A/N: If you haven't noticed, I don't stick to one specific pairing or one specific genre. I try to do it all. This stemmed from a conversation with my love, LCTD, how Carter could actually be a decent character if the writers gave him the chance and the actor's acting wasn't so…cringe. This is my attempt. Enjoy.

-XX-

Toast for the Douche Bags

~Mom

"Gymnastics is for girls!"

If only he had a dollar for every time his dear ol' dad told him that one. Then Carter would have enough money to support himself and get emancipated and not have to put up with his father, his old fashion ways and his general bullshit. Mr. Anderson, a rancher, is as manly as they come, owning his own business, working all day under the sun and expecting a meal on the table when he comes home at night.

Rule number one is to not challenge his authority.

Then there's Carter.

"Gymnastics is an Olympic sport," the young man sneers.

"Don't test me, boy," his dad warns. "Gymnastics isn't for you. You won't make it."

"Yeah, well, the deal is that I work for you and I make my own money. What I do with that money isn't any of your business," Carter says. He doesn't mean to sound snotty or disrespectful. He doesn't even realize he said it until the words come out of his mouth.

It's an understatement to say he wasn't expecting getting smacked straight across the face. When his dad's face connects with his cheek, Carter's face snaps to the side and pain flood through the entire side of his face.

"Don't you dare talk to me like that," his father hisses. He takes a step closer and grabs Carter by his messy curls of hairs, snapping his head back to meet his eyes. "You think you can stay under my house and say things like that? I supported you all throughout your waste of a life and this is how you repay me?"

He doesn't know where he gets the courage from, but Carter hisses, "Go to hell."

His dad throws his head down and if Carter didn't already brace the table with his hands, he probably would have a massive bruise on his forehead by now.

"That's it, Carter. Get out of my house."

When he regains the ability to move, Carter looks at his father in disbelief.

"Dad, you can't be serious."

The older man raises his hand and this time Carter is ready, stumbling out of his chair.

"Mom," Carter says desperately, looking to the petite woman standing in the corner. With his eyes he begs his mom to say something, to calm his dad down and back into his rational mind, but all she does is look away.

Not having many other options, Carter runs out of the house, gets into his Jeep and drives.

And so it begins.

…

~Kaylie

He loves Kaylie Cruz. Kaylie Cruz is the first girl he has ever loved.

She's so sweet and innocent and she believes everything he says and it's so easy. The sneaking around the Rock thing is kinda sexy, but it's also kinda annoying. It does give him the ability to do sweet things like write secret messages in the chalk, but it's a pain always having to look over their shoulders.

Then at some point everything just started to go wrong.

Punching her dad. Where did that come from? Probably not the best first impression.

Then sleeping with her best friend? Wrong. Not probably wrong. Just wrong.

But then he tries to redeem himself. He tries to fight for her like the leading man does in movies. He gets his life together and gets a job at the Pizza Shack and sure he's kinda sorta staying at the house of the girl he cheated with, but it's not like they're still sleeping together. Carter goes to that stupid high school prom and tells that stupid high school boy to back off and Kaylie is supposed to find it romantic, but she doesn't.

Then Nicky Russo comes out of nowhere and suddenly it's photo shoots and Rock Open House exhibitions and 'Kaylicky' in the tabloids. Carter doesn't know what to think of it, but he does pull out the desperate moves and even lays out rose pedals on her car hood in the form of a heart on Valentine's Day. Kaylie doesn't say a thing about it to him, but then Russo disappears and Carter sees his chance, helping Kaylie with that double Arabian. They work together and it doesn't feel like old times, but better and she ends up pulling it off. They're happy and grinning at each other, but when he tries to kiss her, Kaylie pushes him away.

She's the only girl he wants (at the moment) and she just rejected him.

"Whoa, what do you think you're doing?" Kaylie asks.

"I…I don't know," Carter says honestly. He got a little lost in the moment and he kind of expected her to too, but she didn't. This goes up as one of the worst moments in his life for sure.

Kaylie shakes her head and waves her hands. "I appreciate you helping me out and all, but this isn't happening. Not again."

"Why not?" Carter asks a little angrily. "Because of Nicky Russo?"

"No. Nicky has nothing to do with this," Kaylie argues. "This is about you being the biggest douche I know. Carter, I trusted you and you slept with my best friend."

"How many times do I have to say I'm sorry?"

"You can just stop because it isn't going to change anything," Kaylie tells him, sounding a lot calmer than he appears to be. "I can't do it again."

"I changed," he argues. "I've been trying to show you for months now! Kaylie, I love you!"

"Carter, don't. Don't say that. Please," Kaylie says, hardly as broken up as he looks. She seems more concerned with looking around the empty gym, hoping no one witnesses this conversation. Kaylie gives his arm a sympathetic squeeze and then quickly lets go. "Carter, you need to let go of the idea of us being together again because I already have."

Kaylie retreats to the girls' locker room and Carter remains there, feeling like his purpose in life just walked away from him.

