Always You (7 page)

"Err, not much really Clay's coming over and I think my Mom and stepdad will probably bring out a cake or something" I said scrunching my nose up in disgust.

"You don't want Clay coming over or you don't like cake?" he asked chuckling.

"Oh come on who doesn't like cake?" I asked smiling.

"Oh so you don't want Clay over" he said waggling his eyebrows.

I slapped him on his arm, "Shut up! I just don't like the whole birthday, cake, singing thing" I said scrunching my nose up.

"Why not?" he asked looking genuinely curious, I sighed I really didn't want to talk about the whole dad leaving on my birthday thing so I just shrugged instead.

"Thanks for the charm Blake that was really nice of you, but I should go" I said turning to walk to the field again. He grabbed my hand to stop me walking.

"You need a ride home?" he asked smiling.

"Err no thanks, Clay's driving me, I just need to wait for his practice to finish" I said shrugging turning to go again.

"What you have to wait until four thirty?" he asked with wide eyes whilst looking at his watch.

"Actually five, they're going over some new plays or something for some big quarterfinal or something or other" I said putting my hands up in a I haven't got a clue gesture.

He laughed "You really don't know anything about football do you?" he said grabbing my hand and pulling me towards his car. What the hell is he doing now? Is this boy crazy?

"What are you doing Blake? I said I don't need a ride home" I said confused as he opened his passenger door for me.

"Ok that's fine, but I can take you out for an hour and a half then drop you back at school before practice finishes" he said with a smirk as he took my bag out of my hand and threw it on the backseat. Ok I really shouldn't go with him, I hardly know him and he has a bad reputation. But he honestly seems so sweet!

He could obviously sense my indecision, "I promise I won't try anything on you jailbait, Scouts honour, I just want to buy you a milkshake for your birthday" he said pointing into the car and smiling a dazzling smile. I took a deep breath and got into the car, he shut the door with a chuckle. He obviously liked getting his own way.

He drove us in silence, his car was nice, I have no idea about cars so I didn't know what sort it was but it was clean and smelled like leather and his aftershave. I actually felt quite relaxed considering that I was alone in a car with an older guy I knew hardly anything about and no one knew where I was. Oh crap this is a really bad idea, where the hell is he taking me? Just then he pulled into this little diner and stopped the car.

We got out and he held the door to the diner open for me, "Wow very gentlemanly" I said with a smile.

"I can be a gentleman when I want to be, I just don't want to be that often" he said with a cheeky grin, I rolled my eyes at him and sat in one of the booths.

He sat opposite me as the waitress came over and gave him a very seductive smile, "Well hello, what can I do for you?" she asked looking at him.

"I'll have a chocolate shake with extra ice-cream and, jailbait?" he said looking at me and raising his eyebrows.

The waitress dragged her eyes away from Blake to look me over and give me a sneer, "Err I'll have a strawberry shake please" I said shrugging, jeez I felt uncomfortable the woman looked like she wanted to stab me or something.

"Put extra ice-cream in hers too would ya?" he said turning back to me, "Trust me on this one" he said with a wink laughing. The woman smiled at him again but he was too busy reaching across the table to notice.

He took my hand and I just sat there in shock, I mean jeez this guy is too old for me, and he's incredibly hot. What the hell is he holding my hand for? I pulled my hand back putting it in my lap, he looked a little hurt but smiled to cover it up. "So what did you get for your birthday?" he asked with a grin.

"Well, aside from a new charm for my cell, my Mom and Brian got me a new ipod, and Clay got me this bracelet" I said jiggling my wrist to make it shine when I caught the sun. He reached out and took hold of my wrist gently bringing it to him so he could look at it.

"It's pretty" he said taking hold of my hand again.

I tried to pull away again but he frowned slightly and gripped my hand a little tighter "Please?" he said quietly, I looked into his eyes and could feel myself being drawn in. I stopped struggling and let him hold my hand. It actually felt nice, different from when Clay held my hand, when Clay and I held hands it was just natural, normal like breathing but this felt nice in a different way, his hand was warm and slightly rough to the touch.

The waitress came over and placed our drinks down giving me another dirty look as she walked away. I took a big swig of my milkshake and oh my God it was good!

"Wow I think that's the best milkshake I've ever had" I said taking another mouthful.

