Knock

Knock

Knock

The door swings open, revealing a shirtless Cole who seems to have just had a shower. I stand there speechless, not sure what to say.

Look away, Andie! Look away!

"Speechless, I see. I'm not surprised. Especially when someone as hot as me is standing in your presence." He holds the door open, gesturing for me to come in.

Ahhh the massive ego is still a thing, I see.

You deserved that, just standing there like an idiot. Mentally facepalm yourself, Andie.

I hear Cole laugh loudly. "Mentally facepalm yourself, Andie?" He laughs some more and I stand there embarrassed.

I totally just said that out loud didn't I?

"You're too cute, Princess, too much for your own good."

I go scarlet and he starts laughing, even more, resulting in me huffing and scowling. "How about we just watch a movie or something before I regret coming here."

"You mean mentally facepalm yourself, Andie, for thinking it was a good idea to come here." He teases, laughing again and I lightly punch his arm while glaring.

"Follow me." He says, his laughter dying down. I follow him and he opens the door to a room, which I guess is his, and it's painted black.

Shocker.

The guy couldn't get anymore more cliché if he tried. But that doesn't make him any less attractive.

Screw my inner thoughts and screw you even more for being right.

"I shouldn't even be surprised that this is what your room looks like," I comment and he strolls past me to sit on the bed.

"Who said it's my room?" He questions. It's not?

"Well if this isn't your room I think your parents should've hired a better interior designer because this is the opposite of homely." Cole raises his eyebrows and I clock at how rude that sounded. "Shit, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that that was rude of me I-"

I go to say is it looks so different from the small part of the house that I have seen but Cole interrupts me.

"Princess, chill. I was joking. It's my room."He laughs lightly

Jesus, Andie! What the hell are you doing!

He leans against the headboard and I hesitantly make my way over to sit on his bed.

"Stop being so awkward, Princess. I don't bite," He leans forward until we are inches apart. I hold my breath unintentionally and he looks me straight in the eyes. "Unless you want me to."

I move away before I do something stupid and his comment makes me hot. Is it hot in here? Yes, it's hot in here, somebody please open a window.

You need to chill out, Jesus...

"How about we watch something on Netflix?" I suggest, shuffling back to sit next to Cole properly.

"What about the chill part?" He asks, pouting. I scoff,

"In your dreams."

"Yes, you're right, in my dreams but I prefer to make my dreams come true." He's totally doing this on purpose. I grab a pillow, putting it over my face so he doesn't see how red I've turned.

"Stop." I groan and I can hear him laughing.

"Fine, I'll stop." I move the pillow away to see his hands up, surrendering. He picks the controller back up, "What about The Walking Dead?"

"Sure but that's a tv show, we're not going to finish it in one night."

"That's the point, princess." That's the point in what?

Wait... Is he implying he wants this to be a regular thing?

Butterflies? Check.

Racing heart? Check.

I quickly text Mia once Cole's gone to get the popcorn.

Me: I've gone to Cole's to give you both some time alone. Text me if you're going to stay there or if we're heading back to yours.

She replies quicker than expected.

Mia: I'm just gonna stay here if that's okay. Josh wants me to finally meet his parents but I'm still up for the rest of the weekend if you are...

Me: Sounds great

Cole puts the large bowl of popcorn between us and we start watching. Somewhere along the way, without even realising, I find myself resting on Cole's chest while he twirls my hair around his index finger. Swoon.

An hour later and we're on episode three. Rick has finally reunited with his family. "Yay! I knew it!" I celebrate and turn to look at Cole who is looking at me with a strange look.

"What's wrong?" I say, now frowning. Cole's eyes find mine and I'm unable to move them away. Before I know it, we are nearing closer to each other and unlike last time in the hallway, we're not interrupted.

Cole's lips are on mine for a sweet second before he pulls away to look at me. This time, I kiss him back and it's deeper than last time.

His hands fall to my waist and he groans with his lips still on mine. My hands have a mind of their own and make their way to his hair, lightly tugging at it.

I'm eventually the first one to pull away to catch my breath and his forehead now rests on mine.

"You're so perfect." He whispers as he pushes the stray hair behind my ear. I blush and look down but Cole puts his finger under my chin to gently push my face up so my eyes meet his.

God, I'm crazy about him.

It scares the hell out of me but no matter how hard I try to fight it, I can't shake how I feel about him. Every second I spend with him makes my feelings for him even stronger.

Whenever I'm with him, I give a piece of my heart away.

Once he has all of the pieces it's game over for me.

If I give him my heart, he has the power to crush it with just one hand if he chose to. He could shatter my heart and I wouldn't have a say because I don't have it anymore.

Hell, I don't even own it anymore. He does.

