And like before, it hit me so hard and fast my head spun.
More than anything, I wanted him to kiss me.
I knew I couldn't say what I wanted to say; I knew the words wouldn't be right. So I stayed silent.
Instead, I looked into his eyes and slowly started to lean in, my heart racing when Cole did the same. My eyes fluttered closed, and I held my breath in anticipation.
And right when our lips were barely a hair's width apart, my phone rang.
Immediately, I snapped back into reality and pulled away, my face burning in embarrassment. I couldn't look at Cole; instead I pulled my phone out of my jacket pocket and cringed when I saw my notifications.
6 new messages:
from: Emma
where are you?
from: Emma
kenna?
from: Emma
wtf kenna where are you???
from: Lexi
hey, where are you? we've been looking for you everywhere
from: Emma
MCKENNA GRACE JACOBS
from: Emma
i swear to god kenna if you don't answer me rn i'm gonna kill you
Crap.
I sighed and answered the call from Emma, bracing myself. She doesn't get mad often, but when she does...well, I try to avoid her as much as possible.
"Hey," I said tentatively.
"Oh my god, Kenna, where the hell are you?! And why didn't you answer your phone? We've been freaking out for the past twenty minutes trying to find you!"
I closed my eyes and ran a hand through my hair, ignoring the confused glances Cole was sending me. "I'm so sorry, Em. I'm with Cole, we just lost track of time. And I guess my phone was on silent for some reason."
"Well you better get your ass back over here right now, we're performing in five minutes," she replied, her voice filled with annoyance.
"Okay, I'll meet you down at the bleachers."
She hung up without a word.
I sighed and turned off my phone, putting it in the pocket of my dance team jacket as I stood up. "Sorry, I have to go. It's almost halftime."
Cole nodded and stood up, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "Right."
I paused, taking a moment to gather my thoughts. "Look, Cole...I really don't want things to be awkward between us."
"Me neither," he said. "But please don't tell me you just want to be friends. Because, honestly, I don't think I can."
I looked up at him in surprise. "You...you like me?"
The corners of his mouth tugged upward. "Well, I did try to kiss you. Twice. I think that says something."
I laughed, shaking my head slightly. "Wow."
He stood there, waiting for me to say something else. When I didn't, he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck and started walking away. "We should probably get back soon."
I bit my lip. "Cole, wait." I grabbed his hand and pulled him back towards me. Hesitantly, I rose up on my toes and kissed his cheek, pulling away seconds later to whisper in his ear, "By the way, I like you too."
I stepped back, holding back a laugh at the huge smile that stretched across his face. "Really?"
I nodded, squeezing his hand. "Really."
He stared at me for a moment, his smile so wide it reached his eyes.
"Come on, we'd better get going before Emma strangles me," I said with a laugh as I led him back onto the trail.
We retraced our steps until we were out of the woods, (A/N: hope i'm not the only one who sang that) then hurried down the hill towards the bleachers, where Emma was waiting, an annoyed expression on her face.
"Sorry, sorry, I'm here," I rushed, out of breath from running so much. Sometimes I don't understand my body: I can dance for six hours straight, but I can't run for five minutes without feeling like I'm dying.
"Thank God. There's barely a minute left of the first half. Where the hell were you?" she asked, now slightly less angry, but clearly still upset with me.
"I, uh...I kind of ran off into the woods?"
She looked at me in confusion. "What?"
I looked down at my feet. "I-I saw Noah. And I freaked out."
Immediately her expression changed from annoyance to sympathy. "Oh, Kenna, I'm so sorry." She pulled me into a hug, and I wrapped my right arm around her, my left hand still intertwined with Cole's.
"Why is he here?" she asked as she pulled away. "Oh, never mind, I'm just glad you're okay."
I nodded. "I'm fine. Cole really helped." I smiled gratefully at him.
For the first time, she noticed we were holding hands. She looked up at me, then down at our hands, then me again. "Wait, so is Colenna official? Dang it, I owe Lexi ten bucks."
I stared at her for a minute before bursting into laughter. "Did you seriously bet on that? Oh my god, I hate you."
Emma shrugged. "We all knew it would happen eventually."
I shook my head, still laughing. "Well, you can keep your money, we're not actually together."
"Yet," Cole added, squeezing my hand. I looked up at him, my smile growing bigger at the thought of us being an official couple.
Meanwhile, Emma looked like she might pass out from the excitement. She tended to really invest herself in other people's love lives.
Just then, the clock on the scoreboard went down to ten seconds left in the second quarter. The dance team coach motioned to Emma and I, silently telling us to hurry up.
"Well, looks like we're on," I said to Emma. She smiled excitedly and ran over to where the coach was.
I turned to Cole. "Thank you. For everything." I gave him one last smile and squeezed his hand before letting go and walking away. "Wish me luck!"
