The Falling Kind (13 page)

              Sam and I nodded. It would be nice to change out of our swimsuits and cover-ups for something more nighttime-date worthy. Cole leaned in and kissed me sweetly while Sam and Luke rolled their eyes at us. We parted ways and Sam and I headed back to my place.

              “So, how was it with Luke? Give me details,” I interrogated her now that we were alone. I could tell by the huge grin on her face that it went well.

              “He’s totally not my type,” she gushed, “but I don’t care. He’s so handsome. And his voice is all deep and raspy like a musician… I mean he is one, even though he doesn’t sing in Soul Punch. I know it’s so dumb to be falling for a band guy with no ambition. But I only have until next month anyway before I head to Oregon. So this is exactly what I need.”

              “And then you’ll just move away and that’s that, even if you fall for him?” I asked curiously. Sam seemed realistic enough to realize this was just a summer fling before she moved away, but she also cared deeply for people. I wondered if she would be able to handle the end of it as easily as she thought she could. 

              “I don’t know, maybe we can be long distance pen pals,” she teased. “I know, it probably seems like a waste of my time. But think about it, how much time can we spend together between now and then? I’m at the clinic several full days a week, plus my summer school classes… So we’re talking like ten dates probably. It’s not like I’ll fall in love with him. We can just have fun and whatever.”

             
Yeah, like it was ever that easy.

             
“What about you and Cole? I thought he wasn’t your type? And then I see you guys together and you’re inseparable, like you’ve known each other a lot longer,” she stated, shifting the focus onto me.

              “I know, I don’t know what it is,” I said honestly. “You know I don’t rush into things. Ian asked me out for what, like a month before we even went on our first date? I tried brushing Cole off originally, you know that. But it’s weird, I just can’t get him out of my head. I can’t stop thinking about him when we’re not together. He just has this presence.”

              “I knew it, you’re falling,” she said candidly.

              “Not after a week, come on. That’s too quick,” I replied.

              “Sometimes it happens like that,” she shrugged. “I see the way he looks at you. It’s so intense. It’s different.”

              “What do you mean by
different
?” I asked, interested in her opinion.

              “Ian adored you, that was so obvious. When he looked at you, you could tell he was smitten. He was in awe of you, and he cared deeply for you. You could tell by his eyes. But Cole looks at you in a different way. I don’t know, he just has this fierceness in his eyes like he would do anything in the world for you. It’s like he’s afraid you’re just passing through, like you’re just a dream or something, and he looks like he so desperately wants to hold onto you no matter the circumstances.”

Her words made so much sense in a way, which surprised me since she didn’t know the things I knew about him. She didn’t know about his past or his family. The crazy thing was,
I had no intentions of falling in love at all, and certainly not with a guy like Cole. But the way he looked at me sometimes – Sam was right, there was so much in his eyes. He had this protective, passionate way of just consuming me with his stare. I knew it would be harder and harder to resist as time passed.

              We made it back to my apartment and quickly got cleaned up. Since Sam had on her swim suit originally when we met up, she borrowed some of my clothes for the night out. We each put on a light summer dress and casual sandals and we fixed our makeup. A few minutes after we were ready, there was a knock on my door. I knew it was Luke knocking, because Cole’s knock was always so much more gentle. It seemed like a strange thing to notice, but I did.

              Sam opened the door and sure enough, there was Luke, with Cole right behind him. They escorted us out to Cole’s truck and we climbed in.

              “Some friends of mine are playing at Smokey’s,” Luke announced, suggesting we head there. “Does that sound okay?”

              “Can’t we take them to a Ridge bar? Somewhere nicer?” Cole recommended.

              “It’ll be a killer show,” Luke said persuasively. “I think you guys would like it.”

              “Sounds fun,” Sam said excitedly, obviously willing to go wherever he wanted. Cole looked over at me and I shrugged, suggesting I was up for anything.

              “Fine,” Cole said, pulling the truck out from in front of my condo. He did a U-turn and headed west. I assumed from the way we were driving, this was going to be another West Cove dive bar special.

              We pulled into the lot of a bar called Smokey’s and it looked awfully similar to Local Joe’s. It was definitely run down and in desperate need of some work. The parking lot was busy and we could hear the music inside from the parking lot.

              We all headed indoors and I wasn’t surprised to find that it was smoky and pretty tiny. The place was mostly full of young guys, very much into the rock music playing from a small stage, but there were a few girls in there as well. A few of them looked vaguely familiar – I assumed I recognized them from the bonfire last night, but they didn’t look any more friendly tonight.

              “I’ll get us some drinks,” Cole said as we all stood towards the back of the room. The music was so loud that I knew it was going to be hard to have any conversation in here. Luke looked really into the music though, so I imagine he wanted to stay. And Sam looked really into Luke, so that pretty much confirmed we’d be staying here for the night.

