Let go:
Carly peered round the door frame that lead into her bedroom, her heart sinking once again whilst her stomach churned, when she saw the man from the night before still sleeping in her bed, the duvet covers were wrapped round his lower body revealing his muscular abdomen and chest. The same abdomen and chest Carly had ran her fingers down and placed small kisses on hours before.
She wished she could stop thinking about what happened last night. In theory she wished it had never happened actually. She wished she had not got caught up in the moment and let her past teenage hopes take over.
But that is exactly that, in the moment she wanted him and she wanted him to want her just as much as she did. What happened between them last night was what she had always wanted and when she finally got it all she could feel was regret. It was not how she expected to feel after.
Why did she let him get to her like that, why couldn't she have just told him to leave instead of letting him do to her what they had planned to do that summer? Why could he have just never turned up at her place last night and just left their goodbye as it was? Why did they have to complicate things between them even more?
She instantly knew that this had to be a one off and should never happen again. She was thankful that he was going to be leaving town after this and she wouldn't have to face seeing him every day in town. She could finally get over him and move on with her life now however hard it was going to be to know that they never worked out the way she had wanted.
But at least they got the goodbye now although it left Carly with no idea what to do. She was already running ten minutes late for work since she didn't set her alarm on her phone last night due to her antics with Jason, meaning she woke up with his body closely wrapped up to hers from behind, aches and pains running through her body, a feeling of guilt and annoyance settling in her mind, without any idea of what the time was and how the hell she was going to explain this one to not only herself but everyone else including Jason.
Once she had managed to slowly retrieve her body from Jason's grasp without waking him up in the process, she threw on the knickers and jumper she had been wearing last night before making her way into the kitchen to check the time.
Her body began to panic when she grabbed her phone off the kitchen unit, her mind flashing back to the events of last night but soon drifted away when she saw what the time was and how many missed calls/messages she had from Brooke. She had completely forgotten that she had been on the phone with Brooke minutes before Jason arrived.
She had no clue whether to tell her best friend what happened last night, why she had to end the phone so abruptly and explain to her why she hadn't got back in touch with her. Brooke wasn't Jason's biggest fan. She hated how he had influenced Carly and caused most of her issues, but she knew the way her best friend felt about him and knew Carly would rather blame herself than him.
However, that was the least of her worries right now since she had to be at the station in the next five minutes and that was not going to work out since her morning routine took at least an hour. Plus she had to somehow get Jason awake and out of her apartment quickly with some sort of reasonable explanation as to why last night could never happen again.
And that is where she was at now, standing outside the bedroom and contemplating of how the hell she was going to handle this situation. She thought about heading to work but leaving him to wake up himself, maybe write him a note explaining how she felt and had to leave him to go work, as well as leaving him a spare key to lock up her apartment when he was ready to leave.
But she couldn't do that to him. She couldn't leave him wondering how she really felt because she wasn't that harsh. It was better for her to what was best for them, even if it meant a lot of heart breaks for the both of them.
Despite the regret and anger, she still did feel something for him and would do anything for him. But they could never work out, it was too complicated and their past was rough.
Spinning around on her heel, she wondered over to take out a bottle of orange juice out of the fridge before she quickly began to wash up the plate she had left in the sink last night whilst still deciding what to do about this. She needed to hurry up though since Holbrook would already be expecting her at the station.
Picking up the soapy wet plate in her hands, she twisted round to find a tea towel to dry the ceramic object and it wasn't long before the shakiness in her hands she felt from panicking, sent the object slipping out of her hands and down onto the floor with a loud crash.
Cursing to herself quietly, she bent down to retrieve the broken pieces and opened up one of the cabinets to get a cloth. As she did this, the sound of footsteps coming out of her bedroom and into the main living area caused her heart to skip a beat at the realisation that she had actually woken Jason up from his slumber now, meaning she had to face the music.
Picking up the pieces into the tea cloth, she scrambled to her feet to be met with the sight of Jason who was now dressed in the clothing attire he wore yesterday, his hair slightly messy from sleeping and he had a look of concern on his face.
