"I wouldn't joke about that," Cole said as his head jerked up to look at Chris and seeing that he was angry, turned to look away. Somehow he had screwed things up even more with Chris, he could tell, and he honestly had no idea as to how to make things better between them. It was frustrating, but at the same time, he knew that he didn't deserve things to go well for him.

"You're the first person I've ever lo-cared about, Chris. I know I've made a total mess of things between us, but I want to fix it." Not that he was expecting it to happen, but he wanted Chris to know that he was going to try to do right by him.