The Boy Who Sneaks in My Bedroom Window (38 page)

“
Than
ks. I’ll wait until he’s not
there, and then I’ll talk to her.” Johnny nodded, looking really
sad, and a little scared.

“
Call
me and let me know how it goes. And I’m serious
about the place to stay, my mom won’t mind, and she’s not even due
home for another two weeks,” Jake stated, walking Johnny to the
door. He put his arm around his shoulder. “Everything’s going to be
fine,” Jake assured him. Johnny looked like a little lost boy, he
didn’t look ready for this at all, but I guess he’d need to man up
quickly like Jake did when he was younger.

“
I don’t
think you shou
ld tell Amber any of this
stuff. She doesn’t really need anything else to worry about, and I
don’t even know what my mom’s going to say about it all,” Johnny
muttered, frowning.

I nodded.
That w
as probably a good idea. If Angel
knew any of this she would be getting herself all worked up,
worrying about Johnny and Matt, and for all we knew his mom might
not even want to leave him in the first place. We could tell her
when the time comes. “Yeah, good idea,” I agreed,
nodding.

“
OK thanks.
See ya.” He smiled sadly and headed out of the house.

Jake shut the
door and pressed his forehead against it. “Liam
, you need to give me one good reason why I shouldn’t go
round there and slit his throat,” he growled, his whole body
stiff.

“
Because then
you’d be in jail
, and Angel wouldn’t have
her big brother here to protect her,” I said quickly, knowing that
Amber was the one thing that would keep him calm and
restrained.

Jake turned
to me and did something I’d never seen him do in his life; he
slumped down against the door, pulled his knees up to his
chest
, and cried. I felt my insides
squirm at the sight of it. I was so angry again that I needed to
remind myself of the exact same reason I couldn’t go around there
and slit his throat. I sat down next to Jake and put my arm around
his shoulder while he cried. I don’t think he’d ever had a proper
release before.

~ Amber ~

Things had been really strained for the last week
between me and Johnny. I knew that he knew about what my father had
done to us, well, some of it anyway. Jake assured me that he didn’t
tell him too much about me because he knew I wouldn't want people
knowing about it. I’d told Johnny that I didn’t want to talk about
any of it, which he respected. He seemed to hang out with Jake and
Liam more than he did me and Kate at the moment. They were always
off talking in hushed whispers, and would stop whenever I went near
them. I wondered if they were talking about me, but to be honest I
really didn’t want to know. I didn’t want to talk about that man
ever again, so if they were happy to talk about me and leave me out
of it, then good.

When I woke
up on
Friday morning, Liam was already up
and getting dressed quietly. “Hey, are you doing the walk of
shame?” I teased, wondering why he was sneaking out of my room. He
never woke up before me.

He laughed
and pulled his t-shirt on
before climbing
back in the bed. I hooked my fingers in his belt loops, pulling him
closer to me. “The only shame I have is that I have to get out of
your bed. I would happily stay in bed with you forever, but I have
something I need to do today so I’ve got to go.” He kissed me
softly, causing the usual little flutters in my stomach that his
kissing evoked in me.

Something
he’s got to do? What’s that about? “What have you got to
do
, lover boy?” I asked, pulling him
closer to me, stopping him from getting up.

He smiled and
rolled onto his back
, pulling me on top
of him. “Nothing interesting. I just need to sort something out for
college that’s all,” he replied, looking uncomfortable. Was he
lying to me? I looked at his face, his eyes were a little tight, he
was definitely looking uncomfortable about something.

“
Liam, is
something
wrong?” I asked worriedly. Oh
crap, is he seeing someone else or something?

He smiled and
t
angled his fingers into my hair.
“Nothing’s wrong. Don’t worry your pretty little head about
anything. It’s just a couple of scouts want to meet with me, and
this is the only time they could come,” he explained, still looking
uncomfortable.

I nodded, he
obviously had something he was trying to keep from me, he’d
te
ll me eventually. I trusted him. I was
sure that he wouldn’t cheat on me - that had just been a stupid
spur of the moment thought. I knew he loved me. I bent forward and
kissed him, pulling away to bite his chin, he loved it when I did
that. His hands tightened on my waist as his breathing started to
speed; I smiled and bit his earlobe.

He groaned.
“Angel, I need to go. Don’t tease me,” he whined.

I smiled
against his neck and sat up
, pouting,
deciding to have some fun with him before he left. I sighed
dramatically. “OK, well I guess I’ll just have to shower alone
then.”

He groaned
again. “Angel, don’t do that to me, it’s not fair you know,” he
grumbled, frowning.

I couldn’t
help but
laugh at his lustful expression
as I climbed off of him. “Well, have fun with your scouts. Go
impress them with your awesome talents, lover boy,” I instructed,
kissing him again softly.

He
brushed my hair behind my ear. “I love you. I’ll
see you after school.”

I frowned. He
wasn’t coming to school? “You’re not coming to school after?” I
asked, disappointed that I wouldn’t get to see him much
today.

He sighed and
shook his head. “No, I’ll see you after though,” he countered,
kissing me again as he climbed out of the bed.

“
Liam
?” I called just as he was
about to walk out of the door. He stopped and looked back at me,
curiously. “I love you too, and good luck with the scouts. Just
remember, they’ll be lucky to have you, not the other way around,”
I said honestly. Scouts were falling all over themselves for Liam,
he didn’t need to work too hard to impress people, his skills spoke
for themselves. He smiled and winked at me before heading out of
the door.

I showered
and went out to get some breakfast; Jake was sitting there in
pyjamas even though it was almost time to leave. “Hey, you’d better
hurry
or we’ll be late,” I scolded,
frowning at the thought of a detention.

