Chapter Twenty:  You Attract More Women Than Victoria's Secret on Black Friday

"Your personal glam squad has arrived now drink this coffee, perk up and let me get my hands on you."

I'm plucked out of bed and made to sit upright. For once I'm glad that Cole left me alone in bed, freezing my butt off because he needed to go on a run with his dad, much as I'd like for him to be my human body warmer. I doubt he would appreciate being ambushed in bed by my best friends carrying enough beauty supplies to scare him into considering entering a convent.

"I know you can't see it under my mop of hair but I'm scowling pretty hard right now."

Beth pats my head and I can hear her and Megan setting up shop around my bedroom. There's a rustle of clothing as one of them barges into my closet and spends quite some time picking an outfit for an event I have no intention of going to.

"It's not going to work." I say in a singsong voice, gulping down my coffee like an open drain.

Megan, I presume plops down on the bed next to me and tips my chin up. I'm forced to move my brand new bangs out of my eyes and glare at her. "We're not fans of Caldwell's methods ourselves..."

"Understatement of the century!" Beth yells from somewhere down the rabbit hole that is my walk in wardrobe.

"...But this is a good idea. If people see you and your family in a normal setting, acting like the normal well adjusted people that you are they're less likely to care about all the rubbish that's been published."

"I went to the supermarket yesterday to buy Kit Kat in bulk and the cashier asked me if my psychiatrist prescribed it because she truly believed that chocolate was an anti-depressant."

"Oh."

"So thanks but no thanks, I'm done with this town and their opinion. My dad thinks it's a good idea to just throw us out there and host this huge party then let him. I'm not attending it, in fact I have plans. The tattoo guy said he could fit me between 6 and 8pm today."

Beth storms out of my wardrobe, a black dress draped over her arm her expression thunderous.

"Uh oh." Megan whispers to the side of me but makes no move to stop our best friend from giving me a good old verbal smackdown.

"You're being a baby, a big thumb sucking, nasty diaper pooping baby about all of this and if I have to listen to one more thing about how you're too delicate to put on your big girl panties and deal with this nonsense then we're going to have a huge problem."

I shoot up, no doubt looking badass and what not in my Christmas onesie featuring Rudolph the Reindeer which a pop up nose that squeaked when pressed.

"You don't know what you're talking about! You can't even begin to imagine what it feels like when everyone's starting at you, talking behind your back and judging you based on things they don't know shit about."

She scowls, "Oh that's rich. I don't know? Is that what you really think? That I cruised through my life here? That people didn't comment on my tattoos, my hair, my piercings? Oh and my mom, they had a lot of fun speculating on what she'd been up to when she left town? But the best part was my dad because according to the people here my mother slept with most of Hollywood and everyone from good old George Clooney to Robert Downey, Jr. could've been my father. Not that I wasn't flattered but it's not the best subject for small talk is it?"

I'm instantly drowning in guilt and feeling pretty ridiculous about my tantrum over the last couple of days ever since dad's press secretary called the emergency meeting and had us preparing to do some damage control. I like to think I went off the rails a bit but dying my hair platinum blonde with pink tips and cutting it off till it reached the tops of my shoulders wasn't as much retaliation as it was a makeover. I was too straight laced to ever do something drastic even in times of great emotional upheaval.

There is no tattoo appointment, obviously.

"I'm sorry," I tell her, feeling my cheeks heat up in obvious embarrassment. "I know I've been acting childish but honestly, I thought I'd left all this behind when I went to college and the things I did as a sixteen year old idiot keep following me around. I'm so sick of it."

She wraps me in a hug, "You know what my motto is Tess, when life becomes difficult you become a stubborn bitch. Don't let anyone make you feel like anything you don't want to feel like. You hear me?"

"I'd put that in my essay but removing the profanity won't nearly have the same effect." Megan chuckles and we're back to normal. I let them doll me up for the Christmas party we're hosting this evening at town hall and keep my fingers crossed that the night goes on without incident.

