Breaking Barriers

32

32

"Alexis, what are you doing here," Cole's father says as soon as he opens the door. He looks genuinely surprised to see me and I don't blame him. I battled with myself for 30 minutes deciding on whether to come here or not.

"we've got some development in Cole's case. We were planning on having a meeting at my house so I thought that I should get Cole there, but we'd love for you both to be there too"

Can't say I was overjoyed with the idea, but My mom insisted, she told me that it was the best thing to do.

"Oh Alexis, thank you for not giving up on him please come in" the moment I stepped inside Braden Cole's dog ran up to my sniffing at my legs.

"Hey boy, you want to show me where Cole is hmm" I said kneeling down and rubbing him behind his ears.

The mention of Cole seemed to get him excited. After sending a smile to Cole's father I followed Braden upstairs. A serious case of déjà vu hit me as I stood outside his room.

Let's hope he doesn't have a girl in there.

I slowly opened the door. Braden slipped inside instantly and made himself comfortable on the rug in the centre of his room. My hand flew to my nose at the scent of something that had definitely gone off.

Jesus was this seriously how Cole was living.

"This is seriously depressing Cole" I said pinching my nose. I could see the outline of his body in his bed. Hiding under the covers. He groaned at the sound of my voice; I don't think he was in the mood for a happy reunion right now.

I glanced around the room, quickly grabbing a bag, and shoving a few pieces of clothing inside. It's going to be an all nighter tonight.

"what are you even doing here, and why are you packing a bag" Cole asked peeking from underneath the covers. Damn he looked cute like that.

I shoved 3 clean pairs of socks in there and grabbed his trainers.

"you are coming with me after showering of course. We have new evidence on Montana, and we need to discuss our next move" I said proudly. I felt like I was in a teen drama solving crime.

It was exhilarating.

Cole sat up; only then did I realise he wasn't wearing a shirt. "since when was it, we?" he asked.

I paused glancing over at him. I tried not to stare at his nakedness but honestly it's impossible not to" like I said before I still care about you Cole and I physically can't sit back and watch you waste your life away" I did a quick 180 round the room hopefully proving my point.

"well Hamilton we haven't got all day" I pointed to his bathroom waiting patiently. I was very much pleased that I took that shot before leaving the house, it was the liquid courage I needed.

Cole didn't move at all, just passively stared at me the whole time.

"this isn't a joke Cole; everyone's been working hard for you the least you could do was come and listen to what we have" I said finally taking a seat on his bed.

Cole shuffled up to sit up. The bags underneath his eyes were evidence of the stress and lack of sleep and it tugged on my heart a little bit.

"This isn't me forgiving you Cole but doing nothing and being locked up in your room with boxes of pizza is not going to change my mind. You should work on yourself before you even think of us again" I said just before leaving the room.

I left with the hope that he would get in that shower and meet me outside.

10 minutes later I breathed a sigh of relief as Cole walked out. He wore sweats with his Nike trainers and a baseball cap on his head.