He shook his
head. “I’m not feeling well, so I’m not going. I’ve asked Casey to
drive you because Liam’s with the scouts,” he said
quietly.

Jake
hardly
ever got sick. I walked over to
him a little worried, and put my hand on his forehead. He didn’t
feel hot or anything. “I don’t think you have a temperature. What’s
wrong?” I asked, concerned.

“
I feel sick
that’s all. I’m going back to bed. Casey will be here in fifteen
minutes,” he replied, standing up and heading towards the
hallway.

“
You want me
to get you anything
, Jake?” I
asked.

He shook his
head. “I’ll be fine, Ambs. See you later.” He waved over his
shoulder and disappeared into his room.

Casey was funny on the drive to school, I always
liked him and he didn’t hit on me once, which was great. The guys
all seemed to have stopped making their comments to me since I’d
been with Liam. When we pulled up, I spotted Kate, Sarah and Sean
so I skipped over to them

“
Hey
,” I chirped,
smiling.

“
Hey, Amber.
Where’s Jake and Liam?” Sean asked, looking over my
shoulder.

“
Liam’s
meeting some college scouts,” I said proudly. “And Jake’s sick,” I
added, turning my nose up. I hope he doesn’t throw up anywhere and
leave it for me to clean up!

“
Yeah?
Johnny’s sick too. He called me this morning,” Kate said, pouting.
He still hadn’t asked her out like he said he was going to. I
hadn’t told her what he’d said about her, I thought it would be
better coming from him.

“
Johnny’s
sick too? I hope there’s nothing going
around.” I winced at the thought of being sick, I hated
throwing up.

“
Me too. Come
on, let’s go to class,” Kate suggested, linking her arm through
mine and pulling me towards the building.

School
passed unbelievably slowly because I
didn
’
t have seeing Liam at lunch time to
look forward to. The morning and afternoon just blurred into one
long Liam-less day, and on top of that I started to feel a little
sick too. My stomach felt queasy and I couldn
’
t even force anything down for lunch.

Great
, now I
’
m getting sick!

I tried
calling Jake to see how he was feeling
,
but there was no answer. He was probably asleep or something. Kate
was dropping me home because the boys weren’t here today. She
dropped me at the front and I walked into the house, feeling
exhausted, all I wanted to do was go to sleep.

As I walked
in through the front door I saw suitcases and boxes and
black
trash bags full of stuff all piled
up in the hall. What the hell is all of this? “Jake?” I
called.

I could hear
voices in the kitchen so I made my way in there
, only to see Liam, Jake, Johnny, and Ruby who was holding
a little kid in her arms which I assume was my little brother,
Matt. I hadn’t officially seen him apart from the back of his head
last week. What the hell are they doing here? Wait, I thought Kate
said Johnny was sick - he didn’t look sick.

“
Hey. What’s
all this? You guys having a conference?” I teased. Ruby smiled at
me weakly, her eyes were slightly pink, like she’d been crying. I
felt my back get stiff at the sight of her sad face.

Liam came
over and
wrapped his arm around my waist.
“Angel, we’ve got something to tell you,” he said softly. I gulped
because of the tone of his voice; this was going to be bad whatever
it was.

Jake stepped
forward. “He’s been doing it again, Ambs. They’ve left him. I said
they could stay here for a while. Mom said it would be fine,” he
explained.

Ruby started
to cry agai
n softly. I looked up at
Johnny. He’d been getting abused and he didn’t tell me? I could
feel myself getting angry with him. He knew what that man had done
to us; he should have known he could talk to me! I opened my mouth,
about to shout at him, but his expression stopped me. He looked so
sad, guilty, and actually a little scared. I pulled out of Liam’s
arms and hugged Johnny tightly. God, he had been abused by the man
of my nightmares too, I shouldn’t be angry with him, he didn’t need
that on top of everything else.

Suddenly
, everything made sense
to me; he never liked to talk about him either. When I asked him if
he got on well with him, he always looked really uncomfortable. He
was so tense when I was at his house last week when he saw my
father.

“
You could
have talked to me
,” I whispered, feeling
the tears fall down my face slowly, grieving because I knew exactly
what he had been through and how he was feeling right now. At least
I had Jake and Liam to look after me then; but Johnny was the
eldest, he probably felt like he was the one protecting his mom and
brother.

Johnny hugged
me back. “I didn’t want to upset you; we’ve been planning all week.
Jake and Liam helped us pack up our stuff today while he was at
work. He’s away for the weekend. He’s not due back until Sunday
morning.”

I
p
ulled back and kissed his cheek.
“Everything’s OK now. Don’t worry, he can’t hurt you anymore,” I
said sternly. I turned and hugged Ruby even though I didn’t even
know her; she just looked like she needed a hug right now. The baby
in her arms was gorgeous; he looked just like her, but with blond
hair.

“You alright, Ambs?” Jake asked, concern
colouring his voice.

I
gulp
ed noisily. I was feeling sick
actually. I guess I was a little overwhelmed by everything. I
couldn’t actually take everything in. “Actually, I feel a little
strange,” I admitted, rubbing a hand over my face.

“
Angel
, you look a little pale. Do
you want a drink or something?” Liam asked, walking towards
me.

Damn
, I was so hot! My lips and
fingers were tingling; I started to feel a little dizzy.

Chapter 20

I was vaguely aware of an annoying beeping noise; my
head was pounding and throbbing on one side. I squeezed my eyes
shut trying to make the pain go.

“Angel?” Liam said from near my head.

I groaned and
turned my head towa
rds his voice. I felt
terrible, like I was in some kind of bubble. I finally opened my
eyes to see him leaning over me, looking gorgeous as always, except
right now he looked stressed. He was frowning, his was jaw
tight.