Alone at Six

"Damn Six, you must have scored big." I put my hand over Sandra's face and pushed back until she hit Jake who scrambled to retrieve his fallen phone.

"Shut up, Sandra." I said, though I can't imagine it looked too far from what I was thinking earlier. Me and Cole were coated in grass from head to tow, blades and dirt fused with my hair while her pants where spotted with light and dark green grass stains.

"But she's right." Ashley chimed in. "What's all over your mouth? Cole wears lipstick? Well, I didn't take you for that kinda girl, but whatever you like."

I touched my mouth expecting to feel something sticky and slimy, but only felt warm skin "Wait, what? There's nothing on my mouth....."

"No wait." Sandra touched my cheek, leaning in close. "Is that....is that a hand mark? Tello, did you bitchslap my frontman?"

"Uh, well," Cole, who had somewhere in there moved to hide behind me, stepped forward. "You see, he was talking-"

"Ah, no need to say anymore. I understand."

I pushed Sandra's face back again until my arm wouldn't go any farther then turned to Cole. "So, do you have to be home by any time? If you're late we could call and try to explain to your step mom."

As I was finishing my sentence, something dawned on me. Lilli was Cole's step-mom. How long had she been her step-mom? A few years, a few months? Did Ryan mean Cole's real mom, or stepmom? Was her real mom dead or alive? Maybe that's why I haven't heard Cole say anything about her, maybe it was recently and that's why she's been sad. But she lives with her dad, right? Is her dad giving her up and that's why Ryan called her an orphan? But it seemed like he was an amazing guy the way she talked about him in the taxi.

Where's her dad now? Wouldn't her dad be the one who was outside waiting for her the night of the concert instead of her step-mom? Maybe he just worked nights. But if he did then he could have picked Cole up from work that one day it was raining. Maybe he just wasn't that kind of father, maybe she overplayed him. But I shouldn't be thinking that way about her father, I've never even met him before.

"I don't know, what are we doing Beirsack!?" Sandra shouted in my ear, causing me to jump a bit. "God, where were you?"

"Whatever." I pushed her face back for the third time and turned my attention to Cole. "Sorry, what did you say?"

"My step mom is visiting her sister in New York for a few weeks. I'm home alone."

"Alone?" I was, once again, genuinely shocked. Who in their right mind would leave her home alone? "What about your dad?"

"Oh, uh, he went with her too. Like a vacation kind of sorts. But I'm in school, so ya know, kinda need to stay or I fail and all that." I could hear the near falter in her voice as she lied.

waitwaitwait." Jake peeled himself away from his phone long enough to cut in. "Fail? You won't miss that much."

"Oh, it's a thing here. If you're sixteen and over and miss ten days of school, unexcused, you automatically fail for the year."

"Oh, wow. That sucks big time." Jinxx laughed. "I'm glad I never went to this school, I'd be out in two weeks. Your dad should have stayed home with you, I mean who in their right mind would leave a teenager ho-"

Before he could say anything else, I grabbed his shoulders and dug my nails in, deep. "So," I said before the concern for Jinxx on Cole's face turned into words. "That means we get you for as long as we want. What do you want to do?"

A field of expressions raced over Cole's face too fast before it settled on one. She didn't look particularly thrilled, but she definitely didn't look disappointed in this ether. "Lilli is supposed to call later to check up on me, you know, to see if I'm still alive and breathing. And I have to study for a few tests I have tomorrow. So I should probably go home."

"Aw, are you sure?" Jake came up behind, laying his arms around mine and Cole's shoulders. "You can't have that much to do. You look hungry, you should eat with us." He pulled her in closer, took the arm from my neck, and started to poke and prod at her. "You look like you've been starving yourself, foo-" I cut Jake off with nails in the arm that he had around Cole and peeled him away of her.

"No, I'm good." Cole said with polite hast as she slowed down to keep from being rude. "I'm.... not really hungry. I ate a lot before Andy came to lunch and-"

"You're a bad liar." Jinxx yawned as he stretched upward. "I found you outside and those lines are way too long to go through that fast."

"True, I guess I, uh...." Her chains clanked together as she weaved her hands through them and knotted them at her sides. With her sudden pale face turned the slightest bit down, she sighed. "I just kinda want to go home. I don't really want..." Her voice trailed off as she seemed to shrink back the smallest bit towards me.

"It's cool." I said with a smile, putting my arm around her and squeezing like I was a old friend. "Maybe some other time. We don't want to get you into any trouble if Lilli calls and you're not home." I could feel Cole relax under my arm before Sandra pushed off of her tree and licked Cole's face from chin to forehead.

"You tastes like cherries." Sandra said licking her lips.

"Thank you." Cole was a bit too calm, like this happened regularly ant not just when we where around. "I usually get raspberry. Though, I don't really like them. I much prefer cherries."

My confusion only grew but I kept it to myself and let Sandra talk. "Well I'm starving." She announced. "So lets drop Tello off and find a place to eat."

"And we're the bottomless pits?" Ashley rolled his eyes. "You're like a fucking flying bison."

"I love Appa!" Cole shouted. "He is the cutest thing!"

"I think you've forgotten about Momo."

"Shut up Purdy." Sandra cut in before Cole's excitement exploded.

I kind of wanted to tape her fucking mouth shut for ruining Cole's fun, her smile was so big just by talking about a television show and it hurt just a little to see it so suddenly disappear for the third time today. Sure, this time it wasn't my fault, but that fact didn't make me feel any better or make me fell like I somehow could keep her smiling.

"Oh, and Beirsack. What's this I hear about me and Ashley getting it on in the bathroom?" She gave me the kind of look that made me glad she was wearing glasses to cover the death glare that was most likely behind them.

"Oh, see, about that..."

"Ya know." Cole jumped in to pick up my sentence. "Sub Runners delivers to hotels. Amazing, is their pizza."