Trouble by Non Pratt Read Free Book Online Page B

and onto my school shirt.
    “Hey, pet, shh.” She pulls me to her. “You don’t know anything for sure until you take a test. Have you?”
    I shake my head into her cardigan. Gran gently pushes me upright and creaks out of her chair and takes a twenty out of her handbag. I get up, intending to wave it away, but she presses it into my hand and gives me a look that means business.
    “There’s a chemist round the corner by the parade. Get two tests and come back here.” She strokes the back of my hand with soft, cool fingers. “You don’t need to do this alone.”

AARON
    Rex is having a house party. Depending on who you ask, he’s either celebrating the end of the half-term, or the end of his relationship with the invisible girlfriend. Either way, he plans to get wasted and get laid – in that order. He’s invited half the school to his house tonight and it’s all the guys have been talking about. Tyrone is grumbling because Marcy’s got some modelling job that means she can’t come. I say, “grumbling”; I mean, boasting.
    I cut my visit to the old folks’ home short so I could come early and hang out with Rex. I don’t really know why he asked me over, but it’s nice of him and since there’s a certain weight of expectation from Mum that her son will socialize on Fridays, I accepted.
    I’m starting to regret my decision.
    “What do you reckon?” This is the fourth shirt he’s tried on and it doesn’t look that different from the last three.
    “Fine,” I say, looking at my phone and wondering when the others will get here.
    “Come on, man. I need your help.”
    “Why?” I know nothing about clothes, nor why Rex cares. It’s just a house party.
    “You always dress cool. I want to look good.”
    “In that case I should have brought my mum over. She’s the one who buys my clothes,” I say, letting my guard down.
    Rex laughs and I do too. It feels like we’re mates.
    “Seriously, though. I need to look good.” He crashes back onto his bed and looks at me.
    “Why?”
    “Have you ever fallen for someone you shouldn’t?”
    I shrug, but Rex isn’t really asking me – for which I am grateful.
    “That’s totally happening to me.” He sits up and looks at me seriously. “Don’t tell anyone this, but I’m, like, obsessed with Katie Coleman.”
    “Really?” I have no idea how he’s found anything in her to obsess over. There’s no depth there that I can see.
    “I know, I know…” He doesn’t. He thinks I’m puzzled because of her reputation. Actually that’s the one thing I can understand Rex would find enticing, since he seems unbelievably desperate to get his end off. “But I just think she’s got levels, y’know? She’s such a tease, but half of it’s just front.”
    There’s an obvious joke there about the cup size of Katie’s front, but I don’t go for it.
    “I thought you pulled her the other week?” The night I left the park with Hannah.
    “Nah.” Rex shrugs. “Was in a relationship, wasn’t I?”
    I hope that question is rhetorical, because if I had to answer, I’d tell him that it doesn’t count if the person you’re seeing doesn’t exist.
    “So … now you’re single, you’ll shag Katie?” I ask, without actually wanting to know.
    “Might not be that easy, mate.”
    “Yeah, right.” My disbelief is palpable.
    “Just because you went there with Hannah doesn’t mean Katie’s the same…” I should remind him that Katie gave one of his friends a hand job behind the toilets in the park, but he’s still talking. “Besides, you’ve seen how Tyrone is about Hannah – can’t stand her.”
    There’s no arguing with that. I could count on one hand the words he’s spoken to me since the Hannah incident.
    “You can’t let Tyrone tell you who to fancy,” I hear myself saying.
    “I know, but he’s my best mate and Hannah’s Katie’s best mate … I don’t want it to be difficult if I start seeing her.”
    He wants to go out with her? I