chapter 5

I mindlessly climb into the passenger seat, why am I doing this? He starts his truck and the song I heard his beautiful voice sing last night comes on. Damn you universe. "You like this song, don't you?" he asks me. I nod, I do not feel like talking. "What's wrong?" I shake my head "nothing, why would anything be wrong?" I quiz him. He shrugs and I turn my head to look out the window. My nerves start to calm as I watch the trees go past me; then I hear that sweet sweet voice singing.

I turn to look at him, just to see the angle with an angelic voice. I just stare for a second, and oh my god he is attractive. London was too right. He notices my gaze and shyly says "what?" with a shrug. I shake my head "nothing" and turn to face forward. The drive there didn't seem long at all, but the drive to jack and Willow's house seems like it's taking forever. Cole is still humming along to the radio. I don't know what song it is and I really don't care, I just want to listen to Cole. I close my eyes and pray I won't have to spend any more time with him.

We finally arrive at our destination and I couldn't be happier. I get out of his truck as fast as I can and speedwalk to the front door. While Jack puts the key in and unlocks the door I hear Cole walking up behind me and I lean my head on WIllow's shoulder so he doesn't try to talk to me. I want to go home already. When we start going inside, Willow walks to the kitchen and I follow her.

They have such a beautiful house. It was built in the '70s and you can tell by the big rock wall in their living room and the slanted ceiling. I climb onto a stool at their counter and I lay my head down on my arms. "You sure you're ok?" Cole asks as he takes a seat next to me. I just nod, again. I want to ask if he has a girlfriend, but I'm too scared; I also have no idea if he's flirting with me or just being nice. I sit up, rest my hand on my fist, and look at Cole.

Willow walks out of the kitchen and acts like we're not even there. "Do you have a girlfriend?" It slips out of my mouth before I can stop it. He laughs "well, why do you ask?" "Curiosity" we go back and forth " Do you have a boyfriend?" "You already know that I don't" "how do I know you're not just lying to my grandparents?" He's avoiding the question "Have you ever seen me with a guy? or better yet, have you ever heard of anyone being interested in me?" I pause "exactly, no Cole, I don't have a boyfriend." He looks taken aback, did I really just snap at him like that. "So do you have a girlfriend?" He shrugs "Not that I know of" I squint at him " not that you know of?" He nods "I talk to a lot of girls, and I flirt with a lot of girls so I don't know if I'm able to answer your question." I can tell saying that made him uncomfortable, and I don't blame him. Before I could say anything else, Willow calls my name I give him a 'we can talk about this later' look, and walk away.

I enter their home office that has bookshelves filling every wall. "I have another book I want you to read" I smile as she hands me a book with no dust cover, so I don't know what it's called at first glance. After further inspection, I see the title engraved on the spine. Eleanor and park; I've heard her talk about this book a few times.

She turns around, expecting me to follow her, so I do exactly that. I sat down on the couch and started reading. Cole was still sitting in the kitchen on his phone, of course he was; he always is. My mind was so busy, I could barely focus on the words I was trying to read. I closed my eyes for a second, trying to clear my mind. I heard Cole and Willow talking, but I couldn't make out the words they were saying. Why does my heart have to beat so fast when I'm around him? I opened my eyes and took a deep breath. I just have to pretend he's not there.

Once I was finally able to calm myself down, he sat down right next to me. Of course, my heart started beating so fast I was surprised I didn't have a heart attack. I took a deep breath for the millionth time today. I told myself to just focus on the words on the page, that would calm me down. I felt my phone vibrate in my back pocket. That's weird, no one ever texts me.

It was London 'wanna hang out tomorrow?' I smiled to myself, we've only hung out outside of school a few times, so I was excited to do it again. I started texting her back when Cole asked me "Who are you texting?" I turn and glare at him "none of your business." He widened his eyes "ok then" and continued to look at his phone. That was rude, but I'm not taking it back. I told London I'd ask my mom. Once I was done, I got back to reading. As my eyes scanned the tiny words, my mind got trapped in the book.

My concentration was broken when Cole decided to wave his hand over the page I was reading from. I turned my head to give him the attention he so obviously craved and he asked me "why aren't you talking to me?" I shrug and close my book, keeping my finger in between the pages to hold my place. "Well, what do you want to talk about?" He shrugged back at me. "Well if you want to talk then you should have something you want to talk about, right?" I quiz. I don't really feel like talking to him right now, I want to go home. I'm probably going to leave soon. If anything, I'll walk home.

Cole shrugged again "I don't have anything." So I continued reading. I stayed on the couch reading for a few more minutes before getting up and going to Willow. "I think I'm going to go home, I'll walk." I heard Cole enter the kitchen. "It's ok sweetie I'll take you home" Willow offered "no it's o-" I get interrupted by Cole "I'll take you home." I just want to walk. I turned around "Are you sure?" "Yeah" I give him a fake smile before hugging Willow "I'll see you Monday," she told me. I yelled bye at Jack and he returned it. Then off to Cole's truck for the second time today