After The Bet

2

"Does she scare you? Good. She should make you fear her love, so when she lets you be a part of it, you won't take it lightly."

Cole

She was truly a blessing in disguise. I never knew that I was capable to love someone until I met her. Charlotte took every broken, dead thing within me and made them into something beautiful.

I couldn't help but to smile as I watched Charlotte's younger sister attempted to braid my girlfriend's beautiful hair. I swear that kid was yanking the three strands on purpose to make her flinch, and it made me chuckle nonetheless.

"Cole, I can braid your hair next." Jaclyn snickered as she tied the end of the off center braid on Charlotte's head.

"I don't know if I'd want you messing up his hair just as you did to mine." Charlotte huffed in playful annoyance. Jaclyn rolled her eyes as she hopped off of the couch, walking off to the other room.

"I think your hair looks beautiful." I told her, bringing the messy braid between my fingertips as I pulled it away from her body. She rolled her eyes at me playfully before shaking her head, causing the braid to slip out of my grip and back against her.

"Yeah, yeah. You have to say that though."

"And why is that?"

"Because I'm your girlfriend, silly." She huffed before slipping the hair tie out of her hair and around her wrist.

Girlfriend.

She wasn't supposed to be my girlfriend.

For months, I had to keep this hidden from all of my friends besides Andy. Dylan probably knew too, but he wouldn't snitch because he was too close to Charlotte to hurt her. I honestly began to distance myself from the toxic group of people that I once considered my second family.

If she ever found out about that video I not only took of her during one of our most intimate moments, but also that I had showed it to everyone in that group for money, then I have no idea what I would do. She would be so broken, and I don't know if I could fix her.

Actually, I don't know if she'd even let me attempt to fix her. She'd probably try to fix herself since she's so headstrong and stubborn. But thats only because she is strong and wants to be independent.

Whenever she's upset or something is going poorly in her life, she doesn't come crying to me for help every single time. Charlotte will usually find other outlets to let out her stress, and I admire her for that. Sometimes, she'll even compose original songs. The amount of talent built up in her tiny little body is amazing.

"Come on, let's go do something." Charlotte nudged me slightly, causing my eyes to focus back on her as she stood up.

"Well, what do you want to do?"

"I'd make a sexy comment, but my mother's in that next room." She chuckled as she held her extended arm out for me to grab. My calloused hand wrapped around her's, which were as soft as clouds. "We can just go for a walk or something." Charlotte attempted to hoist me up, but I ended up doing most of the work in the end.

"That sounds good to me." A small smile began to turn upright on my lips.

She shuffled her way quickly over to her front door, slipping on her sneakers clumsily. It reminded me of how childish she was sometimes, poking her cute little tongue out ever so slightly as she focused.

I couldn't help but to love the little things about her. The way she'd messily tie her hair up in a top knot so that half of it was falling out only minutes later. The way she'd roll her eyes at me and playfully smack my arm at any dumb comment that I have make (which happens quite often). The way she'd run her fingers calmingly through my hair as I laid my head on her lap after a frustrating day.

Love. A four letter word I never knew that I'd be capable of giving to someone. A word I ran from for years out of fear of having someone love a cold, heartless person like myself. I never even felt real love from my parents, or even my own twin brother for that matter. Nobody loved me, and I didn't love anyone. It was a perfect balance.

Charlotte tipped that balance. She jacked up my scales and twisted them all together. Right seemed wrong, and wrong seemed right. I knew I shouldn't keep her so close to my heart, but it was as if I had no control. She became my happiness, my sanctuary. If I lost her at this point, than I'm not sure what would happen.

"You coming, slowpoke?" I heard her angelic voice ring from the front door. My green orbs fixated on her, watching as the sunlight glistened over her lightly tanned skin.

"Yeah, yeah." Was all I could say as I made my way over to the door, hearing it creak once I closed it behind me. The summer breeze caught her hair, gently blowing it behind her body as she turned to face me.

To think that I have now hidden our relationship from my friends for months now was truly a miracle. It consisted of sneaking around campus, planning out where to walk between classes to avoid their paths, and keeping them preoccupied with fake drama that I came up with to distract them.

Maybe they were gullible for believing that I had dropped Charlotte, but to be fair, they never found out that I fell in love with the doe eyed girl to begin with. Andy couldn't believe I had been pulling this off now for months, but he swore his silence in fear of hurting his girlfriend's best friend.

The guilt of January 2nd hung over my head like a storm cloud. How could it not though when I'm still dating the woman that I did dirty behind her back?

"Cole?" Charlotte snapped me out of my thoughts for nearly the fourth time today. "You've been zoning out a lot, is everything okay?"

"Everything is perfect." I gave her a reassuring smile, although it took every bone within my body not to scream sorry for what I had done to her without her knowledge. "I'm here with the perfect girl, what more could I ask for?"

"Well..." Charlotte trailed off slightly as she reached out to take my hand, taking a few steps forwards to begin walking. Her eyes flickered to somewhere in the distance, but I wasn't sure what her gaze was directed towards. I followed her down the sidewalk, hand-in-hand. "Maybe doing something with this perfect girl?"

"Like what?"

"Like–" She abruptly paused again for a moment as her eyes began to drift to the shopping strip down the street from her home. "Like getting ice cream with this perfect girl to make for a perfect day?"

"Sounds like a plan." I grinned as I saw excitement overcome her features. Her path diverted directly towards the local ice cream shop, and there seemed to be a miniature skip in each step that she took. The childish grin that took over her lips was all that I needed to be happy.

Her smile warmed my heart, and I was melting slowly from under her touch.

CHAPTER 2: DONE! I'm on a roll now that I actually started the book 😂 do you guys like seeing things from first person POV? I feel like it'll be a lot more helpful later on in the story.

Also, I love seeing you guys' comments and support. It makes me so happy to read and see the feedback you guys leave. I constantly find myself smiling!

ALSO 2.0, notice the chapters are shorter? I hope it's not annoying, but it helps me update more frequently when the chapters aren't as long.