"Are you ok?" He asked his voice slightly husky from just waking up and it was already making her feel uneasy because of what it was doing to her.
Laughing nervously, Carly laid the towel onto one of the work stations and flattened down the bottom of the black body-con knee length dress she was wearing.
"Uh yeah everything's fine, just had a little accident with a plate." Carly told him her cheeks flushing slightly.
Jason remained quiet after her explanation giving her the chance to slip past him, before quickly grabbing her bag off the dining table and unplugging her phone from the charger in one of the plug sockets attached to one of the walls.
It didn't go unnoticed to Jason of how fast and jumpy her actions seemed to be that morning, he could already see that she was dressed due to the black dress, red waterfall blazer she was wearing and the black pointed court shoe heels she had on her feet, signalling that she had already got plans for the day and would be leaving soon.
"Are you sure you're ok?" Jason questioned again with raised eyebrows.
Turning round to face him, she flashed him a fake reassuring smile "Absolutely."
She really needed to get this over and done with already. She couldn't have him here any longer when she had no intentions of keeping him around. She also had to get to work before she was sacked from her dream position.
"Look Jason I'm already running late for work, so I don't mean to be rude but you need to leave like right now because I can't afford to make a bad impression so early on." Carly explained to him, making it sound harsher than she intended to. But she needed to be straight with him.
"Of course don't let me hold you." Jason replied going over to take his jacket off the couch before slipping it on his body.
She breathed a sigh of relief that he was agreeing to leave so she could lock up and head out to work before she got her ass kicked for being late. Slipping her bag up onto her shoulder, she grabbed her keys off the hook by the door and went to grab the handle to exit, when she suddenly felt Jason's large hand sit on top of hers stopping her from doing so.
"Are you not going to say goodbye?" He said quietly into her ear causing her heart to pound in her chest nervously.
She should have known it wouldn't have been this easy to leave.
Gradually she turned round to face him, slipping her hand out from under his as he stepped away from her slightly so he could look at her properly.
"I think we said enough goodbyes last night, don't you?" Carly responded bitterly.
She couldn't help but give him attitude since she couldn't ignore the feeling of regret she had felt since she woken up. However much she had always wanted that. She just couldn't live with the consequences of her actions. She should have known better than to get herself involved with him again. She hadn't gone through what she had gone through for her to just fall back into her old ways.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Jason spat back not liking her tone with him.
"What it's supposed to mean Jason is that we shouldn't have let last night happen. It was a mistake. A mistake that can never been repeated again. We're both too messed up and have such a damaged past that we can't get involved with each other again." Carly breathed and swallowed harshly when a lump formed in her throat. "I think it would be best if you left."
Jason scoffed loudly and shook his head, he couldn't quite believe what he was hearing from her mouth but he knew that she had a point. They both had rocky pasts. He was slowly starting to lay off the drugs/alcohol after receiving help a number of times. She had got a job in the law enforcement and if she was found to be with him, it wouldn't look professional since he was known as the local bad boy and brother to the sister who went missing. He wasn't any good for her. He never had been.
"I think you're right." Jason mumbled taking his car keys out of his jacket pocket and edging his way over to the door in which Carly was stood in front of.
She could feel the tears threaten to leak out of her eyes but blinked them away quickly. She couldn't let Jason see her cry. She had promised herself to not cry anymore. She was so done with all the crying she had done the past few years. She hardly ever shed a tear now. It made her feel stronger and that she could take on anything.
Carly stepped out of the way for him; her eyes never leaving his as she bit down on her bottom lip and watched him open the apartment door. Slowly he stepped out into the foyer of the apartment block and turned back round to face her as she stepped more towards him, a hurt expression on his face but couldn't help but smile slightly as he thought back to how good last night felt for him.
"I know you don't want to push things further but promise me something Carls." Jason proposed to her in which she nodded with a small smile on her face. "I want you to take this and if you ever need me for whatever reason, even if it's just to talk then please do so."
Carly watched him pull out a business type look card out from the inside of his jacket pocket and hand it over to her. She carefully took it from him and glanced down at it to see a cell phone number scribbled down on the card in his hand writing.
