Wayward Son (Jensen Family #3) (4 page)

Ru
nning a finger over the cheque, wow that was
a lot of money, Gavin felt a deep pang of grief. God he missed his mother. “How
come I get it?” He asked.

“It’s what was specified in the will and it’s not like I need the money.
Even if it had been left to me,
I would have given it
to you. It’s her legacy and it’s right that you should have it.”

Nodding, understanding the enormity of the cheque in front of him, he
picked it up and studied it. “Dad. I know you said you would buy me a car but
would it be ok if I u
sed this to buy it myself? It’ll
sort of be like a birthday present from mum if I use this.”

“I think that’s a good idea.”

“Good. In that case. I know what I want
,
though I doubt you’ll approve.”

Smiling at his sons’ choice of words, he gestured to the com
puter screen. “Show me.”

It took Gavin a few minutes but he soon found the car he wanted. “Toyota
Supra. Three litre turbo. This is my dream car. With this money I can get a
wrecker and have it rebuilt from the chassis up to my specification. I don’t
ever
intend to sell it. This is my car.”

Looking at the heap on the screen, Paul was dubious but it was Gavin’s
money. “I hear what you are saying but I don’t think that’s a suitable first
car. That’s a lot of power and rear wheel drive.”

“I’ll handle it dad.”

“I’ll make you a deal. I will let you have this car providing you take
lessons on how to handle it properly. I’ll arrange and pay for them and if the
instructor says that he feels you can’t cope with the power, you choose a
different car.”

“Ok. Deal.” Gavi
n grinned. “Can we go and look
at this anyway?”

Gavin proved himself worthy. His instructor was mightily impressed and
Paul signed off on his car. He’d given Gavin the number of the man he trusted
to detail and beautify his cars and Gavin was in constant c
ontact.

The day he turned eighteen rolled around. He woke thinking he should feel
different. He could now legally vote and drink although he’d been doing the
latter for some time already. Usually his mother would rush into his room on
his birthday and boun
ce on the bed, waking him with
presents. He missed that now more than ever and wondered how he’d ever found it
annoying. He was just about dressed when Paul knocked on his door, asking him
to come downstairs.

That simple request filled him with dread as it
usually meant he’d done something wrong. Today was different. Today he knew it
was because it was his birthday and he was curious to see if Paul and Suzanne
knew him well enough to buy him a present he’d like. He had hoped to have his
car by now but he’d
run out of money. His
modifications costing far more than he’d planned and the project had stalled.

There was a large birthday cake sitting on the table, candles burning
brightly. Suzanne had made it yesterday and although she’d hidden the cake, she
hadn’t
been able to hide the mouth-watering aroma
wafting from the kitchen. He smiled and ble
w out the candles, thanking her
. She handed him
a smallish wrapped gift. Opening it revealed a pair of mirrored Ray Ban Aviator
sunglasses which she explained she thought would look good when he finally got
his car.

She was almost vibrating with excitement and he couldn’t work out why
but he thanked her and asked where his father was hiding.
His curiosity peaked when she told him to go out to the front garden to find
him. Opening the front door. Gavin came to an abrupt halt. That was his car.

Paul beckoned him forward as he handed a cli
p
board back to the driver of the transporter. “You came out quicker than I
expected. I have a bow and everything to put on it yet. You could pretend you
haven’t seen it I suppose.” He grinned.

“It’s kinda hard to miss.” Gavin replied, he was sure the stup
idest grin from here until the end of time was plastered
across his face. “But how? I don’t understand. I ran out of money.”

“I know. I couldn’t stand by and watch you pine and with what you earn at
the leisure centre, it will have rotted to nothing before
you had the time to save enough money to get it on the
road. I put in the rest of the money, taxed and insured it. My gift to you.
Happy birthday son.” Paul held out the keys to the car. “Take the keys Gavin.
Like you said, this is the gift your mother wo
uld
have
wanted you to have. Enjoy it.”

