The Gang Leader's Shorty

Chapter 26

We walk down into the kitchen where the guys are spread out, lounging whilst sitting to the island in the middle of the ginormous kitchen, "Hey," I say and their heads snap towards us and Cole's jaw hits the floor when he sees me.

"Lexi, you look fucking gorgeous!" he groans at me, his eyes roaming my body, and I giggle, along with Jess and Gina. I look to Max and James and they are pretty neutral to how we look, maybe not wanting to give Cole and the girls a false impression.

"Thank you," I say as he struts over, taking my hand and walking me to his front door. I hear shuffling in the kitchen, indicating the others are following and I glance back to the girls and they give me a massive thumbs up. Max and James catch a glimpse of the girls and let out a silent laugh at their antics. We get to Cole's sports car and he turns us to look at everyone, "What's up?" He asks them, eyebrows furrowed.

"We're waiting for you to open the car so we can get in, maybe?" Max says sarcastically as if he is speaking to a toddler, finishing the sentence off with a roll of his eyes, muttering how unbelievable Cole is, "Oh, you thought I was driving you all? Nope, it's just me and shorty," He says, pulling me closer to his side as he smirks at his saying of my horrendous nickname and I scowl at him.

Max and James huff and turn to Jess and Gina, Jess shrugs and pulls them to her pink convertible that is sat on Cole's drive and opens the door, gets in and as soon as everyone is belted up, she drives off.

"You're such a dick!" I exclaim at Cole, hitting his muscular shoulder and he laughs, opening the door for me as I get in the passenger seat, "You really do look beautiful, Lexi," Cole states and grabs my hand, "And you really do look handsome," I reply with a smirk and give his hand a slight squeeze.

He is wearing a white t-shirt with a beige coloured jacket and black jeans with his black leather shoes. His hair is let loose and his fringe flops over a white bandanna, which is his personal favourite; bandannas. I have had many serious conversations with him about, instead of being fussy about which bandanna he uses to brush his floppy hair back, why doesn't he just cut it; he wasn't having any of it. It's not as though his hair is unruly and long, it's just long on the top and he gets his sides cut shorter. 

"My eyes are up here, shorty," He says and chuckles, obviously catching me checking his outfit out, "I'm checking your outfit out, not you. Don't flatter yourself," I drawl with a roll of my eyes and he chuckles again.

***

We pull up outside the house in which the party is being held and my legs start to bounce up and down because I am nervous. Cole looks at me and squeezes my hand as he notices my anxious body language, "Why are you worried?" he asks and I shrug, willing myself to calm down but I cannot help the nerves. 

"This is my first party and, you know, it's natural," I say and he smiles, sympathetically, "Jess, Gina, Max and James are already inside, look," he says and points to Jess' empty car, "So you'll be fine, plus you'll be the finest dressed girl there and I'm not leaving your side, not even for a millisecond," He assures me and my leg shaking calms down, although not to a complete stop, but I ignore it and climb out of the car, Cole close behind me.

I wait for his hand to meet mine but it never does. Instead, his arm snakes around my waist, pinning me to his side and he steers me into the house allowing me to just take in the scene whilst he does the heavy work of navigating us through the crowds. I can't help but feel immediately at ease with his touch. 

We go through the door and see an abundance of teenagers jumping up and down and grinding on the dance floor, all having their own kinds of fun. Some have alcohol splashing around in solo cups and some sat on the sofas, regardless, I would not want to be the poor soul who has to clean all of this up in the morning. I wonder if they got their parents permission for this? I recognise most people because they go to our school but not everyone. Some are obviously from other schools or not from town, coming with other people from our school, maybe as dates or simply just party crashers. Either way, nobody seems to mind the extended crowd.