An agreement with the bad boy

Never judge a bookworm by their cover

Ethan POV

Getting into my BMW coupe I search through my phone for the text from Sophie. Found it! I pull out of my drive towards the destination.

I don't know Sophie all too well, I met her at a couple of parties that my brother's thrown. I think she wants a piece of him, she seems his type: hot, not too high maintenance, can take care herself. Although she does seem a little aloof, like she's got some kind of wall up. I think that's what first drew me to her, she intrigued me, but she seemed a little too interested in my older brother to even think about going there.

I pulled into the driveway, f**k me this place is huge! Looking at the two Lamborghini Adventador Roadsters and Audi R8 parked outside the double garage the people who live here must be rolling in it.

I mean I've got money, but this place is like a bloody manor house. I got out of the car, locking it and walked up the stairs and rang the door bell,. I wonder if a butler is gonna answer and offer to take my jacket. Oh no, just Sophie.

"What? You live here?"

"No, it's my bestie's house." she said laughing, seeing my wide eyes.

Not meaning to sound harsh, but I didn't even think she had any friends, well unless you count the guys she's doing. She always seemed like a loner. 

"This is my second home really, she practically lives here all alone six days a week. So she likes me hanging around for a bit of company."

"So what's this project of yours then? And where does Jason come into it?"

"Well he went and broke my bestie's heart didn't he?! Can't be letting him get away with that can we?" She said with an evil smirk on her face.

"So where do I fit into it then?" I'm intrigued

"Well, she tends to wear her heart on her sleeve a little bit, so the idea is to toughen her up a bit. Give a bit of a makeover I suppose, image, disposition and reputation. We wanna make her into a badass b***h, like me basically. And we need a guy's opinion. There's certain things only a guy can tell us." She gave me a wink.

"Are you trying to w***e out your friend?" She just tipped her head back, laughing in reply. 

I walked through the door, gaping at the grandeur of it all. As soon as you walked through the door you were met with a huge sweeping staircase that separated into two when it reached the first floor.

"I know massive isn't it? six bedrooms, all with en-suites, kitchen,  living room, dining room, study, indoor pool, gym, Games and cinema room. It used to be great for playing hide and seek as kids." I looked at her wide eyed at her, mouth slightly agape. I followed her a bit deeper into the house until we got to the second door on the right. She stopped, leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed. 

I stopped next to her, looking at the girl sitting on the floor. I recognised her from school, didn't pay much attention to her, too much of a bookworm for me, too quiet and timid. She looked like she was in her own little world half the time, I liked my girls with a little bit of something about them, a little bit of a spark, someone that can stick up for themselves. Someone that can hold a conversation, without stuttering all the way through it. She was sitting on the floor, pathetically, wearing a hoodie that looked about two sizes too big and a pair of loose fitted jeans, she looked up at me. Sure she was pretty enough, but with the puffy eyes and blotchy face from all the crying she'd obviously been doing and her dark hair tied loosely at the back of her head, she was a mess. Too much of a mess to be able to pull any of this plan off.

"Oh, Hell No!" I didn't mean it to come out so loudly. "What the hell am I supposed to do with that?!"

The girl stood up, hands on her hips with her eyebrows raised slowly walking towards me. Oh she was pissed. Sophie turned to me with a smirk on her face.

"You've unleashed the beast now!" She giggled through her whispers 

"What. The. Actual f**k?" I could see the anger in the girls eyes now. "Who the hell do you think you are? You've just come into my house and spoken about me like a piss of s**t. WHILE I was sitting in front of you!" I opened my mouth to try and apologise, but I was shushed by the finger she held up in my face. "YOU. The school manwhore, come into MY home and have the audacity to f*****g insult me. If you're here to help then shut your f*****g mouth and help, but If I'm too much of a lost cause then follow the stench of your shitty aftershave back to your car, it shouldn't be difficult, you wear enough of it!"  

Sophie stood, giggling next to me, but the girl soon turned her attention to her. Sophie stood up straight as she saw her friend looking at her with daggers.

"Sophie Marie Pullman. What gave you the bright idea to get him involved?"

"Well I thought 'What is the best way to play a player?' Well get the biggest manwhore in school involved that's how!" Sophie turned to me, hands up in surrender. "No offence."

 "None taken."

Which there really wasn't, she knew I really didn't give two shits what people called me and she couldn't care less about what they called her.

I looked at this girl a bit closer, she was fiery, five minutes ago she was crying her eyes out and now she's standing in front of me and I'm kind of worried I'm going to get a fist in my face. I kind of like it, it makes her a bit more interesting. I suppose you should never judge a bookworm by their cover.

Sophie Stood in front of us smiling.

"So let's do introductions. Alexis. Ethan. Ethan. Alexis." Sophie pointed to us individually.

