Escape || Cole Walter

Five

••live a little••

Like the day before, I get up early, make coffee, and watch chaos ensue around me. The first thing that happens in the morning is Jackie and Nathan going outside for their runs. It makes me happy that Jackie has found her own buddy around this house. For me, I'm not quite sure who to call my friend yet.

The second thing to happen, very shortly after, is one of Erin's friends sneaking out of the house. There is no way there is a teenage girl sneaking in and out of this house. Following her, was Cole, who just waltzed into the kitchen like nothing was happening.

"Who was that?" I ask in a hushed tone from my spot at the breakfast bar.

He gives me a cocky smirk, his eyes rolling. "I have no idea who you're talking about." He answers blankly.

"Hey Cole, are you ready?" As if almost on cue, Danny asks from the stairs with Alex standing beside him.

The oldest boy turns his head towards them and gives a nod. I do the same and give a smile instead. "Morning Alex, morning Danny."

Cole shakes his head, clearly exhausted as he heads out the front door with his brothers. I wonder where they are going this early.

And the last thing to happen in my morning was my sister's hair getting bleached.

There is loud arguing coming from the downstairs bathroom, which made me get up immediately. I heard Jackie go in there a couple minutes ago.

"-there's a bet that you would rather skip school than go with bleached hair." I hear Issac finish as he stands outside of the bathroom door with a big smirk.

"You bleached Jackie's hair?" I ask, using the context clues. Who in the world do these boys think they are? My anger gets the best of me as I bolt towards the bathroom door.

"I did not personally." He answers with a sarcastic tone.

"Issac what the actual fuck." I scold quietly enough for no one else to hear. "Get out of here." I say, pushing him as gently as I can out of the doorway, so I can get in. The minute Im inside, I can smell the potent mix of bleach. "Jackie, have you washed it out?" I ask with concern covering my voice.

"Of course I have!" She answers through the curtain, completely stressed.

"Okay, Im going to find one of my hats, and youre going to wear it to school."

"You want me to go to school?"

"You don't want to go? What about Princeton? This is one setback, prove the Walter's wrong." I answer, my hand still on the cold door handle.

She groans loudly. "Fine."

I feel bad for leaving her at school, but I know she can manage, and our classes are in almost opposite directions.

In chemistry yesterday, Danny's seat beside him was empty, and it is again today, so instead of sitting alone, I walk over to him. "Can I sit here?" I ask, interrupting his reading. It looks like he is reading some classic novel from the color and size of the pages. It weird to see anyone reading, most times everyone just gets on their phone.

I can see Cole, who sits at the table beside Dannys, looks over at us in my peripheral vision, but I dont give him the satisfaction of looking. I just know deep down he had something to do with Jackie's hair.

Danny sits up a little bit, looking up from his book. "Yeah of course."

"Thank you."

A couple seconds later, after unpacking my notebook, Danny finally works up the courage to say something to me first, which I really appreciate. "Do you like chem?"