broken hearts club | C. MACKENZIE

four

cole pulls out his piece of clay to help his hand and to distract him from the lectures he was receiving. it was a little piece, but it was better than nothing.

he is trying his hardest not to look up and see the back of gilbert blythe. his cheeks turn a bright red just thinking about how close the two were just a short time ago.

"miss stacy is giving us a break, would you like to come join diana, ruby, jane, tillie, and i in the corner?" anne shirley-cuthbert asks, standing next to
cole's part of the desk.

cole keeps his head down, not able to face anne at the moment. "not right now anne, but maybe later?"

anne walks away wordlessly and all cole can see are her boots hitting the wood flooring.

"why aren't you hanging out with your friends?" billy andrews asks, sitting down next to cole. "we all know you'd love to be a girl and giggle with them."

cole doesn't respond, just stares at his desk, squeezing his piece of clay harder than before. it's taking everything in him not to respond to billy.

"come on puppy, go play with your girlfriends! maybe you can even get a boyfriend one day," billy snickers, slapping his thigh because he thought he was so funny. "although, i don't think any of the boys here would be interested in a sick, little puppy like you."

that was it, cole couldn't take any more from billy. he feels the clay leave his hand. he goes to punch billy, but someone pulls the back of his arm backwards so that he cannot move his arm forwards.

gilbert blythe pulls cole out of his seat and drags him away from billy, his eyes glaring at the mean blond.

"why didn't you let me hit him!" cole yells, pulling his arm away from gilbert. he was furious and all he wanted to do was press billy's other ear against the heater.

"your hand," gilbert says calmly, looking at cole's hand that has clay on it. "it's still healing. you punching billy would send you back to square one."

"i don't care! did you hear the things he was saying about me?" cole is so close to tears at this point and he can start to feel himself shaking.

"i did," gilbert nods his head, placing a hand on cole's shoulder. "breathe, okay?"

cole tries to take a deep breath, but for some reason the air stops flowing in his lungs. he drops down, his back against the wall. tears are pouring down his face and he feels like he cannot breathe. he is shaking uncontrollably by now and he doesn't know how to stop it.

"you're upset, i understand. i'll be here until you feel better. just breathe, cole," gilbert says quietly, crouching down to try and comfort the boy who is obviously having a panic attack.

"what's going on?"

"oh look the freak is freaking out."

"cole, what's happening?"

"is he okay?"

"miss stacy!"

gilbert stands up in front of cole so that he is blocked from the crowd. "everyone leave him alone!" he barks, glaring at his fellow students, "go away."