All I want is you and me (A bad boy x Reader Romance)

Chapter Six

"Oh now you're on time" Ethan grumbled obviously making Cooper uncomfortable as he scratched the back of his head nervously. "Oh yeah...I actually wanted to talk about that" he chuckled nervously, however it did nothing to soften Ethan's steel glare.

"Damn that's tough" Ethan responded the tension in the air so thick you could cut it with a knife. You sigh, you'd be lying if you said you weren't mad at him for abandoning you yesterday, but you still felt sorry for the guy. "Chill out Ethan" you look up at your tall friend, he casts a doubting glance back at you before you sigh. "I'll see you again in the parking lot after school, okay?" That seemed to be enough to satisfy him. However even as he passed cooper his should not-so-accidentally bumped into cooper's on his way out.

Cooper smiled, rubbing his shoulder and nodding at you thankfully. " thanks y/n how about we chat outside?" Nodding you follow him to the very bench both you and Walter ate at yesterday.

Cooper looks up at you expectantly after plopping down on the bench. Obviously noticing you staring at it. "Something wrong y/n?" He asked finally snapping you back. "Do you remember Walter Woods?" You ask, the pit in your stomach opening up once again as he chuckles. "Afraid not, is he an actor or....?". You sigh already feeling your palms shaking again, trying to just calm down enough to chat. "I'm fine" you plop down next to him, diggin into your backpack for the lunch your mom bagged you. As you pull it out you look over and see Cooper staring at your paper bag, you blush not exactly sure why you're so embarrassed. Until you see cooper digging something out of his own bag and pull out a neatly wrapped circulaur box. You raise your eyebrows confused until he presents it to you smiling "take it! Its an apology for yesterday". He holds it out to you as you take the box almost as thick as your torso, confused. unwrapping the soft and delicate silk ribbon and opening it to see an ensemble of delicately placed chocolates, truffles and caramels with one large piece of chocolate the size of your fist smack in the middle. Your eyes widen as you look at the text inside some germanic? Russian? Or some sort of eastern european language you can't possibly decipher.

You look back up to Cooper completely dumbfounded "Cooper, what IS this?" Cooper tilted his head confused. "Haven't you seen chocolate before y/n?" he chuckled "not like THIS" you exclaim as your eyes try to count the amount of chocolates inside,20?30? Its gotta be at least 40 pieces of chocolate in there! Cooper smiles "well maybe it's not the regular dollar store chocolates, but then again you can't spare any expense for an apology". Your eyes shoot back up to him as your tone lowered to a cautious tone, almost afraid of his answer. "Cooper...how much DID you spend on these?" you see him shrug casually "it was from this company overseas i think, so maybe like 100 dollars?". You choke at how casually he drops such a large number and he seems surprised. "Is that a lot? I mean it's not for me so don't worry about it! My allowance more than covers it..." he looks down and his voice lowers "it's the least i can do after yesterday....".

You look back up at Cooper and can see something swirling in his eyes, whether this expensive gift was just him trying to distract you or a genuine apology you really don't know. However you find your lips opening and the question you've been holding in for the last few hours burst out. "So why DID you leave me in the parking lot yesterday?" you see Cooper sigh and scratch the back of his head nervously. "I promise i didn't mean too! It's just personal stuff got in the way and...i had to rush off..." you can see the poor boy straining to keep the pain off of his face. However still you find yourself asking "do you...want to talk?".

You can see the gears turning in his head as he contemplates before finally staring into your eyes, his lips pursed and his happy demeanor finally torn away. He sighs "you know when you see someone suffering? Like practically spiraling into themselves and you try so hard to drag them back from the brink but you just-can't...". You see his hands visibly begin to shake as he continues "so you only have one way to save them...you risk it all in hopes that you can brink them back but it just...fails." he cradles his own face in his hands as he mumbles "and you're still picking up the pieces a year later..." "this is about Ethan isn't it?" you hear yourself blurt out as he nods solemnly. "How'd you know?" he asks as you twist your thumb nervously, thinking back to what Cassie said during the confrontation with Ethan. "I had a feeling..." you admit stretching a comforting hand towards his. "but...I don't know how to solve this until you tell me everything..," you somethings flicker in cooper's eyes before his lips part hesitantly.

"Me and Ethan met freshman year, he wasn't always a bad kid...just a quiet one. Our parents actually kind of pushed us together since you know...rich kids gotta be friends with other rich kids". You raise a suspicious eyebrow "Ethan is rich?" Cooper purses his lips again at the question. "Used to be..." he murmurs beneath his breath, yet just loud enough for you to catch the drip of guilt in his tone. He sits back up and heaves a long breath "Junior year me and Ca̵̺͠ssie started dating" you see him smile at your expression. "What? She wasn't always as...." "as much of a bitch?" you ask, earning a comforting chuckle from him. However his tone turns serious again, whilst retaining the weak smile on his face. "Seriously though she changed just as much as ethan did after...Ethan's father lost his business".

"Ethan took that much of a spiral just because he wasn't rich anymore" Cooper shakes his head. "His father's business was drugs...illegal ones". "Oh..." you breathe weakly as Cooper's voice breaks through the heavy tension. "And Cassie's dad is chief of police...so when he found ecstasy in Cassie's room, it all just....".

A heavy silence drops upon the two of you, the reality sinking into your head. You had never thought something like this could have occurred, not to mention Cooper being involved in it. You grip the bench with your shaking finger, whispering "what happened after?...". You hated having to ask, but you had to know for your own sanity.

Cooper breathes long and slow "The police raided Ethan's house...his dad was arrested and over spring break he was sent to a troubled youth's facility he didn't come back the same. Cassie and I broke up...we realized it had all been too much for the both of us...".

Cooper puts his face in his hands and you see just the faintest glimmer of a tear in his eye. His voice is fragile and trembling as he meekly whispers "I can't handle it...I can't handle the guilt, so I blocked it all out. I'm a fucking coward, I didn't even try to talk to ethan, I couldn't even face Cassie afterwards... When she needed me most I just left her over text....i....I'm-". You wrap your arms around the broken boy. Pulling him closer into your embrace as you murmur "you don't have to be strong Cooper...you're a teenager, we're all just teenagers...".

You hold Cooper there for a while, you can't see him crying but you feel the heaving of his chest up and down.

Slowly, carefully, he raises his head again, the wet streams where his tears were still visible on his cheeks. A weak smile still on his face as his puffy eyes take you in, looking at you with admiration and adoration. "Thank you y/n...so much..." he finally pulls away from you, wiping away his tears. He chuckles weakly "no wonder everyone likes you...." you tilt your head. It's the second time you've heard it today, and now your even more suspicious.

"What do you mean Cooper?" Cooper smiles "you can't tell?". "No....?" you say suspiciously earning another giggle from him as his eyes gaze into yours, it's as if he's looking at you so intimately....yet almost looking past you. As if trying to gaze into your very being, or even further.

"I don't know what it is y/n but there's something special about you...something that everyone here can feel...something that broke through Ethan".

The bell rings and you see students get flood both in and out of the school entrance as cooper gets his bag. However he turns to you "just look around Y/n...you can see it in their eyes" he smiles hauntingly as he disappears into the crowd once again. Now that you know more than ever...why is it you feel so alone?