Breaking point

Brilliant ideas

"Hey Molly!" My dad called out from his room.

"Yeah?" I sat up on the couch, hoping this wasn't about what I thought it was.

"You ready to go meet the neighbors?"

Damn. It was exactly what I thought and if cole hadn't put two and two together yet he definitely would now. I was the next door stalker and the pen thrower.

Great.

Groaning I got up from my comfy couch, "ready as I'll ever be."

My dad smiled, trying to make me optimistic. If only he knew I'd already screwed things up...

He patted me on the back as we left and closed the door behind us, "you'll be fine, their just neighbors."

"That's what you think." I mumbled, silently dying inside and hoping they wouldn't answer their door.

Wearing his always confident smile, my dad walked right up to their front door and rung the doorbell. Well no turning back now, I was definitely screwed.

Within a minute or two the door swung open, a lady in her probably mid 40's greeted us with a pleasant smile.

"Hi." she greeted, still smiling at us though I could only guess how confused she was.

"Hey," my dad smiled, "we're your next door neighbors so we thought we'd just pop over and welcome you to the neighborhood."

Her confusion eased as he reached the end of his explanation for our weird surprise visit.

"Oh, wonderful, I'm Teresa Huntley." she introduced, holding out her hand.

My dad shook it, giving a warm smile, "Tony bates, and this is my daughter Molly."

I gave a slight smile, nervously shaking her hand as I heard other movement from within the house.

"Oh she's just shy." my dad shrugged, assuming my awkwardness was shyness.

"No she's not." a voice declared from the background.

Mrs. Huntley glanced over her shoulder, "cole come say hi to our neighbors."

I heard a groan, but held back a gasp as I realized what cole had just said.

He had recognized me. Uh oh.

"Sup." cole greeted, standing behind his mom and looking genuinely very bored.

My dad gave a him a friendly nod, "this must be your son."

Teresa nodded, "yes, he's a senior this year."

"So is molly, maybe you two will have classes together." my dad suggested as I mentally face palmed and shriveled into a shell of embarrassment.

"We do." cole confirmed numbly, "mom can I go now? Vanessa's waiting."

His mom nodded, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek, "ok, have fun on your date, be safe."

He pointed at the ceiling in acknowledgement as he walked off, "always am."

My heart sank, of course he had a girlfriend. I guess it didn't matter that I'd embarrassed myself since he was already taken. Though I still couldn't help wishing I could go back and not make myself look creepy and weird.

My dad and mrs. Huntley talked for another minute or so, in that time cole emerged from their backyard and zoomed off on his Harley to go see whatever her name was.

I'd never met this mystery girl but I hated her already. Yes, it's ridiculous, but I hate her none the less.

"Ok well, nice meeting you, call us if you need anything." my dad ended as they shook hands once more and we headed back home.

During our very short walk my dad babbled on about how they seemed nice and everything. Though my mind was wandering as I thought about Cole and his date. Ugh why did all the cute guys have to be taken?

My dad kept rambling all the way inside until something he said caught my attention, "we should have them over for dinner!"

"W-what?" I stammered, having been ripped out of my thoughts and back to reality where my dad had come up with what he thought was another brilliant idea.

"Yeah, it'll be fun!" He encouraged, nodding enthusiastically.

My stomach churned with unease, "oh." I replied quietly before darting off to my room, I think I'm gonna be sick. I'd literally drop down dead of embarrassment or nervousness if we had dinner with them.

"I'm gonna head to bed." I called out to my dad as I crawled under my covers, secretly hoping my dad would forget about inviting them to dinner.

As I lay there attempting and failing at falling asleep, one thing became abundantly clear, Cole did not care about me and overthinking everything would be pointless.

Everything is pointless, I thought, as I mentally went over my life and how nothing was really important to me. Except of course my dad, who meant the world to me.

I lost track of time as I got caught up in depressing thoughts about my bummer of a life. Thoughts clashed and contradicted themselves as I overthought things even more then I did on a regular basis.

At one point I was so deep in thought I was overthinking the meaning over the word overthinking. Though my crazy thought rant was interrupted by the sound of smashing glass from outside.

I sat bolt upright, pulling an opening in the blinds an peering out at the darkened street.

I heard muffled cursing and finally spotted the cause of the noise. A dark figure sat on the curb at the edge of the new neighbor's driveway, a broken bottle at his feet.

Both were unmistakeable, the rugged look of the figure and the label on the bottle. Cole and a broken beer bottle.

My detective like feeling drained away as I felt slightly sorry for him, what caused him to drink? Was it for fun? Was he depressed? Were his parents alcoholics?

A brilliant idea of my own formed quickly, before I had time to overthink, I got dressed. Pulling on a pair of grey jeans and a casual white T-shirt, I headed outside to have my questions answered by the only one who knew the answers. Cole.