The Bad Boy's Girl (Now Available as a Paperback and ebook)

The Valentine's Day Special

The girls watch me with their mouths wide open, even Beth for all her resilience looks upset as I recount the details of this past weekend.

"I don't even know who drove him home, he won't tell me anything. He's in so much trouble with his parents and I'm not even mad about being stood up but he's refusing to tell me what happened. Wouldn't that make upset as well because I sure as hell am?"

"Of course," Beth mumbles, "Travis wouldn't live to see the light of day if he did that to me."

We both know he never would though, not after Beth's mom Marie's death in a drunk driving accident.

"I can ask Alex about it if you want. He hasn't brought it up but Cole must've told him something."

Megan volunteers and I'm tempted. As Cole's best friend, Alex should be able to shed some more light on what happened that day but I'm not going to sneak around Cole's back. He's got to tell me himself or handle the consequences. Trust is crucial to me and while it may take me some time to get over my initial fear of putting my faith in people, once I trust someone I'm in it for life. Which is why it hurts so much that Cole's obviously going through something and refusing to talk to me about it?

"He tried to apologise to me after football practice today but he still won't tell me what happened..."

"Hence the snapchat glory."

"Pretty much."

We're all quiet for a bit and then no one brings it up again, there's not really much they can say at this point. Something is going on with my boyfriend and he's obviously trying to hide it from me. I'm the not the kind of girlfriend who refuses to give him even an inch of personal space. He gets to keep his secrets if there's something he isn't ready to tell me or if it's too private, lord knows I do that. But this isn't something I can just wave off. He hurt me, he put me through a hell no one should have to go through, wondering if something terrible had happened to him and he won't even tell me why.

I can't let that go.

***

Valentine's Day comes a week later and I'm sorely disappointed by how true my premonitions were about this day weeks ago. Before Cole, I'd never really given a lot of thought to the day. Sure I'd think about Jay and Nicole and then stuff my face with Kit Kats, that I'd buy for myself in bulk that day but the day would pass by without being anything spectacular. But this year I'd thought it would be different, just so incredibly different and special. I'd have Cole by my side and even thought it's a stupid holiday driven by consumerism, someone else would buy me chocolate and flowers, maybe even a card. Though along with the excitement of having someone to share the day with came that feeling that always nags at you when you're looking forward to something. That pesky little bugger is always there, always hissing that all your plans will go up in smoke and that you should be prepared to have all your hopes and dreams smashed.

Pleasant right?

Well, I'd always experience it. When you've grown up watching the worst case scenario always being the case you do tend to be a bit of a pessimist. Then again, if the thing you dread is your reality then you're not a pessimist, you're a realist and that just sucks.

Valentine's Day is a Sunday and finds me at home working on my homework. I woke up early today at 7am after a restless couple of hours of sleep so the day is already off to a hideous start. Add to that the fact that I'd been ignoring the homework piling over me the last couple of days and I'm hunched over my laptop, my eyes crossing over by this point. It's three hours later and I've barely made a dent into my coursework but my grumbling stomach forces me to take a break from the evils of Calculus and head to the kitchen.