Liam walked through the door, and I would imagine that if my face looked like his, then that’s probably why my mom was asking what I was so happy about. He was grinning from ear to ear. “Morning,” he greeted, giving Jake one of those cheesy fist punches on the way past.
“Good morning, Liam. Breakfast?” my mom offered, holding up some bread.
He nodded, smiling gratefully. “Sure, Margaret, that’d be great.” He wrapped his arms around me from behind. “Hey, Angel. I missed you last night,” he purred.
I heard my mom ‘aww’ quietly and I tried not to laugh. “Oh you did, huh?” I said, slapping his hand as he moved it down between my legs under the counter.
He laughed and moved to stand next to me. “Absolutely I did. I liked sleeping in with you the other night. Maybe your mom will let me sleep in with you from now on,” he said, looking at my mom hopefully.
“Don’t push it, Liam,” she replied, rolling her eyes.
He laughed. “Hey, it was worth a shot!” he stated, brushing my hair behind my ears and looking at her a little sheepishly.
“You always were cheeky,” my mom muttered, smiling as she put three slices of toast in front of him.
“I was just asking Jake about him crushing on Kate,” I told Liam, wanting to change the subject from my sex life and him sleeping in my bed. I’d spoken to Liam about Jake and Kate last night. He said that he hadn’t noticed anything, but he was going to watch him today for me.
“You’re not crushing on a sixteen year old, are you Jake? What the hell kind of eighteen year old would even look at a sixteen year old that way?” Liam asked with fake shock, using Jakes words from a couple of weeks ago.
Jake glared at him warningly. “Ha ha. You two are hilarious,” he grumbled, shaking his head as he walked off to get dressed.
When we pulled into the parking lot at school, there was a crowd of people hovering around Johnny’s car. He was standing there awkwardly, looking really uncomfortable while the boys talked to him about his car and the girls flirted shamelessly, trying to get him into the back of it by the looks of it. Jessica, as usual, was at the front.
“Wow, we really have some sluts at this school!” I whispered to Liam.
He nodded, looking unimpressed. “Yep.”
“Maybe you should go and help him. He looks really uncomfortable,” I suggested, looking at Liam pleadingly.
He sighed and rolled his eyes at me. “Why must you be so damn nice all the time?” he asked, kissing me gently before walking off in the direction of Johnny’s car. I watched him wave his hand in a buzz off gesture, making half of the boys walk off immediately. He threw his arm around Johnny’s shoulder, grinning as he guided him away from the crowd towards the school, while Johnny looked at him gratefully. I smiled to myself; I really did have the most adorable boyfriend in the world.
Kate skipped over to me. “Where’s your hot ass of a brother?” she asked. Jake cleared his throat behind her. She turned and grinned at him. “Sorry, I should have said, hot ass of a stepbrother,” she corrected, winking at him.
His face dropped slightly but he quickly put on a smirk. “Finally realised I’m not interested but you’re still trying to get in with the family, huh?” he teased.
She laughed. “Something like that. Maybe I’ve just gone off of blonds, or maybe you’ve lost your mojo,” she countered, smirking back at him. I almost choked on my laughter. Jake loved the chase I could tell, he’d never wanted anyone he couldn’t have before and I honestly think he wanted Kate now just because she wasn’t interested. I dragged her in through the doors and spotted Liam and Johnny chatting against his locker.
“Hey,” I greeted, smiling as I wrapped my arm around Liam’s waist.
“Hey, Amber. How are you today?” Johnny asked politely.
“I’m excellent. You?” I asked trying not to laugh as Liam’s hand slipped down the back of my jeans, rubbing his hand over my ass softly.
“I’m good.” He nodded in agreement. Kate was smiling at him seductively next to me.
“I was just telling Johnny about Ice Hockey,” Liam interjected, squeezing my ass gently. I smiled sweetly at him as I elbowed him in the ribs. Damn pervert boy! He pulled his hand out of my jeans chuckling to himself.
“Yeah, I’m going to come to the game on Friday. You think I could sit with you?” Johnny asked, looking at me hopefully.
“You can sit with me if you want to,” Kate offered, licking her lips slowly as she looked him over.
He blushed and smiled at her timidly. “Thanks. I’d like that,” he agreed quietly.
“Come on then, let’s get to class,” I suggested, rolling my eyes. Those two were so going to get it on, because by the look on Kate’s face she wasn’t stopping until he was hers, and he seemed to like her too. I turned to walk off but stopped as I spotted Jessica walking up to me with a hateful expression on her face. She practically threw a brown envelope into my hands as she glared at me.
“I still think you cheated, but people say that it’s only fair that you get the money, so there it is, Emo bitch,” she growled angrily.
Holy crap! Did she just give me over four thousand dollars? I actually won the money?
Kate stepped closer to me. “Jessica, you better back the hell off before I make you,” she spat angrily.
I smiled happily. “It’s OK, Kate, there’s no problem. Thanks for this, Jessica,” I said, waving the envelope proudly.
“Make sure you don’t lose it,” she stated with a smirk on her face.
I had no doubt in my mind that she had some sort of plan that probably involved me dropping this money down a drain or setting fire to it somehow. Suddenly, I had a great idea that would seriously piss her off. I grinned happily as I turned to Liam. I stepped up close to him as I shoved the money down the front of his jeans, pushing my whole hand down there too. Liam grunted and looked at me, shocked.
“Look after that for me, boyfriend. I’ll get it out later,” I purred suggestively, as I pulled him down to kiss me. I heard people cheer and clap, guys calling things like ‘oh yeah’ and ‘nice’. I smiled against his lips and pulled back. I glanced over in time to see Jessica storm off in the opposite direction.
