WHERE WE ARE ; COLE WALTER

012

"MORNING KATHERINE,"     Veronica greeted, still tired as she set her bag down on the counter and immediately went to take out the gel, hair ties and brushes she had brought with her.

The woman turned around, a tired smile on her face as she took a sip from her coffee. "Good morning Veronica, do you want some coffee?"

"No thank you, all I need is Parker and her hair," she replied with a soft smile.

"I'll get her. She's already been up for an hour, sitting in bed and throwing that football around," Katherine explained and went to walk up the stairs.

Veronica went ahead and stopped the woman, "It's alright, I'll get her." She went upstairs, though before going over to Parker's room she went into Danny's and Cole's, a smile on her face as she thought of how she would wake Cole up.

The door opened with a creak, but it was drowned out by Danny's snoring. Veronica's smile dropped soon however, as she discovered that Cole's bed was empty. There was no way Cole would be up at six in the morning of his own free will.

She decided to not let her mind be consumed by worries and left the room just as silently as she had entered it. Making her way over to Parker's room, she couldn't help but wonder where Cole was.

"Morning Parker," Veronica spoke softly, careful not to wake Benny up.

The blonde girl quickly sat up and although she fiddled nervously around with her hands, a smile spread across her face as she rushed over to Veronica and hugged her.

"Come on, let's go downstairs, we don't want to wake the rest up," she told the girl and took her fidgeting hands into her own and walked down the stairs. "Do you already know how I should braid your hair?"

Parker nodded enthusiastically and went on to explain to Veronica the hairstyle she had in mind.

While Parker was in the bathroom, brushing her hair out, Veronica decided to ask Katherine about Cole's whereabouts.

The woman shook her head, "I have no idea where he is, sweety. Alex told me that he went out to eat pizza with Jackie but Jackie said he never showed up and well, I waited in the living room the whole night and he never came home."

Veronica nodded at that and decided to call him, which she did, time and time again, though no one responded so she finally gave up and sent him a text hoping that he would show up before Parker could notice his absence.

At nine Parker's hair was braided beautifully, with Veronica paying extra attention to let the hairstyle still be comfortable under the helmet. However, Cole had yet to come home and he needed to hurry up, seeing as the game started at ten.

At ten, everyone was sat in their place, Cole had received at least a hundred calls from each and every member of the family and Veronica (the person who knew the least about football) had been the one to give Parker a pep talk before the girl would die of nerves.

At twelve, everyone was back at the Walter's house, cooking lunch while Veronica sat outside on the stairs with Parker and comforted her about losing her first game and silently cursing Cole and his behavior.

At a quarter past twelve Parker and Veronica were still sitting on the steps of the front porch, Parker's tears slowly drying out and now Cole decided to show up, a whole three hours too late.

Parker stood up, brushed her tears away and walked up to Cole, who tried to explain himself but really, what excuse does an older brother have for missing the game he has been practicing with his sister for the past few weeks? Exactly, he doesn't have one because this never should have happened.

Veronica let the two talk it out and didn't stop Parker as she angrily ran inside the house, only then did she decide to walk over to Cole and listen to him, to see what kind of excuse he would come up with.

Silently she stood there in front of him, her arms crossed over her chest as he picked up Parker's jersey. Cole looked up to her and took a step forward, to hug her or do who knows what but today Veronica wasn't having any of it. She was an older sister herself and even if she hated her brother most of the time she knew that she would rather die than disappoint him in such a way.

"Will you at least hear me out?" Cole asked and when Veronica did not move he went on. "I went to the party, they invited me and how could I say no to my old team? It would've looked pathetic if I had refused them. And well I drank a bit too much and crashed at Dylan's. Okay, maybe I drank way too much and before I know it, I wake up with a deathly hangover and it's already twelve and my phone's dead and . . . Look, I know I fucked up."

He paused in his rambling, only to continue when he notices that Veronica won't say anything, yet. "I feel bad, really I do. I know I'm the shittiest older brother there is but I can't turn the time back. Veronica, do you know how I can make it up to her?"

Veronica uncrossed her arms and let them hang down at her sides. "Cole, I like you, a lot, I really do, however seeing you act like that today," she paused unsure of what to say, "Well, I don't know what I should think, you not only disappointed her but you broke her trust, you promised to show up, be there for her and you broke that promise. You have no idea how much a promise means to a little girl like her, especially from her older brother, whom she admires. But seeing you show up here, stinking of alcohol and breaking her promise, well you'll have to work hard to regain her trust; that's the only thing I can tell you." 

HOPE speaks! 

well, I obviously changed some things here because otherwise the story wouldn't flow as I want it to and Erin sleeping with Cole, well I didn't want that to happen. 

Anyway, I just wanted to tell y'all how much I hated this scene. Cole disappointing his little sister? completely abandoning his duty as an older brother? I hated him there, I know he has had it rough but the way he hurt the little nine-year-old Parker, well I took that one personally as an older sister with a younger sister close to Parker's age. 

What did you all think of his actions here?