17 again.

10

Cole

"Get up you idiot."

Opening my eyes to meet Fin's cornflower blue eyes first thing in the morning sounds like something out of one of my dreams. Unfortunately, this was real life, so instead of pinning me to the bed and screwing me senseless he was dragging me of the bed and onto my ass.

"Good morning to you too." I muttered sleepily. His already present frown just deepened.

"It's past noon Cole." He stared down at me like a disappointed parent who'd just found their kid drawing on the walls for the fifth time.

"Really? I guess I'm late." I wasn't planning on going to school today anyway, I needed time to wallow in my own misery.

"No shit." He deadpanned, face still stoic.

"Come to think of it, school isn't over yet. What are you doing here?"

"Said I was sick, so they let me out early." He shrugged. "Came to drag your sad-ass out of bed."

"Perks of being a golden boy."

"Shut up and get of the floor, you're paying for lunch then you're going to tell me what's wrong." He walked to my bedroom door. "Be downstairs in five minutes."

🎵🎸🎵

"Spill."

A sigh escaped my lips as I glanced up at Fin, noting the way he narrowed his eyes at me. He reminded me of a puppy trying to be intimidating.

"What?" I spoke through a month full of food. We were in Willow's, a local dinner, the most popular one in Nottingham, and I was scarfing down a burger while Fin tried to interrogate me.

"You know what. I've been trying to stay patient with you but I'm sick and tired of you screwing up your life and being unable to help."

"Why do you always seem to think there's some grand singular reason for every problem?" Why don't you realize it's you? "Why can't I just be sad?"

"Are you depressed?" He questioned, not letting up. Of course not, that would be to easy. "Is that why you're seeing Mr. Green?"

"Does it matter?"

"Yes, yes it does." He sighed. "I thought things were getting better then you cancelled our plans yesterday with no explanation and didn't show up for school again. I thought you'd run of with Willow again."

"Well I didn't, I just sulked in my room and did math homework, so at least I was being productive."

"At least." He conceded. "But that doesn't make me less worried."

"Trust me, I'm not depressed." Just in love, but I guess when it's unrequited there's not much difference.

"Then I'll have to go for my second guess."

"Which is?"

"You're in love."

I think I almost choked when he spoke, no scratch that I did. He scrambled up to my side of the booth, thumping my back till I managed to cough out the obstruction and wheeze in more air.