THREE
Belle
“You’re bad,” Kate teases as we stroll up my driveway. “I can’t believe you’re skipping this exam, girl.”
“It’s Biology,” I say with a laugh, pointing my finger at her. “You tell me how many people actually need Biology under their belt, and I’ll go.”
“You have a point.” She shrugs.
I smile as I dig my keys out of the bottom of my school bag, and then unlock the front door. “Have you figured out what you’re going to wear this weekend, yet?”
“Ugh. No.” Kate walks inside and drops her things behind the sofa, flopping dramatically over the arm as I head for the kitchen.
“Is that guy still coming?” He’s all she’s talked about this week after he apparently stayed the night at theirs on Sunday after one too many.
“Brock. His name is Brock.” She sighs. “Even his name is sexy.”
“Jesus, girl.” I laugh as I open the fridge. “Get a grip.”
“Have you talked to Scott this week?” Kate calls from her position splayed out on the sofa cushions.
“Briefly before we had our English exam together yesterday.” I stick my head around the dividing wall. “We exchanged numbers.”
“You are so in, Belle.”
Kate’s excitement is infectious, swirling in my gut as I pull two Cokes from the fridge. “I don’t know.” My insecurities strike the butterflies down one by one. “As keen as he is, I don’t think he sees me like that, you know?”
“Long-term?” She props herself up on her elbows as I enter the room.
“Yeah.” I pass her drink over, and she twists to tuck her legs beneath her. “Should I feel bad if I’m just another conquest?”
“You want long-term out of him?” she asks.
“I don’t think so.” The condensation swirls beneath my finger as I trace the logo on the can. “He’s cute, but he’s not really my type.”
“What is your type?” She frowns as she takes a sip.
Tall, part-Polynesian, and about twenty years older. “I’m not sure. Maybe somebody who has his life a bit more together?”
Kate chuckles, setting her drink down on the coffee table to shoot me an admonishing glare. “Babe, we’re eighteen. No guy our age has it together. Fuck, we don’t have it together.”
Little does she know she’s struck the nail on the head. I want older. I want more mature. I want to thrive off a guy who’s left the experimental part of life behind. Someone I can be sure of and know I can depend on.
“Well,” I announce, raising my can. “Here’s to getting our shit together.”
She snatches hers up and clangs it against mine. “And to best friends.”
I smile as I swallow the acidic drink. She is my best friend, the one person I can count on. My circle is small, and Kate has never given me reason to hate that.
“What?” she asks as I continue to look at her.
“Just thankful to have such a kick-ass bestie.”
Kate knocks my arm. “You can’t get rid of me now. We’re like fucking Thelma and Louise, man.” Her eyes go wide as a playful smile parts her lips. “Hell. Promise me you won’t go driving us off a canyon or anything.”
I laugh, catching my breath to reply, “I’d need a damn car to drive first.”
She erupts into laughter, and yet my blood chills. Speaking of cars…. “Did you hear that?”
The undeniable thump of a door sends us both scrambling. I sling her bag behind the TV cabinet and kick mine under the dining table as we slip and slide over the kitchen tiles toward the rear of the house. Kate crashes to a stop against my back as I brace in an X against the open hallway door.
Bootsteps echo on the front path, and then still. If we cross over the threshold now, we’ll be spotted trying to make a getaway, given the front door is directly opposite the back one.
Shit.
“What do we do now?” Kate whispers, trying and failing to disguise her nervous giggle.
“Panic.” I snort in an effort to stop my snicker from breaking free.
The front door swings open, two definite bootsteps resonating throughout the otherwise quiet house as Dad steps inside.
I should feel bad that I’ve let him down by skipping my exam, feel bad for being so selfish. But the adrenaline still runs fast through my veins, keeping me in the thrill of the moment. He said he had errands to run before work; he shouldn’t be home.
Kate tugs on my shirt, and then points to the far side of the room. The dining room has two sash windows that open out onto the backyard, but the damn things always stick on their wooden tracks. There’s no way we could open them quietly enough.
I’m in the midst of whispering this to her when her eyes go wide and she slowly stands up straight from our crouched positions. “Hi.”
“Belle?”
Shit. Shit, shit, shit. So not Dad. Excitement conflicts with regret at the sound of his best friend’s voice.
“Zeus.” I straighten also and slowly turn to face him. “Why are you here?” It’s been years since he disappeared without a word. For some reason, the thought of disappointing him eats at my gut worse than upsetting Dad.
“I think the more important question is, why are you? Your dad said you’d be at your exam.” His steely gaze flicks to Kate. “And who’s she?”
“I’m Kate. Belle’s friend.” The hussy pops a hip as she sticks an arm past my shoulder, hand outstretched.