If he chose to, he could smash it to a million pieces and walk away. Leaving me stranded with nothing but a million parts of a heart that even if given all the time in the world, won't help mend it.

He kisses my nose and I can't help but grin. "Episode four?" I ask while the credits roll onto the screen.

"Absolutely." He grins back and we go back to how we were both lying before, my head on his chest.

This isn't normal for friends to act like this, right? So why is it so hard for me to ask what we are, that's if he would consider us anything...

We've kissed twice now, almost three times and the urge to kiss him again grows stronger by the second. I roll to my side to check the time to see it's 11 pm. Damn, where the hell did the time go?

I yawn, "I should get going, it's late..." If I didn't know any better, I would say he looked disappointed.

"Why don't you just stay? My parents are away for the weekend so it's just us." The thought of spending the night with Cole was nerve-racking enough but just the two of us?

It makes me more hesitant than before. "It means we get to watch more walking dead." He wiggles his eyebrows and I laugh, finally agreeing.

"You can stay in one of the guest rooms if it makes you any more comfortable." He suggests and I nod weakly.

I send Nadia a quick text to say that I'm staying at another friends house tonight and I put my phone down before I get a reply.

After a couple more episodes, my eyes become heavy and I drift off to sleep.

Guess I'm not staying in the guest room after all...

******

When I wake up I realise that I'm all alone in Cole's room. Where did he go?

After a little bit of searching, I finally find the bathroom and use the spare toothbrush Cole mentioned last night. Catching a glimpse of myself in the mirror, I look up in horror.

Yes, I'm not one to invest too much time into my appearance, but I look a mess and when the guy you like is most probably downstairs, the last thing you want is to look like this.

I'm in yesterday's clothes that I wore all day, slept in and now going to continue to wear home. My hair is a mess and my face slightly puffy from where I've just woken up—at least the hair can be salvaged.

I admire the décor around the house as I walk downstairs. Yes, Cole's room isn't exactly homely, but the rest of his home is. It's a pretty large house but not too big that you'll feel lonely whenever you're in it.

Walking to my right, I end up in the shower room so once I've turned around, I catch the aroma lingering in the air. I follow it.

It leads me to a closed door and when I open it, Cole is there over the stove. Cooking.

My eyes are drawn to the bowl of fruit and plate of bacon sitting on the table. This smells amazing. I didn't know Cole cook could.

He must hear the door open because he turns around, grinning widely. "Morning, Princess. Sleep okay?" I nod, smiling back.

"Yes, thanks," I say softly.

"Thought you'd say that. You breathe really heavy in your sleep and yet somehow it was kinda calming." He laughs lightly but I put my head down, slightly embarrassed, heading to the table.

"Shit, I wasn't trying to upset you or anything it was cute it-," I laugh at how Cole is now the one being a stuttering mess.

"Cole, you didn't upset me." His shoulders sink in relief.

"Good." I drum my fingers on the table.

"How'd you sleep?" I ask back. He grabs the pancakes he cooked and brings them to the table with the syrup before replying,

"Great." I nod and resist the urge to throw myself over the table to get the syrup.

I moan in delight when the perfect combination hits my taste buds. Holy shit this is good.

"Are you sure you're not Gordan Ramsey or something." He lets out a loud laugh and both make small talk while we finish eating.

I start washing the dishes and I hear Cole's voice from behind me, who's putting away the rest of the things from the table. "You do know we have a dishwasher for a reason, right?" I shrug,

"I didn't know where it was."

He grabs the towel from beside me and when his arm brushes my back, I shiver. He doesn't even notice what he just did, he just starts drying the dishes and cutlery. I splash him with the water before draining it from the sink.

"You're so going to regret that because I've just gotten out the shower." He says and a wave of nostalgia hits me.

My mum splashes me with the dishwater and I throw my head back and protest. "Mum," I groan, "I literally just had a shower and now my clothes are covered in dirty water." My mums only reply is laughing and splashing me again.

"That's it, you're going down." I grab the towel I was previously using and use it as a shield. I throw water all over my mum who's standing directly in front of the sink.

"You did not just do that..." She giggles and I squeal, running away.

I breathe out and only just notice the small number of tears on my face.

Oh great, I'm crying. Again. I'm so sick of crying.

Cole is looking at me with concern. "You know Princess, you shouldn't cry because she's gone. You should smile because she was and still is with you."

Hundred percent sure that's some silly Pinterest quote but my heart still melts because Cole's the one to say it.

He knew exactly why I was crying and I didn't even have to say anything... I step forward and throw my arms around him without hesitation, hugging him tightly.

My stomach flips and the warm feeling in my chest grows. He rests his chin on the top of my head and runs his finger down my back.

