Living With the Bad Boy

by Sharlay

  “That was the funniest thing that I have ever seen in my life,” I said as I looked down at him, and watched him laughing.

  “Yeah, that was probably the most exercise that I’ve had, in my entire life. I can’t believe that she did all of that hip shaking at those concerts. I swear that I pulled a muscle,” he said as I burst out laughing, again. “Seriously, it takes some work you know, you should give it a try,” he said as he continued to laugh.

  “No, I think that I’ll give it a miss,” I said as I started to calm down a little. “That was so funny, I can’t believe that you actually did it,” I said as I wiped a tear from my eye.

  “Yeah, neither can I but it was nice to see that I could make you smile,” he said as he looked at me, with what appeared to be a genuine smile. I don’t know why, but that one, simple comment made my stomach drop. I quickly shifted my eyes from his and suddenly became aware of the fact that I was just wearing a pair of shorts, and a tank top. Since I wasn’t sure, exactly how much he could see, I felt uncomfortable.

  “Yeah, anyway, I’m going to bed,” I said as I began to back away from the window.

  “Yeah ok-wait, aren’t you going to let me in?” He said in a panicked tone.

  “Yeah, when I wake up,” I said as I put a smirk on my face.

  “Are you kidding me? I did all of that, and you’re still going to leave me out here?” He said in an angry tone.

  “Yeah, well I said that I’d let you back in but I never said when, did I?” I said as I smirked down at his rather annoyed looking face.

  “And there I was, for a minute, thinking that there was some part of you that was actually human,” he said as he gave me a dirty look.

  “Yeah, well you thought wrong, didn’t you?” I said, feeling slightly hurt by his comment. I don’t know why I felt hurt but I did, I just didn’t want him to find out that I was.

  “Yeah, obviously I did,” he said as he threw himself down on the front step and pulled out his cell.

  Part of me wanted to say sorry, and to tell him to hang on while I opened the door but I couldn’t. I was genuinely going to let him in after his little ‘show’ but when he said that thing about making me smile, I just felt nervous. “Night,” I said, sarcastically before shutting the window.

  “Whatever,” I heard him mumble before I walked over to my bed, crawled in and fell into a deep and guilty sleep.

  * * *

  “Addison!”

  As my eyes focused and I realized that the shouting was not in my dream, I began to panic especially when that voice was my dad’s. If he was the one that was calling me then that meant that-

  “How could you leave Caleb outside all night?” He shouted in an angry tone, causing Courtney to stir a little in her sleep.

  “Dad, I can explain,” I said as I jumped out of bed, led him out of my room and quietly shut the door behind me.

  “Then explain because I need to know how on earth he could be left outside all night, when he so kindly escorted you to a party, just so that you could stay out for a few extra hours?” He whispered, angrily as he stared deep into my eyes. As I watched my dad’s angry face, I knew that one thing was for sure, I was grounded. Not level one grounded but level three, no phone, friends, parties...nothing. I realized this at about the same time that I remembered that I had a date with James, great!

  “Look, Dad, I can explain-”

  “It’s not her fault,” Caleb suddenly, interrupted as he came up the stairs, causing us to both snap our heads in his direction. It’s not?

  “She asked me to drop her home after the party, so that I could keep the keys because Courtney didn’t feel well, and she wanted to take her home and look after her but I said no. She did say that she may fall asleep but I promised that I would be in at a decent time. Unfortunately, I didn’t get in until four, this morning and by then, she was asleep. I didn’t want to wake her up so I just sat on the step and waited until you, and my dad got back,” he said as a look of complete shock filled my face. What the hell was he doing?

  “Is that right?” My Dad asked as he turned to me, with what appeared to be a guilty face.

  “Erm...yeah, what he said,” I replied as I tried to avoid eye contact with Caleb, which wasn’t that hard since he hadn’t looked at me once since he came up the stairs.

  “Oh, well in that case, I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions,” my dad said as he looked at me.

