Boys And Their Toys: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Troubled Playthings 1)

wants to play at the moment then good for you, but it won’t last. You’ll waste a lot of time trying to figure out the rules of the game and he won’t even be thinking about you at the time.”

She was right. She had to be right. Did I really believe Lucas was thinking about me right now? But still I wanted to resist the idea.

“Aren’t you supposed to be his friend?” I said. “It doesn’t seem very nice that you’re here trashing him like this.”

“I’m his friend, not his publicity agent,” Ashleigh said. “I’m telling it how it is, and yeah, I probably wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t so obvious you need it. I’m trying to save you from a whole lot of trouble you don’t need.”

I couldn’t help myself. “Is this what you were going to tell me when you called my house the week before last?”

Ashleigh gave Petra a funny look. “I never called your house,” she said. “Why would I even know your number? You must be getting things confused.”

She wasn’t a bad actress. If I hadn’t known she called me, I would have been fooled. Petra looked like she was fooled. But Ashleigh definitely had something else to say that she wasn’t willing to talk about in front of Petra, and since I’d blown her off the first time I had no idea if she even wanted to tell me now.

“Okay, well thanks for talking to me anyway,” I said.

“I’m serious, Calista,” Ashleigh said. “Don’t waste your time on Lucas. It’s not going to be healthy for you.”

“Thanks,” I repeated, backing away slowly. I didn’t make any promises, because I wasn’t sure I could lie to Ashleigh. It was probably written all over my face, the same as the fact that something had happened between me and Lucas.

I knew I wasn’t going to just ‘stop wasting my time’ on him. I didn’t think he was done with me for a start, and then even if he did ignore me and make every aspect of my life hard, the moments when he was paying attention to me were so powerful they managed to erase the bad side of dealing with him.

I didn’t think I was aiming to get in a relationship with Lucas anyway, which seemed to be Ashleigh’s main concern. I wasn’t sure what else there was to be going for, but I would just have to find out.

When I finally turned and started walking away properly, I didn’t even get a chance to count one before a burst of giggling rose up from behind me. Yeah, I must have seemed pretty funny to those girls, getting so fired up over a guy who did not even really exist in the same world as me.

I supposed they were welcome to laugh. I had a mystery to solve, and so far, absolutely no leads.

Chapter Ten

The next time I saw Lucas, it was three-forty on a Friday afternoon, school was finally over for the week, and I’d already just about switched my mind to where it would need to be to get my work done when I realised he was leaning against the car I could still barely believe was mine.

Well, it was a little easier to accept thanks to a small decorative addition that had been made at some point on Thursday, which I saw at once Lucas had noticed, because he was running his fingertips over the scratches, tracing the shape they formed.

“I notice you’ve been keeping the top up,” he called as soon as I got close. He had priorities, apparently.

“I like to actually arrive where I’m going without my hair all ruffled up by the wind,” I said.

“Nah,” Lucas said, “all women look better when they’re a bit ruffled up.”

He lifted his hand off the car to pinch a bit of my hair between two fingers and flick it. Suddenly I was rigid with both nervousness and something that might have been anticipation.

“I noticed the threatening symbol someone’s scratched into it on this side as well,” Lucas added, pointing at the cartoon penis outline.

I sighed. “Yeah, that was bound to happen.” I wanted to point out nobody had been interested in vandalising my nice boring used car in all the time I’d had it, but after all the time I’d spent obsessing over Jillian, finding no evidence that disproved the idea that she was his long-dead girlfriend, I didn’t have the heart to go into the car fight again. “It’s okay, it’s not particularly threatening. Not exactly very big.”

“It’s not mine,” said Lucas, “that’s for sure.” He straightened and stepped away from the car. “How about we head off somewhere for the rest of the afternoon?”

“I’ve got to go to work this afternoon,” I said. “Sorry.”

He leaned back against the car, folding his arms in front of him. “Working constantly, and still no money to buy herself a decent fucking car.”

“My car was decent for me,” I said, “until it got smashed into twice. All this work doesn’t help me if nobody will let me get ahead. I am sorry, though.” I had to push myself past my hesitation. I didn’t really want to be the one seeming to ask him out, but if I wanted to find out about Jillian it seemed he was the only useful source of information, and if I wanted to get anything out of him I would have to spend some time with him where we weren’t at odds. “I have to work a lot of Saturday too, but if you want to hang out on Sunday I’m going to be free.”

“No,” said Lucas, “I want to hang out now. I’ll come to work with you.”

“You can’t do that,” I said. “What are you going to do, sit in the car and stare at me through the window while I get my boss’s tax paperwork in order?”

“I’m going to be sitting right next to you, obviously.”