The Boyfriend Bet by Josie Eccles Read Free Book Online Page B

my bag. “You two coming?” They nodded and followed me to the
door.
    Just at the worst time ever, Ella came waltzing down the
stairs. She stared at me for a couple of seconds and then just put her head
back and roared with laughter. The worst part of it was, just to rub salt in
the wounds, she looked stunning. The whole time I had been ruining my hair she
had been upstairs getting ready. God knows where she was going but she had
clipped all of her extensions in, so her hair was even longer - nearly to her
waist. She had the skinniest skinny jeans the world has ever seen and a pair of
six inch heels that had made her legs look extremely long. What a cow.
    “Off somewhere nice?” Bex muttered in her usual sarcastic
way.
    “As a matter of fact, I knocked on Riley’s door earlier
and offered to show him around town. He’s new you know.” Ella smiled at me. I
did a death stare at her. Seriously, if looks could kill she would have been
dead a long time ago.
    “Let’s go.” I muttered. I desperately hoped Riley was
going to bail out on Ella’s offer to ‘show him around town’, and how the hell
was Ella going to walk anywhere in those monster heels? I pulled open the front
door. I just wanted to go. I was in such a mad hurry that I almost knocked
Riley over! He had his hand out and was about to ring the doorbell.
    “Sorry!”
    “Hi...erm...interesting hair.” Riley was staring at my
head, and I was going a nice shade of red. What a lovely combination with the
orange hair. Ella was laughing her stupid pathetic, fake, girly laugh.
    So not only was I wearing my dance stuff, I had orange
hair and no make-up on and a face that was getting redder by the second. I
might as well die now.
    “Ella’s going to show me round.” Riley said as I squeezed
past him. I wanted to escape as fast as I could. “Do you wanna come?”
    I stopped in my tracks. So he wanted me to come? He
didn’t want Ella all to himself, interesting....very interesting.
    “Erm I can’t, I’ve got dance class.” I signalled to my
clothes in a lame attempt to explain what I was wearing. “And I kind of have a
slight hair situation at the moment.” I did my best chilled out smile, as
though I was in total control and had utter confidence that the hair problem
would be sorted soon.
    “Shame.” Riley smiled at me and I think I kind of died
and went to heaven, and Ella was scowling at me behind him.
    “You didn’t hurt yourself when you fell out of that tree
house last night then?”  Riley interrupted my brief moment.
    “What?” Ella asked, looking intrigued.
    “Tell you about it on the way, it’s really funny.” Riley
said. “Dad thought we had some sort of intruder. It was dark so he was about to
call the police!” Riley was laughing like it was the best joke he’d heard all
year. “And it was just Charley and her mates, bird watching!”
    “Bird watching?” Ella said in surprise. She grabbed hold
of Riley’s arm and they started walking down the path. “In the dark?”
    “Um...yeah, they had binoculars and everything.” Riley
carried on walking with Ella. Ella turned to look at me, she was shaking her
head in disbelief but she was mocking me too, no doubt about it.
    “Are you sure he’s really the one for you?” Bex was also
shaking her head. “He’s such a dumb ass!”
    “I think he was taking the piss,” I snapped. “Just like
everybody else does!”
     
    *****
     
    Two and a half hours later, I’d finally made it home from
dance and Sarah and Bex were sitting on my doorstep. I sighed because if it was
possible, I felt even more miserable than before. It obviously meant there was
still nobody at home and Ella and Riley must be having a super-fab day out. Oh
goody.
    I opened the door and threw my bag under the stairs in a
totally pissed off kind of way. Sometimes you just want everybody else to share
your bad mood and this was one of those occasions; seeing as they were
completely responsible I didn’t think they