Without care (2 page)

I walked into
Howard’s; it was our very own town supermarket. They sold
everything. Mrs Howard was standing in her usual place behind the
counter. Her face lighting up as I approached, she was a nice woman
to speak to. However, you had to watch what you said, unless you
wanted the whole town to know.

“Hi, Jen and
how are you today?”

“Fine,” I lied,
giving my best attempt at smiling. “I just came to get my mother's
dry cleaning.” I reached into my pocket and retrieved the slip I
had remembered to pick up this morning.

“Okay,” she
took the slip off me. “Be back in a moment.” She disappeared into
the back, leaving me alone in the large, over crammed store. The
bell above the door rang and I turned, to my surprise the boy from
lunch was walking in. He didn't seem to notice me and walked over
to drink aisle.

I stood on the
spot for a second. It couldn't hurt to introduce myself. After all,
he probably already knew about my mother. I walked quietly over to
him. I've been never a confident person. I didn't normally do this.
I just wanted to put a name to his beautiful face. He must have
heard my footsteps as his eyes darted in my direction.

“Hey,” I said
weakly.

“Hey,” he
coughed, picking up something.

“Are you new?”
I cringed at my poor attempt at conversation. He shrugged, putting
the object in hands down and picking something else up. “My name is
Jen” I added, beginning to feel a little frustrated that he was
acting as if I wasn't even there.

“Look,” he spun
round to face me. “I don't need a welcoming comity, okay. I am very
flattered that you seem to have this need to speak to me.” His
voice lowered and I was hypnotized by his eyes, they were almost
black. “But don't!” He placed whatever he was holding back and
stormed out of the store.

“Here you go,”
Mrs Howard had now returned with my mother’s dry cleaning. I slowly
spun round and went to fetch it. “Who were you talking to?”

“I have no
idea” I mumbled. “Thank you.” Without another word I walked out of
the store. I began to make my way towards the Diner, my thoughts
still with the dark eyed stranger with the bad attitude.

At least I knew
he was new to Summerton, but why was he so hostile towards me. I
know no one likes change, but there was no need to take it out on
me. In fact, I was one of the few who could relate to him. It
hadn't been that long ago I was the new kid in town.

I pushed
through the door and the smell of fried food hit me. The place was
packed with people from my school. I walked through the back,
dumping my bag and the dry cleaning in the office. It was empty for
a change, which meant Carl the owner, was actually doing some
work.

I grabbed my
apron and walked back into the Diner. I loved this place, as much
as I moan about it. I liked the vibe it had, it was bright and
cheerful. I made my way over to the counter and there was Carl
flipping burgers.

“Hey,” I
greeted him.

“Jen” he said
my name relieved. “Am I glad your here. Betty rang in sick.” I
watched as he placed a burger in its basket. “Take this to table 5
for me and when you're done, collect baskets and cups.”

I picked up the
basket, turned on my heel and strolled over to table 5. I didn't
even have to look where I was going as I knew this place like the
back of my hand.

“One
cheeseburger and fries” I sang as I placed the basket down on the
table.

“You do know
it's illegal to stalk someone” my head darted up at the sound of
the voice. Once again, those dark eyes were glaring at me. I felt
my cheeks flush bright red. “Well, Jen” he reached for the ketchup
bottle. "Have you been working here long?”

His question
took me off guard and his voice didn't sound as hostile as it was
in Howard’s. I wasn't entirely sure I even wanted to answer his
question. I just carried on staring at him; he raised an eyebrow
and placed a fry into his mouth.

“What?” He
laughed, sitting back in the booth and stretching his arm across
the back. “Don't want to make polite chit chat now?”

“Not really,” I
managed to say, I turned my back on him and began to clean tables.
In that second I decided I was going to keep away from him.
Although, he was good looking. However, he acted like a totally
jackass. I had better things to do than try to make friends with
someone who wasn't really interested.

Just like I had
predicted I did have to pick Lacey up and I did have to cook
dinner. My mother decided to come home at eight o'clock, two hours
after she had finished work. By this time Lacey was in my bed and I
was rushing through my homework.

She breezed
into the kitchen and I could smell the alcohol on her breath. I bit
down hard on my lip, to avoid saying anything I regretted in the
morning. I pretended I hadn't noticed her and focused on my
notebook.

Now she was
drinking during the week? Could we even afford that? I could slowly
see this getting out of control. Soon it would be drinking at lunch
and shortly followed with as soon as she got up.

I could feel my
blood beginning to boil. Out of the corner of my eye I watched as
she perched on a stool and kicked her shoes off. Every now and then
she would sway and give a little giggle.

“Where have you
been?” I asked.

“My boss took
me for a couple of drinks,” she smiled, flicking her hair. “Did
Lacey go down okay?”

“Of course,” I
said, the annoyance filling my voice. Did you notice how she didn’t
ask anything about me? I couldn't wait to finish high school and
leave for college. Although, the thought of leaving Lacey behind
with her was freighting. Gees, it wasn't even my place to look
after Lacey, I wasn't her mother. I should be the one going out at
night not having a worry in the world.

She pulled a
packet of cigarettes out of her purse, lit it and began to smoke. I
rolled my eyes, she knew I hated her smoking as well as everything
else she did. In anger, I got off my stool, took the cigarette out
of her hand and threw it into the sink.

“Jen?” She
sounded innocent and her mouth was open as if it shocked her. I
didn't say anything. I just began to pack my books away. “What is
wrong with you?”

“Me?” I
laughed. “There's nothing wrong with me. Maybe you should ask
yourself that question.” I shoot her a look of warning and
disappeared up to my room. The nerve of that woman! How come
everything was my problem? I wasn't sure how much more of this I
could take and once again I was thinking about my father and what
was so bad that we had to flee.