***

To provide some brief context because of why I'd attempted to light fire to photo albums of Fatty Tessie's past and had displayed rather disturbing behaviour since Caldwell's visit is because of the very reasons I'd discussed with my friends. Ever since the article on my family went to print I feel like the walls around me have started closing in. Things were bad enough with how I'd been hounded by the press for Cole's sake but now to be in my safe place, my home and have that sense of security snatched from me is a bit too much and it pushed me to the edge.

I didn't chop off my hair because it's in the manual for what a girl should do in a difficult time, I did it because I'm so sick of being me at this point. But once the melodrama has subsided and I really take into account Beth's two cents I realise that she's right. No one can make me feel bad about myself unless I want to feel that way and she's the best example out there for what it's like to continue being who you are when everyone judges you for exactly that reason.

Squaring my shoulder, I grab a champagne flute from one of the waiters circulating around the large ballroom and look for familiar faces, well mostly one person's face. Cole should've been here an hour ago and even though we agreed that it wasn't necessary for him to escort me this evening I'd definitely appreciate it if he offered some moral support. Because even as I sip my drink which I attract the kind of attention that'd even fool me into thinking that I needed an AA sponsor.

"Hi," Someone says to my right, interrupting my glaring at the front door as if it's keeping my boyfriend out.

I turn my head to said voice and am pleasantly surprised to see a familiar face from high school. There aren't a lot of people I'd remember fondly when it comes to the past few year in my school but he'd been one of the good ones.

"Mike? Hey!" I move in for a quick hug, relieved to at least know one person here who doesn't question my mental stability. Even though it's a Christmas party hosted by the mayor, my friends and their families had prior commitments. Well, Megan and Alex did, I've texted my brother several times to ask where he and Beth are. The Stones should have arrived as well and it's really starting to make me feel anxious.

Mike dated Lauren in high school, the cheerleader who'd been somewhat nice towards me even after I'd been relegated to the bleachers by Nicole. We'd lost touch since graduation but I remembered her and Mike heading off to college together just like Cole and I did.

"Wow, it's great to see you. I haven't really been able to catch up with anyone from our class since the last couple of months."

I craned my neck and looked around him to the increasing number of people joining us. "Can I be honest? I'm kinda happy to not have to see a lot of them here." I shrug my shoulder, "But it's really good to see you here. Did your parents force you?"

He smirks at me, "Basically. But you guys know how to throw a decent Christmas party, I might even go near the fruitcake."

He reminds me a lot of Bentley in the sense that he oozes an awkward sort of charm and makes you feel at ease with him. Of course he's built like a linebacker and probably plays college ball like Cole but I'm not at all intimidated by him.

"Oh the horror! Not the fruitcake, don't ever go near the fruitcake. You don't know what the O'Connell family secret recipe might be."

He laughs and maybe it's my imagination but he leans a bit closer. "Maybe I'll just find out when I have a taste."

I laugh, it sounds nervous and a little weirded out. I back off a little. "So...how's Lauren?" I place my glass on the tray of a server passing by and think mournfully about resisting getting another one.

He blinks a couple of times before his eyes lose their playfulness and he clenches his jaw. "We're not together anymore. It's probably for the best, you know what they say about high school romances." His voice is bitter, clearly he isn't over the break up.

"Uh no I don't actually but I'm truly sorry to hear that things didn't work out between the two of you. She was one of the nicer people in this town."

He grimaces, "People change. She's not so nice anymore." But then he shutters his expression once again and crosses the couple of inches of space between us. "But you, you've always been so incredibly sweet haven't you. I like what you've done with your hair."

I gape at him.

Is he hitting on me really? Cole and my relationship is public knowledge, everybody's all up in our business even if I don't want them to be and he has the audacity to basically proposition me to be his one night stand? That's the only thing a guy who's still hung up over his ex is interested in.

"You...I can't believe you would..."

"I've been keeping up Stone's career, he's a big thing right now. He's also publicly announced that he's single, my sister pointed that out to be today. So I take it you're no longer together."

