"Gosh! I have to get going. My mom will freak out if I'm not back before 11." Angela rushed out, grabbing her backpack and throwing her things inside. Cole, now quite pleasant towards the shorter girl, started grabbing some of her things and helping her get them into her backpack.

After the three of them had finished studying, they ended up talking over dinner and watching a TV show that Kyle recommended. Cole and Angela were very happy to have stayed over longer, not just because they got to hang out and get to know each other better, but Kyle's mom's cooking smelled fantastic and they were extremely excited to eat her pork.

Even after seeing how close they had gotten themselves, Kyle still couldn't believe that they were now getting along so well. Angela waved energetically as she left their house, jogging away as she went to catch the bus. Cole sighed once her figure was out of sight and shook his head.

"Angela is really something else." He smiled, probably thinking over all the odd but funny things that she had said. "I can see why you like her."

"-as a friend," Kyle added, glancing over at Cole who gave him a wide-eyed expression.

"I'm not that obviously jealous, am I?" Cole asked worriedly, his cheeks brightening with his blush. Kyle chuckled and folded each of his arms over the other.

"Actually, I had been wondering why you were acting so weird but that statement just confirmed it." Kyle told Cole smugly. Cole groaned and Kyle laughed at his misery. 

"Gosh, I'm stupid." Cole moaned. Kyle raised his hands in mock surrender and started walking back up to his room.

"Hey, you said it. Not me."

Kyle did not even hesitate before smacking Kyle's shoulder. Kyle continued to laugh even as he rubbed his aching shoulder. Kyle glanced over at Cole who was staring down at the ground with an embarrassed expression. Kyle had an idea of what Cole was jealous about, but he still thought it odd that Cole was jealous of Angela taking away Kyle as a friend. He really wanted to hear it explained clearly by Cole.

"What did you just say?" Cole curiously, stopping in his steps. Kyle stopped as well and turned to Cole questioningly. 

"What do you mean?" Kyle asked, tilting his head lightly as he looked down at Cole. Cole stared up at Kyle and Kyle felt his heart shudder at the sight. Kyle cleared his throat and repeated the question, thinking that Cole hadn't heard him. Cole rolled his eyes and smiled.

"You were saying something about wanting me to explain. What was your question?" Kyle frowned when he realized that he had said another thing out loud. This was about the third time that this was happening and Kyle wondered why. 

Not wanting to leave Cole hanging, Kyle decided to ask him.

"Why exactly were you being so rude to Angela before? It doesn't quite make sense to me." Kyle told Cole, his dark eyes staring intently at Cole as he awaited the answer. Cole blushed and instead of answering, turned to run up the stairs.

 Kyle followed, but by the time he entered the room, Cole was already packing up.

"Uh, what are you doing?" Kyle hesitantly, unsure of what was happening.

"Well, it's getting late. I should really be getting home." Cole explained, zipping up his now stuffed backpack. Standing up from where he was crouched down on the floor, Cole gave Kyle an awkward smile while throwing on his backpack. "This has been fun, but I should be going now."

Cole started walking out of the room and Kyle was quick to follow.

"What about my question?" Kyle asked, frowning as Cole hurriedly pulled on his shoes. 

"It really doesn't matter at this point, Kyle," Cole said in a rush, his hands working quickly as he did up his jacket. "Angela and I are cool and we all were very productive while studying. No problem whatsoever. I'll be going now." 

A very rushed "wait!" was the only thing Kyle was able to get out before Cole had slammed the door shut. Kyle went to open it, but Cole was already halfway down the street and steps away from the bus stop, so Kyle sighed and closed the door. Cole's behavior was very odd, but Kyle decided not to dwell on it for too long. It was pretty late and it would be better if he just got ready for bed.

—————————

At school the next day, Kyle was happy to find that their teacher, Ms. Peregrine, had given free seating. Cole was already sitting at his own desk so Kyle quickly sat in the closest seat, the one behind him. Cole turned in his desk and gave Kyle a bright smile.

"Hey, man. Funny seeing you behind me." Cole joked, raising his red eyebrows suggestively. Kyle chuckled and leaned his chin on his palm to get even closer to Cole. 

"Yeah, what are the chances that I would end up right behind you after purposely sitting here?" Kyle asked sarcastically. Cole shrugged.

"One in a million probably."

"Probably." Kyle agreed.

With quite a few minutes to spare before class would start, Kyle and Cole started talking about a game that Cole swore was addictive. Cole talked animatedly about it, his hands waving and his eyes wide out of excitement. Kyle had never seen anything like it from Cole. It was as if the pale boy was suddenly an excited child, and Kyle found it to be incredibly cute. 

