Chapter two - Nathan

"Shit, I need a cold shower or a wank. Leanna Woodson's looking good. All I can think about is her in a little bikini mud-wrestling Sally." Adam laughs, not caring at all that Sally is standing there with her friends. The three of them glare at him, but he doesn't take any notice. "Do you reckon she'll be at her sister's party tonight? I might pull her."

"Kim's having a party?" I'd not heard about that which surprises me since I live next door and since Kim doesn't hate me the way Leanna does, she usually invites me.

"Hey Muscle Man." Talk of the devil… I turn around at the sound of Kim's voice, she's standing with Jake, her massive, tattooed hulk of a boyfriend, who simply raises an eyebrow at her greeting, staring off into the distance as though we're all beneath him.

What Kim sees in him I'll never know? He's an absolute dick and she's really not.

At least the sight of him has Sally, Bethany and Gail murmuring their goodbyes and rushing off down the road, so I don't have to deal with Sally's attention, she's been flirting more and more recently no matter how obvious I make my disinterest.

"Hey, Little Kimmy, what's up?" I smile, knowing she hates the nickname as much as I hate her calling me Muscle Man.

"Well, I was going to invite you to my party tonight, but I'm not sure now." Jake places his hand on the small of her back and she gives him a little grin, before turning back to face me. "Starts around nine, after the parentals leave."

"Does Lea know?" Her eyes glint mischievously as her smile widens to show nearly all her teeth, so I know the answer without her saying anything. "She's going to kill you, you know that right? After what Ellie Simmons did with Andrew Winters in her bed at your last one. I swear I could hear her shouting at them all the way across the road. If it happens again, that's it, Little Kimmy is all stabbed up and buried under that patio."

"Don't be silly, my sister loves me. The only person she ever fantasises about stabbing is you." She beams at me as though she finds the whole situation amusing. She probably does to be honest. Kim's never taken much seriously, which is why everyone was surprised when she started seeing Jake, a guy that seems to have only a single permanent facial expression. Disinterested. Even when someone pisses him off, he seems like it's a waste of his time to interact with them, conserving his energy so a single hit deals with the problem.

"Oh yeah she does, but we both know her fantasies involve me doing the stabbing." I wink at her and even Jake barks out a laugh at that. I'm surprised he's got any sort of sense of humour, but it's only a momentary blip before he's stone faced again.

"In your dreams." She turns. As if he knew what she was going to do before she did it, Jake reaches out and laces her fingers with his, leading her over to his car and she calls over her shoulder. "See you later, Muscle Man."

"Pre-drinks at yours then, Nath?" Callum says once they've driven off. I nod, swinging my car keys on my finger and heading to where it's parked beside both of there's.

"Meet you there, just come over when you're ready. Door'll be open."

****

Even if Kim hadn't told me there was a party, it would be obvious from the amount of people arriving and the steady beat of the music that escapes every time the door opens.

My front door bangs shut and then Shane's voice calls through from the kitchen.

"Nathan, you know you're my favourite of all my sister's friends. Can you give us a lift to my mate's. Please? Kim's kicked us out because she doesn't want me telling embarrassing stories about her to Jake." 

I can't stop laughing when he and his friend Luke appear in the doorway, arms full with bottles of beer and big grins on their faces like they've pulled off a major robbery.

"Oh really? Nothing to do with you stealing those drinks then?" I stand up, Callum and Adam helping take the alcohol away from the boys who are scowling at us. "You know I can't let you take them all with you, you're thirteen."

"I thought we were cool, you used to be fun, mate. What happened?" Shane mutters, then looks up at me, putting his best adorable smile on his face. "Can you give us a lift, please?"

"I've been drinking, but Gemma might take you if you ask nicely and give her one of these. Which I didn't tell you to do, nor did I know about if my parents find out, understand?" I offer one of the bottles out to Shane and they back out of the room, facing us until the door closes and we hear their footsteps running up the stairs, the clink of glass going with them.

"You know they had bottles hidden in their back pockets?" Callum laughs and I nod.

"Yep, gotta let them have a win occasionally. Poor little sods. Gemma'll take it off them before they get out her car, she absolutely loves the little shits." Another blast of music comes from next door, followed by laughter and shouting. I pick up the bottles we took from the boys. "You wanna finish these now, or head over?"

"Let's go, I'm just the right amount of drunk to show Leanna the night of her life." Adam snickers and Callum whacks him around the back of the head.

"Give over. Even if she wasn't off limits, she'd never touch you, but there'll be loads of willing girls there." He says, pushing himself up from the sofa and grabbing the necks of three bottles before heading to the door. "Look there, Gail and Bethany are going in now, try one of them."

"Or both." He raises his drink in salute to Callum and I before heading out the door and straight over to the girls. We follow, watching as he drapes an arm around each of them and guides them indoors, any thought of Leanna seemingly forgotten.

