The Boys Next Door

Part 16

Chapter 16

*Stephanie*

My mouth fell open in shock at his words. Did I just hear him correctly?

"Steph, did you hear me?"

I was quite literally gawking at him. "What- why?" I managed to stammer out.

Cole looked away from me to his hands, fiddling with them in an almost nervous way. "Whilst I was in Australia, I realised how much I missed you. Missed your company, missed your smile, your laugh. I even missed the way we insult each other all the time," he chuckled at that but still didn't properly look at her.

I tried to process his words but I was starting to feel a bit dizzy. A combination of the words tumbling out of his mouth and the movement of the Ferris wheel. What was his words supposed to mean?

He carried on, this time glancing at her, seeing her reaction. "I thought about you every day, hoping that you were alright, wondering if you missed me as much as I missed you."

I nodded and managed a small smile, "I missed you too, one month is a long time."

He let out a sigh and shook his head, "no Steph, not like that." I gazed past him, at all the lights on the far end of the pier. Deep down I knew what he meant.

He tenderly turned my head with his hand so I had no choice but to get lost in his chocolatey brown eyes. "I've fallen for you Stephanie and I can't do anything about it."

My heart felt like it dropped to the bottom of my stomach. I should have been overjoyed at his words and shouting from the top of the Ferris wheel. But I didn't, because I couldn't. I felt so guilty, that I was the cause of Madison's misery. I was the other woman that broke up a happy couple. I wanted to tell him that I felt the same way. He was looking at me, patiently awaiting a response.

"I-" I faltered. Get yourself together girl. They were almost back at the bottom of the wheel and it was almost time to get off.

His smile faded as he realised he wasn't going to get the response he wanted.

"I don't know how to respond." I said truthfully. In all honesty I was very confused, my emotions were all over the place.

He smiled again, this time looking a little sad. "It's okay, you don't have to respond. I just had to tell you the truth. And now you know, so....." he trailed off awkwardly. This definitely explained why he was acting so weird lately. I reached over and held on of his hands in my own, pleading with him to understand what she was about to say.

"I care about you so much, Cole, more than you can imagine. However we can't be like that together. I can't do that to Madison."

"So you're saying that it's never going to happen basically?" he asked impassively, turning his head away from me and dropping my hand.

Tears started welling at the corner of my eyes. All I wanted to do was tell him 'of course I want to be with you. You make me feel safe and loved!' But I didn't. Instead I stuttered "Yes-No, I don't know right now."

Luckily it was time to get off the wheel, so as soon as it came to a halt I jumped out the pod and started walking quickly. I didn't even look where I was going properly, I just had to get away from Cole for the moment. Had to get away from everything and everyone just to think. Unfortunately, fate didn't seem to agree with me and I walked straight into a hard chest, bouncing off it slightly.

"Stephanie?"

I looked up to see Jack, his eyebrows creased. He also held a plastic bag with a small goldfish swimming around in it. He actually had got me a goldfish after all.