WHERE WE ARE ; COLE WALTER

023

VERONICA WAS MAKING HER WAY OVER TO THE WALTERS' house with Hayley after Katherine had called Hayley to help Will out at the house with the younger kids. Veronica just tagged along since she was walking through town when Hayley drove by her and asked her to join for some female solidarity.

Entering the kitchen, Veronica made her way over to Benny, who stood at the counter, cutting up onions, while Will and Hayley had some weird stare off, filled with tension and unsaid words.

"Oh Benny, why are you cutting onions?" she asked as she took the knife out of his hands and bent down to be at the same height as him. Taking his hand in hers, they walked over to the bathroom to wash the boy's hands before he could get any of the onion's secrete in his eyes and really hurt them.

"Okay, now you're all better, right?" she asked as they went back into the kitchen where a tense silence filled the air around Will and Hayley while Jordan and Parker argued about the card they were making for Nathan. "How about we two draw something for Nathan?"

"But Parker's already doing that," Benny said, looking over to the many color pens that were sprawled around everywhere, even on the floor.

Veronica smiled down at him, "So what? The more pictures and cards he'll get, the better Nathan will feel."

Her words put a smile on his face and taking her hand, he ran over to the table, sat down next to Parker and immediately got to work.

Veronica sat next to him and after some time also took a piece of paper and began doodling on it, getting kind of bored of sitting around and being a babysitter, but she also didn't know what else she could do because she sure as hell couldn't help with cooking since she was the worst cook one could encounter.

"What are you drawing?" Cole asked out of nowhere, his figure suddenly leaning in on Veronica's left, his breath tickling her ear.

Thinking that the question was directed at him, Benny began to tell his brother everything about the five drawings he had made for Nathan, which were actually a story that Veronica had to put together later to make it look like a book.

While Benny was talking without even taking a second to breathe, Cole pulled a chair up and sat down on Veronica's free side, still listening to his youngest brother rant on about his story. "That sounds amazing. When you're finished with Nathan's story you'll have to write one for me," Cole told Benny, messing his hair up.

Benny went back to his story and Cole could finally give his attention to Veronica. "You never mentioned that you were coming by later,"  he remarked, though added right after, "Not that I mind."

Veronica smiled at that, this sentence had left his mouth often enough when they were best friends, which now felt like a far off and distant past. She just wished they could go back to the time where everything was alright between them, she missed talking to her best friend and sharing all her secrets with him.

Veronica just wished that they could go back to being friends and overcome the breakup that hung between them.

"Hayley asked me to come along after Katherine asked her to come by and help Will. But where were you up until now?" she asked in return, seeing as she had been here for quite a while and Cole had only shown up now.

The boy shrugged, "Just at work, I had to take on an extra shift."

Veronica nodded and turned back to the little card she had crafter for Nathan. "Do you think he'll be alright?"

"Of course he'll be," Cole replied, his tone not leaving room for doubt. "It's Nathan after all and he's a Walter so there's no way this would get the better of him and he'd give up."

Just as those words left his mouth though, they looked each other in the eyes, the words laying on Veronica's tongue but she didn't let them escape, not wanting to dampen the mood by making a comment about how Cole was a Walter too, but he had given up on everything that was dear to him.

So she stayed silent and continued to draw with Benny, while Cole watched them the whole time, without making any move to leave or join them in crafting something for his brother.

HOPE speaks!

okay, so i promised to get another chapter out before the weekend, because I was away then, but I unfortunately didn't manage to write one since I hadn't packed and stuff so, SORRY

and well, I do hope you like this chapter, even if it is (like many others) really just a filler chapter to show y'all how close Veronica is actually with all of the Walters', even without Cole being around

Love you lots and hope you enjoyed it!

P.S.: I gotta say that I really love y'all cuz I never expected to get that many reads for this silly little story and now we're closing in on the 20k so yay! let's celebrate that!