Chapter 4

It only took a week for Jay Halstead to realise that he was crushing on Erin Lindsey. From the minute he first saw her he thought she was gorgeous. It was only when he started tutoring her that he realised much he really liked her. When she actually talked to him she was funny and even though she didn't seem to like him too much, she was nice to him. The problem was that the only time they spent together was when he was tutoring her and she always wanted to study, which he understood was the whole point of the sessions but he just wanted to get to know her a bit better. She also avoided him and everyone else during the school day, he saw her in a few of his classes and tried to talk to her but she ignored him. Kim had tried to talk to her as well but hadn't got very far, apparently she didn't want to make friends. She was truly an enigma.

In the three weeks that she'd been at the school he'd heard about fifty rumours about her – because apparently nothing else was going on in this school. According to Kevin she had an older boyfriend that he'd seen her with before she started school, Kim said that she was from Wisconsin but that she swore she'd seen her at the mall before. Those were far more tame than the other rumours that he heard, mostly from Allie. Allie and him had been friends since middle school, they lived next door to each other and she was the first girl that he kissed, the first and only girl he'd slept with and now one of his friends. They used to be the school's golden couple before Jay quit the soccer team last year and they broke up, a total shock to the system. Now they were friends, kind of, he got the feeling that Allie wanted to get back together with him.

He'd given Allie a ride home yesterday after he'd finished tutoring Erin and she'd had cheer practice.

"How was cheer practice?" he asked her when she got in his car.

"Not bad, Chloe was late to practice again though," she informed him, as though he would actually care.

"That sucks," he commented as he pulled out of the parking lot.

"I know right," she said. "You know I wish you'd get back on the soccer team, I miss cheering for you."

He just gave her a side glance and ignored her suggestion.

"So how are you finding tutoring the she-devil?" she giggled.

"Erin?" he asked, confused as to what she did to earn that nickname. "Why is she the she-devil?"

"You should have seen her in gym class today," Allie rolled her eyes. "Coach Baker told us that we're doing swimming in gym from next week and Erin freaked out at her, saying that she wouldn't do it."

That gave Jay something to pause at, a total contrast to the calm, studious Erin that he always saw.

"Maybe she can't swim?" he suggested.

"That's what I said and she just glared at me and said that she could," Allie shrugged.

"Does it really matter?" he asked, fed up of Allie's gossip.

Allie shrugged.

"I guess not."

"She's actually nice when you get to know her a bit," he commented, cringing at his lack of subtlety.

Allie gave him a look and he knew that she was onto him.

"Oh come on Jay," she laughed. "You're seriously into her? Have you not heard about the last guy she dated? He's some 30 year old drug addict."

"That's just a rumour," he insisted.

"Whatever," she dismissed. "You want to come over to mine later? I need some help with my biology project."

He hadn't gone over to her house last night, getting back together with Allie was not on his agenda right now. He had however tried to figure out how to talk to Erin outside of tutoring. And now he had a plan.

It was lunchtime when he put his plan into motion.

He saw her walk across the cafeteria and immediately ran up to her.

"Hey," he said.

She looked surprised to see him there but still greeted him.

"Hi, you okay?"

"Yeah I was just thinking that since we're doing science today at our tutoring session we could do something a bit different," he suggested.

"Like…" she urged him to continue, looking increasingly confused.

"I was thinking we could go to the museum of science and industry," he said but at her hesitance added some more. "My treat and I'll even treat you to pizza afterwards."

She still didn't exactly seem enthusiastic.

"Can I think about it and let you know later?" she asked, more timidly than he'd ever seen her before.

"Yeah of course," he replied, really hoping that she'd say yes.

Erin had three problems currently on her mind. Number 1 was that she was exhausted, she'd never felt this tired before in her life and at now 12 weeks pregnant she got the feeling that it was only going to get worse. But the bigger problem, problem number 2, was that she was now showing if she wore tight clothes or if you looked carefully you could tell and if she was about to be wearing a swimsuit to gym class then people would definitely be able to tell.

And then there was problem number 3: Jay.

He was a nice guy, there was no denying that. The problem was that he wasn't the kind of guy that she could go out with, especially not when she was pregnant with some other guy's baby.

The only thing that was making her consider going to that museum with Jay later was the fact that she wanted an excuse to get out of Hank and Camille's house. Camille hadn't stopped talking about the pregnancy and the baby and the adoption and choosing parents since she'd told them and it was infuriating her. She didn't want to talk about it. Why didn't she understand that? It just made it all harder. And all Hank did was ask her questions that clearly insinuated that he didn't trust her to not speak to Charlie and her mom.