He nodded "Yeah I thought you'd like it" he said with a wink.

"So how old are you exactly Blake?" I asked grabbing a spoon so I could eat the ice-cream that was floating at the top of my milkshake.

"I turned 21 two months ago" he said frowning looking a little upset about something.

"So what's with the face? You don't like being 21?" I asked giggling,

"I don't mind the age, it's just that I waited a long time to find someone that I liked and when I finally do she's so much friggin younger than me it's not even legal!" he said huffing and stabbing his straw into his milkshake forcefully. I smiled but quickly pushed it away, he liked me? Oh my God! But there's nothing we can do about it, if I had sex with him he could be charged with statutory rape due to my age.

"Oh you like someone? Do I know her?" I asked with a smirk.

"It's not a joke Riley" he snapped shaking his head. Oops ok temper. "Sorry I didn't mean to snap at you like that, it's just so frustrating" he said squeezing my hand slightly.

It was quiet for a minute I didn't know what to say so we both just stared at the table. "So tell me some more about you" he said looking up with an easy smile.

"What do you want to know?" I said sipping my milkshake again grateful for the conversation, I hated uneasy silences.

"Hmm what kind of music do you like? What do you like to do in your spare time? What's your favourite colour? That kind of thing" he said waving his free hand around.

"Well I like R&B stuff mostly, Anything by 'Ne-yo' is my favourite, I like to dance and go to the movies and I know it sounds boring but I love to read and my favourite colour is pink" I said smiling.

"What about you? Are you in college or something or do you work?" I asked,

"At the moment I'm working at Old Joes over on east street, it's a scrap yard but I don't really want to be doing that so I'm always looking for something else" he said with a shrug.

We chatted for about an hour and then he paid for our drinks, taking my hand to help me out of the booth, which gained me another glare from the waitress. She stepped in front of him and put her hand on his chest, "Can I get your number?" she asked sexily, trailing her finger down his abs.

He chuckled and raised our intertwined hands, "Seriously? You think you have a chance when I'm holding her hand?" he asked shaking his head and pulling me to the exit.

I was stunned, I almost choked on my laughter, quickly putting my hand over my mouth and turning it into a cough, but it was too late she gave me a death glare and stormed off. He didn't seem phased in the slightest just pulled me out the door and opened the passenger side for me. "Jeez did you have to be so rude? I thought she was gonna stab me or something" I said laughing and shaking my head.

He chuckled "I wasn't rude! What the hell was I supposed to say? You would rather I gave her my number to be polite?" he asked smiling.

"No, but you could have just said no thanks or something, you didn't need to bring me into it" I said slapping him playfully on the arm.

We arrived at school with five minutes to spare, he pulled into the now almost empty car park. "So you think I could get your number?" he asked nervously, he looked so sweet and vulnerable, not like what I had been told about him at all. He hadn't even tried to kiss me and he turned the waitress down and didn't even pay any attention to her.

"Err Blake, what's the point? This can't go anywhere" I said with a shrug. He sighed.

"Please can I have your number? Lets just see, please, a date that's all, I really like you" he said scratching absentmindedly at his jaw. Ok what harm could it do? A date that's all, it doesn't mean I have to sleep with him, but oh jeez Clay will go crazy. Why the hell am I thinking about Clay?

"Jailbait?" he said snapping me out of my mental debate.

"Err, yeah ok, I guess" I said taking the phone that he was now holing out to me and punching in my number. He had a huge smile showing all of his perfect teeth and I couldn't help but smile back. "I better go, Clay will be out soon" I said climbing out of the car.

"Ok, well I'll call you" he said as I shut the door. It had turned cold so I pulled my jacket tighter around me as I walked to the field. Suddenly my phone started ringing, I looked at the screen, it said Blake, I frowned, how the hell did I get his number? Oh yeah he stored it in my phone that first night at the game!

"Hello?" I answered,

"Just checking you gave me the right number" he said and laughed before hanging up, I laughed too as I snapped the phone shut, I looked at the little rose charm and smiled as I put it back in my pocket.

"Hey Riley bear" Clay called as I reached the field, he jogged over to me and went to throw an arm around my shoulder but I quickly jumped away.

