The Story of You and Me

Chapter 27

New Years Eve we head down to the beach and join a large bonfire party. When we get there the boys head off to get drinks and leave me by myself. I stand off to the side and survey the party.

Someone taps me on my shoulder and I turn to find Dustin standing there. "Oh hey," I say, smiling at him. He grins back at me, "Hey Dylan, I was hoping I'd see you here." I turn to face him, "Yeah?" I ask.

"Yeah, so did you have a good Christmas?" He asks, taking a slight step closer to me. "I did, did you?" I reply, reaching up and fingering the necklace from Cole. Dustin's eyes follow my fingers and linger on the necklace. "Yeah, I did." He moves a tiny bit closer to me and I rock away from him a little.

"Can I get you a drink?" He asks, smiling at me again. He's full out flirting with me, I take another step away and he backs off a little. "No thank you," I say as politely as I can, "Cole's getting me one." I toss Cole's name in as casually as possible, hoping he'll get the hint to back off.

"Of course, of course." Dustin says, as the song changes to a slower one. A smile spreads across his face, "Care to dance?" He asks, extending his hand towards me. Before I can decline and then excuse myself, Cole is stepping in front of me, pushing me backwards as he does.

The next thing I know Cole is punching Dustin, hard, in the face. "Cole!" I shout as Dustin doubles over clutching his jaw. "Don't f***ing touch her you little-" I cut him off by shoving his shoulder as hard as I can. "Cole!" I say again, shooting daggers with my eyes.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Dustin demands, straightening up, still clutching his jaw. Cole opens his mouth to give Dustin a piece of his mind but I push him between the shoulder blades, moving him away from Dustin.

"We're leaving, now." I say, glancing at Dustin. "Sorry about your jaw but you shouldn't have been hitting on me." I turn away, giving Cole another shove. "Go." I hiss at him, pushing him through the crowd that had gathered around us.

Kyle and Jackson start to follow but I cut them off with a look and keep prodding Cole along. Once we're out of the crowd I move around so I'm walking in front of him. I walk quickly, my anger growing with each step.

When we're far enough away from the group I whirl around to face him. "What the hell was that?" I demand, seriously pissed off. "I could ask you the same thing." He mutters. I narrow my eyes at him, "What the f*** is that supposed to mean Cole?"

"Nothing, just that you shouldn't have been flirting with him." I scoff at him, "I shouldn't have been flirting with him? Are you kidding me Cole? Do you really think I would do that?"

"Well that's sure what it looked like from where I was standing." I shake my head at him, my anger rising by the minute. "Well just to clear things up, I wasn't flirting with him. I wouldn't do that to you. I thought you would know that since you've known me for 14 years but apparently not."

"Well if you weren't flirting then what even happened?" I shake my head, "You don't even know what happened Cole, that means you shouldn't have gotten involved. I can take care of myself you know, I'm not incapable of that." He shakes his head, "I never-"

"You didn't have to, just by interfering you implied it." I take a step away from him, trying to calm my temper before I say something I'll regret. "Just to clear things up, he asked me if I would dance with him-"

"What did you tell him?" Cole demands, not even letting me finish, his voice suddenly hardening. I narrow my eyes at him, "You didn't give me a chance to respond before you cut in and punched him in the face. What were you thinking Cole?"

"He was going to touch you." He mutters. I shake my head again, "You thought I would let him? Maybe you really don't know me as well as I thought." He gives me a wounded look, "Why are you so pissed at me?" He asks instead of retaliating to my words.

"I'm pissed because you think I can't handle things myself. Some people like the jealous side of their boyfriends but let me tell you, I'm not one of those people. I don't need you to 'protect' me all the time. I wasn't doing  anything wrong and apparently you thought something was happening. That means that you don't trust me and that really bothers me Cole. After all these years we've known each other, trust is something I took for granted."

"Need I remind you that you thought I was kissing my cousin?" He says sharply. "That was an entirely different situation." I say indignantly, hardly believing he just threw that in my face. "Was it though?" He asks.

"It was, we weren't dating then. When you're dating things are different, there are different rules. Besides, I didn't go up and punch her in the face and you were actually touching her. So don't try to throw this back at me Cole." He starts to say something but I shake my head again, "No... no I'm done with this conversation."

I reach up and struggle with the clasp on my necklace, finally managing to undo it. I slip it off and throw it towards him. He catches it and then looks from it to me, meeting my eyes for the first time since we started arguing

"I'm done, until you can see reason and realize why I'm pissed... I'm done." He just stares at me, "I can't be with someone who doesn't trust me and it seems like you're having trouble with that." I start to back away, "Let me know when you figure your shit out Cole."

With that I turn around and walk away, not looking back to see if he's following. Part of me hopes he isn't but the other part, the much bigger part, is praying that he is even though I know he won't. I hurt his pride and that's not something that will go over lightly.

'He needs to get over it and realize that I'm not one of those people that needs her boyfriend to protect her all the time,' I think. Still, the argument we just had was pretty bad and it all starts to hit me the farther I walk away from him.

By the time I get to the house everything that just happened has had time to sink in and I'm close to breaking down. I walk into the house and head up to my room, shutting the door quietly behind me and collapsing on the bed.

Finally, I let the tears out, my body shaking with sobs, as I realize that I might have just lost my best friend for the second time in my life and that thought terrifies me.