The first thing I noticed was that the diner fell eerily silent. The only sound was the static buzzing of the music coming from the radio and the faint chimes of the door that were coming to a halt as the door stood open between me and Carter.

I could feel all eyes on me and because of this, I felt the color and warmth rise to my cheeks. A faint buzzing sound arose in my own ears as I could hear the pounding of my heart in my chest.

He came. He showed up.

"Carter," I breathed, breaking the pin-drop silence. Carter looked at me for what felt like an eternity, but was only just a few seconds.

"Arya," he replied curtly, his hand still grasping the door.

After hearing him say something, there seemed to be a collective sigh of relief from everyone in the diner. I guess they had been waiting anticipatingly for what would happen. Would Carter spit on me and then slam the door in my face? Would he ignore my presence? Would start screaming venemous words at me for leaving him the way I did?

All of those were viable possibilities, but he chose none of them. Instead, he chose to be civil and address me. Perhaps he was putting the past behind him. Or perhaps he just didn't want to cause a scene.

"You're here," I said, stupidly pointing out the obvious.

"You said to meet for breakfast or lunch at the usual, right?" he asked. I felt my mouth hang open slightly, my heart swelling for the simple fact that he had acknowledged and fulfilled my request. He doesn't hate my guts!

"I--uhh--yeah. Yeah, I did," I replied.

"Well, I have an hour break for lunch. But I've spent about 15 minutes of it on my way here," he said.

I was acutely aware of the fact that everyone in the diner, although they had gone back to what they were doing before, was listening in on our conversation. The audience made me feel violated and embarrassed and I could feel my cheeks turning red again.

"Oh, ok. Well, do you want to sit here or outside? I've already eaten," I said.

Carter looked around, an unreadable expression on his face. His chocolate brown eyes lingered on the obviously intruding Mrs. Knolls before turning back to me.

"Let's sit outside," he decided.

I internally sighed in relief. For a moment, I thought he would subjugate me to the entire town's scrutiny as we chatted. But fortunately, he picked the tables outside to talk. I stepped outside to wait for him and felt relieved when Danny pulled the blinds down over the large glass windows that spanned an entire wall. He was giving us our privacy.

Carter walked out of the diner a few minutes later, his hands carrying an egg omelet and a coffee.

"That's not lunch," I mused when he sat down.

"I skipped breakfast. I had a really early shift at the hospital this morning," he replied, his tone nonchalant.

I sat back in my seat and watched Carter as he took a bite of his omelet. The chilly early fall air blew around us, causing his disheveled brown hair to blow messily on his head. He looked off into the distance at the street, his chocolate brown eyes illuminated warmly from the sun.

I felt a small, sad smile tug at the corners of my lips. His eyes had always reminded me of dark, warm honey. They had always been so kind and friendly. Now, they looked tired and wise, like he had been through a lot; like he had seen a lot.

Carter had matured significantly in the past six years. Since I had last seen him, he had grown up a lot. Before, he had been a tall, scrawny and lanky teenager that was awkward, but cute in that adolescent sort of way. His hair had been too long and fell into his eyes and he was incredibly nerdy, but attractive at the same time. He had been shy and intelligent, but friendly and kind too. He had been perfect in every single way.

Now, the Carter sitting before me in his light blue scrubs and black NorthFace was much older. He had a reserved and mature look to his face. His hair, although still unkempt, was shorter and more manageable than before. He still had that boyish look to his face, although it was much less enhanced now. He seemed extremely calm and collected, like he knew exactly what he was doing in his life.

Carter looked back at me, his expression blank as he leaned back in his chair. He took a sip of his coffee, his brown eyes boring into my green ones.

"I'm really glad you decided to come," I said to him, breaking the silence that had fallen over us.

"I wasn't going to stand you up. That's not me," he replied simply.

I winced slightly. Although his words were brief and simple, they dripped with a deeper, venemous meaning. There was a bitter, underlying meaning to his words. In that sentence alone I realized that he still had not forgiven me for doing what I did to him all those years ago.

I felt myself losing control of the situation. Now that I knew that he still felt a loathing for me, making amends was going to be much more difficult than I had anticipated. I had initially thought that we could start over from beginning, completely fresh, completely new. But now...now I knew that he hadn't forgotten the past and that would make all of this so much more difficult.

Another silence fell over us, but this time, it was awkward and tense.

It was incredible how I could be so in control of a situation, so confident and sure of myself, when I was in a courtroom, taking part in a mock trial as I helped Ryan prepare for a case. I could be completely in control and in my element. Nothing could make my confidence falter. But sitting here in front of Carter was even more difficult than the most grueling of cases that I had taken on.

"So...umm..." I trailed off, biting my lip. "How's your family? I haven't seen them in a while," I brought up, thinking that I would stick to neutral topics.