Kyle decided to make some dumb joke about one of the things that Cole said, more of a pun than a good joke, but Cole loved it and laughed earnestly. 

Now, let's make this clear. First: Kyle was tired. He spent more of the previous night imagining Cole's grey eyes beaming up at him than he did sleeping, so his judgement was impaired.

And second: Cole was the most beautiful creature Kyle had ever seen. The boy was a mixture of all the features that Kyle loved but never knew he did until he saw them on Cole. Kyle was a young teenager and very weak to the beauty of the boy in front of him.

So when Cole giggled with the most adorable smile on the planet and stared up at Kyle with those big grey eyes, Kyle had no more defenses. At least, these were the excuses that Kyle used because the next thing that Kyle did was so unlike him, that he had to come up with one.

He needed some sort of excuse for what happened. Kyle's eyes went from Cole's eyes to his beautiful smile to his bright red hair. And Kyle, enraptured by Cole, unconsciously reached out his left hand, and with it, gently grasped a small piece of Cole's red locks.

Cole's eyes snapped to meet Kyle's. Wide-eyed, Cole stared at Kyle as he slowly rubbed the strands between his fingers.

Kyle was no longer paying attention to the outer world, his entire being was solely focused on Cole and his bright red hair. Hair which was soft to the touch, and appeared to be the same pale colour all throughout.

Cole's mouth briefly opened. He was incredibly confused as to why Kyle was doing this, but he was also curious, and because it all felt so good, he couldn't find it in him to tell Kyle to stop.

Kyle was still thinking about the pale colour of Cole's hair. He always assumed that it was natural, but what if it wasn't? What if Kyle would be able to see deep brown or blonde roots if he shifted his hand through the entirety of it?

What if . . . ?

Kyle took that same hand and used it to run his whole hand through Cole's hair. Cole gasped and squirmed slightly under Kyle's touch. He hadn't been expecting that at all and hadn't been prepared for the pleasure that he would feel.

Cole continued to squirm as Kyle held the hair and pulled it softly to stare at the roots. All a pale red.

Kyle smiled. Cole sighed. Cole would have preferred to moan but knew that Kyle would take it the wrong way.

Or the right way, depending on how you look at it.

Kyle started to run his fingers completely through Cole's hair, letting his short nails scratch along Coke's scalp and drawing out quiet, breathy moans from Cole.

Kyle was hypnotized by Cole's hair, pale skin, and the breathy voice that Cole was currently releasing. So he continued to play with Cole's hair, unaware of the fact that the filter that had usually been between his thoughts and his actions was no longer existent.

Kyle stared at Cole's hair, marveling at the color and cut. When he ran his fingers through it, the hair would seem extremely messy, but only for a moment. Then it would flop back into the perfect position, waiting for Kyle to mess it up again.

Kyle was amazed and wanted to make that known.

"Your hair is so . . ." Kyle whispered, his voice dazed and hoarse.

"So what?" Cole softly asked. He sounded dazed as well because he had given up on thinking about what was happening long ago.

"It's so . . . " Kyle trailed before letting out a startled gasp. He had just registered Cole's voice and with it, what his hands had been doing for the past seven minutes.

Kyle quickly pulled his hand out of Cole's hair and stuffed it into his pocket, ashamed of what it had been doing.

"I-I'm sorry. I don't know why I did that." Kyle muttered bashfully, extremely embarrassed. His cheeks were a pale pink and his eyes were trained to the floor.

He wasn't completely sure of what happened but he knew that he hadn't meant to really do it. He knew that he had only fantasized about it. He never thought about actually doing it, and he hoped to never do that again.

Cole stared at Kyle with concerned eyes. He didn't know why Kyle had done what he did, but the ashamed look that he seemed to wear now unsettled Cole. He wanted it off of Kyle's kind features as soon as possible.

"Kyle, it doesn't, uh, bother me." Cole stuttered out. He looked down at himself and ruffled his hair. "I . . . didn't mind-"

Kyle shook his head.

"Still, I shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry." 

Cole tried to speak again. He hated the way that Kyle was looking away from him. Kyle had never done that before and he didn't want it happening now. But, Ms. Peregrine had just started class and Kyle took that as a chance to completely ignore Cole's protests.

Cole was frowning when he turned back around. He was worried about Kyle. But Kyle was more worried about why that happened and more importantly, worried about if it would happen again.