Cole’s hand caught mine, and he didn’t let go. I knew this was the plan. Show him, and everyone around us, that he had me. I was his, at least for the moment. But I still couldn’t suppress a shiver when our skin touched. I was disgusted by his too strong hands. By the overly innocent smile that was displayed on his lips. By his eyes that seemed to catch absolutely everything.
Breathe, just play the part, I told myself, forcing air through my nose and back out. It didn’t do that much for my fast beating heart.
“You look nervous,” Cole said, giving me a side way glance.
“I am. I’m not sure what our friends will think about us,” I replied, wishing that my words were true enough that he wouldn’t see the lie buried deep inside of me. I was still blocking my mind, but the possibility that he could see past my entire act was terrifying. I didn’t have a choice, though.
“You’re my girlfriend and that’s all there is to it. If they have a problem, they can go fuck themselves,” he said, laughing. I slapped his arm, laughing along with him.
“I guess they already knew there was something between us,” I grumbled, remembering the way we had been at the beach.
“It’s gonna be fine,” Cole said, placing a tiny peck on my cheek. I smiled at him and squeezed his hand. “Rose’s definitely gonna be happy. She asked me this morning when I was gonna ask you out on an official date,” he laughed again. I forced a laugh out of my mouth, but it got stuck in my tight throat. It wasn’t the least bit funny.
“Really?” He nodded. Well.... At least Rose was doing it too. It made me feel less strange, that I wasn’t the only one to play stupid and in love.
“Taking about that, do you want to do something Friday?” Cole’s voice was seductively low.
“Sure, what did you have in mind?” I flirted back.
“You’ll see,” he said, winking at me. At this moment, we were passing the doors to the cafeteria, walking to the other doors that were leading to the side of the school, where my friends would be eating. I plastered a smile on my face, and looked up at Cole. He was smiling too, saying 'hi' to whoever was passing us. He looked like a popular football star, with is startling good looks and his confidence.
“Hey, hey ,Alicia” The sound of my name resonating in my ears left me stunned and I stopped dead in my tracks. Cole continued, pulling at my hand when I didn’t follow. He was smiling even more broadly, if it was even possible, and talking to my friends. They were all up now, walking towards us in an excited huddle.
“Didn’t know you guys were still talking,” Adam was saying. He was facing us, but they were all pushing and joking around.
“Yeah, well it would be weird if I wasn’t talking to my girlfriend, right?” Cole said, sarcastically. Adam looked at him, anger flashing in his eyes. He didn’t quite enjoy it when someone was giving him attitude, and he always had been protective of his friends. We’ve known each other for almost eight years, and it had become almost natural to be looking out for the other one. Now that Cole was being a jerk with him, I could see that he was beginning to second guess that this relationship was a good thing.
“So you guys are official?” Rose asked, standing to my right while Cole was standing on my other side, still holding my hand.
“Yes we are,” I said sweetly. I took a step closer, getting my other arm wounded up around Cole’s arm. That way, my belly and a part of my breast was against his arm, our hands, still intertwined, hanging in the little space there was between us.
“Finally,” someone murmured, it was high enough that we could all hear.
“Hey, that’s not nice,” I sounded angry, and looked around to find the culprit.
“Well, what do you want me to say? You guys were pinning over each other, and you were so oblivious. I’m glad it’s over and you guys can finally stop drooling over each other,” Bailey said, almost too harshly. I chose to laugh, and so did Cole.
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” he said, everyone around us erupted in laughter. Bailey smiled and looked away, and
everything became clear. I knew what was wrong with her. She was upset because she liked Cole, and now that I was his girlfriend... She wasn’t too happy. Well, well. I really wanted to go see her and tell her that he was not really worth it. Hell, I didn’t even want to be with him. But I knew that she wouldn’t believe me, and it would only aggravate things. I sighed, and Cole turned to me, hearing me.
“Do you want to go somewhere we can be alone?” He asked me, taking my sigh for exhaust. I shook my head, illustrating that I didn’t want to go, at least for the moment.
We sat back down at the wall, everyone facing each other in a half circle. We talked and laughed and after a moment, the guys left to go play football, a little bit farther away. Cole followed them, which was a surprise because he normally stayed with the girls to flirt. I was grateful for that, and smiled at him when he got up. Maybe that way, we would stop talking about us.