"Well, you have been back since you first left, so how could you have?" he replied. It was amazing how his voice could remain so calm and steady, even though the words he was speaking were laced with bitterness. But I deserved every ounce of hatred that those words contained.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," I mumbled, tugging at a strand of my dark brown hair. Carter sat back in his chair and took another sip of his coffee, watching me with a guarded look.

"My family's fine. Dad's still working. Natalie recently opened up a boutique down the street. Isobel is five now and just started kindergarten. And Maddie's in her senior year of high school," he answered.

"Are you and Natalie getting along better?" I asked.

Natalie was Carter's stepmother. When I left him six years ago, Carter was unhappy because his father was marrying a woman that was quite a few years younger than him and because the two were having a child together. I guess they had had the child and were now a family of five.

"Well, considering I don't live in that house anymore, yes," he replied.

"You moved out?" I asked.

"A while ago," he answered. "I went to undergrad in California. Now I'm studying at Cornell University for medical school. I'm doing my rotations at the hospital here so that I could be a little closer to home for a while," he explained.

"Oh, wow. You're at Cornell?" I asked. He nodded. "I work in the city. That's funny; I've never seen you around," I said.

"Well, it's a big city," he replied. I bit my lip and nodded. "Where do you work?" he asked.

"The Matthews and Newton lawfirm," I replied. His eyebrows rose slightly, showing that he was impressed.

"So you got your dream job?" he asked.

"Not quite. I have to take the LSAT before I go to law school. I'm taking a few years off to study for it," I answered.

"Harvard?" he asked.

"Harvard," I responded, nodding.

"Still the same old Arya," he muttered, leaning forward slightly. I smiled slightly, not knowing whether that was a compliment or another stab at my betrayal.

"So, I guess you've been pretty busy with medical school," I said.

"Yeah, I have. I've got two more years and then I'm done," he replied.

"That's good to hear," I said. He nodded, looking at me with those reproachful eyes.

I just wished I could apologize to him right then. I wished I could pluck up the courage to just tell him how incredibly sorry I was for leaving him the way I did. But that would mean telling him everything, and it seemed like his life was good right now. I didn't want to burden him with the memories that needed to be left in the past. So I stayed silent, looking back at him with apologetic eyes.

"Why are you here, Arya?" he asked suddenly. I felt myself choke on air at the suddenness of his question.

"I-I-well--" I stammered, unable to say the words that I wanted to. As I composed myself and got ready to tell him, I was cut off by the sound of another voice.

"Carter! Baby! What are you doing here?!" I heard a shrill, girly voice call out.

Distracted, I looked behind Carter to see a gorgeous blonde girl walking towards us, her arms laden with shopping bags that had the word Natalie's written on them in cursive, gold letters.

Carter stood up as the girl approached us, her blue eyes falling on me. Her giddy face turned sour quickly as she took in my appearance.

"Julia," Carter said, smiling at the girl. "I was just eating breakfast with an old..." he trailed off as he glanced back at me.

He didn't know how to end the sentence. What was I to him, after all? An old friend? Hardly. An acquaintance? No, we had much too much history for that. The first girl he had fallen in love with that ran away and broke his heart without telling him why? That last one was the most appropriate, but he could hardly say that in front of this young woman named Julia.

"An old classmate from high school," he finished. I felt a jabbing pain stab at my heart. I was reduced simply down to an old peer from school. That was the place I held in his life now.

"I'm Arya. Nice to meet you," I said, extending a hand. Julia looked at my hand for a few moments, deliberating whether or not to shake it. After a moment or two, she grasped my hand daintily in hers and shook it twice before hastily letting go.

"I'm Julia," she replied, forcing a smile onto her perfect face.

"Arya, Julia is..." Carter paused, shifting slightly as Julia smirked and put her arm around his waist.

Girlfriend? Sister's best friend? Employee? Fellow medical student? The possibilities flitted through my mind, but he said the only one that I hadn't ever expected.

"Julia is my fiancee," he finished.

__________________________________________________________________

A/N: Soooo...it's been a while, huh? So sorry to all of you that have been reading this and wondering where the hell I disappeared off to. The reason for the incredibly long wait was that school started and so, my free time disappeared. This year is an incredibly important year for me academically and my focus has been on school and my future. So, unfortunately, writing had to take a backseat.

In regards to when I'll update next, my answer is that there is no telling. It's not very often that my schedule clears up and when it does, I usually take that time to sleep, which is something that I haven't been doing very much of lately. I'm really sorry for not being fast and updating. I just have a lot to do.

But with that being said, please don't stop reading this story! I will finish it (eventually). I just need some time and patience from you all.

Now that that's over with, what'd you think of the new chapter? We got some insight as to what Carter's been up to for past few years. What'd you think of the big reveal at the end? He's engaged! Now what's going to happen?!

Leave me a comment below! And don't forget to vote!

Julia is in the side!

XOXO