“What’s wrong with him?” she asked, more to herself than to me. I shrugged anyway and smiled back at her. Jenna always smelt of coconut; it was her shampoo. The smell was so comforting.
“You should follow Mr Happy. I’ll call you when dinner’s ready.” She hadn’t even asked me if I wanted to stay for dinner, she just knew I would.
Cole’s room hadn’t changed much since we decorated it when he was fifteen – two years ago. It was still the same shade of blue. He hated it now though, said it looked like a baby’s room. I doubted he would change it any time soon though; he was too lazy. Cole was lying on his bed, his hands behind his head, just staring at the ceiling. His bottom lip was pulled between his teeth, the way it did whenever he was thinking hard. What had happened?
I laid down on my side, propping my head up on my hand, and waited. After a few minutes, I became impatient, so I gently nudged him in the ribs.
“What?” he whispered, still not looking at me. I sighed and rested my head back, no idea what was going on.
“Sorry,” he eventually muttered. But sorry for what? I hated it when he was cryptic. It wasn’t often that he could hide something from me, but when he did it drove me crazy.
We lay beside each other in silence. The sound of his breathing was so soothing that I started feeling tired. Eventually, I gave in and closed my eyes. A few minutes later, Cole grabbed my hand, interlacing our fingers, and then I fell asleep.
Chapter Two
Oakley
I woke up to Cole sitting up off the bed, causing it to dip, and making me roll onto my side.
“Sorry, did I wake you?” he said softly, grimacing.
I shook my head and sat up, rubbing my tired eyes. Cole grinned.
“Liar. Anyway your parents are coming over for dinner, so you don’t have to go home yet. We’re having a barbeque. Again.”
Grinning, I stretched my arms up, unlocking my muscles. I loved sitting out in Cole’s back garden eating barbecue food. Cole’s dad, David, always forgot about the smouldering food and wandered off, so we ended up having to smother it in tomato and BBQ sauce to balance out the taste of burnt charcoal. It had become a tradition though.
“So, that guy at school today, Julian...” Cole said, trailing off. He seemed unsure if he should bring it up or not. Not, I thought. I shook my head, not wanting to think about Julian. There was only one day left at school. After that I wouldn’t have to see him again for six weeks.
“Yeah, I know you don’t want to talk about it, but it’s tough. Does he do that a lot?” Cole looked me in the eye. “We’re doing this, Oakley, whether you like it or not. Does he hassle you a lot?”
Closing my eyes, I reluctantly nodded my head once. There was no point in trying to lie and assure him nothing was going on. He would know I was lying.
“I’m gonna kill him,” he growled angrily. His body tensed up.
My eyes snapped open, and I shook my head, desperately pleading with him not to do anything stupid. Couldn’t he see that it would just make things worse?
Cole’s face softened, the angry expression fell from his face.
“I’m sorry, Oakley. I just hate that people give you a hard time,” he said tenderly. “I’ll leave it, I promise. As long as he doesn’t do anything like that again. You tell me if he does, okay?”
Sighing in relief, I laid my head on his shoulder. He immediately wrapped his arm around me and pulled me closer to his side. My heart started beating wildly as he rubbed circles on my arm with his thumb. I loved his touch. It didn’t make me feel sick or scared. It was completely different, and I never wanted him to stop.
“Wanna watch a film until dinner?” he asked as he picked up the remote and flicked through the movie channels. I nodded against his shoulder. I didn’t really care what we did. I just wanted to be around him.
We stayed in Cole’s room, watching TV until we heard Jenna call us down for dinner. I could have quite happily stayed in his room for the rest of the night, but I knew our parents would want us with them. I gulped as we walked downstairs and prepared myself to act normal.
“Finally. I’m starving,” Cole exclaimed.
I allowed myself to smile as he practically ran for the door. I followed him at my own pace. The second I got downstairs my mum greeted me. She pulled me into a hug and rubbed my back. She would often hug me like this when she knew I’d had a rubbish day. It was her way of trying to make everything better. A hug from Mum fixed things when I was really little, but I hadn’t felt safe like that in almost eleven years.
“Are you okay, honey? Jenna said you both came home early,” Mum whispered, stroking my hair. I pulled back to nod my head and smile, to convince her that I was all right. “Are you sure? Did someone do or say something to you?” she pressed further, her fingers squeezing my arm slightly. I shook my head and rolled my eyes, making her smile.