Status: AWESOME GOOD great

The Bubblegum Fairy and the Bad Boy

You're quiet

He sighed into her hair and refrained the urge to chuckle. The poor kid, he thought with amusement, she'd fallen down the rabbit hole when she wanted to get to know him better, and now she was desperately wishing for a ladder.

But despite the fact that he should probably lie a little, if only to keep her rose-tinted world just the way it was, he instead answered honestly, "Yes. He does bad things. But so does everybody in some way. Its just human nature."

She nodded slowly. "Yeah, but not everybody touches me the way he does."

He thought he might have misheard her. She mumbled the sentence into his chest, as if she was deeply ashamed, so he could have possibly mistaken her words. But that wouldn't have explained why he felt a burning ball in the back of his throat, or why he felt the sudden desire to rip Trevor in two.

"What do you mean, he touches you?" He said finally, his voice deceptively calm.

But as if she didn't hear him, she started on her own rant. "And he shouldn't touch me like that because he has a girlfriend and if she knew he touched me like that, she would definitely cut my face open with her nose ring. But he does. And he even looks at me while he's kissing her and I know I shouldn't look back because it's not the nicest thing I've ever seen, but I can't seem to help myself." She stared up at him then, her eyes deeply troubled. "I don't like it, Jake."

He had to look away from her so she wouldn't see the fury written across his face. He had to look away from her plaintive eyes and her trembling lips. He had to look away because if he didn't, he might do something he would regret when what he really should be doing was hunting Trevor down to punch a hole through his chest. And he most definitely had to look away from her because he didn't want to risk glimpsing a faint trace of returned desire for someone that was in no way, shape or form deserving of her. He didn't want to think that she might be so confused because she might want Trevor back, and he definitely didn't want to see the answer break dawn in her eyes.

So, without looking at her he asked, "How does he touch you? Does he hurt you?"

He felt her shake her head in denial. "He doesn't hurt me. But," She sighed, as if she dreaded the recollection, "At first he started by playing with my hair. And then he sort of turned it into stroking, which I didn't really mind because it kind of felt nice. But then he'd start doing it to my neck and then my back and then his hand would drift down and sort of touch my-" she stopped, took a deep breath and continued, "Well, you know. And then the other day he kind of came up behind me in P.E and he sort of…"

She broke off then and he stared at her, uncaring to whether or not his eyes were burning with rage. "He sort of what?"

She swallowed and answered in a very meek voice, "Kissed my neck. And then he said I tasted delicious." Her eyes lowered while she stared intently at nothing. "It made me feel funny."

Funny? There was nothing funny about this situation. "So does that mean you like him?"

She shook her head. "He shouldn't do it. Not when he has a girlfriend."

He noticed she blatantly didn't answer his question. He needed an answer. Even if it was the wrong one. "What if I told you Kate wasn't his girlfriend? What if I told you they were just friends with… benefits?"

Her eyes glanced up at him with surprise. "They are? So that's just his way of being friendly?"

"Yes." He stopped abruptly, shook his head and started again. "I mean, no. No, they're not together. And no, I think he wants to be a little bit more than friends with you."

Her eyes dropped to his chest. "He does?"

He took a deep breath before asking, "Would you want that?"

Her brow crinkled in thought and he almost despaired knowing her answer. He definitely knew he didn't want it to be yes. That much he knew for sure. But she surprised him by saying, "I don't want my first kiss to belong to him."

The very idea that something that seemed so pointless and yet so precious to her could be given with such detrimental consequences and concentrated purpose, almost gave the notion of a first kiss more power. He never really gave thought to a person's first times being coveted – not their virginity and certainly not a kiss. But that it was so important to her made him feel almost humbled and cemented the fact that no one, not Trevor, not him, was deserving of her.

And even as he knew he shouldn't ask it. Even as he probably already knew how she would reply, he asked it anyway. "Who do you want to kiss then?"

Her contemplating eyes landed on his lips and he had to swallow the sudden catch of breath in his throat. "Is Rachel Wallingham your girlfriend?"

He frowned, completely gobsmacked by the question. "Who told you that?"

"Trevor."

"Of course he did." He grumbled under his breath – another reason to rip into him.

"Is she?"

"No. She's just…" He sighed, unsure how to explain it. "She's just a friend."

"A friend with benefits?"

Strike the friend and put heavy emphasis on the 'benefits'. "Yeah. Something like that."

"What do you do with her?"

And since he was always honest with her, he replied, "We have sex."

"Even though she's not your girlfriend?"

He sighed, frustrated now. "You don't have to be in a relationship to have sex with a person, you know?"

And now he probably just officially cracked those rose-tinted glasses she wore. It wasn't right that a person her age could be so innocent. Surely she at least had television to put a bit of sense into that ditzy head. Surely she'd read a magazine or a smutty book sometime in her existence. She was in a public high school, for fuck sake, how was it she was so bloody dense? Even if she had been home schooled by a bible bashing granny for the first fifteen years of her life, surely she'd been in the real world long enough to know what it was about.

But instead of going off on a preaching spiel about monogamy and virtue, she surprised him by saying, "I suppose." And then she shrugged. "Well, that's good then."

His eyes narrowed, surprised by her answer. "It is? Why?"

"Because then I can do this and not feel guilty."

And before he could ask what the hell she was on about now, she lifted her head and kissed him.

It was close lipped. It was sweet. It was soft. It was very chaste. And it just about made him pass out.

But before he could respond, before he could teach her how to kiss properly, before he could open his mouth and dive in whole-heartedly, she pulled back, opened her eyes, smiled and said, "I want you to have it."

"Have it?" He asked stupidly.

"My first kiss." She stated simply. "I don't want to give it to Trevor. At least, now that it's yours, nobody else can get it."
♠ ♠ ♠
comment for more