There had also been the night of the party, when Cole, Matt and I had danced together. I had gotten so many judging looks from people watching us that night, and Matt was right, it had mainly been girls, but I hadn’t cared then, and I couldn't bring myself to care now either.
“I don’t want to keep it quiet. I’m proud to have you guys in my life. If people in there, or anywhere, have an issue, that’s their problem, not mine. I love you guys and there’s no way I want to act like that’s something we should be hiding.”
“Well, ok then.” Cole smiled widely, and I knew he was happy with my response.
“If any one starts giving you shit, you tell us and we’ll handle it, ok?” Matt said. I could see he too was relieved I didn’t want to hide our bond, but he also looked worried and apprehensive. I knew he was worried about people giving me a hard time, and I was too, but I’d just take it as it came, and do my best to stand up for me and my guys, and what we had. Even though our relationship was still a fledgling thing, I knew how strong it was. We could deal with the critics and the bullies, as long as we had each other.
“I will.” I agreed.
“We should go, or we’ll end up being late.” Cole said, and my stomach lurched at the thought of having to leave the comfort of the car.
The next thing I knew Cole was already out of the driver’s side and coming around to open the back door for me.
“Come on Babygirl.” He beckoned as he stood holding a hand out to me. I took it, my own shaking wildly in his grip. I climbed down from the truck and straightened up the dark wash skinny jeans and red sweater Keira had helped me pick out to wear. I had on my snow boots, since the snow was thick and the air frigid. Screw fashion. I wanted to be warm and dry.
Once I was straight, I hurriedly zipped up my coat and pulled my hat from my coat pocket. I should have been better prepared before I left the house, but I’d been too flustered.
Once my hat was in place I took the backpack Matt held out to me. It was the designer one Grant and Keira gifted me for Christmas, and inside were all of the books the guys had ordered for me, along with stationary and notebooks. I was nothing, if not prepared.
“Ready?” Matt asked. He had on a heavy, charcoal grey peacoat and a black beanie. He looked good, really good, and realising I was walking in with not only him at my side, but also Cole, boosted my confidence a little. I looked to Cole, who had just shrugged on his dark green Parka, over his letterman jacket. He too wore a beanie, his khaki green to match his coat. His cheeks were rosy from the cold and when he smiled my knees felt weak as flashbacks of what we had done a couple of nights before replayed in my mind. It was a shock to have flashbacks of something I wanted to remember and think about though, so I wasn’t complaining.
“You with us, Beautiful?” Cole chuckled as he took my hand. Realising I was acting weird I shook away my drool worthy thoughts of the both of them and nodded.
“Let’s just get in there.” I agreed. I reached out for Matt’s hand, and was glad when he happily obliged. Ok school, look out! Here comes the crazy girl!
CHAPTER 15
The morning was over, and it had gone better than I expected. Walking into the crowded hallways at first, had been hard and I had really needed to just focus on breathing to stop panic taking over. I just hated when I was surrounded by people, my fear of them touching me, overwhelming. But Cole and Matt had surrounded me from the first second, and I was able to feel safe enough not to have a meltdown.
We had found my locker, which Grant had purposely arranged to be at a quieter end of the long corridor, and Matt helped me organise which books I needed for the morning, and which I could leave stored for later.
For my elective subjects, I had picked mostly science, all of which Cole was also studying, so he was in most of my classes with me. I also took English with Matt, and we all had history and gym class together. That only left me with my AP calculus classes to go to alone. Cole was smart enough to take the classes too, but while he had an affinity for math, he hated it. Science was his thing, and he had ambitions of working in medical research when he finished college.
That morning I had taken a class with each of them, then the last one had been history, with all three of us getting to sit together.
The classes had been interesting and I liked having the teacher there to explain everything, rather trying to work it out alone, as I had been while studying at home. I knew all of the other students in the class were watching me with curiosity, and I had
