Sweet Heart by Trina T (world of reading .TXT) 📕

me around the waist. I pulled her chin up with my two fingers to lean down and kiss her. When I got a look at her face I caught sight of a small black and blue mark down the side of her cheek.

***


Cole
I always loved sitting on the swing at night, looking at the stars surround the moon. It always calmed me down. Sometimes if home was getting too much for me to bare I would sneak off to the swings and just rock back and forth for hours at a time.

As I swayed my body I heard a low whistle. My heart skipped three beats, Ryder. I would know that whistle anywhere. I turned and not to my surprise I saw Ryder coming down the path with Mayla at his side. I smiled despite myself, no matter what I have tried to tell myself over the years, I really did miss him.

“Cole! Thank God! Why haven’t you answered my calls? I’ve been worried sick. You cant do that to me! At least when I call or text you using the code I answer you back.” Mayla was pissed but she was realieved to see me. I got off the swing and met up with them half way.

I would have answered her but…I pulled my phone out of my jacket pocket to show them. It was in pieces.

“Well I would have if I could have.” I said handing her the broken phone.

“Wow!” Mayla said her eyes wide as she examined the once fully functional phone.
I caught sight of Ryder out of the corner of my eye. He was staring at me. His eyes intense. I couldn’t face him so I focused on Mayla.

“Sorry. I figured I’d just go over to your house tomorrow. So I wasn’t too worried about you worrying about me.” I tried to smile.

Mayla rolled her eyes. “When you text me what you text me, I worry!”

“Sorry…”

“No, its fine, I was just worried.” Mayla looked at her phone. I knew it must be late. Mayla’s expression conformed my thought.

“OH. MY. GOD! My mom is going to kill me! I told her I’d be home an hour ago! I gotta go!” Mayla turned to leave but stopped mid turn . “You going to be ok? You need a place to stay?” She looked concerned. I hated when she looked like that.

“Don’t worry! I’m ok.” I smiled weakly. But I wasn’t even fooling myself, let alone Mayla.

“You got a place to sleep or are you going to go home? You can always sneak into my place.”
I looked at my best friend. Her mom was divorced, living in a two bedroom apartment with four kids. And to top it off she was drunk half the time. Her mom never really appreciated me staying over, and I really didn’t want to cause a fight, especially if she had had one or two too many tonight.

So I lied “I’m all good. I’ma just go home!”
I could tell she didn’t really believe me but she was in a hurry and wasn’t going to push it.

“Ok. Well, call me- I mean, I’ll see you later.” She gave me a tight hug and I winced. Mayla didn’t notice but Ryder, the queit observer did.

“Bye.” Me and Ryder said to Mayla’s back.
I turned away from Ryder, trying to avoid his eyes. I say on the swing again and just looked up. Ryder sat down on the adjacent swing, copying my actions. We sat like that for a good 15 minutes. I thought about the events in the last month or so.

I couldn’t believe it had been a month. The dinner with my dad and David had been the worst yet. And almost every night after, it felt like the nightmare had just kept going. I had managed to avoid my dad and his partner in crime every so often; sleeping in the park or at a shelter. I even snuck into Mayla’s house a few times, but her mom caught me, so that ended. But last night I went home and my dad just lost it.

“Do you really have a place to stay or were you lying?” Ryder knew I had lied. He always knew if I was lying.

I had also managed to avoid Ryder for the past month. This was the first time I had talked to him sense the day at the studio. Both Mayla and I had dropped art, so this was her first time seeing him. I knew I was going to hear about him all day tomorrow.

I snapped myself out of my thought. “Don’t worry about it, Ryder.” I said a little more meanly than I meant.

“I will if I want.” He said forcefully.

I took a deep breath and so did he. Again we sat in silence.
“Cole…” he started, grabbing the swing to make me face him.

“Yes?”

“Do you have a place to sleep tonight?” Fear and concern filled his eyes. The look on his face almost brought tears to my eyes.