"No way, look at the state of you" I said horrified looking at him, he was covered in mud and sweat and grass. He looked down at himself and laughed then his head snapped up to look at me with an evil glint in his eye, oh shit! I turned and ran, I could hear him chasing behind me laughing. He grabbed me from behind and rubbed his face in my hair, "Ew! Clay!" I whined giggling, he just laughed and threw his arm over my shoulder leading us off of the field.

"Sorry you had to wait for me, lucky you waited inside though it's getting cold out here" he said pulling me closer to his side. I opened my mouth to tell him I'd been with Blake but nothing came out, oh just man up and tell him Riley! I took a deep breath, "So what movie you wanna watch tonight?" he asked just as I was about to speak.

"Um, I don't mind, how about New Moon?" I said and he groaned.

"Jeez the shifter again? Haven't you seen enough of him already?" he whined making me laugh.

"No way you can never get enough Taylor Lautner in your life" I said with a smile as I pushed him towards the locker rooms to shower.

Just as I thought they would, my Mom and Brian pulled out a cake after dinner and they sang happy birthday to me. I looked over at Clay he wasn't singing, he knew I hated it. He never sang happy birthday to me, but he sat there with a huge smirk on his face while I grimaced and wriggled uncomfortable. They even made me blow out the candles like a five year old.

We watched New Moon again and Clay bless him didn't complain once, even though I'd made him watch it about 6 times already. Just as we settled into bed to go to sleep my phone beeped, I looked at the screen 1 new message from Blake. I pressed read, 'Hey just wanted to say goodnight, maybe I could take you for a crappy dinner and a crappy movie tomorrow? Blake ;) ' I laughed.

"What's so funny?" Clay asked putting his arms behind his head,

"Err nothing just Rachel that's all" I answered unsure why I was lying to him. I snapped my phone shut and laid next to him as usual.

"Crap! It's him! So what do you think? Should I go?" I asked Rachel quickly, looking at my flashing phone in my hand.

She looked at me like I was stupid, "Why the hell are you asking me? It Blake Chambers for God sake! Of course you should go!" she said rolling her eyes at me. I sighed, I just didn't know what to do, Blake had text me early this morning asking if I would go out tonight at 7, my phone was currently ringing in my hand and I was just staring at it undecided.

I took a big breath and answered the phone. "Um Hey" I said quietly.

"Hey Jailbait, you ok? You took a long time to answer" he said sounding nervous.

"Uh yeah I was just err talking to my friend and I didn't feel the phone go off that's all" I lied grimacing at Rachel who was staring at my phone like a lovesick puppy.

"So did you get my message this morning?" he asked,

"Mmm hmm" I mumbled looking pleadingly at Rachel for something to say, she was frantically nodding her head with wide eyes mouthing 'say yes' over and over.

"Ok well do you want to go?" he asked after a few seconds of silence.

I looked at Rachel one last time "Say yes!" she whisper yelled at me.

"Yes" I said quietly.

I heard a muffled "Yessssssssss!" from the phone that I assume I wasn't meant to hear, "Kinda excited there are ya?" I joked smiling in spite of myself.

"Uh yeah sorry, you weren't meant to hear that" he said a bit sheepishly, "So where do you live?" he asked I could hear him rustling paper around in the background.

"I live on Cotton Road, near the pond, number 17, you know where that is?" I asked I hoped he did I was useless with directions.

"You live on Cotton Road? No wonder your so close to Clay, that's where he lives right?" he asked sounding a little surprised.

"Yeah he lives next door actually" I answered.

"Ok well I know where it is, I've been to Clay's before, so I'll pick you up at 7 then" he said sounding really excited.

"Ok see you then" I said snapping the phone shut and breathing out a sigh of relief that it was over. Not that talking to him was hard it was actually quite easy but the whole decision thing was a pain in the ass.

"Great that's done, so next question, do you tell Clay?" Rachel said with a smile. I groaned, I couldn't lie to my best friend but at the same time I didn't really want to have to tell him either, he would be seriously pissed about it. "Ok I have a solution, how about we just avoid him altogether, that way you don't have to lie to him or tell the truth, there's only one period left and you don't have it with him, so just text him and tell him that I'm taking you home tonight so you don't need a lift and that you'll see him tomorrow" Rachel said. Ok that's not actually a bad idea, that way if the date is a disaster he doesn't have to know and if it's not then I can tell him I went tomorrow!