Dear Diary

Chapter 30

"Oh no," I gasped and Cole looked at me.

"What's wrong?" he asked and I stared at him wide-eyed.

"I completely forgot about my mom!" I whispered as I stared at the car parked by the gate. The only car.

"So?"

"So, she doesn't know you're tutoring me!" I panicked and looked him over for a moment. 

Thankfully he didn't have his ear piercing in today. He hasn't been wearing it much lately, but his tattoos were still in plain sight from the short-sleeved school shirt. However, it also gave me a good view of his impressive arms. I quickly chased away the thought. Now was not the time for that kind of thinking.

"Why would that matter ..." he trailed off as everything clicked into place. "Oh," he said and shrugged his shoulders. "Well, it's too late now. She's already seen us."

"What?" I shrieked and looked back at the car. Sure enough, my mom was staring straight at us. Her brown eyes narrowed.

"Oh no! What do I do?" I panicked and Cole stared at me.

"Firstly, calm down. Secondly, I'll go and introduce myself," he said and strode off towards the car.

"What? No, Cole, wait! Bad idea," I said as I jogged to catch up with his long, confident strides. "You don't know her, she doesn't know you. It'll-"

"Elizabeth," Cole said as he stopped to look at me. "I would rather your mother think of me as a scumbag after I've tried to prove to her otherwise, other than just her think of me as one," he said and I stared at his serious face. 

Guilt instantly washed over me.

"That's not what I meant," I muttered. 

Cole's eyes softened ever so slightly. 

"I know," he said and continued to walk towards the car. 

I sighed, realising I couldn't convince him otherwise and followed. Somehow I knew this wasn't going to end well.

"Good afternoon, Mrs Fleming," Cole said and my mom's gaze locked on him for a few seconds before looking at me.

"Elizabeth, who is this?" she asked, completely ignoring his greeting. 

I bit my lip. She was not pleased whenever she referred to me by my full name.

"This is Cole Knight, Mom. My maths tutor," I introduced.

"Pleasure to meet you," Cole said. 

I had to hand it to him. He had confidence. It was something I envied.

I saw my mom raise an eyebrow before looking him over for a solid minute. I watched her eyes linger on his tattooed arm. I bit my lip harder. My heart was slamming against my ribcage. Her silence was not a good sign. She was normally very talkative to new people.

"Elizabeth, get in the car," she ordered, completely ignoring Cole. 

I looked up at him with a red face at how my mother blatantly ignored him. He looked down at me but his face gave away nothing, almost as though he was expecting such a reaction. 

"Now." 

I quickly shuffled forward and thankfully, the car door opened without me having to do my special opening technique and sat down uncomfortably with my bag on my lap. Mom didn't even glance at Cole as she peeled out of the parking lot and into the street. I looked in the side-mirror and saw Cole walking towards a black bike. I should've guessed he rode a bike.