Silence (13 page)

I smiled and nodded.

“Good.” He closed the door behind him and was gone.

I went in the kitchen and answered a few of Mum’s questions, and then went to bed. After reading Cole’s text, I fell asleep smiling.

Chapter Thirteen

Oakley

“Oakley?” I frowned and pressed my face into my pillow to ignore Mum calling me. Why couldn’t she let me sleep? “Oakley,” she repeated. Sighing in defeat, I rolled over. She wasn’t going to go away until she spoke to me, so I decided to get it over with.

“Morning, honey. Sorry to wake you but I just wanted to let you know what Auntie Ali’s going away for the night, so Lizzie’s staying with us. She’ll be here soon, so you need to make some room in your wardrobe for her things, okay. Apparently she’s packed a lot and wants to hang a few things up.” 

No, it is not okay!
I tried hard not to show the disappointment, but I couldn’t keep a frown from passing across my face.

“Oh, she’s not that bad! Come on, up. Dad’s making pancakes for breakfast.” As if that made it better…

Mum left me to get up, and I flopped back in bed. Lizzie for a whole day and night. Groaning in frustration, I jumped up and stomped around. The second I got downstairs; she walked in the front door. I didn’t even have time to have a hot chocolate and mentally prepare myself.

“Oh I can’t wait for your birthday party, Oakley!” Lizzie gushed and fluffed her hair.
Hello to you too.
“Your mum’s practically invited your whole year!”

I was suddenly filled with dread. Did that mean she’d invited Julian? I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t want to have to face my classmates until I absolutely had to – on the first day back at school. Not a second sooner.

“Pancakes, girls,” Dad announced, poking his head around the kitchen door.

I followed Lizzie to the kitchen table and sat down.
Twenty-four hours, Oakley, you can survive that
, I told myself.

“Hey, look who I found,” Mum said as she walked into the room. Cole smiled, but it quickly faded when he saw Lizzie.

“Hi, Cole,” Lizzie purred.

He frowned and sat beside me.

“Look what I have, sweetheart.” Mum handed me a folder. An A4 piece of paper was taped to the front with typed letters saying, ‘Oakley’s sweet sixteenth’.

Oh God, please say this isn’t happening.
I flipped the folder open, and died a little inside. The first page was a list of guests. I slapped it shut, not wanting to know. I would just smile and spend the evening with Cole. I could get through one party to make my mum feel like she had a normal daughter for one evening. I owed her that much.

“I was also thinking we could get one of those chocolate fountains, what do you think?” Mum asked, and held up a magazine
cut-out of a giant white chocolate fountain. How many people did she think would come? I would love it if no one turned up. I nodded along with her idea and dug my fork into my cherry pancakes.

“Great,” she said, grabbing her phone and looking at the scrap of paper for the number to call.

“Ice cream?” Cole offered. I knew it was just to get me out of there while Mum was in full party mode, and away from Lizzie. Nodding gratefully, I stood up and took our plates to put in the dishwasher.

“Take Lizzie too,” Mum instructed. I narrowed my eyes at Mum. Cole’s expression mirrored mine.

“Ooo, one minute,” Lizzie sang as she ran off up the stairs to get ready.

“A minute? More like an hour,” Cole grumbled as we sat in the car waiting for her. I shrugged and lay back in the seat. Get comfortable, you could be waiting a while. Finally, ten minutes later, she strutted out of the house wearing a very short denim dress.

We drove in silence, well Cole, and I did. Lizzie sang along with the radio. Her voice wasn’t the worst in the world, but it certainly wasn’t made for the higher notes.

“We’re here,” Cole announced loudly, forcing her to stop singing. My ears were ringing.

“Here?” Lizzie scrunched her nose up as she looked at the quaint little diner style café. What did she expect? We were two teenagers with very little money.

I rolled my eyes and got out of the car. Lizzie followed behind, her heels clicking against the tile floor.

