Spoiled, selfish little child

Lonely Water | Cole & Ren

“Lady luck plays an ironic hand,” He said, almost singing, “always touching those who mustn’t be touched.” The house was very old, if you could even call it a house. Cole couldn’t, not when he knew what was underneath the makeshift I Love Lucy thing that was going on along the rooms of the first floor. When he’d first found it, the watch on his wrist was new and very gold and the smile on his lips was looser and he didn’t know a damn thing about anything. “Lover’s quarrel over a misplaced duster?” He asked out loud, only to pick up the answer after waiting a beat. “I don’t know, actually, probably a joke.” Thought definitely not a pun, he wanted to add, but he was already creeping into the darkness and down the stairs. It was a short amount of stairs, not the dark foreboding kind, though those wouldn’t be questioned at all. Cole was sure that this place is only as mysterious as the people in it. He felt a dusty wall for a light switch when he hit the bottom, he didn’t know how it worked and why, but he didn’t question it. The fact that this was probably owned by someone.  He flicked a switch and disappeared into the one and only door onwards. And then they were there in all of its glory. A window like wall with chairs looking inwards was what they saw first, casting an open view of a tall room, taller than the house with a long wall pointing onwards and upwards. Racquets were scattered around the ground and one of them had CK engraved. It was a training room of sorts, the type that took a lot of money to make. It was a giant secret beneath the grass. “Only a mad king would let this place decay, don’t you think?” He asked as he shrugged off his bag and pulled out a bottle--svodka--it read. 

Lonely Water | Cole & Ren

“Luck,” He said, his words came out flat and he shrugged at them. “pure fuckin’ luck.” He stepped up the small steps and reached one of his long arms upwards to the doorframe and snatched a key from it. “It’s like it wanted me to find it.” He wouldn’t say it out right, but his father had offhandedly mentioned this place once in a brief passing of words. Cole wouldn’t admit it out right, that Victor Kent knew one of the wonders of California. Or that maybe it was his hands even that crafted it, Cole didn’t look deeper for that reason alone.  He glanced over at Ren before opening the door. “They were sweater wearing kings, the type of kings that you’d never guessed kept such a secret place secret.” He laughed to himself, “They were racquetball kings--and by God, were they twisted.” Everyone likes a story about twisted kings, the power and glory lost by selfish acts and madness. He pulled opened the door and stepped inside to the darkened what seemed to be house, though Cole knew otherwise. Upon stepping in, he held open the door behind him, a cramped library rested off  to the right, and a hall leading to a kitchen took place to the left, but down, down, down the steps past that was the secret place that not even his friends knew.  The house was lit by the dimming sun that was peaking through the foggy-looking windows. The library served as the darkest for some reason. “Don’t look in the library, there’s a knife sticking out of the love seat.” He let out a laugh again at that, grown giddy by his secret place underneath their feet. “Come along this way instead.” He then took the left and traveled through the dusty kitchen towards the just as dusty set of stairs.

Lonely Water | Cole & Ren

He hummed in reply, a lazy smile on his lips. The drink was already on his mind. He tossed his cigarette to the ground and stepped on it. He grabbed her three outstretched fingers and pulled her to his feet, “I’m going to show you somewhere you’ve never seen before.” He stated, already turning to walk ahead. The ghost of her fingers were already at his, he’d let go a few moments after Ren was on her feet in one twitchy movement. He moved his long legs in an almost silly way. The weight of their conversation was forgotten. “It’s not far, not down a rabbit hole or anything.”  He turned towards her as they exited the park and hung a right, their feet hitting the sidewalk. “It’s been under our noses for a very long time.” He stated, his eyes meeting her own. “You’d think living here, everyone would explore every nook and cranny of the place. So much bored youths.” He was walking backwards now, hands on his straps as he lead her onwards. Sometimes it was scary, how quick his mood could change. Sullen to excited. He walked past a few like houses till they started to defer and grow their own flavors. As they walked eventually they even grew further apart, more grass wedged between the homes. Soon they were there, at a small-looking house that no doubt looked abandoned. “A few kings lived here once.” He announced wistfully. 

