Silence (Silence #1)(44)

“Sorry,” I said a little sheepishly. “No fighting. I promise. Think I’ll leave that up to you now anyway! You okay to go back inside now?” I rubbed her arms, feeling the bumps on her arms from the cool air.

As soon as we got back into the lounge, I noticed Julian. He smirked and grabbed the microphone. I tensed. Shit.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” he slurred. How did he get that drunk? Max and Dad were supposed to be checking everyone’s drinks… “I would also like to say something about the birthday girl. Firstly, she isn’t as sweet and innocent as you all think.”

He waved his arm around, spilling his drink of the floor.

“She’s a real little tease, gets you all worked up then runs away, hey Oakley?” he shouted, with a lopsided smile.

Oakley backed up. Tears filled her eyes, and she ran to the stairs. My blood was boiling. Not only did she not want this party, but also one of the dickhead guests had just embarrassed her in front of everyone.

“Secondly, she’s screwing her so called ‘best friend’.”

I froze and looked at Oakley. She was standing deathly still on the stairs. I started to feel sick. Max had grabbed Julian by his shirt and thrown him roughly out of their now open front door.

“Stay the hell away from my daughter,” he bellowed after Julian.

As he slammed the door, an eerily silence fell upon the room. Sarah finally broke it seconds later.

“Is that true?”

Oakley looked so scared. I wanted to wrap me arms around her and proudly tell everyone that we were together, but deny that anything physical had happened. We really didn’t need the whole world knowing we’d slept together. That was private. The look on her face stopped me admitting anything though.

“No, it’s not true,” I stated confidently. Oakley let out a deep breath as soon as I denied it. “Why would he say that then?” Max asked, raising his eyebrows.

“’Cause he’s a psycho!” Jasper shouted psycho towards the door where Max threw Julian out. “He’s the one that’s been giving her a hard time. Me and Cole have punched him a few times,” he said, with a shrug and a proud smile.

Sarah sighed, her shoulder sagged in disappointment.

“I think it’s time everyone left.”

It was an order, and one that everyone obeyed. The whispering stopped as people gathered their things to leave.

Max stepped forward and switched the main light on.

“Thank you for coming everyone but the party’s over,” he said loudly, looking around the room as everyone filtered out.

Jasper was standing by the door, saying bye to everyone in several different languages and giving some girls his card. Yes, he had business cards. The idiot didn’t even have a job.

My parents stayed back. Oakley came downstairs and stood middle of the lounge with me.

“Are you okay, sweetheart?” Sarah asked her and brushed her hair out of her face. Oakley nodded but didn’t smile. Her jaw was tight, and I could tell that she was angry with Sarah for making her have the party in the first place. So was I. Everyone would be gossiping about it for ages. It was only going to make it harder for her when we had to go back to school.

“Why don’t you two go upstairs and watch a movie or something? We’ll sort everything out down here,” Max suggested and ushered us towards the stairs. Wow, he really did believe nothing happened, or he would never have let us go upstairs on our own.

“That went well,” I said sarcastically as we both flopped down on her bed. She ran her hands through her hair, fighting a smile. “So...” I wasn’t actually sure what I wanted to say, or how to word it. “You really didn’t want them to know?”

She shook her head. “Is that because of the way they would have found out?” I asked nervously, biting the inside of my mouth in anticipation. She lay down and stretched out. A nod gave me her answer.

“Okay. Good. You know it’s gonna be harder to tell them now though. They’re gonna know we lied.” I frowned as I thought about how we were going to deal with this now. We came out of one awkward situation and were thrown straight into another one.

Oakley sighed and laid her head on my chest, playing with the buttons on my shirt. I tried to focus on the latest problem, and not how my body was reacting to her touching me. So I wouldn’t pounce on her I grabbed the remote and turned the TV on for a distraction.

“I think we should still tell them on Tuesday.” She did something I didn’t think she would. She nodded in agreement. I smiled and kissed the top of her head. “Okay, Tuesday we’ll tell them we’re together, but nothing’s happened?”

She nodded again, a little more enthusiastically. I knew she wouldn’t want to tell them the details of our relationship anyway. I hoped that everyone would take it well.

“Can I give you your present now? It’s after midnight.”

She sat straight up, making me jump at how fast she’d moved. Her huge smiled lit up her eyes. Her smile was infectious. I chuckled and reached for the bag that I had left in her room earlier.

I passed her the yellow gift bag and laughed at her bouncing up and down on the mattress.

“Happy Birthday,” I said, and kissed her lips. She grinned and reached into the bag, pulling out the card.

“So, what’s going on in here then?” Jasper asked, walking into her room without knocking. “You can’t open them now!” he screeched like a thirteen-year-old girl.