  “It’s fine, honestly,” I mumbled as a feeling of guilt consumed me.

  “I’m just going to get ready to take a shower,” Caleb muttered.

  “Ok, Son, do you know where everything is?”

  “Yeah, thanks,” he replied before disappearing into his room.

  “Right, I’m going to make some breakfast, so wake up Courtney, and you girls hurry up and come down,” my dad said, leaving me stood in complete and utter disbelief as I stared at Caleb’s bedroom door. I took a couple of steps towards it before finally freezing in front of it. I lifted my fist, ready to knock on the door but chickened out and decided to go and hide in my room, until I heard him go in the shower. Unfortunately, I didn’t move fast enough and before I had the chance to escape, his door swung open and there stood in front of me was Caleb.

  “Oh, sorry, I was just, erm, I was going to-”

  “What?” He snapped as he stared at me with an angry expression on his face.

  “Look, I wanted to say sorry about, you know, last night and to say thank you-”

  “Whatever, its fine, now can you get out of my way so that I can take a shower,” he said as he looked past me. Oh gosh, he was mad.

  “Yeah, sure, sorry,” I said as I shifted to the side and watched him walk into the bathroom, close the door behind him and once again, leave me alone. I may regret saying this at some point but I kind of missed obnoxious and annoying Caleb right now.

  “What was your dad shouting about?” Courtney asked as I slipped inside of my room and closed the door behind me.

  “Oh, you’re awake?”

  “Obviously,” she said as she pulled a sarcastic face at me.

  “Oh, shut up. Look, I’ve done something really bad-”

  “Oh my gosh, don’t say that you hooked up with some sleaze ball at the party last night while I was passed out, oh Addy, I thought that you were more sensible than that-”

  “No, you moron, I didn’t, I haven’t, I still have, I mean...I’m still, I’m still a virgin, ok!” I stuttered as I tried to get my thoughts together.

  “Well, thank God for that. So, what’s the big issue then?” She asked as she lay back down on the bed, and used her hand to block out the sun that was shining through my blinds, from her eyes.

  “I was such a jerk to Caleb last night,” I said as she stared at me in confusion.

  “Isn’t that the idea? You don’t like him, remember?” She said as she stared at me for a few minutes as I sat in silence, thinking about last night and how funny it was when Caleb was dancing along to Crazy in Love. I couldn’t help but allow a small smile to form on my lips as I thought about it. He was so different last night.

  “Oh my gosh, did you two kiss?” Courtney shrieked before rubbing her head as the pain hit her.

  “No we didn’t, and it serves your right for drinking,” I said as I pointed at her head.

  “Oh, not the lecture, not yet, please, it’s way too early,” she said as her eyes pleaded with me.

  “Oh, I’m not saying a word just yet, but we will talk about this, later,” I said as I raised an eyebrow at her.

  “Ok, so in the mean time, do you mind filling your best friend in on what is going on between you, and the bad boy?” She said, causing us both to smile.

  “Well, after you decided to become a raging alcoholic, I was left with the task of looking after you and bringing you home,” I said as I scowled at her.

  “Yeah, sorry about that,” she said with a guilty smile on her face.

  “Anyway, I asked Caleb to help me to bring you home sin
ce you weigh more than an elephant-”

  “Hey, don’t hate a girl with curves,” she said as we both burst out laughing.

  “It has nothing to do with your curves, it’s to do with your animalistic appetite,” I said as I stared at her and wondered how she managed to stay so slim, yet eat so much.

  “A girl’s got to eat, Addy, you know that better than anyone. Now, continue,” she said as we smiled at each other.

  “Anyway, he refused to help me and so I had to struggle to bring you home. Your way of saying thank you was to throw up on my shoes, and car. Then you decided to make us fall down the stairs, burp in my face and rest your arm on my head for the majority of the night,” I said as I stared at her.

  “Whoopsy,” she said with a guilty smile on her face.

  “Yes, Whoopsy. Well, as you can imagine, I was mad and by the time that I heard that moron come home, I was only too happy to let him know that I had no intention of letting him in,” I said as I smiled at the memory.