We could see them get into a line, facing each other, and screaming instructions to their team mates.
“I don’t know why they keep doing that. It’s not like they have to play every day,” Bailey said, her eyes following Cole’s every movement.
“And they still play when it’s all muddy. They’re such guys. Can’t they do like everyone else and just eat?” Another girl, whose name was Melinda, said. She wasn’t a great friend of mine, and we barely talked, but I still made an effort to make conversation whenever we were all alone.
“Popular guys don’t do that. I don’t see Ben and Liam play out here, even in the summer,” Thea, another girl, who was Bailey’s best friend, said. At the sound of my brother’s name, I turned around to Rose. She was looking at the girls, laughing along with them, like nothing was wrong in the world.
“Yeah, they should definitely take them for role models. After all, who doesn’t want their friends to be popular and beautiful and delicious and...” Bailey drifted off, closing her eyes.
“Ben’s definitely a god. And I can just imagine what he looks like in his boxers,” Rose laughed, locking her eyes to mine.
What she had said about my brother was disturbing me. He was my brother after all, but her eyes told me a different story. Play dumb, Alicia.
“No offense to you, Alicia...” She continued, dropping her eyes to the ground, like she was embarrassed. I knew better, it was just a part of her role. She was supposed to be a stupid girl, a girl that fantasized over hot guys.
“Does he have a nice chest? I bet he has a big dick too,” Melinda said. Her face was red and blotchy, but she didn’t look like she was uncomfortable.
“I... I’ve never seen it, and I’d rather not,” I said, laughing along with everyone else. The girls around us where talking among themselves, but I knew they were paying more attention to our conversation then they seemed too.
“I definitely think that Cole’s a competition for Ben though,” Bailey giggled, her eyes pining over me like a hawk’s.
“You’ll have to tell me all about him later,” she continued, a small smile breaking over her lips.
“I don’t have the intention of doing anything so soon, though,” I said, feeling the temperature rise up in me.
“Alicia, the angel. Obviously you won’t, but I think that Cole needs attention and exercises... Action, if you prefer,” she answered, probably noticing my uneasiness.
“Don’t worry about that, she will give him a taste of it. She just got to make him run for it a little bit. He needs to learn that these things don’t come on a silver platter,” Rose said, winking at Bailey. Holly erupted in laughter, opening her mouth to talk.
“A lot of guys need to understand that, trust me. Popular guys like Ben, Liam and Cole underestimate us girls,” she said, settling herself a little bit closer to our little group. I caught Rose eyes, and it took a lot of me to suppress a laugh. I remembered when Noah had told us about Holly, and I just couldn’t quite have the same image of her when I saw her.
“Oh, Liam... Well there’s another one I would like to know better,” Thea said, licking her lips in a sensual way. We all cracked up in unison, but for my part it was a little bit hard to keep up with them.
“Apparently he has a little... you know," she said, motioning towards her crotch. "Well that’s what Lisa said, at least. I find it hard to trust her since she was saying the contrary when they were together. It smells a lot like revenge, if you ask me,” Bailey said. I had heard the rumors too. Ever since Liam had broke up with her at the beach, dirty little stories where passing around the school, and everyone was quite curious to know why they were only leaking now. Nobody truly knew why these two weren’t seen together anymore, but it was almost normal for us, since we were pretty accustomed to seeing the couple fight.
“Yeah, it’s a shame that they aren’t together anymore,” Holly said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
“I would wait a little before I go eat him alive if I were you, Hols. They might come back together, like they always do,” Melinda laughed, patting Holly’s hand.
“I wouldn’t count on that. They barely talk to each other, and even Amber broke up with Ben. It’s the end for these little perfect couples,” Rose took her place back into the conversation.
“I won’t say I feel bad for them though, because that would be lying,” she continued, causing another round of laughter.
Right at that moment, the bell rang, telling us that the classes would begin in ten minutes. We all got up, still laughing, and packed the things that were still lying around on the grass. When I turned around, ready to go, I saw Cole at the door waiting for me. It’s going to be a long day, a voice inside my head sigh.
---> 
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