So now she was stuck; did she potentially lead a nice guy on or suffer from another evening of questions about her adoption plans? One night wouldn't be leading him on, it was basically a field trip for their tutoring sessions. Right?

Whatever it would be she found herself walking up to him in art class that afternoon and agreeing to go with him, earning a smile from Jay and some glances from his friends.

She really hoped he wouldn't make her regret this.

"I can't believe you're going on a date with Erin Lindsey," Adam said to him for the tenth time that day whilst patting him on the shoulder.

"It's not a date," he insisted, shrugging Adam's hand off of him.

Adam was then distracted when Kim came into view and he walked over to her, greeting her with a kiss against her locker.

"Seriously?" he asked disgusted by their PDA. "Is that really necessary?"

Adam broke the kiss, giving Jay a side eye before addressing Kim.

"Hey babe," he said. "Did you hear who Jay asked out on a date?"

Jay rolled his eyes and was about to respond when Kim beat him to it.

"Erin?" she guessed. "Yeah Gabby told me about it in chemistry."

"It's not a date!" Jay said before walking away to the library where he agreed to meet Erin before they went to the museum together.

Erin was already in the library when he got there, working on some homework.

"Hey," he greeted her. "You ready to go?"

"Do you mind if I just finish this first?" she asked. "I swear I'm almost done."

He was relieved if he was honest. He didn't need the entire school to see Erin get into his car, especially with all of the rumours going around about her. He didn't need rumours going around about him as well.

By the time they left the building there weren't many students around and they weren't paying them any attention anyway. As he was leading her towards his car he heard someone call Erin's name and noticed her freeze beside him.

"I'll meet you at the car okay?" she said urgently as she turned to go talk to some greasy looking guy who was at least 30. Maybe that was the boyfriend he'd heard about.

He didn't go to the car but stayed planted in the spot where she'd left him where he could just hear parts of their conversation.

"… Haven't seen you in a month."

"I'm not living with my mom anymore," Erin said, apparently her boyfriend didn't like that.

"Yeah I heard you're living with some cop?" Boyfriend said. "What the hell Erin?"

"Charlie leave," she said forcefully whilst ensuring that her voice didn't rise.

"You think you can tell me what to do?" Charlie laughed, grabbing her arm and Jay could no longer stay still.

"Hey let go of her!" he shouted as he ran over to where she was.

Charlie did let go of her, but it was only to look at Jay and laugh at him before looking back at Erin.

"You made a new friend?" he snarled. "You think he knows what kind of girl you are?"

"Get out of here Charlie," she said as she turned away from him, grabbing Jay and walking towards his car.

Charlie didn't follow them but Jay didn't look back to see where he ended up going.

They were sat in silence in his car on the way to the museum, he occasionally heard her sigh and was tempted to ask her why she was upset but decided to let her speak first. He had so many questions on his mind, he didn't even know where to begin or if she would even want him to ask anything.

"You shouldn't have yelled at Charlie," she said.

Of all the things he expected her to say, that was not it.

"He grabbed you and that's not okay with me," he explained.

"I can handle myself," she commented. "He's not a nice guy, not the kind of guy you should make an enemy of."

He nodded, not sure what to say because she was probably right but that didn't change the fact that his blood had boiled the moment he'd put his hands on her.

"Hank and Camille," she began. "The people you saw me with in the principal's office? They're not my parents, they're just people that I live with, and their son, Justin."

"Okay," he said slowly. "Like foster parents?"

"I guess," she shrugged. "I couldn't live with my mom anymore, so I moved in with them, left my old life behind."

"Including Charlie?" he asked.

"Especially Charlie," she confirmed. "Like I said he's not a nice guy."

He left it at that, surprised that she'd told him so much and not wanting to push her any further. He just hoped he could make her smile during their visit to the museum.

"You know when you said you'd treat me to pizza I was expecting a slice from the restaurant at the museum, not an actual meal," she said, embarrassed that he was now actually buying her dinner, as though they were on a date.

The pizzeria that he had taken her to after their museum field trip was one of those places that you would never know existed unless someone pointed it out to you.

"I dragged you all the way out here," he explained. "It was the least that I could do for you."

"Seriously thank you Jay," she said earnestly. "And thanks for all of the tutoring help."

"It's no problem, you're way easier to tutor than the brainless football players they usually get me to tutor."

"I guess I'll take that as a compliment," she said, feeling the smile spread across her face and watching him light up at the sight of it.

It was in that moment that she decided it felt good, being around Jay. Maybe she'd do it again.

I decided to switch up the point of view in this one, I thought it would be interesting to see how Jay was feeling. The end felt a bit rushed but hope you still like it?