Her Mysterious Ways

Chapter 31: Hand Holding and Airports

WARNIG NOT EDITED!!!

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He was acting weird.

His back was facing me and his mind was somewhere else. It was like he was in space and the only thing left to prove he was human was his body. Which wasn't so bad...okay. Maybe I shouldn't have been saying that because we are technically just friends, but still. The boy was, in lack of better words, hot.

I guess it was just the way his green eyes shone when he talked about photography, or how his freckles perfectly complimented his strong jawline and cheekbones. His hair reminded me of the night sky, covering the ultimate thing-his brain. Full of constellations too far out in the sky for me to see.

He was a mess. A mess that was hidden behind smiles and sports and stupid stereotypes, but the mess was still there. No matter how much you tried to hide it, someone would always uncover it, painfully pulling back the layers one at a time.

And even though he was a lovely human with many admirable assets, he was still acting weird.

"Cole." I walked closer to him. We were by the river that flowed through Bangor so steadily. Whitley, Juliette, Fig, and Callum were all trying to push each other off of a park bench while Gracie watched them and giggled. They were far enough back to not hear us.

"What?" He whispered to me. His eyes stayed trained on the river, like he wasn't paying attention to anything else.

I examined his posture, hoping to read his body language. His hands were in his pockets, he was leaning back on his heels, and his eyes were trained forward. It was the posture of thinking, at least that's what he did when he was thinking.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Serotonin."

"Like the neurotransmitter?"

"Yep." He nodded at me and walked away, just like that.

Weird.

So, not knowing what else to do, I walked two steps behind Cole until I reached the rest of the group. Of course, Cole was back to his normal self. I had no idea what was going on, but I just ignored it and joined in on the conversation that consisted of alternative bubble gum flavours.

"I think macaroni gum would be cool." Juliette was saying.

"No. Macaroni with bacon bits." Callum continued.

"Bacon bubble gum would be stupid. Sour cream and onion is where it's at." Whitley sneered at Fig, who gave her a dirty look, followed by a peck on the cheek. They were totally dating.

"But then you'd have bad breath. Isn't that the whole point of gum? To make your breath smell nice?" Fig argued back.

"What do you think Andy? Bacon gum or sour cream and onion?"

"Honestly, they both sound disgusting, and I don't even care. I just want to know what we're doing tonight." Nobody had told me what the hell we were planning on doing, they just told me to show up and bring Cole and Gracie.

"Oh that. We're going on a road trip." Fig replied as if it was something he would do everyday.

"I can't stay out for very long. I gotta go back and... yeah I have to go do something at home." Cole tried to hide the fact that he needed to go take care of his grandma, which wouldn't even faze these people, but he was still conscious about it.

"Andy took care of that. She got someone to do whatever you needed to do."

Cole looked over at me with the most confused expression on his face. He was visually asking me what Fig was talking about, so I just mouthed 'my aunt' and he replied with 'thank you'.