As his mum pulled away from Isis’s home, she turned to him. ‘What the hell are you doing in that sort of area, Kael?!’ she asked, her tanned cheeks flushed with rage. ‘How dare you just wander into a place like that: you’d probably get shot, or mugged, or burgled, or…’
‘Mum!’ Kael folded his arms, sinking lower into the seat. ‘I was at a friend’s house, alright?’ He was glad that his bruised, cut cheek was the other side from her. He doubted that it would improve her mood.
‘It was an estate, Kael. And you were with some shabby girl dressed like a tramp, what do-’
‘Mum!’ Kael turned, angrily. ‘Don’t ever say things like that about my friends! She’s not shabby, she’s just poor.’
‘Same thing, isn’t it?’ his mum muttered.
Kael sunk his head into his hands. There was no arguing with his mother when she was this pissed off anyway. But he couldn’t get over Isis’s home.
It had been so tiny, so dreary. He could tell that she’d worked hard to keep it clean, but still, it looked awful. He couldn’t imagine having to live in a place like that, and nor could he imagine having to walk all that way home, either. It just didn’t bear thinking about.
For the first time, it occurred to him just how lucky he was. He just got into his car (usually) and drove straight home to his comfortable, large house. Isis had to walk for an hour, through a dodgy area. He shuddered again at the thought. Those boys could have quite easily just grabbed her and done anything to her, especially if she had been by herself. Kael felt slightly nauseous at the prospect.
He felt rather selfish for having been so fed up due to his bad day. Really, it had been only a few slight problems. He’d had so many things to be thankful for, but he’d chosen to focus on the negative. Isis had entirely the opposite approach, from what he’d seen of her attitude to life. She had far more worse things going on in her life than he did. By the looks of things, her mum wasn’t quite right: she didn’t come out to see what was going on, and it had been Seb who had cooked the food. He wanted to ask more about what was going on, but he wasn’t sure if it was a bit too personal. The last thing he wanted to do was to make Isis feel uncomfortable.
Having finally got home, Kael crashed on to his bed, wincing at the soreness of his wounds. It was no good. He’d have to get Isis to fall for him. He was beginning to realise that he couldn’t live without her, and so he’d just have to make her see. Hopefully she’d fall for him too. He wasn’t sure what he’d do if she didn’t.
His father rang up the various car companies for him, getting them to go out and get the car and fix it for him. In the meantime, a courtesy car had been sent, ready for Kael to drive the next morning.
And so he did. But this time, he took another path, tapping an address he’d memorised yesterday evening into the built in sat nav. Turning down the roads pointed out by the little machine, he made his way to the dodgy estate he’d been visiting less than twelve hours previously. Waiting outside (he wasn’t brave enough to go up and knock on the door,) he glanced at the clock. He was an hour earlier for school, in the hope that he’d catch Isis in time to give her a lift to school. He hoped he hadn’t missed her.
A few minutes later, a flustered, chilly looking Isis appeared from the door, a smaller blonde haired child hot on her heels. Freya.
Kael honked his horn, making them both look up. He waved. Isis looked surprised, but hurried over.
He wound down his window. ‘Get in then,’ he said, with a smile.
Freya’s eyes were as round as saucers. ‘Is this your boyfriend, Isis?’
Isis gave her a quelling look, and shook her head. Turning to Kael, she gestured at the car. ‘This isn’t yours!’
‘Courtesy car,’ he explained. ‘I came by to pick you both up. Hop in.’
‘But it’s so out of your way,’ Isis protested. ‘You didn’t need to.’
‘But I wanted to,’ Kael replied. ‘Get in, woman.’
She gave him a look, raising her eyebrows. He gave her a firm look right back, and, with a sigh, she opened the back door, letting Freya get into the back, and making sure that she was strapped in firmly. She was about to go round and sit in the back at the other side herself, but Kael patted the passenger seat next to him, and gestured for her to sit in it. Biting her lower lip, Isis smiled, and slid in.
‘All set?’ he asked.
Freya nodded from the back, clutching her lunch bag in her hand, her legs too short to reach the floor of the car.
Isis looked at him as he drove the distance to Freya’s school, wondering quite why he’d go to all this trouble. Maybe Lydia had been right… maybe he really did feel something for her that was stronger than friendship. She couldn’t imagine Harry getting up earlier to come and pick her up.
