Silence

Chapter Seven

Cole

I stormed off, gritting my teeth and clenching my fists. She made me so damn angry. No one else could get to me the way she did. Most of the time I liked it, but today it bloody hurt.

Could she not understand how much I worried about her? I knew she was getting a hard time at school, and it killed me that I couldn't do much about it. How could she ignore me and push me away when she knew how much it scared me when she took off like that?

She wasn't selfish, I knew that, but sometimes it seemed like it. I had to keep reminding myself that there was something bigger going on.

There was no way I was going back to afternoon classes now. I was too worked up and wouldn't be able to concentrate. Nothing would be done on the last day anyway; I wouldn't miss a thing.

I stomped back to school, breathing heavily though my nose.

Ben leant against my car, doing something on his phone. He looked up as I got closer and pushed off. "What's going on, man? You took off without a word."

Yeah, that was a mistake. She doesn't care.

"Nothin'," I growled.

"Whoa," he said, holding his hands up in surrender. "I was only askin'."

"I know. Sorry."

"Oakley?" he asked, lifting his jet-black eyebrow. When I didn't answer, he nodded. "Alright, what happened? Is she okay?"

"Who knows. She won't tell me."

"You guys have this telepathic things goin' on, don't ya?"

I gave him a look. "What?"

"You know what I mean. You get her, what she means when she doesn't talk and all that."

"Yeah, but usually I have something to go on. Right now she's just pushing me away. I hate it, man. I know something happened at school today but she won't admit it."

Sometimes I felt so hopeless when it came to her. She was my best friend and she wasn't happy. No one wanted to stop talking; no one wanted to have a shit time at school, no one wanted to lock out the people closest to them.

Why won't she just tell me what's wrong?

I'd told her a million times before that whatever it was I'd be there, help her, but that didn't change her decision to keep it in.

Groaning, I closed my eyes.

Even if it wasn't a decision, if she physically couldn't talk, she could at least admit it.

"It'll be cool, mate. You've fallen out before, right?"

"Kind of. I've never told her I'm done before," I admitted, wincing.

What the hell was wrong with me? I'd never be done.

His eyes widened in surprise. Yeah, the whole time I'd known Ben I'd always been fiercely protective of Oakley, so of course me telling him I was done with her was a shock.

"You don't mean that."

I scrubbed my eyes. "Yeah, I know that."

She might not.

What the hell have I done?

"So...maybe you should be off tellin' her..."

"I need to go home," I said, digging in my jeans pocket for my keys.

"She at yours?"

"No."

"You're not going to fix it?" He looked at me with judgemental eyes.