"You do realise, the bet was to sleep with Jennifer, not Melissa, dumbass," Nathan drawled, his mocking tone doing little to disguise the blatant amusement scribbled across his face. "Although if you have decided to go for the blonde instead, you might want to rethink the strategy. Yelling for her to get her fat ass over here isn't necessarily the best method of convincing her to go out with you."
"She was pissed off with me, it was a joke."
"Does Jennifer know about this joke?"
He exhaled loudly. "I don't know," he snapped, slightly more irritably than he had intended. "I don't know, okay?"
Nathan held up his hands. "Calm down."
"I am calm."
He snorted. "Excuse me, I don't think-"
"Fuck off," he ordered, as Jennifer caught his eye and smiled her typical seductive smirk. "I need to talk to Jen."
"On nicknames already, are you?" Nathan sniggered but dutifully melted into the crowd.
When she came over, he could see that her eyes were gleaming with amusement and her pearly teeth snagged her lips to hide a grin. "So, you're interested in Melissa?"
He relaxed and smiled back. "'Course. Who else?"
She shrugged carelessly. "I can think of someone."
~*~
"Ick," Melissa exclaimed shrugging her bag off her back where it crashed loudly to the floor. Matt and Jennifer sprang apart. "Get a room, please."
Jennifer glared at her from under long, thick eyelashes wriggling away from Matt. "Don't you have homework to do?"
"I've done it, Einstein. We've been home for nearly two hours, haven't you noticed?" She regarded them with wide blue eyes. "Maybe not."
Jennifer huffed impatiently. "Your mascara is smudged. You look like a racoon."
She took this in her stride as she cheerfully rummaged in the fruit bowl. "I'd rather have smudged mascara than an unbuttoned blouse when Mum's coming home any minute." For the first time, she turned to regard Matt, her eyes glimmering with a mocking insolence. "I know she's quite fond of you, but if she comes home to find your hand up her oldest daughter's shirt then I don't think she'll be hugely impressed."
She tossed the apple into the air but failed to catch it and it landed on the floor and rolled across the wood. Unabashed, she collected it from the floor and turned on the tap, washing the apple in the crystal clear water.
He watched Melissa studiously as Jennifer hastily closed the few undone buttons. "Better the oldest than the youngest don't you think?"
She laughed out loud at this. "Matt, sugar, you could never get me. Not in a million years."
"I wouldn't be so confident if I were you."
She grinned cheerfully at him. "Who turned who down this morning?"
He found himself smiling slightly but Jennifer was less impressed. "Sometimes I think you're adopted. You're such a loser."
"Again, I still prefer my situation," she mused thoughtfully, taking a crunchy bite of her glossy apple.
Jennifer rose to the bait. "What situation?"
"I'd rather be a loser than a slut." Melissa danced hastily and not particularly gracefully from the room, aware of Jennifer's violent temper and smiled brightly at them from the door, eyes twinkling. "Have fun kids, don't do anything I wouldn't do!"
She giggled throatily before pounding upstairs, leaving him with an exceptionally angry Jennifer.
~*~
"For God's sake, I can't find my pulse," Matt snarled, dropping his hand onto the table.
It was nearly six o'clock and they were seated around the scrubbed pine table in the kitchen. Darkness was already falling and the lights emitted a gentle golden glow in the room. Despite the fact that the heating was on full blast, Jennifer was still shivering theatrically, giving any spoiled starlet a run for her money in the drama stakes.
Across the table, Melissa glanced up but Jennifer continued what she was doing - leafing through a science book dispiritedly - only mumbling, "Don't worry sweetheart, I'm sure you have one."
Melissa stifled a giggle. "What's the question?"
"Average number of pulse rates every minute."
She looked thoughtful. "Seventy two a minute for men."
"How do you know this shit?"
"Language, Matt!" she sang. She grinned unrepentantly at his irritation. "I just know it off by heart. You're supposed to."
"Well I don't have one."
She rolled her eyes expressively. "Do I have to do everything around here? Come on."
She leaned forward and he caught a glimpse of her cleavage. Hastily averting his eyes in case Jennifer noticed, he stared at the blank wall across from him. He felt her fingers against his neck and stiffened.
"I'm not going to hurt you," she complained. "Calm down."
He was aware of Jennifer's curious gaze; having managed to drag herself away from her homework, she was now regarding him with sudden interest, mingled slightly with the vaguest beginnings of suspicion.
Melissa was completely oblivious and hummed a song tunelessly. He could feel the heat of her skin as she searched for his pulse and inexplicably his heart speeded up slightly.
"There!" she said triumphantly and grabbed his hand, hers curiously soft, leading it to the correct place on his neck. Then her hand fell and all he could feel was his quickening pulse.
She quirked a sandy eyebrow at him expectantly. "Well? What do you say?"
"Thanks," he mumbled.
Her blue eyes were mocking. "Such gratitude," she said lightly. "Too cool to appreciate help, are you Matt?"
