You didn't get much sleep that night, you kept tossing and turning around in your bed and eventually saw the sunrise. You decided to go on an early-morning walk, it would help you clear your mind. You got dressed, put your headphones in, and got out of the house.
it was a chilly morning, the sun's rays shining on you warmed you a bit. You walked for quite a while until you finally arrived at your favorite place in the entire town, the watering hole. You loved everything about this place, the scenery, the flowers, the rocks, the water... but it reminded you of him. You used to come here with Cole often, you'd sit on the rocks together, watch the scenery around you, and talk for hours about life. He'd pluck some flowers and turn them into a bouquet to give to you. And every time he did, he'd always tell you the same thing;
"My grandma used to say these flowers, are a symbol of unrequited love."
You check your phone, 09:05 am, you'd been at the waterhole for a little over an hour now. The peaceful silence was interrupted by your stomach rumbling, you remembered that you hadn't eaten anything since yesterday morning. And since the walk home would also take you some time, you decided to get up and make your way back.
You place your hands next to you on the stones and press down, helping you stand up. You dusted off your hands, took one more look at the scenery, and turned around. Were you hallucinating? Or was he really standing there?
"Hey, good morning." he greeted with his hands inside the pockets of his sweatshirt.
"Good morning." You replied back, faking your best smile to him. The whole situation was still uncomfortable and you didn't know what to say, and when he saw your doubt he spoke for you.
"Where are you going?"
"For breakfast."
"Well me too," he said as his eyes lit up, "Let's go together, there are a couple of things I still want to talk to you about," Cole said as he looked directly into your eyes, searching for more doubt in you but finding none, giving him hope. You nodded without saying more and made your way towards the passenger side of his car.
In his car, everything was uncomfortable again. While he drove to the most decent place possible to buy food, you just watched the road out the window.
"I'm sorry."
His sudden words snapped you out of the trance you had gotten yourself into because of your thoughts. Just when you were going to speak, he interrupted you.
"I know last night you said we were fine but I know you better than the back of my hand, y/n, I saw it in your eyes, I saw the disappointment and pain I'm putting you through and I hate myself for it."
You shook your head, passing a strand of your hair that was blown out of place by the air coming through the open window on his side. You still couldn't look at him.
"I'm not the only one hurt here, Cole, you're hurting your brother too," This time you did look at him, the annoyance that neither of them or at least that you knew of, had cared about Alex's well-being, was bothering you. "Did you even ask Alex how he's feeling?"
"No."
"Exactly, so not only do you owe me an apology, Cole, but also him." You settled into the seat again and looked out the window.
"I will," You heard his voice, but you didn't look at him. "And I want you to know that I'm going to fight for you because what happened with Jackie was a mistake."
"What?" you softly replied, confused by what he had just said. You would be lying if you said your heart didn't race at his words.
"I'm serious, just believe me."
You sighed, closing your eyes, cursing yourself for agreeing to go with him. Cole had a very easy way of getting to you and you wanted to hate him for it but you couldn't. If he wanted to, he could make you the happiest girl in the world, but now you realized that he could also take it all away from you with ease, and you hated yourself for it. You knew you couldn't hate him, even if you wanted to, even if you tried to.
You finished your breakfast and had ordered a breakfast meal to go, for Alex. you got in Cole's car again, and the two of you were on the way towards the Walter ranch, listening to music, chatting here and there. Once arrived, you got out of the car and saw Jackie standing near the front porch, apparently looking for someone, it was probably the boy who was next to you now, looking at her too. Cole gave you one last meaningful look, you tried to ignore him by walking away from him with the bag of food. You brushed past Jackie, ignoring her, and walked towards the loft where Alex would most likely be.
You knocked a few times on the door just in case and opened it. "Does anyone live here?" you joked when you saw him sitting on the haystack and smiled.
"Did you buy food?"
"Yep, here." You offered him the bag and he took it, taking it to the small table.
"Thank you, I'm starving." You watched as he took the food out of the bag.
He felt your gaze and looked at you curiously.
"Did you talk to him?"
You sighed, sitting on one of the chairs.
"Yeah, uh- , he told me he'd fight for me or something." you brushed it off.
Alex paused, he looked at you with his jaw clenched,
"He told you that?"
You nodded with a sigh, taking one of the pancakes from the packaging with a fork.
"Yeah, I don't think he'll make it anyway."
He nodded with a blank stare, taking a bite of his pancake.
You tried to change the subject, the awkward vibe in the room was killing you. You joked about all different kinds of things, he recommended some of his favorite books and gave you one of them, you listened to some music, jumped onto the haystack a couple of times, he called Kiley and asked to go to the arcade, she'd agreed to meet up with you two there after she had finished her shift at the lark, you heard Alex laugh again, which made you happy. A little while later, Jackie entered the loft, where you and Alex were, she wanted to talk to him.
"I'll wait for you at the stable." you let him know, he nodded, stopping the music.
You arrived at the stable, where you greeted the horses. You picked up a dandy brush and started combing Custard's coat, his name always made you laugh, Cole picked it when he was like 6 years old. Just as you thought of him again, Cole walked in, you tried to ignore his presence by looking at every detail of the horse.
"Will you go with him?" he said, breaking the silence, you just hummed in affirmation. "Great, be careful," he added as he walked closer.
You took a deep breath, trying to calm the beating of your heart that always seemed to speed up due to his presence, despite everything.
"Yeah, you too," you said, breaking the eye contact.
Five minutes later you notice Alex walking out of the loft, making his way over to you, with a look of some seriousness on his face,
"Going already?" Cole said, looking kinda upset. You simply just nodded, handing him the dandy brush, you turned around and walked towards the stable doors to make your exit when Cole caught your attention, "Mark my words, y/n." he said, you paused for a few seconds until you continued your way out, towards Alex.
