Chapter Thirteen
Allie
After we got back from getting ice cream, I said goodbye to Cole’s parents and did a few errands. Amy had texted and asked if I wanted to do dinner and said she would come by with takeout food.
“My mother would be very impressed,” I said. We were sitting at the kitchen table surrounded by containers of Chinese food.
“What do you mean?”
“She’s just under the impression that a place like this wouldn’t have something like takeout.”
“I did have to drive into Gardner for this,” Amy admitted. “I haven’t had Chinese food in forever, but every once in a while, I get a wicked bad craving for it, and this place has the best crab rangoons.”
“They are very good.”
“So you’re feeling fine? I still can’t believe that happened at the fundraiser.”
“Yeah, I feel fine. No aftereffects.”
“I know I keep talking about it, but it was so romantic,” Amy gushed. “Well, it was actually really scary when it was happening, but now that it’s over with and we know that you’re okay, it seemed very romantic!” She grinned. “He just jumped into the water after you with all his clothes on, and he swam out to you so fast. It was incredible. And Lily was in the water, too, thrashing around, but he completely went right by her. Maybe he could tell that she was okay, I don’t know, but it’s like he didn’t even see her.”
“He probably knew she was fine,” I said.
“Who knows? You were his main concern. And he got you out and carried you out of the water—”
“Okay, that’s enough,” I said, cringing, hating to think of me being carried, unconscious, onto the beach in front of all the students and their parents. “Shit, I hope it wasn’t completely traumatizing for the kids.”
“It was really scary,” she said. “I was scared for you. But Cole was so calm the whole time, and I think it made everyone else feel really calm, too, like he had it under control. Which makes sense, considering he’s a doctor and all, but still. One of the other dads helped Lily out of the water—her husband wasn’t even there when it happened; he was up at the parking lot on some business call or something.”
I shook my head. “I really wish the whole thing hadn’t happened. I was having a perfectly good time before that.”
“We’re glad you’re okay.”
“I met Cole’s parents today,” I said. “We went out for ice cream.”
Amy made a face. “I met them once.”
“You did?”
“Well, they came to orientation, before Declan was officially enrolled here. I only talked to them a little bit. They seemed okay and everything, but sort of... I don’t know...pretentious? I know they’re really well-off, but it felt like they were looking down on everyone else. Like they were trying really hard not to be that way, but they just couldn’t help it.”
“Oh,” I said. “Huh. I didn’t really get that impression.”
“Maybe they’ve changed, I don’t know.”
“If anything, his mother seemed kind of...melancholy.”
“I guess rich people can get sad, too.” She shook her head. “That was mean, I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sure they’re very nice; it’s just hard sometimes to shake someone’s first impression, you know?”
“Yeah,” I said. “There was definitely something going on there, but I’m not sure what.”
After we pretty much finished all of the food, Amy hung out for a while longer. When she was ready to leave, I walked her out to her car. As I was walking back in, I saw that Cole’s garage door was open, the light on. I went over, thinking I’d say goodnight and tell him that I’d had a good time earlier with his parents.
“Knock knock,” I said.
He had a work bench set up at the back of the garage, and his bike was in the stand. He was standing at the work bench, his back to me, but he turned when he heard me.
“Oh, hey,” he said.
“Hey. I saw that the light was on.”
“Yeah, just tuning this thing up a little bit. How are you doing?”
“Good. Amy stopped by with dinner; I think we polished off about four containers of Chinese food.”
“Impressive.”
I laughed. “Yeah, sort of. Hey, it was nice getting to meet your parents,” I said.
Cole smiled. “Yeah, they really liked you. In case you couldn’t tell.”
“Your mom seemed kind of sad.”
“It’s this time of year. My sister died on the 17th, and that anniversary is coming up, so it’s always a hard time for my mother.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry, I had no idea.”
“We don’t talk about it that much.”
“What happened?”
He paused. “She died of a drug overdose. It happened just a few days after she got out of rehab, actually. My parents had sent her away up north to this recovery program. She was up there for a while, actually, and we went up to get her, but instead of driving straight home, my mom wanted to make it a bit of a celebration, so we were staying at this bed and breakfast a few towns over. It was about a five-hour drive from my parents’ place, so almost in Canada. And that’s when Marissa decided to do it. We don’t know where she got the drugs from; as far as any of us knew, she’d been clean.”
I touched his shoulder. He had a pained expression on his face. “I’m so sorry. I can’t even begin to imagine what that must’ve been like.”
“I was the one to find her. Which was incredibly fucked up, but in a way, I’m glad it was me and not my mother, because I don’t think she would have been able to handle that. I think that would have sent her over the fucking edge.”
“Wow,” I said. “Cole, I’m so sorry.”
I wanted to kiss him, but I knew that wouldn’t be the right thing to do right now, not when he was telling me this.
“There’s some things you just can’t take back, can’t change,” he said. “No matter how badly you want to.”
It seemed like there was something more he wanted to say, but when I waited for him to elaborate, he didn’t, so I didn’t push it. If there was something else, though, I hoped that he’d feel like he could talk to me about it. Because sometimes talking about it really did help, even if there was nothing you could do to change it.