Chapter Four: More Than A FeelingA Chapter by Nikki After learning the horrors of Briar's past, they decide to take a walk along the Atlantic shore before leaving to rekindle some old memories. When arriving home, he talks to both his mom and Josh... and an unexpected visitor. After learning yet another se
We took a walk along the ocean shore, letting the icy Atlantic water splash our legs. Briar had her jeans rolled up past her knees, and she waded in.
I, however, stayed near the shore, shivering and cold. “Briar, I’m freezing, can we get out of this water?”`
She went in further. “In a minute, I’m having fun.”
I rolled my eyes, smiling. We certainly expressed different views on how well we liked the ocean. “Well, I’m gunna wait for you up where it’s warmer, on the beach, okay?”
“No!” she hollered, spinning around to face me. “Just wait, okay?”
I agreed. I stood, smiling at her. She wasn’t really doing anything, just standing there, looking out past the horizon. Occasionally, she’d reach her arm into the water and pick up a little crab, and then chuck it out as far as she could. When she was finished, she trudged back to me. “Alright, we can get out now.”
I turned and started walking back to the beach. Briar followed me, pants still rolled up past her knees. When we got back to our spot on the sand, she dried off her legs and pushed down her jeans. We picked up, and started to head off towards the truck.
After walking for a mere two minutes, Briar stopped, and grabbed my arms. I turned to face her. My smile was crooked, eyes gentle and sincere. “What?”
“Thank you,” she said quietly, eyes meeting mine perfectly. “For everything today.”
I shrugged again like I had before. “Really, it’s no problem.”
She sighed. “Yeah well… I feel like such a burden….”
“Don’t be. Please.” I lifted my hand and stroked her cheek. “My pleasure.”
“Okay. Well. Thank you, Cole.” She smiled back.
I sighed, and pulled my hand from her cheek. We walked back to the truck, and talked quietly. When we got back to the vehicle, Briar climbed in and turned the radio on low. “I’m just gunna rest my eyes, okay?” she muttered, cuddling against the passenger window.
“That’s fine,” I told her. I turned the key, and hit the gas, and we took off towards Newton.
Within a matter of minutes, Briar was out. She was dead asleep. At every red light I would watch her. She was so astonishing. I felt my heart sink every time I looked at her. She was so ideal. And each time I looked at her, I would think of a stronger word to describe how I felt. I couldn’t quite make sense of it. We’d known each other four days. But I felt like she belonged to me. I felt like we were perfect for each other. But time would tell. My heart would point me where it belonged.
When I arrived to the Briar’s house, I shook her gently. “Briar? We’re home.”
She laid there, still sleeping, head pressed against the window.
“Briar?” I whispered, shaking her a bit more.
She took a few shallow breaths. “Hmm?” she mumbled.
“We’re home.”
“Okay.” She didn’t move for a couple minutes but then she slowly sat up. She stretched, yawning, and rubbed her eyes. She looked to me, her face showed a sign of guilt.
“I survived, don’t worry, I had the radio.”
She gave a feeble smile. “Okay…”
“Don’t say you’re sorry.”
She chuckled, and slowly slid out. “Okay Cole… thank you again.”
I waved to her. “No problem. Call me sometime, okay? We’ll do it again.”
“Definitely. I’ll call you later.”
“I’ll hold you to that.”
“I promise, I will.”
“See ya Monday.”
“You too, Cole.”
I put on my best smile. “Bye.”
She waved to me, and then I took off towards my house. God. This was so much more than a feeling. And I didn’t even know how Briar felt about me.
“So… how’d it go?”
“It was awesome, dude, you have… just… wow.”
Josh chuckled. “Hey, have you talked to Keagen lately?”
“No, I haven’t seen him or Brady.”
Josh was quiet. “Have you talked to Trevor?”
“Yeah, he stopped by yesterday. Why?”
“I don’t know, I just… those two. They don’t want to stay in school.”
I shrugged. “Well, what are you gunna do, there gunna do what they want.” I stared out my window. I sighed.
“Yeah, you’re right. Well, man, I gotta get going. I’ll give them a call, see ya later.”
