The Bad Girl and the Good Boy

by Karla Luna

  I rolled my eyes and grabbed his arm again. “You are so fucking lucky you’re cute, even when you’re high.”

  ><><><><

  By now, we were both lying down on his bed and he chuckled while playing with a strand of my hair.

  Stop doing that, I love it so much.

  It took me about fifteen minutes to get him to his own room to lie down. But even then, he refused to take a rest. So I just stayed in bed with him to keep him from moving or getting up.

  I wasn’t exactly complaining, though. I loved spending time with him. What was happening to me? Why did I suddenly feel this way around him? I was Evelyn Jo. I didn’t go for the smart, shy, innocent good boys at all.

  But Zavier Coin, he was something else.

  I turned on my side a little and stared at him while he looked up at the ceiling with a huge grin on his face. He was high, but he still managed to look beautiful like always.

  He intrigued me, and made me feel weird yet tingly inside. Dammit, I felt like a stupid schoolgirl with a crush, but it was true.

  Suddenly, he shifted a bit in his spot and started talking. I couldn’t help but bite my lip when I saw his arm muscles flex. He never took that sleeveless shirt off. I was glad he felt comfortable enough with me to wear whatever he wanted around the house. I smiled without realizing, but when I heard his words, I froze up and my smile slowly started to fade away.

  “You know… you’re nothing like Joss. Yet, I really, really like you.”

  Why was my heart hammering so hard against my chest at that? Was it because he was high that he was telling me all that was really on his mind? I frowned and kept staring at him, encouraging him to go on. I wanted him to go on… badly. And I needed to know everything since he was usually so secretive with me. Shy little Zavier wasn’t here at the moment and I wanted to use this opportunity to satisfy at least a little bit of my curiosity.

  He gladly continued when I didn’t say a single word back. “Nah, a delinquent and a goody-two-shoes being together? That’s crazy!” He quickly sat up. If his head hurt from the movement, he didn’t show it at all. He was completely casual about it. “You like bad boys. Bad boys and bad girls fit together like a puzzle! Ha! That’s a funny word! Puzzle, puzzle… Evelyn!” I jumped and swallowed hard. Then I turned to look at him again. “I really enjoyed our kiss. I never admitted it.. but I liked it…” He shyly bit his lip. Goddammit, I wanted to bite that lip, so very badly. He searched my face and his adorable brown eyes seemed to gleam. But I didn’t know if it was just the drugs. “… a lot!”

  “Zavier…” My voice was barely heard. What the hell was he doing to me? Talk right, Evelyn! Don’t let him do this.

  Do what? Control you.

  “I find you cute, too. And I don’t even find Joss cute.”

  Oh, hell! He had to stop talking now before I ended up kissing him all over that sweet face, just to shut him up. To be honest, I hated being called ‘cute.’ It was so not me. But when he said it, it was like the whole meaning of it had changed. “She’s pretty and smart but you’re something else. You’re wild and you don’t care about what other people think. I like that, too.” He cut himself off and started to cough a bit while grabbing his head.

  I held his arm to steady him, but he started to shake and breathe a bit heavily. I got so scared that I straddled him on the bed without thinking twice about it, and took his face into my small hands. I held him in place and made him look up at me. Please, please be okay. I don’t want anything happening to you. You’re starting to mean a lot to me and I don’t even know why.

  “Hey, hey, are you okay?”

  He started to laugh and closed his eyes for a second, before opening them up again and taking in his surroundings. His hands were behind him and he didn’t even seem to mind me on his lap.

  I knew though, that if he were sober, he’d be blushing like crazy while trying to avert his eyes. He’d be shaking with nerves and his heart would be going wild in his chest. But now, he seemed to go along with it like it was an everyday thing.

  “I’m so high up in the sky, so high up in the sky. So high!” he sang. I would’ve laughed if I weren’t so lost in his adorable brown eyes. Psh, yeah, so cheesy, Evelyn. Please stop. Just stop it, right now!

  But I couldn’t. And I wouldn’t.

