Day 21 - 4:04 pm
"So, you haven't heard from him since Tuesday?" Kristie question as she stirred her hot chocolate with a spoon, watching as the marshmallows were engulfed in the swirling tornado inside of her cup. Charlotte quietly nodded her head as she stared at the steam brewing from her piping hot mug. After the Winter Social around midnight, Kristie came stumbling through the doors with the help of Andy. Early the next morning, the girls both packed up their bags and got a taxi to drive them to Charlotte's mother's house.
Kristie was left with no family when her father died from lung cancer and her mother had overdosed on her pills one night. Charlotte's mother took the broken high schooler in as if she was her own. Her mother never officially adopted her, but authorities thought that the girl ended up living with her grandma. It wasn't until they graduated and no one had custody over her did she out that she lived under Charlotte's mother's roof for the past four years. She thought of her as her own mother, but much stronger and more passionate than her actual mom.
Kristie could see the way her best friend gripped her mug as if it was her lifeline. The girl hadn't slept for days since Cole walked out on her that night. Charlotte's mother, who she called Anne, had asked her multiple times what was bothering her. Every time she asked though, she was quickly shot down with a quick "I'm fine." from her daughter.
Not a single text or call from him since the day he left. Charlotte knew that he only did as she had asked, but she didn't mean for his absence to be extended for such a long period of time. Maybe it was selfish of her to want him to come back and apologize to her, but it's all that she really wanted.
Cole ruined her whole night, and she hadn't slept well since he walked out of her dorm on Tuesday. She understood why he was so angered by Harry's presence that night, but he didn't stop and listen to her when she tried to explain that he had helped her. Charlotte also knew the hug probably threw him off, yet it was the only thing that she could rationally think to do in the present situation. With the whole mess with Becky and Cole, it seemed like anything could have happened in that moment. All she wanted was for Cole to listen to her before throwing a fist hard enough to break someone's nose at him.
It also upset her that Cole decided to leave out the tiny little detail that one of his past hookups was the woman who's only job in this world is to tear her down emotionally. Becky always made it a point to make her life a living Hell, and she didn't understand why until last night. After Dylan spilled that she was still fond of the dark haired man, Charlotte just lost it. Sure, she knew that Cole had his fair share of hookups in the past, but she didn't expect one of them to be with her. It made her physically sick to her stomach to think about, and she honestly wanted to tell Cole that she didn't want him to ever see her again. She knew that she couldn't do that though, because that would cause more problems than it was worth.
Anne walked in with a hot cup of tea before she sat down in the armchair across from the couch that the two girls had planted their butts on not too long ago. Charlotte watched her mother put the cup up to her cracked lips and take a few sips of the tea before she set it down on a coaster. Kristie spoke up before Anne had the chance to pester her daughter with questions about her strange mood.
"This hot chocolate really hit the spot. I can't believe it's cold enough to snow." Kristie said as she looked out the window. The blinds were pulled up just enough so that they could see the bright, white snow that covered the city like a blanket. It was quite the beautiful sight, but that just meant days of staying indoors while they gave the ice on the roads time to melt. "Charlotte, I need your help dying my hair tonight." She piped up again, causing Charlotte to give her a funny look.
"The day you stop dying your hair is the day I die." Charlotte snorted as she finished up her mug of hot chocolate, placing it on the coffee table in front of her. Her mother made some comment about her needing to be nicer to Kristie, which just caused her best friend to smirk. "Mom, Kristie bullies me on the daily. I can shoot a few shots at her sometimes."
Kristie gently punched her shoulder as she got up off of the couch. "I'll have you know that I'm the nicest person that I have ever met." She scoffed as she grabbed their empty cups and brought them into the kitchen. There was an unavoidable silence looming over the room as her mother rested her sorry eyes on Charlotte. If awkwardness could be physically felt, then she was feeling it to the extreme.
"Darling, you've been here for a couple days now and you've hardly spoke." Her mother's grey-blue eyes softened as she rested a hand on her daughter's shoulder. "I'm not stupid, I know something is bugging you. If there's anything wrong, you know that you can always tell me." Before Charlotte could open her mouth to tell her mother that she was fine, the doorbell rang. Anne quizzically looked towards the door before she padded her socked feet across the living room.
