"Why are we doing this again?" Peyton questions as he flaps his hands, he has a scratchy jumper on which he didn't want to wear. But Kai told him he had to as it was getting cold, which is true because its already nearly winter.

"Because, I want them to meet someone who is very special to me" Cole replies as he fixes his hair in the reflection of the door to his house, Peyton just rolls his eyes. He steps on his tip toes and reaches out, messing Cole's hair up more with a smirk plastered on his face.

Cole slaps his hand away and glares down at the laughing boy.

"Anyway, I thought you said they just think we're friends" Cole goes back to tidying his hair, annoying Peyton because why is he acting so scared? They're just having dinner with Cole's parents.

"That's true, but you haven't met them before and I want to introduce you. Also we are just friends right?" He smirks down to the blushing boy who shoves him away by his elbow.

"Shut up, you know what I mean" does he know what he means, does Peyton knows what he means himself? They've been friends for months now and not long ago have they taken their friendship to the next level, but its not like they are going out. They haven't even had their first date yet.

Does this count as a first date?

Peyton shakes his head of the thought, pulling a grossed out look because he will not have his first date with someone's parents tagging along.

He knows that Cole and his parents aren't that close, it's not like they don't get along but from what Cole has said, they don't really talk much. It's weird having a family like that, where you all live together but you act like strangers.

Peyton could never imagine being like that with his brother. And atleast he knew his parents didn't like him, not that they just chose to ignore him.

"Okay, how do I look?"

"Like you did five minutes ago" Cole's eyebrows furrow and he creases his forehead, squinting his eyes at the smaller boy. "Not helpful" Peyton just stomps his feet becoming impatient.

"Cole, can we just go in? They're probably wondering where we are!" He points his hands towards the door in front of them making Cole chuckle.

"Damn, what's got your knickers in a twist?" Peyton gives Cole the death glare making him put his hands up in surrender with one last laugh, before opening the door.

Peyton masks his frown with a smile when they walk through the door, instantly making eye contact with a women.

She has dark brown hair that falls to her shoulders, deep blue eyes and fair skin. She looks like she has a permanent scowl on her face but she doesn't look too old. Maybe around mid thirties.

"Ah, you must be Peyton, lovely to meet you" she takes long slides until she's in front of the two boys and holds out a boney manicured hand for Peyton to take.

But Peyton doesn't take.

Cole tuts at his mum and moves her hand, "he doesn't do that, just say hi like a normal person" Peyton already wants a hole to appear and swallow him whole. His eyes momentarily widen waiting for her to scream but it doesn't come, instead her face remains impassive.

"Always so charming" she gives her son a look, turning around she struts off into the kitchen, "dinner will be served soon." Her voice doesn't waver or stutter, its powerful and strict- she seems powerful and strict.

Cole takes Peyton's hand and pulls him upstairs to his bedroom with a sigh and a roll of his eyes, "as if she does the cooking anyway" he mutters to himself and slams his door shut.

Peyton guesses they have maids to do all their work for them, but with a house as big as this, who can blame them?

Kai: Hey, u ok?

Peyton receives a message from Kai, he rolls his eyes at that. His brother is too protective at times, he hadn't long left their house and here Kai is checking up on him so soon.

Peyton: I'm okay, it's only been fifteen minutes.

Although he says this so Kai would calm down and stop asking about how he is, he knows he's going to be spammed with many messages all throughout dinner time.

A couple minutes later, Cole's mother is shouting both of the boy's down for dinner. They walk down the stairs and into the kitchen where both of Cole's parents are. Sat down with a pile of food (that looked absolutely amazing and delicious) laid out on the table.

"Take a seat" his mother nods towards two chairs, Cole walks in front of Peyton and pulls out one of them. For Peyton to sit on.

The younger boy's cheeks tint a dark shade of pink but he tries to hide it under his messy curls, he takes a seat and says a small "thank you" to which Cole nods at with his own warm smile.

Peyton takes the seat and looks around the table filled with food, "it looks nice" he coughs awkwardly into his hand when his parents doesn't answer buy pile food onto their plate.

