Conversations on a Balcony
71
Translations:
/ieiu/: Mom
Carter's chest was aching with upset. The words his ex-girlfriend had spat at him in anger as she'd stormed out of his dorm room echoed around in his head.
… she put her fingers inside me and made me scream...
He was alone, since it was so early. Snowflakes peppered his hair as he wrapped his hands around his coffee mug and looked over the wall of the coffee shop's balcony, down onto the people walking in the Massachusetts snow below. But he straightened as he felt a presence behind him and looked over his shoulder.
"Hey, Sweetie," Kara said, adjusting her glasses in an automatic motion. She was dressed in skinny jeans, knee-high leather boots and a navy peacoat with the collar up against the chilly wind, but Carter knew she'd flown from National City. He squared his shoulders against the gentle hand that rubbed between his shoulder blades. "Your Mom told me what happened. How are you holding up?"
"You shouldn't be here... KARA." Carter's tone was sneering. It was something she'd never heard from him before and it was shocking.
The hero moved to stand next to him and bumped his shoulder gently. "I love you," she said softly. "And you're in pain. I wanted to come."
"This is all your fault!" the young man snapped back. "Pulitzer winning journalist, perfect fucking Kryptonian. Why would Chloe want me now? Not after YOU did her! Did you even TRY to say no?" His eyes narrowed angrily.
Kara looked down, shoving her hands into her coat pockets as she pushed her hurt away for her stepson's sake. The stiff set of his hunched shoulders made her heart ache. "Nothing happened between Chloe and me, Honey," she said, letting her eyes meet his as she spoke the truth. "She probably said those things to hurt you because she was angry."
She watched as Carter's jaw clenched and released repeatedly. Then, slowly, his shoulders sagged and finally he turned into her and wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin on her shoulder. "Like I did just now. I'm so sorry, /:ieiu/."
Kara smiled as she hugged him back. "It's ok. I know you didn't mean it." She huffed out a breath. "What Chloe said though... I want to have a little talk with her about that."
"/:Ieiu/, I think she needs help," Carter said. "She's kind of obsessed with you. She has a bunch of candid photos of you and one of them is set as her phone background. She also bought a pair of green cargo pants because you were wearing the same ones, the day she met you. And she was constantly talking about how lucky I am to have a superhot stepmom all the time. It was what clued me in to the fact that there may have been a problem in the first place, and when I confronted her about it... that's when the shit hit the fan. She said things like you'd both decided that you were going to leave National City together and that you're just as much in love with her as she is with you."
"Oh... wow... ok," Kara said with a sheepish look. "I've never had an admirer like that before."
Carter chuckled as he kissed her forehead. "Have you not met my Mom?" he teased. "She kept the sticky note you attached to a box of cupcakes you got her for her birthday one year because you called her Cat on it instead of Miss Grant."
Kara blinked, her cheeks flushing a little as she remembered how lovesick she'd been back then. "She did?"
"Yeah, she showed it to me. She even awwwed. It was stuck to her computer monitor in her home office until the adhesive wore off. Last time I saw it, it was in her wallet."
"Heh," the hero grinned, making a mental note to do something special for Cat when she got back. Like maybe throwing her down onto their bed and putting her fingers... She shivered a little and focused back on her stepson. "Ok," she said firmly. "I'm going to talk to Chloe. Do you want to come with me or...?"
"Yeah," Carter replied. "I really want to see her face when you confront her about her lies."
"I'm not going to melt her face off or anything," the hero chuckled, lifting her hands. "It'll just be a very rational conversation where I'll make sure she knows AGAIN that nothing will ever happen between us and that I'm totally in love with Cat."
Carter lifted an eyebrow. "You're actually trying to convince yourself to not melt her face off, aren't you?"
Kara rubbed absently at the crinkle between her brows and sighed deeply. "Yeah. Yeah, I really am. Urgh."
"/:ieiu/, I love you. Thanks for coming," Carter said softly. "I'm sure mom told you that I wasn't very nice on the phone."
Kara blinked in surprise. "Actually no, she didn't say anything about that." She linked her arm with her stepson's, and they walked together down the steps and out into the Harvard campus, leaving footprints in the snow behind them as they made their way toward Chloe's dorm. "Doesn't matter now," the hero shrugged. "I'm just glad you're not mad at me."
Just then, a loud wolf whistle sounded. "Hey, Grant! Your new girlfriend's hot!"
Carter's mouth dropped open and he began to deny the charge, but Kara just chuckled and squeezed his elbow. "You know what? I can't believe I'm going to say this but... fuck it, Dude, just own it," she grinned.
