“Just embracing my inner child. You should lighten up and do the same!”
Her smile grew into a full toothy grin: “Your inner child is a girl?”
I threw Leona’s red wings at her.
“Shut up and put those on.”
“No,” Leona screamed. “Oaley’s wearing the lellow ones.”
I held my hands up in surrender. Christ.
“Sorry!”
“It’s like your hair,” Leona pointed out, passing the wings to Oakley.
“Thank you. So do you want to do my make-up?” she asked her, bending down to Leona’s level and putting the wings on.
“Yeah,” Leona chirped, jumping up and down.
“Great, make-up time,” I mumbled under my breath. This is the part where my balls shot back up inside me.
“Shall we do Cole’s first?” Oakley suggested, smirking at me.
“Yeah, untle Ole!”
Perfect.
I sat still, scowling as they both plastered bright pink crap all over my face. I should get an Uncle-of-the-Year award for letting them do that to me. It was worth it to see Leona giggling and having so much fun though. Oakley too, although I would be getting revenge on her.
“Done,” Leona announced, admiring my messed up face.
Oakley gripped her heart, in mock joy.
“You look so beautiful!” she exclaimed.
I smiled sarcastically.
“Don’t you think Uncle Cole looks great as a girl?” she asked Leona.
Leona nodded and bounced on the spot.
“He’s pretty.”
I stood up, pointing to the chair for Oakley to sit on. I’d had enough of them laughing at me. Time for payback. The next half an hour was spent painting hearts and flowers on Leona’s face, and play fighting with Oakley to add even more glitter on hers. I refused to look in the mirror. Oakley had pink stuff on her eyelids, bright purple lips, pink glitter on her cheeks, and four orange hears on her left cheek.
Eventually Mum shouted, “Dinner!” from the kitchen. Leona jumped up and sprinted off. She wasn’t usually that enthusiastic for dinner, but Mum had promised to make her favourite of mashed potato with broccoli sticking out of it, so it looked like a forest on a mountain, sausages and alphabet spaghetti.
Oakley was staying for dinner too, so it was like old times: she would often come over after school when we were kids. I made sure I sat next to her at the table. I wanted to enjoy having such a relaxed time with her, before she had to deal with what tomorrow would bring.
At half past ten, I took Oakley back to Ali’s house. I had to remind myself that her being back was probably temporary. She had a whole life in Australia, and I wasn’t sure if England, or I, could compete with that.
I woke in the morning to Leona shouting my name over and over.
“Untle Ole, untle Ole! Get up,” she sang, slamming her hands down on my bed. I loved her, but I was installing a lock on my door.
Groaning, I forced my head up. “Alright, I’m up!”
She grinned, turned, and ran out of the room. Was there even a point in waking me? She didn’t want anything!
I suddenly realised that today was the start of the trial. Shit! I grabbed my phone and called Oakley.
“Hello,” she mumbled sleepily. Great so not only was today the first day of her dad’s trial, but I just woke her up to remind her…
“Hey,” I said, wincing at how dumb I was.
“Before you ask, I’m fine, and I will be fine. Mum and Jasper are amusing me until you get off work.” Then, softly, “I’m not a child, you know?”
“Oh believe me, I know!”
She laughed quietly, “Behave.”
“But I find it so hard around you.”
“I bet you say that to all the girls.”
“I’m not even going to waste my time arguing over that.”
“Go to work, Cole. I’ll see you at lunch.”
“Okay. I love you.”
She sighed, and I could sense her smile.
“I love you too.”
I found it only half weird that we said that to each other, but we weren’t together. It felt so natural.
We hung up, and I forced myself out of bed. Forcing a smile as I walked into my office, I flopped down in my chair and debated sleeping for a bit. Would anyone notice? Hmm, probably…
I wanted the whole day off, but I had a few urgent things to deal with. Usually I would hang out in the kitchen for a few minutes, drinking coffee and chatting to my colleagues, but today I made a mug of coffee and got straight to work. At quarter past twelve I was done.
“It’s all finished,” I told Glen, leaning against his door.
“Already? I don’t think you’ve ever worked that quickly. I’ll expect that every day.” He joked. At least I hoped he was joking!
“Hey, I can work that quickly. I just don’t want to make everyone else look bad.”
He laughed, shaking his head. “Get off now then. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Cole.”
I nodded once. “Thanks. See you later.”