I watch amused as Carter throws a toy basketball for Sixer. She is laying on her stomach playing fetch with Sixer. We finished classes for the day and I had an early practice so I decided I would take her out on a date. I warned her beforehand so she wouldn't be all freaked out about what to wear.

"Ya know, if you stare a little harder I might turn to stone," she says looking over her shoulder at me. I roll my eyes at her but make my way over to her. She rolls onto her back as Sixer jumps back up on the couch chewing her ball. I sit on the edge of the couch as Carter rolls over onto her back.

"Maybe I was trying to do that," I tell her lean a hand on the other side of her waist. She rolls her eyes at me as I lean down to kiss her lips. I pull away from her as Sixer glances at the two of us, "What are you looking at Six?"

"Don't patronize her," Carter says with a playful smile against her lips. I roll my eyes at her lightly squeezing her hip that earns me a loud squeal. She laughs loudly squirming away from me as Sixer lets out a protective bark. I chuckle at the two of them as Carter pets her head. "Us girls have to stay together."

"Don't be dramatic," I tell her as she sticks her tongue out at me. I stand up off of the couch making Sixer go up on her four legs. She looks between me and Carter confused. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah," she says standing up off of the couch. I extend a hand out in her direction and she takes it. I glance over her ripped jeans and pink cropped top. I am not used to seeing her in pink but I definitely appreciate the color on her tanned skin. To top it all off she has a pair of white Air Jordans on, she looks so damn good. She says something to me but I can't even hear her as I trail my eyes over her body.

I watch as she grabs her black purse from the couch and gives me a funny look, "Sorry, what?"

She sighs loudly sliding the black strap on top of her skinny shoulder. I look up at her face and she crosses her arms over her chest, "I asked where we were going."

I just shrug my shoulders as I direct her towards the front door. She shoots me another glare before bending down again keeping her hand interlocked with mine and giving Sixer's head a kiss.

"The only reason why I am not telling you is that you said you wanted our first date to be cheesy. I think surprising you is the first step towards cheesy," I tell her as Sixer goes to lay back down on the couch. She looks away from Sixer and up at me as we walk towards the door. I can see her trying to think of when in the hell she said that. I knew she wouldn't remember because her drunk ass really outed herself.

"Oh no, no I did not gush about how I was left in a movie theater in the eighth grade on a triple date did I?" she says covering her mouth with her free hand. I let out a loud laugh as her cheeks turn a slight shade of red. She did in fact go on a very detailed description of how "traumatic" that date had been for her. Honestly, I didn't know much about her past boyfriends until she said that at the bar. Speaking of her past boyfriends would most definitely piss me off.

"You did," I say as we walk out of my house. She groans as she follows me to my car. I tug her with our intertwined hands and she sighs loudly.

"I am so going to get an embarrassing dating story out of you on this date now," she mutters as I press a kiss to her temple. I can't help but smile at her pout as I let go of her hand to unlock my car. I open her door and she shoots me another glare. I chuckle at her as I close the door behind her and move to the other side of the car. I slide into the driver's seat and glance at her as she pulls one knee up to her chest, like she usually does, studying me.

"Carter, you are not going to glare an embarrassing dating story out of me," I tell her shaking my head at her. She huffs again moving her eyes back to the lookout the front of the car.

"I can try," she tells me as I put my keys into the ignition. I start the car up and pull away from my house. Lil Baby plays over the Bluetooth from my phone as we talk about random things from our day. Carter's annoying professors, practice, and anything under the sun. I know she is resisting the urge of asking where we are going because I know she is excited to get surprised. I am taking her to go ax throwing. Tori and Carter were talking about it when I went to her dorm room the other day. I asked Tori if I should take her and I swear Tori almost texted her right then and there. She also made sure to emphasize that it was BYOB and that I should get Carter alcohol. I went today and grabbed myself a case of beers and her White Claws because Carter with no shame throws them back.

"When is your first game of March Madness?" Carter asks pulling me away from thinking about ax throwing. I think about the schedule coach has been grilling into our brains. Our Duke game is this weekend at home and then we have a week off before we start March Madness. Our Duke game is a qualifying game but since we already qualify for the tournament. We just need to beat Duke because it's fucking Duke. It is always nice to beat Jordan Kappalac and take that cocky smirk off of his stupid face.