Cole does the same so Peyton copies, though he tries to keep all his food separate on his plate. He hates when something gooey touches something hard (don't make it weird, I see you) it grosses him out.

As he lifts his fork up to his mouth he is stopped by a male voice, "before we eat, let's say grace" Cole's father speaks as puts his hands together closing his eyes. His mother does the same.

Peyton puts his fork down awkwardly, he never had to pray before. He and Kai would just scoff down their food in the living room whilst watching something on TV and effectively making a huge mess.

Not sitting all together around the table in a cold kitchen and having to pray to god to say thanks for the food that he didn't even cook. Peyton just finds the whole praying thing odd, but if Cole's family did it then he would respect them.

He locks his hands together but hears a sigh to the side of him, turning his head he spots Cole rolling his eyes. "Dad, we have a guest. Do we really have to do this?" His father peaks an eye open, "he's not religious."

His father shakes his head slowly, "you're not religious either. You're probably a satanist, yet you still pray with us" Cole scoffs at that and Peyton tries to cover up his laugh with a cough.

Cole's mother picks up her own fork and clears her throat, "dear he's right, we have a guest. Let's just eat our food before it turns cold." Cole sighs in relief, probably now believing in God and thanking him for his parents cooperation.

They all start digging in, Peyton has to hold back a moan from how delicious the food tastes.

He's realising Cole's parents aren't that talkative, they only ask random questions every now and then. And everytime they do it seems like an interrogation "Peston, what are you studying at college?" Cole makes a tutting sound that echos around the kitchen.

"How many times have I said, his name is Peyton, pey-ton" he spells the name out for his father who just adjusts his glasses on his face and doesn't correct himself.

He looks a bit older than Cole's mother, black hair with bits of grey littered all over. Grandad glasses but he doesn't look too old.

Before Cole's father can reply Peyton cuts in to save the awkwardness of starting an argument at dinner. "I'm doing animal management, I love animals" he voices shyly and his cheeks tint at how his voice sounded. But looking over at Cole he smiles when seeing the older boy smile at him, his eyes have a sort of twinkle. There's an emotion that Peyton can't quite pick up on but he doesn't care, he's only bothered about the older boy's wide smile.

"Animals? What job are you hoping to get out of that then?" He doesn't sound like he's curious, more like he's laughing at the idea of working with animals in his head.

Peyton can see from the corner of his eye Cole massaging his forehead, he looks like he's already regretting inviting Peyton round to meet his family. And the feeling is mutual to Peyton, he definitely regrets coming. But he's still glad Cole wanted him to meet his parents.

Peyton starts fidgeting with his stress ball under the table, "um, I'm not quite sure yet" this just earns a small laugh from the man.

"You don't know what you want to do in the future?" He nudges his wife nodding to the boy, like it's some kind of joke. But his wife just gives him an unamused look and goes back to eating.

Shaking his head he does the same, Cole leans in closer "you okay?" He questions quiet enough for only Peyton to hear.

Peyton looks to him and nods to reassure that he's fine.

Halfway through their meal, Misty comes and joins them on the table. Cole's parents don't look bothered that there is a small kitten perched up on the dinning table.

Peyton laughs when she grabs her tail to lick and clean, though his face becomes red when everyone stares at him. "So, you do actually like animals" Cole's father mutters and shakes his head in a disproving matter.

Cole's mother clears her throat, gaining everyone's attention. "Anyone want a glass of wine to get through this?" She jokes but at the same time she pours herself some red wine in her glass and looks around the table. She looks to Peyton in question who shakes his head slightly, "no thanks."

He starts squeezing his fidget stress ball again on top of the table, he's happy that Cole wants him to meet those close to him. But this is awkward, he feels like he can't talk because Cole's parents would judge him.

Well, his father judge him.

"What is that thing you have in your hand?" Speaking of judging.

Cole's father points to Peyton's hands, curious to see what he has under his fingers. Cole groans, sounding like he's fed up with dinner already, "dad! Don't be rude, just finish your food" Peyton almost laughs at the irony of that.

