Popped

by Elizabeth Stevens

  “Ye-ah?” I replied in sing-song and Leo grinned.

  “How’s it going?”

  I nodded. “It’s going gangbusters, man. How about you?”

  He nodded. “I’ve got some more. Do you need it?”

  I shook my head. “Not quite. But I’m almost done. I’ve just got to finish up some school stuff first.”

  He nodded again, chewing on his lip. “Okay.”

  “You bored?” I asked him.

  Leo shrugged. “No…”

  I knew what was up; little dude was lonely. He was the kind of kid who got lost in stories for the whole day, but he preferred to be around people while he was at it.

  “Want me to come work downstairs?” I asked and he nodded. “Cool. Give me a sec to grab my shit and I’ll be down.”

  Leo nodded absently. “Okay.”

  “Oh, hey,” I called as he started wandering out.

  “Yeah?”

  “Wanna chuck a couple of soft drinks in the fridge?”

  Leo’s eye went wide in excitement for a moment, then he frowned. “Did Mum say we could?”

  “Mum’s not on dinner tonight.”

  “And when she comes home and notices?”

  I waved my hand to dismiss his worries. “I’ll take the fall.”

  “Like last time?” Leo asked sceptically, trying to suppress a smile.

  Last time I’d talked him into having a couple of soft drinks with dinner, Mum had come home and demanded to know who’d decided it was a good idea to have soft drink when we both knew full well she didn’t let him have soft drink on a school night. When I’d convinced him, I’d promised I’d take one for the team. But as soon as she’d asked, I’d pointed at Leo and landed him in it. Luckily Mum knew us both well enough that she knew I’d led him astray and then thrown him under the bus for good measure. So, Leo got a mild scolding for letting me corrupt him and I got a right hiding for him not sleeping properly.

  I nodded once. “Exactly like last time,” I said.

  Leo snorted. “Sure. Unless I dob you in first.”

  I grinned. “I’ll give you a ten second head start.”

  “Oh, thanks. What a gentleman,” he called sarcastically as he walked out.

  “More gentlemanly than you!” I yelled.

  “In your dreams!”

  I laughed as I picked up my stuff, wondering exactly what I wanted to take downstairs with me.

  For the most part, I tried to be a good role model for Leo. I tried not to let him witness too much of my less savoury characteristics. It was my job to protect him, and protecting him meant trying to look like a good guy. Of course, I couldn’t hide everything from him and it wasn’t really fair on him or realistic to try. I just had to try to balance the bad with as much good as I could and hope Leo worked out how to be a decent human from that.

  After our dad died, Mum had all but fallen apart. He’d been the love of her life and I’d watched his death almost destroy her. She held herself together for me and Leo as best she could, but it had been years before she really smiled again. And she hadn’t been the only one. Leo had been totally lost. Not just because Mum had shifted us from Melbourne to be closer to her parents and Leo was suddenly taken away from all but two people he knew, but also because I’d withdrawn for a while too. He’d been stranded physically and emotionally from his support system and the whole family had come close to imploding.

  So, I did what I should have done in the beginning. I stepped up. I helped Mum with Leo and the housework. I helped Leo with whatever Leo needed help with – school work, growing up, just spending time with him. I gave them space to grieve and fall apart when they needed it so the weight wasn’t so heavy all the time. I was strong so they didn’t have to be. And I made sure I stayed strong for them.

  And because of all that, Leo had grown into the good kid he was now. He kept up a B average at school and he’d been immersed in his stories for years, creating vast fantasy worlds, diverse characters, and epic storylines. Which he was no doubt currently working on studiously at the kitchen table.

  “Do we want some music?” I asked him as I walked over.

  He shrugged as he scribbled something out in his exercise book. “If you want.”

  “What are you working on?” I sat down next to him, put my stuff on the table and got some music playing on my phone.

  “The part where they meet the dragon.”

  I nodded and pulled my sketch book to me. “Cool. It got a name yet?”

  He shook his head. “Nope.”

