Galaxies

Allison spent the whole day cleaning, she started with the bathroom, scrubbing down the shower door and bathtub. Then scrubbing the sink and wiping the mirror clean, ignoring her plain reflection. Then she moved on to the small gallery kitchen starting with reorganizing the magnets on the refrigerator, smiling at the little lady bug.



"Hey, I got you something." Cole smiled.

"Really?" she asked eagerly. "What is it?"

"It's a surprise. Duh." he said with a glint in his eyes.

"Alright fine," she pouted and continued to watch the crappy movie on TV.

After about five minutes she couldn't take it anymore.

"Cole!" her voice erupted with a laugh.

He glanced at her. "What?"

"Oh come on, just tell me." she begged.

He shook his head, grinning his full-of-shiny-white-teeth grin.

"Nope." he said making a pop noise at end.

Ellie pouted some more and tried to watch the movie again. When it was over she got up and took their paper plates as Cole grabbed the glasses to take to the kitchen.

"Alright close your eyes," he murmured watching her put the plates they used for pizza in the trash.

"Huh?" she glanced at him as he put the glasses in the sink.

"Do you want to know what I got, or not?" he smirked.

She immediately closed her eyes, and after a few moments she sighed.

Cole chuckled, "You are so impatient."

"Shut up," she muttered with a furrowed brow. "Can I please open my eyes now?"

Truthfully she could have opened her eyes several seconds ago, but Cole was enjoying himself. He liked being able to watch her without having to worry about if she could catch him.

"Yeah," he mumbled staring at her. "You can open them now."

Her hazel-gray eyes blinked open and then widened a little not realizing he was standing so close to her. "Well?" she asked looking around.

Cole was smirking again. "If you can't guess where it is, then you can't have it."

Ellie groaned looking around the kitchen, "It is in here, right?"

He nodded smiling at her.

And then she glanced at the fridge and saw it.

"Oh, yay!" she smiled hearing Cole laughing at her.

"Do you like it?"

"Yes," she said picking the little ladybug magnet off the refrigerator and studying it in the palm of her hand.

"Good."

There had to be about ten more ladybug magnets on the door of the frige, all different sizes and colors. Ellie couldn't remember when she started liking them, but it caught on and everyone she knew started giving her things that were in the shape of a ladybug. Mostly Cole, and mostly little things like magnets. But she loved them all.



After getting the bedroom and the living room-slash-dining room area clean she slumped down on the dark green couch and popped in a movie. When Beauty and Beast was over (Allison of course singing along to the songs, knowing them all by heart), she surfed through the channels and after finding nothing worth while she decided to call Cole.

Picking up her cell phone she went to recent calls, not having his number saved into her phone in case Mark got paranoid again.

"Hi, Cole," she smiled.

"Hey," she heard him say. "Can I call you back? I don't like it when you call 'cause I know you have to pay for long distance."

"And you also know that I don't mind, I've been paying my own phone bill since I was sixteen."

"And you know that I'm going to hang up and call you back anyway." He shot right back.

Allison sighed. Rolling her eyes she mumbled, "Fine."

"Thank you." She heard him say before she snapped her cell phone shut.

Not even ten seconds later it was ringing.

"So, how are you?" she asked.

"I'm good. We got a dog." she could hear the smile in his voice which immediately made one etch onto her face.

"Really?! What kind?"

Cole laughed at how excited she was, "Guess."

"What do you mean guess? Just tell me."

"No, you have to guess. Come on, Ellie it should be really easy," he was laughing.

She sighed, and then it hit her. "A bull terrier?!"

"Yup."

"Really?!" her smile was so big her cheeks were starting to hurt.

"Yeah, I mean it is my favorite dog."

"You mean, it's my favorite dog. You only like them because of me." She heard him mumble, "Oh, whatever." as she said, "Man, I wish I could get one."

"Then why don't you?" Cole asked and Allison could hear the ever so present curiosity in his voice.

Every time she mention something that she wished she could do, or something that she wished she could get, he wouldn't understand why she couldn't.

"I can't Cole. Mark wouldn't let me." she muttered. She always wanted a dog.

"Well, I need to talk to him, because you would be so happy with a dog."

Allison smiled and was glad Cole wasn't there to see how pitiful it was. "Yeah, well he says he's allergic, but I've seen him around dogs before I think he just doesn't like them. He's not really the animal loving type."

"Well. That I just don't understand at all, how can a person not love animals? Especially dogs?"

"Don't ask me! I don't get it either. I just know that he wouldn't let me so why bother asking?"

"Okay, but my ofter still stands, if you want me to explain how happy you'd be with a dog, let me know and I'll be happy to talk to him." He said.

Allison smiled. "Okay, I'll make sure to remember that."

"Good, so how are you? How are things going with school?" he asked.

"Everything's been pretty good. I got a B on that History test," she sighed. "I would have done better if I studied more about Revolutionary War," she groaned lightly smacking herself on the forehead.

"Hey, don't worry about it anymore, it's already done and over with. Just do better next time, that's all you can do right now anyway. And you know that you can call me and I'll help you study."

She could tell that Cole was about to say something along the lines of: You know if you don't stop hitting yourself, you're going give yourself brain damage, if you haven't already. So she decided to cut in, "Okay, but with the time difference and everything it's kinda hard, I always feel like I'm bothering you. I mean, you work Cole, I don't want to keep you up. It's almost one in the morning where you are!" she cried looking at the clock.

