Silence

Chapter Twenty-Six

Cole

I woke up in the morning to Mia shaking my arm.

"What?" I mumbled in a grumpy tone. Do lay ins mean nothing to my sister?

She sighed and sat down on my bed. This wasn't something quick. She'd sat down. We were going to talk. It'd probably be about Oakley, and it was far too early to lie to Mia's face.

"We need to talk about Chris and how you treat him when he comes over, but I don't like arguing."

"I don't like that dick cheating on you," I shot back, raising my eyebrows. The light stung my tired eyes. Can't we do this later?

"Cole, please don't. I love him." Her voice was laced with pain. I felt like shit.

Love wasn't a good enough reason to let someone walk all over you. "I'm sorry, Mia, but it's the truth. Would you cheat on him?"

"Of course I wouldn't!"

"Why?"

"Because I love him," she snapped, frowning at me angrily.

"There you go. You wouldn't cheat on him because you love him. He cheats on you all the time. Just think about that for a minute."

Her eyes filled with tears, and she looked away.

I groaned. "Look, I'm sorry, again, but you need to see the truth."

She sniffled and wiped a tear away with the back of her hand. "And what if you were in my position? What if it was Oakley cheating on you?"

"Difference is, Oakley would never do that."

She lowered her head, knowing I was right. I wouldn't ever have to worry about cheating. I trusted Oakley completely. It didn't pass me by that I had basically just admitted I was with Oakley, but Mia probably knew that anyway. Her and Jasper talked.

"I guess I'm just not strong enough. I can't do it," she whispered, defeated.

Chris-the-dick had done a real good job on her. She had zero confidence and didn't think she could get anyone else. She wouldn't leave him, and now he could screw around safe in the knowledge that he'd be forgiven.

My fist twitched to punch the shit out of him.

"I'm trying to work things out and it would be a lot easier if you eased up when he's around. For my sake, Cole, please." She walked out and closed my door without another word. I sighed in frustration and lay back down.

Where did that come from anyway? If he was coming over today then I was going out.

Since I was up, I decided to get ready and head to the birthday girl's early.

After breakfast at Oakley's, we drove to the mall to do some birthday shopping. She had received money from her family that she wanted to spend. Luckily, it was a Sunday so the shops wouldn't be open too late. That should mean I wouldn't get to that point where I'd rather die than look at another item of clothing.

We also had to be back for cake at four o'clock.

By the time she had spent most of her money and we'd had lunch, it was two o'clock, and we were heading back to my house. That wasn't too bad. Although, after her going back to the shop we started at to buy the first top she'd tried on, I did want to jump out of a second floor window.

My parents were out, and Mia was at Chris's house. We had the place to ourselves. I desperately wanted to finish what we'd started last night. "You want a drink?" I asked as we walked into the house.