Chapter 6

After two weeks of going to school, Steph was starting to understand the friendships that were forming. Mason and Cole had been best friends ever since they were little, but now it seemed like the redheaded boy was more with Amelia, his girlfriend, so Cole had become very good friends with Nate.

Charles had his football buddies, including Mason, and he was already in the popular group at school. As of herself, she was slowly trying to become friends with Barry who Nate had a crush on, and with Amelia, the raven-haired girl trying hard to become friends with the blonde.

Cole kept sitting next to her every day in every class possible, even after she told him he didn’t have to do it. He simply answered he found it more comfortable sitting next to her than anybody else. She believed that.

Even though trying to hold good grades in every subject she was taking, she found Cole much more interesting to learn. She liked to look at him during the classes. His blue eyes were so soft when they were deeply interested in the facts somebody was telling, a strand of his black hair always fell onto his forehead, escaping from the white beanie he had never taken off under her eyes. His arms were in shape as much as she had seen from under his flannels and Sherpa jackets. Everything about him was beautiful—from his sharp jawline to his icy eyes.

Cole’s economic situation seemed to be off, though. Mason kept buying him lunch, and when he did buy it himself, he usually only got himself nachos or something similar, always something very cheap. Steph was starting to understand his story from the pieces she had put together from everyone’s words. The boy lived with his dad, didn’t talk to his mom much, and his dad was an alcoholic. That was all she knew though. Because Cole never talked about himself.

“Hey,” the same beanie-wearing boy said when Steph sat down next to him in Chemistry.

“Morning,” the girl sighed, placed her bag onto the table, and rested her cheek against it.

Cole chuckled. “Rough night?”

She met his eyes slowly, taking in the soft look in them, matching with the adorable smirk he always gave her. “My sister should be due soon. My mom can’t sleep well, and my dad is trying to help her, and if one of the boys has a nightmare or something, they come to me.”

He smiled at the story. “You’re a good sister.” It wasn’t a question. It was a statement.

“Thanks,” she mumbled tiredly and turned her face back into her arms. Cole stayed quiet, letting her relax for a while as he observed her outfit. She was wearing one of her usual jeans that made her legs look way too long, and the pink hoodie that seemed to be her favorite. It was a bit oversized and fell halfway to her butt, but it matched well with the French braid her hair was in today. She was so beautiful.

“Nate told me you’re coming over today after school,” Steph said quietly, keeping the same position.

“Uh, yeah. That okay with you?”

She chuckled. “Of course. I just wanted to ask you what you want for lunch.” She peeked out of her arms to see his reaction. He looked surprised, so she quickly explained what she had thought with that, not wanting to be put in an awkward situation. “Mom’s probably not making anything today, and my dad should be working, so it’s either Nate cooking or us ordering something. So, what would you like?”

“I feel like I shouldn’t eat if you’re paying for it.”

“You’re earning us money with watching the videos on YouTube, so it’s practically you paying.”

His eyes went wide as a smirk appeared on her face, observing his shocked face. “You, uh… You can see who- what—”

“It’s fine,” Steph chuckled. “I get it. I mentioned it and you were curious. I just scrolled through our channel and saw a name repeating itself over and over again with giving us likes.”

He smiled sheepishly. “Guilty. Sorry. They’re pretty great.”

Steph sniggered and shook her head before turning it back onto her arms. “I feel like you know all of us so well now and I know nothing about you, still.”

“Maybe I’d tell you if you’d ask.”

Steph frowned and looked at him with a bit narrowed eyes, trying to figure out if he was lying or not. But, before she could come to the right conclusion, the teacher walked in, shushing the class down. She wondered maybe she did have to communicate a bit if he was actually going to answer her questions.

#

“Nate, are you gay?” Barry asked out of the blue during the lunch, making everybody shut up and look at him in surprise. His green eyes laid casually on Steph’s twin, waiting for an answer.

Nathan’s face was blank as he met the boy’s eyes and finally frowned. “Uh, yeah… I thought you knew already.”

“Oh, I did. I just wanted to make sure before…” Barry trailed off, keeping the deep eye contact with the other boy.

“Before?” he encouraged.

The older boy raised his index finger while drinking a sip of his water, motioning for him to wait. Nate took the opportunity to share a look with Steph as Barry swallowed. “Before I did this,” he announced and captured Nathan’s lips in his.

