AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“In case you were wondering,” he said, “I read the ending.”
Too late.
I hissed, “I don’t need to know. We’re not close enough to be discussing this.”
“Fine.” He nibbled his full lower lip, a move that probably made most girls give in to him. After a moment, he cleared his throat, straightened his back, and dove into his next delightful topic. “So, I heard what you said to Keith. Did you know that there’s a rumor around the school that Cole cheated on you with him?”
I nodded curtly and said, “That’s okay. I don’t mind shipping them together.” I crossed my arms then blinked rapidly as the last half of his sentence sank in. “Wait a minute—he cheated on me?”
“That’s what I heard from the girls in the hallway. Weren’t you listening?”
I clutched at my chest, feeling nauseous all of a sudden. “That ugly bitch who flipped me off?”
“Yeah, but I doubt it’s like that. Anyway, that’s not the point. I just wanted you to be aware and ignore it as much as—”
“Excuse me, he cheated on me?” I pointed at myself repeatedly, emphasizing every painful word that came out of my mouth. “He cheated onme?”
“No, he cheated on Mr. Graves.”
I gave him the stink eye. “What?”
“Okay, fine. Yes, according to the rumors,” he said. “I repeat,rumors.” He emphasized his words as if he were a more reliable source than those girls. “But, look, I know Cole. I’ve known him since we were babies, and I’m sure whatever happened, if something even happened, it happened after you guys broke up. So, it’s not really what you think happened—”
“Shut the front door,” I interrupted. “I would legitimately believe that if I didn’t see the way Cole and Keith looked at each other, like they’ve been hiding something from me for a very long, long time.”
“Oh-hoh!” He gasped as if he didn’t see that coming. “You noticed it too?”
“Are you shitting me?” I grumped.
Gray Yoo had always ranked as the top-tier villain in my relationship with his cousin. He’d always managed to come in between me and Cole, quite literally, even when taking pictures. I had to fold every photograph in my photo album just so it would look as if I had taken a picture with Cole and only Cole. He’d always been so good at crushing my teenage fantasies. When I was six, he told me Cole would never like or marry someone like me and always dragged me with him whenever I offered to push Cole on the swing.
Years later, he was still doing his job as the villain of my life by breaking the news of Cole’s potential cheating.
Gasping, I asked, “Is that why Cole never pushed me on the swing?” It was a juvenile thing for me to be hung up on, but I had a heart of a child, which made even the little things matter to me.
Gray lifted his shoulders, his mouth curling on both sides as it formed a shallow smile. “I know one thing for sure, small bean.” He wiggled his eyebrows like a know-it-all. “I did the right thing every time I took you away from Cole before you could keep on pushing him on your favorite swing. My intuition is always right, so you kinda owe me, yeah?”
I shot him a glare. He didn’t have to push my buttons or say the words. The fact that he’d always been right was already infuriating.
“One word of advice.” He counted on his fingers. “On second thought, I have more than ten words of advice for you: stop scribbling his name in your books, especially with a pen. It’ll be difficult to erase.”
Easy for him to say. At the moment, I hadn’t even hit the six-week mark of getting over the first guy I’d frenched kissed. In reality, it takes time and a lot of effort to get over your first love. Jotting down Cole’s name on paper was a pathetic sign I still lived in denial about the unforgettable, “it’s not you, it’s me,” breakup. The truth hurt, but what more could I have done if he never loved me in the first place? Double ouch. Or if he cheated on me? Triple ouch.
“Rude,” I spat. “It’s been at least three weeks since I last did that.” Wasn’t it better to have ink in a book than ink on my skin with Cole’s name on it?
“I-I was just saying.” He raised his shoulders defensively as if he genuinely had no idea how much his words hurt me. Maybe he did. “What if someone else found your book? People are bored. They bully. They would make fun of you.”
“I’ll fight back. It doesn’t matter to me,” I said, the lie easily sliding over my tongue.
“It matters to me,” he whispered, his face softening.
I almost called him sweet. Thank God I held back like a pro.
“Look, it’s just a name. You don’t even know if I was writing about Cole Kimbrough. Has it ever crossed your mind that maybe I was talking about another Cole who’s a bit nicer and maybe a bit hotter?” I shut my eyes, eager to slap my face for making such an unnecessarily dumb excuse.
Gray fell for it. He always did have a bad habit of believing in everything I said. “No shit. There’s another Cole in your life?” He sounded disappointed, if not just stressed out.
“No, no, of course not.” I couldn’t lie, but I could definitely yammer. “You were right earlier, okay? It’s Cole Kimbrough, your cousin. It’s always been about that dumbass. I don’t care if it’s just rumors. He shouldn’t have done something that could have sparked them in the first place. I mean, he should’ve waited a year for me to completely move on. Sure, it’s easy to say the past is just past, but it’s only been a few weeks. Moving on and finding a new girl or boy, either way, it should take years or at least half a year. How can I move on if the breakup still feels like yesterday and he’s still hot? He needs to downgrade, like right now. I—” I stopped and nearly choked on the lump in my throat as I held back an avalanche of tears—for the umpteenth time. I didn’t want to say anything unless it was,“Calm down, girl,”but I genuinely felt like I had to spill the beans for the sake of setting myself free. “Ugh! I hate him.” More like I hatedmyself. “And I swear I’ll never cry because of him!” I yelled before breaking into pathetic tears, puzzling Gray and myself.
