SOMEONE DIFFERENT (12 page)

I smiled. Suddenly I couldn’t have cared less about that stupid party. What was important now, was that Jay kept to the rules and didn’t get in to any more trouble. And at that second, an awful, awful thought spiralled into my head.

‘Friday night,’ I said.

He looked at me.

‘You went out. You went out with me to get the money ... and it was way after midnight.’

Jay’s hold on me tightened slightly, and he kissed my forehead. ‘I know, but it’s OK. My worker came to see me today, I managed to convince him they’d made a mistake. It weren’t easy though; I’ll not be able to blag my way out of it again.’

‘But you didn’t know that at the time. Could it really have meant you got sent to some kind of ... prison?’

‘It could’ve, but it didn’t. Don’t worry about it.’

‘You should’ve told me; you never should have left the house.’

Jay smiled at me and shrugged. ‘How else would you’ve got home?’

There was no answer to that, was there? Because without him, I wouldn’t.

Jay’s heart beat normally again by then. I could still hear it, but the thudding had calmed, and we stood and just held each other.

After a while, he spoke suddenly. ‘Oh, I haven’t told ya, have I? He pulled away and grinned smugly. ‘Becky only wants to give me a job! Working on the yard; weekends and school holidays.’

‘Jay, that’s fantastic! We’ll be able to see each other all the time.’

‘Yeah, and it means I’ll have a few quid – so once this thing’s off, we can go out more and stuff.’

I laughed at the thought, but only for second, because a voice in my head reminded me that the chances of Mum and Dad sending us off on a date with a wave and a smile, were less than nil. But you never know, maybe after a while they’d realise how wonderful he was, and accept it better?

We walked the dogs through the woods until Jay checked the time on his phone. ‘I’ll have to go,’ he said. ‘I’ve got to get round to Patsy’s before I go home.’

He looked awkward as he dropped the hint, and I quickly gave him the fifty pounds that had been in my coat pocket. He started to say something about being sorry again, but I moved the conversation along.

‘I’ll see you on Thursday definitely, won’t I?’

‘Course. And if your Dad goes for it OK, I’ll be here for the whole weekend as well.’

We kissed and said goodbye, then I walked back to the house a lot more slowly than when I’d left it. All I’d thought about then was that damn party, and about how I’d dazzle all my friends with Jay. But he wasn’t something to show off and brag about, was he? He was so much more than that.

And he’d done so much more as well. Sixteen, and he’d experienced all that – and it was all so different to what I’d experienced. And yet, when we were together, I forgot it all like it’d never happened.

I understood it was serious; the curfew and the order and the court thing. And I realised it proved how little we knew about each other, but he’d risked getting locked up just for me. Just because I’d showed up on his doorstep without enough money to get myself home again.

I threw a stick for Foxglove and speeded up again. He was a hero, really, wasn’t he? My hero.

What else did I need to know?

19 – Jay

OK, so I hadn’t told her everything.

What I had told her was true – every single word of it – it just wasn’t the whole story, that’s all.

It was only
cos I got scared about how she’d take it. I mean, it probably wasn’t right common for any of her mates to get cuffed and banged-up, let alone be bailed, on a tag, and to have to stand trial at Crown Court. To her, that’d seem like a right big deal; she wouldn’t be used to it.

I did make me feel bad
, keeping stuff from her. But telling her about the warehouse had been hard enough. I didn’t want her to know all the other stuff about me. She liked me, I liked her; why should we let all the shit from the past spoil it?

No, it was as much as I could’ve told her. It explained the tag and why I couldn’t go out at night, and I was just buzzing she hadn’t freaked out about it – I don’t know what I’d have done if it’d frightened her off for good.

Anyway, it didn’t, thank God, and the texts she sent me over the next couple of days were as a cute as ever ... especially the one I got late on that Thursday afternoon.

Me and Becky were in the office.