              Cole brought back two beers for him and Luke, a cranberry vodka for Sam, and my usual cherry Sprite. I appreciated that he never made a big deal out of the fact that I didn’t drink. We didn’t even talk about it, but after everything I’d told him about Ian, I figured he respected my reasoning for it. He looked around the room, taking everyone in. He had a suspicious expression on his face, but then again, he had that same look at Local Joe’s. It’s like he was forever assessing every person in the room.

              The current band ended and another one came on stage to set up their equipment.

              “These are my buddies,” Luke said with a grin. “Do you want to move closer?” Sam happily nodded and he grabbed her hand and they moved towards the front of the stage.

              “Do you mind if we hang back here?” Cole asked politely.

              “I would prefer it,” I said honestly. The music just playing was loud and crappy, and I wasn’t overly optimistic for the next band. I had no desire to be closer to it with sweaty drunk guys all up against me. I imaged Cole would be happier that way as well. While the music was on hiatus, I took advantage of the quiet and made conversation with Cole.

              “I have an idea,” I said suggestively.

              “And if you keep that look on your face while you ask me, I will say yes, to whatever it is,” he replied with a smirk.

              “Well you already stayed at my place last night. Can we stay at yours tonight? I mean, assuming you weren’t planning on just dropping me off at home alone,” I said with a sexy grin.

              “I definitely wasn’t planning to drop you off alone tonight,” he answered, wrapping an arm around my waist. “But why would you want to stay at my place? It’s not nearly as nice as yours.”

              “I don’t care how nice it is,” I stated honestly. “I just want to see it. I want to see your world. I want to know where you stay.”

              “It’s that important to you?”

              “Yes. If we’re going to be together, I want to know everything about you,” I said sincerely.

              He smiled down at me, shaking his head. “You are so hard to say no to.” He kissed me slowly and then pulled back, still keeping a hand on my face. “Do we have to do it tonight? I feel like I just need more time. I have to know it won’t change your mind about me. It’s just where I live, it’s not who I am.”

              It was sad to me that he thought I would become uninterested in him over what his house looked like. Surely he knew deep down that I wasn’t that shallow. I didn’t care about houses or motorcycles or
things.
I cared about him. That was it.

              Loud music started up and our conversation was cut short. I could tell he wasn’t ready to bring me into his world just yet. He didn’t even want me going to bars near where he lived, so I suppose it made sense he wasn’t eager to show me where he stayed.

              This next band instantly sounded better than the last one, and I wondered why Luke wasn’t playing with these guys instead if they were friends of his. They sounded much more in tune with each other.

              As the band played, I noticed a group of three guys walking towards Cole and I. They looked like they recognized him, but they didn’t look happy to see him. Cole must’ve noticed them at the same time I did. He reached down for my hand and squeezed it.

              “Where’s your old man tonight?” a stocky guy with a shaved head said above the music towards Cole as he approached.

              “Not here,” Cole responded curtly. “I have no business with you.”

              “Well I have plenty of unfinished business with you,” he sneered. “Let’s head outside. Now.”

CHAPTER 11

              Cole looked down at me and I couldn’t read his expression. He didn’t look worried like I would expect – but he definitely looked irritated. I imagined I was in the way at this point, but I wasn’t sure what to do. I tried to find Sam and Luke in the crowd by the stage, but there were so many people that I couldn’t make them out.

              “I’m not looking for any trouble tonight,” Cole said straightforwardly.

              “I can see that,” the bald guy said with a low whistle, looking me up and down.

              “Tommy, leave her out of this, I swear,” Cole said sternly.

              “I can’t even imagine the sweet lies you have to tell in order to get a girl like this to run around with a lowlife like you,” Tommy replied.

              “Leave my girl out of this,” Cole said again, gritting his teeth. “Walk away or I swear you will regret this.”

              “Does he talk tough like that to you in bed too, sweetheart?” Tommy snickered. The words were barely out of his mouth before Cole raised up a strong arm and clocked him in the face. I think I screamed.

              Tommy continued to come at Cole, but Cole’s unrelenting blows quickly sent him to the ground. Blood poured out of his face. The two other guys with Tommy joined in, one hitting Cole in the face and the other trying to pull Cole off of the bloody man on the ground.

              “Cole, stop!” I shrieked. Tommy looked unresponsive, but Cole continued hitting hm. “Cole! Enough! Stop!”

              The music kept screaming from the stage, as if this horrible bloody mess wasn’t happening. Most eyes were oblivious to what was going on, although a few people were watching once they heard all of the commotion. Finally two large security guys from the bar came over and tried to break it up. Fists were still flying everywhere and I backed up as far as I could, not knowing where else to go. All I knew is that I so desperately wanted out of that room, but there were too many people. I felt like I was suffocating.

              One of the security guys finally got Cole off of Tommy, and there was so much blood. Cole had blood on his face and all over his hands, and even some on his light blue t-shirt. Tears started pouring down my eyes, even though I couldn’t get a handle on how I truly felt at the moment. The whole scene terrified me – the fists, the blood, the look in Cole’s eyes.

