Okay, continue!

Enjoy, and as per usual I will reply to any comment posted within the next 48hrs!

|| Chapter 31 ||

"This is a terrible idea," I comment from where I'm leaning against the hood of Isaac's car.

He straightens his blazer, staring at his reflection in the passenger window. "No it isn't."

I look over my shoulder at him, "The fact that you don't see that just proves that it's a terrible idea."

"For the last time, Drew was fine in the trunk. The average person can survive three days locked in a trunk," he points out, fixing his hair.

"That doesn't make it any better." He gives me a flat stare. "Was the mariachi band really necessary?" I ask, looking to my left and seeing the mariachi band Isaac hired, for the next two hours, warming themselves up in the middle of the gym parking lot.

"Absolutely, I want the full experience," he states with a cheeky grin.

I push off the hood and walk around to stand next to him. "You're asking her to dinner not proposing."

"I just want to make it fun." He stands straight and faces me.

I sigh and lean in to fix his tie. "Why am I here?"

He gives me a bright smile. "Moral support." Fantastic.

"You couldn't have asked anyone else?" I look around the packed parking lot. A few people look our way while they walk towards the automatic sliding doors.

He suddenly grabs my shoulders, "Because I want you here, duh."

He takes his phone out and holds it in front of us. "Nope, no selfies, no pictures." I put a hand up in front of his phone, blocking my face.

"Oh come on, you never take pictures with anyone, I've never even seen you in a picture that isn't forcibly taken by your mother."

I twist out of his arm and stand to the side, hands in the pockets of my sweatpants. "This is why I don't have social media, I don't need to document my whole life for everyone."

He rolls his eyes, shrugging before taking a selfie and placing his phone in his blazer pocket, "Fine, but one day, I will get a selfie from you."

"What if she says no?" I ask him quietly, voicing the fear I had for him since getting in his car when he picked me up this morning.

"Then no harm no foul, I tried, she said no, we move on to bigger and better things," He gives me a confident smile. "You can't be scared to put yourself out there Tess, it's scary but can also be rewarding," he winks, slipping an arm around my shoulder.

"I'm trying," I answer, timidly placing my arm around his waist loosely.

"I know," he says simply, not pushing for anything more. "Think about it, if I hadn't gone for it with Jesse, we never would have hooked up."

The air leaves my lungs. "Jesse?" My voice comes out in a squeak.

He tilts his head, "You didn't know he's bi?"

"You did?"

Isaac laughs, "Man, for someone that's supposed to know everyone's secrets, you're really slacking, huh?" He gives himself a once over, flashing me a shining grin and locks his car. "Come to think of it," he continues, completely disregarding my comatose state of mind, "you've stopped doing a lot of stuff, like when was the last time you vandalised something?"

"I-I just...Jesse?"

He slips on his sunglasses, "Tess think about it, are you really surprised?" He tightens his grip on my shoulder and moves us towards the automatic doors.

"But-how? I mean I Googled what pansexuality is so that I could, you know be supportive for you and everything but Jesse doesn't have a personality, he's always come off as just looks." I explain, gesturing with my hands about how confusing this all is.

Isaac laughs loudly, squeezing my shoulder, "Oh god, I love you. But there's a lot to Jesse that you didn't know, hence your shock at his sexuality. He's a really good guy and we've hung out a few times playing video games and stuff but it was just one night like over a month ago, and he wanted nothing more, so I can accept that."

"I'm sorry," I tell him from lack of having a better response.

He signals for the mariachi band to follow him, "It's fine, I told you, 'bigger and better things'," he winks, gesturing with his free arm towards the gym doors, or more to what's inside the gym door sitting at the reception desk.

"And Addison?"

His smile widens, "She just, gets it. We hung out the other day. I bumped into her at the mall, she had just gotten her eyebrows waxed so she had these huge red marks on her face and she didn't even care, she just ran up and hugged me and we ended up spending the day together." A small smile tugs at the corner of my lips. "She even convinced me to get my eyebrows done, check it," he lifts his glasses letting me examine his perfectly done eyebrows that I hadn't picked up on earlier. "We both looked hilarious and we got to talking about everything: my family, Jesse and everything between Drew and you," I raise my eyebrows but he just brushes it off with a wave of his hand, "and she didn't even judge. You and her are the only people in my life that haven't made me feel uncomfortable for being myself, it's really refreshing."

There's a weird lump in my throat every time I try to swallow. Fuck these emotions. There's a pricking at the corner of my eye and it causes me to reach across and rip the sunglasses off of Isaac's face and slip them on mine, keeping my face forward and blank. "I'll wait out here." I slip my arm from around his shoulders and clasp my hands together, giving him an encouraging half-smile.

He chuckles giving me a two finger salute before stepping into the mat to open the automatic doors. The mariachi band walks around from either side of him and immediately starts playing their music to the shock and delight of Addison behind the desk.

