7 - Comfort

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I sit on my bed and crawl into a ball and hug my knees to try and calm myself down. I start to cry a little. And I start crying harder.

A few minutes later, there's a knock on the door. It's Cole. "Hey, Claire, are you okay?" He asks.

I sniffle. "Mhm, y-yeah I'm fine." I say. Then Cole walks in and sees me crying. His expression immediately goes soft, and the tone of his voice turned soft too. Sort of comforting.

"Hey, hey, what's wrong?" Cole asks, closing the door behind him and sitting on the bed next to me. I just keep crying. Cole puts his hand on my back and rubs soothing circles on it to calm me down. "It's okay, deep breaths."

"I'm an orphan, Cole." I say. Cole slowly pulls me into his side and lets me cry into his chest. I wrap my arms around his torso and he rubs small circles with his thumb on my back. Then I slowly start to fall asleep.

***

I wake up in my bed with a blanket over me and my shoes off. Did Cole do this? There's just one lamp on and I go to my right to check my phone.

I pick up my phone and look at the time. 9 pm. I bet I missed dinner. Then I look to my left and see Cole sitting next to me. I jump.

"Sorry, I thought you would want some food." Cole says, handing me a plate, and giving me a small smile.

"Thanks." I say. I eat some spaghetti.

"How are you feeling?" Cole asks.

"I'm feeling fine, why?" I ask.

"You were just pretty upset earlier." Cole says. "I was a little worried about you."

"A little, huh?" I ask, smiling a little.

"Alright, Claire Bear is back to herself now, oh no." Cole says, sarcastically.

I smile a little and lightly punch him. "But really Cole, thanks for being here earlier." I say.

"Of course, I've been in a bad place too, I know what it's like." He says. I hug him and he hugs me back.

"So how was your first day?" Cole asks, still sitting on the wooden stool.

"Do you want to sit on the bed? That chair is mad uncomfortable." I say. Cole nods and scoot over.

"Thanks, so how was it?" Cole asks.

"It was alright." I say. "I got to meet Jackie's friends and they're really nice."

"That's good." Cole says. Then he looks at the time. "I gotta go, umm, do some homework." Cole says. "Goodnight Claire."

"Goodnight Cole." I say. Cole leaves.

The Cole Effect - Cole WalterWhere stories live. Discover now