Alone at Six

Cole had disappeared. I'd been dragged off for the duration of her fifth period to plan and didn't find her in her sixth period class when I'd finally escaped. The rest of the day I jumped over anything white, only to be crushed by disappointment when it wasn't her. Needless to say, my mood was lower than the U.S's employment rate.

After the last bell rang, I made a B-line for the front of the school but found her nowhere. Calling had proven to be a futile effort; I had called a total of eight times and gotten the same mechanical voice telling me to leave a message.

"Beirsack!" Sandra's voice shot through the crowed of chattering teenagers, like a bullet going straight for my head.

I jogged back over to her, trying to think of ways to get out of this planning and go hunt down Cole. My heart really wasn't in any of this, not the set list, not the posters, not the merch prices, not even clothes. I just wanted to find Cole and make her feel better about whatever had made her upset. And skewer Ryan for doing it, there was that too.

"Why aren't you working your ass off like the rest of us?" Sandra asked. "Not that you have much of an ass."

I ignored her crappy jab and fished out my phone, going against my promise to myself of not calling Cole again. "I can't find Cole. Have you seen her?"

She sighed like this was suddenly an old topic that I'd brought up one too many times. "Come on Six, you spent all day with her. Let it go for an hour."

Looking down at her like she was crazy, I gave my answer firmly. "No. Not for a minute, I won't."

"Look, you're even talking like Tello now. You've spent too much time with her."

"I spent too much time with you too and no one complains." I let out a sigh. "I just want to make her feel better. I can't concentrate on anything else until she does. I just can't."

Scratching the back of her head, she huffed out a laugh and pulled out her phone. "Fine, okay, whatever you want Six. I'll get Young to drive you to her house, we need the car."

"And you don't want to deal with Trina.”

"That too."

In the middle of my lip's attack on Sandra's face, Trina came bobbing up and pulled me to her uncle's car. The ride was too long for my liking, and I was one hundred percent sure that Trina was obeying the speed limit strictly to torture me. When she crept down Cole's road with a huge smile on her face, I jumped out of the car and darted through the yards.

In Cole's yard, I almost mistook the long haired figure stretching from the tree to the roof as her. I soon corrected myself when I noted the deep grunts and length of the body. My legs had carried me halfway to the base of the tree, ready to climb, when he fell and let out a string of curses, almost inaudible over the music blaring from inside and crunch of gravel as Trina pulled up.

"Goddammit Colette Tello!" His slight accented voice confused me for a second. "Open this fucking door!"

Before I knew it, I was pulling him off the ground by his denim vest. Whoever he was, he obviously wasn't welcomed and needed to leave. Plus, who climbs in the fucking window? Once the door doesn't open, I think that's sign to get your ass out of there.

He looked at me with angered eyes before they shadowed over with complete rage and murderous intent. Not shock or awe or anything else that I may have expected, but a feeling of complete and utter hatred shot from his pupils and electrocuted every nerve and cell in my body.

"Andrew fucking Beirsack! This is your goddamn fault! Get your fucking hands off of me!" Shoving me away, he came back at me just as fast as I stumbled and grabbed me by leather jacket. He was a few inches shorter than me, maybe six foot even, with beautifully killer eyes and knotted dusty hair. "What the fuck did you do to her!? You know what, je m’en fou." He shoved me away, small clanking sounds coming from the studs on both of us. "Just go fix it! Go make her come out of the goddamn house and make her feel better!"

"What the hell do you think that I'm trying to do!?" My voice finally found its way to my mouth, unexpectedly loud and almost as enraged as his. "What do you think I've spent the past few days doing!?"

With as much warning as Hiroshima, he strode over to me and punched me in the stomach, making me double over."What the fuck do you think I've spent the last few years of my life doing! Don't act like you've done your part! You haven't done shit! Now make her feel better!"

Astonishment faded away as I stood up straight, simultaneously ramming my fist into his abdomen. It could have been a natural reaction to the blow he gave me, but I doubt it. I think it had more to do with the surprisingly insulting realization he'd just unknowingly informed me of. I've spent the past few days trying to make Cole happy, yes. Whatever had her locked in her house had to be an indication that I hadn't done too god a fucking job. That filled me with so much anger that it almost didn't leave room for the guilt, worry, and protectiveness that I'd become accustomed to.

Not only that, but I've apparently just met someone who's known Cole for years, and obviously cared about her. I know I should be glad to know she wasn't completely alone, but was it bad to wish that I was the only one she had? It somehow made me..... unneeded. Like I was trying to gain a job that there wasn't a opening for.

So I took all these bad feelings and rammed them into his gut, only getting a grunt reflecting the animosity and hurt I felt out of him. This transaction of flesh excused enmity went on until a familiar voice, aside from the ignored words of Trina, shot down and ripped us apart, throwing us both to the ground as we cranked our heads up.