I'm about to tell him where exactly he can take his intruding question when I'm grabbed by the wrist, spun around and pulled into a strong,well built chest. I barely have a minute to take in Cole's infuriated face when fuses his lips to mine and gives me a kiss that's in no way appropriate for public display. But I don't fight him because he needs to do this, because I want him to kiss me like this instead of treating me like I'm made up of glass. His hands span my lower back as I twine my arms around his neck, getting utterly lost in the moment until we hear several throats clearing. I have some sense of self preservation as I give Cole a gentle push and rest my head on his chest. He's breathing hard against my forehead, his arms surrounding me possessively.

"Did that answer your question?" He growls.

Okay then Mr.Caveman. Mike gapes at us before attempting to form coherent speech, failing and then spinning on his feet and leaving. I laugh into Cole's chest and punch his shoulder lightly. "You've got to stop doing that to people."

He's annoyed, I can still with how worked up his muscles are. "I can't leave you alone for five minutes before some guy starts pawing at you. Is this how it's always going to be?"

"Hold up for a second before you start brooding over there but isn't that my problem? That you  attract more women than Victoria's Secret on Black Friday?"

I can't even be angry at him right now because he looks good enough to eat in his suit. White shirt with the sleeves pushed back, a black suit jacket sans tie and black slacks. He's absolutely dreamy right now, caveman like but still dreamy.

He laughs and I can see some of the tension melting away but his line of vision still follows Mike and he's muttering some not so nice words under his breath as he glares at his back.

"So! Care to explain why you're so late?" I try and ignore the amount of people eyeballing me.

He squares his shoulders and clears his throat, "About that..." He's looking everywhere but at me and I get suspicious. Nothing good ever comes out of him being up to something, especially not right now.

"Did you know," I begins, "that at least five people have come up to me and asked me if I could speak in public about my struggle with alcoholism and drug abuse?"

He shoots a vicious glare at the people around us, "Who the hell dared to do that? I thought I told Steve to make sure no one bothered you."

"Who's Steve?"

"No one you should worry about. He's very professional about these things."

"Cole," I step away from him and ask as calmly as I possibly can right now. "Did you hire a hitman?"

He snorts, "It's not so easy to find these days. It's not like I can just log on to Craigslist and look a hitman up now can I?"

"And yet it seems like you've tried."

"I asked a guy who knew a guy but it's a dying business these days."

"Cole!"

"Okay, okay but first have I mentioned that you look absolutely beautiful today."

Rolling my eyes at his childish antics, "Come on I know you can do better than that."

He grins, "You're right I absolutely can." He comes closer than what could consider publicly appropriate and wraps an arm around my waist. His lips graze my ear and I suck in a breath. "You're the most gorgeous girl in this room and it's taking every ounce of will power I have to not haul out of here and take you back to my house where I plan on doing very many things to you."

I suck in a breath.

"Well, then...that was much better." I stumble around my words and feel a little dazed, it's ridiculous how he can still manage to do that.

He smirks, "Was that better?"

"Huh? What?"

"I thought so."

***

The party goes as well as it possibly could. Yes, people still looked at me like I'I was the lost puppy they wanted to take home and fix but for the most part I got away unharmed.

Mostly.

We're sitting around a table in the empty hall now, Cole and I sharing a bottle of wine. Even the cleaning crew's left but he held me back saying that he has something to tell me which of course made me panic. Whenever someone says that to me now, it doesn't turn out to be anything good.

"I had a meeting with my agent today."

"You have an agent? Since when? Is he Steve?"

He laughs, "Tessie will you focus. So yes I do have an agent, coach said it was a good idea when I could be drafted right out of college. I needed someone to be on my side."

"I'm on your side." I tell him feeling a little affronted and a little drunk.

"I know and maybe that's why I wanted to do something that'll let you know once and for all that we're in this together."

"I don't doubt you. If I did, I wouldn't have been able to go through with this fake breakup you tried to stage."

"That was a stupid idea."

