If You Leave Me Now

Chapter 2

SIA

This was not going to end well.

My heart beat faster everytime the bottle was spinned.

First, it landed on Eva and she was dared to dance in front of everyone. Caleb gave her the that, and needless to say, she did it. Eva's dancing skills was just as polished as her music, and she totally lived for such moments. Too bad, Caleb didn't know.

Second, it landed on Lucas. He was asked to pole dance by Austin, and he did it. Midway through, Hope and Seth joined him, and the seductive steps turned to humour. I'm sure I saw Natalia filming it as well.

Third, it landed on Cole. Which meant, I was going to give him the dare.

I smirked at him and he gave me the bored, 'I'm-not-scared-of anything' look. But truth being told, there was nothing he couldn't do. Ask him to kiss a girl? He'd love that. Ask him to do a dance? He was trained in dancing like most of the students of our school. Ask him to do anything that would probably embarrass a normal human being? He'd make the best of it, probably shoot his own video and upload it on **, and somehow, still become more popular than he already was.

That's Cole Wilson for you.

But, having his twin as my bestfriend did have a lot of advantages. One common thing that Daisy and Cole shared was, their fear for darkness. Cole couldn't even sleep in pitch darkness until he was fourteen, and well, I just... knew.

I smirked, leaning ahead as I kept my chin on my palm, pretending to think, before finally saying, "I... dare you to go into the woods and spend an hour there, alone, in the dark." I insisted on the last word.

"And you are a mad woman," his words escaped out instantly. I made an amused face, and so did most others, looking at the panic that spread across his face. "I mean," he corrected himself, "It's a forest, there could be animals, and it's unsafe to just wander around after midnight right? Let's not do anything that put's the school's reputation at stake."

He tried maintains his calm but I really wanted to laugh. I have never in the past five years seen Cole so freaked. No amounts of words or taunts have ever brought out such a reaction from him, and I was taking the most of it.

"I think Cole's right," Caleb supported him. I turned towards him with a glare when he looked at me and he shot me me a smirk. "Instead, you can wander in the Left Woods. It's filled with just trees and there's pitch darkness, with no animals because of the forest fire that happened there last year."

The Left Woods were the shallower part of forest, full of long trees filled with green lush leaves that barely let any light in, but were burnt off in the forest fire last year. So now, it's just long topless trees covering the entire land, yet they are tall enough and closely packed to barely let the sunlight in, leave alone the moonlight. Bonus being, the forest lights were destroyed in the fire and no one ever rebuilt them, which made it even darker. And, an lady who disappeared last year, was rumoured to have been murdered in the left woods, although no one ever really found anything. The teenagers even had this year's Halloween party there, leaving pumpkins in the camping area, which I doubt would have been cleaned. Safe to say, Left Woods were spooky.

I gave Caleb a mischievous smile and he winked back, as we saw Cole murmur something under his breath, probably cursing Caleb and/or me.

"Can I atleast take a torch with me?" His eyes looked straight into mine.

"Nah!" Caleb replied lazily, although Cole's eyes didn't meet mine.

"Okay," I said in a small voice, probably something in the way he was looking at me– like a lost puppy, that melted me. I'm not a monster after all.

We instantly called for the torch from someone, and while they were finding it for him, the bottle was spinned again.

This time, it landed on Daisy. "Kiss Austin," Noah, the one opposite her, challenged. I could sense Daisy stiffen next to me and I slightly kept my hand on her wrist. Austin and Daisy shared a past, and although they did end on good terms, she took a long, long time to move on, which is why I think she's never really accepted on liking Caleb even to us, and we never wanted to push her.

Moving on from someone you loved with all your heart can be difficult, and sometimes, people spend lifetimes unloving an old lover, yet the memories never seem to fade.

As much as I hated to notice, I could also see Cole stiffen opposite me in a very visible way. His jaw tightened and his eyes hardened upon the poor guy who had no idea. 

"Noah." he warned, his voice heavy and dominating.

Cole usually didn't speak up in Daisy's matters. As a younger kid, Daisy never liked how Cole fulfilled the role of the protective, elder brother although she did love him a lot; so Cole let her go on, find her own ways, make her own mistakes and kept quiet through everything, except when it came to Austin. She really, really liked him, and he hurt her a lot.

The situation made sense to me, Eva, Caleb and Cole except the two involved, although everyone else looked confused.

I could see Caleb's eyebrows knitted as he studied Daisy's pale face, before he gave a slight chuckle, drawing attention towards himself, "I think you should change the dare, Noah. I'm sure Cole doesn't appreciate looking at his sister and bestfriend play tongue hockey."

"The rule remains," Noah smirked, "She does the dare, or she takes the shot."

"I'll do it." Daisy tried smiling. I wish I could do something for her.

"Or... the person to her left, Sia, she can take the dare." Noah's eyes set upon me.

I leaned back, putting my weight on my palms, raising my eyebrows, "You want me to kiss Austin?"

"Nah... I'd change it to... Seth, for you," He said.

"Seth?" I asked in confusion, my eyes meeting Seth's, who's eyebrows were knitted too.

