Day Five
Night

Cole had a few, obvious expectations for the night.

1: They would all probably get too drunk and regret it in the morning.

2: The bar would play at least one of Nate's songs and they could embarrass him.

3: Scarlett would yell at them for getting too drunk.

What he didn't expect... was, well, how the night actually went.

Cole was four tequila shots and three beers in when he started to feel it, and his brother singing nonstop karaoke was only making him feel drunker. The boys decided on taking over the karaoke bar at the resort while the girls headed over to the bar that had a dance floor in the middle. They were just down the hall from each other at the resort, really. Everything was going smoothly— they were taking shots, singing bad karaoke, and Nate looked on top of the world. Cole even got to sing one karaoke song before his brother decided it was time to take over.

Nate's brother, James, was sat quietly at the bar with the rest of them. Going out wasn't entirely enjoyable for the boy, but nonetheless, he came out to spend time with Nate. The two were often engaged in their own conversation, which the others all did their best to respect. Cole hadn't had too many interactions with James, but he seemed nice enough. Cole was a bit reserved at first considering he heard from Scarlett that the boy had given her a bit of a hard time at first, but Scarlett assured him that James had grown considerably since then.

"Can't believe you're getting married, dude," James said with a bit of disbelief in his voice.

Nate nudged him with a laugh. "Try to sound less shocked when you give the Best Man speech."

"I just mean it's wild that you groveled for two years about this girl you met once and then actually found her," James explained, leaning against the bar. "And she turned out to be pretty cool, too. Not too bad of a story."

"Her family's not too bad either, right?" Cole jumped in jokingly.

James fought a smirk as he shrugged. "To be determined."

"Don't lie," Nate interjected with a smile, "you were more excited than I was for tonight."

His brother shot him a warning look, but didn't really look too bothered about the reveal. He shrugged and said, "Just an excuse to see someone other than you, for once."

"Ouch," Nate bellowed as he wrapped an arm around James' head and rubbed his fist against the boy's hair. James shoved him away with a laugh. "Gotta think about replacing you as Best Man."

"Please, you don't have any other friends," James shot at him and dove away before Nate could attack him again. "Drama queen."

"I am not a drama queen!" Nate argued, affronted.

"Yeah? Maybe I should crash your wedding with a song," Cole teased, knowing exactly how the boy would react.

Nate snapped his head over to him, defending himself with, "You said it was fine!"

"Yeah, I did! But... fair's fair, man."

He sighed dramatically, leaning against the bar as he glanced up at the karaoke stage where Sam was. "One thing I know for sure, your brother won't be getting anywhere near a microphone at my wedding."

"Tell him that," Cole challenged, nodding his head at his brother who was waiting eagerly by the stage.

"And... for a sixth time tonight," the DJ stressed in frustration, "because apparently I can't deny anyone from singing karaoke no matter how many times they've butchered American classics, we have Sam Alvarez singing some new Nate Cameron song. Which luckily, I already hate."

Nate's head instantly darted over to Sam who looked incredibly proud of himself. He detached himself from under his boyfriend's arm and hopped back onto the stage. He shot some finger guns at the DJ, waltzing around the stage as if he owned it. And tonight, he really did. Nobody had gotten up on that stage as often as he did.

"Not a fan of the song?" Cole asked the DJ in amusement, referring to his last comment.

He scrunched his face up. "Not my style."

"Me neither," Nate agreed with a boyish grin. Cole snorted, rolling his eyes at the singer.

Like he had been the whole night so far, Charlie had been sitting at the closest table to the stage, watching his boyfriend perform with admiration all over his face. Charlie cheered enthusiastically whenever Sam stepped foot on stage, which made the other boy's face light up. Honestly, it was one of the sweetest things Cole had ever seen. And naturally, Ashton took his role of Sam's "frenemy" very seriously, calling out whenever the boy was pitchy or flat. Which, surprising nobody, was very often. Cole had no idea how they lived together at college for four years now, he was genuinely shocked they were both still alive.

