WHERE WE ARE ; COLE WALTER

005

"YOU ALREADY MET THE NEW GIRL  ?" Erin asked in disbelief as she and Veronica were waiting at the front of the school for the Walters to arrive, like they always did.

Veronica shrugged, "Yeah, I went over to the Walters yesterday."

Erin looked over to her best friend, who was dressed in a pair of flared jeans and a green sweater, wondering when she would finally get the opportunity to go over to the Walters' house as often as Veronica did. "So, what's she like?"

"How about you find out for yourself, the clown car is arriving," Veronica told her friend and walked over to greet Cole and his brothers. Erin followed her after checking her hair in her phone camera and adjusting some stray strands.

Veronica joined the remaining Walters and Jackie, a big grin on her face despite the early hour. "How are you Jackie? And did you even have any room to breathe in their car? It's always so packed."

"Our car's very spacious, thank you very much, Vee," Cole told her, as he casually wrapped an arm around her shoulder. Everyone seemed to ignore the gesture but Jackie let her eyes rest on the couple for a second longer, noticing the way Veronica's shoulder's seemed to relax just a bit as his arm touched her.

Though, someone shouted Cole's name and as the blonde girl came to a halt on Cole's other side, Jackie noticed Veronica shrug his arm off and distance herself. However, her brown eyes were set on the way the blonde girl twirled her hair with her finger and was standing close to Cole, touching his arm as she talked to him about whatever.

"That's Erin, my best friend," Veronica told Jackie as she finally had enough and decided to focus on something else. She didn't like the bitter feeling rising in her chest, like at all. "She's not good with new people, so don't take it to heart that she's ignoring you."

Jackie just nodded, observing both Cole's and Veronica's rather stiff demeanor, both seemed uncomfortable at this moment. It was a stark contrast to how relaxed the two of them had seemed the day before or even five minutes ago, then they had easy-going smiles on their faces and an open body language. Now, however they both were distracted, looking away from the people in front of them, or stealing glances at one another and whenever one caught the other, Veronica seemed to tense and looked away, over to Erin.

The Howard girl just didn't get what was going on with these two but she was sure she would find out sooner or later, for now she had to concentrate on her studies (though, asking a few questions here and there was never wrong).

"Vee, you coming?" Cole asked as he and Erin moved away from the group, Erin looking up at him with dreamy eyes. Veronica sighed and went back to them, interlocking her elbow with Erin's and walking into the school's building with Cole next to her.

As Jackie walked to her class accompanied by Danny she decided to ask him about what she had seen, wanting to know more about this interesting situation her new acquaintance was in. "Aren't Cole and Veronica together?"

Danny looked at the girl in bewilderment and laughed a bit at her words, not believing what he had just heard. "No and I don't think they ever will be, the two of them have been best friends since kindergarten, that's the only reason why they act so close. Besides, Erin has a huge crush on him."

Jackie nodded, though she didn't really understand, did no one see the way the two of them looked at each other? Sure, the New Yorker girl had never had a boyfriend but she knew that friends don't look at each other the way these two do.

Veronica sat in Math class beside Cole, the only class the two of them shared without Erin in it. Right now their teacher was handing back their previously written tests and although she was happy that she had gotten an B+, she couldn't help but feel her heart grow heavy as she looked over to Cole's seat, seeing the D- written in red on his test.