll get it," he said dryly, though none of his siblings seemed to note the edge of criticism in his tone.

Carter watched him disappear into the foyer, before he heard the front door click open.

"Jack!"

That did the trick.

Frankie and Luca paused their game, heads turning toward the living room entryway. Bella's head snapped up at light speed. When the second oldest Santoro brother popped up into the living room, bag swung over his shoulder, all three of them shot up from their seats to launch at him. No one beat Bella, though.

"I thought you were coming tomorrow morning," she exclaimed, swinging her arms around her brother's shoulders.

"Surprise," Jack sang back, wrapping his own arms around Bella's waist, lifting her off the floor a little bit.

No matter how often Jack visited, the Santoros always acted like they hadn't seen each other in years. At first, it had felt a tad overdone in Carter's mind; he wondered for a while if it was a cultural thing. There was a certain stereotype of dramatics surrounding Mediterranean cultures. Slowly, though, this attitude was starting to slither into his sense of normality.

Mike stepped in behind Jack, as Bella broke free from the hug.

"Hi," he said, making his brother twist around to look at him. "How's the new semester?"

Jack laughed, slipping an arm around Mike's shoulders for a quick yet warm side-hug. "Shaping up to be a real killer," he answered truthfully.

"Found a job yet?" Tony's voice sounded, right before he came in from the kitchen, wearing one of his personalized aprons and holding a wooden spoon.

Jack rolled his eyes playfully. "Looking," he murmured. "Good to see you too, old man."

It was Tony's turn to roll his eyes. "You're here every other weekend. Just throw the dirty laundry with the rest and I'll have it cleaned by tomorrow night." 

Despite the dismissive words, Tony stepped closer to his son to put his free hand on one side of Jack's face before kissing the other. When he pulled away to walk back into the kitchen, Luca took the opening.

"Got a new man yet?" He asked with a wink, and only a tinge of teasing in his tone.

Jack snorted. "Taking some me time, little dude," he said, before the two of them engaged in a complex handshake that culminated in a quick hug.

As they parted, Frankie stepped up, shoving Luca aside. "It's really good to see you. You know Bella needs her Jacky time every other time or she'll get impossible."

Jack laughed, hugging Frankie. "You been keeping out of trouble?" He asked tauntingly.

"Not if I can help it," Frankie quipped.

Tony popped back up to point the wooden spoon at him, with a warning in his look. Frankie's mouth opened to utter some form of defense, but Charlie interrupted him.

"Jack," he shrieked.

"Hey, little man," Jack said, catching his youngest brother just in time, and hiking him up to full height in his arms.

"I drew a tree," Charlie announced, showing Jack the slightly crumpled up piece of paper he held in his hands.

Jack's eyebrows arched up. "That's one badass tree," he complimented. His eyes moved from his little brother to someone behind Tony. His smile widened. "Hey, Abby."

Amidst the chaos accumulating around the living room entryway, Carter hadn't even noticed his own mother come up. She smiled at Jack, as he lowered Charlie gently onto the ground. Carter's mom's eyes widened just slightly as Jack wrapped his arms around her, but she fell into the hug with the quick-to-adapt ease of someone who was growing into a Santoro-expert much faster than Carter.

"That's a lot of Santoro love," she said nonetheless, as they parted.

"Which is the best kind of love," Tony said, before leaning his chest against his wife's back and wrapping his free arm around her waist.

"Nope. Can't say that, old man," Bella interjected. "Too creepy. We all know what you mean and you're too old for that."

"I disagree, Bella," Frankie weighted in. "I hear it's good for the senior population to keep up an active sex life."

"Gross, man," Luca winced.

"Okay. First off, your dad and I are not seniors, we are practically young adults," Carter's mom contended. "And sex isn't gross, Luca. Don't be so sensitive," she delivered with neutral simplicity.

Tony smiled. "That's my girl."

"I thought I was," Bella said with mock awe.

