WHERE WE ARE ; COLE WALTER

020

HAVING MISSED SCHOOL BECAUSE    she wasn't feeling well, Veronica only got to know everything that had happened that day through Erin's call.

"Okay, so I miss school once and suddenly my brother's out there flirting with my ex's brother and Cole and Alex are fighting in the school's auditorium?" Veronica asked, just to be sure she had gotten everything right.

"That's about it," Erin responded as she read over the poster in her hands. "I have a question. Do you think I'd be a good actress?"

Veronica looked at her phone in shock, not having expected this question. She could remember Erin and Olivia talking badly about the school's drama club, so what was this about?

"I think you'd make a wonderful actress, Erin," Veronica told her friend sincerely, "Even just because you're a genius and could remember all the lines in like two days. But where's that coming from?"

Despite Veronica being unable to see her, Erin shrugged, "I think I just need some kind of change in my life and starting a new hobby would be a good way to do that, there's just one little problem. My mom."

The black girl nodded in understanding, she knew how hard Erin's mom was on her and how much she wanted her daughter to become a state champion but she was also sure of another thing. "Erin, she's your mom, of course she'll be against it at first but she loves you and is kind of obligated to support you, so she couldn't be mad at you for a long time."

"You know my mom, she doesn't change her mind so easily," Erin retorted, still unsure.

"Look I said that exactly because I know what your mom's like and I'm sure she will support you, no matter what you decide to do and so will I," Veronica spoke into the phone, trying her best to support Erin with whatever she wanted to do, like they always had done for each other. 

Once again, Veronica laid back onto her bed, her head hurting as badly as it had been for the whole day and just as she was about to close her eyes, exhausted from her short conversation with Erin, someone barged into her room.

Skylar stood in her door, and by the way he remained there, unsure whether he should enter or not, Veronica knew that something was up. "Are you going to come in or just stand there like an idiot?"

Finally, Skylar entered, and sat down on her office chair, still being completely silent, his hands fidgeting the same way Veronica's did when she was nervous. "What's up? Erin told me you and Nathan got along well today, so what's got you all nervous?"

Skylar sighed and leant back in the chair. "Nathan."

Veronica sat up straighter in her bed. "What happened?" she asked, immediately worried by her brother's deflated tone. Usually he was cheery and confident but this tone was the exact opposite of what Skylar Summerhill usually was.

"I don't know. I finally realized how dumb I was and well, during lunch I gave him a piece of cake and asked him to meet up at Monty's later and he agreed and put on that cute smile. Everything seemed to be going well, you know what I mean?"

Veronica nodded, guessing where this all would lead up to later on, "Go on."

Skylar looked up at the ceiling and continued, "Well, then Alex and Cole got into a fight and the Walters were all sent home, even though the others were just trying to break up the fight. Anyways, I thought okay, well he'll surely come by Monty's later or at least text me to let me know that he can't because of his parents, I mean, I would've totally understood that. But he didn't show up without saying a word and I tried calling him, but he never picked up."