Broken Silence [Book II] SAMPLE OF PUBLISHED BOOK

Broken Silence - Chapter Two

“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 allthe 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 C-ole.”

“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.