Chapter 29

Georgina

I lie in bed thinking about the kind of date I had with AJ. Every time his strong leg pressed up against mine, little tingles ran from the point of contact straight to my crotch.

I kept catching him looking at me with a smile on his lips. And in the car when he was looking up my shorts.

~Was AJ fucking McGabe really purving on me?~

~

I roll onto my stomach and let my fingers slide down into my shorts until I’m cupping my mons.

I imagine what his hands would feel like on me as I start to slowly grind my clit against my hands.

What his fingers would feel like if they slid inside me, as I slip my two fingers inside my warm wet…My door suddenly slams open, and I quickly flip back onto my side, panting slightly, my heart pounding.

“So I’m gonna ask Layla to go to prom with me when we go out this weekend.” Jake throws himself down on my bed next to me. I try to control my breathing and hope to God my face isn’t too red.

“Could you knock?!” I surreptitiously wipe my fingers off against my sheets. Jake looks at me weirdly.

“Why? What were you doing in here?” He looks around, then down at me with wide eyes. “Oh fuck…were you…?” He starts to laugh, and I bury my face into my pillow.

“I’m sorry, Smidge. I didn’t even think about girls doing that shit. I wondered what that smell was…”

I push him hard, so he falls off the bed. My dad shouts about the banging from downstairs.

“There’s ~no~ fucking smell!” I know my face is bright red now. “You are such a dick sometimes.”

Jake tries to stop laughing. “I-I’m so-sorry. I’ll try to remember to knock from now on. Don’t want to interrupt you pushing your button again!”

“GET OUT!” I throw my pillow at him, and he retreats, still howling, back to his bedroom. I collapse back and cover my face with my duvet.

~How humiliating!~

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***

“I don’t know what else I can do to get her to like me!” It is Saturday night, and I am lounging on the sofa with Jake, waiting for Layla’s dad to drop her off so they can go out on another date.

“I’m sorry, George, but every time I try to talk you up, she just cuts me off.” He sighs and scratches his chin. “Maybe if you apolo—”

“I’ve apologized so many times, Jakey!” I cut him off. “I know I was a bitch back then, and I feel ~so~ ~fucking bad about it, but I can’t change what I did to her and her friends.”

The doorbell chimes then, and Jake bounds over to let his girlfriend in.

“Hi, Layla!” I say cheerfully, leaning over the back of the sofa. In response, I get a blank stare.

Jake rolls his eyes. “I’m just gonna hit the bathroom, and then we’ll go, ‘kay?”

Layla smiles sweetly at him, nodding.

I try smiling at her again in the awkward silence while he pees but get nothing back again.

~Well, being ignored is slightly better than the death glares she used to give me~.

Jake reappears and grabs her hand. As they turn to leave, I notice a dark red stain on the back of her skirt.

“Oh, hey! Layla! I-uh, I think you should come check this, um, thing out. In my room.” I jump up and pull her away from a puzzled-looking Jake and push her upstairs, keeping myself close up behind her.

“What are you doing?!” She tries to turn and walk back past me.

“You’ve bled through,” I whisper to her and grab her arm.

Her cheeks blaze red.

“I didn’t think you’d want to go on your date looking like that.”

She bites her bottom lip, eyes watery, and shakes her head. I push her toward the bathroom. “There are tampons under the sink. I’ll grab you some clothes.”

I knock on the door with a fresh pair of panties and a skirt that looks nearly identical to her spoiled one.

“Th-thanks, Gina.” Layla’s cheeks are still red.

“It’s whatever. Here.” I hold up the skirt. “He won’t notice the difference, so he will have no idea what happened.” I smile kindly, and she tentatively returns it.

We walk back downstairs, chatting, and find Jake perched on the arm of the sofa.

“Finally! What was so important?” Layla and I share a look.

“We were just getting to know each other better.” I grin at my best friend. “You can’t carry on with a best friend and girlfriend who don’t get on, right?”

“Right!” Layla smiles at me.

“Have a good night, kids!”

Jake steps forward and presses a quick kiss on my forehead. “Thanks, Smidge,” he says quietly before draping his arm around Layla’s shoulders and leading her out of the house.

~My work here is done!~

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***

Jake and both our dads spent the last couple of weeks trying to persuade me to go to my senior prom.

Even Katy tried to get me to try dresses on when she and Layla went shopping, hoping I’d find something which would magically change my mind.

I just couldn’t get out of my head all the horrible things that Macy and Robyn had possibly planned to do to me.

Since that horrible party, Macy has been a complete bitch for the rest of the year. Even more than she was before.

I found things written on my locker, notes left on my car, and a few times after gym class, I found my clothes mysteriously messed with.

After needing to borrow Jake’s spare football shirt the first few times, I started locking my clothes in Katy’s locker instead.

Luckily Macy is essentially a coward, so at lunch, when I am sitting with Jake and the others, she doesn’t say anything to me.

But when she happens upon me on my own in the bathroom, she always says something horrible about my mom or about me being a slut.

I know Jake and his friends spoke to the other guys on the team, effectively cock-blocking Macy and Robyn, which warms my heart slightly.

Katy has also caught some of their wrath for being PJ’s girlfriend. I am really glad to have her on my side. She turned out to be a really good friend.

And after I saved Layla from a potentially embarrassing moment, we’ve been getting on better. I can see why Jake is so smitten.

Jake confided in me that Drew considered asking me to prom, but he told him I was not going. I was surprised Drew would want to ask me out again after our date.

I was even more surprised to hear that AJ isn’t going to prom either. But after learning more about his family dynamic, it wouldn’t surprise me if he had to stay home to look after his sisters.

Jake swings open my bedroom door and does a slow turn in the doorway. “Well?”

He looks amazing. His long hair has been trimmed up, so it is once again chin-length, and he’s tied it back, so his undercut is exposed, which I helped him dye purple to match Layla’s dress.

His body looks like it has been poured into his black tux, complete with bowtie, which he’s left undone around his neck along with the top few buttons on his white shirt, and has his jacket slung over one shoulder.

All in all, he is looking like one sexy man, not the scruffy skater boy I am used to seeing.

“Wow!”

He grins.

“Jakey, you look so good! Never knew you scrubbed up so well.”

“You really, really sure you’re not gonna come?” He walks over and sits down next to me on the bed, and tries his puppy dog eyes on me.

“I’m really, really sure.” I push his shoulder slightly. “Now go! Have fun. Take lots of photos.”

“Talking of photos…” My dad leans against the doorframe waggling his phone, James lurking behind him, grin on his face. “Let the proud dads take a prom night photo. Or two.”

What seems like hundreds of photos later, after waving Jake off in the limo, I lie back on my bed, Leonard Cohen softly crooning in the background, ~To Kill a Mockingbird~ spread open on my lap.

I’m pulled from Scout’s adventures by a tapping on my window. I pull back the curtains and peer out into the dusk light.

Standing in my side yard in a tuxedo, surrounded by tealights, and flanked by two adorable curly-haired little princesses, is AJ ~fucking~ McGabe~.

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