"Nice jacket." Kia says when I step out of the car. "Please tell me it's that fit guys from Danny's backalong."
"Shane, and yes it's his." I nod, grabbing my bag and following her to the bunks. The officers hand us the itinerary for the week and we quickly change into uniform, ready for the meet and greets out on the parade ground.
The first day flies past in a blur of marching, rock climbing and swimming, and before I realise it, it's time to change into civvies for the quiz. I run my hands over Shane's jacket, contemplating wearing it or not, it still smells of him and I like that, but I'm not sure what that says about me when we're not even together.
"Hurry up." Kia says, poking her head around the door. I grab the jacket, slipping it on and running after her.
This week has been torturous, but she's back tomorrow and I'm desperately hoping she's missed me like I have her. I didn't know whether to message her or not while she was away, deciding not to after I didn't hear anything from her, I've tried not to think what that means. I've been stalking her F******k profile fairly regularly and there's been nothing at all until last night when hundreds of photos were uploaded by her and all her friends. She looks like she had an amazing time, I'm not surprised that she wanted to go away, it looks like a fun week and I'm kind of impressed with how adventurous she is. There's photos of her climbing down cliff faces, obviously strapped to ropes, but she's got a dazzling smile constantly on her face and at one point she's clearly pushed off and she's dangling, arms and legs splayed like a star. Then the nex
"Happy birthday." My mum's grinning face greets me as soon as I come downstairs. The table is filled with butter and a dozen different jams, cheeses, hams, essentially a buffet that could feed the two of us ten times over. She pulls a tray of croissants from the oven, placing one on my plate and the rest in the middle of the table. Sliding into my chair, I resign myself to the fact I'm going to be late for school again and try not to let the stress of it show on my face. My friends are grinning at me when I walk in, waiting until I sit down before sliding a little present towards me. A small square box, wrapped in red paper and a white bow. This has to be from Priya and even by her standards the wrapping is beautiful. They usually give me my gifts after school, so this must be something extra special. "It was already on the desk whe
I meet Luke and Billy at Luke's house, Ruby, Stacey and Poppy hover like unwanted flies around the table while Luke finishes his dinner, batting their eyelids and pushing their already exposed cleavages into our faces. "Saw Aurora at school today." Luke says so quietly I have to lean towards him to hear. I glance across at the others who are too busy chatting to listen to us. "Carrie Lawson was running her mouth about her blowing you, but making out like it was something. Like you two were something." "Did Aurora hear?" He nods and my heart stops. "She was having a go at her, something about your jacket, didn't hear the start of it." He says. "I set Carrie straight, but Aurora disappeared so I'm not sure where her head's at." "Shit." He nods again and I glance
My whole body is trembling and I feel breathless, as though I'm having some sort of weird after effect of his attention. It was incredible and even just thinking about it makes my toes curl and pleasurable twinges pulse between my legs. Shane looks as proud as can be and I can't even bring myself to take the mick, because it really was just incredible, I can't think of any other word for it. I need to return the favour. When I can trust my body to hold itself up again, I slide onto his lap to kiss him, his erection prodding my leg. "Can I?" I ask, running my hand down between us, slipping under his boxer shorts and taking hold of his erection.
All their eyes swivel to us when we walk into the kitchen. Aurora doesn't seem to notice, she butters some toast left on the side, passing me a plate and then leans against the worktop to take a bite. "You have fun last night, then?" Alex gets up, dropping his arm around her shoulders and leaning in too close. The willpower it takes not to smack him is almost as great as it took to control myself last night. "My turn next?" "I dunno, maybe?" My heart stops at her words. She's mine! I think possessively, moving closer to her. She takes a bite of toast, turning to me, her eyes sparkling. "Shane, how would you feel about letting Alex suck you off?" "Fuck you." He laughs, pushing her away and she smirks at him. "You love it when I'm deep inside you." Wait, did he say she would or she does? I watch the two of them together, jealousy bubbling to the surface. Too friendly? Flirting? "Jeez, when you put it like
"Well?" The four girls stare at me, waiting for me to tell them about the night before. "We didn't have sex." They all groan in disappointment. "Why the hell not? You can see what he looks like, right?" Kia laughs, pulling off after the guys' car. "I'd have jumped him the second we got through the door." "Wasn't through lack of trying, on my part anyway." I join in the laughter. "He just said he wanted to wait." "Really?" The three in the back squeal at the same time as Kia rolls her eyes. "I'd like to take the opportunity to say I told you so. I've been saying for weeks he liked you and you were all like 'no, he's got some evil plan, it's not real.' but look now, I bloody knew it." Priya says proudly.