"You're my baby girl."

Bella cringed. "Still too fucking creepy!"

Jack laughed, putting an arm around her to press her into his side. "Swear Jar," he murmured, making Bella punch his abdomen half-heartedly. After catching her wrist in his hand, Jack's eyes finally found Carter, standing at the back of the impromptu crowd gathered around him.

Carter smiled faintly. "Hi."

Jack grinned easily. "Hey, Carter. Bella been treating you well?"

Carter glanced at the raised-eyebrows look on his stepsister face. "She's warming up to me," he joked.

"I tolerate you, but don't push it," she warned.

"That was endearment coming from her," Jack noted.

Carter laughed. "I know. I'm a Bella expert these days. I think Seth's got her instructions manual."

Bella's jaw slacked and she pushed away from Jack's embrace. "I—Well... Fuck off!"

There was a general wave of laughter, while Bella rolled her eyes and walked back to her armchair.

"No Sear Jar, old man?" Frankie asked.

Tony was still smiling as he said, "I'll let it slide, this time. Never seen Bella speechless before. Think she might need the break."

As they all laughed again, Carter forgot a little bit why it was he never knew what to do with himself whenever the Santoros started to huddle into small nucleuses of disarray.

They were a little crowded for dinner that night. In a table that already sat eight, one extra seat would mean elbows bumping and shoulders brushing. After dinner, Carter couldn't quite insert himself in the disorderly conversation between the Santoros, but he didn't found it so hard to sit as a quiet willing spectator, this time.

On Saturday morning, Jack, Frankie and Luca cooked breakfast together for the whole family and Carter made an exception for his milk and cereal routine to eat their pancakes. They played basketball outside in the afternoon—three against three. Jack, Bella and Luca won. 

Before dinner, the siblings face-timed Richie in LA, while Carter helped his mom set the table. Carter wasn't sure how they could understand each other though, with everyone practically speaking over one another. From the little he could pick up of the conversation though, Carter realized they weren't exactly talking about important topics. It was all mostly empty banter, and Carter supposed that was the core of it. They didn't need to understand each other, because they just wanted to see each other.

When Tony brought the food, they bid Richie goodbye in a discordant chorus and huddled around the table. It took a while to serve everyone, and Charlie managed to get gravy on his face before his plate was even full.

"I thought you were with a girl named Kylie, now," Jack said, midway through a story Luca was telling about his girlfriend.

"She got tired of him," Frankie teased.

"Kylie was before," Luca explained.

Jack seemed confused. "I thought Jessica was before."

"Jessica was way before. Then Kylie," Luca corrected.

"And now Krissy?" Jack asked.

"Kiersey," Luca amended.

Jack shook his head. "You're worse than Richie, little dude," he commented, as he reached for his glass of water.

"No, Richie had them two and three at a time," Mike pointed out, right after swallowing a mouthful of pork.

"Can we change to another topic?" Tony pleaded.

"Shouldn't you be interested in your son's love life?" Jack asked, through a smirk.

Tony shot him an unimpressed look. "I'm sure Luca will have a new girlfriend by the end of the semester," he retorted.

"I actually like Krissy—No, shit, it's Kiersey," Luca blurted.

Frankie pulled out a pen from the sideboard behind him and scribbled something on his napkin. "Just taking note of your debt to the Swear Jar," he clarified.

"These freshman girls are all probably blind, deaf and brainless," Bella said dryly, across the table.

Frankie tilted his head to the side. "So, just like a zombie with nothing but sense of smell? That'd be awesome." He grinned.

"Why don't you ask about Bella's boyfriend?" Tony chimed in, looking at Jack. "She never tells us about him."

"Because he's always here anyway," Bella said.

"And she texts me about him, all the time," Jack added. "She's completely smitten, it's ridiculous."

Carter lowered the fork that was halfway toward his mouth to smile. Bella ignored him, shooting her brother a deathly glare before she smacked his arm with her hand. Jack winced, rubbing the assaulted area.