He drove rather attractively, if that was even possible. He just drove with confidence, sitting far back in his seat, rumpling his hair with one hand when they stopped at traffic lights. She liked watching the way he drove about. It was… it was kind of sexy.
After having dropped Freya at the school gates, a great deal earlier than she ever would have gotten to school before, Kael relaxed into his seat. Hopefully now, he and Isis could have a nice chat. He’d felt a little awkward having her sister in the back, watching his every move with the wide eyes she shared with her sister, her fingers clenched around the handle of her lunch bag. Her silence was a little unnerving.
‘So,’ Isis began, as he pulled away. ‘How are your wounds?’
‘I haven’t looked at them,’ he admitted. ‘I was in a rush this morning.’ Because he wanted to pick her up, he thought, with a smile. He’d set his alarm much earlier so he’d have time to go out of his way to get her, and get her in time before she left. Thinking that Isis probably got up earlier than this every morning anyway made him far more eager to actually get up: it had been tempting just to sink down onto the extremely comfy cushions of the sofa and sleep for the extra hours he’d been up, but Isis had provided the drive to carry on.
Isis tutted. ‘You bad boy,’ she told him disapprovingly. ‘You should care about those bloody things, it took me long enough to clean them!’
He glanced at her. She was half smiling, so he grinned at her. ‘You fuss about me too much, Juliet.’
‘I don’t want you to die like Mercutio,’ Isis replied, with a grin back.
‘I can assure you I won’t,’ he told her, steering round a roundabout. ‘Though your concern is very touching.’
Isis raised her eyebrows at him. The journey was far shorter than he’d have liked: all too soon, he was pulling into the garage. Pulling the keys from the ignition, he looked at the time. They still had half an hour before school began.
He looked at her, sat in the passenger seat snugly, watching him. ‘Shall we just sit here for a bit?’ he asked. ‘I can’t brave the cold wind just yet.’
Isis laughed. ‘I never knew you were a wuss, Kael!’ He gave her a look, and she chuckled. ‘No, no, that’s a good idea. It’s warm in here.’
Kael smiled. ‘You’re getting a lift home as well, you do realise?’
Isis widened her eyes. ‘Oh, I couldn’t!’
Kael nodded. ‘I’m not letting you walk home alone anymore, okay? I’d worry too much about you.’
Isis’s expression softened, but she still looked unconvinced. ‘It’s a long way out of your way,’ she told him.
‘I don’t care about that,’ he replied. ‘But literally, I can’t let you walk home alone like you do usually. What if those boys grabbed you and tried to do something to you? You wouldn’t be able to fight them off.’
Isis chuckled. ‘It’s fine, Kael. I know most of them from primary school, and they really wouldn’t do anything like that. A couple of times they have tried to get me to pay to get past with a kiss, but I’ve always got out of that.’
‘Good!’ Kael exclaimed. Actually, perhaps he was making his jealousy a little bit too obvious. Oops.
Stretching, he looked over at Isis again. ‘And I’ll give you a lift to and from school every day, from now on, okay? So I’ll pick you up later tomorrow.’
Isis’s jaw dropped. ‘Every day?!’ she repeated, in disbelief. ‘Why on earth would you want to do that?’
‘Because I like you,’ he said simply. Her brow creased. Had he said too much?
‘That’s, er, very nice of you,’ she replied. ‘If you’re sure.’
‘Of course I’m sure,’ he said, shaking his head at her in mock disapproval. ‘If you don’t let me give you a lift, I’ll be forced to abduct you, Freya and all, and drive you forcibly to school.’
Isis raised her eyebrows. ‘That sounds a bit violent.’
It sounded a bit hot and kinky to Kael. Excepting the little sister part, of course. That would put a damper on the sexiness of it all.
Isis tilted her head to look at him. ‘But er, are you sure that giving me a lift’s a good idea? Your car seemed to break down rather easily,’ she teased. Kael chuckled at her, and reached out to give a gentle swipe.
‘Ssh. We’re forgetting that.’
Isis nodded, mock understandingly. ‘Of course.’