  “Yeah, that sounds like you,” she said as she looked at me while waiting for the rest of the story.

  “So, I left him out there for an hour before punishing him a little more. I decided that I wanted him to stand in the middle of the street and sing Crazy in Love, by Beyonce while shaking his butt like she does. He eventually did it, and it was actually kind of funny until he made the comment about making me smile, and then I just felt strange and so I panicked, and left him outside for the entire night, and now he’s mad and-”

  “Woah, slow down, you are going way too fast and saying way too much. Ok, so I get all of that but you left him outside, all night, really?”

  “I know that it was wrong but I just panicked. You know what I’m like and so I left him out there, all night. My dad was so mad this morning but instead of letting me take the blame, he lied and said that it was his fault; he even covered up the fact that you were drunk. Oh yeah, you weren’t feeling well last night, ok?” I said.

  “Yeah, ok. Well, it kind of sounds like someone owes the guy an apology,” she said as she looked at me and smiled.

  “Yeah, I tried that this morning but he seemed so angry with me.”

  “He’s a guy, they love being angry especially when you hurt their pride. I mean, the guy was genuinely nice, for once and you left him in the cold, all night, freezing his butt off, I’d be pretty mad too.”

  “Yeah, I know, stop making me feel worse.”

  “I’m not, just give him some time, I’m sure that he’ll come around,” she said as she smiled at me. “Until then, I can smell your dad’s cooking, so can you please feed me?” She asked as we both burst out laughing.

  “It’s always back to food with you, isn’t it?”

  “Would you have me any other way? No, now feed me,” she said as we both began to chuckle.

  CHAPTER 5

  A Trip To The Movies

  It had been three hours since mine and Caleb’s short conversation this morning, and I still felt terrible. We had eaten breakfast, showered, talked, watched TV, and all that time, he had been locked up in his room. In the end, I needed to get out of the house, so Courtney and I went for a drive to Rick’s house, to see the damage. Surprisingly, it was in a pretty decent state. We helped him tidy up the last of the mess which wasn’t much to be honest, then I dropped Courtney home, and then headed nervously back to my house.

  As I continued to drive, I began tapping on the steering wheel as I thought about what I was going to say if Caleb was home. I knew that if he was at home, that it would just be me and him since my dad text me earlier, saying that he and Bill had gone out. I wanted to be mad but he did say that he was trying to cheer Bill up, and take his mind off things. I guess that having your house burnt down, would be hard for anybody. Not only would you lose all of your belongs but all of your memories, photos and treasured items would be gone as well. I couldn’t imagine how I would feel if it was me. I would lose all of the pictures of my mom, the last part of her that I have, and I don’t think that I could cope with that.

  As I drove past the store, I decided to go in and grab a packet of cookies since our supply was low. I guess me smelling cookies on Caleb’s breath wasn’t just in my head.

  It didn’t take very long and before I knew it, I was standing outside of my front door, taking a deep breath with my key in my hand. After giving myself a five minute pep talk, I finally slipped my key into the lock and opened the door. I let out a sigh of relief when I realized that Caleb was nowhere to be seen. I knew that he was here though because that ugly truck was still parked up outside. It wasn’t very long before I was back upstairs, and staring at Caleb’s bedroom door. Before I could try and run away, I quickly knocked on the door and waited patiently. After about two minutes of silence, I knocked again, he was obviously mad so I tried to be understanding. After being ignored for a second time I decided that, that was my cue to let myself in. Hey, don’t judge me for all you know he could be laying on the floor, dying and by walking in, uninvited, I could have his life.

  Of course, that wasn’t the case and instead I walked in to find him lying on his bed, staring up at the ceiling, but hey, it could have happened that way.

  “What do you want?” He asked, coldly, as I walked in the room.

  “I wanted to talk, about last night-”

  “What about it?” He asked.

  “It was, it was just-”

  “Spit it out or get out.”

