"What'd you paint today?" Sarah asked at lunch, looking down at his grey shirt that had purple smeared all over the front of it and then a bit of green.

"Flowers," Collier mumbled absently, straightening his back to look over her head and glance around the lunch room. He could feel Henry's eyes on the side of his face, watching him, calculating him, but Cole forced himself to ignore it.

It wasn't going anywhere.

"You draw flowers when you're nervous, or worried," Sarah remembered, reaching forwards and taking a carrot of of their shared tray. Cole nodded his head in agreement. "So which was it".

"A bit of both," Collier admitted honestly.

At first, he had only been nervous to see Jake. The night before he had agreed to go on a date with him, which was something Cole had never really done before.

But then, for the first time since school began, Jake hadn't come to painting class, and Collier had begun to worry.

"What are you worried about?" Sarah asked, looking up at him and then raising her eyebrows. "Who are you looking for?"

"Jake," Collier said softly and Sarah's eyes flashed. They had yet to talk since their call he afternoon before, but Collier was pretty sure Sarah knew exactly what was going on.

"Are you excited?" She questioned, confirming his suspicion.

"Excited for what?" Henry and Emerson asked in unison before they both turned their heads to look at something at the end of the table and Henry's expression hardened.

"Our date," Jake said and Collier jumped a foot in the air, pushing his water bottle off the edge of the table. Henry caught it with fast reflexes and returned it to the table.

"Jake!" Collier exclaimed loudly, feeling both relieved and nervous to be near Henry and Jake at the same time. Cole glance nervously at Henry. "Where were you this morning?" He asked after returning his attention to the tall boy with the brown eyes.

"I slept through my alarm," Jake explained. Cole shifted uncomfortably in his seat and the boy standing at the end of the moved to pull out the chair to Collier's left side. Cole watched as Jake's eyes casually flicked over to Henry, and the boy to his right tensed and growled softly. "Hi Sarah".

"Hey Jake," She greeted, chewing her lower lip, her blue eyes very wide.

"So," Jake said, turning back to Cole and leaning forward a bit. "Are you going to answer the question?"

"What question?" Cole asked immediately, his eyes quickly searching the face of the man before him for any hints.

"Are you excited for our date?" Jake's brown eyes were alive with mischief and Collier swallowed heavily.

Was he?

Part of Collier was excited. He wanted to go out with Jake and have a good time and forget about Henry.

But another part of Cole was dreading it. Dreading that he was unable to kiss Henry as long as something with Jake as happening.

"Yeah," Cole said, channeling the happy part of himself and giving Jake a honest smile. "I'm very excited".

"Good". Jake reached his hand up to brush against Collier's arm softly. "What time should I be picking you up tonight?"

"Tonight?" Henry asked and Collier turned to face him quickly.

Henry had asked him over right before he had left his house the day before, but Collier didn't really think it would be a big deal to the other boy if he didn't show, especially since Henry had made it clear that their relationship didn't mean anything.

"Yeah," Jake said before Collier could even think of what to say. "Tonight. Is that alright?"

Collier got the impression that even if Henry said no, it wouldn't matter.

Cole watched Henry grit his teeth. "It's fine," he grumbled, and Collier's eyes shifted to Sarah, pleading her to do something.

She might not have completely understood the situation, but with one glance between Jake and Henry, and then back at Collier, she seemed to understand something was wrong.

"Oh hey Jake," She said, "We were just having a-"

"Don't worry about it, Sarah," Jake said, standing from his seat. "No need to come up with an excuse to get me to go away, I was just about to head to the art room anyways to make up my work from missing class today".

Sarah flushed red. "Sorry," she mumbled and Cole smiled at her in thanks for trying.

"It's no problem," he insisted and then looked down at Cole. "Alright beautiful, just send me your address and I'll be there around six, if that's alright".

"Yeah," Cole said softly with a nodded of his head. "I'm free all night".

Jake smirked at this. "That's good. I may just need you that long". Jake winked and Collier's eyes widened and the implication behind Jake's words.

"Oh god," Cole groaned and Jake laughed before moving to leave the lunchroom.

Henry growled again, but it was ignored as Sarah squeaked loudly. "Oh my god oh my god oh my god Cole! He's so cute! And sweet!"