“Do they do low fat milkshakes?” she asked, briefly looking around in bewilderment at the quiet café.

“Yeah, all their milk comes from skinny cows,” Cole said seriously. I bit my lip and pretended to look at the menu.

“Really? I didn’t know they put cows on diets,” she said, her eyes wide in amazement. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see his jaw was clenched tightly shut where he was trying not to laugh.

“I’ll have a banana milkshake then,” she said happily

Cole walked over to the counter to order
,, and  Lizzie didn’t waste any time in digging for information on him the second he was gone.

“Is he seeing anyone?” she asked.

I picked up a plastic coffee stirrer and debated whether I could get away with ramming it into her eye. If I said nodded would she ask me, or him, who it was? However, if I said no, she might try something on with him. I nodded quickly, hoping that would make her stop looking at him as if she wanted to eat him.

“Course he does,” she grumbled and slumped back in her chair.

Cole reappeared, holding a tray with our milkshakes and ice creams.

“So, Cole, what’s your girlfriend like?” Lizzie purred.

“Girlfriend?”

“Yeah, Oakley said you were seeing someone.”

I watched as a knowing smile swept across his face.

“Really?” he asked. “She did, huh?”

“Yeah, so what’s she like?” Lizzie repeated.

“She’s alright,” Cole said casually and shrugged his shoulders. “She incredible in bed,” he added.

What!
I choked on my drink and slapped my hand over my mouth.

“You okay, Oakley?” he asked innocently. I nodded and forced myself to smile at him when all I wanted to do way chuck my ice cream over him.

“Yeah? Really?” she asked, leaning her body towards him. “You’re good too then?”

“Not had any complaints,” he said proudly. I wasn’t comfortable with the way this conversation had gone. It wasn’t something I could joke about. I concentrated on my ice cream, swirling the spoon around to soften it up.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Julian and two of his friends walk past the window.
Please don’t come in here, please.
Of course, they did. As soon as they spotted us, they strode up to our table. Cole’s body tensed when he saw who it was. Not wanting him to cause a scene, I pressed my leg against his to tell him to stay calm.

They all ordered and sat at a table next to ours, even though the cafe was practically empty.

“Hi, Oakley,” Julian said in a friendly manner. I smiled briefly and looked away.

Lizzie fluffed her hair up and smiled at him seductively.
Oh no.

“Hi, I’m Lizzie. Oakley’s cousin.”

Julian smirked, his eyebrow rising slightly. “Really?”

She nodded and turned round to face him.

“Yeah. So are you going to her party on Saturday?”

He looked straight at me and replied, “Yep.”

“Well make other plans. You’re not invited!” Cole growled.

“Actually, I was,” he retorted smugly. Great, so Mum did invite him.

“Julian, just fuck off,” Cole spat through gritted teeth. Lizzie was watching them with wide eyes. Perfect, now she’s going to be grilling me about this. I’d had enough and just wanted to get away, so I stood up and started walking out. I heard footsteps right behind me, and I knew it was Cole, I also heard Lizzie’s heels clicking unevenly as she hurried after us.

“See you Saturday,” Julian called. Cole turned around and gestured something, but I didn’t look around. I got in the car and slammed the door.

“Don’t worry,” he said, stroking my hand. “We’ll stay away from him. I won’t let him come near you.”

I looked up to the car ceiling, so the tears that were pooling in my eyes wouldn’t fall. The summer holidays were meant to be break from everyone at school. The thought of seeing them all again made me feel physically sick.

“What was that all about?” Lizzie squealed so loud it made both me and Cole jump. She slammed the car door and huffed. “You were so mean to him, and he’s lovely! He called me back and asked me to be his date to your party! Can you believe that? I have no idea what to wear! Oh God, we have to go shopping-” I put my head to my knees in despair. Getting the message, Cole put the key in the ignition and sped home as quickly as was legally possible.

Everyone but Cole and I were downstairs setting up the decorations and moving furniture around to make room for the DJ. It wasn’t my birthday until tomorrow.