…

~Lauren

Carter isn't too sure how, but he starts dating Lauren Tanner.

Sometimes it feels like everything he's gone through has led up to them inevitably getting together and he's surprisingly okay with that. He always thought Lauren was a pit stop on the road to happiness with Kaylie, but then start having these moments like dancing together after prom and it dawns on him maybe Lauren Tanner is the destination after all.

But then she starts clinging and nagging because he won't say he loves her.

Does he love her?

Sometimes Carter doesn't even know.

He loves being in a relationship and having someone to fool around with after a long day at the Rock. He loves how much she loves him and that thing she does with her tongue when it's in his mouth. He loves having someone to kiss, someone to hold and someone to fuck, but does he love her?

Carter can't answer that and so they break up.

Come to find he's basically blacklisted at the Rock. He walks in and all the girls and even the guys are giving him these weird looks. The girls make sounds of disgust and walk away every time he comes by and the boys all hog the apparatus, telling him to go to the annex, where the outcasts belong. No one will tell him why he's apparently the social pariah of the gym and he'd ask Austin if Austin wasn't too busy trying to get into his ex-girlfriend's pants. Awkward.

After a few days of this, Carter can't take it and approaches the devil herself.

"What did you do?" Carter asks directly.

Right about to get into her car and leave for the night, Lauren ignores him, but when she opens her door, Carter shuts him. Appearing upset, the blonde turns to him with her arms crossed over her chest.

"What do you want?"

"Why is everyone treating me like I suddenly have some flesh-eating disease?" he asks. Pointing a finger at her, Carter growls, "I know you have something to do with this so I'll ask again. What did you do, Lauren?"

"So I may have officially announced our breakup to some of the other girls—" The girls who are a lot more keen on gossip than Emily and Payson, for sure, "—so there wouldn't be any more speculation and when asked why we broke up and I didn't say it was the reason, but it might have come up that you have a little problem."

Carter has no idea what she's talking about. "What problem?"

"That you're more into boys," Lauren says nonchalantly.

Carter's eyes practically bulge out of his eye sockets.

"Wh—what?"

"Come on, Carter, everyone can see how you look at Austin especially when he's flirting with Kaylie…or Emily…or Payson," Lauren says matter-of-factly.

"But you know that isn't true," Carter argues.

"People believe what they want to believe and that's not my fault," Lauren says carelessly. "Now if you'd excuse me, I have better things to do than stand here with you."

"I have to train here and I can't with everyone thinking that of me!" Carter shouts. They always say you shouldn't care what people think of you, but that's total bullshit. Appearances mean everything. Carter has always been the heartthrob of the gym. Now what is he supposed to do?

"Aww, how sad," Lauren says unsympathetically. "Are we done here?"

"How can you act like we never had anything together?" he asks desperately.

"How could you go along with it, kissing me and sleeping with me every night when you didn't even love me?" Lauren hisses. Apparently she's far from over their breakup. "Ha. That's what I thought." Lauren pulls open her car door and Carter doesn't stop her. "Here's an idea, Carter. Why don't you go to Denver Elite? After all, that seems like the new home for Rock dumpies."

Carter doesn't respond. He just watches as Lauren jumps into her spoiled little rich girl sports car and drives away. He feels anger and frustration, but no hurt or heartache. And maybe that's his answer to whether he really loved her or not. He's pissed, sure, but Lauren hasn't done any lasting damage. She did put an idea in his head though.

Denver Elite, huh? That doesn't sound too bad.

…

Kelly

A part of Carter is a little annoyed that the only reason Marty and Denver Elite accept him so easily because Nicky Russo just fled the club and they could use someone to fill his spot on the men's team. No matter. It only makes him work harder to prove his worth and it feels like he finally has when Kelly Parker starts to take notice.

"Well, that was some dancing wasn't it?" Carter says at the end of the night after the exhibition pre-party.

Kelly Parker, looking all hot in her minidress, doesn't even look up from her phone when he talks. She does laugh and says, "Ha. No kidding. Did you see how pissed Tanner was? Marty wasn't too fond of me 'putting on a show' but whatever. She's so rattled she's bound to make a mistake during the exhibition."

"Sure," Carter says. He moves his hand to the small of Kelly's back, slowly creepy lower, and Kelly's gaze suddenly snaps up to him, alarmed. "So…it looks like things are dying down here. What do you say we take the party back to my suite?"

Carter gives her that foolproof smile. Kelly doesn't look like she's melting like when he gives Kaylie or Lauren the look. She must be playing hard to get.

"You'll remove your hand from my ass before I break it," Kelly hisses.

Needless to say, Carter lets his hand drop. He even takes a giant step away from her. Not that he's scared or anything, but there's no such thing as being too safe.

"But I thought…" Carter starts unsurely and lets his voice trail off.

Kelly looks at him expectantly. "You thought what exactly?"

"All you do is flirt with me at the gym and you take pictures of us and tweet 'em and I just thought…" Carter points back over his shoulder and at the dance floor. "The dancing. What was with that then…?"