"Hey," Emerson grumbled and Sarah laughed at him and hit his arm. "I'm your boyfriend. I don't want to hear you talking about how hot another boy is".

"Even you've talked about how attractive he is," Cole pointed out and Emerson just narrowed his eyes at him.

"I'm straight, not blind," he pointed out and Collier rolled his eyes, which landed on Henry.

The blue eyed boy was glaring down at his tray, his lip pulled between his teeth said he was holding words back.

"Cole, you're going on a date with Jake. How are you not freaking out right now?" Sarah demanded, though his eyes were on Henry, watching his reaction carefully.

"I don't know,. I guess I've had enough time to process it. He asked me out on Saturday so I've had a couple days to freak out over it".

"You seemed fine on Sunday," Sarah claimed and Cole just shrugged, glancing at Henry to watch as he angrily stabbed his food with his fork.

Why was he so upset?

"This is your first date, Cole, you should-"

"This is your first date?" Emerson cut in and Collier flushed pink.

"If you haven't noticed, I'm clutzy, gay, and not great at talking to others," Collier pointed out and Sarah smiled fondly at him. "No one's ever wanted to date me before".

"I wanted to date you," Sarah reminded and Collier couldn't help but to laugh at this memory from seventh grade, despite the tense situation they were in.

Even Emerson seemed to be beginning to feel it, since he had begun to stare at Henry with eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Are you okay?" The blond asked his best friend and Henry's eyes snapped up.

"I am fine," He snapped before huffing loudly and turning to face Cole. "You're not busy tonight".

"I am," Cole said softly. "I'm going out with Jake".

Henry's eyes flashed with something like anger. "You know what I'm talking about, Cole," Henry spat and Collier winced. "I just- uh. And this is your first date?"

"I don't recall any other". Collier couldn't help but get a bit upset with how unfair Henry was acting.

"Whatever," Henry groaned, turning back to his tray. "Actually, I'm done eating".

They watched as he walked away, and then both Emerson and Sarah directed their attention to Collier.

Cole just shrugged, his way of playing dumb. "Don't look at me. I've done nothing to him". He sounded completely composed, but he could stop himself from glancing at Henry over his shoulder the second Emerson and Sarah were distracted.

***

"I can't wear yellow," Collier argued, throwing the shirt back to Sarah, who caught it with both hands and buffed before rifling through his closet again. Jake was to pick him up in approximately fifteen minutes, and Sarah had agreed to leave Emerson's room long enough to help Collier dress for the occasion. "I'm golden enough already".

"If you can't wear yellow," Sarah retorted, huffing in annoyance, "why do you own a yellow shirt?"

Collier just groaned loudly, dropping back against his mattress. He felt hopeless at the moment. "Sarah, what am I going to do-"

"Here!" She exclaimed suddenly, pulling a familiar green shirt out of his dresser. "What about this one? You look great in green!"

"That's not my shirt," Cole said, eyeing it and eventually carving it when Sarah tossed it to him. "It's Henry's. Remember?"

She looked confused for a second, and then recognition flickered on her face. "Oh". She sighed then, looking guilty. "I'm sorry for pushing you to tell me something you clearly didn't want to".

"It's not that I don't want to tell you, Sarah. It's that I can't because I don't even know". That wasn't really true any more. Now Cole knew that there was nothing to tell her anymore. Him and Henry were nothing.

"I'm sorry for not being there for you as much lately," She said, avoiding his eyes. "Things between Emerson and I have just been going well, and I know we're not going to get married or anything so I just want to enjoy it while it lasts. I'm sorry for being such a shitty best friend".

"Hey," Cole said, tossing Henry's shirt down onto his bed and standing to approach Sarah. "I'm not mad at you for anything. I miss you".

She looked up at him with very wide blue eyes. "I miss you too, Cole". They hugged. Being the same height, it was comfortable for them to hug, easy for Sarah to drop her head onto his shoulder as he did the same to her. "I love you".

"I love you too," Cole said honestly. No matter what Sarah did, he would always forgive her. That's what you did for your sister.

Cole's door banged open, but neither of them were alarmed by this and just continued to hug. "Go away, Emerson. Collier obviously still needs my help". For a second, Cole was concerned he was being insulted, but then realized he was still shirtless and let out a chuckle.

