When I walked through the door later that day, I spotted Cole and Aubry in the living room playing a video game.
“Aubry, can I talk to you for a minute...please?” I asked after I put my books in my room.
“Sure, Cowboy, can you wait 3 minutes? We’re almost done with this game,” he replied, never taking his eyes off the television.
“Why can’t you just talk to him here? I don’t mind,” Cole said as he pressed down on the controller repeatedly with his thumb.
“This is an A-B conversation, Cole,” I said with an eye roll before turning toward the kitchen.
When they were done, Aubry met me in the kitchen and I quietly told him that I broke up with Zack but asked him not to tell Cole anything. I only wanted to warn Aubry since Zack was his friend and teammate. As for Cole, I wanted him to think I was happy with my boyfriend when he headed back to North Carolina. He didn’t need to know that I ran off yet another guy—because I couldn’t connect with any of them the way I did with him. I kept trying to tell myself that I just hadn’t found the right guy. The worst part was that I had the right guy—before I drove him away, too.
The following night, the guys went to a party. They tried to convince me to go, but I told them that Zack hated parties, and I couldn’t go without him. Aubry gave me a look, but Zack wasn’t the party type, so he wouldn’t be there. Really, it would have been a great plan—if it wasn’t for my sucky luck.
At 11:00, I heard them rush through the door and I sat up in my bed, putting my book down. Cole started shouting my name and pounding on my door shortly after. I got up and slowly shuffled my feet toward the door, praying that he wasn’t drunk. I found his green eyes glaring at me as he leaned his forearm against the doorframe. Behind him, I saw Aubry with his arms crossed over his chest with a similar flushed look on his face. Oh, shit.
“How’d it go?” I squeaked. I hoped this had nothing to do with me, even though I knew it had everything to do with me.
“Why didn’t you tell me that you broke up with Zack?” Cole demanded, narrowing his eyes.
I sighed. “Cole, that’s none of your business. What happened? Did you hurt him?”
“No. I wanted to. I was going to. If it weren’t for Aub, I might have killed that jerk.”
I ran my hands down my face before I sighed and looked at him again. “What happened?”
“He was at the party, talking to some girl. She had her hands all over him, and he was loving that shit. I confronted him about it, and he told me you broke up. I didn’t believe him. I thought he was just talking shit in front of the girl.”
“They shoved each other back and forth, knocking over everything. When I noticed, I ran up to them right before Cole swung at Zack. I told him it was true, and we got out of there,” Aubry finished in an annoyed tone.
I shook my head. Unbelievable. “You were going to punch my boyfriend for letting a girl touch him while they were talking? Are you hearing yourself? Doesn’t it remind you of someone?”
“That was different, damn it. When are you going to let that go?” Cole pleaded angrily.
“Maybe when I forget how you rocked her world when she visited you a couple of weeks after we broke up. Maybe when I get the image of you two together at that fucking party out of my head. Maybe when I stop seeing her tongue down your throat months AFTER THAT,” I snapped. He paled and took a deep breath. “You can sleep on the couch or on the floor or on Aubry’s bed. I don’t care where you sleep, but you are not sleeping in my bed tonight,” I continued.
Cole nodded his head slowly. “I’ll take the floor...next to your bed.”
I let out a sarcastic laugh. “When are you going to get over that? Why don’t you call Sasha and see if her bed is unoccupied?”
“Are you fucking kidding me, Blake? I made a mistake. I was hurt. Can you stop rehashing that? I’m sorry. I’ll be sorry for the rest of my life. Fuck,” he muttered.
I turned on my heels and walked back to bed. Before I reached it, I heard a thump behind me. My heart started beating rapidly, and I looked back startled, not knowing what to expect. I definitely didn’t expect to find Cole on his knees, right behind me. When I turned my body, he hugged my lower half tightly, crushing his head against my abdomen.