by Blair Holden
“Is my daughter drunk?” she hisses once we’re safely away from the crowd.
Cole looks a little embarrassed as I tug at his hair and say, “Pretty.”
“It was the first batch of punch you served. She nearly drank the entire bowl and I’m pretty sure it was spiked.”
“I’m going to kill him,” she seethes, all thoughts of my drunken behavior forgotten, and marches off to where a boy roughly my age is collecting plates from around the room. She snatches him by the ear and marches out, with the poor guy yelping in pain behind her.
Cole laughs loudly, making the corners of his eyes crinkle and the dimples in his cheek deeper. I’m tempted to dig my finger into the indentations but he halts the thought in my mind as he holds my hands in both of his and begins walking backward.
“Where are we going?” I half chuckle, half hiccup as he grins deviously.
“I’m going to take advantage of your newfound bravery and we’re going to do something which will make you feel awesome.”
***
“I’m cold,” I complain as we make our way through the parking lot. Still in my slightly backless and completely sleeveless gown I shiver as we go past car after car. Then coming to a rest near a very familiar-looking Jeep, Cole grins and fishes out a pocket knife from his trouser pockets.
“You carry a knife in your suit?” I ask, not completely shocked.
“Yes,” he says like it’s no big deal.
It’s not until he hands me said knife that I begin to freak out. What does he want me to do that requires me wielding a weapon?
“Slash his tires,” Cole urges and I shake my head vigorously.
“This is a bad idea, this is a very bad idea, and even drunk me knows that. Let’s go inside, Cole,” I say patiently. He doesn’t seem to want to comply. In fact as we speak, he pulls out yet another small knife. Crap.
“You said so yourself he was being an idiot. Well, this is payback, let’s slit the damn tires,” he says excitedly. I think back to the rather insulting things Jay said about my brother and the pitiful way he looked at me tonight.
I don’t need his pity.
“Okay, let’s get to work.”
***
An hour later, we stumble into my room. The house is quiet as per usual; my parents are out for drinks with the people who sponsored the gala. Travis is likely searching for his music store girl. “Go and change, Tessie, you look like you’re about to drop dead.” Cole chuckles as he sits at the foot of my bed and begins taking his shoes off. The tie follows, and then he pushes up the sleeves of his dress shirt, before unbuttoning its top three buttons.
Yum.
Grabbing one of Travis’s old T-shirts from the closet, I carefully undress myself in the bathroom, knowing that what I’m wearing costs more than my entire wardrobe. Once the dress from the heavens above is safely put away I let out a breath and stumble back into my room.
“I’m beat,” I mutter, falling onto my bed with a loud thump. When I don’t hear a response, I open my eyes to see Cole standing a couple of feet away from me, looking rather pale.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, yawning and stretching my sore muscles. Heels and I are never going to develop a close relationship.
“You’re not wearing anything but the shirt,” he stutters and I furrow my brow—so what?
“People can sleep without pants, Stone. S’no big deal.” Another yawn escapes me as I bury my head in my pillow and snuggle up to it.
“Uh no, you need to cover up.”
“I don’t want to,” I say stubbornly, hating that he’s keeping me from slipping into the best sleep I’ve had in months.
He’s quiet and I hope he won’t push the topic anymore. That’s when a blanket is pulled over me and I’m tucked into bed. I sigh at the pleasant warmth and pull the covers tightly around myself. Hmm, this feels nice.
“Hey, Cole,” I say as I hear my door creak open.
“Yeah?” he asks in an unusually throaty voice.
“Please stay,” I murmur into my pillow.
Even in the state of being half asleep, I hear the lock on my door click into place after about five minutes. Whatever internal debate he’s having seems to have settled as he lifts the covers and slips underneath.
“Goodnight, Tessie,” he whispers, as we lay side by side with a good amount of space between us.
“Goodnight,” I reply before drifting back into sleep.
