Chapter seven - Luke

I type the names onto the screen and look around, Billy and Jenny are placing drinks on the centre table and Aurora, Rae and Cleo have all disappeared somewhere else.

"Fag before we start?" I ask Shane and Billy. They nod and we push through the crowd queuing at the entrance so we can get outside.

"Nah, no way, it's too fucking cold." Billy announces, turning on his heel to go back inside.

I pass the lighter back to Shane once my cigarette is lit and stuff my free hand deep in my pocket, because Billy's right, it's fucking cold.

"Luke, oh em gee, you haven't been around recently, I thought maybe you were dead." I suppress the tiny shudder that goes through me and turn towards the voice. 

Cally stands there in a skin tight, bright pink mini dress and ridiculously high heels, two girls dressed in equally inappropriate clothing for bowling stand slightly behind her, unashamedly eyeing up both Shane and I. 

"Who's this, Cal?" The curly brunette asks, batting her eyelids at Shane. 

I smirk as he pretends not to notice and turns away from her, sucking harder on his fag to get it finished quicker. 

Her face falls at his rudeness, but she very quickly turns her attention back to me, running her hand over my arm and making little impressed squeals as she presses her fingers into my biceps. 

I have to fight the urge to roll my eyes and instead give her a big smile, wondering how she'd react if I told her to head over to my house and wait for me to finish here.

"Connie." Cally draws her friend's name out in a high pitched squeal, her voice is all giggles and squeals, but her eyes are glaring at me with hurt and anger. "Surely you recognise Luke from my description, he's my new brother."

"Step brother." I clarify, which makes them giggle more and the irritating sound makes me rethink inviting the brunette around to mine later. "I never expected you to be into bowling Cally."

"We're not, Colin likes it so we're here to meet him and his friends." Cally says and the girls nod along more than necessary, like those dogs people stick to their dashboards. She takes a step closer to me, her fingers brushing against my hand. "They're probably already inside, but I need to talk to you."

"What about?" I ask, taking another drag on my cigarette and stepping away from her. She grits her teeth, but keeps her voice light.

"Just family stuff. Girls' can I have a little privacy?" They nod, walking to the end of the queue arm in arm, whispering and giggling as they look back over to us. 

"What's up Cally?" I ask and she looks pointedly at Shane, who mutters about going to get some coffee, pushing his fag into the little black bin and breathing on his hands to try to warm them up as he pushes his way back indoors.

"What's up Cally? Are you serious? You just break up with me, over text, and that's all I get?" She hisses, her eyes glancing wildly between me and her friends. "I said I was coming over and you weren't there. What the hell Luke?"

"Cally, we weren't together. You've got a boyfriend, he almost caught us, you don't want that. It was time." I go to leave and she grabs my arm. "Cally look, our parents are getting married, we need to back off and try to just be friends. Ok?"

"Fine. Your loss." She snaps, storming off to where her friends are watching us. Finally their laughter has come to an end.

With a sigh of relief, I push my way back indoors, ignoring the grumbles of the people who think I'm jumping the queue and go back to the lane, grabbing the coke Billy got me earlier and sitting on the bench beside Danielle, who doesn't even look up.

She's so busy watching a group of posh boys at the bar, that she doesn't notice me sitting down beside her.

"I thought you were into girls?" I chuckle, nudging her with my shoulder when she doesn't react. "Dan? What's up? You're staring at them like you're plotting their murder."

"What?" I nod towards the group and she shakes her head. "No, that blonde one in the middle there is Colin Rushton, Cleo's ex. He's an absolute dick, treated her so badly. I'm just keeping an eye to make sure she's ok."

What the fuck? Cleo's ex is Cally's boyfriend? And he treated her badly? Maybe I need to speak to Cally and see if she's ok.

"He looks like a dick, but where is she? I can't see her." I say, eyeing Cally's boyfriend who's smirking down at someone, and that's when I see her and realise the three of them have created a sort of cage around her, trapping her between them which is why I didn't notice her when I first looked. Something feels off about the whole scene, but I don't know her well enough to know for sure. "What did he do that was so bad?"

"She doesn't want anyone to know. Right, I should go over." She makes a move to stand up and then whips her head around, looking directly at me. "Wait, would you go help her out? Do your scary Luke thing, maybe pretend you're her new boyfriend? Threaten them or something? Please? If you knew what they'd done, you'd want to beat the crap out of them, I do."

She makes her eyes all big and looks so desperate, I can't bring myself to say no.

"Fine." I mutter and she hugs me. "For fucks sake, the things I do for you girls. I need to go back to being friends with just guys."  