              My whole body felt like it was trembling as Cole was shoved outside of the bar. Tommy still laid on the ground and I heard people screaming to call 911. I stood against the wall, covering my mouth, hoping everything I just witnessed wasn’t true.

              Some guy in black clothes came and grabbed my arm, leading me towards the front of the bar. “You need to get out of here or he won’t leave,” the stranger said loudly into my ear. The band was still playing and I just wanted to scream at the top of my lungs. I wanted to scream until someone carried me out of here – until I was tucked under the covers of my own, warm bed. Alone.

              The guy physically escorted me to the front and shoved me outside where Cole was pacing. “We have to go,” he said in a firm voice.

              “What the hell was that?” I hissed. “He didn’t even do anything to you. You kept hitting him and he wasn’t even fighting back. There was so much blood everywhere,” I rambled, unsure how to compose myself. My hands were shaking so bad.

              “I’m serious, we have about ninety seconds before the cops show up,” he urged. He still had so much anger in his eyes, I swear I barely recognized him.

              “I don’t want to go with you,” I said through my tears. I wanted to leave, that was true. These surroundings couldn’t have felt more foreign to me. But the look in Cole’s eyes, and the amount of blood all over him – I was petrified. I felt like I couldn’t move.

              “Syd, you have to,” he said sternly. “I swear I’m going to carry you out of here if you don’t start walking, the cops are coming!”

              “Probably because you just beat the shit out of some guy who didn’t lay a hand on you,” I sneered. “What was that? This is not okay, Cole.”

              He flexed his arms into fists and I could see the frustration rise in his eyes. “You can lecture me about this anywhere else,” he said through gritted teeth, “but not here. We have to go.” He picked me up in his strong arms, and I could feel the blood on him rubbing onto my bare skin. Tears continued to pour out of me.

              “Put me down,” I sobbed, “I don’t want to go with you.”

              “I’m not leaving you here,” he replied firmly. “If you refuse to come with me, I will get arrested and thrown in jail before I drive away without you in my truck. I refuse to leave you here.”

              I wanted to continue arguing with him but he carried me to his truck anyway and I knew it was a conversation I would lose. He seemed to do whatever he wanted to anyway.

              Sure enough, I could hear sirens in the distance. There was no doubt in my mind they were headed this way. Cole quickly opened the door of his truck and set me down on the seat, hurrying over to the driver’s side. He climbed in and started up the engine so fast, we were peeling out of the bar parking lot before I could even get my seatbelt on.

              I had no idea where he was headed, but it sure wasn’t towards the downtown lights of Mountain Ridge. I sat next to him, crying, unable to speak. He drove for three or four minutes up a dirt road, nestled back into the trees, then finally pulled over and parked the truck.

              “Sydney,” he began, running his fingers through his light brown hair, looking frustrated.

              “Don’t Cole,” I said angrily through my tears. “I just want to go home.”

              “You can stay at my place tonight,” he replied softly, as if him giving in on that made up for everything that just happened.

              “I don’t want to. I want to go home,” I repeated.

              “I thought you really wanted to stay with me?” he said quietly.

              “Cole, you’re covered in blood. That doesn’t seem like a problem to you?” I said a little too loudly. I hated the way he made me feel like I was being irrational.

              “That guy, he…”

              “I don’t want to hear about it,” I cut him off, throwing up my hands and shaking my head. “I told you I wanted to know everything about you, I know that. But I don’t. I don’t want to know anything else about you.” More tears poured out and I knew I wasn’t going to get any stronger throughout this conversation. “Look at your fists. Do you realize what they just did?”

              He looked down at his swollen, bloody fists. Both of them looked twice the size. The cut on his forearm, the one from the night we met – it was opened back up, and blood poured out. His left cheek was also red and beginning to swell. “Syd, he’s not a good guy,” Cole began, as if such simple words could erase anything that just happened.

              “And you are?” I asked unsympathetically.

              “No,” he said quietly. “But I never told you I was.”

              “I want to go home,” I said again, wishing I could just close my eyes and be somewhere else. “Please take me home.”

              He stared into my wet eyes and the look on his face broke me. His eyes looked like I imaged they did as a twelve year old boy, when he realized no one was coming for him. He looked hurt and abandoned, like he just realized yet again that he had no one on his side.

              “I’m sorry Syd, I really am. But please don’t look at me like that,” he begged, resting his arm on the steering wheel.

              “Like what?”

              “Like you’re afraid of me,” he said softly.

              “Well I am,” I whispered as the tears continued. It was the truth. What I saw in him tonight – all that anger and rage he couldn’t seem to hold back – I didn’t know that was inside of him. It was truly terrifying.

              “I would
never
hurt you, you have to believe that,” he pled, keeping his eyes on mine.

              I leaned my head back and shut my eyes, unable to stare into his anymore – all the possibility I saw in them before was now gone.

“You already have,” I whispered.