“There you go, Mia. You wouldn’t cheat on him because you love him. He cheats on you all the time. Just think about that for a minute.”
Seeing the tears in her eyes made me feel like the worst brother in the world, but she needed to hear it. She could do so much better than him.
“Look, I’m sorry, 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?”
“Oakley would never do that.”
She lowered her head, knowing I was right. I would never have to worry about that. I trusted Oakley, and I knew she would never cheat. It didn’t pass me by that I had basically just admitted I was with Oakley, but Mia pretty much knew that anyway, Jasper too.
“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 no confidence and didn’t think she could get anyone else, so now he could just screw around and knew she would take him back.
“I’m trying. I just wish you would too, for my sake.”
She walked out and closed my door without another word. I sighed in frustration and lay back down.
After breakfast at Oakley’s, we drove to the mall to do some birthday shopping. She had received a lot of money from her family that she wanted to spend. Luckily, it was a Sunday so the shops wouldn’t be open too late. Hopefully, that would mean I wouldn’t get to that point where I would just rather die than step in another clothes shop. 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 in, I did want to jump out of a second floor window!
My parents were out, and Mia was at Chris’ house so we would have the place to ourselves.
“You want a drink?” I asked her as we walked into the house. She shook her head and grabbed my hand, leading me upstairs. Wow.
I laid her down on the bed and slowly peeled her clothes off, kissing her soft skin all over.
“I love you,” I whispered as I held her in my arms. She kissed my chest. We spent the next half an hour messing around and then got dressed to go back to her house for the cake.
“Oakley,” Mum called, and jumped off the sofa as we walked through her front door. I took a quick look around the room and was thankful that Mia hadn’t brought Chris-the-dick with her.
Max walked into the room, carrying a two-tier cake, covered in pink icing with Oakley’s name and the number sixteen piped onto it. He started to sing ‘Happy Birthday’, and everyone joined in. I smiled at the embarrassed blush on her face and started singing too. I was determined to enjoy tonight and give her a good birthday. On Tuesday, when we announced that we were together, things would undoubtedly get so much harder.
On Tuesday, I woke up to Oakley shaking my arm.
“Morning,” I mumbled, grabbing her hand and pulling her down on the bed with me. She smiled and laid her head on my chest. The smile wasn’t entirely genuine though – she seemed too tense, probably worrying about what we’d agreed to do today.
“It’s gonna be alright, Oaks,” I said knowing I was getting a slap for calling her that. Her hand slammed down on my chest with a thud, though it didn’t hurt at all. I laughed and grabbed her hand.
She looked like she was going to fall asleep.
“Nice try,” I teased, gently nudging her. She frowned and looked up at me. “If you fall asleep, you’re just putting off telling everyone.”
I tried not to laugh as she sighed and sat up, pouting.
“We should just get this over with. I’m gonna shower then we’ll tell them, okay?”
She nodded, biting on her bottom lip nervously. I got out of bed and kissed the top of her head.
“It’ll be fine, I promise.” I really hoped I could make it okay after telling her that, I didn’t ever want to let her down.
After taking the quickest shower I had ever had, I threw on some clothes, and we made our way downstairs. Her parents were over, drinking coffee and looking through pictures from the holiday. That was good, at least we could just tell them all at once.
“Hey guys, can we talk to you for a minute?” I said as Oakley and I sat down on the small sofa opposite them.
Jasper looked up from the floor where he was sitting and a huge grin spread across his face. Oh great.
“Why yes you can,” he said enthusiastically, throwing down the pictures he was holding. Well he obviously knew what was going on, and judging by Mia’s smirk, so did she. Why were both our parents so oblivious?
Sarah shook her head at Jasper, grinning slightly at his weirdness. “What’s going on?” she asked, looking away from Jasper.
Oakley visibly tensed beside me, and I took a deep breath. Please take this well.