Offside (9 page)

I'd have to fix that.

I pulled out my phone and dialed.

“What's up, Thomas?”

“Hey, I need some info,” I said. “Sheriff Skye's got a daughter named Nicole. I need a cell phone number and any online accounts you can find. Twitter, Facebook—whatever.”

“Sure.”

I hung up with a smile.

Yeah, sure I could just ask her, but she could also refuse to tell me. Shit, I couldn't even get her name out of her, so the chances of learning anything more personal were just about nil.

I went to bed before Dad got home, woke up for my morning run, and then got ready for school. I left early so I could take the long way—that is, so I could drive past Rumple's house. Usually by the time I went past, she was either getting into her car to go, or she was already gone. This time, she was sitting in the driver’s seat and beating the dashboard with her little fist.

Kitten on steroids, not something I could pass up.

I swung my Jeep around and pulled into her driveway. She looked up at me and narrowed her eyes as she opened the door and climbed out of the car. I couldn't help but notice how nicely tight her jeans were and wished the weather was a little warmer so she wouldn't be in long sleeves. I turned off the car and got out, too.

“Having problems with that piece of shit, Rumple?”

“Nice,” she replied with a smirk. “It won't start.”

“Need help?”

“Yeah, if you could,” she said.

I went around to the front of the car and propped open the hood, looking around for a while before I figured out the damn thing just stayed up on its own and didn't have one of those little stick-things to hold it up. I looked inside and wondered what the fuck all the shit in there was and what it did.

“Try turning it on,” I suggested.

She got back inside and turned the key. It made a lot of noise, but nothing seemed to be going anywhere. I poked at a big round metal thing in the middle.

“Try again!” I called out. No difference. “Hold on. Let me try something.”

I looked around and found a little round piece to pull on. A stick came out and was all greasy and shit, so I figured that was okay. I found a belt that looked loose, but for all I knew, it was supposed to be loose. There was a big blocky thing with two bolts on top of it, which I thought was probably the battery. Could it be dead?

Fuck if I knew.

“Okay, Rumple!” I called out. “Give it another shot!”

She did, and nothing happened.

I started poking around again and heard the door to the car open and close.

“What do you think it is?” she asked as she peered over my shoulder.

“Could be a few things,” I replied, tapping my chin. I turned my head to look at her and smiled when I saw her biting her lip. “The battery could be dead,” I pointed at the blocky thing. “Or maybe a fouled fuel caliper. Could be the sparks or this—” I pointed at the big metal round thing “—which isn't spinning right.”

“What is that?” she asked.

“Ah, that's the…um…the manifold destiny.”

Her eyes narrowed again, and then her lips twitched before she busted out laughing.

“Manifold destiny?” she squealed. “Thomas Malone! Do you know anything about cars at all?”

“Well…no…” I admitted, “but this is a Hyundai!”

“Do you know anything about Hyundais?”

I couldn't keep it in anymore, and I started laughing too.

“I don't know shit about any of this,” I confessed.

“You brat!” she yelled as she slapped me on the shoulder.

“Sorry,” I shrugged, though I wasn't. Not at all.

“We've been standing out here for fifteen minutes!” she exclaimed. “I'm going to be late for school.”

“Most definitely.” I tried to hold my laughter down, but it wasn't really working.

“You are such an ass,” she said, but she was still smiling a bit.

“Want a ride?” I asked her. I refrained from adding
on my cock
.

“I don't think I have much choice,” she said. “Let me get my book bag.”

I had to stop myself from bouncing in my seat as she made her way from her car to mine and got in. I was definitely going to stay under the speed limit for this ride. I wanted to spend as much time with her as possible, and the more time I could spend with her alone, the better. If I could just keep this up, eventually she'd fall for me. She'd have no choice against the Malone charm.

“So what’s your favorite number?” I asked as I pulled excruciatingly slowly out of her driveway. I crawled along at twenty-four miles per hour.

“Um…seriously?” She glanced over to me with a puzzled expression.

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“I figured it was a get-to-know-you kind of thing,” I replied.

“Shouldn’t you ask my favorite color then?” she finally said.

“Nah,” I said with a shrug. “I prefer numbers.”

“Eight,” she said.

“Eight?” I repeated. “That’s a weird favorite number.”

“It is not,” she retorted. “It’s very symmetrical.”

I couldn’t really argue with that, but still—eight?

“What kind of music do you like?”

“Lots of different things,” she said. “I like some of the trendy stuff, but I also like jazz and classic rock. Mostly I listen to heavy metal.”

Interesting.

I continued to pepper her with questions all the way to school, trying to figure her out. I didn’t really make a whole lot of progress until I asked about her favorite flower just as I was pulling into the school parking lot.

She turned full on to look at me, her expression both curious and accusatory.

“Mums,” she said bluntly.

I pushed my lips together, trying to hide the smile.

“Really?” I asked. “Why is that?”

“Well, they are very magical flowers,” she said, the look on her face not changing as I parked and turned off the car.

“Magical?”

“Yes,” she said with a nod. “They just appear out of nowhere.”

“Do they?”

“They do.”

“Interesting.”

“I think so.”

“We’re late for first bell,” I told her. I jumped out of the car and grabbed my book bag from the back seat. I was pretty sure she said something else, under her breath a bit, but I only caught the word
deflect
. “What’s your first class?”

“History,” Nicole replied.

“Well, you missed about half of it,” I said with a smile.

“What class are you missing?”

“Trig,” I replied.