“Yup, bye.” I hung up the phone and set it back on the receiver. A few moments later, someone was knocking on my door. “Yeah?”
“Cole?”
It was my mom. “Yes?”
“Can I come in?”
“Sure… sure come in.” I adjusted myself on my bed. “What is it?”
She came in, and peeked her head around the corner. She looked around my room, as she always did. “This place is a mess.”
I rolled my eyes. “Mom…”
“Okay, okay.” She smiled to me and walked in. “How are you, hunny?”
“I’m fine.” I stared at my feet.
“How’d your date go?”
“It was fun.”
“Well, good, I’m happy you had a nice time.” She looked at the ground. “Umm.”
“Yes?”
“You have a visitor.”
I bit my lip. “Who?”
“Well… Sophie.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. “Send her in.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, mom, it’s fine, send her in.”
Jeanne gave me a confused look. “Okay…”
She left, and walked to the front door. “He’s in his room, Sophie.”
“Thank you, Jeanne,” she said through a gentle tone.
I rolled my eyes. She walked in, smiling at me. Her eyes were layered in shadow and liner. Her trademark eyes. “Hey you.”
“What do you want?”
“Just stopping by… I heard you had a date today.”
“I did.”
“Oh? And how’d that go?”
“Fine.” I looked away from her. She jumped up and sat on my bed. I stared out the large bay window. My bed was at horizontal to it. I loved it.
“I’ve been thinking lately.”
“About what?” I snapped, turning to look at her.
“Us.”
I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “Go away Sophie, leave me alone.”
She chuckled, and shoved me. “Oh come on, Cole. Don’t you miss me?” Her thick blonde hair hung in her face. She stuck out her lip, pouting.
I turned away from her. “No.”
She stayed silent. “What if I can make it up to you?”
“No.”
“Cole…”
“No! Get out of my freaking life, I don’t want anything to do with you!” I glared at her. “Leave.”
She huffed, and slid off my bed. “Fine. But don’t think I’ll give you a second chance.”
“I don’t want a second chance,” I growled to her.
She huffed, and turned away, slamming my door behind her.
“Don’t come back here!” I yelled as she walked out.
I shut my eyes, and smashed my head against the window. She’d never let me be happy, if she was with me or not.
When dinner rolled around that night, I did my best to forget about Sophie. I wanted to be with her at one time, and I was happy with her at one time, but she screwed me over, and I wasn’t going to let someone like that bother me anymore. She wasn’t worth it. Briar called when I was setting the table. And I forget completely about Sophie’s mess earlier that night.
“I just wanted to check and see how you were.”
“Thanks Briar.” I set the glasses on the table, and then the plates. I smiled into the phone as she continued to talk and tell me about the day she had with me.
“And I really appreciate it, Cole.”
“My pleasure. I had fun.”
“Can I tell you something?”
“Sure.”
“I like you.”
“I like you too.” My heart raced. “Liked” didn’t even start to cover it.
“You’re an awesome person.”
“So are you, Briar.”
When we got off the phone, I was having trouble thinking. I was going to have trouble making it through the weekend.
“Stop it! Stop!”
I laughed. I attacked Briar’s sides once more, knocking her to the ground.
“Cole! P-Please! I can’t b-breathe!” She was laughing, twisting on the ground, trying to escape.
I smiled and let go. “Okay, there, happy?”
She looked up to me, suspicious. “Promise?”
“Yeah, sure, c’mon, let’s finish studying.”
We’d been in school two weeks now. It was the middle of September. And it was a weekend that no one was looking forward to in first period algebra. Studying. And that was all we were going to be able to do, because our algebra teacher believed in hammering us with homework. I wasn’t bad in math, and I was thankful for that, but I could think of so many other things I’d rather do than study for a whole weekend.
But Briar wanted me to study with her, and it didn’t get much better than the situation I was in now.
“Can we take a break?” she whined.
I looked at her, brows raised. I glanced over to my clock hanging on the wall next to my closet. Twenty of twelve. “Okay, fine.”
Briar smiled. “Great! Can we watch TV? Please?”