Before she had the chance to take one last look at him, he had already made his departure from the hall way and was already down the stairs heading to the exit of the apartment block. It wasn't only the departure from the hall way, it was the departure from her life and hopefully it was going to work out for the better.
She had to focus on herself now, focus on her job and saving/changing people's lives for the better. She had to get over Jason.
Around five minutes after her encounter with Jason, Carly jogged through the entrance doors of the station out of breath and clearly flustered from being late, as well everything that had happened last night and this morning.
After hearing the sound of heels hitting the marble floor, Detective Holbrook who was going over a file with one of the Rosewood cops turned his head over to where Carly was after noticing her arrival before excusing himself away from the cop and over to join Carly in the middle of the station.
"I am so sorry I am late." She apologised breathless as she came face to face with him.
"Hey let's not do this here." Holbrook said softly to her before laying his hand on her shoulder and walking with her over to the office they shared together.
Once they had entered the office, Carly wondered over to her end of the desk and laid her bag on top of the table whilst Holbrook closed the door behind them.
She found herself chewing anxiously on bottom lip waiting to hear him say the worst case consequence for her lack of punctuality. She didn't know what she would do if she lost her dream job right there and then just because she was late that morning. She didn't know how she would even be able to tell her Dad she lost her job. She definitely would have to leave out the reason why she had been late to him.
"Look I am so sorry about being late. I promise this won't happen again." Carly told him desperate for him to forgive her and not be mad about all of this.
"Relax. These things happen." Holbrook smiled at her reassuringly. "But I don't expect it to become a habit, Miss Monroe. We have a lot of work here to do and it's crucial you're here on time so we don't lag behind, understood?"
"Of course I understand." Carly breathed out the breath she had been holding in with relief. "I promise it won't become a habit."
She was so glad that she he wasn't angry at her or going to fire her from her job. She must not let that happen again otherwise she didn't know if she would get off so easy.
"I believe you won't break that promise, Miss Monroe." Holbrook replied back as he took a seat down at his desk and switched on his laptop.
"Thank you." She smiled in his direction and copied his actions, taking a seat at her own desk and looking over the list of tasks that had been set for her to do by Lieutenant Tanner.
They were her usual basic admin tasks such as filing away police reports, important documents and any other information into files that belonged in the filing cabinet, researching important topics for the case she had been assigned to or assisting Holbrook, the other cops or Tanner with different jobs.
"Before you do anything today, do you think you could just make a quick phone call to Kenneth DiLaurentis for me?" Holbrook asked her causing her to roll her eyes up to look at him with utter surprise.
She was glad he was concentrating on his computer screen as a pose to her because she was trying so hard to hide how uneasy she felt about having to speak to the father of the guy she just had sex with and actually had met a few times when being over at the DiLaurentis house. Now she had to pretend she had nothing to do with Jason who happened to be his son.
"Uh sure." She agreed before logging onto the data base on her laptop to get a number for Kenneth. "What is it you want me to tell him?"
"Just remind him that Alison needs to go for her medical examination sometime today." Holbrook informed her pressing a few buttons on the keyboard before the sound of the printer filled the room and he wondered over to retrieve the printing. "We allowed her to postpone it because of her mother's death but its urgent she has it done now."
Carly nodded at him before she began to search for the number, whilst Holbrook gathered the printings and walked back over to slip on his suit jacket.
"I'm just heading out for about an hour. I'll leave you to it until then." He told her as he made his way over to the door to exit the office.
"Ok I'll see you later then." Carly replied back looking over her laptop at him.
"Don't miss me too much." Holbrook flirted with her with a mischievous grin on his face.
She couldn't help but shake her head amused that he was still trying to charm her. "Goodbye detective Holbrook." Carly smirked back and lifted her fingers up to give him a mocking wave goodbye.
"It's Gabe." He informed her as he opened up the office door, taking one step out of it but still keeping his gaze on her and keeping it open with his foot. "My name's Gabriel."
