Yeah, an update Friday instead of Thursday. No harm done :)
RebelutionaryWrites: AHHHCK! You are? I'd love to read them! I'd really do! It actually would be really cool if you posted them but it's your choice :) and thank you!
Fire Oreo: Hah, yeah, don't worry you're not alone. I'm terrible at poems too. Heh, Cole is a sweetie :3 Eh, I guess some people just get jump-scared by friends when they're doing something 'private' in the bathroom. I know I do XD
The moment Cole woke up, he sat up in bed and noticed a sticky note on the wall.
He plucked the note from the wall and sat back down on the bed cross-legged. "Watch… Evan for me… I am running an erand. Be back *around ten* - no, before noon."
Cole wrinkled his nose. First things first was that it looked like Jay was in a hurry to write that fairly short note because the entire thing was difficult for him to read. Secondly, Jay didn't even spell errand right.
Startled, he jumped when he felt Evan brush up against him. Cole's lips formed a thin line and he pressed the sticky side of the note back on the wall. Running a hand through Evan's fur, the kitten purred and climbed onto his lap.
"So… what to do, what to do?" He asked himself while continuing to stroke his fur. "What do I do?"
He lifted Evan off his lap and set him on the bed before walking over to Jay's side of the room and rummaging through his things. Cole found a teddy bear, a comb, some comic books and a bunch of crumpled up receipts. It took a while before Cole found what he was looking for.
Pulling out a single can, he then searched for a bowl. Surely Jay had to have one. He couldn't have bought just a cage for the small animal. Thankfully, Cole did find a bowl and set it down on the floor beside the bed leg. He opened the can and dumped out the food, stepping back to let Evan see.
"Food?" He pointed a hand at the bowl and looked to Evan in hopes that he would eat.
The small cat pounced towards the bowl and ate. Cole sighed with relief. Then it hit him that Evan needed to drink as well. He searched for another bowl under all of Jay's belongings but found nothing.
"Gosh, dang it, Jay. What kind of person doesn't get their pet two food bowls?" He stood up and searched the room for a container big enough for Evan to lap water out of.
He placed the container filled with water next to the food bowl.
Bending down next to Evan, he ruffled the fur on his head and smiled. Evan lifted his head and brushed against Cole's leg.
"You like being pet, don't ya?"
Evan gave a quiet purr as if to say yes. Cole collapsed onto his butt and didn't move as Evan circled him a couple of times.
"By any chance, do you know where Jay went? He must've mentioned it before he left," Evan looked up at him with big eyes. Cole nearly laughed. "Right, you're an animal… you can't answer to me." He gazed around the room until his eyes landed on the digital clock sitting on his desk. The clock read 10:50 AM and Cole let out a sigh. "Looks like we've got about an hour before Jay returns… so what should we do?"
He stood up, bringing Evan with him and walked towards his desk, turning in his phone. "Maybe we should call over Kai…" He looked to Evan. "What do you think?"
Kai came over ten minutes later with Misty. Happy that Evan had a friend to play with, the two let the kittens play around with each other on Jay's bed while they sat and talked on Cole's bed.
"Nya needed to do some last minute photography so I had to watch over Misty." Kai told Cole.
"Hah, funny, Jay said he needed to run an errand - with one r - so he asked me to watch over Evan… through sticky note."
Kai laughed. He turned his head and caught sight of the sticky note on the wall. "This is?" He asked, plucking it from the wall.
"Eyup." Cole gave a firm nod.
"By the way… uh, what kind of cat is Evan? He has really short legs." They both glanced over at the two kittens on the other side of the room.
"I think Jay said he was a Munchkin…"
"That makes sense. I think. Cause he's short. Right?"
Cole laid back and dropped his head onto the pillow. "Mhmm… so where's Ronin?"
"Ronin? Oh yeah! Ronin… he's with Nya, helping her with the photos."
"So then who's running the cafe right now?"
"I found somebody to fill in for the week. It's exhausting, especially when your partner rarely even shows up."
Cole sat up straight. "How long are you keeping the job anyways? Aren't you visiting home over the summer? It's going to be a lot of extra work to wake up early and drive back all the way down here."
Kai leaned back on his hands and thought for a minute. "Yeah, I haven't thought about that… I may drop out a week after school ends and then I'll find something else to do near my home town. Besides, I think Nya's already searching for a job."
A moment of silence fell between the two. To avoid any eye contact with Cole, Kai pulled out his phone and opened Instabook, scrolling through his feed. Cole, on the other hand, fell back onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling.
It felt a little awkward for the two of them to just sit there doing nothing while the kittens were playfully fighting with one another.
Suddenly, Kai broke the silence. "You ever thought about if Misty and Evan would… you know, like each other and then…"
Cole's eyes widened and he thrust his legs forward and kicked Kai's legs. "Don't even say it. I don't want to think about it. No no. You can save that little thought in your head, but don't share it out loud. At least, not when I'm around… please."
Kai snorted.
"Fine then, I won't… For now…"
The minute Jay arrived back at the dorm, he threw himself at his bed.
"Evan!" Jay screamed and dove for the bed where Evan was sitting. Cole looked up from his laptop and raised a brow at him.