Normally he would have come back with a sarcastic comment but now he could think of nothing to say, so he merely remained quiet. Her hand was resting on the table and he could see that her short nails had all been painted a different colour, like a child's who had discovered her mother's nail varnish.
She picked up her pen and scratched out the title to her essay and sensing Jennifer's raised eyebrow, he dragged his gaze away from her and instead focused on the blank page in front of him.
Jesus. What was happening to him?
~*~
"Melissa, I've got to rugby after school today so you'll either have to wait or make your own way home. I'll only be about an hour though, so you could stay in the school library, I s'pose. What are you doing?"
She was fruitlessly tugging the lock but when he posed the question, she released it and it banged loudly against the locker. Her cheeks were flushed and a few strands of her blonde hair was falling out of its messy ponytail and were curling around her face. "I locked my stupid keys in my stupid locker and the frigging caretaker's gone out for lunch so I have no way of opening it."
His tone barely concealed the scorn. "And you hope that by pulling it, the superhuman strength you exert will be enough to open it?"
"Get lost, Matt."
He ignored this. "Where's your spare?"
A flicker of a smile chased its way across her face. "In my locker."
She expected him to roll his eyes, to make a snide comment and then leave with his friends, but instead he waved the others on and knelt beside her. "I'll pick it for you."
She quirked a sandy eyebrow at him, her blue eyes sceptical. "You can pick locks?"
He shrugged and to his surprise, she arched an eyebrow. "Considering a career as a petty criminal? Your mother will be delighted."
He shook his head, though a smile graced his face. "You got a hair slide?"
She made a big show of patting her hair, then shook her head. "No."
"Go get one."
She caught her breath in irritation. "Don't tell me what to do!"
The look he gave her was steady. "Hey, I'm wasting my precious time to help you, the least you can do is get me the tools I need."
She huffed for a moment then patted her pockets, managing to produce a single crooked clip. "This is all I have."
He straightened it out and knelt on the ground, fiddling with the lock. Melissa crouched beside him, waiting expectantly, before quickly losing interest.
"What's taking so long?"
He didn't snap, merely narrowed his eyes in concentration, sighing when the slide bent under the pressure. "This is no good, it's too weak. I can get the tumbler in, I just can't turn it. We need something stronger. You got a safety pin?"
"No. Maybe another key?"
"Nope, that won't work. It needs to be longer."
She chewed her lip for a moment, before once more raising her voice so it could be heard over the general din. "Has anyone got something long and hard?"
A boy beside her regarded her for a moment, a grin curving his lips and a couple of people who had overheard her snorted with laughter.
When she turned back, Matt was hiccupping with laughter. "Maybe you should think before you speak," he managed.
"Shut up Matt. You know I didn't mean it like that it was just an unfortunate choice of words. Stop laughing!"
The boy beside her sniggered. "I like a girl who speaks her mind."
Heat rose quickly in her cheeks. "I didn't think."
"Tell me about it." Matt looked innocent.
"Matt, didn't I just tell you to shut up?"
The boy interjected. "Melissa, right?"
She nodded.
"One of the guys is having a party on Saturday," he began with a smile. "You should come. I'm sure we'll find you something long and hard there"
He grabbed her arms, as she made to swipe at him, grinning down at her. "69 Nutgrove Park, at about eight. I'll see you there?"
She shrugged, then changed her mind. "Yeah, okay. Thanks."
He let go. "Cool. See you then."
He sauntered down the corridor and Melissa turned back to Matt, who was no longer looking even vaguely amused. His grin had been replaced by a frown, directed at her.
She quirked an eyebrow. "What?"
"I don't think you should go," he said abruptly.
"Why?"
"I dunno. Everyone is going to be drinking and some of the guys there shouldn't-" he stopped suddenly. "I don't think you should go."
"So? Do you think that your disapproval is going to stop me?"
He was silent for a few moments. "No, but your mother's might."
Click for the rest =>
She didn't display any immediate signs of temper, but her voice, when she spoke, was like ice. "Do that and I'll tell Mum about what her precious daughter gets up to after school with you."
"I haven't slept with her-"
"So? It's only a matter of time." Cruelly, she added, "Jennifer doesn't exactly have the highest standards."
Something flared inside him. Guilt, temper, regret.
"So what's it going to be?" Forced confidence imbued her tone.
The bubble of chatter and laughter behind him seemed out of place in their stand off.
But he knew it wasnt a stand off. She held all the cards. She could destroy his relationship with Jennifer, the bet, everything.
She remained still, her head cocked to one side. Triumph was scrawled across her face
Checkmate.
"Fine." His voice was barely audible. Capitulation did not come naturally to him. "Just remember that I warned you."
She shrugged carelessly and turned back to her locker. "I think I'll just find the caretaker," she said coolly, without looking at him.
He let the hair slide fall from his hand and chime onto the floor. "That might be a good idea. I'm done helping."
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