I slap the table in fake enthusiasm, "You don't say! Oh my gosh, really? A bad idea? Why the ever loving heck did I never think of it that way."

He rolls his eyes and it might be my imagination but I think he blushes a little out of embarrassment.

"Change of plans, we're going in with a new strategy."

"And what would that be? Did Steve put you up to this?"

"Could you please be serious for a second? Steve's your new bodyguard by the way, he won't be around all the time but your dad and I decided that it was best if someone kept an eye on you?"

As soon as his words sink in, my first reaction is annoyance which quickly turns into anger. Gritting my teeth I turn to him, "No offence but my dad is far from becoming President and you're not Tom Brady yet so excuse me if I think you're getting a little ahead of yourselves. A bodyguard? The worst thing he could have to protect me from is an overenthusiastic pom pom waving bimbo and I've dealt with more of them in my life than I have pimples."

He exhales, like I'm the one whose being difficult. "You have to hear me out and promise me that you'll really think about before throwing another tantrum."

"Continue..."

"My agent, whose name isn't Steve has a magazine shoot for me in the next few weeks. It's nothing big but he says that the magazine people were pretty insistent and it'd only help my career out."

I presume my face scrunches in confusion. "You're going to be in tiny underwear and slicked in oil in a female equivalent of Playboy aren't you?"

He bursts out laughing and it breaks the tension of the moment up a little. I can't help but grin as well, Steve temporarily forgotten because damn it I'm really proud of him and I know he's making it a smaller deal that it's supposed to be.

"That's amazing Cole...I just, you're going to be in a magazine. Add my infamous little centre page stint to that and we're becoming quite the power couple. Crap, I didn't mean to say that. I'm proud of you, so proud. You've worked so hard for everything and now its all finally becoming real."

Pulling me out of my seat and settling me across his lap he kisses the side of my neck, slow drugging kisses that make me glad that we're alone. My hands sink into his hair as he continues to kiss my neck.

"...Something else you should know."

"What?" I'm lost, it's a strange mixture of alcohol and the control he has over me.

"I want you to go with me."

"Like on the set? Sure I'll go with you." I trail off as he continues to kiss me.

"No, I mean I want to talk about you and I want you to be in the magazine with me, as my girlfriend."

I freeze and so does Cole. He holds me in place though, knowing that my first instinct would be to deck him.

"What? Are you out of your mind?"

"No," His voice is determined, "everyone's bugging you about questions about me right? They want to know about us and our history and we're I come from then who better to possibly tell them about who I am than you Tessie?"

Damn it, he knows how to get me with me with his words but this is out of the question. I begin struggling in his hold and reluctantly he does. I pace the floor for a while, trying to make sure he escapes the worst of my anger.

"Did you not just suggest we fake a breakup not even a month ago?"

He looks a little shamefaced, "I told I'm sorry, it was a bad idea."

"Yet when I suggested the same thing you wouldn't listen. It was your idea, I went through with it even though I thought it was stupid. It didn't get people off my back, it just made the rumours worse. Add to that how things have turned out with my dad and I could compete with Trump for the amount of headlines I've managed to generate. And now you've changed your mind? That itself would be fine but a magazine shoot? Really?"

He huffs and stalks towards me, "I messed up okay? After hearing everything people have been saying to you, asking the kind of questions they are I thought this would shut them up once and for all."

"Or just attract more attention. Look, let's just calm down and not...not do this. No magazine shoots, no front covers, no anything. I'm your girlfriend and the entire world doesn't need to know that."

He grits his teeth, "But they do. If it ends even a small part of the gossip then..."

"I don't care about the gossip anymore, let people say what they want. Let them assume that I starve myself, let them think I'm depressed or have a horrifically tragic past and if they wan to assume that you dumped me because I trapped you into a fake pregnancy just freaking let them." I don't realise by which point it is that I'm shouting but by the end I feel the tears start to prick at the back of my eyes and maybe the reaction I've been holding in for days is finally starting to show itself

"Tessa...baby, if I could something anything to make all these people go away..."