Cole hung out of her window, leaning over to the point where I was scared she might fall out. Her hair fell in tangles around the beat red balls of her cheeks. "Hey! You two! Do you mind not beating the shit out of each other in my front fucking yard!? I can't hear my music over all this fucking grunting, goddammit!"

"Colette Mignon Tello!" Yelled the boy. "Get your ass down here and unlock the goddamn door! Tu me fais chier!"

Raising an eyebrow at him, she crossed her arms, leaning farther over them. "And why the fuck would I do that, Dashiell Samuel Beaudelaire? If I'm annoying you, I don't care"

"If you don't I'll break a goddamn window with Andrew's fucking head."

She shrugged "If you do that I'll just jump out this window and run."

"Talk is cheap." He snorted, like this threat didn't scare him in the same way it scared me.

She smiled as she pulled back and brought a familiar glass bottle through the window and to her lips. "But liquor is cheaper."

"Fuck, Cole!" He shouted up as she shut the window. When he turned to me, I had the slight expectancy of him hitting me again. "Well what the hell are we going to do?"

"Call her." I blurted out, groping for my phone.

The boy, apparently Dashiell, snorted as I looked for the contact. "Yeah like that'll help." Then went on a hunt for his fallen phone.

"She didn't answer."

"No shit." Bringing his closed phone to his mouth, I saw it looked almost exactly like Cole's lump of plastic. It let out a quick series of beeps before he spoke into it. "Colette, pick up the goddamn phone!"

Her voice came through seconds later. "I'd prefer to sit here and piss you off. It's quite fun, if I do say so myself."

"And what about your fucking popstar?"

"What does he care? He can go find Ryan or someone and go plan their fucking concert."

I didn't hear his response over the grunts I let out at I climbed onto the roof of the porch. My foot slipped on the rail, but I caught myself and climbed up, striding across in a few steps. When I reached her window, I shoved my nails under and pulled against the ripping pain. It opened enough for me to get my fingers underneath and I yanked it up the rest of the way, crawling through and pushing away the brown curtains.

I froze when I saw a plethora of empty pill bottles littering the floor. Candles were lit all around, lighting the room with the help of the sun coming through the thin curtains. Cole sat at her desk in a computer chair, legs up, bottle labeled Smirnoff in hand, fingers playing with her chains, a group of bottles underneath, and a mound of pills on the wood. It felt like I'd stared for hours.

She held up a hand, took a swig from the third full bottle, turned down the music, and calmly gathered a handful of pills when I stepped closer. "I'll swallow them if you don't get your ass out of my house."

"You don't have the guts." His voice was followed by the thud of him falling through the window. "You never did."

With a smile that said it all, Cole dropped the handful and swallowed with a sip of vodka. "Now Dash. I've always had the guts, you know that. I just didn't want to be a bitch and cause everyone else problems by doing so." She pointed the bottle at me. "But he made me realize I didn't fucking care about anyone else' problems."

"Cole," She hated me. I didn't know why, but that much was currently obvious, she had the same look as Dashiel did when he spotted me. I definitely didn't hate her and tried to reason. "You can't just sit here and down pills and vodka because you're mad at me. You're going to kill yourself."

She chuckled as she swallowed more colorful tablets. "I'm just too damn pretty for that, aren't I?"

"The fuck are you just standing there!" Dashiell yelled as he pushed past me, attempting to snatch the bottle from Cole's hand.

Cole swung away before he had a chance, using the momentary momentum to chuck the bottle at my chest. "I told you to get the fuck out of my house!"

"Cole," I could hear the misery in my own voice, but that only earned me a harder glare. "I don't get it. Why are you-"

"Why the fuck does it matter!?" She yelled, the force of her voice pushing her back into the chair, and grabbed a new bottle. "You don't give a shit, you never have. Now get the hell out of my house."

Dashiell stood a few steps away, evaluating the best time to pounce for the bottle. "Get over yourself, Andrew." He sneered, launching himself at Cole as she swiftly shoved another handful in her mouth. "You're not helping."

"Neither are you, obviously." She smirked, propping her feet on his fallen figure. Without warning, he shot up and snatched the bottle away, sending a spray of gin over everything. Cole simply grabbed a few more pills and swallowed them dry.

"Putain, Cole!" He shouted, yanking her hand away from the piles she'd reached for again. "What the hell do you think you're doing!?"

She giggled as she looked up at him. "Isn't it obvious? Living is slowly killing us all. I'm simply using a few enzymes to speed up the process." Her eye closed, smile like she was in heaven still on her face. "Damn, I'm tired. Oh, I'm sorry, you’re trying to refresh me on my French. Je suis naze. Better?"

Dashiell grabbed Cole under the arms and lifter her over his shoulder with a grunt. "How did you get here?" He questioned.

"Why?" I asked without hesitation, eyes glued on Cole's dangling body.

"We're taking her to the hospital, why the fuck do you think? She just downed a shit load of pills with alcohol. There's a reason they tell you not to do that."

"I may die from medication." Cole chuckled. "But I sure killed all the pain."