Problem Child

So the next morning I expected Billie Joe to be gone, and guess what? I was right! I got dressed and went downstairs where Grace, Jonathan and the social worker were sat at the kitchen table.

"Oh morning sweety." Grace said coming over to me. "Can I get you any breakfast?" She asked kindly.

"Um, no thanks I'm good. What's going on?" I asked.

"Billie Joe ran away last night." Jonathan said delivering the news I'd been expecting.

"Oh." I said half-heartedly looking down at my feet.

"Summer what's wrong?" Grace asked me on seeing my guilty expression.

"Nothing it's just, well, last night Billie Joe came into my room and asked me for money so that he could take the bus somewhere." I explained. The three adults all looked at each other.

"What? Oh Summer why didn't you tell us!" Grace exclaimed sounding a little mad. Like it was MY fault he left!

"I...I just didn't think..." I stammered, sounding suprised by her reaction.

"No you didn't think!" She snapped at me. She'd never spoken to me that way before, it was weird. Jonathan looked at me with sympathy.

"Can we try the police again?" The social worker asked to break the tension that was mounting in the room. Grace grabbed the phone from the kitchen top and began to dial. No sooner had she held the phone to her ear the doorbell rang. Everyone made their way to the front door. I stood a safe distance away. As the door opened I could see two policemen each holding the arm of a young, blonde haired boy.

"Oh Billie Joe." Grace sighed with relief.

"Get the fuck offa me!!" Billie cried trying to struggle free from the cops who held on to him tightly.

"It's okay Billie just calm down." The social worker assured him.

"Get fucked!" He snapped at her. The adult's eyes widened and I just tried to look invisible.

"Summer, go to your room please." Jonathan ordered. I looked at him in wide-eyed confused. "Now please!" He repeated. I scuttled off up the stairs but waited on the landing. They managed to get the boy to come inside and into the kitchen where the social worker tried to calm him. Grace and Jonathan were asked to wait in the other room. It had been 10 mintues and the police had left. I got curious so I crept my way down the stairs ever so slowly. When I reached the bottom I could see that the kitchen door was ajar. I stood behind it and listened.

"Billie Joe, these are nice people. Can't you just stay at least a few days and try and get to know them?" The social worker asked him.

"I don't wana get to know them. The woman freaks me out, the guy seems like a dick and that girl keeps coming on to me, she's a total nutjob." He lied. The social worker paused.

"How do you mean Billie?" She asked sounding concerned.

"She just keeps asking me to do all this bad stuff to her, I mean REAL bad, kinda perverted. I told her to stop but she won't listen." He said. I stood there open mouthed in shock and disgust. Who the hell did he think he was?? I couldn't take it any longer so I burst through the kitchen door to confront him.

"You goddamn liar!!" I yelled making them both jump. "You're sick in the head!" I continued pointing directly at him.

"See? I told you she's totally crazy! She's obsessed with me." He said calmly. I could hardly breathe I was so angry.

"YOU'RE the one who asked me to have sex with you, you fucking pervert!" I yelled. Little did I know that Grace and Jonathan were stood right behind me at this point. Did this make the atmosphere even more tense? What do you think...

"Summer Phoebe Roberts that is enough!" Grace shouted causing me to jump out of my skin. "Now just what the hell is going on?" She demanded. The social looked at her in dispear.

"I think we may have a problem here." She said. Understatement of the fucking century!

"Well...I'm waiting." Grace continued. After a few seconds of silence I went to open my mouth but Billie Joe beat me to it.

"Look, maybe I could have been mistaken about the whole sexual harrassment thing." Billie said flippantly.

"The what?" Jonathan said in shock. The social worker had to fill them both in on the accusations. Only mine were well deserved! "Those are some pretty serious accusations you two." He said to us.

"I know, and I'm sorry if I made you feel bad Summer but I guess I just misread the situation." Billie Joe said as if he was suddenly the golden child.

"Thank you Billie, Summer?" Jonathan said pushing me to apologize. I looked at him in disbelief.

"What? HE'S the one who wanted to have sex with me!" I cried.

"Please Summer, we've had enough trouble for one day. Just appologize and we can forget all about it. I stood there open mouthed but I knew this was a fight I couldn't win.

"Fine, sorry." I muttered. Billie smiled to himself, I could have punched him!

"That's good enough, now why don't we all sit down for breakfast?" Jonathan suggested.

"I'm not hungry." I mumbled bitterly before stomping off upstairs. I shut my door and sat at my computer desk scribbling bad words into my journal. I only wrote in it when I was mad or upset so now was one of those times.