‘So I talked to him the other day,’ she said. ‘He was a walkover really. I told him how hard you worked and how reliable you were, and he was fairly interested. Then I told him there’s no minimum wage for people who are still at school, and he nearly bust a gut telling me to get you signed up.’

I smiled, but Becky pulled a bit of an embarras
sed face. ‘Fifteen pounds a day, though; that’s as much as I could get out of him I’m afraid.’

Less than two quid an hour; tight bastard.
But it wasn’t like the money was my main reason for being there anyway, was it? ‘It’s cool; it’s more than I get now,’ I said.

I felt my phone vibrate as she n
odded, but I didn’t look at it ’til I got back out on to the yard.

got house 2 myself! can u come up @ 4

I stared down at it so hard, I didn’t notice Billy come to stand next to me and read it over my shoulder.

‘Whoa-ho, get in, my son!’ he cheered.

I laughed, but put my phone away quickly.

‘Christ,
house to herself
... you lucky bastard. An’ I suppose I’m gettin’ palled out again?’ He shook his head and acted like he was proper upset. ‘Mind you, I can’t expect ya to turn an offer like that down, mate – not even for me. Meck sure you don’t screw-up though, like last time.’

I smiled at him. ‘What ya on about?’

‘Ya know; try an’ at least keep her awake this time.’ He messed my hair up with his fist ’til I pushed him away, then he walked off sniggering.

And half an hour later, when we left the stables and got to the drive, Billy turned in one direction to go home, and I headed in the other
– towards that big white house at the top of the hill.

Once I was on my own, I realised how much I was dying to see Anna, and I got there in about two minutes flat.

Some massive iron gates were already open, and as I walked through them, these blinding lights flicked on – I swear down, they were like proper searchlights, moving around and everything. I carried on along the red paved driveway, and the two Jack Russells came flying out barking, but they soon shut up when they realised it was me.

Anna opened the arched wooden door before I even got to it.
She had these tight, dark blue jeans on, and a white zipper top with ‘Wildfox’ printed across the front. Her hair shimmered in the light from the house, and it fell in soft curls around her face.

‘Hi, you,’ she said, and she hugged me before she closed the door behind us. There was a box thing on the wall, and she opened it, then flicked the switch that had ‘gates’ written next to it.

When she looked down at my trainers, I realised I ought to take them off.

‘Bring them up with you,’ she said, and she turned and started to go up a staircase that was three times as wide as any normal one. At the top, it sort of split off and went round to the left and right, so there were landings on both sides. Anna went to the right, and I followed her along
, then through a white door with a gold pattern on it.

‘Jesus!’

Her bedroom was bigger than the whole of our house. I looked around, shaking my head. It was all sort of light and sparkly. A Sony HD plasma hung on one of the walls, and this white leather settee faced it. There were a few other doors that must’ve been wardrobes, and a cream coloured carpet that was so thick I could hardly see my toes. The monster bed on my left was made out of this dark, reddish wood, and the ends of it sort of curled up into big swirls.

‘That’s some bed,’ I said, without thinking.

She giggled. ‘It’s called a sleigh bed.’

‘Oh.’ I put my trainers down to take my coat off and noticed my hands were minging – they got like that when I’d been at the riding school. ‘Can I go and get cleaned up a bit?’ I asked her, and I turned back towards the door.

‘Over there,’ she said, and she pointed to a door in the opposite corner to the telly.

It was a bathroom, and I don’t just mean like any old regular bathroom. It had a gleaming circular bath the size of a small fishing pond, taps that reflected like mirrors, and pale pink marble steps that led up to it. There were two sinks – I mean why? Why would any one person need two sinks? And then a shower that was hidden behind this curvy glass screen with pink leaves painted on it. The whole place smelt like the perfume department in Boots.

I filled one of the sinks and watched the dirt from my hands swirl into the steaming water. God, it must’ve been a right shock for her when she turned up at our house. I knew it would’ve been different to what she was used to, but until I’d seen all that, no way could I have guessed how different.

