The Boy Who Sneaks in My Bedroom Window (33 page)

“
He knew who
you were?” Liam asked, turning me slightly so he was
hiding me from Johnny’s view.

“
Yeah
. He said hello to me as he
walked past,” I replied, frowning, still not understanding how he
recognised me.

Liam laughed
and looked at me as if I said something stupid. “He probably didn’t
know who you were, Angel, he probably thought you were hot. Can’t
blame him there,” he purred, grinning at me as his hand moved down
to cup my ass
.

I rolled my
eyes. “Liam, he walked past and said
‘hi, Amber’
so I think he knew
who I was,” I stated sarcastically.

He
frown
ed and looked over his shoulder
before chuckling wickedly. “He doesn’t look too comfortable with
Jessica.”

“
Well who the
hell woul
d look comfortable near Jessica?
Oh yeah, you didn’t look too stressed when you were hanging all
over her,” I teased, smirking at him.

He turned his
nose up, faking a shudder. “Don’t remind me about my former life
without you, Angel. I’ll have nightmares,” he said with mock
horror, making me laugh.

I grabbed a
c
ouple of sandwiches and drinks. Liam
insisted on paying and carrying the tray as usual. I headed over to
his table and sat down next to him. Jake was already there with
some of his boys from the team, my friends all sat down too, taking
the last seats. I ripped open my sandwich and was just about to
take a bite when a shadow fell over me.

“
Hi,” Johnny
said smil
ing, he was blushing
slightly.

I
gulped
, feeling my stomach sink a little.
“Er, hi.”

“You mind if I sit with you?” he asked,
looking at me hopefully.

I saw Jake
tense from the corner of my eye. I looked a
round at the full table. “Um….” I trailed off, biting my
lip.

“
Never mind,
don’t worry
. I just thought I should
introduce myself.” He shrugged, blushing harder, shifting on his
feet uncomfortably.

Kate
kic
ked me under the table. “Ouch! What
the hell was that for?” I asked, rubbing my leg. She glared at me.
I knew exactly what it was for, I had to ask him to sit with us for
her sake or I wouldn’t hear the end of it this afternoon. Oh God,
kill me now! “It’s fine, Johnny. Grab a chair, you can sit on the
end here,” I suggested, moving my tray over so he could put down
his plate and drink.

He grinned
and relaxed. “Thanks, Amber,” he said, smiling gratefully as he
walked off to get a chair from a couple of tables away.

I turned to
Kate, frowning. “That freaking hurt, Kate!
Seriously
, he’s not that hot!” I whisper
yelled at her.

“
Yeah he is.”
She nodded enthusiastically, laughing and I e
nded up laughing along with her. Damn slutty
girl.

Johnny sat
d
own on the end of the table. “So, this
is weird, huh?” he stated, grinning sheepishly.

I
laughed
uncomfortably. “Wow, that’s an
understatement and a half. You think it’s weird, try unnerving and
awkward,” I joked, making him laugh.

“
I’m not that
bad,” he whined,
faking hurt.

I decided to
just get it out there and ask what had been bothering me all
morning. “How do you kn
ow who I am?” I
asked quietly.

He
smiled
. “Stephen showed me a photo of
you. I haven’t seen one of your brother though, so I have no idea
who he is,” he explained, shrugging.

My dad had a
photo of me? I wasn’t really sure how to feel about that. Why the
hell would he have a photo of me, and not Jake? I didn’t even want
to think about that question too much in case I came up with an
answer I didn’t like.

I
poi
nted at Jake. “He’s right there. Jake,
Johnny. Johnny, Jake,” I said, waving a hand between them in
introduction.

“
Hey, how’s
it going?” Jake growled
, his face was
hard and not at all friendly. Johnny squirmed in his seat a little
- Jake could be quite intimidating if he wanted to be.

“
Yeah, good
thanks. It’s good to meet you,” he replied nervously.

Kate kicked
me again under the table in the exact same spot as before, making
me wince. I glared at her warningly; she obviously wanted an
introduction too. “Johnny, these are my friends
, Sean, Sarah and Kate. This is my boyfriend, Liam,” I
stated, introducing everyone that was at our end of the
table.

Johnny
smiled warmly. “Hey, sorry, I’m bad with names.
I’ll probably forget in like half an hour,” he admitted, wincing
slightly.

Kate turned
on her flirt mode, tossing her hair over her shoulder, smiling
seductively.
“I’m terrible with names
too. We have something in common,” she purred, looking him over
slowly. He laughed, looking uncomfortable. It didn’t look like he
was used to female attention at all.

“
So, what
school did you go to before here?” I asked, tr
ying to help him out slightly.

He smiled at
me gratefully. “I actually went to an all-boys school in
Mersey,
” he answered, shrugging. OK, that
explains the blushing and being uncomfortable. I could almost see
Kate’s brain ticking over thinking about teaching him new tricks
and breaking him in. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the poor
boy.

“
An all-boys
school? Well that’s no fun
,” Kate smiled,
eating a potato chip, obviously trying to look sexy.

Lia
m burst out laughing next to
me. “Kate, leave the poor guy alone, it’s his first day,” he
teased.

Jake looked
at Kate with a slightly annoyed expression on his face. It suddenly
dawned on me
what was happening. Jake was
totally crushing on Kate! “I saw that, Jake,” I stated, grinning at
him knowingly. He flinched and tried to look innocent. Yep, totally
jealous! “So, what classes do you have this afternoon?” I asked,
turning back to Johnny, trying to keep the conversation going. I
felt a little sorry for him; he was obviously like a fish out of
water here. He pulled out his schedule and handed it to me. I
glanced over it and almost choked on my sandwich - he had every
single afternoon class with me. “I have the same ones,” I said
quietly, handing it back. Liam rubbed his hand on my leg gently and
I leant against him for support. Johnny seemed like a nice guy but
I didn’t want him near me all the time. The occasional conversation
I could probably deal with, but what if he went home and my father
asked about me? He would know way too much stuff about me for my
liking.

