'Sweet sixteen, happy birthday to me.' Carli thought, sarcastically. Today was the day she was moving out of her mom's house. Moving away from the poverty and the food bank and the boyfriends. Moving away from everything. On police and school records she would still be listed as living there for legal reasons but in real life Carli would be living in Kally's house, atleast until she turned 18 and could get her own apartment.
Carli sighed and filled up a duffle bag with everything she owned that would be moving with her. She was leaving behind all of her childhood memories. Toys, clothes, baby blankets. She was only bringing what she needed. What was necessary. She liked to think of it as starting new in a way, forgetting her old life.
"You got every thing?" Drake asked. He was the one who was going to drive her to her new home.
She smiled, "Ya. Everything is in here." She lifted the duffle bag.
Drake grabbed it from her "Here, my father raised me to be a gentleman," he gave her a goofy wink and led her to his red cadilac, a gift for his 16th birthday. It didn't take them long to get back to the Lambert residence.
Mr and Mrs Lambert were waiting for her at the door "Happy birthday sweetie! Sweet sixteen is a huge milestone in a young girls life!" Mrs Lambert ran to give her a hug. She squeezed her tight.
"Ya, ya. Becoming a woman, blah blah blah. Whatever." Carli shrugged her off.
"Oh you shush. This is a big deal! Come on let's show you to your room!" She grabbed her hand and rushed her down the hall. At the end of the hall there was four rooms. Andrew's, Kally's, the bathroom, and a guest room.
"You remember the old guess room, you slept in during sleepovers? It's yours now!" Mrs Lambert squeeled.
Carli smiled at her, "Thank you. Its nice of you to let me stay here."
Mrs Lambert squealed again, "You are very welcome! Drake, put her bag on the bed. Tomorrow we'll take you to get a bed spread and some decoration and rugs. This is your new home and I want it to scream CARLI! Oh my goodness. Its only 10 am. We can go today before your party!"
"Party?" Carli only liked parties when they were at other peoples houses and there was no supervision. No parents home.
"Oh don't worry darling, it will just be the family and some cake and ice cream. And presents!"
"Oh no, I don't need any presents. Letting me live here is present enough." Carli blushed.
Mrs Lambert shut her right up "No, no, no! Don't be ridiculous! Everyone already bought the presents, so if you don't take them it will just be a waste of money. You don't want that now do you?"
Carli looked her at her feet and blushed "No! I just don't want anyone to have to go through any extra trouble for me."
Mrs Lambert laughed "Don't be silly. We love you! Go unpack and get comfortable. At 11 I'll come by to get you for shopping!"
"I don't need anything. I can just keep it as it is."
"No! That makes it seem temporary. I want you to know this is permanent. You can stay here aslong as you want. Now unpack!" With that she walked away. Carli sat on her bed and sighed. She wanted this to be temporary. If it was temporary it meant she could leave it behind whenever she wanted. It would mean she was still free. It would mean she wasn't tied down by caring. She didn't want to be weighed down by love.
Carli folded her clothes and put it in the drawers. She barely had enough to fill the entire dresser, let alone the closet. It only took about half a hour to put every thing. She walked down to the kitchen and looked for something to eat. Prior to today, whenever she came over to the Lambert's house she took what ever food she wanted.
"Make yourself at home," A sarcastic voice said. Carli turned around fast. Standing behind her was a tall boy dressed in black skinny jeans, black chucks, , and a shirt for some obscure metal band. Andrew. Her heart sped up slightly.
"Hey Andy, or should I say roommate?" she joked.
Andrew took a step forward and she took a step back, against the counter "Oh honey, I can come sleep in your room anytime." He gave her a wink.
"What like a sleepover?" Carli joked again, raising an eyebrow.
