◁◁ 𝚛𝚎𝚠𝚒𝚗𝚍

“I’m not pushing.” Colin attempted to brush off. With his defensiveness he was afraid it might lead to some sort of argument, but to his surprise when the car stopped, things seemingly took a one eighty with the way Jules grabbed grasped for his hand. That was when he let out a sigh, figuring there was no use in trying to hide it if she wasn’t gonna be mad at him. “You’re saying that like you already know what happened.” Realizing that sounded bitter, he tried to correct himself. “I just, I fell behind because I got tired of doing the work.”

“Nah, bro. Never creepy. I’m like your shadow too. People who don’t get that just don’t know what it’s like to have someone looking out for them.” Colin said adamantly with a nod. Which he was grateful for, it was a relief to have one person he felt like he didn’t have to filter what he did or said around out of fear of judgement. “I was up until like five this morning trying to do homework. I’m in desperate need of some beauty sleep. The bad thing is, I feel like when I do no alarm clock could wake me up.” He said with a sigh, trying to conserve as much time as he could. “I should probably do a lot of moving with how much I eat. Shit, sorry. You’re right.” With the motion, he ran up beside CJ, eying behind them quickly. 

“I never said that.” Colin dismissed quietly again. He was well aware that Jules was like a blood sniffing hound when it came to details, so he tried to think of any possible excuse. But his brain wasn’t exactly back to full functioning. “Are you gonna get it over with? Project whatever your conspiracy is of what you and Jackie cooked up as to why I got benched?”

Even if Colin did have an alright poker face around most, he’d always assumed if anyone could see through it, it’d be CJ. “Is it that obvious? I think I finally get why people say exhaustion is stressed related. I could use a nap right about now.” He joked as he shook his head. “Good point, I think he’d talk to a brick wall if he could.” At the mentions of sweets, suddenly his woes didn’t seem as urgent. “This is exactly why you’re the only one who gets me, man. I really don’t understand people who stay away from junk food. How do they you know, enjoy life?”

“Huh. Guess you gotta take the good with the bad.” Colin said with a nod, seemingly in deep thought. His mouth fell agape, and he let out a teasing gasp. “Are you insinuating something, Natalie?” He emphasized on her full name, figuring it’d sound more serious. “Oh my god.” Putting his hands over his face, he gave a collective sigh, purely out of embarrassment, but he tried not to let on as much. “You know what? She makes the best cookies but you lost your chance to find out.” He taunted once he’d recovered from his flustered face.

When Jules finally broke the silence, Colin hadn’t expected her to say that. Catching him off guard completely, his first instinct was defensiveness. “What?” He asked with anger evident in his tone, as he furrowed his brows. “You don’t need to be worried about me. It’s just a misunderstanding.” He tried to dismiss with an attempted much lighter inflection. 

Colin could’ve sworn he felt a sudden rising tension, internally he started to weigh his options on calling it out. “Is, is everything good? -- I’ll definitely keep that in mind. Not that I’d actually try any baking, I don’t need to run the risk of ruining every appliance in my house.” Of course, he was lying about that bit. He’d started dabbling in the kitchen from the time his mom started taking night shifts at Dairy’s. 

As Colin strolled through the school hallways during his free hour, he decided to scope out for his best friend. The stress of falling behind academically had admittedly gotten to him more than he cared to admit, he couldn’t even count how many hours of after school makeup work he’d put in over the last couple of weeks. He knew at least talking to CJ would lighten his mood. “Hey man, I heard on the way over one of the vending machines is broken again. How much time do you think we have to loot it until Principal Powell sends maintenance over to fix it?” 

“I’m feeling pretty sober right about now, actually. -- Yeah well, I do have a baseball bat in my car.” He chimed, keeping it in his Jeep even after last year’s season came to an end, just in case. Sighing, Colin didn’t wanna admit she had a point, so he just threw the keys over the top of the car, hoping Jules would catch them before he climbed into the passenger seat.

“People who say they’re overrated just don’t get it. -- Yeah, guilty. I’m a sucker for fast food and pizza delivery.” 

“But, Jules.” Colin protested as he frowned and averted his gaze all together. “You know how I feel about anyone driving my Jeep. That’s my baby. Besides, I was just gonna nap, I don’t really have a cut out plan of where to nap unless I park behind the trailer park.”

“Good point, it rarely goes out of season, yeah?” Colin thought on it from a harvesting point of view. “I doubt I’d be one to go that far. I usually break my healthy habits when I’m not training in the off seasons.”