Did it matter? It hadn’t stopped her wanting to see me, or inviting me up to their house, but she must’ve thought about it.

Anna was standing by the window when I came out. She wandered over to me and we kissed.

‘So where is everybody? I asked her.

‘Dad’s away in Turkey on business, and Mum’s gone to see Grandma. It’s Grandma’s birthday today; we were supposed to be taking her out to dinner later, but ... well, I kind of faked an illness.’ She grinned sneakily. ‘Mum couldn’t let Grandma down of course, so she had to go, and I got to stay here.’

‘Not just a pretty face, eh?’ I kissed her again, and ran my fingers up her back ’til they touched her long, silky hair. ‘How long have we got?’

‘All evening, really. Grandad might pop over to check on me – my dad’s dad, that is – he lives in one of the cottages by the woods, but we’ll hear the chimes if he does, and I’ll go down. He’ll only stay a minute anyway; talking’s not his strong point.’

‘Is he the guy with the two C
ollies?’

‘Mmm.’ Anna shimmied back and sat on the settee, then she held her hand out to me.

I took it and slid down next to her, but I still felt uptight; I couldn’t get my head round it all. ‘This house; it’s like proper wicked,’ I said.

‘It’s alright.’

‘Alright? It’s like somethin’ ya see in films, or in a celebrity documentary; I can’t believe I know somebody that actually lives here.’

She glanced down and shrugged. ‘It’s just a house.’

Yeah, a house with about fifteen rooms, its own woods and a better security system than the Bank of England.

She was trying not to make a big deal about it though, and if it did bother her that we lived in totally different places, she was working hard not to let it show. I nudged her. ‘D’ya have like a mad old butler that brings ya stuff on silver trays?’

She sniggered. ‘No, don’t be daft. And anyway, it’s not even that impressive; you should see some of the mansions the girls at school live in.’

I squeezed her knee. ‘What, ya mean like more impressive than havin’ your own balcony, an’ that bed, an’ a settee in your bedroom?’

‘Well,’ she answered, smiling. ‘You have a sofa in your front garden ...’

That made us equal for the butler thing; I went along with it. ‘Ha; funny! That’s nothin’ compared to Billy’s though, there’s more furniture in his garden than there is at DFS.’

We both smiled, until I felt Anna’s hand circling on the top of my leg. Her face went all serious and she stared down at her fingers. As they moved up, proper slowly, her eyes followed them; over my front pocket, inside my T-shirt, then they stopped – touching one of the belt-loops – and finally, slipped up on to my stomach. I twitched, I couldn’t help it, and she looked up at me, pleased with herself.

The more her fingers circled, the less I cared about any of the other stuff. I leaned nearer, met her halfway, and we kissed for ages.

Gradually, we sunk lower into the settee. The sweetness of her breath filled my mouth, and she pushed her whole body upwards against mine. Underneath her top, her skin felt even silkier than her hair. I moved my fingers up her back ’til I touched her bra. She didn’t tense up or anything, so I followed it, right round to the front. She pressed herself into my hand and my heart raced. I kissed her harder. She stretched out under me, but then stopped, turning her face away.

‘Jay.’

‘What’s a matter?’ Had that been too fast? Too rough?

‘Nothing.’ She smiled, then went proper shy. ‘It’s just
, we’ll have to use something – a condom ...’

I breathed out. ‘OK.’

But there was something else. I stroked her hair back and waited. She watched me, like she didn’t know if she should tell me or not, then eventually, she said, ‘And that ... and that ... it’ll be the first time ...’

I flinched a bit inside. Even though I’d guessed it already, hearing her say it put me on edge. As far as I knew, that’d mean it was a first for us both
; I was pretty sure the others I’d been with had all done it before. What if I messed-up, or it hurt her? What if she was proper nervous? Then it’d be crap for her, and afterwards she might wish she hadn’t.