The Deal With The Bad Boy

Chapter Eight

‘What do you mean you don’t need a lift’ Jay whinged at me, ‘you know I need to drive you so I can see Mrs R and sweet talk her! It’s been three days Cass, three days since I stepped in your house and sampled the goddess of food’s delicacies.’

Shoving him I pulled a face, ‘eww, that sounds so wrong, do NOT speak about my mother like that again’ I moaned in disgust.

‘Where are you going?’ my best friend demanded desperately, ‘have you found a new bestie? O.M.G you have replaced me as coolest bestie ever haven’t you? Who is it? WHO have you tied your undying love to now?’ he demanded dramatically.

‘No-one’ I replied as I tried to shh him, Jesus this boy can be loud, I swear he has a constant desire to be centre of attention! ‘I have a tutoring job, I’m going to there house tonight for the first lesson.’

Jay’s face broke into a grin, ‘look at you girlfriend! Breaking out into the world of work! I’m so proud! My Cassie Poo is growing up’ he sighed, placing his hand on his heart as he reached out with the other and ruffled my hair. ‘Soooo, who’s the lucky student? Who gets to be tutored by the incomparable brain power of Cassidy Reynolds?’ he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Opening my mouth to speak, I was cut off by an annoyed voice behind me, ‘Oi Reynolds!’ Turning around I cringed to see Wade beside his car, four spaces away, his arms folded as he glared at me. ‘Your supposed to be the brain box of the school but you can’t tell the difference between my car and his?’ he demanded.

Looking back at Jay who was staring between us in shock, I gave him a small wave before jogging over to Wade, stopping in front of him as I whispered, ‘sorry, I was just . .’

Wade turned and pressed the key fob on his car keys, opening the lock, ‘don’t care, get in’ he growled, pulling open his door and climbing in as I ran around the vehicle and slid into the passenger seat.

Roaring the engine, the bad boy slams the vehicle into reverse just as I shut the door, screaming, I grab the seat belt and pull it across myself, clicking it into place. OK, Jay has a point, I will NEVER argue with him again about my seatbelt, not when there are maniacs like Wade on the road!

Wade glances over at me and rolls his eyes at my fingers gripping the door frame as tightly as I can, but he eases off the gas slightly as my heart rate starts to come down from the rafters.

Staring out of the window, I watch as we pass street after street, my mouth falling open as the small homey two story houses give way to mansions with electric gates manned by security guards.

I know that Jay is my best friend and his dad is rich, I even know that most of my school peers come from money but I never really thought about the fact that Wade must also have rich parents.  It’s not like the boy comes to school in designer clothes and solid gold chains, sure I’ve seen him on a pretty impressive motorbike, and he’s always well dressed, but you don’t really think about things like where he lives do you.

Twenty minutes later and we pull up to a large two-story house with an impressive driveway. Imposing electric gates stand between us and the property that automatically start to open as Wade approaches in his car.

Driving in, I turned around to watch the gates shut behind us, suddenly feeling nervous, like I’m trapped in a cage with a tiger.

‘Relax loser, you look like I’m going to jump on you’ Wade muttered as he slowed to a stop before looking at me, ‘and trust me, you are not my type’ he added.

Eyes widening, I averted my gaze as my cheeks flushed, how I wish I was a gutsy type of girl who could tell that ass hole that he isn’t my type either. That I’d rather stick one of the football team’s sweaty socks in my mouth than touch him, but of course I don’t, I just look embarrassed and let him know he got to me.

Climbing out, he headed for the front door, with me hot on his heels, my eyes raking over the outside in awe.  From the whitewashed building to the sculpted ferns that edged a well-manicured lawn with a small fountain in the centre, the place was nothing short of breath taking.

Unlocking the large oak front door, Wade pushes it inwards as he steps inside, throwing his keys unceremoniously into a dish that sat on a small table just inside the foyer.

‘Rosa?’ he called out loudly as he walked forward, his head tilted as if listening for sounds.

A door to our right swings open and a grey haired plump motherly figure bustles out of the kitchen a few moments later

‘Niña estas en casa’ she gushed happily as she hurried forward to hug the bad boy, ‘and who is this beauty?' She added, looking toward me in interest.‘This is Cassidy Anne Reynolds’ Wade replies returning the woman’s affectionate hug.

‘So beautiful’ Rosa says holding out a hand to me as I take it shyly giving it a gentle shake.

‘Much better Wade, Rosa approves’ the woman smiled as she grabbed his cheek and pinched it affectionately.

Wade rolled his eyes at her words, ‘no, it’s not like that Rosa, Cassidy Is here to tutor me’

Rosa’s eyes narrowed at his words, ‘tutor? Bambino, what have you been doing’ she demanded angrily as Wade averted his gaze, flinching under the Spanish woman’s steely glare.