"mmm." Alexis stood, arms crossed against her ribs, facing away from me. Sophie grabbed hold of Alexis by her shoulders and turned her to face me. She gave me a fake smile and rolled her eyes.

"Look sorry, I didn't quite mean it the way it came out." I put my hands up in surrender. "It's just I can't see how we can turn a shy, little, virgin girl into a s*x kitten in a week." Sophie raised an eyebrow at me.

"HA! You think Lexi here is a virgin?" She shook her head. "Far from it, what do you think she does in this big, empty house to pass the hours? Knitting?"

I felt sorry for the girl, I could see her getting embarrassed by what had been said. I'm going to have to tread carefully, she still seems quite shy, talking about it. Plus I don't want a black eye if I piss her off anymore!

"Hey." I put my hand on her shoulder. "You don't need to be embarrassed. Me and Soph here aren't exactly inexperienced when it comes to sex." She shrugged my hand off her shoulder violently and took a step back from me.

"You think I'm embarrassed by s*x? You think I get embarrassed by the fact I enjoy a good f**k? I am actually  embarrassed by the fact that another person now knows that I am practically an orphan." I could see her eyes welling up more with every word that she spat out. "I am embarrassed at the fact I sit here all alone like the loser I am. I am embarrassed that I am hauled up in this massive house all on my own like a f*****g freak. I have a father that pops in once a week, if I'm lucky. To check that I haven't burnt the place down and a gold digging w***e of a mother who hasn't given a s**t about me since I was three years old. That is what I am really embarrassed about."

When she'd got to the end of her rant, Alexis was breathing heavily, gasping for the inhalations, she turned so she was facing the window, bent over, holding her head. Before I could get worried Sophie had run to her side, bent over her and rubbing her back. I could see her mimicking the breathing , talking her through it and trying to soothe her. After a few minutes Sophie stood up and gave me a little smile. Alexis straightened up and turned to face me, taking one final deep breathe, exhaling as we came face to face. Her piercing blue eyes still had a hint of hurt in them.

"I'm Sorry, I just don't like talking about that stuff. It's kind of a sore spot for me. You know? Anyway, not a very good introduction huh?" She held out her hand with a polite smile. "I'm Alexis. Lexi or Lex are also fine, whichever you prefer."

Good god this girl has so many sides to her, she's gonna give me whiplash sooner or later. It's kinda hot. In a psycho killer kinda way. I put out my hand and shook hers.

"Ethan."

"Well, nice to see you're finally playing nicely with the other children Lexi. Now first things first I have been trying to get you out of those hideous clothes for years." Sophie turned to me when she realised what she had said. "Get your mind out of the gutter Tate, I didn't mean it like that." I put my hands up in surrender.

I followed the two girls up the stairs, where Sophie ran ahead, remerging from a door half way down the long corridor, tying up her long red hair into a high bun. I pointed at the open door she had just come from.

"So is that your room Lexi?" She shook her head, while Sophie jumped in.

"Of course not, that's one of the guest rooms. That's Lexi's room." She pointed to the closed door at the end of the hall.

"Oh please Soph, you may as well call it your room, you decorated it, your clothes are in the wardrobe and it's your toiletries in the bathroom." The girls were just walking into Lexi's bedroom when Sophie tried putting on a serious face, failing miserably.

"Talking of toiletries. Where's my shampoo Lexi?" 

Lexi grabbed a magazine off a white chest of draws and sat on the edge of the bed, flicking through the pages. She just shrugged at Sophie's question

"I ran out." 

As I walked over the threshold I was hit by the scent of coconut, but what really hit me was the room. I had been in a lot of girls rooms, they were usually pink or purple with teddies and girly s**t all over the place, but this wasn't like that, this was an elegant room. The walls were painted white, except one that was painted a light grey, all the furniture was white, the only girly things you could see was a vase of white flowers that sat on the windowsill which looked out over the garden. Either side of the window was a black and white picture of a moonlit landscape. A few photos in frames adorned the tops of the white furniture, mostly of Lexi and Sophie together.

There were two doors, one, on the left of the bed leading to the walk in wardrobe and another on the far side which led to the en-suite.

Sophie skipped over to the white bedside table and opened the top drawer.

"Hey Ethan, you know how earlier you asked how experienced Lexi was?" 

I looked towards Lexi, but she seemed oblivious to what was going on. I looked back to Sophie who was giggling with a handful of colourful wrappers, letting them cascade through her fingers.

"Well, If you run out of condoms, Lexi has enough to keep all three of us going for a year."

She laughed out loud, but Lexi still sat reading her magazine. She rolled her eyes once, but other than that she had no reaction. I don't think this girl is as quiet and shy as I first thought. I'm finding her quite the mystery.