broken hearts club | C. MACKENZIE

three

"cole," a recently widowed ms. mackenzie says, barely noticing the appearance of her only son. cole closes the door behind him, dropping his schoolbooks on the table.

"mom," cole mutters, staring at her, waiting for a command to be given to him.

"how was school?" she asks, finally looking up at her son. cole notices there's actual curiosity in her eyes, something he has never seen from her.

"decent, it was better than the last time i went," cole admits, a small smile creeping onto his face. gilbert blythe flashes through his face for a spilt second, then disappears.

"i'm glad," his mom says, looking back down at his younger sister. "your sister is making dinner, can you watch carly while i assist cassie?"

cole nods his head as he takes a seat, dangling his fingers in front of his baby sister. carly screams with delight as she tries to catch cole's fingers.

cole rests his chin in his free hand, wondering how long this happiness will last.

~

cole wakes up before everyone in his house, which is a normal occurrence in the mackenzie household. he quickly dresses himself, spending an extra moment making sure his hair looks decent.

before leaving the house, he grabs a green apple. he takes a bite out of it as he goes to open his door.

"diana!" cole jumps back in surprise, leaning against his doorframe. "what makes you come here?"

diana barry stands in front of cole, a bright smile on her face. her signature blue jacket is tightly wound around her and her matching hat is pulled on securely.

"i've come to walk you to school," diana says, extending her arm. "you only live ten minutes away from me, silly."

cole accepts her arm, his eyes starting to sparkle. "i do? well, i should come over," he says jokingly, knowing diana does not enjoy having guests over at her house. she much rather enjoyed meeting at anne's house.

"only to pick me up," diana laughs, looking at the taller boy. "cole."

"yes?" cole asks, tilting his head. "what's the problem, di?"

diana takes a deep breath, shutting her eyes for a spilt second. she opens them, stopping dead in her tracks, "i know."

cole is confused as he turns to face diana. "you know about what?" he asks, raising his eyebrows.

"you and your feelings," diana struggles to say, her eyes meeting his.

cole stares hard back at her, trying to seem unmoved by her comment. what feelings was she talking about?

"diana, what are you talking-"

"you look at gilbert blythe the way i look at a boy."

"no i don't," cole says, trying to sound confused and not defensive. he knew he was different from everyone, but he thought he was an "anne different", not a "liking the same gender" type
of different. he did not look at gilbert blythe that way, that was an insane thought.

"cole," diana pauses, placing an hand on his shoulder. "it's okay."

"diana, stop assuming things, it's not polite to assume," cole says sharply, turning around and sprinting off. he doesn't dare look back.

~

"cole, i was worried you weren't-" gilbert starts speaking, but he notices the state his friend is in and quickly shuts up. "cole?"

cole is completely disheveled. his hat is halfway off his head, his coat is unbuttoned, and his face is all red and blotchy from tears. he keeps his head down, not wanting gilbert to see him in this state.

"hey, cole," gilbert says softer, taking a tiny step towards him. cole takes a step backwards, pressing his hands to his eyes, trying to cover his face.

"cole mackenzie," gilbert tries again, reaching a hand out to try to get his friend to uncover his face. "please?"

cole doesn't budge, tears still pouring down his face. the only good thing out of the this was that cole is a silent crier. he has learned the trick of soundlessly crying through years of practice.

gilbert slowly wraps his hand around one of cole's wrists and pulls gently. cole lets gilbert guide his hand away from his face, accepting his fate.

gilbert's eyes are searching for cole's eyes, trying to connect the two. cole won't allow it; he keeps his vision on the ground.

"what happened?" gilbert asks, sitting down in the corner of the coat room. he pats on an empty spot next to him and cole follows, sitting down a respectable distance away.

"nothing," cole lies, still not looking at gilbert. how were you supposed to tell someone that you were accused of having feelings for them?

just then, diana bustles through the door. her eyes go straight to cole and gilbert. cole is surprised that she doesn't look the slightest upset, just slightly winded. she locks eyes with cole and raises her eyebrows the tiniest bit.

cole takes this moment to glance at gilbert, who is staring at him.

"we both know that that's a lie," gilbert says quietly, pulling his knees to his chest. "you want to tell me what's wrong?"

cole did, he really did. he wanted to tell gilbert that he was beyond confused at the moment. he wanted to tell him what diana had said and have gilbert help him work through it. obviously, he could not.

"i'm okay," cole mumbles, trying to convince himself that he truly was.

"cole," gilbert whispers, placing a hand on the boy's knee. he leans in close, their faces centimeters apart. "please."

cole and gilbert were staring at each other, neither one of them moving their heads. cole felt sparks erupting inside him and he was unable to remove his eyes from gilbert's eyes.

"i'm confused," cole admits softly, still not moving his head. gilbert remains close to him as he bites his lip, his nervous tick.

"i'm confused too," the older boy agrees, pulling his hand away from cole's knee. the way he did it sent shivers down cole's spine. he let his hand trail for a moment as he moved it, then slowly lifted his hand.

"glad we're on the same page," cole breathes, feeling the world slow down.

"yeah," gilbert says, nodding his head. "same page."

an: y'all i'm actually so deep in my feels holy cow