"Thank you, honestly, he's a nasty, slimy parasite. I don't know what she ever saw in him." She looks over again and then grabs my arm and points at one of the guys in the back, he's holding Cleo by the waist and she's glaring at him over her shoulder, saying something that he's clearly ignoring. "Look, those bastards. She's trying to get away and they're not letting her. Go, quickly."

I'm up and out of my seat, just as the three boys inch closer to her, completely blocking any way of her getting past them.

With Danielle's eyes burning holes in my back, I make my way over, squaring my shoulders as I shove past the guys, making sure to knock my shoulder against the one touching her. 

Wrapping my arm around her shoulders, I meet the shocked gaze of her ex and tug her close to my body.

"Hey baby, we're waiting for you." I tear my eyes away from the ex and wink at her, feeling the tension in her body reduce just slightly. 

"Luke? Cleo, how do you two know each other?" Colin snaps, glaring at Cleo. I can see him flexing his muscles and clenching his fists.

As if the tosser has got a chance against me.

I'm actually hoping the idiot takes a swing at me, it'd give me the excuse I need to smack him.

"Um…" Cleo starts and I interrupt by holding out my hand, making sure I clamp down firmly on his when he automatically takes it.

"Colin, good to see you again, mate. Cleo's my um… friend." I chuckle, putting emphasis on the word friend so that it sounds like we're far more than that.  His hand grips mine too hard for a simple greeting, so I tense mine, pleased when I see him wince ever so slightly and pull his hand away. 

"You go to Cleo's old school, right?" I add as pleasantly as I can.

"Wait, are you trying to fuck her?" He blurts out and the three of them burst out laughing. Cleo turns bright red beside me, so I squeeze her shoulder in what I hope she takes as a reassuring way. "Seriously, I wouldn't bother, she's fucking shit, just lies there like a sack of potatoes."

As he's finishing his sentence, Cally and her two friends come over, draping themselves over each guy possessively. They join in the laughter at Cleo's expense and even though I barely know the girl, my anger rises and I decide to wipe the smug look off her ex's face.

"Oh shit, Colin Rushton, I've just realised where I know your name. You've got serious balls, dude. You're a fucking legend in my school." They all stop laughing and Colin raises his head, a smug grin on his face. Clearly the guy thinks he's the shit, I've never heard of him off of anyone but Cally, but I look at him like he's my own personal God. 

"I mean, if I was so bad at shagging my girlfriends that they actually fall asleep each time, well, I'd be keeping that shit to my-fucking-self, but you just own it and want the world to know you don't give a shit about pleasing the girl you're with. That's fucking brave dude, fair play to you."

"Fuck you." He snarls, clenching his fist again but he can't hide the tinge of pink colouring his cheeks.

"Nah, you're alright, like you said, I got her for that and just between us guys, her ex must have had a child's cock, because she was still a virgin when I got in there, if you know what I mean." I wink at him like we're the best of friends, then, pulling Cleo with me, I turn and raise an eyebrow at the two guys behind us. 

They quickly step aside and then as if remembering something, I glance over my shoulder at Cally who is gripping Colin's arm for dear life. 

"Oh Cal, sounds like you'll be using your rabbit tonight. But if you want a good time to, I can introduce you to my friend Billy, I've heard good things about him from the girls at school."

"Fuck off, Luke." She snaps at my back and I don't even try to hide my laughter as I carry on back to my friends.  

"Happy to babe, see you soon." With a pretty girl on my arm and a pissed off guy behind me, I feel much more like my old self and I fucking love it.

Once we're a few steps away, I lean towards Cleo and lower my voice. 

"You ok? Sorry if I upset you by being too gross, but your ex is a dick."

"You're telling me." She gives me a small smile. "But no, I really appreciate your help back there. Thank you."

"Anytime darling, you think you can keep up this act until dickhead leaves. It won't be long by the look on his face." She nods and I give her shoulders a squeeze. "I know I'm gorgeous, but try not to fall for me, I don't actually do relationships."

"Noted." Her smile is bigger this time and I release her so she can take her go on the lane, tapping her bum and making her yelp as she steps away from me. 

Shane frowns, giving me a questioning look and I wave him off, knowing full well he'll try to warn me off Aurora's new friend the second we're alone. He gives me another look, one that tells me we'll be discussing this later, then grabs his ball to take his go.

It's actually surprisingly easy to pretend to be into her, she's cute and I'd definitely be up for messing around with her if she didn't seem quite so naive, innocent and likely to fall in love with me.  

*

"What are you up to with Cleo?" Shane offers me a beer and we perch on the chairs in Danny's garden to have a fag. 

The house is jam packed, but it's too cold for the others to be outside so we're completely alone and it's strangely peaceful.

