He slipped his tongue into my mouth and for a moment we kissed hard, but a door slamming downstairs broke us from the spell, and he shoved me away from him hard. I leaned over and breathed heavily as his footsteps retreated. He paused at the door and turned towards me.
“Don’t go out with him,” he panted at me. I glanced up at him, his eyes were tight as he looked at me.
“You go out with Abbi?” I answered him.
“Yeah, but Abbi was here before you were.” I glared at him; he shrugged and walked out of the room, closing the door softly behind him. I sat down on the floor and put my head between my legs to control my breathing; I was seriously screwed. The kiss had awakened something in me and I wanted Cooper more than ever before.
He started to avoid me more and didn’t even want to take me to school anymore. I heard him and Shawn arguing about it one night while I was coming back from the kitchen with snacks.
“Dad, she can make her own way!” Cooper raged as I walked slowly up the stairs, unwrapping a granola bar and taking a bite.
“No! You give her a ride. I don’t trust her and I need you to keep an eye on her.”
“She’s almost sixteen, surely she’s mature enough to make her own way.” Cooper insisted and my insides shriveled up because I knew he really didn’t want me in the car with him.
My face burned with shame and I struggled to swallow my half-chewed up granola bar. My feet were leaden as I passed Shawn’s office. I refused to look at the door because I was struggling to hold my tears in.
“No! Cooper, there will be no more discussion about this.”
Shawn’s tone was final and Cooper flew from the office, bumping into me on the stairs and barging by me without a word.
After that encounter we didn’t really speak for a while, but each car journey was complete torture and I longed to escape. I’d approached Shawn about getting a ride with Lish, but he was adamant that Cooper was to drive me to and from school, so I had no choice.
Cooper would pick Abbi up every day to take her to school and back home, so he was never in the car alone with me. When David and I went on our date, he gave me the cold shoulder for a week and a half.
As my sixteenth birthday approached in early June, I didn’t want to do anything major, but my mom wanted to throw me a huge sweet sixteenth. I wasn’t given an option and had to have a party on my birthday, because it was on a Saturday.
As the day approached, I became more and more nervous because it was my first birthday in their messed-up family and I didn’t really know my new friends that well and I was worried that no-one would even come. Plus the fact that Cooper wasn’t speaking to me at all and Zane had hardly been seen since the wedding.
The day before my party, Cooper and Abbi were sitting in the front of his car while I sat in the back discussing their plans for the weekend as we drove to school. I normally tuned them out, but I heard Cooper’s words, and they hit me in the chest.
“I’m out of town with the team. We leave at six a.m. tomorrow and won’t get back until late Sunday night.” His voice was cold, and I knew it was directed at me. My eyes filled with tears and I stared out of the window at the sidewalk as Abbi spoke.
“Coop, it’s your sister’s party. How can you miss it?” Her voice was high and babyish, and I cringed at it.
Cooper’s voice was like a whip as he spoke again, “She’s not my sister, she’s nothing to me.” I rubbed at my chest and I saw his eyes on me in the mirror for a second before he turned to Abbi.
“Well, fine, but I think it’s awful that you aren’t going to be there. I mean all our friends will be there and we can have fun, regardless of the fact that it’s HER party.” The conversation ended as we pulled into the school parking lot. I leaped from the car as soon as it was in park, forgetting my bio textbook on the back seat. I just wanted to get away from them. I heard Abbi as I shot away.
“Oh dear, I think you hurt her feelings.”
Her spiteful words and amused tone reached me as I sprinted inside and went straight into the bathroom, splashing cold water on my face, then I went right to class. Elisha was standing outside the classroom as the tardy bell rang, and we rushed inside.
As we sat down, she handed me my textbook and I looked at her in confusion. She leaned over and whispered, “Cooper approached me in the hallway before class and handed me it.” I nodded at her and threw myself into my work, finishing first and getting sent to the office with a note from the teacher to pick up her photocopying.
As I reached the office a familiar back was walking down the hall away from me. I tried not to stare at him, but I couldn’t help my glances at him every few seconds. Cooper’s eyes met mine just before he turned the corner and his lips lifted in a small smile. I turned away from him and picked up what I’d been sent for hurrying back to class.
Cooper was leaning against his locker across from my classroom looking gorgeous with his tie loose around his neck and his shirt half out of his dark grey trousers. My mouth watered and I squeezed my eyes shut and turned away from him.
As I went to walk inside, he grabbed my palm, sliding something into it before sauntering away. I opened the door and took the teacher’s supplies to her before resuming to my desk. Under the desk, I opened the note and my heart hammered.
After school, don’t make plans. I’m taking you somewhere special. Cxx
My heart pounded in my ears as I shoved the note into my bio notes and pushed them into the bottom of my bag. I spent the rest of the day in nervous anticipation of what he had planned, and as he dropped Abbi off, his smile grew wider. We drove towards home and when we arrived his face fell.
Both my mom’s and his dad’s cars sat in the driveway. He stopped behind them and got out with a frown on his face. His dad came down the steps and met us with the biggest smile on his face. As I climbed out of the back seat, my mom came towards me with a smile.
“Mom, Shawn, this is early for you guys?” I stared at them in confusion and my mom smiled at me.
“Yeah, it’s only once that your baby girl turns sixteen and since Coop’s missing tomorrow, we decided to have your party today. All your friends have been informed and everyone will be here tonight. Tomorrow we’re going to visit your nana and gramps, and my mom and dad.”
I followed alongside them and Cooper shrugged at me as I glanced at him. My mom broke the stare-off between me and Cooper by stepping between us and dragging me upstairs to get ready. I wanted to wear jeans and a shirt, but my mom insisted I wear a dress and spent hours primping my hair, painting my nails, fixing my make-up and my eyebrows and forcing me into a pink and white dress that accentuated my curves and had a gold belt that clipped at the waist.
She made me wear gold sandals that I’d never seen before and a gold necklace that dropped into my cleavage. When she was done it was almost time for the party and she dragged from the room and led me outside.
The party was in the garden and the decor was so overdone with gold and pink streamers everywhere. There was a glass vase on each table filled with gold and pink stones and white table linens underneath.
My eyes scanned the room and I saw that most of the people there were only there because of Cooper, Shawn, Mom, and Zane. I had a handful of people I was excited to see, Wendy, Cate, Leah and Alice, and my friends from school.