A/N Strong Language. Adult scenes. Borrowing the character Freddie Jackson From the TV series "The Take"
Freddie Jackson had never felt like this before. Sure, he had his own kids. He was pissed when his girls got into fights at school or when his son broke the washing machine, but he'd never felt anything like this. When he was in the pub taking the mick out of Jimmy, Jimmy's mum came into the pub hysterical. It was the beginning of the end for life as he knew it. He couldn't remember the drive there. He didn't want to picture it. He couldn't.
He didn't think it could get worse until he walked into the Morgue. Jimmy's Dad Paul came in. He told them the truth. Freddie thought Paul was taking the piss, but why would he lie? Freddie could feel the guilt swallow him whole. Jimmy looked at the slab, and was ready to beat the shit out of him. But he took it one step further. He took out his gun. "You fucking deserve it…for what you did to my beautiful boy!" He yelled putting the gun into Freddie's shoulder.
"What? You gonna kill me Jimmy?" Freddie asked.
He turned down the radio as he could hear his Brother's come up the stairs. If Ziggy heard One Direction's new song coming out if his room, he would never hear the end of it. He was getting ready to meet Holly. He was sick of playing second best to Callum. But Holly wasn't complaining. There must be a way to make her see. To make her pick him. Jason was smart, but he didn't know what he could do to make girls notice him.
He walked to the bathroom and bumped into Ziggy talking on the phone. "Yeah yeah love, I'll check more than your tires if you want….yeah pull up at the Garage anytime, I'll be waiting" Ziggy said ending the call. "How do you do that?" Jason asked.
"What?" Ziggy asked.
"How do you just get girls….like that?" Jason said.
"Just treat 'em mean mate, you can't go wrong" Ziggy said with a nod. Jason nodded and went to the bathroom wondering if he should use his brother's aftershave to impress Holly . If Ziggy wore it, then he should too. Jason took the aftershave and splashed it on his face and under his arms and on his neck. It itched but Jason told himself that it was worth it.
Holly wouldn't be able to resist him now.
Freddie found his own little boy at the park. He couldn't look him the eye. As a parent, he never wanted to think the worst of his kids. He'd made his own fair share of mistakes. He'd had kids when he was a child. Most of the time, he acted like a kid. But his kids were alright, well….most of the time. Apart from this time. His son Little Freddie had crossed the line of no return. Freddie took him home. Little Freddie stuck by his Dad's hip, wanting to be read a story, wanting a hug. But Freddie passed him onto Little Freddie's Mum and went out to get drunk.
He had it all planned out in his head. He met Holly and took Ziggy's advice. He was going to lay down the law. He went into Price slice with some flowers. Holly came out in a T-shirt and shorts.
"You look amazing" Jason said.
"Yeah, so shall we go?" Holly said getting out from the counter, As soon as she was outside, she was on the lookout for Callum.
"Why don't me and you go out?" Jason asked. Holly laughed.
"You know I'm taken" Holly said.
"I can take you with me" Jason said. "Not like take you in a car, or anything creepy like that….."
"You smell weird…." Holly said. Holly stepped away from him until they could both see Callum.
"Hey, you alright?" Callum asked kissing Holly on the cheek.
"Yeah let's go" Holly said. She turned and looked at Jason. I'll be back for you to walk me back okay?" Holly said. Jason watched the happy couple walk away. He took a bus into town and went to the arcade. He could forget about Holly while he was playing Commando and Street fighter. His Brother Robbie was better at it. Jason was blowing a Zombie's brains out when he heard some guy swearing at the cash machines.
"Fuck" Freddie muttered as he lost again. He slammed his fists on the machine. "My fucking money" He said. He put his hand in the machine slot. He felt around looking for any spare change, before he got tapped on the shoulder by security.
"Sir you're scaring the customers" The security man said. Freddie took out a cigarette and dropped a five pound note in the process.
"Sorry but I can do whatever the fuck I want. I can smoke if I wanna" Freddie said. He was taken out by security. He was tossed out and ready to get pissed again, when someone ran up to him.
"Umm….hi…..Sir" Jason said. Freddie turned around to see a kid standing there with a fiver in his hand. Jason gave him the fiver.
"This is yours mate" Jason said. Freddie grabbed the fiver and put it back in his pocket.
"Sir? I'm Freddie. Cheers….you're an honest little fucker ain't ya?" Freddie said.
"That's my Brother's name. Less of the little. I'm Jason. I'm at College and everything" Jason said.
