The Spawns

Chapter VI—Lilibeth

The Concept of Prince Charming

© DarknessAndLight

I focussed on the food in the plate in front of me not daring to look up.

           Because every time I looked up he was looking at me. Why couldn’t he stop? And why did he have to look at me that way?

           I rolled around the peas in my plate with my fork trying to regroup them by size. If I ignored him, he would stop, right? Of course, part of me didn’t want him to stop, part of me loved how, just the way he looked at me, raised goose bumps on my arms, warmed my cheeks and made my breathing almost shallow. Part of me also completely hated that he conjured such reactions. I was torn when it came to Cole Torres.

           I had known him all my life, and ever since I had been introduced to the concept of prince charming and that ultimate kiss at the end of the story and the happily ever after that insured, I had known that Cole was the one. That crush you have when you’re just a little kid, for me, it had been him. I had never really known a life without Cole in it; he was always there, always up to some mischief with my brother.  

           People that knew Jayden and Cole said they were best friend. The people close to them said they were like brothers. But I knew better. They weren’t like brothers, no, it was a bond even stronger than that. Sometimes they almost acted as one. You could easily be infuriated when you listened to them talk because they knew each other so well that their conversations made no sense to others.

           Just like now at the table. There were at least three conversations going around, but I could easily concentrate on listening to the voice of the two boys.

           I risked a peek.

           Jayden and Cole were passing the salt and pepper, but the way they did it, without looking at each other, they almost looked like an old married couple.

           Jay turned his head a bit, listening to something Travis had just said and smirked. He gave Cole a small shove of the elbow. “Remember that time in New York.”

           Cole snorted, nodding, giving the bowl with the vegetables to Jay. “Oh yeah when that guy was just there.”

           “Yeah and then the other arrived and it was like…” Jay did big hand moves.

           “And, and, and, then the other, and it was just…” Cole made big goofy hand moves too.

           Jay cupped his face, they way people do to scream out things so people can hear you afar. “HELLO!”

           “Yeah!” Cole laughed, shaking his head “Oh man, people are crazy!”

           Jayden was laughing too. “Totally!”

           I shook my head, a small smile forming on my lips, and looked down at my peas again. To me, that conversation had made no sense. But of course to them, it looked hilarious. It was just the way they were, Jayden and Cole were best friends, they had too many inside jokes for their own good.

           The people they let enter their close circle were few. There was Maika, but she was just like the third string to a rope, making it stronger. She easily fell into that almost unsettling bond they had.

           And they let me in too. Sometimes I thought it was only because I was the little sister and Jayden had to drag me along. But other times, when I would see them arguing with mom that they didn’t want to bring one of our distant cousins with them, and the next minute they would almost drag me out with them, and when Cole looked at me sometimes… then I felt like I belonged.

           Yes, all my life, I had always known Cole. He was always there, smiling, happy, easy going, carefree, the way I so ached to be. I don’t know why, he felt like sunshine. Usually you were supposed to feel safe with your family, and I did. But I also felt so safe with Cole. Whenever he was close, it was like everything would be okay. I don’t know why I felt that way but I did.

           And unlike my brother I was a bit more observant… and sometimes, the way Cole looked at me… it felt like I had to blush, I had to look away because with the intensity of his gaze, whatever he was thinking, I would have to blush. The thought at first was completely crazy of course—why would my brother’s friend look at me that way, I must be seeing things, imagining things in my head… But Papa always said that the way someone looked at you told a lot about how they felt, and I would need to be blind, or pretty stupid, or called Jayden Eaton to not notice the way he was looking at me…

           Just like now. Jayden was talking to him and Maika enthusiastically about a sculpture he had made for a final project but Cole wasn’t looking his way, he was staring straight at me.

           Enough.

           I set my fork down on the table and stared back at him, raising my eyebrow, almost challengingly.

           His response was immediate. The corner of his mouth twitched into a pleased smirk and he pressed his lips together, keeping them from forming a big goofy grin—I knew that boy way too well, it was almost unsettling. Both his forearm had been pressed on the table, on each side of his plate, the way he always ate, and somehow he was leaning foreword now, leaning towards me, like he wanted to get closer to tell me something.

           “Cole, would you mind passing me the salt please,” my father asked from across the table, and Cole’s head automatically snapped his way.

           Of course Papa had noticed Cole’s staring. Trust my father to notice everything.

           Cole passed the salt and Papa gave me a look. I rolled my eyes at him. I knew exactly what he would say the next time we would be alone: “Do you need to tell me something Lilibeth?”

           I stared at Cole with a pleased smirk, and he smile back, shaking his head a bit, his shoulders shaking so very lightly with contained laughter.

           After a few seconds, I tore my gaze away from him, because it was never really wise to stare at him straight in the eyes for too long and looked around the table.

           My mother and Cole’s mother, Daphnee, were speaking together. Daphnee and my mother had been best friend when they were my age, so had they been with Alexander, one of Maika’s father and Vanessa, my uncle’s wife and now aunt. It was easy to see they were old friend, just the way they were speaking and smiling at each other.