A straight piece of her chocolate colored hair fell down in front of her face. She tried to gently blow it away, but it just dropped between her eyes as if to taunt her. Anne called for Kristie, who skidded across the wood so fast that she thought that she'd smack into the wall. "Andy." She could head her cry from the front door. That's right, Charlotte's mother told Kristie that Andy could sleep in the guest room tonight for Christmas Eve.
It made Charlotte's feeble heart ache as she could practically hear the couple sucking faces from a room over. There was more chatter heard, and she wasn't sure who her mother could possibly be speaking to. Then, all of a sudden, Anne yelled for Charlotte. She wasn't sure if it was an angered or excited scream, but she didn't waste any time getting up on her feet to get to her mother. She wondered why her mother would want her to meet the person at the doorway, especially since she looked like crap in the first place.
"I'm coming, mother." Charlotte groaned as she trudged her feet out of the living room and down the long hallway. She rubbed her baby blue's as the light shining through the door blinded her sight. As she approached the door, she felt her entire stomach do a somersault on the spot. Her feet stopped moving as she stood beside her mother, her jaw dropping to the floor at who was standing a few feet in front of her.
It was Cole.
His hair was partially slicked back, but a few pieces fell in the front of his face to give him that clean-messy look. Those green orbs pierced through Charlotte as if he had never seen her before, and it made her cheeks flush as she looked down at what she was wearing. She didn't change out of her pajamas this morning, so she was only wearing an old, white Van Halen shirt and a pair of red polka-dotted sleep pants with bunny slippers.
Cole didn't look too bad in her eyes if she wasn't still mad at him. She didn't even know if she had a right to still be mad at him for leaving her hanging for days, but it didn't seem like he faired too well from this temporary break either. There were slight, yet noticeable bags under his droopy eyes. She watched as his eyes scanned over her body, a small smirk coming to his lightly wind burnt lips before she caught eye with her mother spinning around to face her. She held a bouquet of beautiful pink flowers in her grasp.
"Honey, you never told me that you had a boyfriend." Anne squealed as she looked up at the tall man in front of her. Charlotte was only about 5'2, and her mother was only a couple inches taller than her. Cole stood like a giant compared to the two of them. "He brought me these flowers, and he seems like a very nice boy." She beamed was to ear as she gently shut the door behind Cole. "This is so exciting. Both of my girl's men are here. Just wait until Jaclyn starts dating." Her mother laughed as she ushered the two of them into the living room.
Once her mother took off to go put the flowers in a vase, Charlotte immediately grabbed Cole's strong arm and yanked him towards their back door. They passed by Kristie and Andy, who were far too busy cuddling on the couch to notice them walk right by them. The two of them walked outside and the cold wind whipped against her skin as if it would freeze on impact. She crossed her arms, regretting stepping outside without a jacket.
Cole opened his mouth to speak, but she was quick to cut him off. "Look, I didn't think that you'd show up to my mother's house accompanying Andy. If I would have known that, I would have told Kristie that I didn't want him coming over." She could see the small frown creep on his lips as he leaned against the pale siding of the house. "You hurt me Cole. I don't know what else to ask you besides why haven't you at least attempted to contact me and fix this?" Her throat felt dry after she spoke those words.
"You told me to leave." Cole sighed as she shivered. He pulled his black hoodie off of his body and held it out for her to take. She just stared at it for a moment before he insisted that she put it on. Once she had the soft material over her head, she stopped shivering as bad. "Look, please believe me when I say that I wanted to talk to you. It hurt when you asked me to leave, but in that moment you were so upset at me that I just didn't want to hurt you any further."
Charlotte nervously twisted a piece of silky hair between her ice cold fingertips. "I only wanted you to leave for the night." She whispered so it was hard for Cole to hear her. "When I was told that you and Becky hooked up in the past, it caused a a spark of anger to ignite within me. She hates me Cole, plain and simple. I know that she does since she makes it so blatantly obvious. Just to picture her hands creeping down your skin was enough to trigger a panic attack. Instead of using your words as weapons, you used your fists."