"Three weeks from now," I tell her resting my hand on her thigh. I watch her out of the corner of my eye as she nods her head at me. She glances over at me and I glance right back as we stop at a red light. "Why?"

"I was just curious. Speaking of games, should I be worried about Saturday's game?" she asks me with raised eyebrows. I look away from her at that comment. I have never had a girlfriend during Duke games. Whenever girls came up to me after the game and were "worried" about my safety I always thought they were lying. With Carter, well she might just get out of the stands and beat the shit out of Jordan Kappalac. He always hustles me and talks shit to me.

"No," I state as the light turns green. I can feel her light eyes staring into my soul as I give her thigh a light squeeze. I make a right at the next street and keep my eyes out for the place. I practiced the drive so it looked like I knew exactly where I was going. All while chauffering Dumb and Dumber (Trey and Braden) to this place where we did throw some axes. It was a lot of fucking fun and I just know Carter will like it. I fucking hope she does.

"Bullshit," Carter says clearly not paying attention as to where we are going. I don't look at her because I know she is going to know that I am lying when I tell her not to worry. I see the sign and slide into the turning lane still not looking at her. "What's his face is playing right?"

"Who is playing?" I ask her slightly glancing at her. She is turned in her seat looking very unpleased by my answers. She narrows her eyes at me and waves her hand in my direction. I make my turn and pull into a parking spot.

"What's his face, the dude who makes you all hot and bothered," she says as I put the car in park. I scoff at that comment finally looking at her. She looks like she is definitely waiting for me to say exactly what she wants to hear. But, she doesn't have anything to worry about. I can take Jordan  Kappalac and my team can take Duke.

"He does not make me all hot and bothered," I say shooting her a warning look. She makes a 'really' face as I sigh running my hand through my hair. "Jordan Kappalac."

"Right him, do I have anything to be worried about?" she asks not changing her stubborn tone. I sigh again and fully look at her. I can tell she is genuinely concerned but I also know her. Carter Miller will not hesitate to do some type of looking him up and finding all this information herself. Like the numerous times, we have gotten in each other's faces, the throwing shade on Twitter, and other things we have done.

"Jordan Kappalac is just a douche," I tell her simply. She narrows her eyes at me once more and I look at her again, "We get into it sometimes but I can handle my own."

"Okay, I just wanted to ask because if I am going to be stressed out during this game then I am going to need a lot of tequila," she says with a sweet smile. I laugh at her but lean across my console to press a small kiss to her lips. Her lips are soft and I don't want to pull away from them but I do. She sighs loudly, "You are so paying for my bottle of tequila."

I close my eyes and shake my head at her laughing slightly. She kisses my lips once more before opening her car door and climbing out. I mutter under my breath a few curse words before shaking my head again. I get out of the car and glance over at Carter whose expression has gone from worried to giddy in five seconds.

"Shut up," she says jumping over to me. I chuckle at her as she wraps her arms around my neck. I glance down at her as she smiles up at me with bright eyes. They shine in the dimming sunlight as the sun sets in the West. "How did you know?"

"I heard you and Tori talking about it so I asked Tori," I explain to her as she sticks out her lip in an 'aw' manner. She leans up and I bend down to meet her halfway giving her a sweet kiss. She smiles into the kiss making me smile. I am so fucking hype that I finally made a good decision when it comes to dates. Fortunately for Carter, she is not the only one who has had horrible experiences with first dates.

"I did not think you listened to a word we said," she says in an honest tone. I laugh at her lightly shaking my head at her. There are a lot of things I wish I hadn't heard her and her friends say when I have been around them. Sometimes I think I pick up some of the things they say when I am around them. But, I can tell Robbie does it all the fucking time.

"Trust me Rob and I listen all the fucking time," I tell her throwing my head back. Robbie and I are both invested in Tori's Tinder boy drama and we love trolling some of the creepy dudes on there. We do it all the time when Rae and Carter are working on homework or kick us out for girl talk so they stick us with Julie and Tori. It is always interesting in their dorm suite.

"Thank you," she says her eyes sincere. I nod my head at her leaning down to peck her lips again. She kisses me back instantly but we pull away quickly. She intertwines our fingers together as she hops up and down. "I cannot wait to throw these axes."

