Silence

As we sat outside in the unusually cold August air, I tried to pretend what Mum said hadn’t bothered me, but I clearly wasn’t doing a very good job because Cole kept giving me side-glances, looking at me like I was going to shatter.

  Deep down I always knew Mum thought of me as a child still, but I didn’t know she felt like I was a stranger, a different person.

  You are a different person. The old you wasn’t dirty, damaged.

  I didn’t want to go home. I’d had enough. Actually, I’d had enough a long time ago.

  “We should go back now. You’re frozen,” Cole said, rubbing his hand up and down my arm to generate some heat. It didn’t work, but I appreciated the gesture. I nodded and stood up at the same time his phone started to vibrate. It was about the thousandth time.

  With a deep, irritated sigh, he pulled it out of his pocket and answered when he saw who it was. “Hello.”

  Who is it? Then, I heard Jasper’s muffled voice on the other end.

  “I’ll tell you as long as you keep it to yourself. Oakley needs some time, not for your parents to rush down here and drag her home.”

  Cole’s eyes narrowed in irritation.

  What’s Jasper said?

  “Well, they can fuck off. She’s sixteen now. She can make up her own mind.”

  Jasper said something else and Cole told him our location. After another minute of muffled noise coming from Jasper’s end, Cole hung up and looked at me, wincing.

  “Jasper’s going to tell them where we are, but he won’t give them the name of the B&B. He’s coming tonight and bringing pizza.”

  I gave Cole a look. All I wanted was to be alone with him and forget our problems for a while. But if I had to see anyone else it’d be my brother.

  “He wants to join the party.” He grinned, rolling his eyes. “He’s also bringing Haribo and some girl he met at a party.”

  Right…

  We walked back to the B&B hand in hand. The dull, moody weather made me in even more of a hurry to get inside. I wanted a hot chocolate and to wrap a quilt around myself to warm up. Cole opened the front door of the quaint mid-terrace town house and gestured for me to go in first.

  Sighing, I placed my hands over the radiator in the entrance hall. I wanted to kiss the owner for having the heating on in August. Today felt like November.

  All too soon, Cole walked up the stairs, and I had to leave the warmth behind. Where had the summer gone? Thankfully, our room was hot, and I crawled into the old-fashioned bed. My feet were numb, so I wrapped the cover around myself and waited to warm up.

  “It’s not that bad, Oakley.”

  Maybe not for you! Cole was bigger, muscular. Whatever, I was bloody cold.

  Cole flopped down beside me and rolled over, laying his head on my lap.

  Do make yourself comfortable.

  “We have a couple hours before your annoying brother gets here. What do you want to do?” From the look in his eye and the way his hand trailed up my thigh it was plain to see what he wanted to pass the time with.

  His touch felt good. Every single time.

  I raised an eyebrow and tugged at his t-shirt.