justprompts: You have the right to remain silent. Will you?
Chuck... you have so much yet to learn.
Carter's picks up the envelope with the ticket, and he flips it open, idly, just to see the destination. No, he's actually not been there before. Ticket bought not by him, too, that actually can give him a head start with the Buckleys, and he knows he can outrun them, he's done it already.
Except, he doesn't see any sense in it. It doesn't matter.
She's not going to be happy with him, either way. He's not going to be able to keep her, see how things might go, where it might take them both, either way.
Damn this to hell. It's his own stupid, huge mistake. Another gamble, and this one he won at the time, but somebody else lost, hard. Maybe it would be even worse if he'd gone through with it; he doesn't know, nobody does. He only knows that if he had married Beth, he wouldn't know what this here, now, could be like.
And if I hadn't gotten that far with saying I would, I'd be able to keep this.
But he can't. He swears out loud, and wants to throw something at a wall, but it's her things, or something like that, and he doesn't want to break any of them. Just in case it's important.
And he knows what just disappearing feels like. Hell, Serena's done it to him, three times, and even the last one hurt. He can't pull a Serena on her. He didn't, when Bree caught him on the street, and he won't, now. Chuck can go screw himself.
He thinks he got it all figured out, doesn't he. Another ticket, another threateningly tight situation. Carter would take the offer, right? Wrong. You can't catch the same pray twice with the same trap, Bass. Matter of fact, while you could try to learn from your betters, like Serena, like me... you'll never measure up. You don't have what lies beneath, and while you may copy the forms... it's never the same.
Yeah, for a moment, Carter had thought he would have an actual option to get out of spilling, telling about the whole mess and facing whatever the Buckleys have planned for him, and, after all, they're Texans. It won't be easy. It's still a freaking option.
Only, no, it's not. It's just delaying the inevitable. Maybe, talking with Serena will give him a chance to reassure her she still matters to him, really, that she's different, because she is.
Yeah, right.
It's still more than a chance than I'd have from my wee wabbit hole, though, isn't it.
He shakes his head and tosses the ticket in the trash. Back then, he took up the offer to skip town not because of the threat, but because he could make something good, or at least unexpected and his own, out of it. Now, neither option holds anything good. Might as well be a man about it all, it doesn't really make a difference, does it. He's been bold all his life; now he can be brave. Last stands, blah blah.
Carter shrugs on the suit jacket and heads out. If it's a firing squad, then he has some things he'd better put in order before he shows up.
He... has the right to remain silent. But he won't. Because the right to live up to being the person Serena deserves, damn how much damage it would do to him, means more.
Because he ... cares. So much.
Too much. So? What else is there?