17 again.

26

Cole

A few weeks later

"So how did it go?" Fin asked as we stepped out of Mrs. Harrison, the History teacher's, room.

"Good... I think?" I sighed. "I have no idea. Oh god, what if I just failed?"

"No you didn't. We studied the whole week, remember?"

"Yes." He'd forced us to actually study for our History finals, much to my displeasure.

"Stop freaking out so we can go get something to eat." He looked up at me hopefully. "I'm starving, take me to Willow's."

"Fine you goof. Come on."

🎵🎸🎵

"Your going to NYCU. Right?"

"Mhmm?"

I sighed. "Don't talk with your mouth full." We were at Willow's dinner again and he was in the middle of scarfing down a sandwich.

"I said: yes." He spoke once he swallowed. "At least if I get accepted. Why are you asking all of a sudden? That's always been our plan anyway, even before all of this..." He gestured between the two of us. "...happened. I go to NYCU and you go to NIM so we'll be in the same city."

"I know but..." I sighed and glanced down at my half eaten burger. "...I'm just worried that I wont get in. Thousands of other people apply and they only take like eleven people from every state."

NIM, or the New York Institute of Music, was a prestigious music school in Manhattan I'd applied to enter and I haven't heard back from them. No one hears back from them till the last week of summer.

"Just have a little faith, ok? The rest of your grades may have slacked of but Music didn't."

"But there are still about a hundred other people contesting for the final spots." And that's only after they weeded people out from the initial couple thousand. "I'm surprised I made it this far."

"Trust me, you'll make it. There's no point freaking out over something you can't control."

"Then what am I supposed to do?"

"Finish your burger."

🎵🎸🎵

Its 3am on a Saturday morning when my phone's ringing wakes me up. I groan when the screen's bright glare burns into my retinas.

"Fin?" My voice is still heavy sleep as I pick up the call.

"Oh thank God you picked up." He sounded panicked. "I've been trying to call you for an hour."

"What... What happened?" I said as I sat up in bed, fumbling around to find my lamp light.

"My parents kicked me out. What am I going to do? All my stuff's there: My money, my clothes, my books... I don't know what I'm going to do."

"Ok, ok, stay calm." I got out of bed and stumbled around in the dark, looking for my shoes. "Where are you?"

"At a friends house, Oliver's."

"I'm coming over. What's his address?"

Fin relays his address and I locate my car key before rushing down the stairs and toward the front door.

"Cole. Why in the lords name are you stomping around so early? Don't you know it's the Witching hour?" My mum called out form the top of the stairs, wrapped up in a fluffy pink bathrobe.

"Fin's in trouble. I'll explain later." And with that I'm out the door.

🎵🎸🎵

"Fin?" I peak into the guest room of Oliver, one of Fin's teammate's, house. Fin's on the bed, curled up into a ball at the center. He'd be adorable under normal circumstances but this was far from normal.

"Yeah?" He looks up at me. His eyes are red and puffy like he's been crying recently.

I step into the room, shutting the door behind me and sitting down next to him. "What happened?"

"They found out and wanted to ship me of to some conversion camp in the south. I refused and they kicked me out before I could pack anything." He sits up, resting his back on my shoulder and rubbed his left wrist.

"Did they do this?" I hold his left wrist gently, careful not to hurt him. He has five little red welts that look like someone dug their finger nails into his arm.

"Yeah, my mother. It's not so bad, you should see what they did to my phone."

"Your phone?"

"Yeah, that's how they found out, by reading my texts. Apparently, they were already 'worried' and 'doing it for my own good'." He sighs. "It hurts more than I thought it would."