  “What colour is it?”

  “Green. Duh.”

  I smiled. “Duh. Of course. What does it look like?”

  “Like a dragon.”

  I nodded. “Naturally.”

  It wasn’t a lot to go on, but I’d worked with less.

  We sat doing our own thing for a couple of hours or so, Leo lost in his made-up world and me alternating between projects because I wasn’t really in the mood for concentrating. Paige kept taking over my thoughts. I saw her smile. I caught a whiff of whatever perfume she wore. I heard her laugh. I felt her lips on my neck and her hand sliding up my naked chest, and nearly lost it then and there.

  Eventually I had to take a deep breath and consider a cold shower. The thought of her had my pulse racing and made me all restless. My hand hovered over my phone as I was yet again tempted to message her. But she was already throwing around words like ‘date’, what sort of message would it send if I texted her the day after I’d hooked up with her?

  Instead of messaging her, I checked the time. Thankfully it was about time for me to get dinner going. Mum, as usual, had organised all the shopping. So, I didn’t have to plan it, I just had to put it all together.

  I pulled myself up and Leo looked up sharply.

  “Where are you going?”

  I ruffled his hair. “Just going to make dinner.”

  He pulled his head away from my hand with an annoyed grimace. “Oh. Want some help?”

  I shook my head. “Nah. I’m good. Thanks, though.”

  “What are we having?” he asked as I put my phone on the bench and went to the fridge.

  I looked at Mum’s list. “Spag Bol,” I told him.

  Leo cheered. “Did Mum buy extra mushrooms and carrots?” he asked excitedly.

  Rolling my eyes at the weird kid, I answered, “I dunno. I’ll look.”

  While he went back to his work, I checked through what was in the fridge for the Baker family Spag Bol. Mum was a master of stuffing any meal full of veggies. I’d hated it when I was younger. But since I’d accepted that Leo needed to eat them to grow up healthy, I’d also grudgingly accepted that meant I needed to eat them, too. Luckily, though, Leo liked most veggies. Most standard ones anyway.

  “I’ve got four packs of mushrooms and two bags of carrots.”

  “What else are we having this week?”

  I looked over the list. “I reckon we go for half for the Spag Bol.”

  “To how much mince, though?” Leo asked.

  “Dude!” I laughed. “There’ll be enough, I promise.”

  He sighed dramatically. “Okay, then.”

  I laughed again and got to chopping because annoyingly carrots didn’t chop themselves. As I worked, I kept one eye on the blade in my hand, half an eye on Leo and half an eye on my phone.

  After I’d moved over to the stove, Leo asked, “Can I see what you’re working on?”

  “You can look over my school shit. The rest is a surprise,” I warned him in my most serious voice.

  Leo was silent again for a while, then I heard. “Bash! These are amazing!”

  “Is it the one where she’s got straight hair?” I asked, stirring the Bolognese.

  “Yeah.”

  I snorted. “Shame. Jendo thinks she’s too pretty.”

  “What?” I heard the indignation in his voice on my behalf.

  I nodded. “I know. I know
. Take it up with him tomorrow. Flick over. Those are the new concepts.”

  Over the music, I just heard the rustle of him flipping pages.

  “Which one’s better?” I asked.

  “I like the curls better actually.”

  “Don’t tell me you’re siding with him?”

  Leo laughed. “I dunno what she’s meant to look like. But she looks more…”

  “What?” I was interested to hear what he thought about it.

  “Real, I guess.”

  I paused in my stirring. That was an interesting word for her. And not one I’d intended when I’d come up with the new concept. “Real good, or real bad?”

  “Good,” he answered definitively. “More believable.”

  “More believable? A warrior princess assassin is believable?” I asked.

  “Yeah. But I think you should change her costume.”

  I turned the stove down so it would just simmer away happily and went over to him. “What are you thinking?” I asked him.

