Broken Silence (Silence, #2)(5)

That fucking hurt.

“Because she thought she was doing the best thing for him. He should have gone after her. They could be sunning themselves on a gorgeous beach in paradise right now.”

I tried to go with her. She didn’t want me.

“But he didn’t, and it’s been four years. She’s probably with some other guy now, sunning themselves on the beach!”

I closed my eyes and pushed away the thought of another man touching her. Would she even allow that? She let me, but we had been friends forever. She knew I would never hurt her. Oakley’s trust meant everything to me, and the fact that she felt comfortable and safe enough to get that close made me feel a thousand feet tall.

Half of me hoped she would never let another man near her, and the other half hoped she would. I wanted her to be happy, and for those bastards not to have completely ruined any chance she had of being happy.

Four years on, and I still thought of her as mine.

“Either change the subject or I’m leaving,” I hissed. The whole conversation was making me feel sick. Kerry was right about one thing; I should have followed her. Staying here was the biggest regret I had, but it seemed like she didn’t want me to go with her. I was scared to go flying out there and surprise her in case she told me to go back.

For the first few weeks, we sent text messages. Well, it was mostly me plaguing her with texts. She kept apologising for everything and saying that I should forget her. Forgetting her wasn’t going to happen: she was a huge part of my life and had been since we were both kids.

I understood completely that she couldn’t be here any more. After what those fuckers did to her of course she wouldn’t want constant reminders, but she was wrong about my life being here. I didn’t get enough time to convince her; she just left. It was too late now, of course.

“What are we talking about?” Chelsea asked, taking a seat next to me and grabbing the menu. I hadn’t even see her come in.

“How romantic Cole is,” Kerry said, at the same time Ben came out with, ‘How pathetic Cole is.’ Kerry and Ben were made for each other. Obviously ‘Change the subject’ meant something completely different to them than it did to me.

“Right.” Chelsea laughed and shot me a brief smile. “So, are we going out tonight?”

“Oh definitely,” Kerry said and launched into a conversation about where we were going. Thankfully that ended the topic of my pathetic-ness over Oakley.

By the time I joined their conversation, everything was planned. We were all meeting at mine at eight and getting a taxi into town.

“See you all later,” I said as we parted in the car park.

“Bye, loser,” Ben shouted. Great.

My parents, my Mia and my niece, Leona – or Fifi as we often called her due to her obsession with Fifi and the Flowertots – were sitting on the sofa watching Cinderella.

“Hi, sweetheart,” Mum said, struggling to hold Leona still as she bounced around on her lap.

One thing I had learnt since Mia had Leona was that children were loud. They also often made a huge mess and wouldn’t keep still.

“Hi,” I replied, frowning at being called sweetheart at twenty-two.

I walked into the kitchen to make a cup of tea and Mia followed. One, two, three… “You’ve got the ‘I’m thinking about Oakley’ face on again.”

I’m pretty sure that’s just my usual face.

“I don’t want to talk about it. I want to go murder a bunch of people on the PlayStation until I go out later.”

She gave me a sympathetic smile. “Who are you going out with?”

“Kerry, Ben, and Chelsea.”

“Chelsea too, huh?”

“We’re just friends, Mia,” I said and rolled my eyes.

“I know that. Does she?”

“No, I thought I’d string her along until I stopped thinking about Oakley all the damn time.” I started out being sarcastic, but the end of that sentence was honest, too honest. I still thought about Oakley all the time. It had just ended so suddenly. One minute she was there and the next they took off to Australia with no warning.

“Aww, Cole.”

I held my hand up. “Don’t.” I didn’t need the pitying looks or sympathetic words. I would be fine. There wasn’t any other choice. I wished Oakley had lied and told me she didn’t want me and she didn’t love me. That way I would know it was a definite end, and there was no chance of us getting back together.

Mia opened her mouth again to talk, even though I had told her not to, but thankfully, Leona skipped into the room, brushing her fringe out of her eyes.

“Untle Ole!” she yelled and ran at me. I managed to sweep her up just before she smashed into my crotch. Again.

Leona still had problems pronouncing her Cs, so I was ‘Untle Ole’. I smiled at her and said, “Can you say Cole.”

“Ole,” she chirped proudly, making me laugh. Close enough! I took her in the lounge to escape another Oakley conversation with Mia. She wriggled in my arms, waving her doll around and almost smacking me in the face with it.

“Maybe you could actually fix it, David?” Mum said dryly, hitting her laptop as if that was magically going to make it work.

“It’s not that simple, Jenna!” Dad countered, matching her tone. Well at least this argument isn’t about how romantic or pathetic I am.