"You reckon he'll manage to even get one of them?" I ask Callum who laughs and shakes his head.

"Nah, I'm fairly sure the two of them are a thing, they'll flirt with him, but they never go home with anyone but each other."

"Seriously? How did I never notice?" I look over at the two girls, seeing them laughing with Adam and realising as much as they flirt, I've never heard about anyone successfully pulling them. 

"You'd notice if one of them was Leanna." He smirks, then grunts and clutches his stomach when I jab him. "Uncool dude."

"Fuck off about Leanna, you know it's not like that." 

"Mmm hmm, so she's off limits, why?" He gives me a meaningful look before swigging from his bottle and looking around the room. 

"She was my best friend, that's why, I didn't want any of you lot fucking around with her and ruining that." I say, but he raises an eyebrow at me in disbelief.

"I've known you forever dude, so you know that I know, that you only made her off limits when you two fell out." He taps his head to indicate his own perfect memory. "You were seeing Ali Cooper and suddenly Leanna Woodson was a possibility to every lad in our year. So don't give me crap about it being to protect your old bestie when I know better."

"Whatever dude, it was ages ago, it doesn't even matter now, she rejects people perfectly well on her own."

"That she does dude, that she does." He pats my shoulder affectionately and we glance at Adam who's flirting shamelessly with Gail and Bethany. 

The party is packed, there must be pretty much everyone from school here. Kim's laughing with her friends in the living room and when we move through to the garden we see Jake and a few of his friends sat around a bonfire.

"Hi Nathan." A small voice says from behind me and my whole body tenses in response.

"Bye Nath, Bye Georgie." Callum, the traitor, runs back indoors with an apologetic look the instant we hear her voice.

"Uh… Georgie, hi." I look around for an escape in vain, even risking a beating by hanging out with Jake and his friends is preferable, but I'm not sure that would get rid of her, they're probably just as freaked out by her as the rest of us.

"You dropped this today." She offers me out a piece of paper and when I open it up, it's Sally's phone number that she gave me and I tossed in the bin at the end of Art. 

"Uh, yeah, thanks for that." I scrunch it up, planning to toss it into the fire when I get close enough. "Well, see you…"

"She's not right for you." She says, her intense gaze unwavering. I somehow stiffen further when I realise she hasn't blinked the entire time she's been standing in front of me.

"Yeah, I know, I'm not interested in Sally." I nod, looking around to see where Callum went, but he must have gone indoors.

"I don't mean Sally." I down my drink and make a show of tipping it upside down.

"I'm going to go and get another drink, see you." My legs move quickly away from her and I feel my breathing ease. Once I'm inside, I spot Callum chatting to some other guys from school. "What the fuck man?"

"Sorry dude, she freaks the shit out of me." He shudders for emphasis and then passes me a beer, then looks at the other guys standing there with confused looks on their faces. "Georgie Patterson."

They all make O faces, nodding in agreement with his statement.

"There's something wrong with her."

"I heard she broke into Emma Cole's house and threatened her to stay away from Chris Parkhouse, back when Emma and Chris were together." A ginger lad says, looking at me with wide eyes. "They split up not long after."

"Didn't she cheat on him?" I ask, it has been all over school that Emma had slept with Max Carlisle at one of his parties, the real gossip was that Chris had been downstairs at the time.

"Yeah." Ginger lad nods emphatically, taking a swig on his drink. "She swears she doesn't remember doing it, says she was out of it and had a monster hangover the next day. But Chris said it was an excuse because she wasn't even drinking and was found naked in bed with Max the next day. Neither could remember a thing, but Georgie was there, everyone reckons she spiked them both but there was no doubt they fucked, apparently loads of people heard them going at it for hours."

"I wouldn't put it past her, fucking crazy bitch. Hey, you're Nathan Graham right?" The ginger lads blonde friend adds his face suddenly turning sympathetic. "I heard Liv Hugh's saying Georgie's got a load of your pictures up in her room, she's somehow got one of your shirts there too. I'd steer well clear mate."

"What the fuck?" Callum burst out laughing but then their eyes narrow over my shoulder and I know before they say anything that Georgie has come into the room.

"Nathan, I got you a drink." She offers me a can of beer and all three guys subtly shake their heads at me as I reach for it.

"Uh, thanks Georgie." I hold it in my hand, wondering how to get rid of it without tipping her off. I don't know if she did spike Emma and Max, but the possibility is enough to stop me testing the theory.

"Nath, is the bathroom upstairs? You wanna show me where it is?" Callum asks and I nod too quickly.

"Sure mate, follow me." We slip past Georgie, the other guys already on their way outside and run upstairs. "Thanks Cal."

"No worries, oooo look Adam's moved on, they're hot. Ditch the drink quick and come join us." He nods at Adam who's standing with a group of five pretty girls, then he's heading over there and I run up to the bathroom, tipping the drink Georgie gave me, down the sink.