“
Yeah?
Awesome! You think you could show me the way
and stuff?” he asked hopefully. I nodded slowly, I couldn’t
exactly say no.

Jessica came
strutting over; she now had only t
wo
buttons done up on her shirt. “Hey, Johnny. Want to come and sit
with me?” she asked, twirling her hair around her
finger.

“
Jessica
, you missed a few buttons
there, sweetie,” I said innocently.

She glared at
me. “It’s supposed to look like this, Emo freak,” she spat
nastily.

“
Actually
, yeah I think you’re
right. I saw that shirt worn exactly like that on the hooker on the
corner last night,” I replied, smiling kindly.

“
You hang out
on street corners?” she asked
, grinning,
obviously thinking she had won.

“
When I’m
m
eeting with your mom I do.” I
shrugged.

Lia
m and Johnny burst out
laughing. “Bitch,” she mumbled as she stormed off. Kate and Sarah
slapped a high five, giggling like mad girls on crack.

“
You’re
funny
,” Johnny said, grinning at
me.

“
Yeah
, I think maybe I just ruined
your chances of nailing her today. She’ll give you another chance
tomorrow though so don’t worry,” I teased as I started eating
again.

He turned his
nose up. “She’s been driving me crazy all morning; she’s bitching
about some girl who stole her boyfriend. What kind of guy would go
out with someone like her anyway? He must be a right ass,” he
scoffed, shrugging.

The whole
table
, apart from Liam, burst out
laughing. “Er, that ass would be me. But we weren’t going out,”
Liam stated, shaking his head.

Johnny
blushed like crazy. “Oh sorry,” he mumbled, wincing
slightly.

I wrapped my
arm around Liam. “Don’t worry, lover boy, your taste has improved
since then,” I cooed, pulling him closer to me.

“
Angel
, my taste has always been
the same. Forbidden fruit.” He leant in quickly, biting my neck,
making me giggle. Jake cleared his throat and Liam pulled away with
a sigh and rolled his eyes. I let Kate talk to Johnny for the rest
of lunch, adding in the occasional question or answer when I needed
to. He was actually a nice guy. It would have been easier if he was
an jerk, then that way I would be able to brush him off and not
feel like a piece of crap about it after. I showed him to his
classes and he sat next to me when he could. When the bell rang for
the end of the day I breathed a sigh of relief.

“
So
a
re you headed straight home?” Johnny
asked, smiling, as we walked to my locker.

I shook my
head. “No
. I need to wait for Jake and
Liam to be finished with their practice.”

“
Yeah
, what does Jake play?” he
asked curiously.

“
Ice
hockey
.”

“
Cool. You
know, I could give you a ride if you want,” he offered. “My mom and
Stephen bought me a wicked car for my birthday,” he added, smiling
broadly. I felt my heart sink at the sound of his name again, the
way he used it in casual conversation scared the crap out of
me.

“
Um
, thanks for the offer, but
I’ll wait for them. Liam usually comes over after because Jake goes
to work,” I said quickly.

“
Where does
Jake work?” he asked
, leaning against the
lockers.

“
Benny’s
gym
.” I rammed my books into my bag with
way too much force bending all the pages, because I was getting
uncomfortable.

“
Jake doesn’t
seem to like me much
,” Johnny muttered,
looking a little sad.

I smiled
reassuringly. “He doesn’t know you. It’s just weird for us that’s
all. We haven’t seen our father in three years, then all of a
sudden he turns up here and bang, we have another brother and a
stepbrother. Jake doesn’t like change,” I explained, trying to
skirt around the issue a little.

He
nodded
, looking thoughtful. “Yeah, I
guess it’s hard. So, do you think maybe I could wait with you until
their practice ends and we could get to know each other a bit more?
I mean, I don’t want this to carry on being awkward for either of
us, I’m here now so I think we need to make the best of it,” he
asked, looking at me hopefully.

Holy shit
buckets! I didn’t know what to say, so I said
nothing
, I nodded and shut my
locker.

“
You want to
sit out front? I usually sit under the tree and
wait
,” I said as we walked out of the
building.

“
Sounds
good,” he agreed, following me with a little smile. I walked to the
big oak tree where I usually sit and do my homework and sat down
leaning against it. He plopped down in front of me, picking a
couple of blades of grass, playing with them nervously. There was a
little daisy next to my foot, so I picked it and tucked it into the
back of my ponytail because it reminded me of the one that Liam
picked for me before dance practice after that first night we
kissed.

I was so
uncomfortable that I squirmed on the spot, trying to think of
something to say. “So, your little brother, Matt…. Well, I guess
he’s my brother now too, anyway what I was going to say is, what’s
he like?” I asked curiously.

He
grinned
. “He’s cute. He’s a pain in the
butt, especially when he cries in the night, but he’s cute. I have
a picture if you want to see,” he offered, pulling his wallet out
and handing it to me. I smiled and eagerly flicked it open, wanting
to see the little baby. My breath caught in my throat as I looked
at the picture, it wasn’t just the baby, it was a family picture. I
looked at my father; he was smiling proudly with one arm around his
new wife and the other around Johnny who was holding a little blond
boy. My father looked older, his hair had changed and gone a little
greyer, but his eyes were the thing that caught me. I remember his
eyes being hard and cold and always angry, but he was different
here, smiling and warm, he looked friendly and kind.

“
Cute
, huh?” Johnny
said.