Begin Anew {Cole Walter}

Chp. 7

Holly's pov

It feels different walking into school today, like somethings about to happen or already has and the repercussions are about to hit. I shrug off the feeling when cole wraps his arm around my waist and smiles at me. This causes some dirty looks from the girls in the halls but also some pitiful looks... whats that about i wonder. Cole and i part ways and head to class. When i get there i get some more pitying looks so when i do sit down i instantly ask grace why half the school is looking at me like a kicked puppy and what she says in response stops my heart. "There's a rumor that Cole cheated on you last night with some random chick." "oh" i say i don't even have to ask to know i look like i'm about to throw up i get up and head to the bathroom just so i can breathe for a second without anyone watching. I take a moment to process what has happened since i walked in the school, pitying looks, cole being nice, being told cole cheated on me, coming here. Ok so not the best start let's just take a deep breath and focus on facts. Cole was with me all night until after we went to bed, grace said it was a rumor. Those are the facts and I just need to fill in the blanks with what happened after I went to bed. That's all I need to know and there's no way to confirm that.

After a good five minutes of overthinking this I decided I'm just going to wait till lunch to ask Cole if it's true.

Its lunch and im stressing, im standing in line to go get lunch when alex comes up with a smirk "bet you wish you chose me now huh"

"nope not in a million years" i say as i leave the line to go sit at my normal table to wait for cole. when he doesn't show i decide to go look for him. I make it in the hallway. He's not there so I take a couple more turns till I hear sounds. I follow them and when I see what's making them I feel all of my emotions go numb. I can't think I can't speak and I can't move. The thing making the 'sounds' is my boyfriend making out with the girl he claimed to have cut off, Olivia. Once my brain realizes this i don't cry i just walk away. I hear someone call my name but I don't turn because I know it's one of them and I'm not sure I can deal with either one of them without punching them. So i walk faster until im outside in the courtyard then to the benches and i collapse just straight fall on the bench tears forming as reality keeps hitting me in waves. Of course everything he said last night was a lie of course, he probably listened to alex and thought i was too high maintenance, he was probably just doing it for a dare, he was probably lying to me the whole time when he said he stopped hooking up with other girls. By the time all those thoughts register im really needing to escape so i go find the keys to my car and leave. I drive to the watering hole once i get there all the way to where cole and i went that one day do if finally cry. What did i do to deserve this? All i did was lose my entire family and be a little wary of the fact that a guy like cole wanted me and now i realize i was a stupid naive girl. When someone sits next to me i know it's cole

"come to gloat?" i ask in a watery voice

"please-"

"please what? Please forgive me? Not a chance. Please listen? Everything you say is a lie. Please let me explain? That i was either a bet or just another check on your list, no thank you. Everything you could say to me right now would just make me want to punch you even more than i do now." he looks genuinely shocked when he asks

"What"

"Oh please, I saw you making out with olivia." i say rolling my eyes

"I-i'm sorry what" he says laughing. How could he be laughing right now? I turn to him getting ready to scream and cuss him out but then I see his face... he's enjoying this so I just take a deep breath, get up and walk away. He calls out to me trying to figure out why I'm leaving . I just ignore him and keep walking until I get in my car and drive home. When i get there i change into my running clothes and head out letting Kathrine know on the way and that i won't be back for a while so not to wait up.

I head out as quickly as possible trying to avoid anymore interactions. When I'm out on the trail all I can do is think that I should have left when Richard was here because all of this would have been avoided.

When I come out of my thoughts I realize I don't know how to get back or where I am. I start to panic but decide I should just call grace. She doesn't pick up, so i call the walter home phone praying that anyone other than cole would pick up. As luck would have it Cole picked up "hello?"

"hey cole it's holly."

"What's up?"

"i'm lost, but don't worry ill be fine-" he cuts me off

"No, I'm coming to get you. Are there any things that stand out?"

"Um, just a bunch of creepy white trees."

"Ok i know where you are i'll be there in a minute."

"Ok" we hang up just as I hear thunder.

I'm starting to panic again just as Cole pulls up. I get in the car and we drive in silence till he pulls over.

"What now cole"i ask annoyed that he trapped me here

"I want to.. Apologize" he says looking down

"Go on"

"I want to apologize for pretending I didn't know why you were mad. I had an entire speech I was going to say but then I saw you crying and I knew it was because of me. That hurt so much I just hoped you would have thought it was someone else if I played dumb."

"So you're not denying you made out with Olivia but you're not apologizing for that, you're apologizing for pretending not to know." my voice is getting more judgemental with each word.

Coles pov

She was yelling at me because I cheated on her. I cheated on New York. Why did I do that? Why did I hurt her again? How do I apologize? How do I get her to forgive me? These are the thoughts that have been running through my head since lunch. I don't know how it happened. I was running late from class and was at my locker getting ready to go meet New York when Olivia pushed me against my locker and kissed me. When I pushed her away it was too late . I knew New York had seen. So all day i have been trying to think of where she could have gone when i saw her leaving the courtyard to go to her car i followed behind. As i saw her go to the watering hole i almost started crying myself because she was going to the place where one of our first and happiest memories was. I saw her park get out and run to the spot we went to. I wait a couple of minutes before getting out of my car and going down there prepared to tell her the whole story and try to fix things but then i saw her tear stained face and knew that i had made her cry one to many times so i just sat down and pretended i didn't know what she was talking about. Then she left and when i got home her car was there but she wasn't so i asked mom and she said holly went for a run. As i was waiting for holly to come home the home phone got a call. It was her. I picked her up and now we're arguing and I have no idea how to fix it.

Hollys pov

He just sits there as if he didn't hear me which makes me even more mad because now he's quiet after all this trying to get me to hear him out. Then he speaks

"I'm going to tell you everything that happened today from my point of view." the way he says it its like hes trying not to anger me which makes me feel a little better because he cares enough to not want to anger me even more but do i really need a play by play of how he made out with another girl i don't thinks so

"fine but I will get out of this car and walk home in the rain if you bring up anything about kissing that whore."

"Ok ..." he goes into telling me everything, how she came onto him, how he followed me, how when he got to the watering hole he was going to tell me but thought that he had caused enough pain, all of it. In the end I'm smiling. I can't say I knew he wouldn't cheat but after what he said last night it makes sense. He leans in and says "may i?" I don't answer, I just kiss him. When we break apart I say "one favor and you're fully forgiven?" "anything" he says with starry eyes and i ask "can we dance in the rain?" "Of course" he starts the headlights and I start the music. We get out and have a magical dance in the rain ending in a dip and a kiss.