Incriminating Dating

by Rebekah L. Purdy

  “I’m just trying to make sure we have everything covered.”

  “Fine. We’ll wait until the day after the election and then part ways. We don’t need a big scene or anything. We can just come to school and say we broke up. Easy-peasy.”

  He nodded. “Look, I need to get back to work. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He leaped out of my car and rushed back into the restaurant.

  Damn. I must’ve really gotten to him tonight. I had a feeling he hadn’t meant to open up about so much to me. Of course, I could use it as ammunition against him, but then that’d make me no better than his friends who picked on kids in the hallway.

  But since we were already into this “relationship” until after the election, perhaps I could try to help him out some. Damn my guilty conscience. I was supposed to be blackmailing him, not becoming best friends with him.

  I had to be careful, because for all I knew this could be a ploy to bring me down. What if he made me fall for him for real, then humiliated me? He didn’t seem like the type, but then again, I wasn’t always the best judge of character.

  We would have to keep things more professional, or at least that’s what I told myself as I drove home.

  Chapter Eight

  Luke

  By the time I got home from work, exhaustion overtook me. The house was dark except for the light on in the kitchen, where my mom sat up at the table, waiting for me. It was already after eleven, and I still had calculus and government homework to do.

  “Hey, I saved a slice of apple pie for you,” Mom said, her eyes bloodshot. She yawned, then stood to give me a hug. “I think this is the first time I’ve seen you all week.”

  “Yeah. Did Sammie get the money I left for her?” I tossed my hat on the counter, then sat down at the table to eat.

  “She did.” Mom slid back into her seat and cradled her head in her hands. “Luke, I-I’m sorry about all this. For you having to work. It’s not fair to you. I honestly don’t know what I would do without you.”

  I swallowed hard, because the truth was, I didn’t know, either. It had me worried about going away to college next year. Who would take care of Landon? Who would help Mom make the bills? I mean, I could still work and send money home to help out. But I’d likely need some cash myself. Sure, I had a full ride, but I’d still have other expenses like clothes, car insurance, that kind of thing.

  I dipped my fork into the still-warm apple pie and scooped some up. The scent of cinnamon hung in the air between us.

  Mom yawned again, and it was then that I noticed the empty bottle of alcohol behind her.

  “You can go to bed, you know,” I said. “I still have homework anyway.” The last thing I wanted was for her crying to turn into yelling and throwing things like it usually did when she drank. This version of drunk Mom I could deal with, but if she didn’t go to bed soon, she’d turn mean.

  She rubbed her eyes. “Well, I wanted to visit for a few minutes. Seems like we don’t talk much anymore. Unless it’s me calling you about Landon or one emergency or another. I—I just wanted to make sure everything is okay with you, and to catch up on things.”

  With a sigh, I set my fork back down. I wanted to tell her that no, everything was not okay. That I was exhausted from working and trying to take care of everything at home. That I was tired of having to be the man of the house. But I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, to make her feel worse about our situation than she already did. Which was why she couldn’t find out about my part in destroying those statues.

  “The only new thing is that I have a girlfriend now.” The lie slipped easily from my lips. But I knew this would change the subject from all the dreary shit we had going on. And who cared if it was a fake relationship.

  Her eyes widened. “Really? Who?”

  “Her name is Ayla Hawkins. She works on the school paper and is in drama club. You’d really like her.” I took a bite of pie, letting the warm apples practically melt in my mouth.

  “As long as she makes you happy, then that makes me happy. Just be careful not to get too involved, if you know what I mean.”

  I nearly choked. Because the last thing on my mind was having sex with Ayla. “I think we’re good. Trust me, Ayla isn’t that kind of girl.” And I doubted her blackmailing goals included either of us losing our virginity.

  “Okay, but if you do think about it, you better have protection.” She stared me down.

  I knew it partially had to do with my dad getting her pregnant in high school. They’d gotten married pretty much as soon as they’d found out. My mom had really loved him, but she found out after years of marriage that he’d felt like she’d purposely gotten pregnant to force him to marry her. Which couldn’t have been farther from the truth. It just went to show what a douche my dad was.

