Cooper and I took five deep breaths, and I think it helped me just as much as him.
“Ready to go back? We’ll make the triangles together.”
Cooper nodded, and holding hands, we returned to the desk.
“You got this, Coop!”
“I got this!”
I drew two lines of a triangle and Cooper finished with the third line perfectly. By the fifth triangle, he was drawing his line with pride.
“I did it!”
“You sure did! Great job!”
Cooper colored his shapes in yellow, we cut them out together, then he assembled and glued the pieces to create a beautiful sun. I brought Cooper back to his classroom with a proud smile on his face, a masterpiece in his hand, and hope in my heart. We were creating our own sunshine.
5
Dylan
“So, are you finally going to tell us how it went with the hot chick from Nolan’s?”
Cole and the guys had been pestering me with questions all day. I’d managed to keep busy, but things were quiet now and they were pissing me off.
“Fuck off,” I said, flipping him the bird over my shoulder as I left the common room.
Ryan and Liam followed me into the kitchen with expectant looks on their faces.
“Seriously? Since when do we have to sit and talk about our feelings?”
“You’re the only one talking about feelings. I just wanted a snack,” Ryan said.
“But since you brought it up,” Liam said. “What’s going on? I’ve never seen you like this, brother.”
I searched the pantry, keeping my back to them. Liam was right. I’d never felt like this.
“Are you pissed she turned you down?” Ryan guessed.
I spun around, tossing a box of crackers on the table. “You think I’m an asshole who’d get mad at a woman for not wanting to sleep with me?”
“No. But I think you could be upset if a girl you liked rejected you.”
“It’s not that she rejected me. It’s that she left in fucking tears.”
Liam slowly placed cheese, pepperoni, and fig jam on the table, his eyes hard on me. “Why was she crying?”
“Fuck if I know! That’s the problem. I have no fucking idea what the hell happened after we left Nolan’s. Things started out perfect, then it got weird as shit. It’s like I spent the night with two different people.”
I didn’t want to tell them that she was stuttering and slurring her words so much, I only understood half of what she said, that she spoke so softly I could barely hear her—except occasionally when she was suddenly oddly loud instead—or that she had a hard time looking me in the eye and gave short answers to every conversation I tried to start, or that she fumbled awkwardly with everything she touched and didn’t seem to enjoy the food she ordered.
They hadn’t talked to her much at the bar, but her speech had been clear. Not at all like at dinner. They didn’t see that other side of her, and I wouldn’t disrespect her by sharing something I knew would upset her.
“She was crazy?” Ryan said.
“No! She was sweet and nervous and embarrassed.”
“And you like her?”