Saving from Monkeys by Jessie L. Star Read Free Book Online Page B

translation dictionary. Now, while not exactly effusive, he at least formed proper sentences, and anyone could see that he was completely besotted with Abi. That was enough for me.
    Still, Jonah was still by no means the most subtle of conversationalists, as demonstrated when, in response to my explanation of what I was studying, he said, "You're doing all that business stuff so you don't end up like your mum, hey?"
    Abi and Elliot's conversation faltered and Elliot snapped his head round to look at us, his expression flint-like. "Any of us would be lucky to end up like Rox's mum," he said flatly.
    Sweet and everything, but not exactly true. My mum was great, but it has to be said that Jonah had a point; I really didn't want her life.
    Mum’d left school at 17 and picked up a job as a cleaner before clearly reading too many romance novels and fancying herself in love with the son of the house. From what I can gather, he enjoyed the flirting, but when the flirting turned into unprotected sex and I was conceived, he became less keen on the whole thing. My mum was put out on her ear and that was that.
    For my first 10 years my mum took various jobs and worked hard, but the poverty line was still something we aspired to until she got the job with the Sinclair family and finally found some stability. When I turned 14 and was able to work as well things improved further, but at the end of the day, my mum still had very little show for all her hard work.
    That was not going to happen to me. Period.
    "Cinders, I didn't mean..." Jonah looked stricken and I nodded.
    "It's cool, I know you weren't having a go." And I did, but I seemed to be the only one. Abi looked disturbingly like her 'perfect boyfriend bubble' had deflated a little and Elliot's jaw was still clenched tightly.
    "Hey, Smelliot," I broke the moment by bringing out the last of our triad of stupid childhood nicknames and poking him with the fork again.
    "What?" He snapped out of his 'defend Rox's mum' daze, plucking the pronged cutlery out of my hand and putting it down on the other side of the table, pointedly out of my reach.
    "Why don't you tell Abi about the time you and Jonah rescued that mother duck and her ducklings?"
    He looked at me like I was mad, but this was nothing new for me and I gazed calmly back, before looking across at Abi and explaining, "Elliot and Jonah once found this family of ducks in the storm drain. They managed to pull the cover up and spent all day trying to catch each of them and get them to safety."
    "Aww," Abi cooed, as I knew she would, leaning in against Jonah's side and clearly forgiving him for his earlier insensitive remark.
    "We were the ones who hit the ball that scared them down there in the first place," Elliot spoke quietly out of the corner of his mouth as the waitress came back with our food.
    "Yeah, I know that, but Abi doesn't need to," I whispered back, feeling infinitesimally more kindly towards him after his swift defence of my mum. "Besides, you were only 12 and you felt awful about it so that's something."
    He laughed softly and I hastily focused my attention on my newly arrived meal as I caught another whiff of his light scent that made my nostrils tingle, not unpleasantly.
    The 'getting to know you' lunch progressed quite well from there. Abigail, being the safest bet for us all, found herself the most popular conversational partner, but I managed to exchange a few words and smiles with Jonah, and only stabbed Elliot once with my butter knife.
    All things considered, I thought I'd been on my best behaviour, but then the bill arrived. Beaming the smile of the well-intentioned, Jonah picked it up, heartily announcing, as if he'd discovered a cure for cancer, "I'll get this."
    Before I knew what was happening, I'd snatched it off him with a sharp, "No you won't."
    Abi's mouth dropped open, Jonah looked at his now empty hand as if wondering how he'd been so quickly dispossessed, and Elliot groaned quietly and muttered,