Cole was not exactly keen on breaking his bedroom door for the second time this year, but by the time he noticed it happened, he was half asleep after a rough night to say the least, and had woken up at 4 am because of a dry throat. As you can imagine, he was not in the best mood.
He had hated everything that happened last night, and truly struggled to explain his emotions in words. He could barely recall everything that happened, seemingly hours after.
He checked the time on his wall clock, 7 am? 6? My eyesight’s too blurry for this. He tried to go back to sleep but it was meaningless; there was no sleeping after recalling anything from last night. And (without his prompting,) he did recall something: Hershey’s Bar.
But what did it mean? He remembered a Hershey’s bar in his hand, late at night, probably in his house as far as he could tell. There was lots of noise around him – that he remembered. It was late, his dad was on a trip and-
Nope, can’t recall anything else. Just perfect.
He shoved his head into his pillow, virtually begging to go back to sleep, but clearly his body did not agree. Then he thought of something: use the tactic his “therapist” recommended to him; if you remember one thing, one memory, and nothing else, try to picture an action you would’ve done in that moment.
Well, Cole would not have been cheering or laughing (or whatever these random teenagers were doing to make that much noise), and he definitely wouldn’t eat a random chocolate bar, so what would he do? It came to him- I’d call one of my friends, this party situation got out of control and I needed logical thinking.
Who would he even call? Not Christian; if he was even at the party, he’d be locked in a closet declaring a thumb war to himself, and not Amaya, but he couldn’t recall why not. So who else would be at this party then? Flint.
Of course he’d locate Flint; now it makes sense. Now he remembers why he wouldn’t want to remember, and he knew any second now he’d be forced to relive this. Why oh why is that one of his curses?
* * *
“Flint! Flint!” The vague scent of various drinks flooded the air Cole was breathing. Someone had just given him a random chocolate bar that seemed less than legal to say the least. He wouldn’t call Amaya. She was having a good time and just told him to loosen up, and relax. Yeah. Like she knows anything about relaxing.
“I’m right here!” Cole could hear vaguely in his right direction. Only one thought was he thinking: Please be here, I can’t do this.
* * *
He barely remembers getting wrapped in Flint’s arms, carrying him away like a children’s toy and plopping Cole on his bed. What he remembers even less was the conversation that took place afterwards. All he could remember was how he paraphrased the conversation in his head after it all happened:
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, finally. Thanks to you”
“Thank goodness. I was worried. I still can’t believe that Amaya talked you into throwing a party. This is nothing like you, Cole.”
Pause
“I’m sorry.”
“That’s all you have to say? After all I do for you?” Ouch. Still stings recalling it.
“I didn’t ask you to do anything. Didn’t ask you to care about me.”
Pause
“Yeah. I chose to. Because I love you, Cole.”
* * *
He jumped up in bed. No way he could sleep anymore. All of a sudden, he remembered everything; the confession; the chocolate bar. He glanced over at his phone. 3 unread messages from Amaya, 2 unread messages from Flint, 56 unread messages from Christian.
Not his proudest moment, but in the moment, Cole smashed his phone into tons of pieces and shoved his head into his pillow. Please say that was just a dream.
