Cole

"Get up you idiot."

Opening my eyes to meet Fin's cornflower blue eyes first thing in the morning sounds like something out of one of my dreams. Unfortunately, this was real life, so instead of pinning me to the bed and screwing me senseless he was dragging me of the bed and onto my ass.

"Good morning to you too." I muttered sleepily. His already present frown just deepened.

"It's past noon Cole." He stared down at me like a disappointed parent who'd just found their kid drawing on the walls for the fifth time.

"Really? I guess I'm late." I wasn't planning on going to school today anyway, I needed time to wallow in my own misery.

"No shit." He deadpanned, face still stoic.

"Come to think of it, school isn't over yet. What are you doing here?"

"Said I was sick, so they let me out early." He shrugged. "Came to drag your sad-ass out of bed."

"Perks of being a golden boy."

"Shut up and get of the floor, you're paying for lunch then you're going to tell me what's wrong." He walked to my bedroom door. "Be downstairs in five minutes."

🎵🎸🎵

"Spill."

A sigh escaped my lips as I glanced up at Fin, noting the way he narrowed his eyes at me. He reminded me of a puppy trying to be intimidating.

"What?" I spoke through a month full of food. We were in Willow's, a local dinner, the most popular one in Nottingham, and I was scarfing down a burger while Fin tried to interrogate me.

"You know what. I've been trying to stay patient with you but I'm sick and tired of you screwing up your life and being unable to help."

"Why do you always seem to think there's some grand singular reason for every problem?" Why don't you realize it's you? "Why can't I just be sad?"

"Are you depressed?" He questioned, not letting up. Of course not, that would be to easy. "Is that why you're seeing Mr. Green?"

"Does it matter?"

"Yes, yes it does." He sighed. "I thought things were getting better then you cancelled our plans yesterday with no explanation and didn't show up for school again. I thought you'd run of with Willow again."

"Well I didn't, I just sulked in my room and did math homework, so at least I was being productive."

"At least." He conceded. "But that doesn't make me less worried."

"Trust me, I'm not depressed." Just in love, but I guess when it's unrequited there's not much difference.

"Then I'll have to go for my second guess."

"Which is?"

"You're in love."

I think I almost choked when he spoke, no scratch that I did. He scrambled up to my side of the booth, thumping my back till I managed to cough out the obstruction and wheeze in more air.

"Judging by that reaction I know I'm right." He said as he took his seat across from me again. "Who is it?"

You, you idiot. "None of your goddamn business." I took a napkin and wiped at my mouth furiously. "What makes you think some crush is enough to mess me up anyway?"

"No offense but you can be a bit melodramatic, it's honestly not that much of a stretch." He explained. "I just hope whoever she is can handle it as well as I do."

"I don't doubt that they can." I sighed, cursing my luck. The goof was more perceptive than he seemed at times. It was only a matter of time before he figured it out.

"So who is she?"

She. I almost snorted. "Not saying."

"Fine." He huffed. "Are you ever planning on telling her?"

"Trust me, when I tell them you'll be the first person to know."

🎵🎸🎵

Fun dragged me back to school from Willow's so I'm back in time to catch my last lesson of the day and end up in Mr. Green's office again.

"You skipped school for most of today." He started after a minute of silence.

"I'm aware of that."

"I guess you didn't take our talk from yesterday well at all?"

"Not in the slightest."

"You're better now though?"

"Yes. I talked to Fin." Then I added before he could get any ideas. "And no I didn't tell him."

"You're going to the club meeting tomorrow, right?"

"I'll check it out."

"Good."

🎵🎸🎵

Nottingham's town fall was large and spacious with dozens of rooms for several events and conventions. Right now I was headed towards room 103. Unlike a lot of the other doors this one was completely undecorated aside from the number plaque.

I knocked on the door and after a few seconds of waiting it opened. The girl who opened it was tall and lanky with short red hair and blue eyes that were narrowed at me, scrutinizing me.

"Hello." She glanced behind me like she was worried about being overheard. There was no one else in the room. "You sure your in the right place?"

"What do I not look gay enough for you?"

She grinned, revealing shiny metal braces. "Didn't mean to question your queer credentials." She opened the door wide enough for me to pass through and gestured for me to do so. "Come on in."

I did. Room 103 was a mediumish sized conference room with a long table at the center, a white board up front and a water cooler at the back. Sat around the long tables was an assortment of people, some I vaguely recognized from school and around town but couldn't exactly place. Only one face grabbed my attention though.

She seems to have seen me too, staring at me wide eyed from the back of the room, brown eyes frozen in horror. She looked exactly the same as the last time I saw her. Same black hair in a bob with a streak of dyed green hair, same high cheekbones and same bright red lipstick.

The only difference between then and now was the fact that she was wearing significantly more clothing than the last time I saw her.

"Quiet down everyone, we've got a new member." The red head spoke, silencing the room. "Lets introduce ourselves." She turned to me with a friendly smile. "I'm Kelsey but most people just call me Kel. My pronouns are she and her."

What followed was a series of names and pronouns, most of which I forgot, till they got to the girl. I already knew her name, Kimberly Park. I just kind of hopped I'd never see her again.

Soon the introductions stopped and all eyes turned to me, including Kim, whose glare was drilling holes in my skull. "Right, um, my name's Cole, no way to shorten that into a nickname, and my pronouns are him and his."

"Right take a seat Cole and we'll start our meeting."