Chapter Sixteen: Victory for the Socially Inept of the World
Around the time of my ninth birthday, my mom had another one of her “brilliant” ideas. She’s had a lot more since then but that one took the cake, no pun intended. Half of my class was invited for a birthday sleepover. She hired a party planner and everything. Her goal was for me to extend my circle of friends beyond Nicole.
Maybe she’d had an epiphany about what a major witch my BFF would turn out to be. Anyway, imagine my shock, disgust, and body-paralyzing, brain-freezing fear when both the Stone boys showed up at my doorstep that day. Everyone always saw them as brothers, a pair even though they had different parents. I was the only one who saw how stark the difference between them was. One was an angel, the other Lucifer.
I threw a tantrum, I wanted Cole gone but it wasn’t what a “well-brought-up young lady” would do. He stayed the night and in the end the damage wasn’t as bad as I’d expected. I only had a severe rash from the itching powder he’d sprinkled all over my sleeping bag. I only had an allergic reaction to the white roses he’d brought me and my hair only turned a mild shade of green when I used my shampoo the day after.
For him, this was tame. I think he went easy on me because of my birthday.
These are the thoughts passing through my mind when I wake up the next day. Well that and the fact that I feel like I have hundreds of thousands of Oompa Loompas doing Zumba inside my head. My skull feels like it weighs a ton and has been mistaken for a set of drums. Someone needs to stop hitting me! This realization is quickly followed by another one. I can’t breathe, like I literally can’t. My lungs feel like they’re being compressed by a ton of weight. It hurts to inhale and I start to panic. Quickly springing into panic mode, I wrench my eyes open and try to wriggle out from beneath the weight, all the while battling the headache from hell.
Someone grunts near me and I freeze. My hands stop shoving something that feels like a wall of steel and I scoot closer to the edge of the bed. What on earth?
“Is that how you wake people up in this family?” Cole groans next to me, finally removing his arm from over my torso.
Cole. Arm. Torso. Bed. My Bed.
Being as smooth as I always am, I let out a shriek as soon as all the jumbled words come together.
“You forgot I was here, didn’t you?” A very shirtless Cole yawns and stretches. My eyes are pivoted to his extremely shirtless body, fixating over his rippling muscles and defined stomach.
“Yeah, I think that’s it.” Struggling to breathe, I look away. The bed creaks, telling me that he’s gotten up.
“You can look now, I’m decent.”
He sounds a little too smug for my taste but it’s deserved. He knows I’d been checking him out. Heck, every girl he meets must check him out. I’m not blind; I’m a teenage girl with crazy hormones. Hormones which never seemed to make me feel this perverted until Cole came into the picture.
“How much did I drink last night?” I groan, pulling my knees up to my chest, and drop my head to rest on top of them. I have visions of Jay and Gloria Gaynor. Flashes of being up on stage and giving a speech, images of Cole surrounded by a bunch of girls with fake boobs. Okay, so maybe not all of them had fake boobs but they were still desperately all over him. That’s just as bad, I think.
“Not enough to not remember everything,” he snorts and settles down next to me. He pries my hands away from my face and makes me look at him. All the while, I’m alternating between the urge to puke and battling a surefire heart attack. Being near Cole does weird things to me
, I swear.
“I haven’t forgotten. I mean what’s the point of getting drunk if I can visualize every stupid thing I did under the influence!”
“You didn’t do anything stupid. For the first time in your life, Tessie, you were honest and I think that rocks.”
I look at the determined expression on his face. Understanding dawns upon me and I realize that yesterday I did things he’s always asked me to do. I stood up to a guy whom I’ve allowed to control me for far too long. I was myself in front of the whole town instead of being shy, quiet, meek Tessa. I did something incredibly selfish, I slashed the tires of Jay’s car, but it made me feel good so I let it pass.
“You’re right, I did sort of rock yesterday, didn’t I?”
