Chapter Text
Tree's made a lot of mistakes in her life.
Number one was probably when she was six, decided 'Theresa' was too many letters and took too long to say, and insisted on being called Tree. Her dad rolled his eyes and her mom laughed and asked if she was getting a head start on saving the environment, but her stubborn insistence made them eventually bend to her will. It wasn't until she reached twelfth grade that her steadily growing bitchier exterior stopped everyone from making jokes about her name - at least to her face. Spring semester of senior year was all a dark blur now, honestly. It's strange how losing your mom feels a lot like losing your will to live.
If you wanted to count the amount of epic fails, blunders, and moments of weakness that got Tree to where she was now, you'd be here all day. That's not the point. The point is, in all those mistakes, all those times where Tree was less than her best self and made decisions that she'd like to forget, there was one that she didn't. On Sunday the seventeenth, Tree Gelbman got blackout drunk, made out with her sorority sisters crush, and fell all over a guy she'd never met, drunkenly propositioning him to take her home.
Sure the day (days) to follow were far from her favorite in, but in the end it was worth it. Finding someone that gives a shit about you in a world more interested in tearing you down than building you up is rare. And lucky, which is something Tree has never considered herself to be. (objective beauty can be a blessing and a curse. from the guy who grabs her ass in the checkout line, the douchey frat dudes with their flirtatious words and leering gazes, and the guy who wouldn't listen to the word stop at her first high school party, sometimes Tree thinks it's nicer to be invisible).
Through every one of her deaths only two things stayed the same. One, her murder (obviously). Two was Carter, and his propensity to give a shit. An argument could be made for three and four being Danielle's insistently bitchy attitude and Lori's hidden derangement, but long term that wasn't that important. What was important was Carter.
On paper, he didn't seem to stand out too much (although all of these things she only found out later). Carter Davis, junior, 21. He took a gap year between high school and college to work and save money for his looming student loans. He has a single mom, a half brother, a dad he doesn't talk to anymore, and a little sister named Cleo. A music major with a specialization in sound mixing, the boy has a giant CD collection that he refuses to throw out and doesn't even believe in having an aux cord in his car. Still makes mixtapes on said CD's. Mountain Dew was his drink of choice, and Carter and his roommate Ryan had been friends for years before college. Tends to be a B student, and is generally well liked, even if he can be considered a geek. Polite and sweet, throws himself enthusiastically into everything he does, and pays attention to absolutely everything.
The only thing Tree knew that first morning, however, was she had an absolutely blinding headache, she wasn't wearing any pants, and she'd apparently slept with a guy who lived in one of the dorms (which was a huge no-no because according to Danielle if you were a Chi Pi Kappa you were only allowed do things with fraternity boys). Passingly, she realized he was cute, but her number one priority was getting out with no one the wiser, provided his dumbass roommate kept his trap shut. He'd looked away when she was changing, gave her Tylenol, folded her clothes, and asked if she remembered his name (she didn't). Tree didn't think she'd ever give him another thought after leaving Williams Dorm behind her.
Then she died.
And came back, groggy, and somehow alive, on his bed.
It took Tree three deaths to understand what was happening to her. Four to tell him the whole story and have him believe her, ten to figure out that they, in fact, hadn't slept together the night before, and fourteen for her to see how much he cared, for her. Her, when all she'd done was be bitchy to him over and over again, tell him to his face she didn't want to be associated with him, and treat him like shit at the bottom of her shoe. Carter took a girl he'd barely had two conversations with to the hospital and stayed until she woke up, then came back to help her. He'd died for her. Died. Tombs snapped his neck with a heartlessness that Tree didn't know people were capable of.
For the first time, she didn't care if she died again, didn't care about the internal damage she accrued every time she hit the dirt - she just knew she couldn't leave Carter like this.
Tree never saw herself as a person who'd commit suicide, but she had no regrets about jumping from the top of that belltower.
She just couldn't leave him like that.
Every time Tree came back, she noticed something a bit new. He took everything in stride, believed her when she said she was living the same day over and over, tried to help her figure out who was after her, tried to protect her, accepted her for who she was and didn't expect more. Of course Carter wasn't the happiest in the beginning, when she was still being the bitchy person she'd allowed loss to turn her into, but no matter how she acted he was his own good self. Brought her her bracelet, lied about how they knew each other, tried to protect her.
She didn't deserve someone as good as Carter, and knew it, but he made her want to be better. Liked her, even when she was her worse. Love her, if what he says now is any indication. Tree still doesn't know how they got to this point, but what she said to Danielle on death day sixteen. If she lived, she was going to have to his babies. Hold on as long as she could, because she still doesn't know how she lucked into someone as good as him.
Yeah, Tree's made a ton of mistakes, but Carter made one too. Letting her in his life. Tucking the bitchy, blonde, drunk off her ass girl into his dorm room and crashing on his roommate's bed set in motion a turn of events that neither of them ever could've foreseen.
Too bad for Carter, though - there's no do overs for him. He can't go back in time and pass her over to someone else (although Carter assures Tree there's no way he could have, and she believes him).
He's stuck with her, and Tree plans on never letting go.