"So what's the plan now?" Ian asks, around the table as we eat. "Cinema?" Priya suggests, her bright blue eyes flicking over Danny sitting opposite her, he gives her a quick grin that makes her blush which relieves a bit of the worry I had about him and Aurora after I saw how close they were last night. "Yes." Alex chimes in from the seat on the other side of Aurora. Tightening my arm around her, I move her away from him the tiniest amount. I know it's probably petty and I'm being paranoid, but he's always next to her and I hate seeing them so close to one another. "What are we seeing?" Kia, scrolling through her phone turns the cinema listings towards us. With so many people to please, the ch
"This is like a fairytale." Priya squeals at break time, after I tell them what happened once I left. "Are you like, properly together now then?" Rae asks. I shrug, he's still not here yet and part of me is wondering whether it will all go back to how it was before, worried it's all going to turn out to be some sort of joke. "How was it with Danny?" I ask Priya and her face breaks into a beaming grin. "It was lovely, he's been texting a lot too." She grins again and then Mr Whiting is calling the class to be quiet. Disappointingly, Shane's still not here, none of his group are and they don't arrive before the end of class. "Where is he?" Jenny whispers as we pack up to move to the next class. "I dunno, he sai
"You look beautiful." I tell Aurora as she opens the front door, she's wearing a beautiful black dress that brushes the floor as she walks and she must have heels on, because she's almost tall enough that I don't have to lean down when I kiss her."You don't look bad yourself." She grins, looking me up and down in the stupid tux I got just for her."Woohoo Rory, get your ass in here." Luke hollers, sticking his head out of the sunroof of the limo we rented, her friends slip passed us to climb inside.As soon as we're in and the car starts to move, he pops the cork on a bottle of champagne while Jenny passes around plastic glasses.Despite complaining how lame the night will be, he definitely seems to be enjoying himself, Ruby sits beside him, clinging to his arm as
"Morning love muffin." Luke's smiling face rests on the pillow beside mine when I wake up. Oh god, what did I do? My gaze drops to his naked chest, a vague memory of standing in my underwear and kissing him flashes into my brain. "How much do you remember? Because, I shit you not, it was fucking amazing." "I don't remember anything." I say, burying my face in the pillow, forcing myself not to crawl away when his arm curls around my waist and he slides in too close. "I thought you might say that. So I've got us breakfast ready for round two this morning." He smacks my bottom and jumps out of bed. "How are you not feeling like death?" I complain, mor
Luke: Rory's at mine. Get here. Fast! It takes me ten minutes to get to his house, walking straight in and seeing her dress on the floor, two glasses on the table and an empty vodka bottle. Luke's on the sofa, his head in his hands, his shirt open all the way down. "I didn't, but shit did she make it hard not to." Luke slurs at me. "She's upstairs. Sort it out will you." She's under his quilt. She looks up at me, but struggles to focus. "Shane?" She gulps. "Are you ok?" "No." Tears run down her cheeks and I'm at her side, wiping them away with my thumbs
Something breaks inside me when I say those words. He looks so hurt and I can't stand to see it. I don't think about what I'm doing, I just start running. The pain in my legs and lungs helps block out the pain in my heart, so I keep running until I can't breathe. Panting heavily, I look around, I don't recognise anything around me. I turn in circles, trying to get my bearings when I notice a car pull up beside me. "Rory?" Luke lowers the window and I scowl, walking away from him. "Rory, get in the car, I'll take you home." "No, thanks I'm fine." He creeps along beside me. "I can see you're not. If I have to, I'll wrestle you in the damn thing, but I'm not leaving you here." I stop, turning to look at him. Everything hurts, I need it to stop hurting.
"Shane, what's going on?" My mother sits down on my bed. "Don't try to fob me off, you've been laying on the bed for days staring at the wall. Is it Aurora? Has she done something?" "We're done, I broke her mum, I broke us and I don't know how to fix it." She pulls me into her arms, cradling my head while I tell her what happened. About the bet, how I feel and how she won't let me explain. "It's fixable." My mum says decisively, stroking my hair back like when I was a child. "It'll just take a little time, tell her how you feel and show her how much she means to you. It'll work out, I'm sure of it." "Thanks." She leaves the room to answer the door. Minutes later, Luke appears dressed up in black jeans and a purple shirt. "Come on mate, we're getting your girl back, s
"Do you…" Danny appears beside me and I shake my head. "Not yet, I can't." I lock myself in the bathroom, breathing shakily, staring at my face in the mirror until I know I'm not going to fall apart. It'll get easier. Forcing a smile, I open the door, walking out, ignoring the concerned looks of my friends and pretending everything is fine. I will not let them break me. ¥ The next day I plan to pretend he doesn't exist, but he's waiting for me outside the doors with his friends. I hold m
Watching her drive away from me physically hurt, as though someone stuck a knife in my chest and sliced my heart in half before ripping it out through the hole. It takes me too long to recover and she's gone. Grabbing my phone, I know before I dial she's not going to answer, but I need to do something. Shane: Where are you? It's not like you think, please let me explain. I send her a message, running home to grab my car. She's not at her house, or any of her friends, so I just keep driving, hoping I'll see her somewhere. By seven, I've been back to her house twice and finally I see her car parked outside Danny's. "She doesn't want to see you mate, I'm sorry." Danny stands in the doorway blocking my path. A few of
Luke's sitting on his wall smoking when we pull up outside his house the next day. "You alright?" Shane says, eyeing him carefully when he chucks his cigarette onto the floor and grinds it with his shoe, breathing out a cloud of smoke before he steps into the car. "Yep, it's done." He says and Shane nods beside me, mouthing 'Ruby' at me as I pull the car onto the road. "Are you ok?" I ask, glancing at him in my rearview mirror, he gives me a massive smile and nods. "Course I am, just let me know when you ditch him and we can run away together, alright babe." He chuckles, patting Shane in the shoulder as if to say he's only kidding. "So no Billy?" Shane asks, making Luke chuckle.
I arrive back to pick her up early, planning to sit in the car and wait, but when a couple of parents start heading inside, I can't help myself hopping out of the car and following them. I hear her voice before I spot her, standing in the front of a group of teens, shouting instructions in a commanding voice and studying them all as they turn in sync with one another. The sound of their feet stomping in time echoes through the hall. She looks amazing, even in the shapeless blue uniform. I don't know why she didn't want me to see her. I watch mesmerized as she calls out instructions, marching alongside the cadets, turning them, marching them back. Correcting the few who make mistakes, she glances at the clock and calls out some more instructions. The cadets fall into a perfect square in front