Lonely Water | Cole & Ren

“It’s a good umbrella term.” He offered, he had a strange habit of both loving to talk and hating it. He could talk to you about anything but the truth, he didn’t lie per-say, but he had a much better time dancing extravagantly around it. Even with Sammy, when his words had too many you know?’s and the blonde’s expression would waver, he wouldn’t want to talk at all. It got too personal, too real. He’d usually bring up Jesus as detour and call it better conversation.  He lifted a brow at her first statement, something almost like relief settled over him. After all, Cole Kent, who sometimes seemed he didn’t give a shit, was actually burdened with handfuls of it. There was a weight at the end of the word, one that meant more was coming. He took a drag from his cigarette and looked over at her again, he let the ash fall onto his jeans now. “It’s hard to ignore something like that.” He said, his words smokey. He wanted to tell Ren that he could understand, that it had been too long since he’s conversed with Silas, or even slept with Dom, or pissed of Jake. He rubbed his face with his hand, “Let’s drink or something,” He said, sliding his long body off the swing. “Follow me, little smudge?” Cole held out his hand towards Ren, itching to pull her off the swing and back onto the ground. 

Lonely Water | Cole & Ren

“Why,” Cole said, turning his head towards her for the first time, he’d heard her arrival, just happened to be lost in thought and her words rattled him out of those. “that’s exactly what I’m going for.” He replied with a subtle grin. He grabbed a cigarette from the pack and popped it in between his lips, he then wrestled out a lighter from his jeans. He didn’t wear shorts much, no matter how hot, regret was the uncomfortable heat he was feeling along his legs. He could almost feel his jeans melting inwards. “You’d be...” He said, taking a drag to perhaps feed him a thought. “is a question mark overused?” He let out chuckle, it fell to the ground with the ash on the end of his cigarette. “Kidding.”  He dug his feet into the chips again and blew some smoke into the hot air. He looked at the smoke the way he usually did when he was smoking, like it was something impossible. “Has it really been that bad?” He asked suddenly. He wasn’t completely sure he wanted the answer. He knew it must have been bad, he left because things were getting bad on his end. He came back so he could keep his inward promise, the one that was forever knocking at the back of his teeth. 

“Yeah, you’re right.  I might be asking for too much,” he shrugged, sitting cross legged next to the car—one of the more average ones in the lot, better than his.  “You know, before you say anything else, it’s a tough choice between you and Eden.  Maybe that’s just because everyone’s been disappearing on me, though. Do you mind being a second choice?”

He shot a grin to Samson, he always got it. Even when they were fucking around. He tipped his head up to the sky as Samson spoke. Prom wasn’t something he was thinking about, but there were tweets about it all the time, fliers floating around campus. They were all force fed it. Cole didn’t really want to go, he’d been feeling under the weather, not quite sick, but not quite right between the ears. If Sammy was going though, he would. “I don’t mind.” He said. “I was thinking about Ren, maybe, too. But she probably has a date already. My timing isn’t perfect.” He glanced over towards Sammy, “About the disappearing thing, I won’t do it again, not any time soon.”

“So stop being a pain?  I don’t know what else to say, but I think go away works pretty well—somethings the sentiment, you know?”  He tucked a piece of hair behind his ear while he thought of the something, “Furthers it?”  Samson idly smoked the cigarette, like he was following Cole’s lead; to be fair, he basically was.  It was awkward, and he left it to hang in his mouth, playing with hair tie on his wrist while he talked.  “Only if you want it to, technically.  We could make it a teen movie if I asked you to prom, I think that’s how it works.”

“Can’t change over night either way, buddy.” He said as he flicked some ash onto the lot. He found a car to lean against, one that didn’t look expensive enough for sensors. His brow lifted at the mention of prom and he let out a bark of a laugh. “Please make it extravagant if you do. I’m very hard to please. A Kent, did you hear?”

“Go away,” Samson shoved him against one of the lockers—an easy touch, since Cole was too tall and too skinny.  He took the cigarette, lighting his before they were out of the hallway, into the parking lot.  He lit Cole’s after that, mouth worrying the filter before he spoke, “Shove wasn’t too hard, was it?  I think I forgot how hard you are to get used to.”  It wasn’t an insult, just that Samson felt like how it was before they really talked.  They lost their groove, if only for a few seconds.

Sammy’s touch made him stumble a little and he let out a chuckle. “But I just got here!” He said, removing the cigarette from his lips and slipping it behind his ear till they were outside. With the parking lot serving as their cover, they lit their cigarettes. Cole started smoking immediately, half listening to Samson and he caught only the end. “Hard to get used to?” He echoed, blowing smoke in the opposite direction. “Is that supposed to sound so dirty?”