The Cole Effect - Cole Walter

12 - Shatter

Claire's POV

The next morning I wake up and remember what happened last night. Cole just left me. And this morning he missed Parker's football game all because he went to fuck Erin. If only he knew how much of a bitch she is to me. I'll never tell him though because he believes Erin is a good person, well, I think that's what he thinks. I don't want to take that away from him.

I look out the window and see Cole looking up at me. I roll my eyes and close the window and the blinds. He's giving me way too many mixed signals and there are red flags everywhere. But I can't stop thinking about him.

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The next day, I wake up and it's my mom's birthday. Well, it would be. I take a box down from the closet and take out my mom's old coffee cup that she would take everywhere. It has flowers painted on it that she painted herself.

I take the coffee cup down stairs and set it under the coffee machine.

"Good morning Claire!" Katherine says.

"Good morning." I say back, glaring at Cole in the process.

Then I hear a shatter and I turn around and see my mother's mug shattered on the ground. I put my hands over my mouth and gasp. My eyes get teary and everyone stares at me. I make eye contact with Cole and then I run upstairs.

I go sit on my bed and take deep breaths. Then 5 minutes later I grab my bag and get in the car.

"You alright Claire?" Cole asks.

"I'm fine." I say. Cole goes to hold my hand like usual but instead I just pull away and decide to deal with the fact that I need to get over my stupid fear.

Cole starts driving but then a car in the lane next to us zooms past at least 95 miles per hour. I quickly grab Cole's hand but I keep on looking straight.

At school, I stop at my locker and take another deep breath. I don't know why I even bothered to come today. It's my mom's birthday and she's all I can think about.

I walk into my next class with Cole and I sit down next to him and lay my head down on the desk.

"Claire are you sure you're okay?" Cole asks.

"No Cole, I'm actually not okay." I say. "It-Its my mom's birthday today and she's all I can think about and it's really fucking frustrating when your last memory of her is her screaming and dying." I say. I stand up and walk out of class. Cole follows.

"I have an idea to get your mind off of things." Cole says.

"Does it include hooking up with you?" I ask. "Because that's a hard pass." Cole rolls his eyes.

"There's a little party thing going on at Dylan's house in about an hour. You should come." He says.

"Really?" I ask.

"One hundred percent." Cole says.

"I gotta go after tryouts though." I say.

"Tryouts for what?" Cole asks.

"Track." I say.

"Claire, you know they won't let you on." Cole says. "I'm sorry, but you know that."

"I can't just give it up Cole." I say. I walk out and head to tryouts.

We do sprints but my limp slows me down a lot and hurts to run on it. Erin sprints past me, lapping me. "Too fast for you, limp?" She asks, laughing and running away. My eyes get teary and I walk off the field and find Cole.

"He Claire." He says. He sees my teary eyes. "You ok?"

I nod. "Let's go." We get in the car with Danny and drive to the little lake house where the party is.