She titled her head slightly with a playful expression flashing across her face but once he winked back at her and left she let out a slight chuckle to herself. She still couldn't believe he was still acting like that towards her, in some ways she found it sweet that he was being like that and in other ways she was kind of creeped out. But she was glad she could work with someone who actually valued her and could get on easily with.
Shaking her head amused, she picked up the telephone on her desk before bringing it up to her ear and dialling the number to Kenneth DiLaurentis' cell phone. She wiggled her toes in her shoes anxiously as the ringing tone filled her ear knowing she had to subside the awkwardness of this conversation and instead focus on her job, as well as staying professional at all times.
After a few rings the ringing cut of and a deep slightly tired male voice answered "Hello?"
"Hello is that Mr DiLaurentis?" Carly asked to clarify.
"Yes who is this?" He answered back.
"It's Miss Monroe calling on behalf of the Rosewood Police Department." She paused taking a breath. "I was just informing you that your daughter Alison needs to go for her medical examination preferably sometime today."
"Oh yes of course." Kenneth replied. "I was just then about to ring the hospital about that."
"That's great Mr DiLaurentis." Carly thanked him. "It's really essential that Alison attends, it will be very beneficial for us moving forward with the case and being able to piece together the events of the past couple of years."
"I understand." He said sadly, clearly it was hard for him all of this and Carly wasn't surprised. "Is that all Miss Monroe?"
"Yes Sir."
"How do I recognise that name?"
Carly felt herself freezing and her chest go tight knowing that he must have remembered her more than she would have liked him to. How the hell was she supposed to get herself out of this one?
"Uh..." Carly couldn't even form a sentence let alone any words to his question.
"Oh I know" Kenneth laughed slightly. "You're John's Monroe's daughter, you're Carly Monroe."
Carly sighed in relief that he had decided to remember her because of her Dad rather than the involvement she had with his son all those years ago. She would have preferred he knew her because that than the girl who use to hang out blind drink at his house with his son.
"Yes that's me."
"Wow a job in the law enforcement." Kenneth said surprised. "At least I can trust at least one of the people on the force to deal with my family."
"Trust me Mr DiLaurentis everything is being dealt with the in the best way possible." Carly tried to reassure him, even though he had rights to be doubtful since the Rosewood police had not had the best track record over the past few years, from what she had heard from her father.
"I hope you're right Carly." He exhaled. "I'm glad you've got this job. At least one of Jason's friends made something with their lives."
And that's when Carly felt her stomach to a flip at the mention of his name and the realisation that Kenneth did actually remember her from being around Jason. That also meant he must have remembered the times she was drunk at his house, when she had brought a drunk intoxicated Jason back to his house many times and had to listen to every time him tell Jason how much of a disgrace he was to the family, he even spotted her leaving his house in the early hours of the morning dressed in the clothes from the night before when he was heading out to work, the looks and confusion he use to look at her with. He had remembered it all. He had remembered her horrible past.
"Um thanks I guess." Carly mumbled unsure of how to answer that. She could feel her throat going dry.
"I always remember you being the most sensible out of Jason and his friends. I always had high hopes for you during the year you use to come over to the house. You're a very smart girl for getting away from all of that." Kenneth explained to her with a small laugh and Carly couldn't help but feel guilty that he had no idea that she had slept with Jason just last night, clearly not getting away from him like Mr DiLaurentis had thought.
"Um I'm sorry I've got to go now Mr DiLaurentis." Carly said quickly wanting this phone call to end ASAP. "Thank you for your time and I hope we'll hear the results of Alison's examination within the next couple of days."
"Of course I'll make sure she goes." Kenneth told her not even realising how Carly was feeling in that moment.
"Thank you, good bye Mr DiLaurentis."
Before he had the chance to say goodbye, Carly hung up the phone and slammed the receiver down onto the holder. She placed her elbows up onto the table and ran her hands over to the top of her head in annoyance. Why did things like this always have to happen to her?
The awkwardness and shame she felt that Kenneth still remembered her in that way made her feel mortified of the person she used to be. She hoped that he never repeated anything about her old self to any of the police team. No doubt they would look at her completely different and Tanner would probably end up kicking her off the force without an explanation.