  I kept staring into his eyes and suddenly, I put my hands in his hair and roughly pulled him toward me, giving him a kiss that took us both by surprise. Then, he placed one hand on my waist, and the other on my thigh. But before anything more could happen, I pulled away from him.

  “Evelyn...” he whispered, staring down at my lips. But I only shook my head and bit my tongue to stop myself from kissing him again.

  I wanted more to happen, but I didn’t want to seem like I was taking advantage of him when he’s in this doped state. I wanted him to be completely sober when we shared our real first kiss together. And yes, I was bound to make that happen.

  Once again, I am Evelyn Jo. So I was definitely going to make that happen.

  19: It’s A Done Deal

  •Zavier•

  Gosh, I was nursing a bad headache at that moment. What happened yesterday? I did so many math equations it ended up hurting my brain? Nah, it wouldn’t have hurt my brain. I actually quite enjoyed math. I was on the Mathletes team, after all. But seriously, it was like I got hit by a freakin’ truck or something.

  “Zavier?” Jumping from the voice startling me, I looked up and squinted my eyes. I only saw a little bit of a blur so I reached out on my nightstand and tried to feel where my glasses were. But instead, I felt a hand holding my glasses. “Here, I took them off when you fell asleep and kept them with me.”

  “Why not just put them on my desk or nightstand?” I took the glasses from Evelyn’s hand and put them on, squinting my eyes until they could fully adjust.

  She averted her eyes and then smiled widely, completely ignoring my question. Well then…

  “Hey! Brought you some water and a pill in case you had a headache.”

  I slowly took the glass and pill from her hands while giving her a suspicious look. “I didn’t… did I tell you I had a headache?” All she did was bite her lip and look around the room. I decided to let that go and ask her some other more important questions. “What happened yesterday?” I was fully aware that it was Sunday today, but I really didn’t remember what had happened on Saturday. I only recalled Evelyn drinking her Jack Daniels.

  My eyes went wide with horror. “Did I get drunk?” Oh no, no, no, please tell me I didn’t! I should slap myself. This might all be one big nightmare. Or Evelyn might just be pranking me! Yeah, of course, that was what she did, right? She was the almighty prankster here!

  “Actually…” I quickly turned my head and looked at Evelyn. I heard a slight pop in my neck but ignored it for now. “You… sort of, kind of… ate a weed brownie?”

  I froze up once she finished her sentence and I swear my heart stopped for a few seconds, too.

  But then, I just started cracking up, even though there was no humor in it whatsoever. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “Nope. I’m not kidding at all.”

  Oh, she was dead serious.

  “What?” Weed!? Freakin’ marijuana!? “Where’s my mom!?” Oh no, what was she going to say about all of this!?

  “Oh, she’s downstairs right now. I told her you had really bad diarrhea”

  I blushed at that and covered my face with my hands. “Evelyn!”

  “I’m kidding! Jeez, I’m kidding. Nothing to be embarrassed about though, it happens to us all.”

  I made a disgusted face, wanting her to change the subject.

  “Okay, so the story is, you felt a little sick after doing too much homework, which she actually believed straightaway, and it gave you a massive headache! Voila! Sleeping beauty.” When she said that, she sat down next to me and rested her chin on my shoulder, batting her eyelashes in such an adorable way.

  I inwardly sighed. Yes, I wouldn�
�t deny anything now. If I called her cute, adorable or beautiful, I knew I was telling the truth.

  “Did…” I paused to swallow a sudden lump in my throat, “… anything happen… again?” I was so uncomfortable that I turned an even brighter shade of red. I clearly remembered when she was drugged… so maybe another side of me was summoned while I was high?

  “Nope, we’re both without hickeys and arousals.” She winked and left, as I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding.

  She was definitely going to be the death of me.

  •Evelyn•

  On Monday morning, we all rode together in Jesse’s Jeep. I was so tired I was practically sleeping on the way there. Hell, I even lay down and rested my head on Zavier’s lap in the back seat. He seemed to tense up a bit at first, but then he shook it off and got comfortable, making sure I wouldn’t hurt my head. It made me smile.