"Danielle asked me to pretend to be her boyfriend because her dick of an ex was there, that's all." 

"The posh twats?" I nod and he shrugs. "Fair enough, didn't think she was your type." 

He shrugs, making a weird face so the smoke he exhales comes out in rings. 

"Nah, she's definitely a sweet and innocent little thing. Saying that, any possibilities in there for me tonight?" I nod back towards the house and he shakes his head with as much interest as if I was asking him about homework, he doesn't even notice the scowl I send in his direction. Since getting with Rory, he's no help at all to my sex life and Billy's only interested in his own. I need new friends, but first, I need a girl. Asap. "Damn, I could really do with getting laid tonight."

"There's Alex?" Shane smirks, nodding to the window where the curly haired guy is flailing his limbs around in a dance that looks like someone's dumped ice down his back. 

"You're a shit friend." I growl at him and he claps me on my back.

"Mate, you're just going to have to do it the old fashioned way, trial and error. Oh look, here comes your girlfriend and I'm off to find mine." Chucking his fag down and stepping on it, he says a quick hello to Cleo as he passes her and closes the door once he's back inside the house.

"Have you got a light?" She asks, thumbing at her own and failing to even get a spark. I grab mine and bring it to life, holding it out for her.

"That's a bad habit to have, thought a clever girl like you would know that." She raises her eyebrow at me, inhaling deeply and breathing out white smoke with a contented sigh.

"You met my ex and you still think I'm clever?" She gives a wry laugh and rolls her eyes towards the sky. I can't help but check out her ample chest, a twinge of interest from my cock reaffirms that I need to get laid tonight. It's been too long.

"Hey, you've seen Aurora and Shane, clever girls can make bad choices." I quip and she laughs properly then, sliding into the seat that Shane's just vacated.

"How did that happen anyway?" She glances behind her towards the house as if she can see them. "You wouldn't put them together, but they seem really happy and loved up."

"He saw her naked and then stalked her." I give a twisted overview of what happened, one that I love telling because it makes Aurora laugh and irritates Shane.

Cleo eyes me as though I'm joking, waiting for me to clarify, which I have no intention doing.

"What happened with your ex? Danielle said he was a dick to you but wouldn't give me any details."

"I don't want to talk about it." She takes another deep drag and we sit silently for a minute before she turns to me. "Can I ask you something? Aurora says you've been with a lot of girls. The term manwhore was used but she assured me you wouldn't take offence to it."

"She's probably just trying to warn you away from me." I chuckle but she doesn't join in, just looks through me like she's thinking about something else.

"Oh no, I don't mean... I'm not interested in you like that." She says and I put my hand over my heart like she's offended me. She rolls her eyes, but the corners of her mouth twitch up into a grin. "And I know you're not interested in me like that, which is good, because I kind of wanted to ask you to kiss me."

"You want me to kiss you because you're not interested?" I cock my head to the side as I study her, completely confused.

"Well yeah, I figured because you've had a lot of girls, you'd know how to kiss and you could tell me how bad I really am. And maybe you could give me a couple pointers?" Her cheeks turn a deep red and she studies her fingernails intently as she continues. "Colin said I was shit at everything like that and I'd really like not to be."

"Why the fuck're you listening to what that dickhead has to say?" I feel my lip curl up into a snarl at her words. He's so much more of a dickhead than I thought.

I really should have smacked him!

"Well, we were together for a while, I've not kissed that many people and I'm really conscious of it now." She glances at me again, chewing her cheek nervously. "I know it's a weird thing to ask, so it's ok if you don't want to."

"Come here." I chuck my fag down and place my palms on either side of her face, pulling her closer and pressing my lips against hers. 

She doesn't move, at all, which does feel weird, and her eyes are huge, staring up at me like a frightened rabbit as though the kiss is happening to her but she's not part of it.

Cursing her ex for making her this anxious, I break away but keep my face close to hers. 

"Ok, try again but this time, try to move your mouth a little bit, do what I'm doing."

She moves towards me this time and as soon as our lips meet, she opens her mouth like she's trying to devour my face, leaving my cheeks and chin feeling gross and wet.

"Gently, slower." I murmur against her mouth, trying to demonstrate it and after only a few seconds she gets the idea. She's actually not bad once she relaxes and I keep going for a while longer, so she really gets the idea, before breaking off the kiss. "See, there's nothing to it. Don't stress too much."

