Beware of Bad Boy

by Brookshire, April

  I squealed out of the driveway.

  Motherfucker!

  He just said that to make me worry all weekend about what he was up to. He wouldn’t really go hang out with girls, would he?

  Motherfucker!

  Yes, he would. The whole way to pick up Jared and Cece, I stewed about what my boyfriend may or may not be doing over the weekend.

  CALEB

  I’d let her think about that! After Gianna took off, I went up to my room. For sure I’d be crashing at my mom’s for the next couple days. I wouldn’t sit here like a bitch waiting for my girlfriend to come home from camping with douchebag Jared.

  The whole way down to Denver, I brooded about Jared spending the weekend trying to steal my girlfriend. I thought about changing direction and going on the damn camping trip, but it’d make me feel so fucking whipped. Tagging along with my girlfriend and her friends would turn me into every pansy-ass boyfriend I’d ever made fun of. I had more pride than that. I didn’t care if Taye was there and I didn’t care if Gianna said Dante could come too. All I knew was Jared better keep his grubby hands to himself.

  Tense and worn out, when I arrived at the apartment, I crashed on my bed. Waking up later it was already dark, so I checked the time, nine o’clock. The night was just beginning. I grabbed my phone and read through my missed calls and texts.

  Nothing from Gianna. She must be too busy with loser Jared and her friends, probably acting like a bunch of Fame wannabes. Stupid breakers.

  I did have a text from my friend, Hailey, though. I hadn’t seen her in forever.

  Hailey: How’s it going, player? When are we going to cause some trouble together?

  Hailey was like my female counterpart. We’d been friends since middle school where we’d bonded over many a detention together. Hailey was the cool kind of girl that was just one of the guys. It didn’t hurt that she was pretty hot, too. We’d fooled around a little freshman year, but nothing serious. She was a female player herself and never dated one guy for long. I texted her back.

  Me: I don’t know. How about tonight? I’ll call Dante and see what he’s up for.

  Calling Dante’s number, I didn’t get an answer, so I left a message for him to call me back. Soon after I hung up, my phone rang and Hailey’s name flashed on the screen.

  “What up, girl?”

  “Ugh, I’m bored and you need to find me some fun.”

  She sounded so put out, I laughed. “Since when is it my job to entertain you?”

  “Since always. Where the fuck have you been, Caleb?”

  “I moved up to Broomfield to live with my dad,” I told her.

  “Wow, sucks for you. Are you up there now?”

  “No, I’m staying at my mom’s for the weekend.”

  “Good, come pick me up at my house,” she demanded.

  I figured I had nothing better to do. “Sure, I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

  GIANNA

  I was surprised Dante came on the camping grip. He and Taye were cousins, so it made sense he’d be invited. Dante probably came to try and get with Cece. After setting up the tents and getting a campfire started, we were all sitting around drinking and talking. A couple of the guys were trying out a new moves, which was hilarious because they were tipsy and getting dirty in the process.

  Cece and I sat on a log together. “So, Cece, what do you think of Dante?”

  She glanced over at Dante and said, “I think he’s cute, why?”

  “Because I heard he has a crush on you,” I drawled, waiting for her reaction.

  Cece perked up, getting excited. “Really, who told you that, Caleb?” Hearing his name made me miss him more than I already did.

  “Yep, he said Dante wanted me to put in a good word with you.”

  “Consider the good word put in,” Cece responded, ditching me to go sit by Dante. The girl didn’t have a shy bone in her body.

  With Cece gone, Jared took her spot. “How’s it going, Gigi?”

  I gave him a fake, sweet smile. “Jared, why don’t you just ask what you really want to know?”

  “Fine, are you still dating that loser?”

  Scowling at him, I answered in the same rude tone, “Yes, I’m still dating Caleb.”

  “Why isn’t he here with you then?” Jared asked, pretending to look around.

  “We don’t have to spend every minute together. We can have separate lives, too.” Taking a drink out of my beer, I acted unconcerned.

  “Uh-huh,” Jared said knowingly. “So, you invited him and he didn’t want to come?”