  “I really need to get my homework done, and you need to get to bed,” I said, not wanting to talk about my nonexistent sex life with my mom.

  “All right. Don’t stay up too late, you have school tomorrow. Don’t forget, you said you’d bring Landon to school for me since I have to be into work an hour earlier.”

  “I know, I’ve got it programmed in my phone.”

  Once she left, I settled into my government homework. My eyes blurred with tiredness, but I forced myself to finish the assignment. My grades and basketball were the only things that’d save me from this kind of life. I had to keep going.

  Damn. Ayla’s blackmailing couldn’t have come at a worse time. I had enough shit to stress about without one more thing. And what was to stop her from changing her article up to incriminate me in the vandalism?

  She needs you. As long as she needs you, she won’t blow this. Which meant I might need to bring my A game.

  …

  I groaned, sitting up as my phone alarm went off. With a yawn, I realized I’d fallen asleep at the kitchen table, my books still spread out around me. I stretched, feeling the kink in my neck. Damn, I hadn’t dozed off until sometime after two. I’d only gotten like four hours of sleep.

  I stood and went down to my brother’s room to wake him. When I got in there, I smiled, staring at his sleeping form wadded up in his Star Wars blankets. A stuffed Yoda toy was curled in under his arm.

  “Landon.” I bent down and shook his leg. “Hey, buddy, it’s time to get up.”

  He moaned. “No. Just five more minutes.”

  “Nope. We don’t have time for sleeping in this morning. You need to get up and eat breakfast.”

  “But I’m not hungry.”

  I took his blankets off him. “Up. We don’t have time to mess around. I’ve got to give you a ride to school today.”

  “You’re so mean,” Landon said, opening his eyes to stare at me.

  “I’ll show you mean.” I jumped onto his bed and tickled his armpits.

  He giggled, trying to squirm away from me. “Okay, okay, I’ll get up.”

  “Do you want waffles or cereal?” I asked.

  “Waffles.” He sat on the edge of his bed now.

  “Okay, while you get dressed, I’m gonna get a quick shower. Then I’ll make your breakfast.”

  He snorted. “I can put waffles in the toaster. I’m not a baby.”

  “I didn’t say you were.”

  “Whatever. Just go so I can get dressed.” He stood, staggering over to his dresser. He pulled out a Pokémon T-shirt with Pikachu’s face on it and a pair of ripped jeans.

  “Don’t you want to wear a different pair of jeans?”

  “No. I like these.”

  “But they have giant holes in the knees.”

  “They’re my play jeans, and today we’re going to be outside doing a leaf project.” Landon stared at me, a gap between his teeth where he’d recently lost one.

  “Fine. Wear whatever you want. We don’t have time to argue this morning—we’re on a time crunch, kid. I’ll only be a few minutes in the shower.” I hurried to grab something to wear. Pulling out a plaid shirt and a pair of faded jeans, I headed into the bathroom. Not wa
nting to leave Landon alone for too long, I took a quick shower, then rushed to get dressed.

  When I came out, Landon already had his waffles made and probably half a gallon of syrup covering them.

  “Do you think you’ve got enough syrup?”

  He shoved another bite in his mouth and nodded. “Yuh—it’s so gud,” he said with his mouth full.

  I glanced at my watch. “Well, you need to scarf it down. We’re almost out of time.”

  After he finished, I wiped up his face for him and got his lunch packed along with his backpack, which had a note on it for my mom about an upcoming field trip. I hung it on the fridge for her to look at. It was supposed to be an after-school thing at the zoo in the next couple of weeks.

  And of course, they needed money for it.

  “Let’s get going,” I said, handing him his school bag. Damn, we were behind schedule. Neither of us could afford to be late to school again.

  He followed me out to my car. We climbed in, and once Landon had his seat belt on, I put the key in the ignition and turned it on. Only it didn’t start.

  “Shit,” I said. I turned the key again. Still nothing. I leaned my head against the steering wheel. This couldn’t be happening. I couldn’t afford to have my car break down now. I needed it for work and to get me and Landon to and from school. And I had no fucking money to fix it right now.