"What about tongues? And teeth? In the naughty books they talk about using your teeth? And my hands, do I just leave them by my side? Colin hated me touching his hair but it's like... that's where my hands automatically want to go and because I know he doesn't like it, I don't know what to do with them, so then I start thinking about my hands and what they're doing and forget all about the kissing and then he tells me it was shit, but I was too busy thinking about my hands to really know what I did wrong." She rambles, staring at her hands like they're uncontrollable and I can't resist the urge to laugh, stifling it when she looks up at me, her big brown eyes filled with stress and sadness.

"Ok, relax. Remember your ex is a dick and just forget everything he said. Do whatever feels natural and yeah, let your hands go wherever the fuck they want." I grab another cigarette from my packet and light it up, watching as her mind ticks over what I've said.

"Ok, I think I can do this. Can we try again? Maybe you could show me what to do with my tongue?" She asks, scooting closer to me without waiting for my response.

"I think you're just looking for an excuse to make out with me." I wink at her, but she shakes her head and looks up at me eagerly. 

"It sounds weird, sorry, I just think I need a teacher and you'd be perfect, that's all. You don't have to, but if you could I would be so grateful. Wait, I could pay you?" She pulls out her purse and I put my hand over hers to stop her.

"We've gone from helping out a friend to turning me into a low level prostitute, so I think we need to back up a bit." She nods, her cheeks colouring a bit as she slides her purse into her pocket again. "Ok, just so I'm clear, what exactly is it you want me to teach you?"

"Everything, anything, whatever you're willing to." 

"Now that's an offer wide open to interpretation." I chuckle and she blushes again. 

"No, I don't mean that far, I'm not interested in sex. To be honest, I don't know what the fuss is about, it's just kind of boring and uncomfortable." I nearly choke on the sip of beer I stupidly took while she was talking and she stares at me open-mouthed while I cough the drink from my lungs.

"Boring and uncomfortable? Shit darling, you've been with the wrong guys if you think that." I blurt out when I finish coughing. "It's one of my favourite things to do. Scratch that, it is my favourite thing to do."

"Not in my experience." She mutters quietly.

"You need new experience then." We stare at each other for a minute, the question hanging between us. "No, wait, I didn't mean me. I can't do that with you."

"Why not?" She blurts out, her eyes wide as she looks up at me for answers. "I'm not asking you to, but just hypothetically speaking. Is it me? Something I'm doing or not doing? Am I just not sexually attractive?"

"What? No. You're hot." I don't know what I expected her to do when I said that, blush maybe, bat her eyelids, but instead she's looking up at me with her big doe eyes, waiting patiently as though I'm explaining the meaning of life. "Ok, it's just, like I said, I don't do relationships and I'm pretty sure that's your deal, right?"

"You think I'm trying to date you?" She scrunches up her forehead, looking confused and a little offended. Then she stands up, twisting her toe over her cigarette to put it out and looking at me nervously, her hands clasped in front of her. "I'm sorry, I'm really not but I get why you might think that, so, thank you for your help with the uh... kiss thing. I'm going to go in and away from this whole thing. Let's pretend it never happened, ok?"

Well, don't I feel like an idiot!

"Cleo, wait." I grab her wrist and she turns back, her cheeks bright red. "Ok, so this is purely a bit of fun, not a weird way for me to be your boyfriend? You know I'll still be fucking around with other girls and you can do whatever with whoever. There's not going to be any weirdness?" 

"You don't have to worry about that, I definitely don't want a relationship. At all. To be brutally honest, I think that maybe at some point in the future I might want to have some fun with someone and I just want to... not be terrible if I do." She blushes again and I can feel myself giving in.

"I'm serious though, you're friends with them all in there and so am I, it could get messy if you catch feelings. I'm not trying to sound arrogant, but it wouldn't be the first time it's happened and I need you to know that if that's the idea then it won't happen. I won't make a good boyfriend and I've no interest in being one either." I look at her closely to see her reaction. She's nodding like a crazy person, looking very excited and I laugh as I say. "Ok then, let's do this."

"Are you serious? Oh my god, thank you so much and if you need anything, I'll be happy to help you with whatever. Maybe scaring off clingy conquests? I've heard that's a thing guys like you get sometimes?" She offers her hand for me to shake to seal the deal and still laughing, I grab her hand and pull her into a hug.

"You're a very weird girl, Cleo Randle, but that's definitely something that might come in handy. Give me your number." I offer her my phone and she types her name, adding the lips emoji beside it which makes me laugh again. "Nice touch."

"Are you two staying out here all night? Danny's got the karaoke machine going and Billy's insisting you can actually sing, Luke." Priya calls from the backdoor. 

With a quick grin at me, Cleo hops up and I follow her back inside, wondering exactly how I'm going to teach her to kiss. 

It's all so natural, I'm not sure how to break it all down. Part of me wants to make a list and that's when I realise I really have been hanging around with Aurora too much!