He smirked, "kinda like a sleepover. It would go like this... Around midnight I would sneak in your room. I would come in through the window, it's more romantic that way. Then I would sit on your bed and kiss you slowly, See you would be wearing my shirt and a pair of panties. That reminds me, I have to replace your pjs with my shirts. If Im gonna be living with my sister's best friend, I might as well get some thing to look at. Any way I would kiss you and put my hand on you thigh, right above your knee." he put his hand on her thigh, right above her knee "Then I would slowly move my hand up and down. Going higher and higher with every stroke," he did this to her, "then I would leave your mouth and trail kisses across your jaw and down your thraot. I would dust kisses across your collar bone. Once I reached the top of your thigh I would keep my hand there." he moved his hand to the spot he was describing. "Then just as you were getting excited I would let go of you and tae a step back. " He stepped away from her, "I would make you tell me want you want. I would make you beg for it. Tell me what you want Carli."
"Uh..." Carli had nothing to say. He was scaring her, but in a nice way. A really nice way.
"I know what I want." he smirked.
"What?" she breathed. She never got tongued tied over boys. She was usually the one that was explicitly forward, not the guy.
"I want a pizza. Wanna split one?" He went to the freezer and grabbed a frozen pizza.
"Uh, sure. Thanks."
"Cool. By the way I told Mom to put the shopping trip off until tomorrow, your welcome. By the way, call me when you turn 18, I don't play with jailbait." he gave her a wink. "Call me when its done or better yet, bring it to me yourself. Straight to my room." He walked out the kitchen.

Time for the stupid birthday party. Yay. Note the sarcasm.
Carli sat at the head of the table, surrounded by the Lamberts. Kally and Mrs Lambert were on either side of her. A stack of about 10 presents sat in front of her, along with a purple cae with sixteen candles and Sweet Sixteen, Carls, written in black icing.
"What's first kid? Cake or Presants?" Mr. Lambert asked.
"Presents. Lets just get this over with." She took a present off the top off the stack, "To Carli from Kally." she ripped off the disney princess wrapping paper and saw a black jewelery box underneath, "Kalls! Is this your way of purposing? I say yes!" Carli squealed.
"No, open it idiot." Kally joked.
Carli opened the box and tears sprung to her eyes. "Kally! This is too expensive! " It was a beautiful purple amythist necklace that Carli had been ogling at the jewelery store blatently. It was too expensive for Carli to even dream of buying.
"Shut up idiot! And put it on." CArli turned around and kally hooked the necklace around her neck.
"Open these two next!" Mrs Lambert squealed, handing her two boxes. Both of which said To Carli From the best and worst chefs in the world. Mr L was the best and Mrs L was the worst.
Carli slowly opened the two packages. The first was a set books and writing craft and the next was a Black teddy bear with a white tummy, inside of ear, and paws "Aww he's so cute! I'll call him Andy Beirsack. Andy for short!" She hugged him.
Andrew smirked, leaning against the counter, where he flirted with her this morning, "Dont you mean Andy for Andrew. You can admit. You are obsessed with me." he joked but Carli ignored her. She opened gifts from all the other siblings. until there was two left, from Andrew. The gifts she got were a novel, a set of colored pencils, a new lap top sleeve, a set of pens, a subscription to Scrivner (a writing app), a set of graphc tees, some skinny jeans and an itunes card.
Andrew smirked, "I oput mine on the bottom on purpose. Open them now."
She opened the first present slowly. She was shocked by what she saw. A lacy black bra and panty set with 'Jailbait' written across the crotch.
He laughed "So all the boys know."
Carli slowly opened the next gift. Even more scared. Inside the box was a high quality Sexy Nurse outfit. It wasn't cheap and flimsy. It was silky and soft.
"Now that is just for me. For the day you turn 18," he gave her a wink.
"Great, now that I have been ufficiently embarrassed can I go to the room and cry over the fact I am a year closer to death?"
"You can go sob once you eat a piece of cake." Mrs Lambert said.
They sung Happy birthday, they at cae. Then Carli went to bed, for the first feeling loved.