"With Nick running away like a scared little girl I get bored and I know he stalks my tweets so I'm just showing him what he's missing out on," Kelly says like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

Nicky Russo. What's with that guy and girls who's names start with K? Or more importantly what's with that guy and girls Carter has his eye on?

"Now the dancing," Kelly continues, "That was purely to get a rise out of Lauren Tanner and the Rock Rebels. I don't know what you were thinking, but that 'sexy time' on the dance floor was nothing more than business. Please. Did you actually think I like you? Oh. My. God. That's hysterical. I have to tell Nick. He is going to seriously laugh his ass off."

Laughing to herself, Kelly turns her attention back on her phone and Carter angrily narrows his eyes. "You…you used me."

Kelly rolls her eyes. "Christ. You Rockies are so friggin' dramatic. Grow up."

She starts to walk away and Carter feels his anger mounting. "I'm a person you know! I don't deserve to be used and then just thrown away like nothing!"

Laughing, Kelly gives him a look from over her shoulder. "Funny. From what I hear you have a rep for doing the exact same thing to naïve girls. Kaylie Cruz. Lauren Tanner. Knowing what I know, you think I'd seriously consider getting involved with you of all people? Wow. You're more delusional than they say."

And with one last smile that even rivals Lauren's level of evil, Kelly Parker turns and walks away. She leaves Carter standing there, feeling like he's just had the wind knocked out of him.

So she has a point about him having a reputation, but it isn't like he thought things would get so messy with Kaylie and Lauren. He didn't really think about what he was doing, trying to start something with Kelly. Maybe his problem is that he doesn't think. Still, thinking just makes him feel like shit and he doesn't want to feel like shit so he doesn't think.

Carter hunts through what's left of the party and makes use of the open bar. He finds a girl who's too drunk to notice that his hair frizzes out at the end of a long night and too stupid to care that he only seems to be interested in one thing. She's impressed by his VIP pass and even more impressed with his hotel suite. Her blood alcohol level is clearly over the limit, but he fucks her anyways and then he tells her to get out after because he needs his sleep for the exhibition.

If they think he's a douche bag then, fine, he'll be a douche dag.

…

~Mom

It's the summer of 2012 and Carter is back in Boulder.

He stayed at Denver Elite as long as he could, but then his money started to run out. It started getting harder and harder to slip away from his landlord after not paying rent for the last two months and then suddenly his power was shut down and there's only so long you can retain a gymnast's body living off the McDonald $1 menu.

Nicky Russo coming back to Denver is what ultimately pushes Carter out. Apparently wherever he's been he's had an upgrade because now the android is the superior gymnast with collected medals and awards to prove it. Nicky Russo and Kelly Parker solidify their standings as King and Queen of Denver and it just leaves Carter feeling like a court jester, the creepy dude who hits on all the girls and isn't as good a gymnast in reality as he is in his head.

When Carter finally gives up and goes back to Boulder, he doesn't go crawling back to the Rock. He goes crawling back to his dad. He gives up on the dream and the more he thinks about it the more he questions if gymnastics was his dream in the first place. He asks to live with the family again and for his job back and he'll never mention gymnastics ever again. His dad agrees.

After a long day tending to livestock, Carter walks into the main house ahead of his dad and his brothers. He hears the familiar sound of excited announcers chattering and the television in the living room shows a close up of Austin Tucker. Carter thinks back to a time where they were friends. He hasn't talked to Austin in a year.

"Turn it off, mom," Carter says coldly.

His mom, sitting quietly on the couch, looks surprised when she spots him.

"Carter…I thought you'd want to—"

"I said turn it off!" he shouts. He's grown so bitter and he hates that he yells at his mom because usually that's his dad's job, but he can't bring himself to care because the TV has cut to a shot of the US Women's team and it pains him to see that all those silly girls who ruined his life actually made it.

When his mother doesn't move a muscle, frozen with fear, Carter walks over, takes the remote and does it himself. With a click, the screen goes blank and they're left in silence.

"Carter…"

"I'm a failure, mom," he says. He's so numb to everything he doesn't even feel it anymore. His dad will surely whip the crap out of him if he catches him in his dirty, work clothes sitting on the clean couch, but they'd both get it worse if his dad walked in and found the Olympics on his TV.

"The thing is you tried, son. You left the ranch and you tried and that's all that matters. I'm proud of you, Carter," the soft-spoken woman says gently. She places her hand on her son's shoulder and for reasons he can't explain that makes him so angry.

He doesn't say anything, just shrugs her hand away, stands and walks away.

Carter knows his mom doesn't deserve to be treated that way, but everything he's been through has hardened him in the worst way. Her kind words are a little too late. While he was going through all of that, she just stood by and never said a thing.

Carter is a douche bag. He's willing to admit it, but he also blames it on the people in his life, specifically the women.

A/N: I, for one, hate Carter's character. I think he's a waste of a payroll (just being honest) but this was fun to write. Just curious, but does anyone actually like Carter? Leave it in the reviews.

Xoxo