I threw my bag
on the floor and dived onto my bed. I was exhausted from today and
dealing with her. I closed my eyes, only to be staring back into
his. He was still bugging me. Another person who thought they could
treat me as if I was nothing.

I didn't have
mug written on my forehead, so why did they both feel the need to
make me feel weak and stupid? I took in a deep breath and slowly
let it out. I had to toughen up and stop allowing my mother to walk
all over me. I had also decided I was going to have it out with the
stranger and find out what his problem was. From now on, no one was
going to treat like rubbish.

CHAPTER
TWO

Although in
spite of my prep talk the night before, the morning was the same
events as yesterday. She sat there doing her make-up while I
attended to getting Lacey ready for school. During the walk to
school, I had planned exactly what I was going to say to him. I had
rehearsed it in my head word for word. As I entered the school
grounds he was just getting out of a blue truck.

I took in a
deep breath, squared out my shoulder and marched towards him. He
was going to get it both barrels and he was going to learn not to
mess with me, Jennifer Hopkins. As I approached, he turned to face
me, a slight smile flashing across his lips and I forgot everything
I was going to say.

“Well, if it
isn't Jen again,” he said, still smiling. The smile never reached
his dark eyes. I swallowed hard, my brain slowly turning to mush.
“And what can I help you with?”

“I... I,” I
coughed back the lump in my throat, he was staring at me intensely
that I had a sudden urge to cry. “I want to know what your problem
is.”

“If I say it's
you, will you leave me alone?”

“Maybe...” my
hands were beginning to shake and legs felt like jelly. Seriously,
this had never happened to me before. I didn't even feel like this
when I sat next to Chase in maths and I had a huge crush on
him.

He tilted his
head to the side, his dark hair drooping over his forehead. “Then
yeah, it's you.”

His words
seemed to trigger some reaction in me, my jaw clenched. “I have
only been trying to be nice to you” I snapped.

He stepped a
little closer towards me and I stepped back in fright. His eyes
were narrow and his eyebrows almost meeting in the middle. “And I
told you I didn't want It.” he looked me up and down, and then gave
another half smile before walking towards school.

My heart was
racing and my hands were now clammy. My eyes still focused on him,
I didn't dare to move just yet as I couldn't risk falling head
first on the floor. What was wrong with him? The more he pushed me
away the more I was intrigued to find out why.

A minute past
and I felt stable enough to walk over to my friends. Ali once again
had her nose in a book and Becks was enjoying the sunshine. I sat
down next to them, still feeling a little dizzy from the
not-so-worth it chat.

“I see you had
the pleasure of talking with Ayden Forbes” Becks said, my head
whipped in her direction with a puzzled expression on my face. She
gave a little laugh. “The boy you were talking to by the
truck.”

“Ayden,” I
replied. “Is that his name?”

“Yep,” she
pushed her sunglasses on to the top of her head. “I had the delight
of meeting him yesterday in Spanish. Not much of talker is he!”

“I don't think
he likes me” I admitted, although seems as Becks had the same
treatment. My mind began to wonder, why would anyone have a problem
with making friends? Why wouldn't my mouth work? He intimidated me
and I allowed him to. I should have stuck with my first decision
and just completely blanked him. He obviously wasn't going to warm
to me and speaking to him was just a waste of time. At least I knew
his name now, not like that made any difference, but it would stop
my mind from being intrigued.

I sat down at
my desk in maths, Chase was already there playing with his phone.
His books were unopened and he didn't even notice as I sat down.
This was my favourite class as you probably guessed. Even though he
barely spoke to me, at least he was nice to me.

Our teacher,
Miss Daniels walked in and began to teach. She handed out our
worksheets with a few problems that we had to work out. I instantly
got to work on mine as Chase sat staring at them.

“Do you get
this?” He asked, leaning towards me, I froze as I inhaled a whiff
of his aftershave. Out of the corner of my eye I could see he was
giving me his boyish grin, his blue eyes sparkling. I just nodded,
my mouth, unable to work. “Can I copy your answers?” I gave a
little laugh, this was our routine and I nodded again.
“Thanks.”

He shifted his
seat towards me and began to copy away. I didn't actually
understand how he was getting away with this. Surely Miss Daniels
would have caught on to the fact that our work was always exactly
the same. I concentrated on my work again. I always made extra
effort when Chase was copying mine. I didn't want him to think I
was stupid.

“I'm having a
party this weekend” his voice broke my concentration. This was a
first. He never spoke to me about anything else but maths. For the
first time I actually looked up and at him. His head was resting in
one hand, his blonde hair curling around his eyes.

“That's nice”
was all I said. I was too busy looking at his mouth as he bit the
top of his pencil.

“Do you want to
come?” My mouth opened and then closed. Was I dreaming? Chase
Walker had invited me to a party! There had to be a catch, this
never happened to me. Then it clicked...

“Oh,” I sighed.
“This is some trick, right?”

He narrowed his
eyes. “A trick?”

“Yeah, you
invite me to some party. I show up and no ones there. Then you and
your friends tell the whole school and I'm made a laughing
stock.”

“No,” he smiled
again, this time tapping the pencil on his lip. “I am actually
having a party at my house on Saturday night. Do you wanna
come?”

“Can I bring my
friends?” He thought for a second and then nodded in reply. “Okay,
I'll come.”

Lunch time
couldn't come quick enough, I was itching to tell Ali and Becks
about what was planned for our weekend. Also, this was an excuse to
get away from my mother for one night. She would actually have to
stay in and look after Lacey herself. I walked in to the cafeteria
and over to my friends. I couldn't help the big smile on my
face.

“Why are you
happy?” Ali asked.