Getting By ~ Cole & Cassie's Story

Questions (Of Sanity?)

Cole P.O.V

                I was starting to truly hate school. Everyone stared at us and whispered behind their hands as we walked down the hall, making us feel like freaks. I tried to be with Sophie every minuet, but sometimes class ran late and I couldn’t be at the door when class ended. Sometimes neither Jen nor Eric where with her, and it wasn’t like I could go to the bathroom with her, so people would tease her there, too. But if I could, I would.

Today was one of the worst; it was early February –two months until Sophie’s due date- and a guy who had hassled us before was watching us come down the hall.

“Hey guys, look! It’s the slut and the man whore!” Sophie was squeezing my hand, pleading with her eyes for me to leave it alone. Someone flicked a condom at us “Hey, use this, I don’t need it!”

Insults were flying, and I suddenly just snapped. I swung a punch at the first jerk, again and again. That was a bad idea. I was knocked off my feet; I slid across the hall, my jaw burning. I saw red spots and could hear Sophie crying, begging for them to stop.

Finally, a teacher showed up and he and Eric got them off me. I put my arm around Sophie as we were led to the office, and the head cheerleader spoke up.

“You whore; don’t you know what a condom is?”

“Shut up,” Jen said “At least she has the decency to have it instead of killing an innocent unborn baby like some people.” People sniggered and I shot Jen a grateful look. She shrugged and squeezed Sophie’s shoulder supportively.

I was suspended for a week.

                I watched Jen drive away, Sophie in the passenger seat, waving and smiling at me. This was going to drive me crazy, being at home, suspended, while Sophie was at school. Without me. With people who despised her just because she was seventeen and pregnant.

But this did give me the opportunity to talk to Cassie about something-something I couldn’t talk about with Sophie around.

“Cass, can I talk to you?” I asked, shoving Horton off a huge stack of books at the register where Cassie was typing furiously away at her laptop. I knew she was writing a novel, but hadn’t read any of it yet. She never let anyone read her stuff. That got her attention. Her hands froze, and she stared at me. Slowly, she got up and hugged me tightly. I didn’t know what to say; I didn’t think I’d even get this far.

“Sure, Cole, what’s up?” she was still typing, and I knew she was busy, but this couldn’t wait any longer. I only had two months.

“I want to ask Sophie to marry me.”

 “Oh Cole,” she let me go “Finn, can you keep an eye out for a while? Family emergency.”

“Sure Cassie,” Finn came out and winked at me, taking place behind the counter. I followed Cassie up the stairs to our apartment, where she told me to sit on the faded velvet couch while she went to get something. I honestly had no idea what she was doing.

She came back a minuet later, her hands behind her back. Sitting on the other side of the couch and tucking her legs underneath her, she faced me. She looked sad. She handed me a small blue velvet box, her hands trembling.

 I opened the box, a diamond glinting in the light. I looked up at Cassie, “Is this-”

“Mum and dads rings? Yeah.” She was crying.

“But Cass…you were supposed to have Mums ring!”

She shook her head “Its Sophie’s now, and besides, we can’t afford a new ring with your kid on the way.”

“Cassie, I-I don’t know…”

She wiped her eyes “I’m so proud of you, Cole. Your probably don’t know that, but I am.”

“Really?” I wiped my eyes, too.

She smiled “Really.” She hugged me then, and I’d never felt so close to my sister.

                “Have fun tonight you two, no trouble!” Cassie and Jake where going out, and I was so nervous I felt nauseas. “Good luck,” she whispered as she hugged me goodbye.

Sophie and I were setting up the nursery (we spent a lot of time in there), placing toys in baskets and trinkets on shelves and diapers in containers. We had picked a soft yellow for the room, and all the furniture was white wood and yellow fabric; there was a white crib with yellow blankets, a white rocking chair and a white changing table. The walls where the same soft yellow with white trim and a white carpet that was really soft.

“Cole, where do you want to put the picture?” it was a photo of me and Sophie last summer; she would have been about three weeks along.

“How about on the side table, by the rocking chair.” I fiddled with the box in my pocket; would my plan work, or would I just end up looking like an idiot? “Hey, Soph, look! A cardinal!”

She looked out the window, and I took the box out of my pocket and got down on one knee. “What, Cole, there’s no-” then she saw the box in my hands, me on one knee and the ring nestled in a soft cushion. She put one hand to her mouth, the other to her stomach.

“Sophia Addison Phillips, will you marry me?”

“Oh Cole,” she was crying, but a huge smile had blossomed on her face “Yes, yes I will!” I got up and slid the ring onto her hand and she giggled “Cole, it goes on the other finger!”

“Oh,” I blushed “Sorry.”

I wrapped my arms around her and she smiled at me “Cole, you have nothing to be sorry about.”