“Are you going to be able to get caught up?” she asked.

“Not a problem.” I laughed through my nose.

She looked at me with a strange expression before she looked away again.

“Well, I hope I didn’t miss too much,” she said, and she started walking faster. “See you in biology!”

“Oh yeah!” I called out as I quickened my pace to catch up with her. “What the fuck was with the blow off last Friday? Are we doing this project or not?”

She slowed and looked at me sideways.

“Don’t feel as if you have to put yourself out,” she said. “If you want, we can meet in the library after school.”

“I have weightlifting.”

“How long is that?”

“Just a half hour.”

“I’ll still be there.”

“Promise?” I asked.

“Promise.” She smiled.

“Okay.” I returned her smile as she turned down the hall. I called out, “See you later!”

She waved and kept going.

Classes were extremely slow that morning.

When lunchtime finally rolled around, I jumped right out of my chair and grabbed my lunch out of my locker. As I walked into the lunchroom, I saw Mika and Jeremy waving frantically at me. They were at a table with about half the starting team. I made my way over to them after I grabbed a Gatorade.

“Hey T—you fucked Heather, right?” Frankie Ronald, one of the team’s midfielders, asked.

I smirked, rolled my eyes, and nodded.

“Yeah,” I acknowledged as I plopped down in the seat next to Jeremy. “So?”

“Thomas has fucked every cheerleader on the squad,” Robin spat out.

“Jealous,” I shot back at him. “Besides, that’s not true. Some of them only gave me blow-jobs.”

“But you fucked Lones, right?” Frankie asked for confirmation.

“You want me to draw you a fucking picture?” I tossed back at him. “My cock, her cunt. Cum
everywhere
!”

I lifted my arms up and out in a grand gesture, and raucous laughter ensued. I leaned back in my chair until the two front legs were off the floor and tipped back my bottle of Gatorade.

“So, Klosav needs advice,” Jeremy said as he continued to laugh. Clint snickered, too. “She asked him to the dance and he wants some
ac-tion
!”

Within about thirty seconds, the whole group had sunk into near-hooligan mentality. I was surprised they hadn’t managed to start a food fight or at least flip over a couple of tables. Jeremy stood up on the chair and started thrusting his hips back and forth in time with some goofy arm movements. Frankie started making noises that may or may not have been his attempt at singing.

“Bow chicka bow-wow!”

“You guys are oh-so-much-help!” Klosav whined.

“I told you not to worry about it,” Clint said. “If she asked you, you’re in there.”

“You fuck her, too?” Jeremy asked Clint.

“Sure,” Clint said with a shrug. “Malone isn’t the only asshole around here that gets laid.”

“Yeah,” I said as I reached over and punched Clint in the arm, “but when I fucked her, she was still tight. You got the sloppy seconds.”

“Thirds!” Paul said as he took one of the empty seats at the table. It was becoming a regular party. “I got her on the ‘
Thomas’s not talking to me after he took my cherry’
rebound two weeks later!”

“Hey, that’s how I ended up with Crystal!” Clint laughed. “I let her cry all over my shoulder then showed her one of my ‘special tricks’.”

He waggled his eyebrows.

“Lones has fucked half the team by now.” Jeremy pointed out. He was still standing on his chair, and he leaned over and started tapping people on the head as if he were playing duck-duck-goose.

“Only half?” Mika laughed. “I thought she’d fucked us all by now! In jersey order number!”

I had to laugh at that one. Paul’s jersey was number two and Clint’s was number three.

“Who?” New kid Tony came over, holding a tray of food, and hovered near where I was sitting before he walked around to the other side of the table. He dropped into the chair across from me.

“Heather Lones,” Frankie said. “She’ll probably be your first piece of ass.”

Tony glared at him.

“You guys are sick,” he said with a shake of his head. He started popping open a can of Coke.

“Nah, he doesn’t want her,” I said. “Tony’s still pining after my cock.”

His evil eye flipped over to me.

“It’s okay, kid,” I told him in a soft, reassuring voice. I reached over and patted him on the hand. “I know I’m hard to resist. If you want, just crawl under the table and suck me off. No one will see you.”

The laughter at that one pretty much engulfed the cafeteria. One of the teachers yelled at us to keep it down. I glanced over my shoulder to see which teacher it was and was met with a stare from deep, beautiful blue eyes.

Aw, fuck it all.

Rumple was sitting about three feet behind me, turned most of the way around in her chair to point toward where I was sitting. She stood up, grabbed her tray, and walked out of the cafeteria without looking back. I wondered what she had heard. Shit! She could have heard it all.

Considering the look on her face, she probably had.

Shakespeare popped into my head:
I wonder men dare trust themselves with men.

I considered going after her and trying to explain it was just a bunch of talk, but I didn’t get the chance.

“New chick’s got a fine ass on her, hey Malone?”

I felt myself tense just a little. It was Jeremy, though, so I let it slide.

“Yes, she does,” I said quietly. I didn’t look at him, but I thought I heard him huff through his nose.

“The things I would do to that ass…” Frankie let out a whistle.

“What?” I snapped as my head swiveled around. He didn’t look at me—he was too busy watching Nicole walk away.

“She’s got the kind of thighs you just know are going to hold you tight.”

My chair crashed to the floor, and I was over the table and punching the shit out of that motherfucker a second later. I could hear people yelling around me, including Frankie, but I didn’t pay any attention. Someone grabbed my arm from behind and started pulling me off of him, so I kicked Frankie in the shin instead.