"A week?"
Cole's Mother nodded, looking as unhappy about the situation as he was.
"So Chase gets a week away, a holiday that Dad's paying for even though were supposedly broke?"
"It's not a holiday of the sorts, he's going camping its not exactly Barbados"
She was trying to make it sound more fair, like Chase was being forced to go camping for a week.
"Whatever" he was so sick and tired of this family and their excuses, no one said what they really thought, they all just dodged around the truth hoping to avoid awkwardness.
"Cole..." she tried sounding desperate now, but there was literally nothing he wanted to hear from her right now.
His anger made him daring, yesterday Mark had suggested a plan a crazy plan that would surely end up with them all in a prison cell, this time they weren't going of the small catch, trying to score a couple of shoes and sell them on at a higher price, this time he wanted them to target a high end store, with actual security, and much more items to steal.
He'd been reluctant and hadn't given Mark a straight answer, small time crimes were a different matter when compared to stealing valuable goods, that got you a criminal record if you were caught, but he was feeling reckless and angry at the fact that he had to stay in this depressing house while Chase flounced off to Pentville for a week.
He hadn't seen his father for days and when he finally set eyes on him it only strengthened his anger, his Father was absolutely pathetic, the epitome of everything he would never want to become, he was a lazy man, a cheating husband and a crap father.
More interested in the grey hairs on his head than his two sons and wife, happy to throw away money they didn't have.
"Alright son, studying hard?"
Cole rolled his eyes, the man was clueless, he asked him the same question everyday even though they both knew his attendance at school was at rock bottom, it was like his Dad wanted him to spin a story, to pretend everything was fantastic and going amazingly well, he wondered if in his mind his Dad actually viewed the world like that, everyone was happy in this dream world, and he was the happiest.
He ignored the man as he left the room, pointless conversation would not be on his mind today, he bumped into Chase on his way out and wanted to scream with frustration, why must he be surrounded by idiots?
"Cole please get over this, I want us to be good again"
Good?
There wasn't a possibility, he pushed past him and saw the face they shared crumple with hurt.
He didn't care.
Walking round to the bike shed Cole realised that what he needed was an escape, without one he would be sure to do something rash and land himself in trouble.
He closed his eyes and took out his phone, opening up the Maps app, then with his eyes closed he let his finger hover over the map before landing on a location, Charlie and him used to do this trick often, when you wanted to escape it was best to pick a random place where nobody knew who you were.
Phillipson.
He'd never been there, but that wasn't unusual, it was a forty-minute ride from here and would probably make for a good escape, he could just wander round, let himself be taken in by the streets and have no responsibilities, no one in Phillipson knew he had a twin or a dysfunctional family, there he would simply be a stranger.
The ride seemed much shorter than it actually was, it was relaxing to be cruising through fields without a care in the world, a routine, one foot pedalling then the other foot pedalling and her felt his anger melting away as he admired the fields that separated his hometown from Phillipson.
He arrived and immediately liked the place, it was a small and quiet town with a very likeable aura about it, stepping along the cobbled streets Cole felt like he was on a movie set, like he'd accidentally stumbled upon a well hidden secret.
He could see school children, around his age drifting along the paths, they all looked like members of a cast with their perfectly pressed collars and shiny shoes, he felt like laughing at the strangeness of it all.
And then he saw her.
A girl with her head bent so far down it looked like she wanted to completely disappear.
What startled him was her posture, the expression on her face.
She looked like him.
Shoulders bent, head crouched low and eyes wide and scared like she was expecting an attack at any moment, he guessed that had she been able to blend in with her surroundings she would have.
This girl was as lost as him, and something made him want to go up to her and talk to her.
She was approaching him now, but how exactly did you just spontaneously talk to a stranger?
He wasn't Chase, with his charming efforts, he was just him, Cole.
He was saved the trouble of trying to form conversation when he realised she had sped up without him noticing, they collided at the corner and he went hurtling head first into a bush, his bike promptly following him.
"Oh God!" her voice was so melodic, he could have listened to it forever "I'm such a klutz, Im so, so sorry"
She held out her hand nervously, an expression on her face resembling a rabbit caught in the headlights of a massive truck.
Her eyebrows formed a perfect crease in the middle as her eyes fixed on his, like he was some kind of puzzle that she was trying to piece together, he watched intently as she shook her head like she was being stupid.
"It's fine"
He accepted her hand gratefully and got to his feet, now that they were facing each other he had no idea what to say, they were strangers even if it somehow didn't feel that way.
They both seemed to be fixed in some kind of staring contest, and none of them wanted to be the first ones to look away.
This was crazy, he didn't even know this girl, and if he knew who he was she would probably have run in the other direction, he was a disaster waiting to happen.
And he didn't want to know her, not when he was like this, sweet and innocent girls didn't deserve to be corrupted by the likes of him.
Her and Chase would have got along like a house on fire were his next bitter thoughts.
"Well I better be on my way"
He didn't want to leave, somehow standing here with those kind eyes looking up at him he felt like the world was a slightly better place than it had been minutes ago.
"Do I know you from somewhere?"
His heart started madly thudding, she thought the same!
He couldn't shake off this feeling that the two of them had crossed paths before, it was something about her face and the way her features were pieced together that registered in his mind.
But that was an idiotic thought, this had been a bad idea, he was making her late for school.
"I don't think so, but you have a nice day" he smiled at the fact that he was wishing this beautiful girl a happy day when she had made his day happier, she'd probably forget all about him when she turned the next corner, she probably had an amazing life with two parents who loved her, a group of friends and her fair share of admirers in the world.
They were on opposite ends of the spectrum.
As he cycled the girl still played on Cole's mind, their encounter had been brief but somehow it felt significant, like their meeting had been a prologue to a much longer story.
A message from Marley stopped his wistful thinking.
"Mike wants an answer, are you in or out?"
He didn't have room in his mind for strangers, this was his reality and he had to accept it.
"In" he messaged back.