The kid telling the parent to shut up and eat instead of the other way round.

He moves his hand under the table with the ball to hide it once Cole's father just waves his hand, as if saying 'forget i asked'.

Peyton thought that his mother (who he still doesn't know the name of) would be the one to ask all the ignorant questions with how strict she looked. But she mostly kept to herself and ate her dinner up, of course with the addition of a glass of wine but still.

After finishing their food in an uncomfortable silence the two boys stand up, "we best get going, I have to take Peyton home" Cole informs his mum who nods at him.

"Well Peyton it was nice to meet you, nice to meet one of Cole's friends who isn't a druggie" His mother slips in as they leave the kitchen. Peyton's eyes widen at that because he can clearly tell that that's a dig at Cole's friends.

He looks to Cole who seems to be keeping in his anger, he looks like he wants to say something to his mother but instead he leave the kitchen dragging Peyton with him.

"I swear" he mutters under his breath but Peyton misses the rest of his sentence from waving to his mother, he hears Cole's dad yell a 'goodbye' to him but decides to ignore. Because he was weirded out about his stress ball, and Peyton in fact likes his stress ball.

"I am sorry for that, I thought they would actually be mature with having a guest round" they leave the house and walk down the path. Its quite chilly and dark even though its probably only around six in the evening.

Peyton turns to Cole with a serious face, he looks straight in grey eyes when he says; "i want you to know this for both of our sakes" Cole stops dead in his track to listen to Peyton. "And I mean this in the nicest way possible" Cole doesn't know what to expect so he just stands their with open ears.

"I am never seeing your parents ever again."

This causes Cole to snort out of humor, he can relate. If he could he wouldn't see them ever again either, sometimes they are too much to handle.

"And how is this the nicest way possible?" He questions with a small smirk, Peyton has no emotion present on his face when he says in a serious tone, "because I didn't scream, be thankful." This causes Cole to burst out laughing.

Peyton tilts his head at him, confused as to why he's laughing at him. Because it definitely wasn't a joke, he is not seeing them again.

"Noted" Cole laughs one more time and takes Peyton's freezing cold hand to start walking to his motorbike.

"Common, let's get you home. You're freezing" Peyton nods and once at the bike they both put their helmets on and sit down on the bike.

Peyton wraps his arms around Cole, he gets the familer feeling of warmth spread inside his body, warming him up even though its freezing out. He sighs a sigh of comfort when he leans his head against the older's back. Liking the feeling of Cole being so close.

"Oh, thanks for coming by the way" Cole tells him and soon they are whizzing off down the road like so many times before. Halfway through the ride home Peyton realises he forgot his stress ball at Cole's house.

He groans a bit but they are already too far in the journey to go back, he'll just have to wait for college so Cole can give it back.

But little does he know, at Cole's house is Cole's father in the living room. Tossing the ball up and down in his hand, his wife stares at him from where she's sat on the couch. Rolling her eyes and thinking 'how the hell are you my husband?'

*****

The next day in college Peyton sits with Milo at lunch, like everyday before.

"Hey, did you hear about Mr Smith, apparently he fucked a student" Peyton's eyes momentarily widen and he pulls away his bottle that he was about to drink from.

"Huh?" Is all he can say, since their friendship has started Peyton can't help but notice that Milo likes gossip. He always knows everything about everything and what's happening. The other day he described a girl's life from just what he had overheard from her friends talking about her behind her back.

They didn't even know the girl, but now thanks to Milo's love for gossip and drama. They know absolutely useless information about her entire life.

"Yeah, apparently he is getting sacked today. The principle only just found out" Peyton wants to question how the hell does he even know all this. Did he see the principle talking to the teacher about it or what? Was it just a rumour flying throughout all the students because they were bored and wanted to cause chaos.

So many questions but before he could ask them Milo is shooting up from his seat. "Wow, check it out" he nods for Peyton to stand to so he does out of curiosity and stares at where Milo is looking.

It's a whole crowd of students, it's odd how many times Peyton has seen a crowd like this in the college so far.