This really made her aware that she had to let go of Jason now for real this time. She got the goodbye she had always wanted and now it was time for her to let go of that part of her past.
Just like she had already let go of everything else that consumed her back then.
Carly's shift for the rest of the day seemed to fly by with all the admin work she was doing for the station and she even accompanied a few of the officers and Holbrook to work on another case in another location for the afternoon. She was really enjoying her time working as a trainee detective and couldn't wait till she fully qualified meaning she could be in charge of her own investigations.
It was around 6:30pm when Carly left the station that night, all of her previous troubles and concerns were put behind her as she planned to stay focus on her life now and her future career. It was what she always wanted and knew it had to be her biggest priority right now.
She climbed into her car with a smile on her face, despite the exhaustion she felt from the busy and dramatic week she had ended up with, she still felt happy to be given the opportunity to train to be a detective in her hometown, just like she wanted to since she was a young girl. She wanted to follow in her mom's footsteps.
She had the determination to try and forget about Jason now, to be move on with that chapter of her life and begin fresh. She was even considering maybe widening her options with the whole relationships thing. But maybe not just yet, maybe when she had completed her training, had a stable job and income, then maybe just maybe she would put herself on the market.
The drive back to her apartment only lasted under ten minutes since there wasn't much traffic this time of night and she only lived a few blocks away. Once she had gotten out of her car, her bag hooked onto her shoulder and her car keys in her hand, she locked the car up before making her way inside the apartment block.
She couldn't wait to get inside her home and make herself some dinner, she was starving since she hadn't eaten since her small lunch break at 1 o'clock, and even then it had only been a sandwich since she had been set so much work to do that day.
As fast as she could she jogged up the steps that lead up to where her apartment was on the top floor of the building. When she reached the top of the steps, she found herself pausing in the middle of the hall way when she saw a female visitor stood outside her apartment door.
After hearing the sound of footsteps, the guest slowly spun around on their heels to come face to face with the person they hadn't seen in a very long time. Carly's eyes widened a little when she realised who had come to visit her. She couldn't quite believe for the second night in a row someone out of her past was stood at her door. That someone in fact happened to be Melissa Hastings.
Melissa's lip switched up into a tiny smile and they blinked several times trying to take in the sight of Carly whom they saw of the once teenager now adult. Melissa Hastings had been like a best friend to Carly late junior year of high school, the summer leading up to her senior year and throughout the senior year.
Even though Melissa was a few years older, the girls got on really well and both valued each other's ambitions for the future. Melissa had been the only one that year who Carly could depend on to bring her out of the bad and focus her back on the good. She was always looking out for and telling her to stay out of trouble even when Carly would do the complete opposite.
Melissa happened to be the last friend Carly saw that night when Alison went missing and happened to be the only friend Carly stayed in touch with for the first year she was out of town for. After then they had lost touch since Melissa was going through a lot back home and didn't want to have to get Carly involved. Plus Carly was heavily into her school work back then and tried to avoid anything that happened in Rosewood.
Because of that Carly thought that she would never see Melissa again, let alone have her turn up at her apartment door so unexpectedly. Melissa was probably the only friend from Carly's past that her father would approve of her getting closer to again. She would probably even be willing to reconnect with her after all these years.
Melissa knew a lot of her secrets, just like Carly knew a lot of hers and if they never wanted them to come out, then they needed to stick together. And for this part of her past for the first time, Carly wasn't afraid to jump back into a friendship with her old friend.
Author note: Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed this part and don't hate me too much for making Carly send Jason away! As I said in the last part, it's kind of a slow burn but it's not over for them just yet, something always pulls them back together.
Oh my god, I just want to say thank you so much for everyone who reviewed, favourited or followed since part 6: RHatch89, orianaxo, mavricktag, LiLuLo12, Little Liar, Happy4423, AshleyZiur, HOAfan8509, Grace1121, ToxicArt123, lalaa365 and twilight-wolflover.
I really hope you liked. Let me know what you thought in a review if you wish to share.
Thanks so much xx