I burst out laughing; Liam grabbed me and kissed me again, lifting me off of my feet. The bell rang and people started heading off to their classes. I lingered behind with Liam, not wanting to break the kiss. I can’t believe I won four thousand dollars! What the hell can I buy with that?
He put me back down on my feet gently a huge grin on his face. “That was so funny, her face was a picture,” he said, laughing.
“Your face was a picture,” I countered, flicking his nose gently.
“Yeah well, I wasn’t expecting you to push money into my pants like some kind of stripper.” He grinned and shook his head amused. “So, what are you going to spend your money on then, Angel?” he asked, as he pulled the envelope out of his jeans and handed it to me.
I shrugged, grinning. “I have no idea. What shall we buy? It’s half yours.”
“I don’t need anything, I already have everything I could ever want right here,” he said, gripping his hands on my ass.
“My ass, that’s all you want?” I asked, laughing.
He grinned. “Technically, it’s my ass now, right?” He smirked at me before kissing my neck.
“For now,” I teased as I pulled away. I fanned myself with the envelope. “Now that I’ve got what I want, I’m just not sure there’s anything in this relationship for me anymore.”
He laughed and rolled his eyes at me as he wrapped his arm around my waist. “Come on, I’ll walk you to class,” he suggested, leading us down the corridor.
I held the envelope out to Liam. “Will you look after this for me? I don’t really trust myself with it, I’ll probably lose it.” I winced at the thought of losing all that money.
He smiled and took it, folding it in half and slipping it into his inside jacket pocket. “And what if I lose it?” he asked.
I smiled as we reached my class; I pulled him in close, crushing my body against his. “Then you’ll just have to pay me in kind,” I breathed, pecking his lips and walking off into my class quickly.
Jessica glared at me as I walked in and sat down next to Kate and Johnny in the seat they had saved for me. Lucky for me, my teacher was late too otherwise my tardiness would have earned me a detention.
The next month passed really quickly. Liam was still the most adorable boyfriend in the world, taking me out on dates and buying me flowers and chocolates. Jake was still overprotective as usual, nothing would ever change there. My mom went back to work but was due home again in two weeks because she had to stay on for some launch of a new product or something. Kate was still flirting her butt off with Johnny – much to Jake’s disgust. Liam told me that he’d spoken to Jake about her, apparently, he didn’t want to be with Kate, he just didn’t like the fact that she was falling all over someone else when she used to be into him. He felt a little left out apparently. So, to rectify the problem he slept with a few extra girls and made himself feel a lot better.
Our relationship with Johnny had changed a lot too. He was actually a really close friend of mine now; he was such a nice guy and seemed to be growing in confidence every day. I think maybe that had something to do with Kate’s influence. They had been out together a couple of times, and Kate told me that he’d kissed her last night which she was positively glowing about. She actually really liked him, and I think he liked her too, which was sweet.
Johnny had been coming to watch the Friday hockey games with us and for the last two weeks, he had even come to our ‘after game party’ for a couple of hours after too. We never spoke about my father, he never asked me anything about him and I didn’t bring him up. Occasionally, he would mention him in passing, something to do with his life or home and every time it would make me feel sick and slightly panicky.
Today was Sunday and I was going with Johnny to watch him in a skateboarding competition. When he pulled up just after lunch time, I kissed Liam goodbye and giggled at his pouty face. “Stop pouting, Liam. I’ll be back in a couple of hours,” I said, laughing.
He sighed dramatically. “But why can’t I come? Sundays are my days,” he grumbled, frowning.
I smiled. “Liam, I told you, he could only get one guest pass. He asked me to go with him! Stop whining. I’ll see you later,” I instructed, kissing him again as I stood up. “Love you,” I vowed as I grabbed my keys and cellphone.
“Love you more, Angel,” he called as I opened the door and ran to the car.
“Hey,” Johnny greeted, smiling, as I got into his shiny little sports car.
“Hey. You already psyched and ready for the competition?” I asked, grinning.
He nodded. “Yeah, I’m a bit nervous though. The new trick that I’ve been practicing keeps going wrong. I’m gonna look like such a dick if I fall on my face,” he groaned, grimacing.
“You won’t fall on your face, Johnny. Have some confidence,” I replied sternly.
He smiled and rolled his eyes, driving us to the skate park where they had set up a huge half pipe ramp thing. Johnny had been trying to teach me a few things about skating but to be honest, like most things sporty, it just went in one ear and out of the other. If it wasn’t dancing, then I just wasn’t really that interested.
Usually I liked to watch Liam play, but that was only to perv on him in his uniform. The ramp they had set up was absolutely huge. I felt a little sick when I looked at it. It was so high, at least fifteen foot high on each side. “Um Johnny, are you sure about this?” I asked, as we walked up to the signing in booth. Johnny handed over our competitor passes and we were given yellow wrist bands and waved in.
“Amber, I’ll be fine, don’t worry.” He laughed as he dragged me over to the skater area where people were hanging around waiting to go on and practice.
“Shit, Johnny, it’s so high! What if you get hurt?” I asked, swallowing the lump in my throat.
“Hey, cut that out right now. You told me in the car to have some confidence, I expect you to do that same,” he said grinning at me. Jeez, I had confidence, but that would hurt if he fell from there! We sat there watching the other skaters have their turns. The tricks that they were doing blew my mind, somersaults, handstands, everything that you could think of.
The whole time I just felt worse and worse. I wasn’t even sure if I could watch him do it. After about an hour, Johnny was called up to go and get ready, and my heart started trying to break out of my chest.
“Oh God. Please be careful,” I begged.
“I’ll try. But if I die, you can have my car,” he replied, winking at me.
“Only if I can re-spray it pink,” I joked, trying not to show him I was terrified. He laughed and walked off quickly to the area to warm up for a few minutes.