Whenever I was with my mum it felt like home. We could be in a completely different continent and I'd still feel at home because home isn't the house you live in, it's who you're with and for the first time in forever I feel it again.

I thought I'd never feel it again after my mum died, but I do.

I finally feel at home...

Stepping back, I look Cole in the eyes before wiping my wet hand against the side of his face. He looks shocked but then he smirks at me.

"Bad decision, Princess, bad decision..." I giggle and he flips us around so he's the one stood near the sink, splashing me with the running tap. "Game on." He says and I leap back when he tries to splash me again.

Every time I try and run to the sink, I get stopped because Cole is stood right by our only source of water. "Hey, that's cheating!" I pout, amusement present in his eyes.

"Don't hate the play, Princess, hate the game." I run straight toward him, no matter how many times he splashes me and I get him back.

Now his hair's wet, it flops over his eyes. I step back just in time before the water he throws hits me and I fail. Massively.

I slip up and I can't help but laugh. "Oh shit! Are you okay?" Cole rushes to me but because the floor is so wet he slips up himself. I stop laughing,

"Are you okay?" I ask, concerned but now it's his turn to laugh and I join him.

"I'm soaked," I say, mid laughing.

"That's just the power I have over girls." He smirks and I roll my eyes trying to stop the smile that is slyly making its way onto my face.

"Is there ever a time you don't drop at least one innuendo?"

******

We're now in Cole's car because he's taking me home. He offered and I accepted once he told me he'd pick me up Monday, said he'll take me back here after school to get my car.

I'm not going to complain...

We must've spent a good forty-five minutes just moping up large pools of water. Cole offered me a pair of sweatpants and shirt considering my clothes are dripping wet so that's what I'm now wearing.

I didn't even have time to open the car door before the front door flies open with a smug-looking Mia standing there along with a not so happy Josh.

Cole looks rather confused, probably because Mia and Josh are together. "Oh right, they sorted everything out. It's a long story." He doesn't bother to ask any questions.

"Well thanks for everything I guess, I had fun." I smile and get out of the car but as I walk away, Cole speaks.

"Princess, wait." He gets out of the car and walks toward me and hugs me. Wait what? I know we've hugged multiple times but I didn't realise it was a regular thing.

My heart hammers against my rib cage when I feel his hands go around my waist. That's when I spot Josh's face as I lean into his shoulder.

Is this why he's doing this?

"You're doing this just to piss Josh off, aren't you?" I ask and I feel his body shake. He's laughing, isn't he...

"You caught me." A feeling of disappointment settles within me and just for a split second, I wonder if he has done everything between us for that reason.

He wouldn't do that.

Would he?

No, absolutely not.

He wanted to stop the petty arguments and he wouldn't use me. Not after everything.

I shake the thoughts away when Cole pulls back. The way he's looking at me makes my heart race tremendously.

"Goodbye, Princess." He whispers. He gets in his car and I wave and stare as he drives away till I can no longer see him.

"Goodbye, Cole," I whisper to myself.

When I turn back around, I greet my best friend and cousin both with a smile. Mia returns it, Josh, however... You already know the answer.

"That was the cutest thing I've ever witnessed, why aren't you two together yet?" Mia must catch Josh's expression from the corner of her eye because she smacks him lightly on his chest.

"Chill out babe, you changed. Who's to say Cole hasn't?" I try not to cringe at her name for him but I can't help be think about what she said. It makes me hope that there's a chance he'll change but I'm not sure I'm going to be the one to make him do it.

"One, we won't be getting together," Ouch, a pain in my chest occurs once the words fall out of my mouth. I wish we could be together. "And two, let's try and keep the pet names to a minimum please." My expression showing disgust.

"Please, coming from you." Mia laughs, "Goodbye, Princess." She mimics Cole with a deep voice and I burst out laughing.

"Come on, let's go in." I just about manage to get the words out while I laugh. Once we head inside, Nadia is drinking her coffee while Mark is reading today's paper—the usual.

In the end, we all decide to watch movies for the rest of the day. Josh is cuddled with Mia, Nadia is cuddled with Mark while I'm by myself. I can't help but wish Cole was sitting here with me.

What the hell are you doing to me, Cole Jones?

I wish Cole was holding me like that right now, just like last night. I hate to admit it but I miss him already.

Realistically, I should be thinking of ways to get over him because we're not going to happen. But I can't do it. There's no point even trying.

We're not even together and I know I'm in too deep.

That's why I've made a decision. On Monday I'm going to finally ask him what we are and more importantly if we ever will be anything at all.

How the hell did I get here?

I went from being determined that I wouldn't fall for him and yet,

I did exactly that.

<<<<<<

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