Bet On You

Chapter Thirteen

Jessica

These past four months, I have been the happiest that I have ever been in my life and I admit that part of that is because of Max. The feelings that I have for him are very strong and I know without a doubt that I'm in love with him.

He is so attentive to me and would literally cut off his arm to give me anything that I want, and I find that very endearing. I can definitely see myself spending the rest of my days with him.

Even so, I am scared to let him in on my feelings because what if he doesn't feel the same way? Or even worse, thinks of me as his sister? When I told Tammi this she let me in that brothers and sisters don't kiss the way we do. If I do say so myself, we could light a room on fire with our passion.

Things are going really well for me because even graduation is coming up in a few short months. Who would've thought that this would've been my life. I haven't even seen Ivy in a while and she has pretty much left me to my devices which I'm happy about.

"Mom!" I shout inside the little house that we live in at Ivy's estate. It's seven o'clock at night now and I just came home. I was at Max's house because his parents invited me for dinner.

She should be home by now, I walk towards our room, yes, we share one bed because the house is a one-bedroom house. The couch we have is fifty years old, so no one is going to break their backs sleeping on that thing.

I hear sniffling the closer I get to the bedroom. I see her still in her uniform and she is clutching a letter to her chest and bawling her eyes out.

"Mom, what's wrong?" I ask her, and she looks at me with bloodshot eyes.

She hands me the letter and I see that it's from my school. I see that it says that I have been financially excluded because I am owing R50 000 for this year. I am shocked and bewildered because the Cromptons have always taken care of my fees and we have never had this problem before.

"Mom, but the Cromptons always pay, do you know what's going on?" I ask her because I am honestly confused.

"Honey I'm so sorry, I didn't think it would come to this." She says in a wobbly voice.

"Mom, this is not your fault. If you want I can go over and ask them what happened tomorrow." I offer while rubbing my mom's back.

"Oh no honey, I know what happened." She says, so I wait for her to collect herself before she can tell me what she means.

Once she is not crying anymore she tells me, "A few months ago, when Regina the new cook came on, remember her?" I nod my head and wait for her to continue.

"Anyways when Regina first came on, I put her on laundry and ironing duty. She hadn't told me that she can cook better than she can wash clothes. She just said she can do both, so because I was available to cook I just put her on laundry duty. Little did I know that it would come back and bite me." She scoffs and continues with her story.

"Regina doesn't know anything about laundry, so she put the wrong detergent while washing Ivy's clothes. A whole hamper!" She says angrily. I let her calm down a bit then ask,

"So then what happened mom." I ask in a gentle voice.

"The detergent ruined all of Ivy's clothes that were in the wash, save for two shirts which she said where not important. When she saw, she was livid, and she told me that I would pay for making her lose R50 000 worth of clothes." At this point it has clicked in my mind that Ivy took away R50 000 from my school because Regina ruined her clothes.

"So, you mean that she took it from my schooling fees?" I ask.

"I'm afraid yes honey. I didn't even know that they did that until I saw the letter today. I'm sorry, that because of me you won't be able to graduate." I open my eyes so wide at the last part and in a wobbly voice say, "They won't let me graduate? But how?" I ask the question not really expecting an answer.

"It was in the letter." My mom says then hugs me to her. She keeps repeating that she is sorry.

"Mom, it's not your fault okay. We'll get through this, even if I don't finish school, we'll find a way to get through it. I will go to the principal's office tomorrow and try and talk to him. Okay? We'll be fine."

However deep down inside I'm hurting, that I won't be able to graduate and that all my future plans will be put on hold. I am actually at a loss as to what to do because I can't even get a job that will give me a decent pay.

Upon re-reading the letter I see that they say I won't be able to come back to school next week if I don't pay at least half of the R50 000. I guess I won't be going to school on Monday, that's a bitter pill to swallow.

***

Max

The anniversary party is in a week and everyone in my household is a little more busier than normal. I still don't want that to take away from my time with my girl, which is why I am going to be fetching her from school today.

I get to high school a little bit earlier than home time and wait in the parking lot for Jess. I didn't bother to send her a message because I want to surprise her, I will just go and get her if she doesn't notice me.

I see her friends exiting the school building but no sight of her, but I figure that she is just behind them. I wait until there are only one or two students lagging behind waiting for their parents. At this point I'm starting to get worried. I call her, and she answers on the first ring,

"Hello."

"Hi baby, I'm outside your school, I was hoping we could go on a date. Where are you?" I say all in one breath.

"Oh, my word, I'm so sorry. I should've told you, I didn't go to school today I wasn't feeling too well." She says. Oh, my poor baby.

"Okay no worries I'm on my way to you. You are at home, right?"

"Yeah I'm at home but there's no need to come all the way out here." She says.

"Baby, nothing is going to stop me from coming to you okay. You're my girl I have to make sure that you are okay and don't need medical attention. I'll see you in a little while. I love you."

"I love you too."

I make my way to the shopping centre and head to one of the grocery stores there, to get her a few tubs of her favourite ice cream, cookies and cream. I also get those instant soup packets and Lucozade, a drink that will help her with the nausea if she has any and open up her appetite. I'm covering all bases here not leaving anything to chance.

I want her healthy enough for my parent's anniversary party, I cant wait to show her off. I also go to a flower shop to get some flowers then I head to her house.

"Hey." She says sheepishly upon opening the door.

"Hey you, come here." I pull her to me and give her a hug. "How are you feeling?" I ask as I enter her home. I head straight to the kitchen to deposit the goodies that I have.

"I'm okay now, I was just a bit feverish in the morning, but all is good now because Mom gave me some medicine in the morning." She says. "What do you have there?" she peeks around my shoulder.

"I bought some of your comfort foods." I say then proceed with opening up the bags and taking everything out.

"Aww, you didn't have to do that." She says then steps closer to me and gives me a hug. I want more, so I take the kiss that I was dying for since she opened the door for me.

The kiss gets a little heated and I inwardly thank God that her mother is not in the house because I don't think she would want to see me mauling her daughter. At this point, I don't even care that she said she was sick and it seems neither does she because there is no objection from her. We end the kiss, but I still don't move my hands from her ass, well hey, its mine now, right.

"I missed you." I say to her quietly while giving her small pecks on the mouth.

"I missed you too." She replies. I lead her to the couch and we proceed to make out, my hands caress all over her body especially her ass. I could die right now, and I would die a happy man.

After a while, we sit up and cuddle. We talk about the upcoming anniversary party, school and plans for after varsity for me and high school for her. We even talk about our future as a couple, when we should move in together, how many kids we want and all that. I leave with a smile on my face because my girl doesn't seem to be sick anymore and I am pumped about the future.