He chuckles and gets up to go to the guest bedroom with its own bathroom. I’m not worried about anyone seeing him come out of my room, for the simple reason that no one’s home. My parents usually take a break after the gala. This year they’re taking a fishing trip with some of their friends. Travis would have made his presence known by now so it’s likely that he’s not here either. I go to my own bathroom, ready to shower till I turn into a prune but something makes me freeze. Shutting my eyes I turn on my heels so that I’m standing right in front of my full-length mirror. It’s not my bird-nest hair that’s causing me to turn beet red, nor is it the mascara smeared all over my face. I don’t even mind the lipstick staining my teeth. Oh no, that is not worrying me, though it should. What is absolutely mortifying is the fact that I’m not wearing any underpants!
I slept in the same bed with Cole Stone and forgot to wear underpants. Someone please fetch the cyanide.
***
After showering and washing all of yesterday’s grime off, I decide to dress down for the day. The sparkling tiara resting on my dressing table is the constant reminder of what I achieved yesterday. If I wanted to, I could be like Nicole or one of the more popular girls. The tangible proof is a huge boost to my self-esteem. Finally, even though it might be a little shallow, I know I’m not loser Fatty Tessie anymore. I also know that this guy I’m beginning to possibly develop feelings for and one who is responsible for almost all of my nightmares, is in my house. I eye my tattered, oversized shirt in my hand and throw it into the back of my closet. I could definitely do better. In the end I settle for a look that’s both cute and doesn’t look like I’ve spent nearly thirty minutes trying to perfect it. I’m wearing a pair of the designer jean shorts my mom bought me and I pair it with a cute, slouchy, off-the-shoulder white knitted top. Trying to be casual, I throw on my flip-flops, showing off my sparkly toenails, which had been done yesterday.
I find Cole downstairs, whistling as he cooks. It’s a familiar sight from not too long ago but the difference is evident. I’m much more aware of him now. I like to look at him and I like to study his profile. I appreciate the athletic grace he possesses as he moves around, flipping, frying, whisking and shaking. I love the way he bites his pinkie when something tastes odd. I love how he frowns when he burns a piece of toast.
Trying to be noiseless, I tiptoe down to him. His back’s turned toward me and I can tell he’s making coffee. The smell hits me like a freight train but only in the best of ways. My mouth waters and the Oompa Loompas inside me gravitate toward the source.
“How much sugar do you take in this?”
Well, so much for being sneaky.
“One sugar, oh, and creamer too.”
When he settles it in front of me, I all but gulp it down in one go. The coffee is an elixir of life for my pounding head. I have no idea why people make such a big deal out of drinking. It is not fun and I’d really rather wake up without a headache.
“Here, you need to take these, but not on an empty stomach.”
He pushes two Advil toward me along with water. Even though the thought of food makes me queasy, I manage to eat a hard-boiled egg and some toast. The blander, the better. The medicine kicks in about ten minutes later and the Oompa Loompas return to the chocolate factory.
Beyond embarrassed by the fact that I slept half dressed with him, I can’t even look at Cole. He’s humming to himself, definitely in a good mood, which shows that he wasn’t affected by my lack of clothes at all.
“Why are you so quiet?” He sips his own coffee and raises an eyebrow at me. Trying to look dreadfully casual, I shrug.
“I’m thinking about last night,” I say truthfully. I don’t mean the gala, or winning a title, but what happened later. We may have slept in the same bed before but something seems different now. He must have felt it too since he was basically wrapped around me when I woke up.
“Yeah, I knew you’d win.” He grins. I knew he’d take it the wrong way; I’d been counting on it.
“Nicole will probably be spitting fire right now. I’m almost afraid to run into her.” I shudder, but only jokingly. Something changed last night; my inhibitions went away. Speaking to Jay, letting him know how I truly felt about him now and finally admitting that Cole was a better person than him has made me braver. I know I can face Nicole now. She’s the same girl who’s terrified of ants. She’s the same girl who has the most horrible allergic reaction to coriander and she’s the same girl who cried for hours on end when Marissa Cooper died on The O.C. Yeah, I know the girl like the back of my hand. Knowing that she’s as human as I am rationalizes my resolve to end her torment. Cole doesn’t understand that I’m joking. His face hardens, his eyes losing all of their previous humor. I really know how to put my foot in my mouth, don’t I?