"Yeah, I mean... I saw you guys talking earlier, and you know, since you both obviously have heart eyes for each other, I'm just playing the Cupid." He gave a smile. You're playing the i***t, Noah. No offence.

"Okay, then," I said, shrugging as I got up. They probably thought I was going to go kiss Seth, but instead, I took the glass from the tray and immediately bottomsed-up.

"Woah!" I heard Caleb and Seth cheer as I took in a moment to let that crazy liquid slip in properly. It tasted... different. I've had shots before, though not a lot of times, I was aware was not how it tasted.

Nonetheless, I walked back to my place, and while everyone cheered and Caleb smirked, I saw Cole in a conversation with Austin. His brows were knitted and he looked angry as he cursed incoherently.

"Was that f*****g diluted like I asked you to?" He was murmuring but his voice came clear to me, perhaps because I was the only one paying attention, and trying to listen.

I didn't listen the rest of the conversation when Daisy took my attention. "You shouldn't have taken the shot for me Sia," she whispered in a low voice.

"And let you take it?" I rolled my eyes, "Everyone knows, even the littlest of alcohol makes you a crazy drunk." It wasn't really easy to forget the twin's sixteenth birthday. Cole has slipped in the booze, Daisy took it by mistake, and well, the girl who was flirting with Austin got wine thrown at her, my mother was phoned and shouted for being the most irresponsible mother ever; and the party ended when her father was called out for having an affair with his secretary– needless to say, all done by Daisy. The twins were grounded for weeks and it took the town a long time to forget that party.

"As if you're not a crazy drunk too," she rolled her eyes back at me. I didn't usually drink. I drank once at a stupid party hosted by Seth, just because I was curious to have a taste of something my mother kept drinking all the time. The consequences weren't really pleasant after I lost my mind. And second, I drank when I had this major, major fight with my Mom. Let's just say, I don't take drinks well too.

"Still better than you," I smiled.

"Thank you," she said in a whisper, tears glazing her eyes as she slightly put her arms around me, giving me a little hug in gratitude.

I gave her a nod and reassuring smile before grabbing the bottle and putting it at the centre to be spinned again, when Cole stopped me.

"Wait," Cole's voice boomed, grabbing everyone's attention. I stopped and looked at him, slightly pissed.

"You're opposite me, which makes me give you the dare; not Noah." He smirked at me.

Uh?

Those were not the rules, right?

"But those aren't the rules," Seth quickly came to my defence.

"Cole, I–," I began, but he smirked, cutting me off, "Nope, I hadn't given you the dare, so it's your fault, not mine. You'll have to do the dare I ask you to."

"I made the game, and I made the rules. How could you know better than me?" Cole challenged, and it shut Noah up as he turned to look at his bestfriend, "Am I right, Cal? I'm supposed to give her the dare, right?"

"Whatever you say, brother," Caleb smirked and then looked at me with same smirk, not the mischievous 'I'm-teasing-you' kinda smirk, but the 'I-know-everything-that-you-don't' smirk and it made me more than slightly curious of what was going on in his head.

"That's not right, baby. She already did her share." Rose instantly said, and I was surprised she went against her 'boyfriend'. Any girl who usually spoke up against him were in his bad girl category– which meant he was rude to them, teased and tainted them, and they were always the centre of his pranks, like me.

"Well, everything's fare in love and war, isn't it?" Caleb smirked and I glared at him. Traitor. I mean, he was always Cole's bestfriend, but I thought we were teaming up against that spawn of the devil.

Cole looked at me with intent eyes, which clearly shouted that it was payback time for that crazy dare I had given him while feeling brave.

"Right," Cole said, turning everyone's attention back at me, "I dare you to... accompany me in the beautiful one hour I'll be spending in the Left Woods."

My mouth almost hung open. 

"You– You can't do that."

"A dare is a dare, sunshine," he smiled innocently.

A dare is a dare.

"Cole," Daisy said, "She's already–"

"Nope," her twin cut her protest off, "Either she comes with me, or she takes another shot."

I could have passed my dare to Hope, who was on my left, and well, if she accepts, but she and Lucas were too busy kissing each other. Natalie gave me a warm, sympathetic smile. If only I could smile back.

And if I take another shot, the consequences could be.... unpleasant in the least and destructive in the worst situation.

"Okay." I replied in a low voice. Daisy's eyes widened next to me.

"Cole–" Daisy warned.

"Well, she already accepted. You can't do anything." Cole shrugged, smiling triumphantly.

As if just in time, the guy whom we had sent searching for the torch returned back with it, and handed it to Cole.

"You ready, partner?" He smirked getting up.

"I don't think I'll ever be, but if you insist, partner," I clearly mocked getting up after him.

"See you later– ciao!" Cole announced walking ahead and away from the group and I gloomily followed him, after giving my friends a last look and Caleb a death glare.

Let's hope I come back alive.

✿

I was tipsy. Not drunk, just slightly tipsy. That's what I told myself when I almost tripped for the third time in the ten minutes that we had started walking.

"Are you really finding excuses to hold my hand, sunshine?" He asked, looking back at me.

