She squealed and grabbed my hand, pulling me up. “Come on then! Let’s go get our men!”
I cringed. Go and get our men? Maybe admitting it to her wasn’t a good idea after all. Who knows what she had planned. There was no way I was getting drunk and kissing Cole. I would rather wait and let things happen naturally. If anything was going to happen. I didn’t think she would say anything to him though.
On the way back into the house, Kerry spoke constantly, and I couldn’t have been happier to listen to her gushing about Ben’s abs! Having a girl friend that wasn’t bitchy was something that I definitely wanted. Hanging out with Kerry, even for such a short period of time, made me realise what I had been missing.
“I’m nervous.” She smiled, gritting her teeth, and pushed us through the crowd that had gathered by the door. Cole was still in the same place, leaning against the kitchen counter.
I took a deep breath as we approached them. My heart went wild as his eyes landed on mine. Yep, I was definitely falling for him.
Chapter Five
Oakley
I took Cole’s outstretched hand and skipped to him, pressing my side against his. He quickly pulled me round, so I was standing between his legs. That simple gesture was enough to make my heart soar.
“You okay?” Cole whispered in my ear. I swallowed hard as his breath tickled my skin, sending a shiver down my spine. A nod of the head answered his question.
“I’m guessing Kerry’s finally making her move on Ben?”
I looked over to where he was looking and saw Kerry with her tongue down Ben’s throat. Her plan seemed to be working.
After three cans of coke, I was desperate to go to the toilet. Cole had told me it was upstairs, last door on the right, so I weaved between the drunken guests to go find it. I had just closed the bathroom door when I heard Mary talking to some of her friends about Cole and me. The music was still quite loud upstairs so I could only just about hear, but I got the gist: ‘Cole only feels sorry for her. He can do way better than that freak. She’ll never make him happy, he’ll get bored of her soon enough.’
Walking away from the door, I sat on the edge of the bath, not wanting to hear any more. Was Mary right? The thing what scared me most if we got together was Cole resenting me for not having a proper relationship where we could hold a conversation the traditional way. From the way he kissed me earlier, it didn’t seem like any of that bothered him. Was Mary just jealous, or was she right?
I waited a few minutes before I used the bathroom and went back downstairs. I wanted to give them time to leave so I wouldn’t have to pass them. Thankfully, they had left by the time I opened the door.
Cole smiled as I walked back in the kitchen. In that moment, I decided not to let Mary get to me. If Cole didn’t want to be with me, then he didn’t have to be. I walked straight up to him and wrapped my arms around his waist. Immediately feeling embarrassed, I pressed my forehead into his chest. Why did I do that in front of everyone? I probably looked like his stalker fangirl!
When I loosened my grip on Cole’s waist, he pulled away and grabbed my hand, leading me out of Ben’s house. We walked along the pavement in silence; he didn’t mention going to the park, but we both knew that’s where we were going. Why though? He hadn’t even said goodbye. Were we going back later?
His face was blank, showing nothing at all. I followed him to the swings, and it was lucky we knew the park as well as the streetlight was out, and it was almost pitch black outside. I sat on the swing, and Cole started pushing me as he’d done a million times before.
“Oakley, can I ask you something?” he said after pushing me for a minute. He stopped the swing and kneeled down in front of me, resting his arms on my legs. His face was serious, no sign of the laidback and playful Cole I was used to. What was going through his head? I hated not knowing.
He took a deep breath as if he was working up the courage first.
“Why don’t you text me back?”
That wasn’t what I expected at all. I looked away from him, focusing the outline of a patch of mud in the wood chippings below me. That question wasn’t a new one. He had asked me that thousands of times before, but it was the way he asked it, with so much hope. He genuinely thought that I might tell him that time.
“Look, I’m sorry, but I don’t get it. Why don’t you want to communicate with me? Please, is something really wrong? Because if there is, I promise you it’ll be okay. I’ll help you. You just have to tell me,” he pleaded.
I gulped and pressed my lips together to stop myself blurting it out. I wanted to tell him. I wanted to talk to him normally, but I didn’t want to hurt him or my family. I didn’t want anyone to know how used and dirty I was, especially not him.