* * * *

About 5 minutes later Billie Joe entered my room. I was still at my desk but I shut my journal on hearing the door open. He had this sickly smug look on his face that I wanted to wipe off. He walked right on over to me and peered down.

"What do YOU want?" I asked through gritted teeth. He pushed my chair violently against the wall with his foot and lowered his face to mine.

"If you ever try and tell tails on me again, you'll be sorry." He said with an icey stare. I could feel my whole body tense up. Before he was just a little creepy but now I was scared. He looked right into my dark brown eyes. "There are two sides to me, one is bad, and the other is even worse. Just remember that the next time you think about shooting your mouth off." He threatened. "What? You've got nothing to say now?" He said keeping close to me. I sat completely still. I could feel his warm breath on my neck. He smirked and took his foot off of the chair. "Catch ya later." He said before exiting the room. I exhailed rapidly and pulled my knees in close to my chest. He was a fucking psycho! Should I tell somebody what just happened? No, they didn't believe me earlier so they wouldn't now...

Jonathan and I were watching TV together. It was Sunday so nobody was at work.

"Can I get a lock on my door?" I asked hopefully. He laughed and frowned at me.

"Why do you want a lock on your door? You're a bit old to be scared of the boogy man y'know." He joked. I stared at him blankly.

"The boogy man lives in the closet, but that's not the reason." I continued.

"Alright, so why?" He asked again. Suddenly a look of realisation crossed his face. "Oh I understand, now that there's a boy in the house you wana make sure you've still got your privacy." He said looking pleased that he'd worked it out. I decided to go with this because the alternative reason was a bit dark. I nodded my head simply. "Well I'll talk to your Mom about it okay kiddo?" He said meeting me half way. I sighed. I knew she'd never agree. Jonathan got up to get a drink from the kitchen and as soon as he'd left the room in walked Billie Joe without a care in the world. My mouth went dry but I tried not to show that I was on edge. He sat down right next to me. Our legs were touching he was sitting so close.

"Hey Summer." He purred. I grimaced and tried to ignore him and make out that I was watching TV. All of a sudden I was very aware of what I was wearing. A denim mini skirt, black tights, and a Clash t-shirt. Not exactly suggestive but I could feel him eyeing up my legs.

"Your skirt's too short." He stated looking back at the TV.

"What are you, the fashion police?" I snortted.

"I'm not complaining, I like it." He said. He put his hand on my knee and then slid it up to the top of my right thigh. I pushed his hand away and got up. He caught my arm as I tried to walk past him. Jonathan appeared at the door and I felt Billie suddenly let go and look straight back at the TV. Had Jonathan seen him? I guessed he hadn't when he returned to the couch with his beer and sat back down next to Billie Joe. I stood there silently for a moment not knowing what the hell to do.

"Are you sitting down or what?" Jonathan asked me. He got annoyed whenever I hovered near the TV. Without replying I hurried out of the room and into the kitchen where Grace was preparing some snacks.

"Grace..." I said shackiliy. She glanced up at me and smiled.

"What is it honey?" She asked sweetly.

"Um, it's um...it's Billie Joe." I said. She turned back to the food.

"I think he's doing much better don't you?" She said. "And I think I have YOU to thank." She added. I stared at her in confusion. "Summer don't look at me like that honey it's rude to stare." She pointed out. I rolled my eyes.

"Sorry, but why are you thanking me?" I asked.

"Well Billie Joe said that you two had a talk and he seems to really like you." She said sounding pleased. I felt sick.

"He did?" I croaked. She nodded and started putting chips into a bowl.

"Now your father and I were supposed to be going over to Susan and Martin's tomorrow night for dinner, but because of the trouble we had with Billie yesterday we cancelled. But seeing as the two of you are getting on now, we might just go after all. Is that okay?" She asked. I knew she wasn't really giving me a choice. My palms got sweaty and I felt a little faint at the idea of Billie and I alone in the house together.

"I don't...I um...I was going out tomorrow with my friends." I lied. Grace looked immediately disappointed. She walked over and closed the kitchen door then lowered her voice.

"Sweety, as happy as I am about Billie's change in attitude, I still would rather him not be alone in the house when he's only been with us a couple of days." She explained. Yep, just as I thought, I had no choice. "And you can go out with your friends any time can't you?" Again, she wasn't really asking me. I nodded and she smiled warmly. "Thank you." I sat down at the table and picked at my finger nails. I wondered if now was a good time to ask about the lock on my door...