"You wish," I scoffed, "And, why are we even walking in the first place? The dare was to spend an hour in the Left Woods, not wandering through it. We can just sit somewhere instead."

"And now, I'm thinking you really want to spend time with me." He stopped, turning around. It wasn't really that dark actually. With the leaves cover absent, the moonlight fell in just fine, and the light was sufficient for us to see around, although that flashy torch Cole hit into my eyes every time he turned to see if I were alive and walking behind him was really annoying.

I wasn't a fan of hikes, especially not if it means walking in the ghostly hours through a dense, isolated forest with someone you'd rather not see your entire life, feeling tipsy, and now, even slightly nauseous.

I wasn't drunk. Just a little tipsy; Or tiddly; Or squiffy, however you'd like to say it.

I mean, I wasn't a mellow drunk. Had the Vodka shot really got into my head, I think Cole would have been dead by now. I'm an out of control drunk. Or maybe I am drunk, 'cause that is the only justifiable reason why I am with him in the middle of this beautiful night.

"Earth to Sia," he snapped his fingers in front of me, making me flinch, "It's not really that dark, is it?" He said. He'd already asked me the same thing when we started walking, and at this moment, I wasn't really sure if he was teasing me about the failed dare of was he pacifying himself. He was hopelessly scared of the darkness.

"I heard you twice when you said it for the first time, Cole." I said, and I could see him raise his eyebrows in annoyance and shrug, rubbing his hands together to draw some heat. We weren't used to having very cold winters back in California, the temperature only very rarely dropped below 45 °F. 

"Ofcourse it's useless trying to talk to you, what are we even doing for the next.. I don't know, forty-five minutes?" He sighed, sitting on the big rock and I slouched on the one opposite to it, taking support of the tree.

"Oh, was that an attempt at making a conversation? Pardon me, Wilson, I am not used to us talking anymore," I snickered back, reminding him of every single time I tried making a conversation with him, trying to reason with him, but all he did was argue.

"You seriously want to do this? Talk about the past, now of all times?" His voice was bored.

"I'm sorry again; I forgot how scared you were of talking about your mistakes," I replied sweetly, my voice laced with sarcasm.

"Please, sunshine. I'm not scared of anything and you know that," He scoffed instantly. Yes, Cole Wilson is allergic to his own imperfections because apparently he considers himself some God who cannot have any flaws.

"Really?" I teased, "Then what about darkness? And all that witch-craft you're scared of?"

"Yeah?" He replied, "How can I be scared of witches when I have one sitting right next to me?"

"Then why did you bring me with you?" I argued, my voice a little high pitch ,"It's not like I begged to be brought with you, right? You could have chosen anyone– how about Rose, your girlfriend, and y'all could have done whatever you usually do in the dark. Why me?"

"Feisty drunk," he murmured under his breath, but with all the silence around us, his words were carried to me with ease.

" 'Cause..." his voice was soft and even lower than a whisper, he looked down and away, as he was ashamed of accepting it, "I didn't want her to know I'm scared of darkness."

"Ah, look at you Cole," I teased, "Are you going all soft on me again?" I sang the last word.

"I'm not going soft on you again," He bickered, "It was a drunk night and you just happened to be there; and you promised not to ever use it against me. What happened to that?"

My mind instantly floated to the old days. I and Cole weren't friends even then, but atleast we weren't like this. We acknowledged each other, gave each other silent nods every time we passed by. Apparently, I was the only girl he could 'approve' as his sister's bestfriend. And that one night, when I was sleeping over at the Wilsons' House, I walked to the kitchen to get water and while I was returning, I heard crazy noises from Cole's room. I wouldn't have checked otherwise, but I'm glad I did that night.

That night changed our equation completely. I got to know as side of Cole I wouldn't think existed behind the hard demeanour he usually put up at school. I think that was the changing point of whatever we were, because we actually became friends after that.

And it was cute to a certain extent you know, our friendship was weird in every way, he was a popular jock and I was a nerd and it was cliché but nice how we spent days together, talking to each other, about each other, and I think I was actually fond of him.

I really, really liked him.

And then he broke my heart. It all came tumbling down.

"You made promises too. You didn't keep yours, did you?" I asked softly, only to be replied with silence for a long time.

He kept telling me that I deserved the world, but only if he knew, I didn't want the world. At least, I didn't want the world around me. All I wanted was to be happy in my own little world, and for once, I didn't want to be the only one who loved, I wanted to be the loved back just as much.

"I know I broke my promises," his voice was low. I didn't look at him like he didn't look at me, we both looked at opposite directions in the forest, blankly staring into the darkness, which reminded me insanely of an abyss. An abyss– that's what we are, and that's what we'll always be. 

An abyss is how I fell for him, because I jumped in, blindly, not caring that there was no ground to land upon. I stood at the edge of the cliff, hoping he wouldn't push me although I very well knew he would, because that's how he always was. And he did.

He pushed me off and I kept falling, and falling and falling, and he was never there to catch me.

You didn't just break your promises Cole, you broke me.

And the worst part is, I don't think I can ever tell him that.