"Yeah, it'd be kinda nice if you didn't yell at me either."

"Sorry," she sheepishly replied.

Cole chuckled, "It's fine." he paused and Allison could tell that he moved the phone away from his mouth. "Yeah," he murmured, "You go do that, Mel, go..." he trailed off and then cleared his throat. "So," he said sounding a lot more cheery. "Wanna guess what we named him?"

"The dog?"

"Duh, the dog, El, who else could I be talking about?" he laughed. "Definitely not a kid," she heard him mutter.

Knowing that he didn't want her to hear it she continued as if she didn't. "Umm, Sebastian?"

Cole laughed some more, "No, babe that is not it. Guess again."

"Oh, you must be really tired if you're starting to call me babe, why don't you-" she cut herself off when she heard the ever well-known sounds of ice hitting a drinking glass. "Are you-are you seriously drinking right now?" she asked.

Being around it for so long, Allison was good at acting like she was perfectly okay with alcohol that sometimes she fooled herself. But when Cole did it, it just made her blood run cold.

"I'm only having one glass, I swear. I'm putting the bottle away right now," he said as she heard cabinet doors closing shut.

"But why do you need one?" her curiosity was getting the best of her, but she also knew that she and Cole didn't keep secrets from each other.

That made her freeze for a moment, knowing that she was keeping a secret from him, but she planned on telling him. She was just waiting for the right time.

"Because, El, I'm just-I'm really stressed right now. And I need the relaxation, okay? I swear I'm going to drink one. And I might not even finish it before I go to sleep. There's nothing to worry about."

"Then why don't I hang up and let you go to sleep, Cole? I'm sure you're tired."

"No! No, no, I'm fine. I-I need," he sighed, taking a deep breathe, "I just need to hear a familiar voice," he said and she could her the desperation in his voice, but she still didn't exactly understand what he meant.

"Okay. Alright fine. But if you get really tired, just hang up okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," he mumbled and then yawned. "I'll do that."

"Are you in bed?" she asked hearing rustling noises.

"Yeah," he yawned again.

"Is Melissa not there?"

"No, she left."

Her brow furrowed. "What do you mean, she left?"

"I don't know. She said something, and then she said that she was going to stay the night at her cousin's. You know that weird chick? With all the cats and gnomes in her yard?

"Yeah, I remember you telling me about her."

"That's just weird right?" His voice was starting to slur and little, and Allison knew that it was more from him being tired than the alcohol.

"Yeah Cole," she mumbled, "It's weird. Now what did Melissa say? What's got you so stressed?"

Cole groaned. "I don't wanna talk about it, can't we talk 'bout somethin' else? I feel like I never get to talk ta you, I don't wanna talk 'bout me, I wanna talk 'bout you." he yawned.

"No," she said firmly. "Tell me what she said."

"Ugh, fine. She said that she was tired of me always calling you and that we've, her and I, have been drifting apart. And it's like, making her question our, her and I, relationship, and well I guess like, mine and your relationship with each other too, or whatever. But I keep telling her that you have a boyfriend that you live with.

"But she won't listen to me, and when I tell her that she doesn't listen and that you are so much better at listening to me than she is. She gets mad, and says stuff like, Well maybe we need a break," he said in a voice that was much higher and nasally sounding than his own. "And it makes me think that she likes someone else. Not that she's cheating on me or anything, 'cause I know that she wouldn't do something like that.

"But like, I think that there's someone at her work that's been hitting on her and I think that maybe she might be like harmlessly flirting back. And you know sometimes stuff like that escalates to more serious things. "

"Okay, okay, Cole. Cole, listen to me. Are you listening?"

"Yeah," he mumbled sleepily.

"Maybe you need to talk to her and tell her everything that you just told me. Because she probably feels the same way you feel. She probably thinks that we're flirting and that it might escalate to something more serious."

"But, we're friends, Ellie. We've always been friends. You're my best friend, I can't just not talk to you." He said sounding like a little kid. A little sleepy kid.

"Okay, well just talk to her. Can you at least see where I'm coming from? That she probably feels the same way you feel?"

"Yeah, yeah, I get what your saying. I," he sighed. "I guess I'll have to talk to her."

"Okay, good. Talk to her tomorrow. Hey, why don't you call her tomorrow and you can take her out to lunch. Just call her in the morning and ask her out."

"Hm, I could do that," he mumbled.

"Do something sweet, like take her to her favorite place, and let her get whatever she wants. And buy dessert even if she says she doesn't want one, and share the dessert with her. Like if you get a milkshake share that with two straws. Or if you know a dessert that she really likes, get that and be cute and try to feed it to her."

"Okay, I don't know about that, but we'll see," he chuckled.

"Alright, well I'm going to let you go, it's getting pretty close to three AM and you know that's the limit."

"Yeah," he yawned. "I'm pretty tired."

"Well then get some rest and I'll talk you soon, okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, okay." He yawned again. "I loo-veee you-uuuu," he said still yawning.

Allison couldn't hold in her giggle, "I loo-vee you-uuu too. Goodnight, Coley-kins."

"Eck, don't call me that," he murmured. "And goodnight, Ellie-bird, love you."

She smiled at him using her old nickname and then the line went dead and Allison was sucked back into reality. Which had perfect timing, because Mark walked in right after Allison traded the phone for the remote. And she smiled at him as if the phone call had never happened.