  “It wasn’t like that. I sort of sprung it on him at the last minute.”

  “If you were my girl, I’d want to be here with you, no matter how last minute the invite was.” Why didn’t he go find some other girl to date? Jared was hot and pretty girls were always flirting with him when we went to battles.

  After Jared walked away, I drank some more and started feeling sorry for myself. I really missed Caleb. A part of me wanted to leave the camping trip early to be with him. Wouldn’t that seem kind of desperate, though?

  Why hadn’t he wanted to come? What was he doing right now? He better not have been doing what he threatened to do and went out where there were a bunch of girls. I hated girls! They were all dirty whores after my boyfriend. I was going to drive myself crazy thinking about it.

  CALEB

  I woke up on Saturday around one o’clock in the afternoon at my mom’s apartment. She’d had to go into work today to finish up a project. Otherwise she would’ve probably been questioning me right now about why I slept on the couch. I didn’t want to have to explain that Hailey was sleeping in my room. She knew Hailey and I were just friends, but she also thought Hailey was a bad friend for me to have.

  From a parent’s point-of-view, she was right. Hailey wasn’t the kind of girl any mom would want her teenage son to hang out with. Although, I wasn’t exactly a good kid myself. Sitting up on the couch, I rubbed a hand over my face, thinking about how Hailey got us kicked out of a club last night.

  After she’d gotten into a fight with some girl, she’d cussed out the bouncer who broke it up. He’d ended up carrying her out of the place and depositing her on the sidewalk outside. I’d finally got her drunk-ass calmed down and brought her here to sleep it off. As entertaining as it always was, it was hard work hanging out with someone like her.

  Needing to use the bathroom, I passed by my room and peeked inside. She was still asleep face down on my bed. Shit, there was drool on my pillow. That was going in a dumpster.

  As I walked back into the living room, there was a knock on the front door. No one asked to be buzzed up so it was probably a neighbor. Going over to the couch, I picked up my jeans from last night, pulling them up as I went to answer the door.

  It was a pleasant surprise to find Gianna on the other side of the door. “Hey, how’d you get up here?”

  “Surprise! I couldn’t remember your exact apartment number, but someone buzzed me up,” she explained, looking sheepish.

  She threw her arms around me, putting her head on my chest. “I missed you, Caleb. I know I’m the biggest loser ever, leaving the camping trip early to see my boyfriend, but I couldn’t help it. Being away from you sucked so bad. Especially with the way we left things. I don’t want to fight with you. I’m sorry for being a bitch.”

  Enjoying having her in my arms again, I kissed the top of her head. “I missed you too, princess, and I’m sorry for being a jackass.” She peeked up at me with a smile and I stroked one blushing cheek.

  “So, what’d you do last night? Were you totally bored without me?” she teased, leaning into my hand.

  Crap. How did I answer that question? I didn’t actually do anything wrong. At least I didn’t think so. Boyfriends were allowed to have female friends, right? To be safe, I’d better not mention Hailey. She’d probably be passed out for a while longer and I could get Gianna out of here quickly.

  “Nothing much, just hung out with Dante
.”

  She tensed up at my words. “You hung out with Dante?”

  “Yeah,” I said, leaning down to kiss her.

  She turned her head to avoid my lips. “Last night?”

  “Yeah,” I repeated slowly.

  “Dante, Taye’s cousin?” she asked, sounding weird.

  “That’s the one,” I agreed, not liking how she was acting. “What’s the matter, Gianna?”

  She took a couple steps away from me, staring down at the ground. When she finally looked up, I almost flinched at her expression. “If I’m acting weird, Caleb, it’s because I don’t understand how you could’ve hung out with Dante last night when he was camping with us!” She screamed the last few words.

  Oh shit.

  Hailey decided to pick that moment to come out of my room. “Hey, Caleb, do you have any aspirin? I have a killer headache.”

  Gianna blue eyes moved to where Hailey stood at the end of the hallway in nothing but one of my t-shirts. I could see shock and tears in her eyes when they returned to me.

  I held up my hands, feeling panicked. “Gianna, it’s not what you think.”

