Inevitable (13 page)

“
I need to think about getting home. I’ve not checked in on
my mum for a few hours and she doesn’t do too well being
alone.”

“
Sure thing, lish. I’ll grab my keys.”

“
Oh no, I wasn’t hinting or anything. I’ll call a
taxi.”

“
Bullshit.
I’m driving you,” he demanded and sounded all masculine and
authoritative. It sent a delicious shiver down my spine and pooled
between my legs.

“
Yes, master,” I teased.
Then he leaned in and gave me a long,
lingering kiss filled with passion and need, before snatching
himself away and laughing at my attempt to pout.

“
Blaine?” I called when he disappeared into the grandiose
hallway for his car keys.

“
Yeah?”

“
What does ‘lish’ mean?” He sauntered back into the room
exuding an almost arrogant swagger.

“
It’s my take on delicious. ‘Cause you are seriously the
most delicious thing I’ve ever seen.” He smiled at me, a wicked,
suggestive, stomach flipping smile. Then he bent towards me and
briefly brushed his lips against mine. “And after kissing you, I
can officially say you’re the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted
too.”

After grinning and giggling like a brain-dead bimbo,
I
grabbed my
rucksack off the floor and followed Blaine to his car.

Blaine

I
didn’t know what the hell that girl had done to me but I
decided to stop obsessing over it and just damn well enjoy her.
She’s so fucking beautiful – and the most magnificent part of that
is she has absolutely no freakin’ idea. I could have stared into
those rich brown eyes of hers forever, and I actually gave that a
pretty good shot last night.

I still
can’t believe she tried to scale my wall! In all honesty I
feel pretty honoured that she needed to see me
that
badly. And ripping the piss out of
her was just a fantastic bonus. But she gave as good as got and I
love that about her.

Unable to stop
reliving our time on the couch over and over in my head I set the
shower to cold before jumping in, squealing like a damn girl and
washing myself as quickly as possible. Damn she smelt good – like
strawberries and vanilla. She tasted even better. Fuck, I was
getting hard just thinking about her so I threw on the first
clothes I came to before I had chance to do anything about it.

The weirdest part was, as much as I wanted to bury myself
inside her and stay there till my dick shrivelled like a prune,
when she asked me to hold her that was somehow all I needed. I
wasn’t quite sure how to react at first – almost like it was some
kind of test or something. I’d never just ‘held’ a girl before. But
then, I’d never felt anything remotely close to what I felt for
Maddie for
anyone
else before. I still didn’t understand it. I still didn’t
think she deserved to get involved with my shit either.

But selfishly,
I couldn’t seem to help myself.

I wanted to offer to ride her to school but realised I
probably blew that right the minute I decided to
act like a complete
jerk. I couldn’t just expect her to drop Lori now I was prepared to
start being nice to her again. Still I needed to hear her voice so
I fished my cell from my jacket pocket on my bed and tapped
‘Lish’.

Damn.
It went straight to voicemail.

Morning Lish.
Just tried to call. Hope ur just busy n
everything’s ok. I’m so glad u came round yesterday. I had a great
time. B xxx

I hovered my finger over the send icon and then deleted the
whole damn thing after re-reading it and realising I was one more
soppy line away from sprouting a vagina. I mean, three kisses?
Seriously, Blaine? Resigning myself to having to wait until school
to hear her sweet, fucked-u
p accent, I pulled on my black Converse and headed
straight out without bothering to grab breakfast.

“
You piss the bed, man?” Jason hollered when I clambered out
of my car. I glanced at my watch - 08:15 am. Yep, that was
officially the earliest I had
ever
arrived at school. “So where the hell did you get
to yesterday?” he questioned as I drew nearer. “And what the fuck
did Scott’s nose do to offend you?”

“
What is this, twenty freakin’ questions?”

“
Jesus, man, who pissed in your cornflakes this
mornin’?”

“
He’s a dick, Jase. He had it coming. Want one?” I said,
tilting my open cigarette packet his way.

“
Nah, I’m good. Coach said it could affect the way I play,”
he declined, shrugging. I took one out for myself and strummed the
flint of my lighter, dragging in some well-needed
nicotine.

“
Fuck, bro, why don’t you just let Coach cut your balls off
and have done with it?”

“
I wouldn’t let your dad catch you talking like that, man. You
know he’d flip his lid if he knew you skipped practice yesterday.”
Just thinking about him sent a nasty shiver down my
spine.

“
Yeah well he ain’t fucking here is he?” I snapped,
discreetly scanning the parking lot for any signs of Maddie. I
contemplated ringing her again but decided against it, fearing I’d
look desperate – which I totally was.

My heart did this weird fluttering thing, throbbing so fast
it almost hurt, when I caught sight of Lori’s blue Mini Cooper
circling the lot. She put the car in park two spaces down from mine
and I walked as casually as my ridiculous
ly excited body would allow over to
her.

The passenger
seat was empty.

I
’ve
scared her away…

“
Where is she?” I barked at Lori, opening her car
door.

“
Man handling my property isn’t going to get me to talk to
you!”

“
Stop pissing around, Lori, where is she? Where’s
Maddie?”
Her
face twisted into some kind of confused/worried/freaked-out
expression. I restrained my hands in the pockets of my jeans to
stop me strangling Maddie’s whereabouts from her.

“
She’s at home. She called me this morning telling me not to
bother coming because she didn’t feel well.”

“
Not well? She seemed fine last night.”

“
She got hold of you then? You weren’t in when I left
her.”

“
Um, yeah, she caught me for a
few minutes.” I shrugged indifferently –
even though I was anything but.