"What do you think is happening?" Milo nudges Peyton with his elbow but Peyton just pulls a face at him, Milo has a wide grin because of the drama. "Hey you think it's Mr noncey?" Peyton shakes his head at that poor excuse of a joke.

He glances back to the crowd but his eyes widen at a familer face, of course this is happening again. Peyton goes on his tip toes to see over the crowd more clearly and Milo looks to him in question before shrugging and doing the same.

"Oh shit, hey isn't that your frie-" before Milo can even finish, Peyton is rushing down to the crowd. Pushing people out the way and cringing everytime he feels someone against him.

He finally gets to the front where he can see as clear day, Cole and a random guy fighting. Fists connecting with one another's face, Peyton spots blood dripping down Cole's face and he winces everytime the other boy lands a punch.

He wants to scream from being so worried, Cole grabs the guy's shirt and slams him against the brick wall of the library. He then lands a powerful fist against the dude's face with a manic looking grin.

Like he's enjoying causing pain.

Peyton can hear everyone screaming, out of pure joy from a fight. It's like entertainment to them. He can hear Milo yell his name from way behind him but all the noises sort of blend together.

He can hear the screaming, his name being yelled, birds chirping in the distance, the noises of the two boys fighting.

The sun is too bright even though it's barely there, mostly hidden away by clouds. Everything becomes one hundred times more.

He puts his hands against his ears to stop the noise, closing his eyes as tight as he can to block out the light. Everything stops, it sounds like everything suddenly went under water, or he drowned and all of the noise slowly died out.

Before he's realises it, two hands curl around his wrists making him jump.

He opens his eyes and breathes a sigh of relief after spotting Cole, he slowly drops his hands to the side but Cole doesn't let go of him. His face is painted with worry for the younger boy and soon he is lightly dragging him away.

He drags him into the college bathrooms but Peyton winces at the bright lights and the toilets flushing.

"Hey" Cole leans down and speaks, his voice is gentle and soft. Like he's speaking to a wild animal and doesn't want it to run away, "hey, you okay?" He moves his hands to cup Peyton's cheeks though the boy doesn't know what to say.

Right now all he can see is blood, dried up blood spilling from Cole's nose. A tiny cut forming on his eyebrow, a graze on his cheek, his knuckles all bloodied and bruised. And he hates it.

He hates seeing Cole hurt, he hates him fighting.

"Why do you keep doing this?" He questions but his voice wavers half way through, he knows the answer. Cole has said it before, he does is so his parents would pay attention to him. Actually be there for him for once.

Cole's eyes soften yet they fill with guilt, "I'm sorry, he was just being a dick" Peyton shakes his head stepping back making Cole drop his hands from the boy's face.

"No, you do this to annoy your parents, you do it for attention. You don't care who you hurt, you don't care that you're hurting yourself! You just do it to rebel" Peyton continues shaking his head, giving himself a headache.

"Peyton stop" Cole warns him, not wanting Peyton to hurt himself but he doesn't listen. Instead he keeps shaking his head, avoiding eye contact with the older boy who looks worried.

"No! Stop fighting! I don't like fighting, why do you keep doing this" his hands come up against his head, fingers grip around his curls and he tug slightly.

"Peyton, stop!" Cole moves forwards and grabs the boy's arms roughly to get him to listen, and to get him to stop hurting himself. He could tell it was hurting from the boy's winces with every pull to a curl.

"I didn't do it because of that okay! Me and my parents are fine at the moment, I did it because-" he cuts himself off when Peyton cracks his eyes open to see Cole but furrows his forehead when spotting the injuries on his face.

"Why?" His voice cracks and he seems out of breath and tired, Cole sighs.

"Because, he was saying shit about us- about you" Peyton looks up to Cole, his breaths calm down but now he just looks confused. "What? What do you mean talking about us, about what?"

Cole looks up to the ceiling as he figures out how to word it, Peyton just stares at him curiously. "He saw us on the hill that day, when we kissed. He was just calling you names and saying how I'm using you" Peyton takes a sharp breath in, why would someone think that?