"He didn't give you much trouble, did he?"
Cole put the laptop aside and turned around to face Jay, resting his elbows against his knees. "Nope, no trouble from Evan at all… just uh, I think you need to buy some more things for him. He is your pet… right?"
Jay nodded slowly. "Um… yeah…?"
"Well, first of all, you should at least get him two separate bowls. One for food and the other for water. Also, you should get him a couple of toys to play with. Maybe some other kinds of food too? Like, dry and wet food."
"Since when were you the pet expert?" Jay asked, a sly grin on his face.
Cole rolled his eyes in response. "You know, maybe we should go shopping for some cat supplies right now," he suggested. Jay wrinkled his nose and shook his head. "Why not?"
"You see, there's this word we use to describe people who don't like to move a lot, and that's called lazy. And that's me! And me says no."
"Come summertime you know I'm gonna drag you out of your house," Cole told him with a smirk. He stood up from the bed and walked over to Jay's side, lifting Evan into his arms.
Jay lifted his chin and cocked his head to Cole. "Oh really? And how ya gonna do that?"
"I'll drive over to your house and physically drag you outside. Whether it be by the shirt, leg, arm, or anything." Cole hugged Evan close to his chest. "Besides, he's your pet, you need to take care of him." Jay frowned.
"Fine, just let me sleep for like an hour or so and then we can go. I'm tired."
After Jay's hour long nap, they walked from the college campus to the mall. The weather outside had been jumping from cloudy to sunny, becoming very unpredictable. However, the days started to stay sunny and it brought Jay to the assumption that it would stay that way until summer ended.
Once inside the mall, they searched for the pet store. They stopped by a few shops on the way there. Jay bought a few items for the end of the school year to give to his friends, just like he did around Christmas time. While Jay shopped, Cole leaned against the wall by the entrance of the store, sucking on a lollipop he got from the sweet shop.
"Pet store, next?" Asked Jay when he met up with Cole outside of the shop.
Cole nodded and kicked off from the wall, walking the rest of the way beside Jay.
At the pet store, Jay searched for the big cat sign that would be hanging above his head. He spotted a hamster sign, a dog sign, and fish sign, then finally the cat sign came into view and he rushed over. "Is it weird I don't really want summer to come?"
Jay crouched down in front of the shelf and scanned the rows. "Um… kinda? I dunno. Most people do want a nice long break. Why do you say that?"
"I'm just not ready to go back home yet. It's empty there… no one else to talk to - it's just you."
Jay glanced at Cole from the corner of his eyes as he picked up another can of food. "What about your dad?"
"He's always on music business trips, remember? I rarely get to see him anymore." He extended his arms so that Jay could hand him the canned food. "Here, it felt different. After we got to know one another, it felt like family to me. I just wish it could've lasted longer."
"Welp, you had the entire year, Cole..." Jay picked up a toy from a bin, "I guess everyone kinda has mixed feelings about vacation… I mean, the good news is that we're out of school…" His voice drifted and he lowered his head. They stood at the register and Jay paid for his supplies before the left the store and headed for another one to window shop. He came across a magnet and showed it to Cole. "But, I guess I'm in between now too."
Cole half smiled at the magnet and at Jay.
"A friend is all you need to be rich in," Cole read.
"I'll buy one, if you buy one," Jay said to Cole as he held up another one of the same magnets. "Look, one's blue and the other is orange. Your favorite color."
"How'd you know that?"
"Um... I have my ways," Jay muttered.
Cole chuckled softly and put the magnet back. Jay, slightly hurt, forced a smile on his face. "So… you don-"
A puff of breath escaped him as Cole threw an arm around Jay's shoulders and pulled him close. In an instant, Jay felt better. His shoulders relaxed and he tossed the magnet behind him. Cole smiled.
"I don't need a magnet to tell me that."
Jay returned the smile and then pulled out his phone, turning on the camera. "A magnet may not matter, but a picture does," he said right before hitting the button to snap a picture.
Cole lifted Evan into his lap and stroked the small cat's back. On the other side of the room, Jay set up the two food bowls so that they were side by side, one filled with water and the other with food. He added a toy beside them and kept another one in his drawer. He heard Evan purr from behind him.
Jay spun around, staring at Evan.
"Evan isn't such a bad name for him you know," Cole said as Evan lowered his body and rested his tiny head on his front paws. "I actually really like it."
"You do?"
Cole leaned back on his palms and nodded. "Totally."
The ginger plopped down beside Cole and glanced down at Evan, who was fast asleep. Just then, like a lightning bolt had struck him, he whipped out his phone and turned it on in front of Cole.
"Check it out," he said with a gentle smile. "My new wallpaper!"
Cole raised his brows. It was the picture Jay had took of the two of them back at the mall. Jay unlocked his phone and flashed it in Cole's face continuously. "See? It's my lock screen and my home screen!" He looked to Cole with big eyes, then his eyes fell on Evan. "You know, I don't really want to leave either..." He spoke softly. "Only child problems, right? It's got its good times and its bad times..."
He dropped his forehead against Cole's shoulder. "We should hang out over the summer... That's a good idea, right?"
"Definitely."
Welp, down with that chapter! *clutches chest* my heart :')