  Bitterly, she replied, “What a cliché you are, Caleb.”

  Spinning around, she rushed out of the apartment. I saw her go through the door at the end of the hallway to take the stairs and quickly searched for a shirt, socks and shoes to put on.

  Hailey ran her fingers through the knots in her red hair. “What’s going on?”

  “That was my girlfriend and now she thinks I cheated on her with you,” I said agitatedly.

  Hailey gave me a look of mixed disbelief and hurt. “You have a girlfriend?” Why was Hailey acting hurt? We were only friends and neither of us had ever wanted more.

  Slipping on shoes, I snatched my wallet and keys. “Yes, I have a girlfriend, who I need to go catch up with to explain.”

  Leaving the apartment, I ran down the stairs after Gianna. Out on the street, I didn’t see her anywhere. The parking garage was my next destination, figuring she’d probably parked there. Almost to the garage, I saw her Jeep pull out and turn in the opposite direction.

  I didn’t have to be an experienced boyfriend to know my girlfriend finding Hailey like that was bad. How the hell was I going to convince Gianna I did nothing wrong?

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  “Shame, like beauty, is often in the eye of the beholder.”

  -Julie Burchill

  GIANNA

  Did that really just happen? I made a complete fool of myself over that cheating jerk! Obviously I wasn’t the only girl Caleb liked to have sleepovers with at his mom’s place. Why was I even crying? He wasn’t worth it and I should’ve known this would happen. Hell, everyone else knew it would. Caleb couldn’t change who he was. I was stupid falling for a guy like him. Had the whole thing been a game to him?

  No wonder he hadn’t wanted to go camping. He’d had a whole different recreational activity in mind for this weekend. He must’ve been so happy to get rid of me so he could screw around with that slut!

  He’d better just stay away from me at home, because I knew where that motherfucker lived. I could do all sorts of bad things to him in his sleep. Better sleep with one eye open, dirty dog. I shouldn’t have run away like that. I totally spazzed out and ran away instead of bitching him and her out. How pathetic! I should have stayed there and kicked his ass then yanked out both his nipple piercings.

  It was smart to let the anger come. It was much better than the pain. Dammit, now they were just angry tears. I pulled my Jeep over to the side of the road because my vision was getting blurry and I didn’t want to cause a crash. That would really top off an astoundingly bad day.

  I’d never cried over any of the other guys I’d dated. That was probably because they’d never made me feel as much as Caleb had. I really thought he cared about me. He was so attentive to me and protective about the whole Josh thing.

  What started out as him being my annoying new stepbrother blackmailing me, seemed to turn into something more. He acted like he actually gave a damn about my happiness. He claimed to be bothered that my home and school life made me miserable. I thought he saw past my looks to the person I really was. Obviously, I was just another conquest to him. One of god knows how many stupid girls who fell for his handsome face and bad boy charm.

  What an idiot he was, saying he hung out with Dante last night. I wouldn’t have even known it for the lie it was if Dante hadn’t gone camping with us and that skanky girl hadn’t come out of his room when she did. At least I found out now instead of later when I’d look like a bigger fool. Clearly, a player couldn’t change his manwhore stripes.

  Where was I even going? Definitely not home. The asshole could show up and if he did, I couldn’t guarantee I wouldn’t kill him. But I couldn’t sit on the side of the road in my jeep all day.

  CALEB

  When I got back to the apartment, Hailey was dressed in what she wore last night waiting for me. “Caleb, why didn’t you tell me that you had a girlfriend?”

  “I didn’t know I needed to. You and I are just friends, Hailey,” I reminded her.

  “Whatever happened to players for life?” she argued.

  “Things change.” Not feeling like I needed to defend myself to Hailey, I tried calling Gianna but there was no answer. Even if it was pointless, I sent her a text to call me back.

  “Why her?” she asked, sounding hurt again.

  “Why do you care?” I countered, getting annoyed with her.

  Her shoulders jerked in a shrug. “It’s just that, I always thought if you were ever going to pick one girl to be with, it’d be me.”