  “What’s wrong?” Landon stared at me.

  “The car’s not working.”

  His eyes widened. “Does that mean we get to skip school today?”

  “No.” I tugged my phone out of my pocket and scrolled to Brady’s number. I hit the call button. The phone rang several times before a message started playing, telling me that Brady’s voicemail box was full. Shit. Now what? Jack was out of the question. He’d gotten his car taken away for being late for curfew. Besides, I couldn’t chance him seeing where I lived or the whole school would find out.

  My gaze fell on Ayla’s name. Damn. I didn’t want to have to call the girl who was blackmailing me, but if I missed school and work today, I’d be screwed. Knowing I’d now be indebted to Ayla pissed me off; it’d be one more thing she could hold over me. But on the other hand, I felt like we’d made some headway last night. It was like she got me. Not that I’d admit that to her…

  Biting back my pride, I clicked the call button, and after a second she answered.

  “Hello?”

  “Ayla, hey, it’s me, Luke.”

  “I know.” She laughed. “And to what do I owe this early-morning call? Don’t tell me, you want to whisk me away for a romantic breakfast?”

  “Not exactly.” I squeezed my eyes shut. “My car won’t start this morning, and I wondered if you might be able to give me and my little brother a ride to school?”

  “Sure, just let me grab a pen so I can jot down your address.”

  Relief flooded through me. Damn, I’d owe her big after this.

  I heard her shuffling some papers in the background, then she came back on. “Okay, I’m ready.”

  I rattled off our address. “Look, I really appreciate it.”

  “No problem. If you want, I could have my dad come over; he’s really good with cars,” she said.

  “I— Um, if you want. I don’t have any money to give him right now.” I never did. Shit. Everything always came down to that.

  “That’s fine. I’ll just tell my dad you’re my boyfriend. He doesn’t have work today, so let me see if he can.”

  “All right.”

  About ten minutes later, Ayla pulled up in her baby-blue Volkswagen Bug, and Landon glanced at me.

  “Whoa, that’s a cool car.” Then he leaned over and punched me in the thigh. “Blue slug-a-bug. No slug-a-bug back.”

  “Funny.” We climbed out of my car, right when another vehicle pulled in next to Ayla’s. A tall, lanky man with thinning brown hair and glasses stepped out. He smiled at me.

  “Hiya, you must be Luke,” he said. He came over and shook my hand. “Good to meet you. And who’s this little guy here?” He pointed at Landon.

  “I’m Landon.” My brother smiled. “I’m Luke’s brother.”

  “Very good. So I heard you’re having some problems with your car?” He glanced at my Gremlin, then back to me.

  “Yeah, I can’t get it to start.”

  “Do you have the keys?” he asked.

  I handed them over and watched him climb in.

  Ayla got out of her car and walked up to us. “Hi. If you guys want, you can put your stuff in my car.”

  Landon stared at her, giving her a once-over. His eyes rested on the Princess Peach T-shirt she wore. “So who are you?” he asked.

  Ayla met my gaze over his shoulder, and I nodded my head at her. Since she’d obviously already told her dad about our being a couple, and I’d mentioned it to my mom, it didn’t really matter if Landon thought it was true, too.

  “I’m Luke’s girlfriend,” she said.

  His head whipped around to me, and I nodded at him. He narrowed his eyes. “Aren’t you kind of fat to be his girlfriend?”

  Oh, shit. My brother was going to ruin everything.

  “Landon!” I grabbed his shoulder. “That’s not nice; you don’t say stuff like that to people.”

  But Ayla quirked an eyebrow at him. “So? You’ve got big ears, and you don’t see me making fun of you.”

  “I don’t have big ears.” He covered them.

  “Yep, you do. And I think one of your arms is longer than the other one. I’m also pretty sure that you have hair on your face and warts on your nose.” Her lip twitched.

  Landon started laughing. “I do not.”

  “I swear, you do.” She raised her hand in a salute.

