The Deal With The Bad Boy

Chapter Two

‘Ugh I cannot believe you beat me!’ Jay moaned loudly as we walked out of the school at the end of the day, Jay grasping both of our test papers in his hands as he obsessively scrutinised our workings out to see where he had gone wrong.

Snatching my paper from his hand I giggled, ‘get over it Jay, you just need to accept that I am more of a mathematical genius than you are’ I replied cheekily.

Rolling his eyes, Jay suddenly smiled, ‘you coming to mine today?’ he asked hopefully, ‘dad got me a quad bike! We could go for a ride round the grounds’ he added with a grin.

Giving him a look I spluttered, ‘a quad bike? Your dad bought you a quad bike? What for? it’s not your birthday!’

Jay shrugged, ‘probably another, sorry I brought another gold digging bimbo into your life who I didn’t realise was only after my money, present’ he replied sourly.

His parents had divorced when he was in elementary and his dad had had a string of failed marriages with younger women who always left with a healthy divorce settlement and Jay got an overly extravagant apology from his father just after.

I gave him a quick comforting hug, ‘hey at least you got a bike for suffering only 18 months of Vanessa’ I coaxed with a smile.

A small smile plucked at the corners of his mouth, ‘true, that is the upside of my father’s disastrous taste in women, I get some awesome gifts.’ he agreed, ‘so you coming?’ he asked hopefully.

I shook my head regretfully, ‘I can’t today, my mum wants me home on time, it’s family bonding night’ I answered.

‘Ugh you are so lucky to have Mrs R as your mum’ Jay moaned, ‘family nights, family dinners, movie nights, girl chats, it’s like you live with your best friend.’

I nudged him playfully, ‘and how many of those nights have you encroached on bestie?’ I demanded as he looked at me sheepishly.

‘A couple’ he conceded

‘Uhh try 85% off them, its like having a best friend stalker’ I giggled as he smiled ruefully.

‘Hey your mum is cool, and she watches action films not those god awful chick flicks that other kids mums watch and she cooks the most amaaaaaaazing chilli girl! I can’t be saying no to that!’ he groaned longingly as he gave me a pleading look.

Rolling my eyes I slumped my shoulders in defeat, ‘fineeeee, you can come too’ I conceded as the tall, lanky nerd jumped around me excitedly.  ‘I can’t believe you think a night watching movies with me and mum is more fun than going to yours and riding a quad bike.’

Jay shrugged happily, ‘I would rather live with you in that little two bed house for a week than my house for the rest of my life’ he replied as a slight shadow crossed his face.

‘Um I thought we were going to share a flat when we go to college’ I demanded, stopping suddenly and swinging him toward me, pouting, ‘and now I find you want to live with my mum?’ I asked accusingly.

Holding up his hands in a protective stance, Jay shook his head, ‘hey! You know I'm living with you baby girl, but your mum’s cooking man, can’t we like kidnap her and bring us with us?’ he finished with a grin.

‘pfft, you wouldn’t have to kidnap her, she’d willingly pack herself in my suitcase’ I grumbled as we continued walking.

As we reached my house, Jay’s face lit up at the sight of our peeling front door, he loved being here and took every opportunity to spend time with us.

Pushing open the creaking gate, I hurried up the path and used my key to unlock the lock, pushing the door open and dropping my school bag just inside next to the shoe rack.  Kicking off my faded pumps, I waited impatiently for Jay to carefully untie his precious trainers and place them neatly by my dumped shoes before dragging him into the kitchen where my mum was humming happily as she stirred a big saucepan full of her home made chilli.

‘Hi you two’ she said with a smile without looking up from her cooking.

‘Uh how did you know I was here?’ Jay asked shocked.

Mum looked over with a grin as she wiped her hands on her ‘kiss the cook’ apron and walked over to give us both a hug, ‘please Jameson, I am making chilli, where else would you be today but at my table?’ she asked amused.

My mum is the only person other than his dad that has the privilege of calling Jay by his full name, he tried at the very beginning to get her to call him Jay but was greeted with her very sternest mum look and a threat that he would never grace her table again if he continued.   Horrified, Jay had backed down immediately, that is how awesome my mother’s chilli is people!