I chuckled. “Okay, fine. What do you want to watch?”
“Umm… actually… a movie would be great.”
“A movie?”
“Yeah… how about… hmm… pick something.”
“Horror?”
“Yeah!”
I smiled. “Okay… well… how about Saw?”
Briar shivered. “Ugh… I’ve heard people talk about that movie.”
“Yeah, it’s gruesome.”
“Let’s watch it.”
I collected our books and set them on my desk, and then turned on my TV and DVD player. I put the movie in, and shut the shades to darken the room. I jumped back up on the bed.
“Oh, it’s cozy in here,” she commented, cuddling under the down filled blanket that took up my bed. I loved down. My pillows, blankets, comforters, and mattress covers were down. It made for a very comfortable bed.
I turned on the movie. “Ready?”
“Yeah,” she whispered happily.
We got through the credits in silence. But once the menu screen appeared, Briar made a face. “Eww,” she muttered.
I laughed. “You still wanna watch it?”
“Yes…”
But I could tell as soon as the movie itself started, that Briar would choke up. And I was right.
“Cole! This is horrible!” she groaned, turning away.
“Just watch, it’s a good movie.”
She crinkled her face. “Ugh. It’s disgusting.” About twenty minutes into it, though, she was attentive, paying close interest to everything they were saying. Every few minutes, she’d ask a question like, “What’s that?” or “Who’s that?” but she was really trying to understand
About an hour through the movie, I snuggled closer to her. My body was against the window. Her back was against my chest. She turned her head up, and gave me a gentle smile. “Hi.”
“Hey,” I mumbled, returning her grin. She pressed her body against mine. My heart throbbed in my chest.
“This is really gross…” She was starting to lose contact with the movie. I gradually draped my arm over her side, resting my hands on her stomach.
Her right hand pushed mine against her shirt. She squeezed my fingers. I buried my face into her thick hair. I inhaled, shutting my eyes.
Briar’s legs began to intertwine with mine. My fingers danced across her smooth skin, up and down her stomach, over her arms. My lips gently grazed her neck line.
She twisted around, facing me. We had to adjust ourselves. The faint sound of torture was in the background. We were at the part where the doctor realizes he has to shoot the guy with him. I was focused on the body next to mine. I cupped her chin in my hands. Her right around wrapped around my hips. She moved me close to me. I leaned down, lips touching her face gently.
She leaned into me. I held her close. I kissed her cheek. I sighed. She looked up to me.
“I really like you, Cole.”
“I like you too,” I whispered.
She stared at me for a long time. “Can I tell you something?”
“Hmm?” I locked my fingers in her hair.
“I’ve never been in a serious relationship. I don’t really know what to do.”
I smiled. “You don’t have to know what to do, it just happens
She stared at me. Her eyes slowly looked up and down my body. She then met my gaze once more. “How many real relationships were you in?”
I thought for a minute. “Honestly? Just one, and that was Sophie.”
She chuckled. “No way, you’ve probably been in more than that.”
“No, seriously. Sophie was my first real relationship.” I shrugged. “I mean, I dated girls before, but they weren’t what I considered true.”
Briar smiled. “Yeah, I see what you’re saying.” She stayed looking at me. “If I was your girlfriend, would you consider me real?”
I laughed gently. “No, not at all.”I pulled her close to me. “Of course I’d consider you real. I’ve always... liked you.”
She stared at me in disbelief. “Then I must have been doing something wrong.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, because I tried to show I liked you...”
“I didn’t want to make a mistake, that’s all…”
“Impossible. You’re so perfect… I don’t see how you could ever a mistake…” Her cheeks turned pink, and she looked away.
I couldn’t help but stare at her. “I feel the same way about you.”
Briar shook her head. “I’m not perfect.”
“I don’t think I’m perfect.”
“Well, you are.”
I stayed silent for a few moments. “Briar?”
“Yes?”
“Will you be my girlfriend?”
“Of course.” She smiled gently in my direction.
I wrapped my arms around her tightly. "Thank you."
She returned my hug. "Thank you."
© 2009 NikkiAuthor's Note
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