‘Now, come on then.’ Hopping out of the car, Kael nipped round to open the door for her, gallantly taking a few of her folders. She looked up at him, smiling. They were so close that he was preventing her from getting out, but he desperately wanted to lean down and kiss her, kiss her for the entire school day and think of nothing else but her. Mm. He didn’t think she’d be partial to that idea.
Stepping back, he let her pass out of the car into the chilly air, and locked up the car and garage. It was freezing, and they instinctively huddled together as they walked the short distance to school.
Once inside, the bell rang all too quickly, and he said goodbye to her, heading off to his first lesson: Business Studies.
Sitting down, he turned to the boy sat next to him. He’d recently starting sitting next to Xavier, from the play, as he had no other friends.
‘How’s your leg?‘ he asked him, looking at the colourful plaster on his leg. ‘Ay better?‘
‘Not too bad,’ Xavier said, patting the plaster. ‘I just can’t wait to get it off and go skateboarding again,’ he told him. ‘It’s going to be great fun.’
‘You’ll probably roll off and do it again,’ Kael told him, with a laugh.
‘Probably,’ Xavier admitted. ‘Anyway, how are you?’
‘Yeah, alright.’
‘You look a bit tired, mate,’ Xavier commented.
Kael smiled. ‘I haven’t been sleeping too well,’ he confessed. ‘Too much on my mind, annoyingly.’
‘Girl trouble?’ Xavier asked, sympathetically.
Kael nodded. ‘Yeah, unfortunately.’
‘What’s up?’ Xavier asked, in a way that Kael didn’t find nosey. More polite curiosity. And kind of friendly.
‘Well, it’s just this girl I like,’ Kael admitted, finding the anonymity of not using names a great help in confessing all. ‘I can’t stop thinking about her. But she wouldn’t fall for me; it’s hopeless!’
Xavier snorted, shifting around to ease his leg, which looked rather uncomfortable in the thick plaster. ‘I doubt you’d struggle to make a girl fall for you, Kael,’ he said, looking at him with both eyebrows raised.
‘What?’
‘Well, look at you!’ He grinned. ‘You’re sickeningly rich, you’re a good looking guy, and you’re in the school play. Girls are surely falling at your feet?’
Kael snorted himself. ‘Not this one.’
Xavier rubbed the stubble on his chin. ‘Is she hard to seduce?’
Kael nodded. ‘Yeah. Very.’
‘Well,’ Xavier said, with a smile, ‘you’ve come to precisely the right place.’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Kael.
‘Kael,’ Xavier began, his tone wise, ‘I had three elder sisters. I know plenty about what women are like.’
Kael’s eyes widened. ‘Ahh,’ he murmured. ‘Handy.’
Xavier nodded. ‘Oh it is, believe me.’
‘So, what do they like?’ inquired Kael, poised to hear.
‘Romantic stuff,’ Xavier announced. ‘Things that make their heart melt; things that make them say aww.’
‘Such as?’
‘Oh anything, really. Thoughtfulness, a romantic date… you have to let them know that you’re willing to take things slow, agree to whatever they say relationships wise so they feel that they’re in control.’ Xavier itched the plaster cast, despite the fact that it was made of plaster, and clearly couldn’t be itchy. ‘Simple as that, really.’
‘Right.’ Kael mulled this over. ‘I think I need a plan of action.’
‘I can help!’ volunteered Xavier, enthusiastically.
Thinking it over, the pair of them decided he should probably tell her.
‘How else is she going to know you like her?’ asked Xavier, making a valid point. ’You know what girls are like; they usually seem to have such low opinions of themselves. Most of them doubt anyone would ever fall for them.’
‘Not all of them,’ Kael said, darkly, thinking of Rochelle.
‘Yeah, well, there are exceptions.’ Xavier was surprisingly wise when it came to girls. ’But sounds like your girl isn’t one of those.’
Kael nodded. ’Okay. I’ll find a way to tell her.’
‘Good man!’ Xavier cheered. ’Tell me how it goes.’
‘I will,’ Kael promised. ’I just hope it goes well.’
Xavier gave him a confident thumbs up. ’Trust me, it will.’
Kael wasn’t convinced. However, he was desperate to hear what Isis would say. He hoped desperately that she’d be as willing as he was to start seeing each other. He wasn’t sure what he’d do if she wasn’t.