They pulled away from one another to turn to the door, and Cole's breath caught in his throat.

Turned out it had not been Emerson to barge into his room without knocking, but the one and only Henry Stone, who was glaring at Sarah with angry blue eyes. "Get out," he demanded.

Cole glanced at his best friend to see her eyes widen a bit and then narrow. "If you didn't know, Cole's getting ready for a date and doesn't have time for you". So she had picked up on Henry's anger over lunch.

"Sarah, I will fucking pick you up and-"

"No need for that," Cole cut in, reaching out and placing a hand on Sarah's arm. "It's alright. I'm sure I can find a shirt by myself, and Jake still won't be here for seven or so minutes".

"But Henry-"

"It's not like he's going to hurt me," Cole promised with confidence. "I'll just talk to him and send him on his way".

Sarah looked skeptical, but nodded. "I'll be in Emerson's room if you need me". She glared at Henry as she passed him on the way out, but the brunette didn't seem to concerned, stepping into the room and pushing the door shut again.

Collier didn't spare him a glance as he went over to his dresser and grabbed the first shirt he found (it was a plum purple v-neck and Cole wondered why Sarah hadn't suggested he tried it earlier) before pulling it on. All the while, he was thinking of something clever to say to Henry when he turned around, but never got the chance to.

Henry got the first word, mostly because when Cole had turned around, he was shocked into silence by the close proximity of the other boy, practically pinning him back against his dresser. Cole hadn't even heard him move.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Henry demanded, looking down at Cole in distaste.

"I'm going out with Jake," Cole said simply, shrugging his shoulders. "I thought that would have been made clear to you over lunch-"

Collier winced as Henry's hands slammed into the dresser on either side of his head. "Is what we have not enough for you?"

"We have nothing," Collier reminded and Henry looked alarmed for a moment.

"We-"

"What we have isn't enough for me!" Cole snapped then, contradicting his previous statement. "I want a relationship. I want a boy who kisses me because he wants to kiss me, because he feels something when he kisses me. Not because he's bored, and that's not something you're willing to give me".

"Why are you such an idiot!" Henry snapped, throwing his head back and glaring at the ceiling.

"Hey, I'm not-" but Collier cut off by the warmth of Henry's mouth, taking no mercy as he forced the shorter's mouth apart and stole his breath right from his throat.

It Cole's life, he had heard the term hate fuck a handful of times. In the grocery store once was two men discussed their exes, from Ian as he explained how him and Ryan discussed the I'm in love with Jordan Sullivan and gave him my virginity issues from junior year, from his mother not that long ago while on the phone with one of her friends and discussing Cole's father, but Collier had never really thought you could kiss someone like that.

Like you hated them. Like you just wanted destroy them.

Like Henry Stone was kissing him.

It was ruthless really, and it made Cole's mouth ache from the pressure of the boy's mouth against his own, but Cole was helpless to do anything but fight back.

It's because he's taunting me, Cole told himself. He's forcing me. He's clouding my judgement with his teeth and tongue and hands leaving bruises on my hips.

But none of this was the truth, and Collier was finding int hard to lie to himself.

It's because he's Henry Stone, and no matter what he does, or what happens, I'll always want him.

They parted before Cole could suffocate and he immediately collapsed against Henry's chest, gasping for air. Henry caught him without hesitation. "This isn't your first date. He's not your first date".

"What?" Collier gasped, pressing his face into Henry's shoulder.

"I was your first date. That day in the diner, that was your first date. This is your second date, but I get to take you out on your third".

"Henry-"

"Say yes," Henry demanded, pushing Cole back so he was leaning against his dresser looking up at him.

Why are you doing this to me?

"Yes".

And then Henry smiled at him, a real smile that took his breath away just as much as the kiss had, and bent forward to sweetly peck Collier's lips again.

And then Henry was gone, walking over to his bedroom door and yanking it open. "Just so you know," he said, looking over his shoulder at Cole, "your date's here".

Cole waited until his bedroom door had shut after Henry before rushing over to the window and peering outside.

Sure enough, Jake's car was parked along the street, and Cole let out a shaky breath.

Nerves.

Excitement.

What scared him the most was that he wasn't completely sure if he was excited for his date with Jake, or if he was anticipating the date that Henry had promised him.

It was going to be a long night.