Bridging the Gap

chapter 11 - i bet on losing dogs

My baby My baby

The doorbell rang and Cole's heart sank.

One last outfit- and haircheck in the mirror, and with a racing heart he opened the wodden door.

His father was standing outside, in the pouring rain, a bouquet of white lilies.

"May I come in?", he asked, the same time Cole said: "Come in"

Nervous laughter and finally, the lead singer of the royal Blacksmiths, Lou, entered the monastery.

"Happy Birthday", he said and then, awkwardly, gave his son a hug and handed him the flowers.

They weighed a ton in his hands.

"T-Thanks"

From the distance, the range between Cole, in the hallway, and his friends, in the kitchen, couldn't be described better than being a "distance", you could hear muffled voices.

The black ninja felt like he was miles away from them.

They are his ankor. His.. family, when he needed them.

And right now - hell, he needed them.

But they were right - this had to be done by himself.

"The others are in the kitchen, we have cake. Uhm..", Cole stuttered. "You want some?"

Lou tried a smile, after hanging up his coat. "I'd love to, but... Cole, can we talk? In private?"

Cole nervously tapped his feet, bit his lip, then nodded.

"Let's go into the living room, then. You know the way, I'll just go put these-", he pointed at the flowers "-in a vase", then rushed off.

In the kitchen, he bursted out: "I can't do this!"

Kai was immeaditaly by his side, helping his shaking fingers fill a vase with enough waters to put the lilies in.

Then he rubbed his back in a soothing way.

"You can. And you will. Tell him, what you told us. How you feel"

"He will not understand. He will hate-"

"If this is the case - then you at least know. And then you can start focus on something else. But I bet, it's not like this. It'll be fine"

The others nodded in approval.

Before Cole left, he let Jay feed him a spoonful of cake.

With a full mouth, filled with sugary sweetness and delicious cream, everything felt better.

And so he left and again, walked the distance, this time - to the living room...

... where his Dad was sitting on the sofa, looking restless, on the edge, looking... nervous?

"I told the others to save you some cake", Cole began and earned a warm smile.

His heart made a salto.

He sat down, next to Lou, placing the vase on the table in front of them.

And just then he knew - Lily was with them.

In the flowers, in their minds, in their hearts.

In the words that'll soon be shared.

And Lou gulped, cleared his throat and spoke up:

"I should've told you. Wrong. No..", he trailed off, cleared his thoughts and began again.

He hadn't even noticed, that his left hand had plucked a white petal and was tracing his fingers over it.