He shook his head, that adorable smile still on his face. "You don't need it."
Blushing, I turned away and ran towards the spot in front of the bleachers where the dance team was warming up. I stood next to Emma and took off my jacket, revealing my dance team uniform. It was a typical cheer/dance uniform, with a red and white long sleeve top that read "Patriots" on the front and a matching red skirt with a white stripe on the side.
It turned out that the marching band was performing before us, so we had an extra five minutes to warm up and stretch.
When the band finished their performance, we lined up on the side of the field, waiting to be announced.
"And now, please welcome the Red Land High School varsity dance team!" the announcer said over the speakers.
The crowd cheered as we ran out onto the field, getting into our starting positions. Then the music started playing, a mash-up of different popular songs.
Overall, the performance went well, aside from a few mess-ups here and there, but it wasn't a big deal since this was our first performance of the season.
After hitting our final pose, we got up and waved to the crowd before running off the field. Well, the other girls ran off, and I was about to when I heard the announcer talk through the speakers:
"McKenna Jacobs, please stay where you are." Except it wasn't the announcer's voice; it was the voice of a teenage boy. It almost sounded like Braden.
I looked Emma in confusion, and she shrugged, looking just as confused as me.
Then whoever the person was (Braden?) said, "Okay, now turn around."
Slowly, I turned around, not knowing what to expect.
My mouth dropped open when I saw what it was, and my eyes widened in surprise.
Cole was standing there, holding a large sign with one hand and a rose bouquet in the other.
My face broke into an excited grin when I read the sign, and then when I read the last two lines I burst out laughing.
"Roses are red,
violets are blue,
I hit dingers all day,
and now I'm hitting on you."
(A/N: i got that from a fanfic, can't remember which one so if it's yours sorry haha)
And then, at the bottom of the sign, it said, "Homecoming?" in red lettering.
The entire crowd went, "Aww," and I looked up at Cole, whose smile was just as big as mine.
"Kenna, will you go to homecoming with me?" he asked.
I shook my head slightly and laughed. "Of course, you idiot," I said, grinning.
If it was possible, his smile grew even bigger.
He put the sign on the ground and handed me the roses before pulling me into a hug, picking me up off my feet.
When he finally set me down, he kept one arm around me and jokingly shouted to the crowd, "She said yes!"
Everyone cheered and applauded, and out of the corner of my eye I could see Emma, Lexi, and Avery going crazy - mostly Emma, though.
Cole leaned down and picked up the sign, then he grabbed my hand and led me off the field to where my friends were standing.
"Oh my god, that was so cute!" Emma practically screamed. "You're so lucky."
I laughed and smiled up at Cole. "I know."
After the girls freaked out for a couple more minutes (and took what seemed like a hundred pictures of me and Cole), they left to go watch the rest of the game from the bleachers.
I turned to Cole, shaking my head in disbelief. "How did you do all of this?"
He shrugged, trying to act like it wasn't a big deal. "It wasn't that hard. We just asked if we could make a special announcement after your halftime performance."
"Who's we?"
"Me, Braden, and Jaden. Braden was the one who made the announcement, and Jaden got it on video."
Oh, so I was right - it was Braden talking through the speakers. "Still, I can't believe you did all that for me."
He shrugged again, but I could tell he was blushing. "It was nothing."
I rolled my eyes and grinned at him. "Whatever you say."
Then Jaden came up to us, holding Cole's phone in his hand. "Hey, here's your phone."
Cole took it. "Thanks, man."
I nodded and smiled at Jaden. "Yeah, thanks for recording it."
"No problem," he replied. "And, uh, congratulations? I don't really know what you're supposed to say for this," he added, chuckling.
I laughed. "That works."
"Well, I gotta go. See you guys later," Jaden said.
"Wait." Cole held out the sign. "Can you take this to my mom? She's right over there." He pointed to the third row in the stands.
Jaden rolled his eyes but relented. "Sure." He took the sign, waved, and walked towards the bleachers.
"Hey, can you send me the video?" I asked Cole.
He nodded, taking out his phone. "Yeah. Can you send me some of those pictures? Not all of them, it'll take up all of my storage."
I laughed and took out my own phone. "Yeah, Emma must've taken like a million."
I sent him a couple of the pictures, and he sent me the video.
Then we started walking back up the hill, past the park and into the woods, finally stopping when we reached the clearing with the bench - which I guess was now "our spot."
We sat down next to each other, our hands intertwined. I leaned into him, resting my head on his shoulder.
Neither of us said anything. We didn't need to.
Just being there with each other was enough.
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so here's a little colenna cuteness to make up for all the drama in the last chapter ;)
anywaysss i just finished writing the first chapter for my new story, should i post it? i actually really like it :)
as always, comment and vote for more! (and thanks so much for 2.2k reads, it means a lot to me <3)
~linds