Chapter 45 The Space Between Us

Chapter 45 The Space Between Us

Cole

I stood in the laundry room long after she left.

The dryer kept turning and warm air pushed through the vent in slow bursts. Somewhere upstairs a floorboard creaked.

All I could see was the way she stepped back like her body knew something before her mind did.

Like I was something to get away from.

I dragged a hand down my face and swore under my breath.

That had not been what I was trying to do.

I hadn’t even thought about touching her. Not really. My hand moved before I had a plan. Shoulder. Comfort. Something normal.

Except nothing with Wren was normal anymore.

I shut off the dryer, pulled the clothes out without looking at what belonged where, and dumped everything into the basket.

Her words were replayed in my mind anyway.

People don’t suddenly change for no reason.

At school, I’m still me and you’re still you.

Make yourself feel better? I muttered.

I carried the basket into the hallway and stood there like an idiot, not sure where any of it went.

Because the part that wouldn’t leave me alone wasn’t what she said.

It was that she believed it.

That every decent thing I did had to be temporary, selfish and only about me and if I was honest, I had given her every reason to think that.

I set the basket down outside the linen closet and went upstairs.

Sleep didn’t happen as fast as I had expected it. I lay in bed staring at the ceiling until one-thirty. Then two. Then three.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw her flinch.

I turned onto my side.

Then onto my back.

Then onto the other side.

At three-fifteen I got up, drank water, stood in the dark kitchen for a while, and went back upstairs.

At six my alarm went off and I wanted to throw it through the wall.

The kitchen smelled like coffee and toast.

Mom was home early, still in scrubs, hair pinned up badly like she’d given up halfway through fixing it. She was packing lunch containers at the counter with the speed of someone who had twelve things left to do and no patience for any of them.

“You look terrible,” she said without turning around.

“Morning to you too.”

“That was my morning.” She glanced over her shoulder and frowned. “Did you sleep?”

“Enough.”

“Lie better.”

Mia was at the table coloring something purple that looked like either a horse or a natural disaster. Jake was trying to balance two spoons on his nose.

Wren stood by the stove flipping pancakes.

She was dressed for school already. Hoodie sleeves pushed up. Hair tied back messily. Face calm in that deliberate way that wasn’t calm at all.

She looked at me once when I came in.

Then past me.

“Morning,” Mom said. “Eat.”

“I’m not hungry.”

Three heads turned toward me.

Mom narrowed her eyes. “Who are you and what have you done with my son?”

Jake snorted.

Wren slid a plate onto the counter anyway. Pancakes. Eggs. No comment.

I stared at it.

Then I sat down.

Mom looked between the two of us once, too casually to be casual.

“You two fight?” she asked.

“No,” I said.

“No,” Wren also said at the same time.

Mom hummed like she didn’t believe either of us and went back to packing lunches.

I ate in silence.

Wren moved around the kitchen helping Mia find her missing shoe, reminding Jake to bring his volcano project, rinsing a pan at the sink.

She never looked at me again.

That bothered me more than it should have.

School was worse.

I was tired, annoyed, and one bad comment away from starting something stupid.

Tyler caught up to me by my locker before first period.

“Are you alive?” he asked. “You look like death.”

“Thanks.”

“You coming Friday night? Mason’s brother is throwing something.”

“No.”

“You didn’t even hear where.” He chuckled.

“Still no.” I replied.

He leaned against the locker beside mine. “You’ve been weird all week.”

I slammed my locker shut harder than necessary.

“Maybe this is just my personality now.”

“Maybe.” He grinned. “Or maybe your live-in babysitter has you stressed.”

I looked at him and the grin faded slightly.

“Don’t,” I said.

He held up both hands. “Relax. Joke.”

“Wasn’t funny.”

Tyler studied me for a second too long. “Right.”

The bell rang.

He pushed off the locker and walked backward down the hall. “See you at lunch, man.”

I watched him go.

That was just problem one.

Problem two found me after the second period.

Jade was waiting outside chemistry in a white sweater and a smile sharp enough to cut paper.

Girls walking past greeted her like she was royalty. Guys looked twice. Teachers smiled at her in that tired way adults smiled at girls like Jade because it made life easier.

“Cole.”

“Jade.”

She stepped beside me like it was natural and started walking.

I kept moving because stopping would turn it into a scene.

“You ignored my texts.”

“I was sleeping.”

“You don’t sleep at eleven.”

“I did yesterday.”

She glanced at me. “You look awful.”

“Thank you. Everyone’s saying that today.”

“You should listen.”

We turned the corner toward the courtyard.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“To talk.”

“You’re doing it now.”

Her smile thinned. “I’m trying to make this easy.”

“That’s new.” I shrugged.

She stopped walking.

I took two more steps before stopping too.

Students moved around us in streams, pretending not to look.

Jade lowered her voice. “You embarrassed me at your house.”

I laughed once, without humor. “You brought a file on a seventeen-year-old girl’s rent payments.”

“She is manipulating you.” She shook her head

I just stared at her with a blank expression on my face. I saw jade approaching and she seem to have seen us.

“There you are,” she said softly. “That’s the face I was waiting for.”

I looked away first. That irritated me.

“You don’t get to decide who I talk to,” I said.

“I don’t need to.” She stepped closer. “I just need to remind you what matters.”

“Football?” I said flatly.

“Your future,” she corrected. “Your scholarship. Your family. Your image.”

My jaw tightened.

“And what do you want in return?”

She smiled again. Slower this time.

“Distance.”

The bell rang for next period.

Students started moving faster.

Jade touched my arm lightly, like we were something we weren’t.

“Think carefully, Cole.” She said before she walked away.

Problem two.

Lunch should have been simple but it wasn't. I carried my tray toward our usual table and saw Tyler, Mason, and two other guys already there.

Then I saw Wren across the cafeteria near the windows, alone with a book open in front of her.

Three girls at the next table were whispering and glancing over.

One of them laughed.

I stopped walking.

Tyler noticed first.

“You coming or what?”

I looked at our table.

Then at hers.

Then back again.

Every version of this was bad.

I went to my table because of the noise and the eyes. I knew how this place worked and she had been right.

I sat down.

Tyler smirked like he’d won something.

Across the room I stared at Wren.

She turned a page and I kept staring at her and she never once looked up.

This was worse than I thought…