The Crash Years

"If my parents aren't happy, then no one in my family is happy. They're utter nightmares when they get upset." Cole sighed. "Like...I hate myself some days because of them. I'm not even meant to be a Slytherin. I just...talked to the hat."

"Yikes," Drew said. "Why on earth would you hate yourself? You seem like a decent person when you aren't trying to be a git to make your family happy. Besides, most of the time, they're nowhere near you. Why the heck should you be trying to please a group of people that isn't even here? I think you're fine just the way you are." Drew kept redness out of his cheeks as he said this.

"They have people here. Being well known and powerful and all that....they watched all of us going through school." Cole made a vague noise. "Can we drop this now?"

Drew nodded. "Sure. I'd imagine it is not fun to discuss this at length with a perfect stranger, is it? Or at all, really. The topic is now officially being changed."

Drew stopped for a second before randomly, on a whim, asking, "What is your favorite color?"

Cole ventured what could almost be called a smile, but ended up making a near startled face at Drew's random question. "Er, it's blue."

Drew grinned. "I thought it might be."

Cole blinked. "What? There's no way you could have guessed that...."

Drew smiled mischievously. "Of course there is. You just seem like a blue kind of person to me. Lighter blue, although your favorite color is probably darker. But you seem distinctly blue."

Cole looked rather stunned. "Actually...the blue I like best is about the same color as your eyes..." Then realizing that probably sounded creepy he said, "Er..."

Drew laughed. "Really? I was pretty much dead on, then. That's surprising."

"You are good at people after all..." Cole muttered. "Sorry if my comment sound creepy. I...erm....your eyes are hard to miss."

Drew's cheeks pinked just a bit, so that if a person was not looking, they would not notice, His eyes were one of his favorite things about himself. "Yours are awfully difficult to miss as well. I like the color very much." He paused for a second. "As for people, it's just kind of an instinct. You know how some things just make sense?"

Cole managed a weak smile. "Thanks, I guess..." he muttered. "Erm, yeah. I'm not good with people. That takes real talent."

Drew pondered it for a second. "I don't know about that. I mean, really, I think it takes either natural ability or practice. You don't have to be insanely intelligent or insanely charismatic or anything. You just have to pay attention."

"Suppose so..." Cole muttered, eyes straying to the clock that the librarian had placed up to allow students to monitor the time. "Crap!"

"Oops," Drew said. "I'm sorry for distracting you. I did not mean to eat up so much of your time!

"It's fine," Cole replied running a hand through his hair. "I just...it's fine."

Drew was a bit concerned. "Do you need help with anything?"

Cole shook his head. "I'll...I'm good."

Drew did not believe him, but he knew it was best it he left him alone, probably. "You sure? I can stick around and help if you need me. If not, I can leave, so you can be alone to study or whatever."

"I'm just reading over some stuff that we don't cover in classes. They can't teach everything after all," Cole explained. "If you want to stay, you can. But, if you don't, it's okay."

Drew checked his watch. Demi would not get out for another half an hour or so, probably. He could sit here and watch Cole, but he would feel like he was distracting him from getting work done. He could pick out one of his own textbooks to read through, though, since it was quiet in the library. "I'll stay, but I don't want to bother you. I'm just going to sit over here and get some of my own work done."

Cole shrugged. "Okay, then," he said, opening the next book in his pile.

Time passed more slowly now that Drew was actually doing work. Every once in a while, his eyes would drift from his work to Cole's face, but he tried to keep his eyes to himself. At the end of the half an hour, Drew knew he had to get going to meet Demi. He almost did not want to, though, because he was enjoying his time with Cole. It was hard to imagine that just a few hours before, he thought he was a complete jerk.