  While the Bolognese did its thing, we workshopped my school project and just generally goofed around. Then we sat and ate while we made our way through two bottles of full sugar soft drink and nearly five bowls between us of Spag Bol. After that was clean up for Mum, get Leo wound down for bed – and finally into bed – and sit in my room to open the group chat with the boys. Which, now they were more alive and wanting to know about my night with Paige, turned into a call.

  “I told you boys this last night,” I reminded them.

  “Say someone doesn’t remember from about half eleven on…?” Rufio started.

  “And someone else was just plain not paying attention at the time,” Jendo added.

  I laughed. “Fine. Fine.” I rearranged and started working on the costume idea Leo and I had come up with. “Long story short, I failed.”

  “Any interesting details in the longer story?” Jendo asked.

  “Uh, girl kisses like she means it and is not afraid to let her hands roam.” I smiled just remembering it. “Everywhere.” Well, except one place. But I was so far from complaining, I was surprised at myself.

  “So, on a scale of one to ten, how far did you get?” Rufio asked.

  “That doesn’t help if we don’t know what the scale is,” Jendo said.

  Rufio sighed extra audibly. “Okay, one is tongue and ten is sex.”

  “That is a massive scale,” Jendo commented.

  “Just how many steps do you think there are?” I asked.

  “Okay, less cryptically!” Rufio huffed. “How far did you get?”

  “Just over the clothes.”

  “Please tell me someone still got off?” Jendo begged.

  I shook my head with a wry smile. “No.”

  “Fuck!” Rufio whistled. “She’s good.”

  “You better watch out man, she’ll knock you off your perch, bet or no bet,” Jendo said.

  “Just slow down. She’s not knocking me off anything. I’ll get there. I’ve still got time.”

  “Four weeks, man,” Rufio said uncertainly.

  “Can you pop her in four weeks?” Jendo asked.

  “You traitor,” I accused. “You’re totally on his side now, aren’t you?”

  “I judge the likelihood of success based on what information I have,” Jendo replied arrogantly. “The information currently suggests…” he paused for full effect, “ah, you suck!”

  “Fuck off the both of you,” I laughed.

  “Nah, seriously though man,” Rufio started. “Those girls were way cooler than I’d expected them to be.”

  “Because Mia beat you at beer pong?” I asked.

  “Nah. That was pretty cool though.”

  “Oh, mate. You got a wittle crush?” Jendo teased.

  “I’m a big enough boy to admit I could be persuaded they’re not quite the stuck-up gits we thought they were, is all,” Rufio said.

  Jendo sighed and it sounded like he lay down on his bed. “I s’pose you’re not wrong. They’re a lot more relaxed than I’d expected.”

  “Especially at Sam’s?” I clarified.

  Jendo snorted. “Fuck yes. I half thought they’d spend all night huddled in the corner, scared out of their tiny prissy minds.”

  As I kept working, we spent a decent amount of time reliving the night before and our seemingly never-ending amazement that the three most popular girls at our school managed to fit in reasonably well with our hopeless lot. But they had. Not without a few awkward moments. But all three of them had been happy to talk to people, dance around, and Mia had been the one to start beer pong in the first place. It had been surreal in the most magnificent way.

  Eventually, though, our talk turned to generic things like the coming week.

  “You remember one of you has to drop Leo home on Wednesday?” I asked, pulling my tablet over to me.

  “Yeah. Yeah,” Jendo said as Rufio asked, “We are? Why?”

  “His appointment, numb nuts,” Jendo said and I heard him sigh. It was such a Jendo response, I even saw him roll his eyes in my mind’s eye.

  “Appointment?” Rufio asked, then the penny dropped. “Oh! Yeah. What time is it?”

  “Half one. Mum and the school are all signed off for me to sign out at lunch,” I replied, taking a picture of my page.

  “The only thing better would be a double free on Friday,” Rufio mused.

  “Then who’d drive you sorry losers home?”

  “Well one of us would quite clearly need to get themselves a car, wouldn’t they?”

  “Which would no doubt be me and Roof would still not pay petrol money,” Jendo said.

