Attraction ~ Sprousehart

5. Ship Names

Cole's P.O.V.

When everyone finally arrived and the food was ordered, Cami, Vanessa, and Mads started to whisper amongst each other again.

Then Cami turned to Lili and whispered something in her ear, causing her to turn bright red.

"Okay, what're you guys talking about?" I finally asked.

"It's kind of obvious," KJ said, his New Zealand accent masking half of the words that he spoke.

"Yeah," Casey said. "They're talking about you and Lili."

"Sprousehart," Vanessa piped in.

Lili's face burned even more than before. Her hands flew up to hide it, and she buried her face into her knees from complete and utter embarrassment.

I felt like doing the same thing, but instead just turned to stare at the three whisperers, my face starting to heat up.

"What? So Sprousehart's a ship name?" I said, nervousness tainting my tone.

"Yeah, it was kind of obvious from the start," Jordan said. "It's your entire last name, Cole, and then the ending to Lili's. Obviously it's a ship name."

"We're not even together, though," I said shyly.

"But you should be," Cami pointed out.

"You don't have to be a couple to be shipped together, Cole," Lili said through gritted teeth, still beyond embarrassed. "You just have to be . . . cute together."

My face heated up even more as I lifted a hand to shield it from all of the gazing pairs of eyes around us.

"Relax, you guys," KJ said. "It's not like you're the only ones being shipped."

"What?" Cami said.

"Who else is being shipped?" Mads questioned.

"Maybe don't say," Charles said quickly, turning his head to make eye contact with KJ.

It seemed as though the two were having a staring contest with life-or-death consequences as the rest of us watched in silence. Then KJ looked away, non-blinking, as he shook his head and smirked.

"Charmila," he said, his accent ringing off the word.

Charmila?

"Charmila?" everyone echoed my thoughts out loud, including me.

Then, as if we all understood at the exact same time, looked from Charles to Camila.

Charmila . . .

Charles and Camila.

That's what Charmila meant.

Cami dropper her face into her hands as soon as she realized it, too.

"Oh, my God!" she said. "Why me and Charles?"

"It was either that or Kjmila," Drew said.

I looked over at the other end of the table, where the producers of Riverdale were having their own conversation, completely oblivious to our massive one about ship names.

"Oh, yeah, I'd rather be shipped with Charles then," Cami said, catching everyone off guard as we all turned to stare at her in shock.

"What?!" everyone cried in unison.

"So you like him?!" Vanessa screamed.

"Oh my god, you just admitted it!" Mads squealed.

"Ladies and gentleman, this ship has sailed!" Lili joined in.

Everyone cheered and whooped and hollered and laughed.

"That's not what I said!" Cami interjected. "I said I'd rather be shipped with Charles, not date him!"

"So you'd rather be with KJ?" Drew asked.

"Whoaaaa!" Jordan said, smirking uncontrollably. "So Kjmila is real!"

"No, it's not!" Cami protested. "Neither is Charmila! I'm not romantically interested in anyone at the moment!"

"Okay, guys, I think Cami's had enough," I said, waving them all back to their seats.

Everyone sighed but did so.

"Thanks, Cole," Cami said. "That was nice of you."

"Of course. Anything for a friend."

Camila gave me that same look again, the one with the bright brown eyes and the small smile and the slight head tilt to look up at me. How little I felt made me uncomfortable, and all I could picture was Lili's small smile, the same thing except it was, well, her. And when she smiled like that I did feel something. Something special. Something I loved yet hated at the same time.

How is that possible?

"That's sweet, Cole." she said.

She stood up out of her seat and walked past Lili, grabbed the back of my chair, leaned over and kissed my cheek.

My face heated up so much it felt like I was standing in the middle of a desert. I blushed more when Cami kissed me because it was just plain awkward. I saw her as a friend and nothing more, and for her to just walk over and kiss me?

That seemed like a very a couple thing to do.

I looked over at Lili. Her face had gone pale, almost like she'd seen a ghost, her jaw had dropped, and her eyes were as wide as the plates sitting on the table before us.

"Lils?" I asked.

She wasn't focused on my words. She was too distracted by what had just happened, turning from Cami to me.

"Lils!" I yelled.

She still didn't respond.

I grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her.

Nothing.

There was only one thing left that I could think of.

No, you can't do that, I told myself. You can't kiss her. Not here. Not now.

It was just some cliche move that people did sometimes. I wasn't like that. I didn't do cliche stuff.

But what else are you supposed to do?

Something logical. Start with a hug.

So that's what I did.

I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her against me. She started to relax a bit, but then pulled back and rubbed the spot on my cheek where Cami had kissed me.

She was rubbing it away.

"What, are you jealous?" I asked.

"N-no," Lili stuttered. "Of c-course not."

"Then what was that?"

"N-nothing. I was j-just surprised. I mean, I get that you helped her, but does she have to kiss you for that?"

The last part was said without stutters, replaced with a heated, angry tone.

"You sound mad," I pointed out.

"I'm not. Just hungry."

"Oh. Okay. So nothing's wrong."

"Of course not. Why would anything be wrong?"

"Just checking."

"Well, nothing's wrong."

She plastered on a fake smile and showed it to me. I smiled back.

She doesn't feel the same, I thought. She can't. It's all in your head . . .

Right?

A/N
I already have the next few chapter plots set lol.
Love and appreciate every single one of you 💗💗💗

Published 07/13/19

Word count: 1047