Beautiful Mess(99)

“Okay, then I’ll pick you up at you house after school tomorrow.”

“You’re driving?” she teased.

“Of course!” he scoffed. “It is a date after all,” he winked at her. “Bye, Bri.” He pushed off the locker and walked away.

The next morning at dance practice, Bri was practically ambushed by Natalie and Erica.

“So, what’s up with you and Cole?” Erica demanded, cutting right to the point.

“What?” Bri was confused. Her brain was still half asleep that early in the morning.

“You and Cole. We saw you two talking yesterday. Are you guys like a thing now?” Natalie clarified.

“Um, no,” Bri lied. “We’re just friends.”

“Oh. Well, what were you talking about?” Erica adopted a more friendly tone, hoping to extract some info.

“Nothing,” Bri’s mind scrambled to come up with a reason Cole would be talking to her. “He just had a question about our History assignment.”

“Really?” Natalie asked skeptically. “Because you two were standing pretty close. It looked like more than just a question about homework.” She crossed her arms, challengingly.

“Well, it wasn’t,” Bri bit back. She was starting to get angry now. “The hall was just really loud, that’s all. Remind me again how this is any of your business?” She glared at the girls in front of her.

“But, you think he’s hot, right?” Natalie smirked.

“What? No!” Bri was totally caught off guard. She felt her face flush, revealing that she did in fact think Cole was hot.

“Bri, I’m going to give you a bit of advice,” Natalie took on a patronizing tone. “Forget about Cole. There’s no way he’d ever be interested in someone like you anyway.” She gave Bri a derisive once-over. “And, in case you didn’t know, Cole belongs to Serena, and Serena doesn’t share.”

Everything clicked into place for Bri, things finally making sense. She smirked at the two obnoxious girls in front of her.

“Wow, Serena must really be worried if she sent you two to threaten me. You might want to let her know that the last time I checked, it was illegal to own anyone anymore.” She narrowed her eyes at Natalie. “Cole’s a big boy. He can decide for himself who he is, and isn’t, interested in.” She smirked, turned on her heel, and walked away.

Bri spent the rest of the day fuming over Serena, Natalie, and Erica. She wasn’t afraid of them. If Serena wanted to start something, Bri wasn’t going to back down. But she knew that if Cole found out Serena was targeting her, he’d have second thoughts about bringing their relationship out in the open. All day long, she kept going back and forth about whether or not to tell Cole about Serena’s threat. That is, until she saw the smug, victorious, smile Serena gave her after school. The girl already thought she’d won. Rolling her eyes, Bri decided she wasn’t going to let Serena come between her and Cole. Keeping secrets from him would only drive them apart. They were stronger together, and she intended to keep it that way. Having made her decision, she let go of her frustration, determined that nothing was going to ruin her night. Closing her locker, she headed home to change for her date.





Chapter 21





A light drizzle had begun to fall, and Bri was relieved when Cole pulled up in his truck to pick her up. After jumping inside, she leaned over and gave him a slow kiss.

“Well, hello to you too,” he smiled. “I didn’t know you were going to get all dressed up for me.” Cole took in her cream baby doll dress, brown leather jacket and brown boots appreciatively.

“Well, it is a date, after all,” she smiled back.

“Yeah, but now I feel bad I didn’t stop and change for you.”

“Oh, don’t! I think you look great.” And he did. He was wearing her favorite dark, butt-accentuating jeans and a fitted black t-shirt. His black hair hung in his grey eyes. Bri lifted her hand and brushed it back out of his face. Cole turned his eyes to hers and smiled.

“So, where are we going?”

“There’s a great Chinese place across town. I thought we’d start there. Bri, what are those?” He pointed to the textbooks sticking out of her bag.

“What? I have homework,” she replied. “It is our study night after all.”

“Yes, well, I was hoping to be studying something else tonight,” he flashed her a devilish grin. Bri laughed while her cheeks flushed.

“Well, maybe we can do both.” She raised an eyebrow at him.

“I just might hold you to that,” he laughed and squeezed her knee. He let his hand linger there the rest of the drive.