“Sounds good,” he agreed, following me with a little smile. I walked to the big oak tree where I usually sit and do my homework and sat down leaning against it. He plopped down in front of me, picking a couple of blades of grass, playing with them nervously. There was a little daisy next to my foot, so I picked it and tucked it into the back of my ponytail because it reminded me of the one that Liam picked for me before dance practice after that first night we kissed.

I was so uncomfortable that I squirmed on the spot, trying to think of something to say. “So, your little brother, Matt…. Well, I guess he’s my brother now too, anyway what I was going to say is, what’s he like?” I asked curiously.

He grinned. “He’s cute. He’s a pain in the butt, especially when he cries in the night, but he’s cute. I have a picture if you want to see,” he offered, pulling his wallet out and handing it to me. I smiled and eagerly flicked it open, wanting to see the little baby. My breath caught in my throat as I looked at the picture, it wasn’t just the baby, it was a family picture. I looked at my father; he was smiling proudly with one arm around his new wife and the other around Johnny who was holding a little blond boy. My father looked older, his hair had changed and gone a little greyer, but his eyes were the thing that caught me. I remember his eyes being hard and cold and always angry, but he was different here, smiling and warm, he looked friendly and kind.

“Cute, huh?” Johnny said.

I tore my eyes away from my father and looked at the little baby; he was cute, chubby, blond hair, brown eyes and a big smile. I looked at the lady in the picture; she had brown hair and grey eyes just like my mom and me. She looked nice. “Is this your mom?” I asked, pointing at her.

He smiled and nodded. “Yeah. Her name’s Ruby,” he said, taking his wallet back when I was done.

I couldn’t get the image out of my brain of my father smiling. Had he changed? I looked Johnny over, he looked happy, no bruises or cuts, no telltale limp or wincing or anything. “So, do you get on with him then?” I asked curiously, watching his face for his reaction.

“Matt? Yeah he’s OK. It’ll be better when he’s older and he can do more stuff,” he answered, shrugging.

I gulped. “No, I meant my father,” I clarified, trying not to flinch at the thought of him. Johnny shrugged and nodded, but didn’t say anything. “It must be hard having a guy come along though after years of it just being you and your mom,” I stated, trying to push for an answer. Was my father hurting him too, or maybe the baby, or his mom? I was immediately thankful that he didn't have another girl living with him. The physical abuse was bad; Jake got the brunt of it, but the sexual abuse, that left mental scars that I knew I still wasn't over. Memories of those Sunday's flashed through my mind and I bit the inside of my cheek to stop from crying.

He nodded and looked at the floor. “It was a little hard, but they’ve been together for over two years now, so…” he trailed off, shrugging. I opened my mouth to push the issue further but he cut me off. “So how long have you and Liam been together?” he asked, pulling out some more grass and rolling it in his hand to make a ball.

I smiled at the thought of Liam. “A week and a half.”

“He’s your brother’s friend, right?” he asked.

“Yeah. I’ve known him since I was four,” I confirmed, loving talking about Liam. I was actually really missing him, I gotten used to seeing him all day over the weekend so it was hard going back to only seeing him at lunchtime. “So, tell me some more about you,” I suggested, laying down on my belly and propping my head on my hands, watching him.

He laid down too and chatted about his life, his likes and dislikes. He was a keen skateboarder and entered competitions and stuff at the weekends and did stunts and tricks. He missed his friends. He’d never had a girlfriend. His favourite food was chicken curry. I’d just started to tell him mine when I spotted Liam jogging towards me across the parking lot, looking so handsome that he was almost painful to look at. I jumped up and grinned as he wrapped his arms around me, lifting me off of my feet and crashed his lips to mine. I kissed him back hungrily.

He pulled back after a few seconds. “I need to have some alone time with you,” he whispered as he kissed me again, gentler this time.

I smiled. “What, right now? Can’t you wait until we get home?” I joked.

He shook his head. “No, but I can wait until the parking lot at the back of the gym after we’ve dropped Jake off,” he suggested, grinning wickedly.

“In your dreams, Liam,” I said, laughing and rolling my eyes.

“Probably,” he agreed as he put me down, holding me close to his side, laughing at my horrified expression. Johnny pushed himself up and was standing there awkwardly. “Thanks for looking after my girl for me,” Liam said, smiling a friendly smile.

“Yeah, no problem,” Johnny muttered nervously, kicking his shoes in the grass. Jake walked over, looking between me and Johnny with a confused expression. “Well I guess I’ll see you guys tomorrow. Thanks for letting me hang with you, Amber,” Johnny said, smiling.

“Yeah, it was fun. Hey, let’s see this car of yours before you go,” I suggested, nodding back towards the parking lot. He grinned proudly.

“What car have you got?” Jake asked curiously as we all started walking. I knew that would catch Jakes interest. I smiled and pulled Liam a little bit behind, letting Jake and Johnny go ahead, giving them a little time. Jake needed to see for himself that Johnny was OK before he would stop scowling at him. By the time we caught up with them, Jake was sitting behind the wheel of a midnight blue BMW Z4, rubbing his hands on the dashboard lovingly.

“Oh shit, this is a nice car,” Liam purred, tracing his hand over the roof with wide eyes. He grabbed my hand and pulled me close to him. “When I’m a millionaire hockey player, I’ll buy you one of these,” he stated, tangling his hand in my hair, looking into my eyes making me feel slightly weightless.

I pressed myself to him and bit his chin gently. “I’d rather have a Ferrari,” I joked.

He sighed dramatically. “Wow, OK, I hope I get signed to a good team if you’re going to be this demanding,” he replied, as he kissed me, making me yearn for him to run his hands down my body. After another ten minutes of drooling over Johnny’s car we finally left and went to drop Jake at work. I jumped into the front seat and held Liam’s hand all the way home, excited for some private time. Not that it would be easy with my mom home for the week, but I’m pretty sure we’d manage. Even just a cuddle on the sofa sounded like heaven right about now.

Chapter 18

The next morning, after Liam had snuck out of my window, I went to the kitchen to see Jake sitting there chatting to my mom. “Good morning,” I chirped happily.

My mom looked at me a little shocked. “What are you so happy about this morning?” she asked, smiling.

I grinned and suppressed a giggle; I couldn’t very well tell her that my hottie of a boyfriend had just given me a very good reason to be smiling before he climbed back out of my window. So instead, I just shrugged. “Why not?” I countered, looking anywhere but Jake. He probably knew the exact reason for my happy, satisfied face. “So, Jake, anything you want to tell me?” I teased, sitting down next to him.

He shook his head, looking confused. “No. Should there be?” he asked, raising an eyebrow suspiciously.

“You, crushing on my best friend perhaps?” I suggested, nudging him with my shoulder gently.

He gasped and spilt a spoonful of cereal onto the kitchen counter; he composed himself quickly and smirked at me. “I’m not crushing on your best friend. That’s your job, remember?” he said sarcastically. I couldn’t help but laugh, him being all defensive wasn’t helping his case, if he felt nothing for her then he would have just gone along with it or made some slutty comment.

“Yeah OK. Whatever you say, Jake. I’ve got my eye on you. Just don’t hurt her,” I stated, grabbing a bowl and making some cereal.

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.