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He didn’t care.

At least, that’s what he told himself but that didn’t explain why he suddenly couldn’t stop thinking about her. For the past four years, he’d barely noticed her and now, he found himself watching her whenever she was around, waiting by his locker just for a chance to see her, and taking the long way home just so that he could make sure that she got home safely all while telling himself that she was wrong. But…

He couldn’t.

Over the past week he’d noticed how other kids treated her, the way they ignored her, taunted her, and seemed to go out of their way to make her life miserable and Chloe let them. He didn’t know why that pissed him off, but it did. He watched as she sat by herself at lunch, pretending that she couldn’t hear the assholes at the other tables talking about her. He watched as she stood by her locker, pretending that she was looking for something so that she could wait until the last possible second before she had to go to class. He watched other students go out of their way to make her life miserable, and he wasn’t sure who he was more pissed at, Chloe for letting it happen or at himself for not noticing sooner.

As much as he would love to be able to say that it wasn’t his problem, he couldn’t do that. Not when he knew that Chloe was putting up with this bullshit every day. So, he’d started sitting at her table, glaring at whatever asshole ran his mouth until he shut up and left her alone. He made sure that she didn’t have to walk to class by herself. He sat next to her in class to make sure that she didn’t have to worry about some jerk throwing a pencil at her when the teacher wasn’t looking, and he made sure that he was there to–

“Stop it,” Chloe said quietly as she glanced up from her locker to look at him.

“Stop what?” Cole asked as he finished shoving the books that he wasn’t going to need tonight in his locker.

“Whatever you think you’re doing, just please stop. You’re making it worse,” Chloe said with a resigned sigh as she closed her locker and headed for the front doors only to add, “Please,” as she walked past him.

For a moment, he considered letting her go, but…he couldn’t do that. Wondering why he was really doing this, Cole shut his locker and quickly caught up to her.

“How could I possibly make this worse?” he asked, because he honestly couldn’t imagine her life getting worse than this.

“Look,” Chloe said, stepping off to the side so that she could talk to him, “I appreciate what you’re doing, I really do, but I can handle this on my own.”

“Really?” Cole asked as he folded his arms over his chest as he leaned back against the wall while he considered her.

“Yes,” she said, reaching up to push her glasses back up her nose.

“How?” he asked, because from what he’d seen she hadn’t done anything to stop this.

“By ignoring them,” Chloe said, sighing as she headed for the door, leaving him standing there, shaking his head, because she couldn’t be serious.

“You really think that ignoring them is going to make this go away?” Cole asked when he caught up with her again.

“No, but most of them lose interest and–”

“You said most of them. What happens with the ones that don’t lose interest?” he asked, watching the way that she opened her mouth to say something only to close it and quicken her step, probably hoping that he would just drop it and leave her alone.

“Tell me what happens when they don’t lose interest,” Cole said, because he could only imagine what a bunch of spoiled rich kids could do to her to pass the time.

“It doesn’t matter,” Chloe said, softly sighing as they walked outside and made their way to the sidewalk.

“Then you should have no problem telling me,” he said, reaching up to pull his tie loose when she stopped again.

“Look, I appreciate the fact that you’re trying to help, but honestly, I don’t need it. I was doing just fine on my own. Okay?” Chloe said as she gave him what she probably thought was a reassuring smile before nodding as she turned to walk away.

“Then why are you taking the long way home?” he asked, moving to catch up with her again.

“Because you take the short way home,” Chloe said absently with a wince as she adjusted the large bag over her shoulders that was clearly too heavy for her.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Cole asked as he moved to follow her down Pine Hill Road.

“Everything,” she said as though that was supposed to explain everything.

It didn’t.

What it did was make him pluck the bag off her shoulder and throw it over his. When she went to take it back from him, he shifted it to his other arm and said, “Explain.”

“Have you always been this annoying?” Chloe asked, reaching over to grab the bag only to sigh when he stepped out of her reach.

“Yes,” Cole said, making her lips twitch despite the fact that she looked like she wanted to throttle him. Since he was used to that look, he didn’t take it personally.