silver springs ~ c. walter

chapter 5 !

A few weeks passed, and Jackie seemed to settle in nicely. She was active on student council, doing very well in her classes, and even started to make a few friends. Dorrie was happy to see the girl grow into herself a bit more and expand her interests. They still ran every morning with Nathan, and every now and then they'd get ice cream after school. It was nice to have another girl to talk to, for both of them.

One thing Dorrie didn't end up having to worry about was Cole. She had planned to distance herself a bit, but he had shut her out the past two weeks or so. He wouldn't answer her texts, would grunt instead of saying hello, and barely gave her the time of day otherwise. If she didn't know any better, she'd be offended. But, Homecoming was just around the corner and it would be the first time that Cole wouldn't be on the field. She knew he was hurting, but didn't know what to do to get him to talk to her.

After being ignored by him in the parking lot that morning, Dorrie decided she'd had enough and that she'd confront him at his locker. After first period, she waited, and immediately noticed the lack of decoration in comparison to Dylan's, who had replaced him on the team. She knew that must've hurt.

"What brings you over here?" Dylan asked, walking towards his locker.

"Cole's being a little bitch and ignoring me," she sighed, looking at Dylan with a closed-lip smile.

"Sounds about right," he nodded. "He doesn't seem to stay with girls more than a few weeks, though."

Dorrie flushed as red as tomato. "Oh, we're not together. We're just friends."

Dylan glanced over at her in surprise before looking at his locker and smiling softly. "Oh, I didn't know that."

"Yeah, I mean Isaac's my best friend and the Walkers are practically family, so anything between us would just be too complicated," she rambled.

"Good to know." Dylan closed his locker, looking at her head on. "In that case, would you ever want to-"

"Want to what?" Cole said from behind Dorrie, his face right by her ear. She jumped, hitting him lightly on the arm.

"Jesus, Cole, you scared me!"

"Speak of the devil," Dylan said with a tight smile. "We were just talking about you."

"Oh, really?" Cole replied, opening his locker after Dorrie stepped away from it. "What about?"

"How you're ignoring me." Dorrie crossed her arms. "What's up?"

"Maybe I just wanted some space, Banks," he said sarcastically. "Not all of us want to be nagged all the time. If I wanted that, I'd just go home and talk to my mom."

Dorrie felt as if she'd been slapped. Even if he was struggling, he had no right to be rude to her as a result. "What did you just say to me?"

"You heard me. I mean I get being obsessed with me and all, but you might want to chill out a little." Cole wouldn't look her in the eyes. His focused was glued to the inside of his locker.

"Dude," Dylan said, obviously uncomfortable. "Not cool."

"Believe it or not, I was worried about you," Dorrie said, molding her face into a cool, unfeeling expression. "I guess I was wrong. You're obviously doing just fine, Cole. You're living up to every expectation and every rumor. Guess I was wrong about a lot of things." And with that, she nodded at Dylan, who gave her a weary smile, and walked away.

"What was that?" Dylan said, shocked at how Cole had just treated Dorrie.

"You know how girls can be," Cole nonchalantly replied.