  “Look, I understand that you’re annoyed but seriously, sort your attitude out. Maybe if you had been nicer in the first place then this wouldn’t have happened-”

  “Oh, really?” He said as he jumped off his bed and walked right over to me, so that we were about five inches apart.

  “Yeah,” I stuttered as the proximity of his closeness made me began to feel nervous. I really needed to pull myself together.

  “See, I thought that it was down to the fact that you’re a stubborn, spoilt little brat that likes to play games with people when she can’t get what she wants,” he growled as he locked eyes with me.

  “Yeah, takes one to know one though, doesn’t it?” I said as the anger finally kicked in. We stood in silence for a few seconds just staring at each other, neither one of us wanting to break the gaze, until he eventually took a few more steps towards me. I suddenly felt my breath catch in my throat as I stared into his eyes.

  “What are these?” He asked as his hand touched mine.

  “What? Oh, these, erm, they’re cookies, I mean, it was supposed to be a peace offering,” I stuttered until I realized that he was now smirking at me.

  “What’s so funny?” I said as I tried not to smile back.

  “You just make me laugh, you’re such a complicated little person aren’t you, Princess? And, thanks,” he said as he tried to grab the cookies out of my hand.

  “Not until you say that I’m forgiven,” I said as I kept a firm grip on the packet.

  “Kiss my feet and call me King Caleb first,” he said as I raised my eyebrows in the air and stared at him.

  “We both know that I am not that type of girl.”

  “Fine, then kiss my-”

  “Shut up, and just take the stupid cookies,” I said before he could finish the ridiculous sentence that was set to escape his lips.

  “For me? Why thank you, you shouldn’t have,” he mocked as he opened up the packet and begin devouring the first cookie.

  “Well, now that the house pet is fed, I’m off,” I said as I smirked at him.

  “Ha, ha, amusing. Where are you going?” He asked as he threw himself on his bed and continued eating cookie after cookie.

  “I’ve got a date.”

  “Seriously? Someone is actually taking you on a date? Interesting,” he said as he continued eat his cookies.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I said as I placed my hands on my hips and scowled at him.

  “You’re just not a happy person, so uptight. So, where’s the unlucky guy taking you?”
He said as he chuckled to himself.

  “He’s not unlucky, and we’re going to watch a movie.”

  “Oh gosh, what cheesy chick flick have you forced him to endure then?”

  “See, that goes to show how well you really know me. Actually, we are going to watch Taken 2, my choice,” I said as I pulled a sarcastic face at him.

  “I’m impressed, well, have fun and get out,” he said as he threw his pillow at me which in turn, I of course threw back.

  He was back to insulting me, as usual which as weird as it sounds, made me happy. I walked out of his room with a tiny smile on my face. Although I was about to get ready for my date, all that I could think about was that stupid moment with Caleb. Even when I don’t want him to, he still manages to find his way into my brain!

  * * *

  After a couple of hours, I was dressed, ready and waiting for James to arrive. I had decided to wear a pair of black leggings, leather, ankle high, heeled boots, a long, blue tank top and my black, leather jacket. I decided to wear my hair half up, and half down today and added a few curls to give it a little extra body. I also applied some black eye liner, mascara and a light application of blusher. Honestly, I actually looked pretty decent.

  Caleb had gone out about twenty minutes ago which made me happy. Something about him being there while my date picked me up seemed really weird to me. My thoughts were suddenly interrupted when I heard the door bell begin to ring.

  “Hey,” I said as I opened the door to see James stood there, smiling at me. He looked really good tonight, he had dark brown hair that was slightly falling in his eyes, which I have to admit added to the model like look that this guy already had. His light brown eyes were sparkling as he stood there staring at me. He had on a pair of black trousers with a slightly loose, white tee and a black waistcoat. Now, don’t get me wrong, James looked hot but he was a little more formal then necessary. That’s one thing that I actually like about Caleb, the way that he dress-wait, what am I saying? Why am I even thinking about Jerk Face, right now?