"Charlotte, he had his disgusting hands wrapped around you in a hug. I didn't know if you willingly let him or if he forced you. I couldn't tell if your sobs were caused by him or something else. If it was caused by him, I wasn't going to let him get away with that. It hurt seeing you in his arms." Cole mumbled as he ruffled his hair, causing the messy strands to stick up in all different directions.
She gently reached her hand out to hold onto Cole's hand, gently brushing her thumb over his still purple knuckles. "I'm sorry. He helped me out of my panic attack, and in that moment he was the only comfort that I had." Her voice came out hushed. "I just feel like you're hiding things from me."
"I'm not hiding things from you on purpose." The corners of Cole's lips turned down in a frown.
"It feels like you are. I know that part of being in a relationship is learning new things about the person the longer you're with them, but these are things I should be told earlier on." Charlotte snaked her arms loosely around his waist as she rested her cheek against his chest. She longed for his touch again, she just couldn't help herself. "Is there anything else that you need to tell me? Any other little secrets that you have crawling under your skin?"
Her words rang in his ears as if they repeated themselves like a broken record. This whole relationship had been built on secrets and lies, and knowing how much one secret could hurt her made his heart cry. With only nine days left of the bet, he had to make a choice. Would he continue this relationship that was built on a bet and hope that she never found out, or would he take her virginity and leave her in the dust to suffer the reality of things? Although, Cole knew if he ditched her like that, then he would probably end up wounded like he never had been before.
His fingertips ran through her soft hair as his free arm wrapped around her thinned waist. Even when she was wore an old band t-shirt and goofy bunny slippers, she was just as beautiful as when she was dressed up like a princess heading to the ball. He loved everything about her, from her soft finger pads to the freckles that littered her nose and cheeks like a starry night sky. Those enchanting blue eyes that held the sky captive within those irises he grew to love over the past three weeks.
He sat there for a moment, just stroking her hair in the peace and quiet before he broke the silence. "I guess I do have one more secret that I'm hiding from you." If Charlotte couldn't feel the quickened pace of his beating heart against her ear, then he swore that she could surely hear it since it pounded straight through his eardrums. She glanced up at him, resting her chin gently against his sternum as her ocean blue orbs landed on his face. There was the innocent air about her, an innocence that he learned to love about her.
He could tell her here and now about the bet to save her the future heartache if she found out about it after he took her virginity. No, took isn't even the correct word. Stole fit the situation much better in his mind. He was going to steal her virginity, and all for money, which Ian recently raised to two thousand dollars. He's not sure where Ian exactly got all of this money from, but it basically secured his place in the bet since he'd never be able to cough up two grand.
With a quick sigh, his eyes focused on the door rather than on his girlfriend's features as he spoke. "I called my mother." His voice faltered a little as he nervously scratched the back of his neck. Charlotte's eyes nearly popped out of her head like a cartoon character as she stared at Cole. She wondered why he would've done that, for the last time his twin mentioned it he seemed pretty upset. Hell, she remembered when she even brought it up to him that he became livid with the idea. His gaze finally met her confused look, and his lips pressed together before speaking again. "I did it for you."
Those words were enough to break down Charlotte's brick walls that she had began to build back up. Her whole demeanor softened as she brought her cold hands up to his warm cheeks. She stood up on her tiptoes as she gently pulled his head down slightly to press a soft kiss to his plump lips. Her eyes fluttered shut as Cole's hands moved down to the small of her back, bringing her in closer. This kiss wasn't forceful and filled with lust, but it was one full of passion and love. A beautiful kind of love between two polar opposites.
Her mother knocking on the window brought them out of their trance as they split apart. Anne shook her head teasingly as she pushed open the door. "Enough canoodling on my back porch and come inside, it's far too cold to stay out here." She snickered as she held the door open for them. Charlotte rolled her eyes as she grabbed Cole's hand and tugged him through the back door. Once they were inside, they walked back to the living room where Andy and Kristie were. "Andy, Cole, you two are welcome to stay as long as the girls do. You guys can occupy the guest bedroom upstairs."
