Fearless Read-Along: Chapter Eleven

 

               Carter Michaels had everything going for him.

               Except he wasn’t Mercy, and Ava didn’t know how else to measure a man

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Carter! Really, Carter is the very first Lean Dog I ever wrote, because he began as one of four original characters, along with Ava, Mags, and Leah, that I used in my old fanfiction writing days. When I migrated to original fiction, I brought all of them with me. I don't usually have an actor in mind for my characters - they're normally imaginary constructs - but the exceptions are Ghost, Walsh, Fox, and Carter. Since he was "conceived" in 2008, Carter has always looked like a young Paul Walker in my mind, RIP. 

Chapter Eleven is the first time we meet Carter, when he's still just a high school quarterback caught between his craptastic friends and a personal desire to do the right thing. It's also the start of "Part Two" of Fearless in installment form. It begins an entire quarter of the book that's dedicated to what happened five years ago. 

By the time she's a senior in high school, Ava is completely in love with Mercy. She even thinks to herself that it goes far beyond a crush. She's obsessive, she's devoted, and she's heartbroken by the "knowledge" - I put that in quotes because she thinks it's fact, but we'll soon find out that it isn't - that he doesn't return her romantic feelings. 

It's always felt like a very natural progression to me. She already loved him, growing up in the shade of his protective shadow, always able to depend on him. He's a safe place for her, and a true friend in a way that her father and brother weren't. Her relationship with Mercy is the closest relationship she has with any man. And then, after puberty, as she matures, she starts to have romantic feelings, both emotional and physical, for him. We only get her POV in this chapter, and Ava sees Mercy's hasty retreat at the picnic table as a rejection of her innocent flirting.

We know that he's having an internal panic attack and hoping a little distance, and a distraction (Jasmine) will keep him from doing something stupid. 

I of course had to use Wuthering Heights, because Mercy and Ava are modeled on Heathcliff and Catherine. 

“That’s…a lot of drama for one guy.”

               “Heathcliff’s a dramatic dude,” Ava agreed.