Mason’s mouth fell open, staring at the two boys making out, his brown eyes wide. Amelia just rolled hers and kept eating, understanding neither of them was going to pull away. Steph looked for a few moments with her eyebrows raised. The decision had been so spontaneous and sweet, but she didn’t want to see her brother making out with anybody. So, she simply turned her head and looked at Cole who was having a pack of Doritos as his lunch.

“You want this?” the blonde asked him, holding an unopened cheeseburger. The boy raised his fuzzy eyebrows in question, a shiver running through his body as he understood the girl probably knew. “I got it and I’m full already.”

“Sure?” he asked slowly. Steph nodded and gave him a small smile when he accepted it. “Thanks,” the boy mumbled, placing the Doritos on the bleacher he was sitting on, and unwrapped the burger.

Most of the money he had gotten while working during the summer in the bookstore, had gone to pay for the water and electricity through the months, and he had used the remainder of it to buy food. Luke was one of the builders in Philippe Adams’ company, so he and many others had built the Smith house for a year. He had gotten some pretty good money for it, but now that it was over, things were back to how they were when Cole’s mother and sister left. His dad was drunk, drinking for all the money they had, and didn’t even care about Cole enough to make sure he had a few dollars to buy lunch at school, or anywhere, really.

He was thankful for every piece of food he got. It helped him a lot.

“Steph!” they all heard suddenly and turned their heads to look at the jocks on the field, in front of the bleachers. “I’ll pick you up at seven-thirty!”

The blonde’s face went red as she rested it into her hand, elbow resting on her knee. Cole clenched his teeth, glaring at Chuck and his friends, Charles one of them. He met her older brother’s eyes while the other boys laughed. Chic didn’t. Neither did Cole.

“Oh my god, girl, you’re going out with Chuck Clayton?” Amelia asked in shock, eyes wide.

“Uh… Yeah, I guess,” the blonde said uncomfortably. While Nate was still shocked by the kiss and all the feelings his body was going through, he moved his hand onto her back, rubbing it softly to get her back to her normal state. It was okay, his eyes told her. She believed it.

“He’s kind of a player.”

“I get that. He just… asked me out. I don’t know why I even said yes, he’s never talked to me.”

“Where is he taking you?” Nate asked.

“I… I don’t know. He said it was a surprise.”

Cole had a bad feeling about that and was about to suggest to her not to go when Amelia started telling her about him. Instead of saying something, he just kept glaring at the boy playing soccer with his friends. Jealousy made him feel powerless.

#

“Okay,” Steph sighed deeply, walking into her brother’s room. “How do I look?”

Both of the boys’ heads turned to look at her, Cole’s eyes grew a bit wider, trying to hide it while looking at her long legs in the short high-waisted black skirt.

“Cute,” Nate smiled, letting Steph relax and smile a little too. “It works for a restaurant if he’s taking you somewhere like that, but it’s also great for movies.”

Steph’s eyes shyly moved onto their friend, who’s mouth closed on that instant, meeting her piercing green eyes with a gulp of his Adam’s apple. “You look great,” Cole said casually, trying to play it cool.

Steph smiled a little and looked back at her brother. “If he won’t bring me back home, you’ll pick me up?”

“Chic has the car,” Nate said with a frown.

“Okay, well… Let’s hope he drops me off then,” the girl said with a small smile. “I’ll go now. See you later. Bye Cole.”

“Bye,” both of the boys said in unison, Cole’s eyes following her legs out of the door.

When Steph’s steps disappeared downstairs, Nate finally chuckled and turned to face his new best friend. “Dude,” he accused with a slight chuckle. “You’re totally drooling over my sister.”

Cole made one of his faces, rolling his eyes, and looked back at the videogame on the screen in front of them. “I’m not,” he said, picking a new game mode in PlayStation, used to always doing it at Mason’s place.

“You totally are,” Nathan laughed. “And you’re so fucking obvious.”

“She’s your sister. I would never.”

“Well… You were checking out her ass when she left.”

“I wasn’t.”

“Sure.”

“Let’s just play the game,” Cole sighed.

#

Steph frowned deeply when the brown-eyed boy parked the car next to the Sweetwater River. It was raining outside, mid-September, and she was already a bit cold even when the heat was turned on, the car warm. They were definitely not going outside.

