Happy Families (Prequel to Sleeping with the Enemy) [on hold]

Happy Families: Part One - He hesitated

Happy Families

Chapter 1: He Hesitated

Nate

Rick is my best mate. Has been for a good year or two. He's always got my back and I've got his. It doesn't hurt that he's the toughest lad at school. The other boys are all scared of him and all of the girls fancy him. And because he's my mate, I fall into that category too. Spence and Kyle hang about with us as well but they'll never be as solid as me and Rick.

You're probably thinking I have some pervy crush on him. I don't. I've just spent far too long at the bottom of the food chain and it's my turn at the top. And besides, I don't swing that way. No, I've got my eye on Roxy Carmen. What a bird! She's gorgeous, like. She's tall, with long blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Top class! I fancy her like mad. I would ask her out but Rick's got his eye on her too. And we've got a sort of unwritten and unspoken rule that he gets first pick of all of the blondes.

So anyway, it was lunchtime and Rick, me, Spence and Kyle were all hanging out behind the electrical sheds, fags hanging out of our mouths. We normally had a few hangers on but today it was just the four of us. Spence was going on about some maths teacher that had been bad mouthing him to guidance.

Served the prick right. He always took it too far and then he found himself in shitloads of trouble. I could hear Kyle replying, desperate for us to include him in the conversation. I couldn't say I was paying that much attention; I had just spotted Roxy walking across the playground with her mates, all equally skinny with straight hair but none of them a good looking as Roxy.

Rick was watching her too; I could see him out of the corner of my eye. We both watched as she walked towards a car parked just at the school gates. Rick hit me in the arm.

"It's Chas," he exclaimed excitedly. "I was wondering when he'd got out of prison."

Chas had gone to our school a couple of years ago. He was friends with Rick's older brother and had last been seen being taken away in the back of a police car for dealing drugs. Him and his girlfriend had obviously decided to drum up some business from their car.

"Come on, we'll go and see him," Rick said, starting to walk towards the gates. I hesitated; Chas wasn't the sort of person I wanted to be associated with. But I didn't want Rick to think I was stupid so I nodded and began to walk with him.

The car was one of those noisy little beat up things. It looked like it belonged at the top of a scrapheap in all honesty but I wasn't about to point that out to anyone.

As we approached the car, I heard someone say, "You'd think Chas and Shelby would have something better to do that park outside the school."

I turned my head just in time to see the owner of the words.

Charley King was walking past with her usual band of weirdoes. I shot her a look and she stuck her finger up at me. Stupid bitch; she walks around like she's better than everyone else and she always looked miserable about it. It was like there was no winning with her.

But how did she know Chas?

"All right Chas?" Rick enquired, sidling up past Roxy and her mates. He leaned on the roof of the car, trying to look all cocky and casual. The girls simpered.

"Not bad, not bad," Chas replied, taking a drag on a cigarette. "You met Shelby?" He nodded his head at the girl sitting in the passenger seat. She was scarily thin, with lank red hair falling around her shoulders. She gave us a pained grin, from which I could see she had several teeth missing."