Sighing Jay grinned back, ‘true, you do make the best chilli in Ridgemont’ he conceded as he hurried over to the drawers to start taking out table mats and cutlery to set the table.

I shook my head, ‘seriously, he may as well move in, he even has his own chores’

Mum fixed me with a stern look, ‘Cassidy, what’s the rule? You eat here . . ‘

‘you help here’ I finished with a chuckle as I laid out plates on the counter and grabbed three cups and  the jug of juice from the fridge.

Sitting down at the table, mum started to ladle food onto Jay’s plate as he did a little jig in his chair excitedly.

‘Calm down Jay! it’s just food’ I snorted as he look at me horrified

‘Food? Just food?’ he gasped at me, his eyes wide, ‘how could you! This is the food of the God’s! If Zeus tasted Mrs R’s culinary skills he would never return to the heavens’ he declared as I rolled my eyes and mum smiled affectionately at him.

‘sweet talker’ she laughed, slapping his arm playfully before reaching for her own fork and digging in.

We chatted as we ate, Jay filling us in on the latest woman to catch his father’s eye, who he swore was about twenty and hadn’t discovered skirts as everything she wore just seemed to be shirts with belts from the pictures he had seen on his father’s phone.

Mum and I snorted with laughter at his description of the latest blonde from a bottle his dad was pursuing.

Once we ate, Mum went to find a DVD to watch as Jay and I washed and dried the dishes and cleared up the kitchen.

Making our way through to the living room, we dropped ourselves onto the miss matched sofa to the right of mum’s recliner that she got off a free cycle site last year.

Curling up on the sofa, I tucked my legs underneath me as I cuddled up to Jay who threw his arm around me happily whilst mum put on her choice of comedy chick flick.  Soon we were roaring with laughter at the TV, tears rolling down our faces as we watched the film together, mum having produced popcorn from somewhere for us all to share.

Two hours later, the film finally ending, Jay got up reluctantly and made his way to the door, opening it up to reveal a driver and car parked at the end of my path after Jay had texted his dad’s chauffeur to come and get him.

Giving me a tight hug, he shouted out ‘thanks for dinner Mrs R!’ before sprinting down my path and sliding into the passenger seat, giving me his goofy wave as the Bentley pulled away from the curb and took off down the street.

Shutting the door gently, I made my way upstairs, opening my bedroom door and throwing myself on the single bed with a groan, today had been a long day and I was ready to sleep.

Rolling on to my back I stared at the ceiling as the light on my pay as you go phone flashed up, a birthday present from my mum and Jay for my last birthday, OK it wasn’t an I phone and I didn’t have a contract but at least I had a fricking phone!  Jay put ten dollars on my phone every month so I could talk to him.  Rolling over I grabbed my brick of a phone and checked the messages knowing it was Jay as he was the only person apart from mum who has my number.

Sliding up the screen I opened the messages to Jay’s name, ‘Heyyyyy Girlfriend! I totally spaced at your house! I have a party on Friday and you are totally coming with me!’

‘No Jay! I don’t wanna’ I shot back immediately, Jay had been trying for a year now to get me to go to party’s with him but I had always flaked out on him.

‘Nope girl, you are coming and that is final! I will pick you up Friday, no arguments’ the reply pinged back.

‘my mum, she won’t let me go’ I sent back desperately trying to get him to back down.

‘I already asked her baby doll’ came the reply as I inwardly groaned, of course he did, the sly so and so!

Trying another tack I quickly answered, ‘but I have so much homework, I need to get it done, you wouldn’t want me to fail and miss out on our first choice college?’

I could feel the smirk coming through my screen as Jay’s words flashed up, ‘nice try baby doll but we both know that you are already a shoe in for a scholarship to Alamont so stop trying to fight me and accept you are coming to the party with me.’

Struggling within myself for a few minutes I finally sat up and texted back, ‘but what will I wear’

‘I’ll sort you out girlfriend!’ flashed up immediately as I shook my head

‘OK’ I sent back, dread already building within my chest.

‘Yes! I will see you tomorrow, and after school, we go SHOPPING!!!!’

Throwing my phone on the bed, I dropped back on the duvet defeated, ‘man I am sooo going to regret this’ I mumbled to myself before rolling over and heading for a shower.