Love Me for Me

Chapter Thirteen

CARTER’S POV

I leaned my head back against the lobby wall I was sitting against. “This fucking sucks.” I kept thinking. “What the hell am I supposed to do now?” I closed my eyes and rubbed my thumb over the screen of my phone. I was waiting to see when she was going to text me, but it’s already been an hour and a half. I groaned the more I thought what I had gotten myself into. I heard the lobby door open, but I didn’t move. I didn’t want to see who was coming in.

“Carter?” I heard a guy’s voice say. My eyes quickly opened and I saw Ben standing in front of me, staring at me confused.

“Hey, Ben” I said. “What’s up?”

He shook his head and took a step closer. “Nothing; what’s wrong?”

I shook my head and closed my eyes again. “Nothing- just family problems… again.” I looked down at my phone and still saw that I had no messages.

“What happened? And why are you sitting here looking like you’re miserable?” he asked. I shook my head, not wanting him to get involved in this. He sat down next to me and said nothing for a minute. “Carter, come on- just tell me what happened.”

I thought about it, then took a deep breath and sighed. “She kicked me out.” I said. His eyes widened and his mouth fell open.

“What do you mean she kicked you out?” he asked, sounding both shocked and confused. I shrugged and rolled my eyes.

“She kicked me out. I went home for lunch today and all of my stuff was in the living room. She came out of the kitchen and told me it was time for me to leave. So I grabbed my stuff and left.” Ben turned away from me saying nothing. I turned to look at him and could tell he was thinking.

“Where is your stuff?” he finally asked me.

“In the staff room; why?”

He looked back at me and smiled. “You’re moving in with me.” he said.

This time my jaw dropped and I stared at him. He stood up and looked down at me. “Ben, seriously it’s fine. You don’t need to take me in.” He raised his eyebrows and folded his arms.

“Oh really? And where do you plan on staying?” I didn’t reply cause I had nowhere to stay. “That’s what I thought.” Ben said as he held out his and to help me up. I was hesitant at first, but eventually he pulled me up.

“Alright” I said, giving in. “I’ll stay- but only until I find somewhere else to stay.”

He patted my back and nodded. “Okay- as long as you have someplace to stay in until you do.” I smiled and we started walking towards the staff room to grab my things. We walked in and saw I only had 2 suitcases and a few boxes. “That’s all she gave you?” he asked. I nodded as I picked up one of the boxes.

“Yup, and I don’t think she wants me to go and grab the rest of my things.” He grabbed my suitcases while I piled the other 2 boxes on top of each other and we left, getting into the elevator.

We stood in silence until the doors opened and we turned down the hallway. “I only have the one extra room.” Ben said as he put the bags down to grab his key in his pocket. “So at least you don't have to sleep on the couch.” I nodded and the door opened, Ben picking up the bags and walking in. He tossed his keys on the counter and I walked in, shutting the door behind me.

The room didn’t look a lot different than the first time I came in here. I noticed it was a little messier, but that isn’t a huge problem. I looked over to Ben who was typing something on his phone. “Uh, where should I put these?” I asked, talking about the boxes.

“Oh!” he said, putting the phone away. “Sorry; it’s right over here.” He grabbed my bags and walked down the small hallway, stopping at the very first door. He nudged it open with his foot and walked in, dropping the bags near the bed. I put the boxes down near the closet and looked around. “So this is your room.” he said. “You can do whatever you want in here to make it yours- as long as you don’t damage anything.”

I chuckled softly and nodded, looking around my new bedroom. “I won’t.” He smiled and walked towards the door.

“I’ll give you some time to unpack. My room is the next one over if you need anything.” I nodded and walked over to the boxes near my closet.

Just as he was about to leave, I stopped Ben. “Wait, Ben.” Ben stopped and turned around in the doorway. “Thanks.” I said. “It means a lot that you’d do this for me.”

He smiled again and nodded, walking back into my room. “It’s no problem. I’m actually glad that you had to leave- it gets pretty lonely living here alone.” I nodded, looking back into the box.

“Well I’m glad I could help.” I answered. “And I promise I will-” I looked up and saw that Ben had disappeared. I was gonna tell him I would pay half the rent until I found somewhere else to stay, but I’ll tell him later. I picked up a picture frame from the box, seeing that it was of me and Sam at our graduation. The more I looked at Sam, I saw that she was absolutely perfect for Ben and he was perfect for her.

“You know, indirectly I help set them up.” I thought to myself, making me laugh a little, “If I hadn’t told him to get some extra clothes he wouldn’t have met her.” I smiled as I put the frame back in the box, pulling out different things and bringing back different memories. As I held the last object, I realized that living with Ben wasn’t going to be so bad after all. “It could be cool having a roommate.” I thought. “And even if it isn’t, at least I have a place to stay for a while.” And that’s how I looked at the situation- even though my mom’s a bitch, Ben was there to help out; something no other friend’s done for me before.