"What about Carter?" Frankie suggested.

"What about you?" Luca countered.

"No one wants to date Frank," Bella spat.

Frankie squinted at her, spitefully. "Joke's on you. I've had girlfriends."

Tony's eyebrows drew in at that and he lowered his utensils to rest his chin over his interlaced hands over the table. "How come you never introduced them to your family, Frankie?"

Mike surprised everyone by snorting with laughter. "You kind of dug yourself into that one," he said, when Frankie shot him an incredulous look.

"Frankie is as much of a dog as Richie was," Luca chimed in.

Frankie shot him a pointed look, to which Luca just smiled impishly.

"That's a high bar," Jack said.

"Maybe we should let Carter talk," Frankie intervened loudly, trying to get the heat off him. "He barely got a word in tonight."

"Leave him alone," Bella grumbled.

"Wow. Come again?" Frankie gasped. "Now, I'm officially interested. Does she know something we don't?" He turned to Carter eagerly. "Are you dating someone?"

"Carter will tell us if he wants," Mike said evenly.

The look he shot Carter was completely neutral, but Carter knew Mike knew. As for Bella, he couldn't tell. There had been more than one occasion in which he had felt like she just knew. Somehow. But he didn't want to think about how she could have possibly learned that.

"Why can't he want to say now?" Luca argued.

Carter looked down at his plate.

"Are you seeing someone?" Frankie asked.

Jack was the one who answered. "Guys, come one. That's not—"

"I am, actually." Carter surprised even himself as he cut Jack off.

The whole table seemed to quiet down, as though they expected him to continue. Carter didn't know how to go from there. He hadn't planned to answer that question. He definitely hadn't planned to answer it honestly. He had been telling himself for a week now that he would tell his family soon, but he hadn't planned for it to be at that exact moment.

So far, the idea of 'coming out' had been abstract. A concrete decision he was definitely going to act on soon, but not now. On that moment though, it was no longer abstract. I was real. He could either lie, evade or tell the truth. He felt a little trapped.

"You have a new girlfriend?" Luca tried, after everyone stayed quiet for too long.

Carter gulped, looking up. He meant to turn to his mom, but his eyes somehow found his stepfather and stayed there. Tony stared back at him neutrally, no expectation in his eyes. Maybe that was what prompted Carter to answer.

"Actually... a boyfriend."

Frankie's fork dropped with a strident clatter onto his plate and multiple eyes turned on him with indignant looks.

"I know the timing was terrible, but I swear it was an innocent, unrelated accident. Slippery hands," he blurted.

"Shut up," Bella whispered.

Carter looked at her. She met his gaze with an unperturbed look in her eye. Jack, Luca and Frankie's eyes were also on him. None held any hint of shock, unease, or disgust. Tony and Mike had their eyes somewhere else. Carter's gaze found the object of their cautious attention.

His mom looked petrified. Her fork was held halfway between her plate and her mouth, the other hand gripping the knife with tight white knuckles. Something in Carter's stomach dropped and coiled painfully.

Say something, he pleaded in his head.

The silence was suffocating. It tightened around Carter's throat, strangling his chest.

When his mom finally moved, it was to put the fork down. She pushed her chair back, slowly. 

"Will you excuse me?" She said quietly, right before standing up and leaving to her bedroom in the basement.

The pressure around Carter's lungs released, leaving behind a bruising feeling. His stomach twisted with nauseating force. Still, no one around him said anything.

"Would it–" Carter cleared his throat, after his voice broke. "Would it be okay if I left the table too?"

Tony smiled faintly. "Of course."

His legs felt loaded with led as he stood up, heavy and stiff. His head was a little dizzy and his eyes burned with all the fears he had been telling himself for the past week wouldn't come true.

Well...

Looked like he had been fooling himself.

***

I couldn't update yesterday, so here goes today. Part two will be published tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!