"For the record," I call to him making him turn one last time to look at me, "I love you too."

He smiles brightly at me. It dims down to a smirk as he takes one step towards the inside of the gym, but keeps his eyes on me, "I know, I'm fucking adorable, what's not to love?" He asks rhetorically and walks into the lobby of the gym, the automatic doors closing behind him.

I shake my head with a smile on my face as I watch Addison laugh at the sight of Isaac flourishing his arms in front of the band, "Prick."

|| ✨ ||

"Ready?" Sophie asks, tapping on my open door on Saturday afternoon.

I look up from my laptop, "For?" I'm sprawled across my bed in a pair of sweatpants and a tank top.

"Ribs!" Cole yells running past my bedroom door. Sophie gives me a grin followed by a shrug.

A door slams open, "What? Where?" Sebastian yells out following Cole's footsteps. "I want!"

"You're not invited, Twinny," Sophie tells him, stopping from catching up to Cole. "I promised Tess I would take her for ribs this weekend since you went with dad and Harry the other day."

He mouth drops open, "But then why does Cole get to go?" His voice is an annoying whine. I scramble off the bed and slip on a pair of Nike slides, patting my shoulder length hair to make sure it's not all over the place.

Sophie gives him a flat stare. "You didn't invite him for ribs." Her response is simple and the guilt on Sebastian's face is comical. He runs a hand roughly through his black and green hair, something he's decided to make permanent it would seem.

I give him a cheeky smile as I walk past. Sophie throws an arm around my waist, since she's too short to reach my shoulder.

"Have fun!" Charlotte and Olivia call from Charlotte's bed as we walk past. Quinn is sitting by the window with a book in her hands, completely sucked in. Courtney is sitting at the desk, making pencil marks on a piece of fabric. Maddie is standing next to Courtney, covered in fabric that is pinned in certain places, looking like the start of a dress for Maddie. She has the biggest smile on her face when Courtney holds up a piece of purple fabric up to her face.

"You girls are not moving fast enough!" Cole yells from the top of the stairs. He runs back over to us and scoops Sophie over his shoulder making her shriek. He makes a run for the stairs but once he's on them he takes each step carefully. I smile to myself and jog after them.

We jump into Cole's black Jeep Wrangler and we start the drive to the BBQ place. I sit behind Cole's seat and watch him take her hand and rest it on the center console. He stops at the bottom of our driveway and looks over to her. "Did I tell you how stunning you look today?"

She blushes but makes a point to look down all the way from her white Birkenstocks to her black leggings then the black t-shirt that is undeniably Cole's and finally she places a hand on her messy bun of dark hair. "Four times already."

He leans over and kisses her cheek, "Better make it five then." She laughs, shoving his face away with her free hand and he pulls onto the street.

I lean my head against the window, listening to the music playing and watching the scenery I've known all my life. Our dead end street connects to the main neighborhood street and we turn onto the main road. Sophie twists in her seat to look back at me. She smiles. "How was Wednesday? Was it a success?"

Cole glances for a split second into the rearview mirror, showing that he's also paying attention to the conversation. "It was...cute I guess. She laughed for a good ten minutes while the band played and he did a whole dance number thing. But she said yes so the grand gesture was worth it," I end with a shrug.

Sophie rolls her eyes, "Grand gestures make me breakout in hives," she physically shivers, "All that social interaction and attention." She sticks her tongue out in disgust.

Cole laughs, "It's true! You should have seen her when I asked her to Prom, I thought she was going to jump into the lake we were at."

Sophie widens her eyes slightly, "Trust me I was debating it."

The corner of my mouth tilts into a smile. "Adorable," I tell them with a bland tone. She grins, turning back to face the front.

We arrive at the BBQ restaurant and the smell of smoke hits me as soon as I open the car door. You can see the smoke from the smokers cooking meat trailing into the sky above. The whole restaurant has a real Southern feeling. The whole place is made out of stone and the roof it tin. Cole and I discuss what we're playing to get as we stop at the back of the short line.

There's two lines leading into the restaurant itself. One is for the 'Take Away' customers who have to walk inside to pay for their order and pick it up and then there's the main line for sit down customers. It leads you right in front of two smokers sitting side-by-side so two customers can order at once. Two men wearing long black aprons and black gloves are standing at the front of each smoker. Each customer tells them what meat and how much of it they want and the mean pull it right off the smoker in front of you.

Cole gets almost every kind of meat including brisket; two racks of ribs; jalapeno sausage which is Sophie's favorite and smoke fried chicken that we have to grab inside.

Cole and I grab the two trays full of meat and follow Sophie inside. Inside there's more of a country vibe. Country music is playing in the background but there is a stage in the back meaning that they do have live music sometimes. There's a bunch of vintage stuff lying around on shelves or stuck on the walls like an old bright red Coca-Cola fridge and a completely random taxidermized bear on top of a ledge. Gross.