           It was nice to see Daphnee smile. My mother had problem with giving birth to her children—she had almost died giving birth to both me and my brother—but Daphnee simply had a problem getting through her terms. She had no problems when being pregnant with Cole. But afterwards things didn’t go so well. She had four miscarriages before her and her husband, Josh, decided to stop trying. From what I had gathered from both my parents and Cole, Daphnee would have wanted more children and the fact that she couldn’t sadden her very much.

           As for our fathers, they were best friends too. Cole’s father was a little disturbing sometimes, but Papa always said that was normal-Josh-behaviour. Josh on the other hand explained it as being AWE-some. Either way it was amusing. And the fact that our parents were all such close friends only made us all that much closer.

           I cared about everyone sitting around this table; about my parents and my brother, Maika and her fathers, my parents’ best friends and their son…

           Yes, because I cared, oh how I cared about that goofy boy sitting in front of me, and that’s exactly why I would never ever be with him. I loved him enough to know he deserved better than me, better than a girl that was always mopey and sad and feeling depressed and sorry for herself. Such a happy smiling boy deserved a pearl of a girl; he deserved one that would make him even happier than he already was. He deserved a girl he wouldn’t have to worry about. He deserved another girl than me.

           That thought created such an ache in my heart that I was suddenly not hungry anymore. I didn’t care about whatever plans we had tonight. I wanted to be alone. I wanted to play the violin until my fingers hurt.

           I wanted to stop thinking and worrying for just a few hours in a day…  

           When dinner was over, the party moved to the living room, and as always, the people of the younger generation variety took advantage of that time to sneak out of the house. We were all getting upstairs, Jayden, Maika, Cole and I, to get the needed bags when Cole, who had been walking in front of me turned abruptly. Maika and Jayden were in the lead so they did not notice it.

           Cole looked down on me, a familiar expression on his face—reprimanding, but not serious, never serious. “You haven’t even said hi yet.” I resisted the urge to roll my eyes though it was true I hadn’t said any greetings. When I had seen him look my way when I had gotten back from ballet my reaction had been to bold straight for my room. “And no hugs. Your father even gave me a hug! Maika actually kissed me. I’m hurt.”

           My heart twitched for a beat at the thought of other lips touching his, any lips touching his… my lips touching his. My cheeks redden.

           Peeking at him from under my lashes I took a deep breathe. “Hi.”

           The boy in front of me simultaneously shook his head and rolled his eyes at me. “Come on, you can do better than that.”

           I pouted a bit. “You just enjoy teasing me.”

           “Not just, but yes I do, immensely,” he grinned widely.

           It was easy to know what to do at this moment. It was easy to know what to do with Cole, and either way I wanted to, partly to enjoy the expression he would surely make. I stepped forward and wrapped my arms, leaning my head against his shoulder. “It’s good to have you home Cole,” I whispered against his shirt, smelling the comforting scent of apples and freshness.

           His arms slowly wrapped around me and he leaned his cheek against the top of my head, taking a deep breathe. “Okay, yeah, that’s much better.” I chuckled softly and he did too, before—reluctantly—letting go of me. But his left hand held on to my right hand, his fingers touching my bracelet. He looked at it, the corner of his mouth twitching up. “I thought you were supposed to get rid of it, or make some kind of voodoo mating charm with it,” he joked.

           I looked at his hand holding mine. Would it be wrong to ask him to never let go? “I never said anything about mating.”

           This time, Cole grinned fully. “You talked about voodoo.”

           I narrowed my eyes a bit but smiled too. “But not mating.”

           We both jumped a little bit in surprised when my brother close to screamed, “Let’s go,” holding a black duffel bag, Maika on his heels, carrying one too.   

           This was our cue to leave.

           I cleared my throat and took a step away from Cole, looking down and cursing myself mentally for being so stupid. It was too easy to feel comfortable with Cole. It was easy to forget it was better to not be comfortable with him. For his own good.

           When I raised my eyes Cole was gazing down at me with eyes that held a million thoughts, some I could clearly guess.

           But there was no point in guessing them or knowing them.

           There was no point to us.

           Because I was just a gloomy moon and even though he was my sun, Cole deserved his own sunshine.

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A/N: This was a longer wait than usual, sorry about that, but Uni's been hectic lately and I pretty much just finished my mid-terms. (still have a ton of essays to write though -_- bleeeeeh)

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. From now on they'll probably be longer, those first few were more of introductionary chapters, but now we're really getting into the action! ;P

As for the title for the next chapter, well, slight problem, I haven't finished writing it yet so I don't have a lot of things to offer and I'll probably have more possibilities later on, so I'll just message you guys when I do! 

But for now we have :

A) This Is How You Get Cooties

B) Stop Humping the Lamp Pole

So, thanks for being patient, and the next chapter should be up sooner than this one has been! :)