  “Hey! I pay for other things.”

  “Like what?”

  I huffed a laugh as I listened to them argue, only half paying attention as I put the finishing touches to my latest creation.

  “Sebastian!” I heard them chanting in some sort of weird ghost voice or something.

  “What?” I asked.

  “We assumed you’d died.”

  “My bet was on auto-erotic asphyxiation.”

  I blinked. “Wait. Why?”

  “Jendo’s just finished some BDSM book.”

  “It’s research!” Jendo cried.

  I nodded. “Sure, it is.”

  “This one was.”

  “Not your thing?” I asked, being able to tell by his voice.

  “Nah. Hard and dirty I’m all for, but bondage just isn’t for me.”

  I checked the time and saw it was well and truly time for me to see to some personal matters so I could get some sleep.

  “As much as I love it when you talk dirty, baby,” I told them. “I’m gonna love you and leave you.”

  “Promises, promises,” Jendo sighed mock-wistfully as Rufio snorted, “Just like all your other girls.”

  “Oh, you thought you were special?” I teased and they both told me to fuck off. “I’ll see you wankers in the morning.”

  “Night, man.”

  “Yeah, night.”

  “Oh, Jendo. Let me know what you think of this in the morning, yeah?” I asked before I sent the pic through to him, then hung up.

  I was pretty sure that beating off to thoughts of Paige Nicholls of all people three times in twenty-four hours was excessive, but the girl got my motor running and there was no other way I was going to satisfy the urge if I was going to pop her cherry anytime in the next four weeks.

  Chapter 10: Paige

  If I was going to be completely honest, I’d half expected Bash to have forgotten who I was after Saturday and I’d not given him what he’d quite clearly wanted. But it seemed the opposite was true.

  On Monday when the girls and I walked into Maths, Bash winked at me and the look in his eyes suggested he’d been thinking about Saturday night a lot, too. I just had to wonder if he’d spent as much time as I had thinking about what could have happened if I’d let him take it further. Because truth be
told, I’d spent far too much time imagining it. In lurid detail.

  And he didn’t let up there.

  He seemed to find as many opportunities as possible to get in my way in the Common Room or in corridors all week. His hand would go to my waist as he manoeuvred us out of the position he’d purposefully put us in. He’d smile and say hello, then we’d go our separate ways again while I pretended my heart wasn’t pounding and my breath wasn’t shallow.

  No messages were exchanged nor were any real words. It was all looks and brief, passing touches. But I still felt like I had his (almost) undivided attention – to ever assume you had Bash’s undivided attention would be folly and absolutely no way to go about getting him to fall in love with me. Which was also not going to be achieved by lingering looks and warming touches.

  So, come Wednesday afternoon, I was all ready to go and talk to him at lunch and found he was nowhere in sight. Though, I did see Jendo and Rufio sitting in their usual seats, so I wandered over to them as surreptitiously as possible.

  “Hey Paige,” Rufio said with a smile.

  “You afraid to be seen with us?” Jendo asked, his eyes narrowed as I stopped by their table.

  I jumped a little guiltily. “No,” I said a little too quickly.

  Truth was, I wasn’t really concerned about being seen with them. I just didn’t want to look like I was grovelling or chasing anyone or anything. I had no doubts that the whole class had seen my behaviour with Bash the last few days and the whole purpose of this was to come out with my reputation intact and his in tatters. Which meant I couldn’t be seen as desperate.

  “Let me clue you in on a secret, princess,” Jendo said, leaning towards me. Then he dropped his voice into a mock-whisper. “They can all see you over here.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yes. I’m aware.”

  Jendo leant back and crossed his arms. “Okay then. What can we do for you?”

  “I can’t just come over and say hi?” I asked.

  “Hi!” Rufio said again, still all smiles.

  Jendo had zero smiles as usual. “You can. I’m just doubtful you did.”

  “You’re a very suspicious dude, Jendo.”

  “No. I just don’t bow and scrape around her majesty. There’s a difference.”