“Aubry?” I whispered.
“Yeah?” he said.
He was sitting by his desk on the other side of the room, so I walked over to him.
“Cole is sleeping on the floor by my door,” I said crossing my arms over my chest.
“Yeah, I know. He told me he was tired, so I told him to take the couch, but he told me he was sleeping with you.” I rolled my eyes, and he continued. “I told him there was no way in hell you were going to share a bed with him. He said he couldn’t sleep under the same roof as you on separate beds. I reminded him that he did it all the time during Christmas, and he said it was hell for him.”
I felt an uncomfortable pain in my chest. “What do I do? I can’t just leave him there.”
Aubry shrugged. “I don’t know. If you wake him up, he’s going to your bed though.”
I exhaled. “Damn it.”
I turned back to my room and sighed when I looked at Cole’s sleeping body. I took a couple of deep breaths before getting on my knees beside him. I shook him as hard as I could. Shaking Cole was like moving a big bag of bricks, he barely moved, and I was using all of my body weight to wake him.
“Cole,” I started to shout as I shook him. How can he be such a heavy sleeper?
His green eyes popped open and he sat up swiftly, banging his head against mine. We both cringed and rubbed our heads before I rolled my eyes, stood up, and walked into my room. I got into bed and watched Cole as he followed, closing and locking the door behind him. I averted my eyes as he stripped down to his boxers and settled down beside me.
“Stay on your side,” I warned as I leaned over and turned off the lamp.
His low chuckle vibrated the mattress, and I moved over as far away from him as I physically could without falling out of bed.
My ringing phone woke me up the next morning. I slowly opened my eyes and looked down at the arm draped across my stomach. I gritted my teeth together a couple of times to reign in my temper. He thought he could just come barging into my life and flip it upside down. I threw his heavy arm off of me and got out of bed.
“Hey,” he said softly behind me.
“Hey,” I replied shortly. “I have to go. I don’t think Aubry has class until this afternoon, though.”
I walked to the bathroom with the clothes that I took out last night. Cole stepped in as soon as I finished changing. I gritted my teeth, but didn’t even acknowledge him as he stood behind me when I was applying my make up. I was in the kitchen making coffee when Zack knocked on the door to pick me up. He and I had class at the same time some days, so we carpooled. I asked him to make our bagels as I finished doing the dishes. I sat down and tried not to make a disgusted face as I watched him overload his bagel with cream cheese. I always hated when he did that. We were talking nonsense when Cole appeared in the kitchen, glaring at Zack and I. I smiled brightly at his pissed-off face.
“Why are you so happy this morning, Princess? Did you miss me sleeping next to you?” Cole smirked.
I thought you could hear my jaw hit the floor. It was that bad. I bit my lip and grabbed my bagel as I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Let’s go, Z,” I said as I pulled his arm to stand up.
“He slept with you?” Zack asked with a look of confusion painted all over his face.
“He didn’t sleep with me. He just slept in my room,” I said, trying to save this morning from turning into a drama-filled battle. I hated Cole at that moment.
“You let him sleep in your bed with you?” Zack asked in a serious tone.
I threw my head back and let out a breath. “Z, are you serious right now?”
“Yes. I am dead serious right now,” he said, crossing his arms.
“Yes, he slept in the same bed as me. Nothing happened though. He slept on one side, and I slept on the other,” I said as I rubbed my forehead and Cole made a single cackling sound. Asshole.
“Hm,” Zack replied before turning to the door. He shot Cole a death glare over his shoulder. “Let’s go, babe. We’re going to be late.”
I looked at Cole and noticed his jaw tighten at Zack’s endearment. I flipped him off as I walked out and closed the door behind us. On our way to school, Zack wanted to quiz me about Cole and our history. He told me that he didn’t want Cole anywhere around me—least of all, sleeping in my apartment. He went on for a while and I could only hear that noise the teacher in Charlie Brown made. I stared out the window while I thought about how I was going to break up with Zack on our way home from school.