“We get to tell everyone soon,” Cole said, smiling happily. That was the other thing. We had agreed to tell everyone after my birthday, but the closer that got the more I realised I wasn’t ready for everyone to know. Cole was really excited about it, but all I kept thinking was how much everything was going to change.

“You don’t want to tell them, do you?” Cole asked quietly, his face fell.
Do I tell the truth or just go along with what we had originally planned for his sake?
“Oakley?” he prompted. Sighing, I nodded, choosing the second option.

“You don’t mean that. You worried about what they’ll all say.” I nodded. “They’ll be happy for us, you know they will. Things will calm down after a week or two when it’s old news.”

So he knew they were going to be watching us like crazy too.

“We can wait longer if you want.”

He said the words, but I know he didn’t want to. I shook my head and kissed him quickly in case someone walked in. I missed being able to be physically affectionate with him. I missed being that intimate with someone I trusted with my life, someone I knew would never hurt me.

Two hours later, I was dressed and ready for the party. My nerves grew with every step I took downstairs. I was thankful that Cole, Kerry, and Ben would be with me. At least I could just spend the evening with them.

Some of my family had already arrived and were standing around drinking and talking. My grandparents from both sides of the family were sitting on the sofa, drinking wine. I didn’t see Dad’s parents often; they lived quite far away so only visited on birthdays and at Christmas.

The doorbell rang, and I took a deep breath, looking at Cole to stop myself freaking out. He smiled and mouthed, ‘Love you’ which made me forget everything, and everyone else.

“Happy Birthday, Oakley,” Julian shouted from across the room.

Cole glared at Julian, and if looks could kill, Julian would have been a goner by now. Why did he even come if he hated me so much? It made no sense. Did he just enjoy making my life a misery? Cole tugged on my arm and led me into the kitchen, away from Julian.

The whole house was covered in decorations. Pink decorations. You could barely move around all the balloons, banners, streamers, and enormous pink feathers! Feathers? What was I, eight! It was probably what Mum wanted for her sixteenth. My grandparents didn’t have much money so she never really had a big party

My mouth dropped open in shock as I saw what was on the kitchen counter. What on earth
?! Blinking in disbelief, I stepped closer to the giant ice sculpture. It was of a girl doing a cartwheel. Me, doing a cartwheel.

“Honey, here.” Mum gave me a plastic cup of punch, and one to Cole too. Forcing my lips to twitch in a brief smile, I turned pretending to look at something different so she wouldn’t see how much I hated all of it. She still saw me as a little girl.
Just a few hours, for her
, I reasoned with myself, again.

“Well, this is all very pink,”
Cole commented, stating the obvious.  “She knows your favourite colour is yellow, right?” He knew that? “Come on, I need to tip some of that vodka in this before I hang myself.”

As we made a move, Kerry hopped in front of me and laughed as I jumped.

“Sorry. Happy birthday! This party’s awesome, by the way.”
Is it?

“I’m guessing you like pink,” Ben said sarcastically and threw his arm over Cole’s shoulder. I stared at him flatly.

“She doesn’t like pink. Her mum organised everything,” Cole explained.

“Ah. Ouch.” Ben winced in sympathy.

Kerry waved her hand. “Don’t worry, Oakley, you have us to save you now.”

She pulled me into the living room. Her grip was tight, and she strode confidently through the small crowd that had gathered by the doorway. I wished I could be more like her.

“Sit,” she ordered, pointing to the smaller sofa that had been pushed into the corner of the room. Cole and Ben joined us, both sitting on the arms of the chair.

“This is our corner. If anyone tries to take it, kill. Okay?” Kerry looked at us sternly. I grinned in amusement and sat back in the sofa.
Maybe this party won’t be too bad after all.

Occasionally I saw Mum chatting happily and laughing with Ali and other family members. That was why I was putting up with the stupid party.
She deserves this.