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“Unless his parents paid them off,” Cole adds.
“Yeah, there is that,” CJ grits out.
“When you find out who she is, can you let me be the one who talks to her?” I ask them.
“What? Why? I thought we were a team,” CJ whines, sending a pleading look to Cole for him to take his side.
“A team?” Cole repeats, looking at CJ like he’s lost his mind.
“Yeah, you know. You’re the muscle, I’m the genius, and I’m unsure of what Willow is in this whole thing. She can be the glue,” he suggests after a minute.
“The glue?” I ask, feeling slightly offended.
“Yeah, the one that keeps us together.”
“You’re seriously weird,” I tell him, raising an eyebrow. “I just think I should be the one to talk to her. If something has happened like we think it has then she’s not going to want to speak to you two. You’re giants.”
“Friendly giants, though, right?” CJ asks, his eyes hopeful.
Cole looks at me, seeming far too interested in what my answer is going to be. They may both look like giants but they aren’t a danger to anyone or to me; that much I am sure of. Even Cole, with his dangerous, dark looks and mysterious behaviour, he’s the only person I feel safe around at the moment. There’s just something calming about being around him.
“Yeah,” I murmur, although it’s cut short, turning into a yawn. Cole gets up and puts the first disc into the DVD player.
“Well, I’m off. I need to get some shit done before the next class. Don’t have too much fun without me,” CJ demands, getting up from his seat and grabbing his bag.
“See ya later.” I wave goodbye just as another yawn escapes me. “Urgh, I feel so tired.”
“Exhaustion will do that to you. You okay if I shut the curtains?” he asks, the question confusing me.
“Uh, yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I just wanted to make sure,” he grumbles, seeming flushed. It makes a small smile fall to my lips. He can be so sweet.
When he sits back down, he puts my feet back in his lap, covering us both up under the blanket. He could have sat down on the sofa CJ just vacated. Instead, he chose to stay next to me. It both warms and comforts me.
A thought occurs to me, one that has crossed my mind a few times, but I’ve never had a chance to voice it. It slipped my mind last night with all the drama going on too.
“What?” Cole asks when he realises I’m staring at him.
“I know whyIhate Logan, but why doyouhate him?” I ask him, and watch as a dark shadow crosses over his face.
He clears his throat, turning a little in his seat to face me. “We don’t know for sure how much of this is true, but knowing what I know now, you never know.” He shrugs.
“What happened?” I ask softly, hating how lost he looks.
“A friend of ours, Colin, who played rugby with us, was also friends with Logan. Colin got badly injured during a game and kept having problems with his injury after. Basically, Logan convinced him he could get a hold of some drugs that could help Colin with the pain. It was a shit storm. Didn’t take him long to become addicted and none of us could get him to see that he was damaging his body further. This is the part that is just a rumour…” He shrugs, looking at me like he’s unsure whether to tell me or not.
“Go on. I can handle it,” I whisper, not trusting my own voice. My heart goes out to his friend, and my mind can’t help but wonder where this story is going and what happened to him in the end. For some reason, I can’t remember what Cole had said was wrong with him.
“Logan owed a huge debt to whoever his dealer was, and because his parents only gave him a strict allowance, he couldn’t afford to pay back his debt after he used the product himself. He blamed it all on Colin, telling his dealer that he stole the drugs for himself. In retaliation, Colin was given a bad drug, one that has made him braindead,” Cole grits out, and I gasp.
“They did that to him? And Logan caused it all?” I ask, my eyes wide and watery.
“Yeah. The fucker didn’t even think we’d find out, but the dealer is well known around these areas, so it wasn’t hard for word to get around about what they do to people who steal from them. We ended up getting in a scrap with Logan and the rest of the football team over it. They were all trying to defend that sick fuck,” he tells me.
“I don’t even know what to say. Do you think he’s still selling drugs?”
“Yeah, I do, and because of who his parents are, the police stay away from him. I think that’s why he still works for the same dealer. They know they can get more sales through him without the cops breathing down their necks.”