Page 7 of Broken Silence
“Right.” Chelsea laughed and shot me a brief smile. She tucked her dark hair behind her ears. “So, are we going out tonight?”
“Oh, definitely,” Kerry said.
She 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 would all be meeting at my place at eight before heading into town.
I was kind of dreading it.
My parents, my sister, Mia, and my niece Leona were sitting on the sofa, watchingCinderella.
“Hi, sweetheart,” Mum said, struggling to hold Leona still as she bounced around on her lap.
One thing I had learnt since Mia had had Leona was that children wereloud. They often made a huge mess and wouldn’t keep still. You could also ruin their life by incorrectly making their sandwich.
“Hi,” I replied, frowning at being called sweetheart at twenty-one years old.
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 and murder a bunch of people on the PlayStation until I go out later.”
I was back home and saving for my own place after uni. My job was decent, but deposits sucked. Still, I had just about enough and was starting to look for places. I was lucky that I could live at home while I saved, really. A few of my friends had been stuck renting and couldn’t save much.
She gave me a sympathetic smile. “Who are you going out with?”
“Kerry, Ben, and Chelsea.”
“Chelsea, huh?”
I waved my hand, dismissing the insinuation. “We’re just friends, Mia.”
“I know that. Does she?”
“No, I thought I’d string her along until I stopped thinkingabout Oakley all the damn time.” I started out being sarcastic, but the end of that sentence was honest—toohonest.
It just all ended so suddenly. One minute, she had been there, and the next, the whole family had taken off to Australia with no warning—just a knock on the door to say goodbye before they left for the airport.
No time, no warning. No moving on.
“Aw, Cole.”
I held my hand up. “Don’t.”
I didn’t need the pitying looks or sympathetic words. I would be fine. Eventually. There wasn’t any other choice.
Mia opened her mouth again, even though I had told her not to say another word, but thankfully, Leona skipped into the room, brushing her fringe out of her eyes.
“Untle Ole!” she yelled as she ran at me.
I managed to sweep her up just before she smashed into my crotch. Again. Kids were feral.
Leona still had problems pronouncing her Cs, so I was Untle Ole.