Cole couldn't help but laugh as he watched his brother through his phone camera, making sure to record every second. A notification interrupted his recording, and he squinted his eyes to see when he saw who it was from. He wasn't sure why his youngest sister would be calling him right now if it wasn't an emergency.

"We need you, it's Alli."

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

Cole was sure he had never ran so quickly in his life. Hearing Allison's cries in the background of Lila's call made his stomach drop. Allison was never one to break down easily. In truth, she had always been the stronger one of the two of them. She hadn't expressed this kind of reaction in... Cole wasn't even sure how long. There were times where she would get upset, sure. But this? Cole couldn't even fathom what had caused this.

He was pretty sure the last time he heard Allison cry like this was a couple weeks after Cole's father passed. She held it together for ages— the hospital, the funeral, the wake. She didn't waiver, not once. But Cole got home early from work one day, and to his surprise, Alli's car was in the driveway. When he made his way up the stairs, he heard a gut-wrenching noise coming from their bedroom. He didn't even recognize it as Allison at first. He never heard her cry like that. He rushed into their bedroom and held her as she wailed in his arms. They didn't say a word, he just held her as she cried. It was terrifying to hear her cry like that again.

Luckily, the bar the others went to was only a bit of a ways down in the resort from where Nate and them were. He didn't even tell the others he was leaving, he just ran. He figured he would text them afterwards once he saw Allison was safe. There was nothing more important than that. Ever.

Cole spotted them quickly in the corner of the bar and rushed over. Allison was sat in a barstool, hunched over the bar with her head in her hands as she sobbed, her entire body shaking. Cole glanced around in panic, only to find the girls looking just as alarmed. He placed a hand on Allison's back hesitantly to let her know he was there as he asked, "What happened? Did she have too much to drink?"

"I don't even know if I saw her have anything," Lila told him unsurely as she moved over so Cole could get next to Alli.

She didn't waste a second as she wrapped her arms around Cole's neck, holding him tightly. He was surprised for a moment before hugging her waist, bringing her in close to him. "Hey, you're okay... I'm here, all right?"

Her voice was soft as she asked, "Can we go to bed?"

"Yeah, yeah, let's go, I got you," he rambled out, standing up slightly. She reluctantly loosened her arms around him and stood up, wiping her face from the tears. "Can you stand? I can carry you."

"I'm okay," she assured him as she stood up next to him. "Thank you... for coming to get me."

"Always," Cole told her instantly, and he hoped she believed him.

It wasn't as much of a struggle as Cole thought it would be to get her back to their hotel room. The girls bid them a goodnight after Alli assured them she didn't want them to stop the night because of her. Cole knew this wasn't like her at all. Alli never was one to get emotional when she drank. She barely ever even drank that much. She hated not being in control of herself.

Cole walked a step behind her to make sure she was all right walking, which surprisingly, she was. Alli didn't seem to have any trouble getting from the bar up to their hotel room. She was quiet, but that unfortunately wasn't an uncommon occurrence these days. But Cole couldn't stop thinking about what could've have set her off. As he said, this wasn't like her. He wanted to help, but that didn't feel like his place nowadays.

He pulled out their key card and pressed it against the door, unlocking it with a quiet click. They walked through the door in silence, Cole checking her face to see if anything was wrong. To his alarm, her face was scrunched up again, glancing around the room. He didn't know what she saw here that set her off again, but she sniffled harshly, shaking her head at him. He gaped at her, unsure of what to do and hating how helpless he felt.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled out, eyes filling with tears. "I'm so sorry."

"It's all good, I wanted to get out of there anyway," Cole assured her, attempting a smile. "I couldn't listen to Sam sing another karaoke song."

"No, no, I'm sorry for everything," Allison corrected him in a thick voice which made him pause in his step. "You didn't deserve any of this, I'm so sorry."

