SILENT SMILE

Chapter 6

Cole

In the middle of another study session with Zane, Cole felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. "Hey Pinky, hold up," He motioned towards Zane to pause in his explanation, "I gotta take this for a bit, I won't be long." 

After getting Zane's confirmation nod, Cole got up from their little pile of pillows and walked to the corner of the room before answering his phone. 

"Who is this?" 

Rough laughter emitted from the speaker as the caller replied, "You don't recognize me anymore after a few days of not seeing each other, Cole? I'm hurt." Cole knew who was on the other side of the phone immediately and grinned.

"Hey Kai, what's up?" Cole asked and winced when there was a loud whine the moment the words left his mouth. 

"KAIIIII, why didn't you tell him I'm on too?" Jay complained and Cole heard a loud thump afterwards. "Shut up, Jay," Kai teased and Cole laughed. 

"Hello to you too, Jay," Cole amended and went back to the topic on hand, "So what's the occasion on getting one of your famous tag team calls?" 

Kai laughed, " Dude, it's been so long since we've seen you and we go to the same school!" 

"I heard from Nya who heard from a classmate that you got a boyfriend, Cole!" Jay piped in with a teasing voice and Cole felt himself flushing, "Is that why you don't hang with us anymore?" 

Cole stole a glance to Zane who was sitting flat on his stomach while kicking his feet in the air and turned his attention back to the two, "Shut up, Jay. I was busy, that's all." 

"Yeah, with your boyf-OOF! KAI, YOU ASS!" Jay yelled and Kai snorted, "Sure, dude, whatever you say." 

"I'm telling the truth!" Cole insisted, raising his voice causing Zane to look in his direction with a raised eyebrow. Who's on the phone?  He asked and Cole mouthed quickly, "Friends." Zane gave a him a small thumbs up for good luck and went back to reading his book. 

"Cole? Cole, are you still there man?" Kai called. 

"Yeah, I am," He replied and ran a hand through his hair, "Sorry about that, someone's over." 

Cole brought the phone away from his ear when he heard Jay squeal higher than a four-years old girl, "OOOOOOO!! COLE HAS HIS BOYFRIEND OVER!!" 

"He's not!" Cole barked, "But yes, the person in question is over here right now." 

"Really? Hey, bring him over to Buddy's!" Kai asked and Cole hear the smirk in his voice when he added, "I wanna see this guy who's managed to charm our Cole."

"He's not my- Ah, whatever," Cole sighed and gave up, "I don't mind going but I dunno about him though." 

"Then ask him, duh." Cole rolled his eyes at the tone Kai used, "Besides, he doesn't have any other friends than you, right? So that's gotta take a toll on his sanity, this'll be healthy for him."

COle had to admit Kai had a point there and sighed, "Fine, see you guys in fifteen?" 

With an affirmative grunt, Cole hanged up on them and turned to watch Zane for a minute. The fair-headed boy had turned over to his back and was holding his book up in the air to read it. Cole smiled and thought about how fun it would be to hang out together as a group, the four of them. 

'Well, assuming that they like Zane, of course.'

"Hey," He called out and grinned when Zane craned his neck to look at him upside down, "My friends want to meet you, wanna go?" 

Friends? Zane asked and Cole nodded, "Yup, my jackass friends. I think you'll like them, maybe." 

Zane's face was blank for a few seconds but after a while he pointed at the  books scattered around their pillow pile, What about studying?

"C'mon Frosty," Cole teased, "I think you need a break from books, don't you think?" 

Zane looked affronted for a moment and looked back and forth from the books and Cole before sighed. Friends. Okay.  

Cole grinned and held out a hand to help Zane up which said boy took. It wasn't much to hoist him up ("Damn, you have to eat more, Zane." Whatever you say, mom.)

Looking at Zane's pinched up face, Cole nudged him as they grabbed their coats and headed out the door, "Don't worry, they'll love you!" 

If you're sure, Cole. Zane shrugged and the two made their way to Buddy's Pizza.

--

Hey guys. So I'm back, alive! Finals are coming up and of course instead of studying, this is what I do. Welp. Anyways, yay, I figured out how to insert Kai and Co. in! Yeyyy

Of course as usual, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, thank you for sticking around and comments are always welcomed. Stay tuned to see how the rest react to Zane and vice versa. 

Seeya.

(You guys are the absolute BEST. Love you guys, man.)