The Career ✓

07

  ALLIE

Holy crap.

I was sitting at our table, minding my own business, when Alec walks by, laughing, with his hand in Gwen's pocket, exactly like in that movie we watched. I forget the name of it right now, but once I remember, I'm confronting her.

    As she was preparing to leave, I stopped her. "Can you sleep over?" She bit her lip. "I might stay for another hour or so, but then I better-" 

   "Hey, don't stress it," I told her. "Everything's fine." 

 We walked up to my room carefully and sat on my fluffy carpet, like usual. Gwen's face became an unreadable curtain. "Okay, what the heck? How did you suddenly hook up with my brother, anyway?" 

  "We-" Gwen looked ready to say something eagerly, but stopped herself. "We just decided to take it farther. Who's your date to the dance?" She giggled.

    "I'm assuming yours is Alec. Perfect. I can stay with my friend and my brother. That way it won't look as weird." 

  "How about with Cole?" Before I could stop her, Gwen ran out of the room. A few moments later, she was back. "The lights are on in the workout room." She smiled, and I knew exactly what she meant. We opened the door and looked on the screen. As Cole had done to me earlier, I mimicked his workout. 

   "Laundrosquat, though?" Cole laughed when he saw me, but his eyes caught on Gwen and lingered only for a second more. He seemed to have a hard time looking at me after that, and I couldn't help but notice every time he looked over at Gwen, he seemed to be staring at the same spot over and over, and I didn't like it much. Anyway, Cole wasn't wearing a shirt or anything, so his sweat wasn't concealed, but I didn't mind. He looked better with glistening abs. No wonder he was popular.

   After Gwen left, we continued talking for a bit, about couples and crushes, and then we went into the kitchen. I realized I hadn't brought up a very important matter yet- and no, it was not if he could put a shirt on.

   "Like what you see?" I was about to speak up when Alec came up behind us, opening the fridge. "Stop." I scowled at him, shooting him my strongest glare. Like usual, he shrugged and laughed. "Not my fault. So? Do you?"

    Alec hadn't been so obsessed with hooking me up before, but he had liked the idea. He just hadn't pushed this much. It was sort of freaky.

    "Anyway," I said, turning to Cole, "Did you know..." I grabbed his arm to pull him closer, then put myself on my very tip-toes and whispered into his ear, "Gwen and Alec are together now." As I pulled back, Cole laughed. "I knew it would happen eventually." 

    Now Alec went pink. "What did she tell you this time?" He rolled his eyes, but his state was obvious. He thought I'd whispered something bad?

    "What, afraid Gwen will get the news?" I teased playfully.

 "That's enough." He said quietly and softly, but loud enough for me to hear. I got the message. Whenever I was around Cole, I got nervous, too, and whenever someone brought us up, I quickly changed the subject or avoided the questions.

    That was how I did things. I shrunk back into my turtle shell and never came out.

                ***

The day that Cole left was sunny and warm. Not exactly too warm, though, which was sort of nice. Taking in the good weather, we'd pulled out some tasty popsicles and were licking them until Cole's dad arrived.

   Since I'd seen him before, it wasn't difficult to greet him. As Cole climbed in, he met my glance. I was the first to look away, but to add dramatic and suspenseful effect, I kissed his cheek before he climbed all the way in. I was pleased as I looked at his rosy cheeks. They were blushing because of one little kiss? Ha!

   His father pulled off his shades and glanced at us, but I was already climbing up the steps. I imagined Cole's dad asking him, "Who was she?" But what would Cole tell him? A friend? Alec's friend? That's what people usually called her. Ugh.

     Cole seemed different. She spun back on her heel as they drove away and waved. Cole was turned around, peering through the window, his hair catching in the wind, laughing and smiling as he waved goodbye.

   ***

"What was that all about?" Alec asked as he set his things down. Luckily, it was Winter Break, which meant that there was no school for a while, actually. What day was it? The twentieth?  Right. Five days until Christmas? I groaned.

     "What? Tell me!" Alec teased me. Then he gasped dramatically. "No... couldn't be.."

  For a second, I considered this. It was tradition to always have a dance after we got back from break. This time, it would be the 2020 Dance, and boy was I excited.

     "Cole? I mean, I guess it would be pretty fun. I'd wear a pretty new dance, and he'd bring me a corsage, and we'd dance the night away." 

   "Don't get ahead of yourself," Alec reminded me. "Cole isn't very affectionate. He'd probably bring you a dead rose, but with his smile, you'd-" 

  "That's enough, but thanks." I smiled, pleased that he considered it. Wait. What was I doing? I didn't want to make their friendship awkward, even though I could never admit that to my brother. Sighing, I decided once and for all, I was going to get Cole to invite me.

     ***

Step one of my plan. Uh. Okay. I'd start inviting him over. Every time, I'd be wearing one of my casual outfits, as if nothing was wrong. Ooh, and I'd be baking cookies or something, or setting up movies. Or sorting them.

    As I set it into action, first I invited him over. He texted back nonchalantly, of course. After he'd come over, he smiled at me. I was trying the movie one. He walked over to me, and naturally, asked to help. Now, I needed to make jokes and easily fall into conversation. Soon, we'd express our thoughts about... uh, life, and become closer friends. I had it all planned out.

    Really, I actually liked him as a person. I didn't want to score a dance with him for popularity, since of course, I'd just wanted to silently blend into the background. Anyway, as he fell into sorting movies, I decided to play the card.

        "Ooh, I love this movie!"

     "Same." Cole said. "Hey, you wanna watch it?"

 "Sure. Should I make snacks? Popcorn? Soda? Anything?" I giggled.

"I wouldn't want to get fat." Cole joked. "But sure. Anything you like. Oh, and, Alec showed me how to work the player, so I can set it up." He offered. I nodded and ran off into the kitchen.

     Now. I would see if he made the first move, like putting his hand on my thigh or something like that. Then I'd rest my head on his chest or something, and moments later- okay. I was getting ahead of myself.

    I set the snacks in front of us. Sure enough, after a while he sank back, resting his hand on my leg, so I put my head in his chest.  

    A few minutes later though, Alec walked in. "Hey, Cole, when did you get here?" I immediately paused the movie and smiled brightly at Alec. A little fake, but it worked. They greeted each other, Alec grabbed a Pop from the kitchen, and soon went back up the stairs.

    Plan Get Cole To Ask You was a go.