silver springs ~ c. walter

chapter 4 !

When Dorrie woke up the next morning, she didn't know where she was at first, or why there was an arm draped around her waist. After a moment, she remembered Kubrick movie night with Danny, but was immediately confused because she remembered falling asleep on the opposite side of the couch. And she certainly didn't have a blanket draped over her or a pillow under her head. And, upon further inspection, the arm around her waist certainly wasn't Danny's.

When she raised the blanket enough to see the person's hand, she could see the faint colors of an old friendship bracelet that she knew belonged to one boy and one boy only. A faint snore came from the boy behind her, and she froze. Last night she'd promised herself she was done hoping anything would ever happen, but here she was, the next morning, wrapped in the arms of Cole Walker.

Trying her best not to wake him up, she delicately removed his arm and wriggled out of his grip, replacing the empty space with the pillow that had been under her head. Checking the time on her phone - about 5:30 - she made a beeline for the bathroom. That was, until a voice sounded from across the room.

"Good morning, sunshine. Where are you going?"

God, she could listen to that voice any day. Cole Walker's morning voice was unlike anything she'd ever imagined and she was jealous of every other girl that he'd ever spoken to like this before. Any other girl he'd called sunshine. Dorrie knew her face was beet red, but she turned anyway to face the now-awake Cole. "Bathroom," she replied, a little breathier than she'd hoped.

"Mhm," he muttered. "Sounds good. Thought you were running away." He was clearly barely awake. There was no other explanation.

"No," she smiled. "Just have to pee." He nodded and started to stretch while she all but ran to the bathroom. Dorrie splashed water on her face and tried to remember what had happened the night before. She'd been exhausted, that much was memorable. They'd barely started The Shining when she had started to doze off. At some point in the night she remembered Danny talking to someone and waking up slightly, but everything else was hazy.

When she left the bathroom, she heard water running in the kitchen and immediately went to investigate. Cole was pulling out four pieces of bread from the bag and placing them into the toaster, and there were two glasses of water on the counter. "What are you doing?" she asked, still groggy.

"Making toast," he replied, glancing over his shoulder before turning back to the toaster.

"I didn't know you even knew how to make toast," she teased.

"Yeah, yeah." Cole motioned to the glass closest to her on the counter. "I got you some water."

Dorrie smiled slightly. "Thanks. We're the only ones up right now, right?"

"We are," he said, looking at the clock. "The sun rises in about twenty minutes if you want to go see it."

"That would be nice," she all but whispered. Sunrise and sunset were her favorite parts of every day. The colors in the Colorado sky were stunning, and her favorite picture of her childhood was from when she was two years old, on top of her father's shoulders as they watched the sunrise over the mountains. There was no way Cole would know this, though. Shaken from her thoughts, she frowned up at the boy, confused, when he placed a plate of toast in front of her. It had grape jam on one piece and butter on the other, just how she liked it. "You made some for me?"

"Of course, I'm not rude."

"That's debatable."

"I'll take the toast away," he threatened, pulling at the plate teasingly.

"You wouldn't dare," she countered, pulling it back with one hand and grabbing the toast and taking a large bite out of it with the other. When she swallowed, she finally asked, "What happened last night?"