Hard to Hate You // Michael Langdon

Part XI - Coco & Gallant

"What are you playing?" Coco asks as she enters the sitting room, seeing me sitting at the piano.

"I was just choosing," I sigh, flipping through the tons of piano books that were left here. Whoever went to school here loved the piano.

"As long as I don't have to listen to Morning After," she rolls her eyes.

Everybody else mumbles in agreement, tired to death of that song; Ms. Venable only allows us to turn it off when I'm playing the piano.

I smirk as I land on "The Morning After" in the piano book. This will definitely get a rise out of Coco. 

After I play the first line, Coco slaps my shoulder. "You bitch," she scoffs. "Don't make me shut this fucking piano on your fingers."

I chuckle as I throw the piano book to the side. "Have I ever told you how pleasant you are to be around?" I ask sarcastically.

She's about to say something else snarky when she catches a glimpse of my wrist, which is still bruised from my incident with Michael yesterday.

"What the hell?" she whispers, sitting on the piano bench next to me. She grabs my wrist and scrutinizes the bruise before I can pull my hand away. She looks up at me disbelievingly. "Did fucking Langdon do this to you? I could see how angry he was when I left you in the library alone with him."

I scoff. "Coco, if I didn't know better, I would think that you actually care."

She ignores me. "Bitch, if he laid a hand on you, I will end him."

"Coco, it's really nothing," I shake my head. "Don't worry, he was left with far worse injuries."

She holds my wrist up. "This isn't nothing!" she whisper-shouts. "Shit, I knew I shouldn't have left you alone with him."

"Coco, I promise you, I've got it handled," I state as I pull my wrist away. We turn and see everyone in the sitting room sending us questioning glances, not having heard what we were talking about but knowing that it was intense.

Everyone's attention is brought to Ms. Venable as she enters the room. We silently stand and walk over to take our seats at the table. Coco settles in next to me and sends a concerned glance at my wrist, so I just hide it under the table.

All eyes land on Gallant as he enters the dining room late. He sits in his seat and looks down, remaining silent.

Coco stares at him skeptically for a few seconds before finally deciding to speak up.  "Gallant, I really need you to do my hair."

"Maybe you should've thought about that before starting a whole fight over dinner," Gallant grumbles.

"Oh, come on, I just said what we were all thinking!" Coco yells. She quickly realizes her mistake. "Shit, that just made things worse," she mutters.

"You're such a self-absorbed bitch!" Gallant yells. "The only time you treat people kindly is when you want something from them!"

"Let's not forget who gave you and your grandmother their tickets to this outpost," Coco remarks, taking a sip from her glass.

"Who else were those tickets going to go to? There was nobody else there!"

"My fucking boyfriend, you asshole," Coco says angrily. I recall her yelling about how her boyfriend was on his way while we were at the airport. "He died for you to be here."

"He wasn't going to make it to the fucking plane anyway!" Gallant's right; the Cooperative agents were saying that as they forced us into the plane.