"I only have one request," I tell her seriously. She sighs loudly but turns to look at me anyway. "Do not and I mean do not kill yourself or me. Okay?"

"No promises," she says shooting me a wink. I lightly tug her to the car and point to my backseat. Her jaw drops and an even bigger smile covers her face. "Alright, I can promise that."

I chuckle at my alcoholic and shake my head at her. The two of us each grab our cases as we walk into the ax place. A lot of people are here but I see a few stations that are open. We go up to the lady at the desk. After a lot of arguing between Carter and me, I finally take her card and slide the lady mine. We have started throwing axes and Carter is scary good at throwing them. For someone as small as Carter she really does hold a lot of might in her body. We have been talking about little things about each other. It has helped me get to know Carter even more than I already do, the little things seem pretty important to her and I appreciate that about her.

She told me her favorite color is sage green, she loves otters, and she has the largest fear of clowns. I felt bad for laughing when she told me she got chased by clowns in 2016 that really sparked her fear of them. We are still on the topic of fears and she is amazed that I can't think of anything that I am afraid of.

"Everyone is afraid of something," she says shaking her head at me. She brings her White Claw up to her lips as she studies me. I know she can't believe that I am not afraid of anything but I'm not. At least I don't think I am.

"I use to be afraid of the dark but I grew out of that when I was nine," I tell her before bringing the beer up to my lips. She leans back in the high-top chair with a very unimpressed look on her face. We ordered a basket of fries and are currently picking away at them.

"Fine, you have no fears. I must look really dumb with my clown fear now, huh," she says grabbing a fry from the basket. She has a playful look on her face as she pops the fry into her mouth. I chuckle at her shaking my head.

"I mean..." I say trailing off. She gawks at me as she reaches over the high-top table and smacks my shoulder lightly. I laugh and she joins in. When she mentioned fears, I have never really thought about them. Or thought about something I was afraid of. There has to be something that I am afraid of.

"So, rude," she says crossing her arms over her chest. I shoot her a wink and she rolls her eyes at me. "So, Asher Fletcher, I believe you have a question to ask now."

I nod my head at her bringing up my beer can to my lips. I put it back down and lean closer to her, "What has your longest relationship been?"

Carter makes a face at the question and I raise my eyebrows at her. She brings her White Claw to her lips and takes a very long chug from it. That cannot be a very good answer to my question. Even though I am one to talk. The only relationship I have been in was for six months and the girl cheated on me. It was freshman year and I was just some dumb kid. Hell, if I dated my freshman year of college self I would have cheated on myself too.

"One month," she says setting down her now empty White Claw. I give her a surprised look. Did I hear that right? She gives me a weak smile before letting out a sigh, "I have never been good at relationships. Like literally never and he was the only one who I actually gave a shot. To which he fucked up by cheating on me."

"Six months, so not much better," I respond trying to lessen the results of my question. She nods her head but doesn't meet my eyes. She pulls her bottom lip in between her teeth. Something pulls in my chest and I feel bad for even asking the question. Honestly, I am happy that it was only a month for her longest relationship.

"Yeah but that's five months more than I ever made it," she says looking back up at me. Her eyes are studying me slowly trying to see my reaction and I hope I am not giving off any type of vibe that I am not okay with her only being in a relationship for a month. Doesn't she fucking know I was probably the biggest fuckboy at this school?

"Carter, I asked because I was curious not because I wanted to see if you were a 'long-term' girlfriend type. In my eyes, you are. Whether your relationship was a year or a month or five days. You aren't the same person you use to be and fuck, neither am I. If anything, I would think you would run away from me."

Carter gives me her laugh that makes me feel better instantly. She shoots me a smile shaking her head at me, "I could never run away from you."

I can tell my words meant a lot to her. I meant every word of them. I see Carter being long-term. No one-month or six-month type of shit. I could see her being it for me and that scares the fuck out of me. Staring at Carter right now, in an ax-throwing place, with her pink top and deep brown hair, those honey eyes, I can see her being it. No other girl besides her. And maybe that is what I am afraid of. Afraid that I'll fuck it up or afraid that she is fucking it.