“We’re ending it right here, Tessie. Whatever hold she has on you, it’s over. If it were up to me, she wouldn’t even be alive after that stunt she pulled with Hank. We’re taking her down and you need to stop being so afraid.”
“It’s not that I’m scared.” I break off, gauging his reaction. Cole refuses to look me in the eye as he finishes his breakfast. This has to be done right or his temper will get worse. “I let her get away with things mostly because I really lack in the self-esteem department.”
He begins to say something but I stop him. “I get it now, I do. I might not be skinny enough, blond enough, smart enough, but I also don’t deserve all the shit she gives me. I allowed her to walk all over me thinking that that’s what I deserve, but it’s different now.”
“Why?” His eyes bore into mine intensely. The atmosphere is charged, a palpable tension surrounding us. I almost miss his crude flirting and teasing, I even miss the bully inside of him.
“Because I met this complete douchebag who made me realize that being a little narcissistic is good for the soul.” I place a hand against my heart and sigh dramatically. Finally, the spell of awkwardness breaks and Cole laughs; the sound is like music to my ears.
We laze around for some time. It’s not even afternoon yet so I text Megan and Beth, asking if they want to do something today. Both replies are disappointing since Megan can’t leave the house after nearly breaking curfew yesterday and Beth is working. She’s almost always working, taking odd jobs here and there. Her mom’s an aspiring-musician-turned-beautician. She wasn’t very frugal with her inheritance, wasting almost all of it when she made a demo and tried to get signed. When she ended up pregnant, she had to give up her dream temporarily, move back to her old town and raise her daughter. No one talks about Beth’s father, not even her. It’s a taboo topic that no one dares touch. Marie hasn’t been the greatest mother; she still spends money like she’s best friends with bank robbers. Her dreams of being a singer haven’t died but the more rejection she faces, the more she sinks into depression. Beth puts on a brave face and pulls through but I know how much she’s struggling to earn enough for college.
We’re watching cartoons, Cole’s sprawled all over the couch in my living room and I’m snuggled down in my favorite armchair. He’s texting someone constantly and even though I don’t want to admit it, it’s bothering me.
It’s bothering me a lot.
What if it’s one of the girls from yesterday? They cer
tainly looked friendly enough to give him their numbers. They were all gorgeous; he’d be an idiot to not want to get in touch with them. They’re probably better at flirting and witty banter than I am. I bet they would be doing something far more interesting with him than watching Rugrats reruns.
When he laughs for what seems like the tenth time, I throw a cushion at him, which he obviously skillfully ducks.
“What did I do?” he asks incredulously and I scowl.
“You’re interrupting my cartoons. I can’t even hear what they’re saying because of your pig-like snorting. Stop texting your groupies or get out!” I huff, crossing my arms over my chest.
His face is blank for a second or so and then he bursts out laughing. That idiot has the nerve to laugh at me, like he’s making fun of obvious jealousy. I start feeling uncomfortable pretty fast and sink into my armchair, wanting to completely vanish. Once again, my mouth shoots and scores, victory for the socially inept of the world.
“I was texting my grandmother.” Tears start streaming down his face as he buries his face in the back of the couch and thumps his fist against it, his body shaking in laughter. Well, this is awkward.
“I—I, I didn’t know. You were just being annoying.” I scowl and pull my knees up to my chest. Right now, I just need the earth to open up and swallow me whole. I wouldn’t even bat an eyelash if a meteor struck and eliminated the entire human race.
“You were jealous, Tessie, admit it.” Even though he’s trying to be smug, his eyes sparkle at the idea and I feel all warm and gooey on the inside. He likes that I’m jealous and I like that he likes that I’m jealous. It reinforces the idea that maybe, just maybe, I’m different from all the other girls in his fan club.
For the sake of pretense, I roll my eyes and snort. “You’re delusional, Stone.”
“But you’re jealous,” he nags, making my cheeks heat up. He’s going to enjoy himself with this one. I need to change the topic before he sees right through me.
“How is Nana Stone? I haven’t seen her in ages.”
