Page 81 of Missed Notes (Rixon High 5)

Sofia

By Sunday afternoon,I felt a little better.

My family had let me wallow all day Saturday. Mom had checked in on me and lay with me for a while. But Dad was suspiciously absent.

And Aaron, well he was either avoiding me or too pissed at me to come and see me. Cole had told him, then told me it had gone surprisingly well. He’d wanted to come and hang out earlier, but I’d made up some excuse about being nauseous again.

The truth was, I was a coward.

Things were changing too quickly.

My health. My future. My feelings about Cole.

I wanted things to go back to how they were before. When everything was much simpler and all I had to worry about was college applications and acing my finals.

Reaching over, I grabbed my cell phone and smiled at the two messages from Cole.

Cole: Hey, how are you feeling?

Cole: I could grab some dinner and bring it over?

Me: I think Mom is cooking. Rain check until tomorrow?

Cole: If I didn’t know better, I’d say you are avoiding me…

Damn,he was perceptive.

Me: Aaron is home. I don’t want things to be awkward.

Cole: Have you spoken to him yet?

Me: No, I think he’s avoiding me.

Cole: He’ll come around. He loves you.

Me: I don’t want to hurt him, Cole.

Cole: Let me take you out later? We’ll go somewhere out of town. Just you and me.

I bit my bottom lip.I wanted to say yes. I did. But everything was such a mess.

I was a mess.

Before I could reply, another text came through.

Cole: You can’t hide forever.

He knew.Cole knew without me ever saying a word. And it was such a relief that he saw through my lies and pretenses because I needed that. I needed someone to pull me out of the darkness circling me.

Me: Okay. Let’s do it.

Cole: I’ll see you later, Sofe.

Another text came straight through.

Cole: I’m already counting the hours.

My heart swelled.

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