Silence

Chapter Four

Oakley

I woke up as the mattress dipped and caused me to roll over. Cole was getting off the bed. Rubbing my eyes, I sat up.

"Sorry, did I wake you?" He said softly, grimacing.

I shook my head even though he bloody had. It probably wasn't a good idea to nap for too long anyway. "Liar." Oh, yeah, he knew when I was lying. Most of the time. "Anyway, your parents are coming over for dinner too. We're having a barbeque. Again."

Grinning, I stretched my arms up, unlocking my muscles. I loved sitting out in Cole's back garden eating barbecue food. Cole's dad, David, always forgot about the food and wandered off, only to return when it'd reached the point of no return. We ended up having to smother the burnt bits in tomato and BBQ sauce to balance out the taste of burnt charcoal. It had become a tradition though. I couldn't eat non-burnt BBQ food anymore.

"So, that guy at school today, Julian..." Cole said, trailing off.

Ah, so his grumpiness is about Julian.

Cole's face was tense, he was unsure if he should bring it up or not Not would be the answer. I shook my head. School was over for the day and I was with Cole, there wasn't anything in the world I wanted to think about other than a long summer with him. We only one day left at school. I could survive that.

"Yeah, I know you don't want to talk about it but tough. Does he do that a lot?" Cole's eyes pierced through mine, pinning me with his steely gaze. "We're doing this, Oakley, whether you like it or not. Does he harass you a lot?"

Closing my eyes, I reluctantly nodded my head once. There was no point in trying to lie and assure him nothing was going on. He would only know I was lying anyway.

"I'm gonna kill him," he growled angrily.

My eyes widened and I shook my head, desperately pleading with him not to do anything stupid. Couldn't he see that it would just make things worse? I didn't want more fighting.

Cole's face softened and he groaned. "I'm sorry, Oakley. I just fucking hate that people give you a hard time," he said tenderly. "I'll leave it, I promise. As long as he doesn't do anything like that again. You tell me if he does, okay?"

Sagging in relief, I laid my head on his shoulder. He instantly wrapped his arm around me and pulled me closer to his side. My heart started drumming as he rubbed circles on my arm with his thumb. I loved his touch. Not once had I ever felt sick or scared with him. It was completely different, and I never wanted him to stop.

"Wanna watch a film until dinner?" He asked as he picked up the remote and flicked through the movie channels. I nodded against his shoulder. I didn't really care what we did. I just wanted to be around him.

We stayed in Cole's room, watching TV until Jenna call us down for dinner. I could have quite happily stayed in his room for the rest of the night, but I knew our parents would want us with them.

Cole leapt up, and I got off the bed slowly, preparing myself to go and act normal.

"Finally. I'm starving," Cole exclaimed. He couldn't be starving, he ate two hours ago.

I followed Cole at my own pace, smiling at how eager he was to get food. He took the stairs two at a time and darted towards the back door.

The second I got downstairs Mum greeted me. She pulled me into a hug and rubbed my back. It was her way of trying to make everything better. A hug from Mum fixed things when I was really little, but I hadn't felt safe like that in almost eleven years.