After the boys thanked her mother, Anne made her way upstairs and locked herself in her room. The two couples spent a few more hours awake as they went from watching Pitch Perfect to Top Gun. Most of their time was spent by talking about random gossip rather than actually playing attention to the scenes flashed across the screen. Once the last movie was over, they each kissed their significant other goodnight before heading off into their designated rooms.
Charlotte's room didn't have much in it since most of her things were back in her college dorm. Her walls were painted lilac and there were string lights hung from the corners of the room. The dresser in the corner was covered with scratch pieces of paper that either had doodles on them or that held unfinished poetic pieces of work on them. Her bed sheets were folded perfectly from being untouched for months, so perfectly done that she didn't want to mess them up.
Kristie changed into her black pajama pants and tank top before she grabbed her toiletries. "I'll see you in the morning my little Charmadillo." She giggled at the ridiculous nickname before she left the room and cracked her door for her. Kristie never slept in the same room as her because of her obnoxious sleeping habits. Rolling up into a burrito at night, pushing her off the bed, if it can be named, then Kristie had done it before. Since Charlotte's sister was staying at her friend's house tonight, she agreed to let her sleep in her room for the night. When Kristie first came to stay with the Aldaines, Jaclyn gladly accepted the cheerful woman as he nonbiological sister.
She stripped off her lounge clothes for a matching pair of baby pink, satin tank top and shorts set. Charlotte usually became overheated at nights, so she had to wear lightweight clothes to bed. Once the lights were off, she crawled herself into bed and tucked herself under the soft sheets. No matter whether she laid on her left of right side, or however long she tried to fall asleep, nothing seemed to be working. Looking over at her clock, she realized that only thirty minutes had gone by, yet it felt like hours.
Charlotte groaned as she reached over to her nightstand to grab her phone. There were a couple of new text messages on her screen, but she ignored them all as she clicked on the name of the only contact in her phone that she wanted to talk to right now.
Charlotte: Are you still awake?
It only took another minute to go by before she got a reply.
Cole: Yeah, I'm up. What's wrong baby?
Charlotte: Can you please come to my room? It's the one at the very end of the hallway.
She waited for a reply that never came. A quick, disappointed sigh left her lips as she put her phone back down on her nightstand. Charlotte shut her eyes in an attempt to fall asleep again, but it was useless. It wasn't until she felt the mattress next to her dip down and a lazy arm slip around her from behind did she realize that someone else was in her presence. That someone was Cole, who sleepily snuck into her room. His warm breath tickled the back of her neck as his lazy hand travelled down to gently give her thigh a quick squeeze.
"I didn't think that you were going to show up." Charlotte whispered quietly as if someone else in the house could potentially hear her. His arm came back up to come to her chest, and that's where she carefully laced her nimble fingers with his. Although she couldn't see him, she just knew that he was smiling from behind her. "I honestly thought that you fell asleep before I got the chance to hit send." She felt his thumb gently rub the back of her hand, and she felt his soft lips press a kiss into the back of her shoulder blade as she let her eyes flutter shut.
"I will always show up if it means that I get to see you. Now babygirl, get some sleep."
CRYING IN THE CLUB NOW FOR A DIFFERENT REASON BECAUSE THIS CHAPTER TURNED INTO FLUFF.
Also crying because TVB has now reached 15k reads! This is honestly unbelievable for me and I cannot thank you readers enough for all of your lovely support. Please know that I know who votes and comments too, and I always get so excited when I see those special comments left on my chapters.
On a side note, I sincerely apologize to any of my readers who received a notification that Chapter 29 had been posted yet wasn't accessible. I accidentally hit publish when I only had 1/4 of the chapter typed, so I attempted to quickly unpublish it before anyone saw. So sorry about that, but here it is!
Next chapter will be Christmas Day, so be ready for more fluff (and maybe something else).