The boy smirked to himself while unbuckling his seatbelt and turned to her. “I like your outfit today,” the boy said. “You usually only wear light and jeans.” His hand dropped onto her thigh that was covered in beige stockings. Steph tensed up and met his eyes warily. The boy started over to her seat. “I’m—”

Steph’s hands flew to her chest and pushed him away as good as she could, making Chuck’s eyes darken as he sat back onto his seat. “I’m not going to do anything with you,” the girl said strictly. “Take me home.”

“Oh, but you look so pretty,” he said, hand back on her thigh, moving towards the end of her stockings, and her panties. Steph grabbed his hand and pushed it off.

“Fuck you,” she said under her breath and grasped the handle of her door. She pulled it, and when nothing happened, tried again and again and again, until she froze, understanding what was happening. Fuck. That wasn’t good. “Open the god damn door,” she demanded, trying not to panic at the smirk on his face.

“We just got here, Smith. And it’s raining outside. Let’s have some fun,” the dark-haired boy said, his hand moving under her seat, letting it slide backward.

“Don’t touch me,” Steph said, moving away from him as he only laughed, hand moving under her skirt now. The girl started moving as much as she could, trying to push him away when he pushed her down on the chair that was now in a bed-position. “Let go of me!” she screamed when his hands gripped her wrists, knees pushing down her thighs.

Tears fell from her eyes when he grabbed some kind of cloth material from somewhere and using as much strength as possible, tied her hands up over her head, onto the headrest. “Fucking don’t do this. Let go of me,” Steph cried, trying to get free. He was too strong. Just too strong.

The boy smirked when her hands were tied up over her head and the blonde girl was a sobbing mess under him. “I thought you might like it rough,” he taunted, sliding his thumb over her lips.

“Let-let go o-of me,“ Steph sobbed, trying to move her legs and body, but unable to under his weight. “Don’t do this to me. Please.”

“Shh,” he whispered against her neck, making her want to throw up while shivering because of his freezing sweaty hands.

“I hate you,” Steph cried in between her attempts to plead him out of it. Her breath was hitched, heart thumping inside, while she hiccupped as the boy

“I hate you,” Steph cried in between her attempts to plead him out of it. Her breath was hitched, heart thumping inside while she hiccupped as the boy ripped her shirt up to her neck, leaving it there. “Let go of me.” Her wrists were aching, trying to pull herself free from the car, from him. She tried to hit him with anything possible, but nothing was in her reach.

After two slow and painful minutes, her panties were pulled down. “Let go of me!” she screamed.

“Be quiet,” he demanded with a harsh tone, left hand squeezing her neck. Steph moved her mouth, trying to keep breathing and crying, but he was doing it so strongly and long that she forgot where she was for a moment, everything going black in front of her eyes.

When she woke back up, his eyes were huge as he came inside of her, and then groaned, pulling out. Steph was trying to swallow, and breathe, and stay alive, everything aching—her neck, her vagina, her torso, her wrists.

Chuck got himself back to shape on his chair, watching Steph with a smirk, hands still tied up. Now she was too weak to try to move her legs and butt to kick him into the face. She was too weak to move.

He abruptly let the seat back up, making her head hit itself against the headrest, her hands moving again to get free. “Let me out,” she breathed weakly.

“You’re going to have to wait,” he said and buckled his seatbelt as he started driving again.

“Let me go!” she cried, voice hoarse and aching.

“I’m getting you back to the town,” he said. “I don’t want you dying out here.”

She wanted to scoff at that, but everything was hurting, and she was thirsty and half-dead already. So, instead, she just kept crying and waited, trying to remember herself how to move her feet and how to pull her legs up onto the seat to kick him. She couldn’t.

When back in town, on some street, he untied her hands and unlocked the doors, pushing hers open in the rain. The girl gasped, looking at the blood all around her wrists, and at his numb expression. Her seatbelt wasn’t on, so he could’ve just pushed her out of the car if he wanted to.

“You can go now. Thanks for tonight,” he said with a smile. Steph breathed in shakily as slowly as possible and made her feet move. She didn’t have the strength to punch him—she couldn’t even close the door by herself.

Sobbing to herself, looking at how the car drove away, she sat down on the edge of the sidewalk, curling up to herself, trying to find her phone in the soaking wet weather. She couldn’t.