“
I’m not buying it though. Her being sick I mean.” Lori
leaned in and stood on her tiptoes, trying but failing to
level her tiny five
feet with my six foot two. “Her mom’s not…
right
, if you know what I mean? I’m worried
something’s gone down with her and now Maddie’s having to deal with
it all on her own,” she whispered up at me after scanning the
immediate grounds for eavesdroppers.

“
I offered to go round but she made me promise I wouldn’t.
If anything that just made me more suspicious.
So now I don’t know what to
do.”

“
Leave it with me,” I said heading straight for my
car.

“
Oh no, wait! Blaine she can’t know I’ve told you. She’ll
hate me, you don’t even like each other!”

“
Oh, she likes me alright, Lori,” I teased with a wink, leaving
her looking more confused than when she arrived.

“
Wait, what?” I ignored her, clicking open the Lambo and
concentrating solely on getting to Maddie. “Hey! Blaine! What do
you mean she likes you?” Then I slammed my door and sped
off.

I was chewing on my heart by the time I got to Maddie’s
house.
I
knocked on the door and got no answer so I knocked a little harder
and still… nothing.

“
Maddie? You in there
?” I shouted against the door.

Nothing.

I tried the handle and the door
swung open so I strolled in without
even considering the idea that it could be considered trespassing.
Hell, she was scaling my wall less than twenty-four hours ago. The
living room was empty, as was the kitchen.

“
Lish?”

God
knows why but this house was freaking me the hell out. I ambled
over to the doors which I assumed led to the bedrooms. Choking on
the smell of cat’s piss, I opened the first door I came
to.

Maddie was lay
on the bed with her arms wrapped around her mom, rocking her back
and forth and singing in her ear.

“
What are you doing here?” Shit, she seemed pissed.

“
I was worried about you. Lori said you were sick.” I risked a
look at her mom. Her eyes were wide open and staring blankly into
nothingness. She had what looked like dirt smeared on her face and
she was humming along to whatever Maddie was singing before she saw
me.

“
Go wait in the living room. I’ll be out in a few minutes,”
she said firmly, but then the hard line of her lips melted into a
smile, relaxing me instantly. I nodded and did as she
asked.

Seeing the reality of Maddie’s situation hit me like
slamming into a brick wall. She shouldn’t have to deal with this
shit on her own. I started to wonder why the hell Trudy hadn’t done
more to help – paid for some kind of private clinic or something.
If she was Annie’s best friend, she must have known that she
had…
issues.

I waited anxiously for just over twenty minutes before
Maddie joined me in the living room. Her face was void of all
emotion and I couldn’t gauge if I was in for a hug or a
rollicking.

“
You shouldn’t have come, Blaine. I told Lori I was
fine.”

“
No
,
you told Lori a croc of shit. But you don’t have to pretend with
me, lish. I’m here for you.” I opened my arms, half expecting her
to ignore me, but then she fell eagerly into them and I wrapped
myself around her as tight as I could.

“
You still shouldn’t have come… but I’m glad you did.” I
held her for an immeasurable length of time, deciding I wouldn’t
let her go until she broke away. I kissed her hair before burying
my face in it and inhaling the scent of fresh
strawberries.

“
I’ve never seen her this bad before. I’m scared, Blaine.”
Maddie’s voice cracked as she pulled away from me.

“
Tell me what happened, lish.” I took her hand and led her
over to the brown couch. I leaned back into the tattered cushions
and Maddie lay down with her feet dangling off the edge and her
head resting on my knee.

“
I heard weird noises coming from outside about four o’clock
this morning. Thinking it was a burglar or something I grabbed the
lamp off my bedside table and-”

“
A
lamp?
So what, you was gonna shine him to death?” I couldn’t help
but laugh as an image of Maddie donning a cape and bright red
panties over her jeans and wielding a table lamp ran through my
mind.

“
Fuck off, Blaine,” she said, trying to
sound angry as she slapped my
shoulder and then huffing as her involuntary smile betrayed her.
“So anyway, I looked through the window first and then I saw my
mum. She was in her nightie, digging through the dirt with her bare
hands. When I ran out and spoke to her she didn’t even look up – it
was like she couldn’t even hear me. It’s only when I started
shaking shit out of her she finally looked at me.

“
She said she needed her car keys
– my mum can’t even drive - that she
definitely buried them there and now she couldn’t find them. Then
she kept banging on how she had to get me home before my mum got
back – like she didn’t even know who she was anymore. She wouldn’t
listen to anything I said – I’m sure she couldn’t even hear me. So
I told her the car keys were inside and that my mum called and said
she wouldn’t be back till tomorrow so I could stay with her a
little longer. I didn’t know what else to do.

“
That was when she agreed to come inside and I just held her
until she fell asleep.”

“
You should’ve called me. I’d have been here in minutes. You
shouldn’t have to deal with this on your own.”

“
This isn’t your problem, Blaine. We barely know each other and
I guess I’m kind of embarrassed that you’ve had to see this side of
me so soon.”

“
Don’t you dare,
” I snapped, cupping her face in my hands so she
couldn’t look away from me. “I don’t ever want you to be
embarrassed with me, you hear? I might just be getting to know you,
but I want to know
all
of you. I want to be there for you through
everything
. I mean it, Maddie – I don’t want you to think you’re
alone anymore.”

The weirdest
part of that whole speech was that I meant every single word. I’d
never given a crap about anyone’s problems before but suddenly it
seemed like the only reason I was still breathing was to keep
Maddie safe.

“
Who knew the brooding tattooed kickerback could be so
sweet?” she said with a
loveable smile as she twiddled with the buttons on
my shirt. I smiled back, a huge beaming grin so wide it made my jaw
ache.