"Oh….what's 140 X 65? Freddie asked.
"9,100" Jason said.
"Fuck" Freddie said puzzled.
"I'm not like…a genius or anything" Jason said.
"Nah mate…..your face" Freddie said. They walked to a shop and Freddie pushed Jason towards the nearest shop window. Jason's cheeks were covered in bright pink splotches.
"No…no..no…..Zig's aftershave!" Jason said. He got out his phone and called Holly.
"I can't walk you back, something's…..umm….come up" Jason said looking at himself in the shop window.
"Fine, you're useless" Holly said.
"Holly, wait!" Jason said. But she'd hung up. "Look mate, you need to get checked out" Freddie said. He took him to the nearest hospital and waited outside in the corridor. Freddie was sick of being in hospitals. It just took him back to The kid, to Jimmy, To Maggie. Freddie was relieved when the kid came out with cream on his patches. Once Freddie saw that he was going to be okay, he turned and walked away.
"Wait" Jason said. Freddie turned around. "I can't go home…..like this…can I hang around with you?" Jason asked. Freddie shrugged, but he couldn't take him back to his place. He drove him to this fancy shag pad that Patricia rented out. She wasn't going to use it now. Freddie pulled up and Jason followed him up the stairs. Jason's eyes widened when he saw how big the flat was.
"Wow…..this is your place?" Jason asked.
"Yeah" Freddie lied. Jason sat down and Freddie walked to the kitchen. "I'm gonna have to drop you off soon" Freddie said. "I've got places to be"
"So…you're loaded…..do you have rich people's food? Like Caviar?" Jason asked. Freddie shrugged and looked in the fridge. There were Sandwiches and Chocolate in there. Freddie took out a Chocolate bar and gave it to Jason. "Thanks" He said peeling off the Chocolate bar wrapper. Freddie turned on the TV and sat on the far side of the sofa.
"You just live here by yourself?" Jason asked.
"Yeah" Freddie lied. After listening to Jason eating the chocolate bar, Freddie got up.
"Come on, I'll take you back" Freddie said.
"Nah…..I'm patchy and stuff….what if Holly sees me?" Jason asked.
"Look…..ummm….Jason... his Holly girl will want you alright? You're a good looking lad" Freddie said.
"What?" Jason said. No-one had ever said that to him before. He'd been called "smart" "Geeky" "A swot" "Weird" and the nicest one he'd been called was "Sweet" But a girl had never said he was "good looking" Even though it had come from a guy, Jason still felt pleased. "Thanks" Jason said. "You're great too" Jason got up and they left and went to Freddie's car.
"Yeah here's alright" Jason said. Freddie pulled up near some houses and Jason paused and stared at Freddie.
"What?" Freddie asked.
"Did you really mean it?...when you said I was good looking?" Jason asked.
"Well….yeah….now can you get the fuck out of….." Freddie couldn't finish his sentence as Jason leaned over and kissed him harshly on cheek. Freddie was confused, but he wasn't going to freak out about it.
"You know what? You are a beautiful boy, you know that?" Freddie said. He kissed Jason back, running his hand down his face, as he pushed Jason closer towards him. He wiped the cream on his hands on his Jeans. Jason was disappointed when Freddie let him go. "So…I'll see you around then" Jason said. "Yeah…." Freddie said. He was sure that tonight was going to be a one off. He had too much stuff going on and he didn't know what he was going to say to Jackie when he got back.
Jason let himself in and looked at in mirror. His skin was getting better, but the puffiness was still there.
"Oi, Mum was ringing you, why didn't you pick up?" Joe asked.
"He was out on the pull" Ziggy said as they came down the stairs.
"With a face like that? Step away Jase, you'll crack that mirror" Freddie said.
"It was Ziggy's fault" Jase said walking past them and running upstairs.
"Don't look at me, I'm innocent" Ziggy said.
"Yeah yeah" Freddie said as they went to the living room.
Jason rubbed the hospital's cream into his face, got changed and went to sleep. He told himself that he had to listen to Ziggy and act cool in front of Holly. One day she'd see that Callum wasn't right for her. But Jason couldn't stop thinking about Freddie. He was older, sophisticated, fit, and he liked Jason, he actually liked him so much that he kissed him back. He had to see Freddie again, but he didn't know where lived.
He could go back to the arcade where he first saw Freddie.
Jason could catch the bus back to Freddie's flat.
Yeah, that seemed like a good idea, he hoped that Freddie liked surprises.