A school cafeteria setup is used for people to get their sides and we let Sophie choose all of them. She grabs three drink cups and Cole and I push the extra tray of sides down the line. Cole pays for all of us and I thank him quietly as Sophie squeezes his hand tightly.

We find a seat at a high table and place all our things down while Sophie grabs out drinks. I run to steal a few extra plates so we can spread everything out and a couple utensils. Sophie and Cole sit next to each other and I sit across from them with an empty seat next to me.

Sophie lifts a piece of fried chicken to her mouth and daintily takes a small bite. Cole and I have no shame when we both pick up a rib each and stuff our faces getting pieces of meat and spice all over us.

"So how's Chicago?" I ask them in between bites.

Sophie tilts her head, "Chicago is...Chicago I guess," she gives me a nervous laugh, "it's great, just another city to see. You'll have to come visit sometime." Cole nods his head enthusiastically, his main focus the food in front of him.

Cole catches something out of the corner of his eye and drops his rib and immediately grabs Sophie's hand that is holding her fried chicken. "You painted your nails?"

Sophie startles for a second, drops her piece of chicken and slowly makes eye contact with Cole. I take a second to look at her nails, which we had only just gotten done the other day with the rest of the girls. Her nails were baby pink that day. They're lavender now.

Cole's put the same string of thought together as he watches the emotions flitter across her face. He suddenly snaps back to attention and drops her hand gently. "They look great," he says with a forced smile. She doesn't offer one back.

She wipes her hands on a napkin and slides off her stool. "I'm just going to go to the restroom quickly, I'll be right back." She doesn't look at either of us as she walks quickly away.

He looks at me and I jerk my head, silently telling him to go after her. He gives me a grateful nod and rushes to reach her before she can disappear into the restroom. I know that I don't have the capability to pull her out of her slump if I had to.

The fact that she still has these small bouts of depression every now and then weighs on the conscience of my family. None of us have ever had to deal with the idea of depression or anxiety to the level that Sophie does. Sure, Charlotte has a nervous tick to clean everything when she's anxious and my mother's chest feels like it's caving in when something she doesn't understand comes across her and of course I dislike social interaction as much as the next person but Sophie's had it worse than any other person in my family.

The only thing we have to be grateful for is the signs she sends us when she is going through a slump but she can't tell us. The color change of her nails is the main one. Especially since we had all just gotten our nails done. The fact that she felt the need to take off gel nail polish to repaint them sends out warning signs for all of us.

I watch them subtly, casually picking up another piece of rib and some fried okra in my free hand with a fork. Cole managed to catch her in the small alcove leading to the restrooms. She's trying to reassure him. I can see it on her face, but Cole doesn't remove his hand from her cheek, even as he picks up her hands an unfurls them, looking for fresh nail marks. What he sees must relieve him from the way he dips his forehead and leans it on hers, quietly whispering to her.

She's wiping each tear that falls down her face as she starts talking more freely, Cole listening intently to every word coming out of her mouth. Once she's finished Cole starts talking. His hand moves from her cheek to the back of her neck. He leans in and kisses her softly once before letting her go completely.

She nods her head and walks into the women's restroom. Cole stands across from the door, patiently waiting for her to return. She walks out less than two minutes later. Her hair is down and she leans into Cole's side. He wraps an arm around her shoulder and kisses her head.

I turn back to my food as they let go of each other. Sophie practically jumps onto the seat with a big smile on her face. Her eyes are slightly red along with her cheeks but her smile is dazzling. "How are your ribs?" She asks as if she hadn't just had a full breakdown by the restrooms. I give her the relief of playing along.

"Best ribs I've ever had, seriously. Cole needs to catch up before I eat them all," I give her a tight grin, doing my best to make it seem genuine.

Cole slides into his chair and relaxed smile on his face although the strain in his eyes tells a different story. "Bet, I can eat you out of house and home," he smirks picking up his once forgotten rib.

"You underestimate my skills, Cole. Sebastian and Harry are my brothers, they've trained me well," I taunt him, taking the smallest sip of my drink.

Sophie is watching the whole encounter with a wide smile and laughter dancing in her eyes. Cole raises an eyebrow in challenge. "Babe, count how many we eat, no rush though," he warns me with a pointed finger in my direction.

"Scared we'll have to hold your hair back when you start throwing up?" I tease, a mischievous glint in my eye.

He scrunches his nose at me and rips a piece of meat off the bone. "If either of you throw up, I'm never taking you to get Barbeque again," Sophie threatens, using her fingers to pull a piece of fried chicken off the bone. Her eyes are shining with amusement. Our work here is done.

|| ✨ ||

Hello!

Favorite part of this chapter?? I have too many!

I hope some of you picked up on Sophie's subtle signs from her Bonus Chapter in JMYN about the nail polish etc. It's not as obvious back then because nobody knew about Sophie's problems back then but now they're more prominent.

Either way I hope you all enjoyed the chapter!

Until next time,

Sammipott xx