  I nudged him with my arm. He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry. You’re not really fat. Just kind of bigger than some people.”

  Jeez, this kid would never get a girlfriend if he talked like this. “She’s not big, Landon. She’s curvy and beautiful.”

  Ayla’s cheeks turned bright red. “All right then. So you like Pikachu?” She pointed at his T-shirt.

  “Yeah. He’s my favorite. Sometimes I get to watch the cartoon on TV. But mostly I play the Pokémon games. Luke even got me some cards for my last birthday. Maybe I can show them to you sometime.”

  “That would be awesome.”

  He stared at her like she was made of sunshine. “You like Princess Peach from Mario?”

  “I do. She’s pretty cool.”

  “She also loves Link,” I said, grinning at her, remembering our conversation from the previous day.

  She groaned. “You had to bring that up?”

  I laughed. “Yeah.”

  “Oh, I like Link, too. I play Zelda games all the time.” Landon caught her arm to stare at her watch, which coincidentally had the Triforce symbol from Zelda on it. He could talk for hours about video games, and I had a feeling he found a perfect person to chat with.

  Mr. Hawkins had popped my hood open on the car and was now fiddling with something. A few moments later, he joined us. “It looks like your alternator went out.”

  “Is that expensive to replace?” My brow furrowed.

  He glanced at me, then our house and my car. “Tell you what, I’ve got a friend who works at the junkyard. He’s always got spare parts lying around. Let me check with him, I bet he could get me one for free.”

  For some reason, I didn’t think it was free. And I definitely didn’t like to take charity. “I can pay you for it.”

  “No, don’t worry about it. If it’s okay, I’ll keep your keys on me so I can work on it while you kids are at school. How’s that sound?”

  “Sure. I’ll call and let my mom know, just in case she comes home for lunch or something.”

  “We should probably head out if we’re going to get to school on time,” Ayla said. She ushered my brother toward her car, pulled the seat forward, and helped him climb into the backseat.

  Once we were all inside, Ayla backed out of
my driveway. “What school does Landon go to?”

  “Upper East,” Landon called from the back.

  “Hey, I went there, too. Do they still have the rocket ship slide?”

  “Yeah. They added monkey bars to the side of it, though. And a couple of days ago some kid named Austin climbed on top of them and fell off and got a bloody nose. It was gross.”

  I listened to the two of them talk about Upper East’s playground until we dropped Landon off. After he got out, he turned to wave to us. When we pulled back out onto the road, I wrenched my hands in my lap.

  “Look, I just wanted to say thank you for picking us up today. And for, you know, your dad’s help. Will you tell him that I can pay him?”

  She glanced at me out of the corner of her eye. “It’s fine. Besides, we’re boyfriend and girlfriend, remember?”

  I laughed. “Yeah, kind of hard to forget.”

  Her hands gripped the wheel tighter, making her knuckles white. I stared over for a moment and watched again as a blush crept over her face. She quickly changed the subject. “My dad won’t take your money. Trust me, if he didn’t want to help, he wouldn’t have offered. He’s totally into cars, so any chance he gets to tinker with one, he’s all over it.”

  When we got to school, we grabbed our books and bags and moved toward the entrance of the building. I reached down and entwined my fingers with hers. She’d just saved my ass, so I figured I could put a little more effort into this today. Besides, I kind of liked the way her hand fit in mine. Her skin was warm and soft. My gaze shifted back to her, my heart clamoring.

  Right when we got inside, Ayla came to a stop.

  “Oh. My. God. What did she do?”

  “Who?”

  Chloe rushed to our side, ripping down a poster as she went. It was then that I saw the picture of Ayla with a long mustache and a bikini with tiny pigs on it, staring back at us. Above the picture it said, “Do you want this kind of change? Vote no for Ayla.”

  “Ayla, I’m sorry. Jenna must’ve done this after I put up your posters last night,” Chloe said.

  Ayla’s grip on my hand tightened, and I gave her a squeeze. She turned her brown eyes on me, and I suddenly felt bad for her. The girl who was blackmailing me. But now I kind of understood why she was.