  But all too soon, we got to Hell.

  Even though I seemed like I didn’t do most of my work, which I didn’t, I actually paid attention when given a lesson. Yeah, sure, sometimes I might’ve slept. But before every test or quiz, I would scramble to study. I had some fairly good memory, so I managed to pass everything with B’s or C’s (sometimes D’s).

  Okay, so I was failing Math with an E, I think. But come on, that was the world’s worst subject ever! When the hell was I gonna need to solve the square root of x plus pi minus y with a fraction of…? Fuck!

  Either way, Zavier didn’t know how I passed all of my other tests. It was a mystery to him. He definitely thought I was cheating. But it kept me on good terms with Stormy, so all was good.

  Our next therapy session was either tonight or tomorrow. Talking with her did kind of help ease off all the anger and pain from my past. I’ve learned to let go, but they still managed to haunt me at times, so it was hard. I was glad she was there with me though, every step of the way.

  I realized it was now the end of October. Next, it would obviously be November, which I was not looking forward to, mostly because I would have to see Mr. Dickhead again. He was probably just as excited as I was. Yay! Fucking shoot me right now.

  I couldn’t believe all that had happened in the past month though. I couldn’t even imagine what would happen the next few months until I turned 18… and left.

  Why did that sound so bad? I wanted the time to pass quicker, so that I could finally leave and live on my own, right? Or did I actually want to stay here in this town? I didn’t even know what I wanted anymore. What the hell?!

  “Evelyn?”

  I hummed as a response to the sweet voice. He sounded so cute and kind of scared actually, but I guessed he was just still pretty tired.

  I thought he would’ve been mad at me for giving him weed brownies. But he seemed fine with it. It was an accident, after all. But I still felt guilty. I scoffed. Since when did I, Evelyn Jo, feel guilty? He was really changing me. I did not want to be one of those good girls. They made me sick. But it seemed like I was becoming good just for him, and he was becoming bad just for me. No, no that was ridiculous.

  I moaned a little when I felt soft, gentle fingers caressing my neck, jaw, and cheek. What was he doing? Was he trying to drive me crazy? Because I wasn’t having it!

  “Hey, wake up.”

  I’m already awake. I just want to stay here, with you. I want to feel those warm hands everywhere…

  “I’m up,” I mumbled as I sat up, rubbing my eyes before I opened them and they adjusted to the light.

  I noticed Jesse and Ethan were already walking toward the school, and it was then that I noticed we were already late for class. Again. I thought we’d get detention this time but our History teacher rarely cared. He didn’t teach us anything anyway. Cheers for the lazy-asses, woo!

  Grabbing Zavier’s hand, I started to head out of the car. “Hey, come on, we’re gonna be…” I was cut off when he pulled me right back to him until we were practically sitting face to face.

  He blushed and let my hand go. He looked down and parted his lips, before licking them and talking. “Actually, I wanted to stay and talk to you.”

  My heart skipped a beat, and for some reason, I felt shivers all over my body.

  “O-okay, a-about what?” Since when the hell did you turn into a stuttering idiot? Calm. The. Fuck. Down. It’s just Zavier.

  “About… Um, the deal you offered me the other day.” Shit. He was gonna say no and let me off easily and whatnot. But why did I feel so damn disappointed by that thought? It was obviously his choice.

  But I was still getting that fucking kiss from him. I always got what I wanted, and what I wanted was those soft, delicious lips on mine again, but properly this time.

  “And you don’t want to do it. I get it. It’s completely okay. It was worth a try though.”

  “That’s not my answer, Evelyn.” I gaped at him and then frowned. Cocking my head to the side as if to ask him what he meant. Was he actually gonna do it? “Look, before I agree, I need to know some ground rules or whatever. Tell me exactly what you’ll be offering, and I’ll see what I can repay you with.” When he said that, he had a weird look on his face. He probably thought this all sounded like I was a prostitute giving myself to him, but we knew what was actually going on. *wink wink*

  All righty, then. This was going to be easy. We were finally getting down to business. I just needed to make this sound like it would be amazing, and make sure he’d feel like he wouldn’t regret it, because he wouldn’t. He definitely wouldn’t.