Chapter
3

Gavin walked into his new form room and removed his headphones; he
acknowledged his tutor as he was told to find a seat then turned to face the
room. He was confronted by three rows of long tables with two
stools at each table. As far as he could see, there were
two free seats, one at the back
on the
right hand side of the room, next to the window, the other on the middle
table of the next row by a girl wearing an Aerosmith t-shirt, her long black
hair hang
ing over her shoulder, doodling on a pad.
She put her pen down and looked up at him as he stopped by her table.

“This seat is taken
,
” she said
before he had the chance to sit down.

“By the invisible man?” was the reply.

“Huh, another smart a
r
s
e,
” she huffe
d
not quite under her breath.

“Sorry, can I just squeeze by?” another female voice, Gavin turned to see
a curvy brunette trying to get by him
.
“Hey Angel, you ok?” she said as she plonked herself into the seat .

“I’m good
.
” Angel smiled
at her friend,
and
then
looked back at Gavin
.
“There’s a seat
over there
,
” she jerked her
thumb towards the back of the room.

“Thanks,”
he turned towards the back of the
class.

“God, I’m rude, h
i, I’m Kiera
,
” she smiled.

“Gavin
,
” he returned
the smile, taking in her curves.

“Cool t-shirt
,
” she answered
gesturing to his faded Bauhaus shirt.

“Thanks, I’d better get to my seat, maybe catch you later?”

“Sure
,
” Kiera replied
then leaned close to Angel
.
“He’s hot
.
”

“Uhuh, if you say so
,
” Angel fell
silent as the tutor began to talk
.

The morning seemed to fly; it seemed that no sooner had he settled into a
seat that he was moving to another classroom, he was finding his way around
easier than expected thanks partly to the map the Dean had given him but mainly
because the new kid fact
or made him centre of
attention and he pretty much had a guided tour of the entire campus between
lessons.

Finally lunchtime arrived; he was starving having skipped out of the
house without eating that morning. He had every intention of grabbing something
to eat then finding a quiet corner, turning on his
iPod and tuning out the noise of the cafeteria. Kiera caught up with him in the
queue. The way she asked questions about his day so far was sweet, she invited
him to sit with her and her friends, pointing
to a
table in the middle of the dining hall with a mixed bunch of boys and girls
laughing and comparing notes on lectures, he decided to take her up on her
offer feeling that perhaps this would be a good way to make new friends and
maybe get in with what h
e presumed was the “in crowd
.
”

As it turned out, he quite enjoyed himself with this group of young
people, they were all fairly laid back and liked the same kind of music he did
and also, like him, they hadn’t bought into the whole everything had to be des
igner lifestyle that came hand in hand with being at this
exclusive private sixth form college.

“Bauhaus?” Angel looked up from her book
,
“Do you actually know who they are or
are you just wearing the shirt to be fashionable?”

Gavin slid shut his mobile ph
one, looked at
her, and deciding actions speak louder than words, reached into his leather
jacket, pulled his iPod out and slid it across the table towards her
.

“Why don’t you judge for yourself?” he asked.

Angel lifted the MP3 player and began to scroll t
hrough the menu for what felt like ages, the boy had almost filled the
32gb of memory with some excellent tunes. She chuckled as she hit a group of
songs
.

“What?” Gavin asked.

“Johnny Cash?”

“Hell yeah, everyone should have a bit of Johnny Cash don’t you t
hink?”

“Ye
ah, I’m impressed, you know you
r music
.
” She handed
back his iPod, Gavin grinned, he already liked this girl, her stand offish
attitude towards him just made him try harder to get her attention.

“Hey Babe
,
” a tall blonde
haired boy slid into the
seat beside Angel, put his
arm around her shoulder and moved in to kiss her, Angel leaned into his side.

“Hi, where have you been? Quinn, this is Gavin, Gavin meet Quinn, Captain
of the Rugby team, all round sports man and, I have to say, pretty much the m
ost popular boy in college
.
” She told Gavin with more than a hint
of gloating.

