Young Lust

28 - Mother F#cker

"Jade!" Mum called me downstairs; Tom was back.

"Oh, Honey, you look like a wreck."

I wouldn't if Sir Rockthrower over there hadn't have been "in the neighbourhood" last night.

Tom and I went upstairs to my room. "Sorry about last night," he said as he plopped down onto my desk chair.

"Don't worry about it." I absentmindedly started reorganising my CDs on the shelf next to my bed. "Was Steven in on it the whole time?"

"I'm afraid so." Tom ran his hand over the top of my desk.

"Why does this even concern you? I mean, you showed up at two a.m. just to tell me..."

"It was bothering me. I thought I had to tell you. I'll take you to go see Steven now, if you'd like."

"No, it's f- you know what? Sure, let's go," I shrugged. All I had to do to leave was quickly tie my hair up and slip on a pair of sneakers.

---

Tom and I let ourselves into Steven's place, determined for some clarification.

Steven was in the kitchen, devouring cereal out of a yellow bowl. He choked on it when he saw us.

"Shit! What the fuck are you guys doing here?"

"Good morning to you too," I responded, taken slightly aback. "We need to talk."

I began to make my way to Steven's basement bedroom, but he practically dropped his bowl onto the counter and grabbed my arm before I could.

"No need to go down there," he laughed somewhat nervously.

"Dude," Tom spoke up, "it's kind of important,"

Again, I thought to myself, why does it concern you so much, Tom?

I broke out of his grip and opened the door to the staircase. Steven grabbed me by the waist and spun me around, and planted a kiss on me.

"Nice try," I turned and plodded down the stairs.

"Wait-" Steven followed.

As I got to the bottom, my stomach dropped and I could feel my fists balling.

"Mother fucker," I calmly reacted to the sight before me.

It took me a second to realise that the short-haired, pixie-like girl standing in the middle of the room, pulling on a pair of jeans, was my blonde coworker, Kelly.

"Oh, God..." She gasped when she noticed me and hurried to finish dressing herself.

"Jade, I told you that you didn't need to come down here," Steven glowered.

"Hold on," I scoffed, holding up my hand, "why are you angry? I'm the one who just walked in on another girl getting dressed in your bedroom!"

"It's not what it looks like!" Steven almost shouted.

"How cliché," I rejected his attempt at explaining.

I pushed past Steven to climb the stairs, leaving him and Kelly standing awkwardly in the orange- and brick-walled basement.

---

"Just as I started believing that I actually loved him," I ranted to Tom as we walked around the shopping complex. I didn't feel like going home after what had happened. "Just as we began to actually get along smoothly..."

"I can imagine." Tom directed me into a music store.

"Tom," I began as I picked up a Def Leppard CD, "seriously, why did it mean so much to you to tell me that he's still part of the bet?"

"Doesn't matter," Tom glanced at me from the other side of the CD stand.

His veiled responses were annoying me, but I wasn't getting anywhere so I ruffled through the music magazine rack instead.

Later on, after Tom had left the shopping centre (he'd gotten called home, and I'd chosen to stay), I bumped into Joe. Just Joe, no girl hanging from him.

"Losing your magic?" I heckled.

"Yeah, right," Joe rolled his eyes and crossed his arms like a schoolgirl. "Here by yourself, losing your ability to socialise?"

"That was just weak," I teased, "what's up with you?"

We automatically started strolling together. "Nothing." Joe snapped.

"Okay, okay," I backed off, putting my hands in my denim shorts' pockets.

"You look more miserable than usual." Joe noted as we traipsed around the centre.

"You take notice of that?"

"Not really. What's up, anyway?" Joe shrugged. Surprisingly, I actually told him about what I saw in Steven's bedroom. Although I left out the who.

"Whoa. Gotta admit, I did not see that coming," Joe pulled over to purchase a Coke from a vending machine.

"Neither did I," I replied as he whacked the side of the machine a couple of times before a can fell out.

"Was she hot?" Joe asked naturally.

"You fucking serious?" I huffed and started to walk off. Should've known he wouldn't care.

"Hold on," Joe caught up to me, "I was joking. Come on,"

"Whatever. I'm hungry." I changed the subject. "I want a burger."

By the time Joe and I finished eating it was around two p.m. We abandoned our trash-covered table for the parking lot.

"You don't have to take me home, I can call Mum," I said. I'd finally gotten around to putting numbers in my contacts.

"It's fine, you're near enough to my place." Joe pointed out his black car across the lot.

As we approached it, I suddenly felt a massive blow to my side and my face met the asphalt.

"Fuckin' asshole!" I heard Joe yell as a throbbing ache enveloped my head. He pulled me to my feet and I scowled at a seemingly oblivious kid riding away on a bicycle.

"Wow," I muttered as I held my head. My right knee and elbow were stinging from the graze they'd just received.

"That looked like it hurt a bit," Joe declared as he inspected my face. "You might wanna wash that,"

The ground had cleaved right through a few layers of skin on my jawline. "Shit." I complained. "If I have to have a giant bandage covering this..."

"Nah. Maybe a small one," Joe smirked.

We continued towards Joe's car, but within a couple of meters I was hit with dizziness. Without thinking I clutched onto Joe's leather-jacket-clad arm, and he managed to hold me upright.

"You okay there?" Joe asked anxiously, catching me as I stumbled a little. My eyesight began to tunnel.

"I think so... M-maybe not..." I started to feel ill and darkness blanketed my vision.