Match

46: Date

Cole pulls onto the side of the road. He realizes after parking that there are no cars present in the driveway. His eyes follow a light turned on in the kitchen. Confused, he walks up to the door and gives it a firm knock. It only takes a few seconds for the door to swing open. Behind it is a smiling Jonah.

"Yo, Cole."

He blinks, concerned with his warm greeting, as he expected to see him more upset. "Hi...?"

The air feels more spatial. As he takes off his shoes, he feels a hand grab his arm. He looks up to meet Jonah's eyes.

"Come with me to Michaels."

"Michaels?"

"Yeah, the store. It's only a ten minutes drive. I'm gonna do some redecorating in my room and I need your help."

Cole's eyes fixate to Jonah, still grabbing his arm but in a tender fashion. He breaks the grasp and sighs.

"You wanted me to come over so you could get help to redecorate?"

He frowns with his brows. "Well, yeah. I'm pretty much banned from playing soccer until the whole thing's sorted out so, I got too much spare time now."

"Ah..." for some reason it seems to sting him more than it does Jonah.

From behind, there's distant meowing. Both Stella and Dotty saunter over to investigate what's going on. Jonah grabs his car keys and beckons Cole to follow with a quick pat on his shoulder.

"C'mon, it'll be fun I swear."

With no other choice, he finally gives in. He slides his shoes back on and follows Jonah into the garage. Jonah presses a button that activates the garage door to open up. Cole's eyes scan around the near empty space.

"Are your parents around?"

Jonah presses a button to unlock the car doors. "Nope. They went on a mini-vacay for a week."

"Aw, and they didn't bring you?"

He raises an eyebrow with a smirk at him. "If I had the ability to abandon my job without consequence I would."

Cole zips shut. He mumbles out a "touché", before landing his butt on the passenger seat. He feels slightly envious; having a nice house all to yourself for a week sounds like a vacation in of itself.

"Where would you go, then?" He blurts out. "Uh, I mean, if you could."

Jonah shifts the gear to reverse, then adjusts the stereo volume so it sits at a comfortable low. "Dunno. I'm not a beach guy, surprisingly. Maybe New York again, or somewhere in Europe."

He turns his focus to backing out, propping his palm to Cole's headrest so he can see. Cole can't stop staring at his complete attention to the road. Why is him backing out with his fucking car attractive to me? he thinks. His eyes naturally look away to hide the inner shame.

"Oh yeah," Jonah's voice snaps him out, "so about the whole ordeal on the field. I was gonna tell you as soon as you got here."

Cole grips the seat with his hands, shifting his weight so he faces the dashboard. He gives a quiet nod.

Jonah puts the car to drive, shutting the garage door with another button, then begins driving. "Both coaches called bullshit that I'm the culprit. Which is super correct. The good news is I somehow got away unscathed. I mean, I'll be honest, I was more scared that a guard would pop outta nowhere."

He nods again, listening. "What's the bad news?"

"Bad news is I can't play 'til the police catch the actual guys. Shitty, but I get it. That person, or people, are still out there leaving evidence in their path, even in soccer bags of all places."