I didn’t answer, I just looked away from the face I had missed so much and looked back at the moon. Ryder sighed but he did let go of my swing. He got up, and for a moment I thought he was going to leave. But like always, Ryder did the opposite of what I expected him to do. He stood behind me and gently put both of his strong hands on my shoulders. Barley touching me. I rested back so I was leaning into his body. The sky was cloudy, there was hardly a star in the sky.

Ryder’s voice made me jump when he suddenly spoke. “The moon look lonely tonight.”

I instantly remembered that conversation and smiled.

“No, the moon has you and me to keep it company.”

“Well, yea. But when we freeze to death then the moon will have nobody.”

I laughed. I had hardly even noticed the cold.

“Come on.” Ryder said tugging on my leather jacket.
“Come on, where?” I asked trying to resist his pull.
“Somewhere warm, where you can sleep.”

I rolled my eyes. “Ryder, Ryder stop.”

He did and turned to look at me. He wasn’t too much taller than me, he had grown over the years, though. “I don’t want to hear it, Cole. You are coming with me, at least for tonight let me help you. Please.” He looked like I was physically causing him pain. I hated to hurt him but I wasn’t sure me going with him, to wherever he was going to take me was such a good idea.

“I don’t know…” I stated but one look from Ryder, I was done. So I let him take the lead.

Ryder
Kyle and I had worked something out. We stopped fighting as much as we had been and settle into a steady, uneasy routine. Kyle was five years older than me and worked for the local hospital. He was in training to be an ER Surgeon. I thought he was crazy but he lived for the adrenalin rush. He was only 23 so he was still in school but he worked at the hospital as an on call volunteer. That was as much as I knew. Kyle and I really weren’t that close anymore. I knew he hardly got paid good enough for the work that he did and that he was hardly ever home. So bringing Cole to his apartment was a safe bet.
I knew Cole wasn’t excited about me taking her to Kyles. But I wasn’t going to let her go home or freeze to death sitting outside all night.

“Ryder, you don’t have to take care of me anymore!” Cole exclaimed.

As we claimed the 1st floor stairs. I took a deep breath before I said anything. But I couldn’t think of anything good enough to say so I kept quiet. I fucking hated it when she stumped me like that.
I opened up the door and yelled in before I walked in. “Kyle? You home?” there was no answer.

I motioned for Cole to follow me in and she rolled her eyes. She was really starting to test my patients.

Kyle’s apartment was small. The kitchen, dinning room, and living room were all connected and open. He had one bedroom and an office room. But when I moved in we converted the office space into a bedroom for me. But the room was so small, it felt like I was in a jail cell.

As Cole and I walked in I noticed a note on the table in Kyle’s chicken scratch handwriting the note said: be gone all night. Hopefully home before lunch tomorrow. –Kyle

“Well Kyle won’t be home at all so we won’t
I need to explain this to him.” I said to Cole. She looked happy about that.

I still hadn’t asked her about what happened. I wasn’t sure if it was even appropriate to ask her. I hated this! I fucking hated that we acted like complete strangers when we knew so much about each other.
“Cole…” I started but I didn’t know what to say. “Cole…I…” I tried again and again, nothing. I ran my hand threw my hair in frustration.

“It’s ok, Ryder, this is awkward for me too.” She said as she sat on the arm rest of the couch.

“Cole, I don’t want this to be awkward. I don’t want to be strangers. I hate it so much.” I had to calm down. I was getting to emotional and upset. I took a couple deep breaths and tried again. “Cole, I’ve missed you more than I missed Kyle. I’ve missed…” I started but realized I had said that statement to many times. “Cole…there hasn’t been a day go by that I haven’t thought of you. That I haven’t wondered what you were doing, if you were seeing someone, what painting you were working on next, what you and May were up to on a summer night! You’ve been in my thoughts ever sense I met you on that life. I don’t want to be strangers anymore.”


Cole
Listening to Ryder talk made my heart clench and my blood run hot threw my veins. Ryder seem desperate in his words, almost like he thought I wouldn’t understand him. I did understand. I felt the same way but I didn’t want him to know that. As much as I wanted to run into Ryder’s arms, as much as I wanted to tell him I missed him and that I