“Oakley?” he whispered softly, stroking my hair. His fingertips brushing over my cheek and down my jaw gave me goose bumps. “I can’t wait to go on holiday with you.” Neither could I, but I thought he was going to talk about what just happened, or were you not supposed to? Internally, I screamed in frustration… Why was all of this so confusing?
“You’re sitting with me on the plane, by the way, and I’m stealing you every day.” That sounded fine by me. Spending the whole two weeks with him was perfect.
“You want to go back inside and get another drink?” he asked, after being outside for a while. Things were completely back to normal. The kiss hadn’t ruined anything, but I wasn’t sure if it had changed anything either. I nodded and stood up.
“Cole!” Ben shrieked, stumbling towards us. We had literally just walked through the front door. He must have sobered up slightly; he was steadier on his feet but still had a lopsided smile and glazed over eyes. “Wanna do shots?”
“I told you I wasn’t drinking,” Cole responded, punching Ben’s arm. Was I responsible for Ben losing a drinking partner?
We followed Ben back to the kitchen, and Cole got all three of us a coke, saying Ben needed to sober up more to be ready to clean before his parents arrived home. A red can flew towards me. I only just managed to catch it before it hit my stomach.
Rolling my eyes at Cole, I held the can upright and very still before I dared to open it. I didn’t need the embarrassment of having coke explode in my face. Cole laughed and shook his head. Suddenly he grabbed me around my waist and turned me so he could rest his chin on my shoulder. I did a little happy dance in my head.
After only a few seconds, one of his friends pulled me away and scowled at him.
“I’m Kerry,” she announced. “I’ve been waiting for Cole to introduce us, but he’s clearly trying to keep you all to himself.”
I smiled at her, and she launched into telling me stories of Cole and Ben doing stupid dares at school, making me smile. Kerry’s fun, happy personality was infectious. It was impossible not to like her. She spoke to me as if we had been friends for years. There were never any awkward questions, and she didn’t try finding out what was wrong. She just accepted who I was and got on with it. She spoke a lot, but that was actually perfect. We balanced each other out. I hoped that she wasn’t just being polite.
Occasionally her eyes would flick to Ben, and when she saw Mary on his lap, she frowned so slightly that I almost missed it. Over the years, I had gotten used to reading people’s expressions more than most. There would always be hushed whispers when I was around, especially from my mum as she tried to figure out what was wrong with me.
Once Kerry’s attention was back on me, I raised my eyebrow. She blushed, knowing that I had caught her staring. She definitely liked Ben, and he clearly liked her too.
“I’ll get us another drink,” she muttered, turning and rushing towards the fridge. I didn’t expect her to be shy about something like that; she was so outgoing.
I caught Cole’s attention, looked between Kerry and Ben and smiled.
“You want to play cupid?” He pulled me back into his arms. “Good luck with that. You’ve got to get Mary off him first, and she’s like a fucking praying mantis!”
“Wanna go for a walk, Oakley?” Kerry asked, already grabbing my hand and pulling me away from Cole. Whoa, why so keen to get me away?
I followed her out to the back garden and sat down on a bench. No one else was out the back. It was quite big but full of children’s ride-on bikes, games and toys. It looked like a toy store had been dumped in the garden.
At first I sat a little stiffly, playing with my fingers because I felt awkward being completely alone with her for the first time. “Okay, so I really, really like Ben. He’s just so…” she trailed off, sighing. “So sweet, funny, amazing, caring, generous and so gorgeous!”
Her dark green eyes lit up as she spoke about him; it was nice to see. It was probably how I looked whenever I thought about Cole. “I know I should tell him but I just can’t. I mean, what if he’s not interested? It would be so embarrassing if he turned me down. I should just do it though, right? Oh, maybe I can down a few shots and kiss him! That way if he pushes me off I can just blame it on the drink!” She said, smiling proudly at her plan. I couldn’t imagine him not being interested in her. Not only was she pretty but she was funny and sweet too.
“Okay, so before we go back inside and I can get started on Operation Kiss Ben; we should talk about you and Cole. Are you two together?” Now who was embarrassed? I shook my head. Why did we need to talk about me? “But you want to be! I can see how you two look at each other and seriously he talks about you all the time. It’s so cute. You want to be with him right?”
He talked about me all the time? All the time? That must mean he liked me, even just a little bit. You didn’t think about just anyone all the time.
“Oakley?” Kerry wheedled, looking at me expectantly. Oh, I hadn’t answered her question. I gave a little nod of my head, confirming that I did like Cole.