He simply stares at her, eyes hard and his lips set in a firm line. Her smile fades, and she slowly lowers her arm, stuffing her hands in the pockets of her jeans.
“We, um, we left some study notes here,” I lie. “Thought we’d pick them up before the next one.”
Zeus’s cool indifference slides my way, his eyes unusually void of expression. “Bullshit.”
I frown a little, my jaw slack as I try to work out what the hell happened to the fun, carefree guy that I last knew.
Kate gasps behind me, retreating toward where I threw her bag. “Um, we’ll get our things and head out, okay?”
“What are you really doing, Belle?” Zeus asks, his eyes narrowed as he waits on my answer.
“Skipping my exam,” I murmur, head down.
“Skipping your exam,” he repeats with a dissatisfied huff through his nose. “Still too cool for school after all these years, huh?”
I simply shrug. What does he want me to say? That yeah, I’m a selfish, spoilt bitch who’s yet again chosen to do what’s more fun for me, than easier for my dad to handle? Because that’s totally what I am.
Selfish.
Wonder which parent I learned that from?
“Don’t tell Dad,” I plead. “Okay?”
“Don’t worry,” he grumbles, stepping forward into the kitchen and forcing me back in the process. “I won’t tell him. You will.”
Kate stands wide-eyed, her bag now slung over her shoulder. I’m sure my expression is much the same.
“Zeus—”
“No.” He spins around, finger pointed my way as he frowns. “Maybe once I was okay with being the go-between, with trying to get it through your immature head what the fuck you’re doing to your dad by being such an ignorant little shit. You think you’re big enough now to make your own decisions about what’s best for your future? Well, then you’re big enough to see the effect those decisions have on the people around you.”
Jesus. Wherever he’s been the last few years, somebody’s been stealing all his porridge. The man is one grumpy bear.
“Fine,” I huff. “I’ll tell him.” Not.
Zeus nods as he takes an elastic off his wrist and proceeds to pull back his long thick hair. I stand in rapt silence as he lifts both arms to tug the black locks into a rough ponytail, noticing for the first time he’s in his gym gear: long shorts and a very revealing tank. He’s been busy while he was gone, or maybe I simply don’t remember him quite the same as I thought I did—the guy is huge.
I’m not the only one whose teenage hormones take note of his built physique, given the way Kate stands in rapt silence also, her hand flexing in intervals on the strap of her bag.
“Get back to school for your exams, girls,” Zeus instructs as he tucks the pony into a knot. “I’ll ring and let them know you’ve both been held up. Maybe you’ll get special consideration or some shit.” He glares at me. “Maybe not.”
Really? “Come on,” I plead. “You don’t have to go that far. We’ll go back, I promise. Isn’t that right, Kate?”
She stares silently at Zeus as he leans both palms on the counter behind him, making his triceps pop.
“Kate?”
“Huh?”
Fuck my life. I bend down on my way across to her and snatch my bag from under the table. “Let’s go.”
“Yeah, okay.” She flashes one last smile at Zeus. “I’m really sorry we put you out.”
If looks could kill I’m pretty sure he would have incinerated her into a pile of ash.
She giggles awkwardly as I throw a hand up over my shoulder to wave goodbye, pushing her toward the door with the other. “Bye, Zeus. See you in another couple of years.”
“I’ll see you when you get home tonight, Belle.”
Wait. What? I make a move to turn around and ask what he means, but Kate has me by the wrist as she tugs me viciously out the still open front door. I stumble behind, managing to wrench my arm free when we reach the footpath.
“What the hell was that all about?”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” she whisper-yells in response. “That is the Zeus you told me about in Year 11?”
“Yeah.” I frown. “So? Don’t tell me you think he’s hot.” I roll my eyes, feigning disgust at the idea when in reality it pisses me off somewhat. He’s my guilty pleasure, my eye candy.
Fuck, I’ve missed him.
“Of course I think he’s hot.” She skips backward, tugging me away from the house, presumably so we’re out of earshot. “Old, but hot.”
Old. I snort at the idea. Not as though he’s like seventy or something ridiculous. He’s only… I don’t even know. Younger than Dad, I think, but not by much because they went to school together. So that would make him at least thirty-four. Shit.
“Are you okay?” Kate ducks her head as she falls into step beside me.
“Yeah. I just… how am I going to tell Dad I skipped my exam?” I do my best to deflect the issue onto something more believable.
Kate shrugs. “Buggered if I know. Remind him it’s just Biology.”
“That’s not the point. He’ll be pissed if he knows I’m not taking this seriously.”
“Well then, sucks to be you.”
“Yeah.” It does.
More than she really knows. More than I let anyone know.