“Elle, who is the cute boy? You didn’t tell me you had a boyfriend.”
Elle turned around, becoming embarrassed at seeing her mother looking out the window.
“He’s not my boyfriend.”
“Oh, sweetie, you can tell me. He is handsome. You should bring him over for dinner.”
Elle rubbed her temples. “Mom, he is not my boyfriend. He just gave me a ride home.”
“Why didn’t Chloe give you a ride home?” Elle’s father asked. She hadn’t seen him when she’d first come in.
Elle thought quickly. “Her car wouldn’t start.” She was good at the lies now.
“Your mother’s right; bring him over for dinner. I’d like to meet him.” Her father rolled off into the kitchen.
This day is getting better and better. From behind her mother, Elle saw Josh appear, who was also looking out the window.
“What’s his name?” Josh asked quizzically.
“Uh, Nero.” She didn’t know why he wanted to know.
Josh started running around the living room, yelling, “Elle and Nero, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes—”
Elle started walking to her bedroom the moment he started singing. She slammed the door, shutting him out. Better and better.
She jumped on her bed, deciding to rest a second before she had to get ready for work.
She picked up her phone, staring at it, deciding to call Chloe. After a few rings, Chloe answered. “Hey,” she quietly said.
“Did you tell your dad?”
“No. No point. I told Lana and she said her husband will take care of it for me.”
Lana was her housekeeper and had been for years. She was practically Chloe’s only parent. Chloe could tell her things she needed and Lana would help her out.
“That’s good.”
“Lana will be driving me till I get my car back, so…” Chloe didn’t want to say it.
“That’s okay. Nero said he would give me a ride tomorrow morning, and I always have the bus.”
“Oh, really? Tell me how the car ride home was.” Chloe’s voice hinted at a smile.
“Fine.”
“Just fine?”
“Yep. Fine, Chloe.”
“He kissed you, didn’t he?”
Silence met her answer.
“Oh, he totally did! Tell me, how was your first kiss?”
“Well, it technically wasn’t my first.”
“Oh, my gosh, what?”
“He kissed me earlier, in Art, in the supply closet.”
“That is so freaking sweet.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Listen, Chloe, if you get to school before me, I can’t help you.”
“I know. I can figure out something, I guess. I’ll be there at the exact time we always are.” Elle hated that Chloe had returned to her usual non-happy voice, but she’d had to tell her.
“All right. I’ll try to be there at the same time, but we know Nero is late practically every morning.”
“I know.”
Elle felt terrible. She was going to have to figure something out.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”
“Bye.”
Elle hung up the phone. She couldn’t say bye.
Her wheels started turning in her head about how she could solve this problem. She decided to think while she got dressed for work.
While she was thinking, something Nero had said earlier crossed her mind. ‘Do you realize how unsafe that is for a seventeen-year-old girl?’ She wondered how in the hell he knew she was seventeen. Actually, most of the seniors were already eighteen, besides her and Chloe. So, how would he know?
* * *
Nero started to feel confined at home, especially in his room. The job his father had given him had started to wear on his mind. This was his first job, the job that was going to adopt him into the family. Yes, his blood might biologically be a part of the family, but his blood didn’t bleed with the family. At least, not until the job is done.
He had always been aware, ever since he had been young, he was going to follow in his father and brother’s footsteps. He was going to bleed and die beside the family. No matter what it takes.
He wondered why Elle had been the one behind the garbage can that night. Any other girl would have been easier for him to crack—hell, the job would have already been done if she was like all the other girls he had been with. But not Elle. He couldn’t even get her fucking mouth to open to stick his tongue down her throat, let alone tell her secrets. She had sat in his car and even protected a piece of shit like Sebastian, therefore getting her to tell him what had happened wouldn’t be easy.
The thought of Sebastian pissed him off. He couldn’t get the image out of his head of him lunging for Elle. She just sat there and closed her eyes.
He’d had to get Sebastian, to get his hands on him. As a result, he and his crew had made sure to get him alone. They worked out a plan to offer him some weed once they dropped the girls in Spanish class. They gave Sebastian a total bullshit peace offering to say he was sorry, that the heat of the moment had gotten to him. The heat of the moment had gotten to him all right.
He punched the shit out of him behind the school. Little bitch took one punch and was cold turkey. That didn’t stop Nero and his crew. They each landed a kick on his helpless body.
Nero smiled. Elle hadn’t seen the nice bruises he was sure Sebastian had under his clothes.
Again, with the thought of Elle, he grew hard. His body was out of whack. Typically, some girl would be in his bed to remedy his situation, but after his father banned him from girls other than Elle, he couldn’t risk it. Kissing her had definitely set him off. The little nothing of a kiss in the closet had even set him off.
Usually, that would have been a joke of a kiss, but something about it had made him want more. Subsequently, when he had arrived at her house, he had kissed her again, harder. She hadn’t even kissed him back, which made it that much worse. No girl had ever not kissed him back. He knew he was a good kisser—well, he used to be really sure of it.