‘I’m failing Math’ he admitted grudgingly avoiding Rosa’s disapproving look.

Turning back to me, Rosa rolls her eyes, ‘Well Cassidy, I hope that you can help my bambino, he is a good boy, he just makes stupid decisions’ she added with another glare at Wade who actually blushed as he began to push me toward the stairs.

‘Ok Rosa, we’ll be in my room’ he shouted hastily as Rosa muttered under her breath in Spanish.

‘It was lovely to meet you Rosa’ I called out respectfully as I allowed Wade to push me forcefully me up the stairs.

‘You too little one’ Rosa’s voice floated back, an obvious smile in her tone.

Reaching the top of the stairs, I stood aside as Wade took the lead, walking down the hall to the end and throwing open the door to reveal a huge bedroom that held a king sized four poster bed. A desk with a top of the range laptop was against one wall along with two chests of drawers.

A games console was attached to the grossly oversized television mounted on the wall that was encapsulated by a surround sound system.

Throwing his bag against the wall that held the door to what I assumed was a walk in wardrobe, Wade threw himself onto the bed and stared over at me expectantly.

‘You want to work here?’ I squeaked, fidgeting with the bag that I still had gripped to my chest.

‘No, I want to make out Cassidy’ the bad boy replied dryly, ‘of course I want to study here.’

Walking around the bed, I perched myself on the edge, placing my bag in front of me as I fiddled with the strap momentarily.

‘How did you know my name?’ I finally asked, peeking over at him curiously.

Wade stared at me incredulously for a moment before he scoffed, ‘we go to school together, of course I know your name.’

‘But you knew my middle name’ I pushed perplexed

Wade shrugged his shoulders as he leaned over and grabbed his bag from the floor, ‘dunno, probably heard Jay use it at some point’ he muttered.

Furrowing my brow, I tried to remember a time that Jay had used my full name before shrugging and pulling out my books, crossing my legs as I opened my maths book to equations that I was sure would be on the next test.

An hour later and I was ready to hit the smug i***t beside me with my maths textbook, ‘I don’t get it, this makes zero sense, are you sure you can tutor? This is ridiculous, you are the worst teacher ever’ Wade grumbled as he threw himself backwards on to the bed.

Swallowing my anger, I gritted out, ‘it’s not ridiculous’ trying to keep my voice steady, ‘we just need to break it down a bit more.’

Huffing, Wade sat up again, pulling the textbook toward him as he stabbed the exercise book ruthlessly with his pen.

‘Look 5(x+5)+3(x+4) it’s simple Algebra, you can get this’ I cajoled, sighing as the bad boy raised an eyebrow at me in disbelief.

‘Ok OK, 5x + 3x is 8x’ Wade started slowly as he wrote the formula down, his tongue sticking out of the side of his mouth whilst he concentrated.

‘Good, keep going’ I replied, watching him closely as he tried to work out the problem from what I had taught him.

‘5 x 5 is 25?’ he added hesitantly, looking up at me as I nodded, a smile appearing on my face. ‘3x4 is 12? So add them together is 37?’ he continued, his brow furrowed.

‘OK, now put it together’ I breathed, my breath catching as I saw the light dawn on his face.

‘8x+37 that’s the answer!’ he shouted, a look of triumph crossing his face as he threw his pen across the room with a shout of victory.

‘YES!’ I squealed, pride welling up inside of me, and before I knew what I was doing, I threw my arms around the school’s bad boy and hugged him.

Wade froze under my touch, making me still before I slowly retracted from him, my eyes wide, ‘oh my God I am so sorry’ I whispered, fear radiating off me, ‘I didn’t mean to touch you, I was just really pleased you understood the question.’

‘Uhh, OK?’ Wade replied as he stared at me in shock.

Throwing my things into my bag, I stammered in panic, ‘I should go, really good lesson though, you did really well, umm, I’ll see you tomorrow.’

Lifting my bag by the strap, I went to throw it across my shoulder as everything tumbled out of the bottom and slid across his bedroom floor.

Groaning, I dropped to my knees, pulling everything toward me hastily, avoiding Wade’s gaze.

I suddenly heard the creak of the bed springs as he stood up, walking around the bed to me and crouching down, gathering my things for me into a neat pile.

‘You don’t have to, sorry, I’ll be really quick’ I rambled, still keeping my eyes averted from his face.

‘What happened to your bag?’ he asked gruffly as he picked it up and examined the large tear.

‘It ripped, I’ll sew it up when I get home, it’s fine’ I replied quickly as I went to grab it but Wade held it out of my reach, staring down at me, his face unreadable.

Without warning, he stood up from his position across from me, taking my bag with him as he walked over to his closet on the other side of the room. Pulling open the white wooden door, he heading inside, rummaging around for a few moments before returning to stand across from me, holding out a brand new black designer rucksack toward me, silently.