'Carmen, sit still'

'Sorry'

Carmen couldn't get comfortable in the plane chair, blame it on her big butt, whatever, but the situation just wasn't working for her. She reclined her chair back, but then let it forward again when the little brat behind her started kicking the back of her chair.

'Carmen!'

Carmen made an unattractive grunting sound and slouched down in the chair.

'I can't help it, have aeroplane seats always been this uncomfortable?' Carmen whinged back at Lena, who had been shooting her irritated looks the whole flight.

Lena smiled at Carmen. 'Maybe you're just restless because you're nervous about visiting your Dad in South Carolina, after all you haven't been back since. The Wedding.'

'No, I'm not nervous' said an extremely nervous Carmen 'The seats have just shrunk since I flew last.'

Lena gave her an irritatingly smug, knowing smile before turning back to her art magazine.

 Carmen was angry with herself for feeling so insecure, she thought she'd sorted all of these pesky emotions out when she had stomached her Dad getting re-married. Obviously she wasn't cured. Carmen was scared that when she got to the airport the whole happy clan would be there to meet her. Even though her mum had gotten re-married to David three months earlier she still didn't feel like they were a real family. Her mum and David were the blissfully in love newly weds, and she was the grown sullen teenager who was just…There. To witness her Dad being a father to two children, who didn't belong to him, not like she belonged to him, was painful. But Carmen had decided that this summer she would put her selfish and insecure feelings aside, for the sake of everyone she cared about. She couldn't afford to be 'that Carmen' this time. Getting her feelings in check Carmen willed herself to stay still for the rest of the trip.

When they got off the plane Carmen was relieved to see only her dad and Paul there to pick them up. She would have liked to think that Paul would have still come even if Lena wasn't with her, but she felt happy at the sight of his smile, which was so rarely seen, when he spotted Lena. Every other male between the ages of 13-30 were all staring at Lena too ofcourse but Paul's gaze held deeper meaning.

Carmen hugged her dad and then Paul after he had finished tentatively hugging Lena. Paul reached for Lena's bags and Carmen's dad took hers.

'It's good to see you Lena, it's been awhile. This ones been counting down the days' Said Al, gesturing to Paul who avoided their gaze and Carmen thought he saw him actually blushed.

When they got back to the house Carmen was actually offended when her dad told her Lydia and Krista had gone shopping. How rude was that? But Carmen just shrugged nonchalantly and took Lena upstairs to the room they were sleeping in, which looked less like a guest room and more like a Carmen room now. She left Lena upstairs to unpack and trudged downstairs to get a drink pondering why Lydia and Krista wouldn't even be here to greet her, she thought they'd made amends, that they would at least have the decency to acknowledge her stay before avoiding her like a leper.

As she reached up to get two glasses out of the cabinet she heard someone coming down the stairs, she turned and it was Paul. They stared at each other in silence for minute and Carmen offered a smile.

Paul gave her a half smile back and walked into the kitchen. 'They just wanted to give you some space to settle in, they didn't want you to feel claustrophobic with all of us here'

Carmen looked at Paul with shock, was he a mind reader? How did he know exactly what she had been thinking? Paul just shrugged.

'So..' she began 'you and Lena..' she trailed off, making it almost more of an open question than a statement.

Paul stared back at her 'Me and Lena, what?'

Come on Paul, open up, give me just a little insight Carmen thought with frustration.

'What's going on with you and Lena?'

'What did Lena say was going on?'

'Nothing'

'Nothing?' He asked incredulously

Carmen shook her head 'No I mean I haven't asked her'

Paul shrugged, this seemed to be his favourite new movement 'Well maybe you should talk to her before you start the inquisition on me' he said with a smile.

Carmen stuck out her tongue at him. What had he been doing studying the thesaurus? Claustrophobic? Inquisition? Both four-syllable words. However the shrugs took away from the impressive vocabulary and Carmen knew it was just the same old Paul, never making things easy for her. She was happy to see him.