  “I said I’d teach you everything. Girls are different, but you can tell me about Joss if you feel comfortable enough. I know ‘good girls’ like her.” Blech! Those two words put together always made me want to barf. They were not good combos to me. “Plus, I’m obviously a girl and we do have many things in common, too.” Well honestly, if you ask me, I didn’t know how many things we actually had in common. “I’ll try my best to teach you all. And, it can also be a friends with benefits sort of thing.”

  His eyes went wide at that, but I quickly redeemed myself before he disagreed and quickly hopped out of the car. “But, but not in that way if you don’t want to. I meant, like, how to act when going out on dates or when you’re alone. Kissing, touching. Being gentle, that’s all. Not frickle frackle.”

  He couldn’t help but burst out laughing when I said that. Although, I knew he was uncomfortable about it due to his slightly shaking hands and rosy cheeks. He then bit his lip and looked down, probably thinking about it.

  “Do you wanna stop being shy so you can finally ask Joss out and be with her?” I clenched my fist. That was definitely forced out. I hated the idea of them being together. And yes, I was going to admit it.

  “Yeah,” he slowly said.

  “Then in return…” I thought about it and lightly touched my index finger on his knee. I saw his sudden intake of breath and how he balled his hands into fists. But he didn’t move my hand away. He just looked up at me with those adorable teddy bear eyes. “Well, I don’t know exactly what I want in return yet, but we’ll see later on, okay?”

  He slowly nodded and licked his lips again before pressing them together into a tight, thin line.

  After what seemed like hours, he took a deep breath, smiled, and faced me as he took my hand in his and squeezed it.

  “Okay.” Okay… okay what? “Let’s do it.”

  All right, so I had been a little giddy ever since school started that day. I guess I was just pretty happy that Zavier actually agreed to my little deal. Now, I could be all over him, like I had wanted to be since day one. I could kiss him, he could kiss me; I could touch him, he could touch me…

  And these weren’t just my hormones talking, you know? Yes, I was very attracted to the nerdy boy, which was extremely weird considering I almost never went for guys like him. But behind that shy, geeky exterior hid a sweet, caring and sexy (I mean adorable) teenage boy. I wasn’t in love with the guy, though. I didn’t even like him that way. Yet lately, I had these weird feelin
gs all over when he was around me, but I’m sure it was nothing. Right?

  I probably sounded stupid but I still wanted to be the one to teach him all about the female body and brain. I just hated, loathed, and despised that he wanted the help just to get little Miss Barbie doll. I wanted to do to her exactly what I had done to some Barbie dolls when I was little.

  Tear off her head.

  I was actually looking at her now, as she laughed with some friends that were starting to leave the school’s parking lot. But I knew she had to stay. She was (supposedly) one of the best students in the school, after all. I rolled my eyes as I crossed my arms over my chest. And that was just when she started to walk towards the school entrance, where I had to be standing.

  “Evelyn, hi!” she excitedly yelled, with a wave of her scrawny hand. Fine, so this chick hadn’t done anything to me and vice versa. But when I first saw her and felt that ‘good girl’ vibe, I just didn’t see her and I being very close friends. Yet, she seemed to think otherwise.

  Looking at her in that moment, I could see why Zavier liked her so much. She was beautiful, intelligent, and really nice and it really irritated me.

  But when I looked at her very closely, I saw why I didn’t like her so much. She was too perfect that it was unfair, so it was possible that many guys in this school and in this town were very attracted to her. She was so smart that she made the teachers look like dumb-asses. And well, she was too nice and I obviously didn’t like that. I had gotten used to Zavier’s sweetness and his was actually pretty adorable, but I was no lesbian. Not that there was anything wrong with that. I actually found some girls pretty hot. But anyway…

  “How are you? Are you waiting for Zavier? Oh, it’s too bad, he’s gonna stay after school with us for our Mathletes meeting!”

  Yeah, I probably forgot to mention that she was also pretty (very) annoying to me.