Silence (Silence #1)(22)

“It’ll be amazing,” she promised.

Dad chuckled deeply. “You should hear some of her ideas! Chocolate fountains and candy floss machines. Just remember it’s a party for Oakley and not yourself, Sarah.”

Mum waved her hand at him dismissively. “Hush. You’re a man. The only part of this which concerns you, is when it comes to the payment.”

“As in most things,” he countered, mixing the butter-cream icing for the cupcakes. I grabbed the chocolate shavings and started sprinkling them over the cakes they had already iced.

After decorating twenty-four cupcakes and listening to Mum go on about my stupid birthday party, I went upstairs to get ready to go out. I froze as I suddenly realised why Cole was so nervous asking me before. This wasn’t a normal trip to the cinema; this was a date! Oh God, I how could I not have realised sooner? I was so stupid!

Knowing it was a date made me nervous. So nervous I instantly felt sick. What should I wear? Should I even dress up? Swinging my wardrobe doors open, I frantically searched through my clothes. I chucked aside any skirts or dresses, even though they were long and more casual than dressy, I didn’t want to look like I’d tried too hard.

I shook my head after fifteen minutes of looking through my wardrobe. Cole wouldn’t care what I wore anyway. I grabbed a nice white top with diamantes scattered over the front and dark wash jeans and put them on before I changed my mind. We were just eating and going to the cinema so casual was better.

When it was ten minutes to seven, I brushed my hair and applied some lip balm. That would be Cole ready to take me on a date! It didn’t even seem real.

Minutes later, my bedroom door opened. Cole walked in wearing jeans and a white t-shirt. How could he be dressed so casually but look so incredible?

“Hey,” he muttered nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. “You look nice. I mean amazing.”

He frowned to himself and shook his head. I reached up and kissed his cheek, making him smile.

“Let’s go.”

We walked out to his car and just as I was about to get in, he called my name. I turned around to face him and gasped. He was standing right in front of me. My breath caught in my throat as he gently kissed me on the lips.

“You really do look beautiful,” he whispered, stroking my arm with his thumb and reaching to open the car door for me with his other hand. I smiled happily. I couldn’t wait to go on the date.

I chewed on my lip nervously as we drove to the restaurant where we were meeting Kerry and Ben. Cole casually gazed at me out of the corner of his eye. He had been doing it a lot ever since we got in the car.

“It’s Chinese. That’s okay, right?” he asked as we pulled into the car park opposite Golden King Chinese restaurant. Too late if it wasn’t! Chinese was one of my favourites anyway, so I nodded my head enthusiastically. My stomach suddenly called out for food in a gurgle.

Cole chuckled. “Hungry?” Blushing, I nodded my head.

I opened the car door and saw Kerry and Ben waiting by the entrance. They were talking easily and laughing. I guess there was no awkwardness between them… They turned and smiled as we approached them.

“Hey,” Kerry chirped, and immediately started talking at a hundred miles an hour. She grabbed my hand, pulling me ahead of Cole and Ben.

“So how’s it going? You two actually together yet? It’s so sweet how he looks at you,” she whispered so quietly I barely caught any of it. I smiled and shook my head.

“Don’t worry, it’ll happen soon. Cole’s crazy about you.” Crazy about me? I could live with that!

Kerry had requested a table in the corner so we could have some privacy.

As I had hoped, Cole sat next to me and grabbed the menu, wasting no time in deciding what to eat.

“You having sweet and sour chicken?” he asked, scanning the menu absentmindedly. It was pointless; we always had the same thing. I nodded and pointed to the egg fried rice too.

“Cool. I’m getting the beef chow mien so we can share.”

I was having a great time already, and we hadn’t even ordered our drinks yet. Kerry and Ben were so nice, but mostly it was because Cole stroking the back of my hand under the table. I liked it, but at the same time, I couldn’t help question, why so secretly? We were with Kerry and Ben, not our parents!

“We need to go to the toilet, Oakley,” Kerry announced, and jumped up so fast she almost knocked her chair over and hit a waiter. I frowned. Why we? I had never done the going-to-the-toilet-in-a-pair thing before. Well, except when I was a child and went with Mum.

Kerry ushered me to the toilets, pushing me forward as if we were in a hurry. I wasn’t that na?ve to think we were actually going to the toilet. She wanted to talk. Great. As soon as the door closed behind us, she turned to me.

“Ben asked me to be his girlfriend! Can you believe that?”

I nodded. Actually, I couldn’t believe it took him so long.

She spent the next two minutes revealing the details – how he had bought her flowers ?– pink roses – and asked her to be his girlfriend, just before we all came out tonight. Every word she spoke rolled into the next as she tried to get the whole story out as quickly as she could. Her excitement was infectious, and I couldn’t help smiling with her.

“So,” she took a breath, “has Cole asked you yet?” Again, no! She was impatient. I shook my head, and her face fell a little. “Well, what’s taking him so long? It’s not like he doesn’t want to, duh. It’s so obvious. Don’t worry, he’ll do it soon, I can tell,” she said confidentially. It really didn’t bother me. Well, not too much anyway. I was happy to take things slowly. Rushing into a relationship when I was only just getting used to all these teenage hormones wasn’t something I should do.