Walking to the Glass House, the reasons as to why this is such a bad idea are becoming clearer and clearer. Like a fucking fright train. I like Claire. Is that so wrong? I want to do sinful things to her that involve me and her, horizontal, minus clothing. I'd better stop before I take this too far…
But anyway, if Collins even sniffs out a tiny inkling that I'm crushing on his girl I think we can be very sure that I'm dead. Of course, Abbie made sure that I knew this before I left. I was attempting to make myself look presentable before leaving whilst listening to Abbie whine on about how "Shane Collins is like the hulk, but better" and "You are so fucked if he finds out you love his girlfriend" and my personal favourite, "Can Jacky and I pllllease come watch if he does start pounding on you?". Jack was more sympathetic which resulted in Abbie complaining that we're both "gay" together and that we should "go buy a condo by the sea".
Despite Jack's manly confidence boost, I'm still bricking it whilst knocking on the door. Instantly someone answers, and praise the lord above its Claire looking beautiful as always. Today she's wearing black jeans with a woollen jumper, no skin on show but her feet. It's not a fetish, but I have a thing for toes. There's just something about the vulnerability of them and for the record, Claire's toes are sexy.
"Hey Aaron!" she says beaming at me. She welcomes me in and I'm hit with the aroma of home cooking.
Whilst introducing me to Michael and Eve(less black on today), I notice the lack of Shane.
"So Aaron," Michael's a pretty cool guy, we go back awhile, "how're things? Heard you're doing some kinda Art course at the Uni huh?"
"It's Art History bro." I correct him with a shrug.
"Fair play dude! Better than anything we guys are doing here. I mean, I may be teaching kids to play guitar but I don't actually have a clue what to do with my life and Shane…well he-"
"Shane what?" And here he is. Gracing us with his presence, in the middle of eating some kind of sandwich he strolls into the living room.
"Oh my god, Shane! How can you be eating that? We're about to sit down for dinner!" exclaims Eve, Claire laughs at him whilst nudging his arm. "Shane, you remember Aaron, right?" she hesitates before asking him, which obviously means that she wants him to be polite.
"Yeah dude, course. We used to go to school together." He states this matter of factly, shrugging whilst doing it. He seems totally cool, except for the arm that's snaked tightly round Claire's waist. So Collins truly is a protective dick. He rests his chin on top of Claire's angelic head and ends the introductions with a "So we gonna eat?".
The five of us sit round the warn kitchen table. Banter flying about the place, questions about what's new springing up, laughs and jokes thrown all around, even Shane makes an effort to occasionally make a joke or laugh at something ridiculous Eve comes out with. The whole time, Claire makes me feel welcome and included in the conversation, occasionally throwing me a warm smile. She's so relaxed with her friends and she looks so young when she tosses her head back, laughing hysterically at something someone, mainly Shane, has said. This annoys me the most. The facts that he can be with her every single day and make her laugh and smile and giggle whilst I get to watch on the sideline. I guess that's teenage angst for you.
Claire is appointed dish-washer-upper, so I volunteer to help. This could be the smoothest move I have ever made in order to get close to a girl. Man my missions are lame.
Whilst scrubbing we chat away, she actually laughs at my jokes and I can't help but grin at anything she says. We're standing fairly close together, arms occasionally brushing each other. I can feel her body heat radiating off of her.
"Wow. It is so weird seeing Claire have a friend who's a guy." Says Shane walking in with a full-on sarcastic note to his voice, giving me a skank-eye worthy of any, well, skank.
Claire winks then hip-bumps me, clearly thinking nothing of his tone, "Aw, Shane don't be jealous. You'll always be my number one guy." She walks over to him and wraps her arms around his torso, giving him little kisses along his neck. This is my cue to leave.
"Right, my work is done here! I'm gonna go, thanks for the food and everything."
"I'll walk you out." Says Shane. This is where I wish I could run away, cartoon charcater style along with dust swirling around my feet to gain speed. I have no choice but to follow him, the tone he used left no wriggle room to let me argue. I say bye to everyone, Claire gives me another beaming smile which makes me feel all warm and fluffy. God, I'm turning into such a girl.
As soon as Shane escorts me outside he slams me against the wall, I'm guessing so that no one can witness my death. His forearm pressing down hard on my throat, his free hand fisting my t-shirt so that I can't go anywhere.
"The fuck you playing at Baker?" he spits at me and I'm actually more surprised that he knows my surname than the fact that he seems to be on the verge of beating me up.
"Dude, I'm not playing at anything," I manage to choke out, "I honestly don't get your deal."
"My deal is that you're hitting on my girl. And to be fucking honest you haven't got a hope in hell of getting her. So back the hell down." His voice is threatening, he doesn't even raise his voice, just keeps it at a low level.
And then I say it, "If I have no hope in hell, then why are you getting so fucking menstrual about it?", that's when he punches me. Right in the ribs, I think I heard a faint crack which isn't surprising cus, fuck that guy can give a punch.
I double over, groaning and holding onto my now very sore ribs. It's hard to even breathe.
Shane leans down and mumbles, "Leave Claire alone, she's too naïve to notice how you feel and too kind to say back the hell off.". With that he slams the front door, leaving me alone with a pretty clear threat.
Thanks again for reading. In the next chapters I promise you that far more interesting things will begin to happen….any suggestions or plot twists are welcome…x