The two boys regarded each other across the table, from Quinn’s point of
view, everything about the new kid screamed RIVAL, he recognised that Gavin’s
athletic build, tall, broa
d shouldered frame and
shoulder length mid brown hair would attract the attention of almost every girl
here, couple this with the casually scruffy but undoubtedly clean appearance
which would fit him in nicely with Kiera and Angel’s crowd of mildly wealthy
youths as opposed to the overtly privileged group he
himself usually ran with, what puzzled him was the Patek
Phillippe
Chronograph watch strapped to Gavin’s
left wrist as at first glance, the faded t-shirt, ripped jeans, dirty Converse
trainers and batte
red leather jacket put him firmly
in this lesser group but that watch, Quinn mused,
must be worth at least £8000,
that watch put
Gavin in the obscenely wealthy class and Quinn didn’t appreciate his presence
here.

Gavin sat back in his chair, sliding his iP
od
back into his jacket as he met Quinn’s gaze, his initial thought
was
,
w
hat a jerk
.
Quinn was
everything about wealthy people that Gavin despised. Tall with slicked back,
perfectly cut blonde hair, bulk standard blue eyes and manicured nails, born
with a
silver spoon in his mouth and prepared to let
everyone know it. Gavin smirked at Quinn’s beige Chinos and pale blue Ralph
Lauren shirt with his cashmere jumper draped over his shoulders he was in
complete contrast with Angel’s mildly grunge look. Gavin co
uld feel the waves of hostility coming across from this boy
and realised with a jolt that he was considered a threat. He saw Quinn’s gaze
focus on his watch and pulled the sleeve of his jacket over it, his watch was
one of the few things that gave him away
as one of
the elite and he made a mental note to invest in a different one. In order to
appear the better man, Gavin extended his hand to Quinn,

“Nice to meet you Quinn
.
”

Quinn took Gavin’s hand and noticed his own disappear into the other boys
larger one
.

“Likewise
,” he murmured, “s
o, Gavin, what do you like?”

At this question, Gavin deliberately glanced at Angel and watched the
other boy bristle at the subtle confirmation of his intentions,

“I play rugby and I used to be in the swim team at my other scho
ol
.
” Gavin
answered.

“And do you consider yourself proficient at either sport?”

“Yeah, I was Captain of both teams
.
”

“Well, you may have a stab at Captain of the swim team here but the rugby
team is mine
.
” Quinn warned.

“Really? I guess now would be a good
time to
tell you that the coach has asked me to try out for the rugby team then
.
” Gavin smiled
.
“I’ll have him show you my match
results if you like
.
”

“You don’t have to worry about that, I will judge for myself how good you
are at the tryout
.
”

“Now boys,
play nice
.” Angel nudged Quinn, “a
re you coming to Biology?” she rose
without waiting for an answer.

“Come on Gavin, I’ll take you to the science block” Kiera was also on her
feet, she picked up her bag then turned to him “What are you doing this
weekend?
” She asked, a slight blush colouring her
cheeks.

“I don’t know what would you like to do?” he stood, towering over her as
he asked the question.

“You could be my date, if you like, there’s a bunch of us going to the
movies and you can save me from being a
third wheel
.
”

Gavin held the door of the cafeteria open for her, “I can’t believe you
don’t hav
e a date,”
he heard Angel moan as she and Quinn passed at his more than obvious
attempt to be smooth.

“I can’t believe you won’t have to blow off some drop dead
gorgeous honey in order to save me from Gooseburyville
.
” Kiera came back.

“New boy remember, I don’t have any friends around here
.
”

“Can’t see that being a problem for very long
,
” she replied.

Seating in Biology was the same as in the form room
,
with the
exception
of Quinn occupying the seat next to him. Having a photographic memory, studying
came easily to Gavin and he often gave the appearance of someone who wasn’t
quite paying attention, try as he might, the lecturer couldn’t catch him out
and Gavin fou
nd himself feeling rather smug as he
left the room later that afternoon.

“You’d better come with me
,
” Quinn told him
as they left Biology
/
“See you later
babe
,
” he directed at Angel who waved and
walked the other way.

“You do know Babe is a pig right? You
did see
the film?” Gavin asked, that particular term of endearment irritated him beyond
belief.

“You
r point being?

“You refer to Angel as babe, ergo; you are calling her a pig
.
”

“Let’s just get this straight newbie,” Quinn growled as he turned to face
Gavi
n, placing a hand on Gavin’s chest to stop his
forward motion
.
“You and I will
get on fine
,
providing you
steer well clear of my place as Captain and my girl
.
”