Was Cole using him?

"Peyton you know it's not true, I'm not using you okay I like you. So fucking much, and he was just calling you names and I got mad- I'm sorry, okay?" Peyton takes his hands and cups them around the boy's cheeks. This causes Cole to stop rambling, making his eyes widen slightly.

Peyton squints his own eyes at Cole's face, as if he's inspecting it so Cole stares into Peyton's beautiful eyes. "You're telling the truth" Cole just furrows his brows at that, "you can't look at someone when you lie."

Cole swears his heart just warmed, he's happy that Peyton pays attention to little details about him but he didn't know he had a tell when he's lying.

He grins with his pearly white teeth on display and holds Peyton's hands which are against his cheeks. "You're adorable" he laughs, no one ever cares for the little details about him. One of the many reasons why Cole likes the smaller boy so much is this, because he always pays attention to every little thing.

Peyton drops his hands from Cole's face making the boy whine at the lost contact, Peyton walks his way over to the tissue dispenser and grabs a few towels. He then puts them under the cold tap from the sink and turns to Cole who only smiles at him.

"You're all gross, I need to clean you" Cole chuckles but obliges by leaning down a bit so Peyton can reach his face.

He carefully dabs over the small cut on Cole's eyebrow and wipes all the blood away to make the cut clean. Hearing a small wince he moves along to Cole's bloodied noise and wipes away the dried red stains. "You're really pretty under this light" Cole tells him making the curly haired boy smile and giggle, "stop I'm trying to do this" he replies in a jokey voice.

Cole just puts his hands up in surrender as Peyton continues attending to the small wounds.

After a moment of silence Cole breaks it, "why did you freak out earlier?" When Peyton only replies with a small 'hm' so Cole continues. "When you were in the crowd, you hand your hands against your ears."

Peyton sighs and throws away the soggy tissues in the bin once he's finished, Cole wipes at his face where it's wet from cleaning the blood off.

"I have sensory issues" he supposes it isn't a lie but it isn't the whole truth, though he does has issues with noises and lighting or even the feel of certain things. He doesn't want Cole to know the entire truth just yet, he doesn't wasn't to scare the boy away. And currently they are in a good place.

"Sometimes certain noises annoy me, like my brain doesn't like it. Or I get headaches from certain lighting. I feel sick after touching a certain material, especially cotton" with this he shivers at the thought. The feel of cotton disgusts him, expecially socks.

Cole nods slowly and eyes Peyton, he can tell that that's not all but he's glad Peyton told him about having sensory issues. Now he can help prevent triggering him again by being there for him when there's certain things he doesn't like.

Like for his date idea, the place where he wants to take the boy might be a bit loud so he's going to have to think of some alternatives so the boy is comfortable with the noise.

The door to the bathroom swings open and here comes Milo, panting and looking like his dog. Peyton laughs at that thought.

Milo points to him, "you" He breaths out "where did you go, I was looking everywhere. I swear I almost died in that crowd" Peyton shakes his head at his friend with an amused look.

Though Cole squints his eyes at him. Not jealous, definitely not.

Milo turns to Cole and waves, "oh hey Cole, by the way that dude is after you. He is massive, I'm surprised you're not dead by now" he falls against the wall still out of breath, he seriously sounds like he's dying.

His eyes widen as he slips down the wall and soon he's sitting against the wall because his jelly like legs couldn't keep him up, "guess I'm sitting on the floor now then."

Cole rolls his eyes at him and turns back to Peyton with a look, but all Peyton can do is laugh at his weird friend.

He smiles at that, friend. Two of his friends that he made when moving to a new town are here right now, one trying to suck in as much oxygen as he can and the other. Well the other one just looking pissed.

Peyton smiles up to him making it hard for Cole to resist, so he caves in and gives a smile back. "Seriously guys, I'm dying over here."

And the moment's ruined.

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Thank you for all the reads, please vote and comment. Again, thank you!!

Hope you enjoyed this one even though it was quite quick and not much happened.

Dw, there will be some drama soon... *evil laughter*