Emma

Chapter 46

Emma, Angel, Andrew, and Cole's gazes settled on the people in front of them, the air was immediately colored with the shade of unnerving discomfort and anyone passing could feel the rising tension.

There stood Jake, Derrick, and Rose in all their 'glory' silently waiting for the first speech to be made.

"What do you want Jake." Andrew asked already annoyed by their presence as he let out a sigh.

The silence still seemed to continue as Jake ignored him like he had never even said a word, seizing to shift his gaze from the person it was stationed upon.

It was obvious that he was completely oblivious to any of the people surrounding him, except to the person he had his death glare on.

Cole.

The same Cole who had a nonchalant look on his face and an expression as though he was talking to a child that was wasting his time.

"Is it your hobby to permanently look for my trouble or does someone pay you to do so, 'cause if they do, I'll pay double for you to leave me alone or I'll just sign your forehead since you seem like a never ending fan page." Cole said an obviously fake smile on his lips.

He heard Derrick and Rose stifle a laugh behind the anger filled Jake, only helping the fake smile to form into a grin.

Cole knew that it was eating Jake up, he knew that every smile on his face or glimpse of happiness that he came across only made Jake despise him more and more, and that just made Cole happier.

He knew that Jake didn't like him right from the start. Even before Jake started hanging out with Derrick and Rose, when Jake was still friends with Emma, and Cole was the enemy agent, Cole could always feel the hate that radiated from Jake.

Every time he had stopped to make fun of them, Jake's particular dislike always stood out like a sore thumb.

There were a lot of things that Cole could identify from a mile, and one of those major things, was hate.

He could practically taste it, he could feel it in every part of him when there was a certain hate in the room, whether the hate was towards something or someone, he could always sense it.

He had lived with the feeling for so long it had become a part of him, and although he was incredibly good at identifying it, he hadn't yet realized that he, himself, was almost completely full of it.

Cole didn't know why Jake hated him so much, neither did he care, he was just tired of having to deal with the stress of someone constantly clawing up his spine.

"I see you went from gangbanging to joining the circus." Jake said referring to Cole's previous joke. Cole chuckled and shook his head.

"I thought you didn't notice the colorful afro on me! Don't feel left out, I also noticed how your brain power seemed to have lost the 'power' part" Cole said, tilting his head and leaning it against Emma who was now giggling along with Angel and Andrew.

Jake's gaze flickered to Emma at the sound of her laugh and a sly grin spread across his lips, making the wicked glint in his eyes to brighten and causing Cole's face to completely harden as his previous nonchalant look turned into a cold-stoned, murderous glare.

"Now I remember what makes big, bad Cole tic... precious little Twix." Jake said, a venom-filled triumphant smirk lacing his lips as he slowly moisturized them with the tip of his tongue and extended his finger towards Emma's face.

Cole grabbed his wrist just as his finger was inches from her cheek, and a panicked look now covered Jake's once cocky expression as he didn't fail to notice the death snarl plain on Cole. A crack was heard and a pained expression clouded Jake's face accompanied by a heavy glaze of regret coating his green eyes.

He unsuccessfully attempted to pull out of Cole's death grip only causing him to tighten the hold on his wrist more and another crack was heard. Jake's glazed over green eyes stared into Cole's deep grey eyes that had now turned almost lifelessly black.

"It might be humorous to you when you decide to mess around with me, but never touch what or who I personally like, or else you'll be wishing that I broke your wrist today." Cole practically growled in such a way that only Derrick, Rose, and Jake could hear, before finally letting go of his wrist.

Jake rubbed his now brutally sore wrist and glared at him, but Cole could clearly see the fear in his eyes that he futilely attempted to hide.

Cole honestly didn't know why Jake kept up with his little stunt of fake courage, it was obvious that Rose and Derrick didn't want to be there and he could tell that even Jake was second-guessing his decision in confronting him.

Was it that Jake couldn't just accept the fact that Cole had decided to try his best and turn over some sort of new leaf, or was it just plain stupidity on Jake's part?

Cole genuinely suspected the latter as he watched Jake muster the remaining bits of his 'pride' and gesture for Rose and Derrick to follow him as they walked away.

Emma, Angel, Andrew, and Jake commenced their once fun-filled walk, in awkward quietness before Angel finally broke the silence

"Okay, so we are not going to talk about how awesome that was!" She said laughing as though two people didn't look as though they would murder each other with their eyes just a moment ago.

"I mean the look on his face was priceless! I know I should feel sympathetic for Jake's poor wrist and stuff, but that was a once in a lifetime opportunity." Angel continued letting out a sigh and smiling. Emma finally broke and giggled in agreement, understanding what Angel meant.

"That was actually quite hilarious. They looked completely petrified and I didn't even hear you threaten them. What did you say in the first place?" Emma said finally catching her breath from laughter and looking up at Cole.

Cole opened his mouth hoping that some reasonable excuse would flood into his head then quickly shut it, realizing that there was no valid one.

He didn't know why, but he felt like if he told them, he would be letting out some gigantic secret that he himself was oblivious of. Or he would be showing them a part of him that he didn't know he had.

He sighed and was about to say something dumb that would have been an obvious lie, before he was quickly somewhat saved by Andrew with a dumb but well-known excuse.

"It's a guy thing, you're not meant to know." Cole chuckled and shot Andrew a thankful look, causing Emma to roll her eyes at their senseless collabo.

Cole knew that Andrew had heard him, but it didn't bother him. He had developed some kind of trust in him, like a brother he had always wanted.

He didn't know whether Andrew was going to tell them or not, he just trusted him not to, and that was far more important, more important than Cole knew.

"I'm sure he didn't say anything at all. All I heard was growling." Angel said squinting at him suspiciously as though it would squeeze the truth out of him. Emma joined her, pouting up at him and only causing him to chuckle at their infertile plan.

"That's for me to know and for you to wonder. He said as he gently pinched the tip of her nose, causing her to blush at the unexpected gesture.

"Aww, you guys are so cute! Andrew, how come you don't pinch my nose." Angel said playfully glaring up at Andrew who just rolled his eyes at her.

"Probably because we aren't just friends, like Emma and Cole." Andrew said, playing along with Angel and sighing in fake lament.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot they are just friends, and just friends treat each other differently than normal people, probably because there's a 'just' before the 'friends'." Angel said putting her finger on her chin as though trying to solve some complicated equations.

"You guys are so childish." Emma said rolling her eyes and shaking her head but failing to brush the smile off her face and only causing them to laugh harder.

Cole chuckled and pulled her closer, a wide smile bright on his lips as he took in how lucky he had gotten to be part of something he never thought he could have been.