He tried to walk her towards the bed but she wasn't having it. He sighed out, shaking his head as he said, "You don't need to apologize, okay? A lot of it has been on me."

"No, it's not just you," she retorted firmly, sniffling as she sucked in enough air to say, "there's just been so much..."

Allison trailed off and Cole nodded, knowing what she was trying to say. They had been together for so long that everything between them had just piled up on them throughout the years, and it was crushing them. Too much had gone on for them to just move on. But this wasn't a conversation they should have when Alli was this drunk. This wasn't fair to her. She wasn't completely in control of what she was saying. In an attempt to have her just sleep it off, he said, "Let's just get you to bed, okay? You'll feel better in the morning."

"I love you, I do," Allison cried out with tears streaming down her face. "I just think too much has happened."

"Allison, you're drunk," Cole attempted softly, trying to guide her to the bed. "I don't want you to say something you'll regret."

"And I miss you calling me Alli," she went on, eyes shutting. "You don't say it as often as you used to."

"Hey, you're okay," he cooed softly, smoothing his hand over her hair in a calming manner. "You're always Alli to me, I'm sorry I stopped calling you that."

She sniffled, leaning into his touch and breathing out shakily. "I just miss you, I miss how we used to be."

"I miss you too," Cole admitted quietly after a moment.

"I didn't mean to push you away," Alli told him, staring up at him with round, glossy eyes.

He continued to run his hand through her hair, noticing her calm down slightly. "I didn't mean to go."

"Do you think we can ever be what we used to be?" she asked him her voice shaking.

Cole didn't know what to say to that, in all honesty. He didn't want to talk about this like... this. It wasn't fair to have this kind of conversation when she wasn't in the right mindset for it. She was drunk, and he really wasn't. He still had a slight buzz from earlier, but he sobered up pretty quickly when he saw her. Either way, it wouldn't be fair to answer that kind of question right now. What he really wanted to do was say, "Yes, please, please... let me love you again."

But he didn't, instead, he pressed his lips against the crown of her head. Letting himself linger for a moment, he closed his eyes. After a few moments, he pulled back and gently eased her down into the bed. She kept her eyes on him until her head hit the pillow. She rolled over and closed her eyes tightly. Cole saw tears running down her face and felt like he just got stabbed in the chest.

He was walking over to the couch when he heard a soft voice speak up, asking, "Please, please... just sleep next to me tonight."

Cole froze, unsure of what to do. He didn't wanna take advantage of the fact that she was drunk, but it almost seemed like it would be worse to not do what she asked right now. Alli was looking at him like his answer could shatter her, and he didn't want to be reason she was in anymore pain than she has been in. Sleeping in the same bed together was harmless enough. He nodded at her and she shuddered, as if the relief just flooded her.

He hesitantly walked to the other side of the bed, lifting up the sheet to get into. It felt strange, he actually couldn't remember the last time he had slept on a bed, let alone shared one with Alli. Cole watched her as he got under the covers, looking for any indication that she was changing her mind. But she gave none. In fact, she held her arm out, reaching for him. He slipped under the blanket and let her lead as she pulled him close, resting her head on his chest instantly. His arm fell around her, and it was like everything was all right again. They fit each other like a puzzle, and it was nice to finally be back here.

But then he felt Alli shake slightly, her eyes squeezed shut as tears leaked out of them. For a moment, Cole thought it was because of him. He moved to leave the bed, but Alli quickly scrunched her hand into a fist on his chest, grabbing at his shirt to make him stay. He was confused for a moment before realizing she just needed him to hold her. He pulled her in further, kissing the crown of her forehead once more, rubbing a hand up and down her back.

"Shh... shh, it's okay, I'm right here," he told her softly, moving his hand through her hair. "I'm right here."

"But you won't always be," Alli whispered back so quietly that Cole almost missed it.

And Cole didn't know what to say to that.

Because if they kept going down the track they were going... she was right— he wouldn't always be.

˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

Any ideas as to what set her off?