"You can't. But all I'm asking you right now to do is stop playing all these games. No shoots, no fake break ups no nothing. Just stop trying to micromanage my life."

I push past him and walk away faster than he could stop, that too in six inch heels.

***

You'd think it's tiring to be so constantly in love with someone. It sounds like a real effort to essentially link your heart someone else's and not trust them to be careful with it. I'm afraid and my past made me so. But there's something about being on the receiving end of a love so all consuming and unconditional, strong and stable, supportive and cherishing that makes you brave.

After leaving Cole, I drift towards our usual haunts. After making a brief appearance at the Christmas party, Travis and Beth returned to their apartment so I'm not at the risk of anyone finding me. The town is pretty festive tonight, there's only three days left till Christmas and the joy is infectious. I try not to think about what just transpired between Cole and me because for the most part I know I was just taking out my own frustrations on him.

Finding a quiet place out by the ice rink, I pull out my phone which these days has become an instrument designed especially to inflict torture because nothing good ever comes out of me checking me messages or social media.

I see a couple of messages from Cami that make me feel a little uneasy. There's way too many exclamation marks included for my liking and a link to something that I know I won't like but it's begging me to open it, calling my name and so I click on it...

"I can explain." My eyes dart from the article that I've just pulled up to Cole who's standing right in front of me.

"How did you even find me?"

"It's wasn't that hard," The smug bastard pushes his hands in his pocket, or maybe he's just cold? "I followed you but I wanted to give you the chance to cool down a bit. That was quite the speech you gave in there."

"But..."

"Scoot over," He tries to still my bench space but I don't give in. "No, first you need to tell me why there's a giant photo of us on this website with the title..." I bring my phone closer and make sure to enunciate every single word carefully, 'The Girl Behind His Success: Cole Stone's In Depth interview About the Woman Who Changed His Life,' really?"

He forces his way on the bench anyway and wraps an arm around my shoulder. "It has a nice ring to it right?"

I whip my head towards him, "Are you crazy? Did you not hear a word of what I've just said to you."

"If it help, I did this interview two days ago."

"But...but...this is a major website! Everyone's going to read and..." I sputter but he squeezes me closer to him. "And who ever reads this," he tells me, "is going to find out about the girl that's made me who I am today and who inspires me to work my hardest and do my best every single day."

I continue to stare at him, "I'm sorry if you think I play with you emotions or try to micromanage you life," I wince as I remember my little show, "but it kills me to see you like this and I'll do whatever I can to fix it. Sometimes when I do that, I might make stupid mistakes but you've got to know that anything I do for you is only because just the idea of you being hurt is my worst nightmare."

And then he kisses me because he knows I'm no longer angry and he knows what he's just done for me. Whenever I retreat too far back into my own head, he knows exactly what to do to calm that storm that always threatens to take over me. So maybe his methods aren't always perfect and he has a tendency to misdirect his good intentions but who else can claim that their boyfriend put themselves out on the internet for everyone to judge them just so that you could appear in a better light?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey guys!

I hope you're all enjoying a great holiday season and those of you who celebrate had a wonderful Christmas! Apologies for my absence but school has been my biggest excuse this year, I've only just gotten free. Here's hoping 2016 means a lot more uploads!

Firstly, I'd love to have you guys send in edits for Cole and Tessa's magazine cover :) It's a college football magazine so that's the theme! You can DM me the covers via Twitter which is @BlairHoldenx or Instagram which is simply @JessGirl93. Also I post a lot on both these platforms so please follow me there if you can, since it's a lot easier to keep up with you guys there than on Wattpad or inbox messages :) 

I hope you all enjoy the chapter! <3 Please leave a comment letting me know what you think!

Also, in the spirit of Christmas, I partnered up with Coke and wrote 'Cole's Letter to Santa' which you can find as the newest update of TBBG! Check that out if you haven't already. 

Love you guys and hope to interact with you a lot more in the new year. Happy New Year!!! <3