Chapter 2 // Breaking Curfew

I'm suppose to be going out with Jared tonight.  Only to the movies.  But Rae is making me go to Arin's with her.  And honestly, it feels good to blow off Jared now and then.  Maybe he'll realise I'm not just some stupid teenager obsessed with him.

"You knock," Rae urges me.

"Why can't you knock yourself?  He's your ex," I reply.

Her phone begins to ring and I roll my eyes.  I stand waiting, shivering from the chill in the air.  I don't even know why she wants to come here.  Arin dumped her months ago.

"But I need to get laid," she had pleaded with me earlier.  "So get laid by somebody else," I'd told her.  But no.  She'd insisted that we go to Arin's anyway.

Rae is mid conversation when Arin's housemate, Damon, greets me outside the house.

"Robbie?" he says, surprised.  I hate it when people call me Robbie.  He clocks Rae behind me and his shoulders tense.

"What's she doing here?" he asks.

I laugh and give him a smile.

"You know why she's here," I say.

He scratches his cheek and heads back to the house.

"Come on, it's cold out here," he says, beckoning for me to follow.

"Rae!" I yell.  She says her goodbyes on the phone, flicks her hair over her shoulder and follows behind me.

The house smells of take-out pizza.  The grease practically caresses my face as I walk into the kitchen.  I scrunch up my nose.

"Sorry about the smell," Damon says.

"What smell?" Rae asks, smiling, twirling a strand of her blonde hair around her finger.  So innocent and yet, so not.

"So ugh... Is Arin about?" I ask, seeing as Rae is just standing there.

"Nope," Damon says.  "Night shift."

"Well, this is awkward then," I say.

Rae jabs me in the arm.

"Where's your girlfriend?" Rae asks him.

He laughs and his cheeks flush red.  He stands against the counter and sweeps a hand through his hair.

"No girlfriend, I'm afraid," he replies.

"Too bad, you're cute," she says.

"We better be off then," I say to Damon.

"Robyn, no!  We can wait," Rae says.

Damon isn't happy about the idea.  I can tell by the look in his eyes.

"No really.  We should go," I tell her, grabbing her arm.

"Listen, Damon," she says, batting my hand away from her.  "I know Arin hates me right now, but I need to talk to him.  Will you make sure he calls me?" she asks.

"Whoa, that's your's and Arin's business," he says.  "Too complicated for me to get involved."

Rae is ancy now.  She's tapping her foot and biting her lip and I know she wants to get laid but she looks awfully desperate right now.

"Rae, we're going... Now," I say.

I hear a police siren in the background and look at my watch.  Shit.  We broke curfew.

"Damon, the cops are here," I say.  "Go distract them so we can get out the back."

He looks uncomfortable.

"I'll try," he says.

I try to get out the back with Rae but the door is locked and I see no key.

"We're gonna have to go out the front," I whisper.

Rae laughs.

"It's not funny," I tell her.

"Oh lighten' up.  It's just a cop.  I'll show him a boob or something!"

I gasp.  She's so gross.  Really, she's terrible.  But then I laugh because she's funny as hell and I know she'll do it.  She always does.

"I'm sorry officer," I say.

"Just get in the car, I have crime to fight," he says sternly.

In this town? Yeah, right.  I do as I'm told and sit in the back.  Rae's in the front, applying lip gloss in the car mirror.

I roll my eyes.

"Do you want to see something, Officer?" Rae asks.

"Oh my gosh! Rae, no!" I shout from the back seat.

When we arrive home Jared is going ape.  Totally bat-shit crazy.

Rae heads into the house, leaving me alone with jared and his lecturing.

"I was worried sick," he shouts at me.  "What if something had of happened?"

"Nothing did, alright!" I yell at him.

"You're grounded, Robyn," he says.

"Grounded? What the actual eff, Jared.  What are you, my dad?"

He lets his hands rest in his pockets.  This is where it gets complicated.  Is Jared my boyfriend or my guardian?  He works here at Lott's Children's Home, helping Miss Lott to take care of us.  But he kisses me in the dark and promises me a future so perfect I can barely wait.

I follow Rae into the house and slump into the sofa.

"In there, now," Jared says to Rae, pointing towards his room.

"This is all your doing," I can hear him shouting through the wall.

"Like hell it is," she says.  "Just stop being so damn bossy.  You can't tell us what to do!"

"I can and I will.  Miss Lotts is going to hear about this and you'll be shipped off to another home.  Do you want that?"

"Maybe.  Maybe I do, Jared.  I'm not stupid you know.  I know what you and her get up to around here."

"What are you talking about?" he shouts.

"Robyn."

I pull a blanket up over my shoulders and listen intently, but the conversation has ended.

"Get out of my room," he shouts.  "And send Robyn back in."

"So you can give her a goodnight kiss?" she asks as she waltzes out of his room.

She stares daggers at me and I feel my cheeks redden.

"He wants to see you again," she says to me as she passes by and heads to her bedroom.

I nod and slowly push Jared's bedroom door open.

"You wanted to see me again?"

"Where were you anyway?" he asks, calmer now.

"Arin's," I say.

He paces the room and then sits on the bed.

"Why Arin's?"

"Rae wanted to see him," I say.  I'm pleased to tell him too.  He'll hopefully be done with her for good now.  

His face softens and he strokes my cheek.  I want to push myself up against him and be embraced by his warmth but it's too complicated.  I realise this now.  My paranoia and our age and his work position.  It's too much.

"Sleep here tonight?" he asks.

I shake my head.

"No, Jared.  It's too risky.  I can't do this anymore."