  Wow, she was so far off the mark. “I’m sorry, Hailey. I don’t see us that way,” I told her softly. Usually I didn’t feel bad about hurting girls’ feelings. Now I was feeling bad about hurting two girls in one day.

  “You saw me that way once,” she pointed out.

  “Yeah, like two years ago and that was just a fling. I didn’t realize it meant more to you. I mean, you never acted like it did. You haven’t exactly been the relationship-type yourself.”

  Her face scrunched up and I couldn’t tell if it was anger or hurt now. “You know what? Never mind, I don’t know what I was thinking. Maybe I’m still drunk.” She didn’t meet my gaze when she spoke, though.

  But I wasn’t one to argue when I given an easy out. “Okay, good to get that cleared up. Now, can I ask you for a favor?”

  She gave me a dirty look. “As long as it involves me going home to shower and change first.”

  Two hours later, when we’d both showered and changed, I drove us to Broomfield. I had it all worked out. Hailey grudgingly agreed to explain everything to Gianna. She would tell her nothing happened and that we were only friends. Then Gianna would forgive me.

  At my dad’s house, Julie said Gianna hadn’t been home. Where could she have gone? She still wasn’t answering my calls or texts.

  Three more hours later, I was driving around the campgrounds Julie said Gianna was at with her cheerleader friends. Little did Julie know, Gianna was with her crew. With Jared. Okay, maybe she hadn’t come up back up here, but I didn’t know where else to look.

  “What’s so special about this girl anyways, Caleb? Why don’t you just forget about her and find another like you always do?” Hailey asked combatively.

  “Are you really that jaded, Hailey? That you think any girl will do? I only want this girl. Gianna is special.”

  “Her name is Gianna? Sounds prissy. I didn’t get a good look at her before she went running off like a baby. Is she pretty?”

  “More than pretty, she’s beautiful. And she went running off because I opened the door half-naked and you came out of my room half-naked. It looked like we’d been bumping uglies.”

  “Classy, Caleb,” Hailey commented snidely.

  Ignoring her bad mood, I continued, “Plus, I lied to her about hanging out with Dante last night.” Which was a moronic. But even if I’d told her the
truth about hanging out with Hailey last night, would Gianna have believed I’d slept on the couch?

  “You’re an idiot.” Hailey laughed obnoxiously as if my being an idiot was the funniest thing she’d ever heard.

  “You’re reading my mind,” I said through clenched teeth. “Finally!” I shouted, seeing Gianna’s Jeep parked behind a few other vehicles. “Fuck, I thought we’d never find them!”

  I parked and got out the car but Hailey wasn’t getting out. Going around the back, I opened the door for her. She didn’t budge. “This is stupid, Caleb. Just forget about her!”

  Grabbing her arm, I yanked her out of the car. “Just be a good friend and tell Gianna what really happened. Most of all, what didn’t happen. Quit being difficult, Hailey. After all the times I’ve taken care of your drunk-ass and gotten in fights when you’ve pissed people off, it’s the least you can do.”

  Weaving through the trees, Hailey complained, “I can’t believe you have me marching through the woods at night. It’s like a bad horror film where the promiscuous girl gets killed first.”

  “Don’t worry. If you’re scared of the dark, I’m sure they have a campfire going.” I could give a fuck how Hailey felt at the moment. I was anxious to set everything straight with Gianna.

  “Well, I can hear music. Hopefully they’ll have a good party going to. I could use a beer,” she said, sounding chipper at the thought.

  “They have a program for that, Hailey. It involves twelve steps. Bad news, though, one of them requires you apologizing to all the people you’ve wronged. It might take you awhile.”

  She slugged me on the arm. “Hey, you better be nice to me. You need me right now.”

  Along with hearing the music, we could see light up ahead through the trees. When we entered the campsite, I saw Cece dancing closely with Dante to the Shakira song playing.

  I didn’t see Gianna. Spotting me and Hailey, Dante shot us a strange look. Cece glared at me took a step in my direction but Dante held her back from confronting me. I didn’t have the patience to listen to Cece right now. A few guys were doing their b-boy thing and couple others were sitting. Hailey and I circled around them.