Frost on the Green (The Green Girl sequel) ✓

Chapter 8

"Not if I can help it," I muttered then tried to elaborate on that so that she wouldn't misunderstand me. "It's not that I don't want him to know about you; I just don't want you to know him. He is a lousy father and a drunk."

"You promised to give him a chance," she shot back in an exasperatedly reprimanding tone, which reminded me of Cillian's.

"And I will," I said, looking at the time on my phone. "We should hurry up; we don't want to be late."

I started to tidy up the table, placing the now empty dishes in the sink. Hearing a long, deep sigh from behind me, I realized Alice knew that I was just trying to put an end to the Gavin topic.

*****

Keegan's POV

"Oh, man, you got to help me!" Sky's panic-stricken voice greeted me as soon as I answered the call.

"If the condom broke, just take her to a drugstore and get her the morning after pill," I responded, remembering today was his date with Miley. I calmly lit my cigarette, taking into account Sky's tendency to exaggerate; I was sure he was doing it now as well.

"Not that! That..." I heard some panting coming from the receiver of my mobile.

"Are you screwing her right now?" I inquired, trying to get rid of the images that idea put into my head.

"No, I..." Some more panting was replaced by a sudden 'Ouch!' "Darn it! I hit my leg." He made a pause to catch his breath. "That little minx has a boyfriend."

"What?"

"Sweet little Miley turned out to be a closet slut. We were in the middle of our date when we accidently ran into her boyfriend. He and his two equally burly friends chased after me." He started panting once more, so I guessed he was on the run again. "They want to kill me!"

"Sky, where are you?" I threw down the cigg and put it out with the tip of my shoe. I was getting worried now that I knew the gravity of his situation.

"It's me and I'm running in random directions," he shot out in desperation. "How the Hell should I know where I am? Oh, man, just come get me quickly!"

"Where am I supposed to come?" I shouted, feeling helpless. "Try to find out where you are."

"I already told you: I don't know where I am! All I know is that she has a boyfriend the size and muscle mass of a gorilla and that he wants to play soccer with my head instead of a ball. How I know that? He told me that was what he was going to do after he ripped it off my shoulders. Dude, I'm too handsome to have my head used as a  soccer ball."

"Right," I started to walk back and forth since I didn't know in which direction I should go to get to my friend. "Stop running and look for a sign. It could be a street name, a café, a shop... Anything that might help me to locate you."

I heard a squeal as in reply.

"Sky, what happened?"

"They are here," he whispered. "They just turned round the corner but I jumped behind a dumpster. I don't think they saw me."

"Okay," I lowered my voice as well and immediately realized it was pointless; there was no way his pursuers could hear me. "Remember when I told you how to turn on the GPS on your mobile?" I barely heard his affirmative response. "Do that and tell me what it says."

He'd barely given me the address when I started running towards him.

*****

"Man, did Miley play you good," I snickered. We were on our way back to our apartment building and now that my roommate was no longer in danger, I felt free to jest with him; partly to amuse myself and partly to take revenge on him. He'd made me run as fast as I could for ten minutes straight only to find him crouched behind some trash bins and playing on his phone. He told me later that the boys that had been chasing him had left right after he'd given me his location. But did he call to say 'Hey, bro, everything is cool now, so take your time'? No. He just opened one of the apps on his mobile and started playing. Once I reached him, panicked and out of breath, he'd barely moved his eyes away from the screen for a second (probably to verify it was me and not Miley's boyfriend), muttered an 'oh, hey, Kee' and returned to his game. He was disheveled but had obviously calmed down and was almost unharmed.

"Both your shirt and jeans are torn, your knee is bleeding and you smell as lovely as dead fish," I commented, scrunching my nose and making my friend frowned.

"Well, you wouldn't smell of roses either if you had to hide in close proximity of a dumpster; I had to stay there in case those brutes came back." He lowered his voice and muttered grumpily: "And all that just because I wanted to get some action South of the belt area... Those guys almost caught me twice and I didn't get any further than making out with her."

"Yep, all that trouble just because you wanted to get laid. And instead, what you got in return for your efforts was a messed up hairdo."

"What?" My roommate's hands shot up to the top of his head as a look of horror distorted the features of his face.

"Just kidding; your hair is fine." I couldn't help but laugh at him again. "But that," I pointed to his knee which was visible due to the freshly-made rip in his jeans, "might leave a scar."

He sighed dramatically.

"I guess I should get used to having battle scars; I already got one on my elbow from the time I defeated that monster spider in the laundry room."

I smiled. My friends and I knew what had truly happened that morning with the spider but we humored Skyler by letting him think we believed his account of the events.

"I still can't figure out how Miley could trick me like that!" My friend frowned. "She even blushed. At the store and during the date, she blushed. How can anyone fake that? One can pretend to be shy..."

"Like you did to get into her pants," I interjected but he paid no attention to me and went on as if I had not spoken.

"I just can't believe she was able to fake a blush. That tricky little minx! That is why maybe I should find a steady, reliable girlfriend."

I rooted myself on the spot and grabbed him by his arm, turning Skyler towards me.

"Are you serious about this?" I asked, expecting him to laugh it off.

"Well..." He bit his lip. "Not right now but you got to admit that would have its good sides."

"Like what? Sleeping with only one chick? Getting her pissed off at you just because you looked at another girl? Or because you were two minutes late for a date, because you didn't open the door for her or didn't notice her new hairstyle?" I huffed. "Not to mention that you'll probably have to put up with her annoying friends and in pretty much every company there's this one girl that flirts with her friends' boyfriends. Know this, Sky: you will be blamed if that happens. And don't forget that girlfriends always demand to know where you are, with whom you are and what you are doing. God help you if you want to go for a guys' night out; she can spend time with her girls but your friends would be 'bad influence' so you should just forget about them." I started walking again, a lot faster than before. "No thank you! I don't want a steady."

"Yeah but look at our friends; neither of them acts that way and both couples seems so happy."

I didn't reply to that.

It was true that neither Alice nor Beth freaked out when Caden and Asher weren't around them; they didn't call them ten times a day to check where the boys were or order them to remove all of their female acquaintances from facebook; they never demanded expensive presents and never took the boys out just to show them off. They were always there to support their boyfriends and make them feel loved. Sure, they were sickeningly sweet sometimes while they were cooing to each other, calling one another pet names and smiling like idiots (the mushiness was more Beth and Asher's MO than Alice and Caden's), but it didn't seem to bother the male half of the couples so maybe such things stopped turning you off once you got serious with someone.

But what were the chances that Skyler and I would ever meet girls like that?