Right then...give this one a shot, its not all action, action, action, but it sets up for the next chapter which is! Cheers for the reviews on the last chapter, they cheered me up so much, just keep them coming! xxxx
"So how is it that you know more about Dave's new bird than any of the rest of us?" Pete raised an eyebrow, glancing over at Allie who was sat at one of the desks in his classroom, frowning in concentration as she applied a thick layer of glue to the display she was making.
"Because he likes me better than you," she shot back, sticking her tongue out and making him laugh. "I don't know," she shook her head. "I get the impression he's reluctant to tell you lot in case you don't like her,"
"Who says we won't like her?" Pete frowned.
"She might be a football hating, T-total bitch," Allie raised her eyebrows. "Think you'd still like her then?"
"Dave wouldn't date someone like that." He shook his head vehemently.
"You did," she snorted. "Oh come on, what the hell did I know about football when we first met?" she grinned smugly. "Although now I am the master,"
"Really?" Pete laughed. "Explain the offside rule to me one more time,"
Allie stopped what she was doing and winced; why couldn't the bastard ask her what the goal keeper was responsible for or something?
"It uh," she shook her head. "It's when the ball goes off to the side of the pitch,"
"You're lucky you're fit, Harding," he grinned, playfully tossing a scrunched up sheet of paper at her head.
Taking a sip of her coke, she giggled and went back to gluing. It wasn't often that Pete asked her to help him with stuff like this, but she loved it when he did. Truth be told, she knew that tonight it was more to do with still being pretty upset over what had happened with Steve at the weekend than it was with actually needing her help; it still struck her as slightly ridiculous that having been with her for the past three and a half years, Pete still had too much pride to hold up his hands and admit that he was upset.
"You still up for the Abbey tonight?" he asked her, coming to sit down next to her and cursing under his breath at how uncomfortable the plastic chairs were.
"Sure," she nodded, smiling at him. "I'm kinda hoping Dave will bring his lady,"
"Why're you so excited about having another bird around?" Pete shook his head. "I thought you lot were competitive,"
"We can be," she laughed. "But that doesn't mean I still won't be grateful to have someone there who I can turn to when you lot start talking about who you'd rather shag, Jessica Alba or Angelina Jolie,"
"Alba," Pete answered immediately. "Every time,"
"Yeah, me too." Allie told him, laughing at the look on his face.
"Nice," he grinned, leaning forward intently. "How would that go, exactly?"
"You're such a bloke," she shook her head, applying a line of glitter to the glue around the rim of the poster she was making.
Smiling at her as she worked, Pete turned in his chair slightly, reaching out and pulling the chair she was sat on towards him, chuckling when she squealed in surprise.
"What are you-…"
She was cut short when Pete leant in and kissed her softly at first, then that little bit harder, making her heart start to pound in her ears as his hands ever so slowly crept up to cup her face. Pulling her onto his lap, he pulled away for a moment and grinned up and her as she hovered over him.
"Hi," she whispered, giggling slightly.
"Alright?" he whispered back, leaning in and kissing her again.
He wasn't stupid, it had occurred to him that making out with his girlfriend in the middle of his classroom wasn't the smartest move he could make, but when she was this close to him, moaning quietly as her tongue brushed over his and lightly picking at the buttons on his shirt, there was no fucking way he was stopping.
"Dunham, you lazy bastard are you still- Shit, sorry!" Benjamin laughed, turning his back on the startled couple and letting them get themselves together.
"Alright mate?" Pete asked quickly, not feeling all that embarrassed, its not like they were rolling around on the floor without any clothes on…although had he come in five minutes later, who knows.
"Yeah," the Scotsman grinned, turning to face them both again and nervously running a hand through his hair. "I actually came to check if you were still here," he glanced behind him into the hall. "You've uh, you've got a visitor."
Frowning and craning his neck around to see who was standing in the hallway behind him, Pete felt his stomach sink when he saw the unmistakable figure leaning against the far wall.
"Tell him I'm busy," Pete muttered, making his way back over to his desk.
"I would mate, but," Benjamin shook his head. "Steve Dunham isn't exactly a small bloke is he, brother?" he smirked. "And I think we can all agree that this," he pointed to his face. "Is far too pretty to get messed up."
"Pete?"
Benjamin and Allie stood there looking back and forth between the two, neither of them knowing what to do or say. Pete turned to face his brother, his eyes set straight, his body language giving nothing away; it was as though he had just shut down.
"What I've got to say will take five minutes, Pete," he pressed.
"I reckon you said everything you needed to the other day, don't you, bruv?" Pete snapped.
"I'm not going to lie to you mate," Steve shook his head. "I'm not really asking here,"
A heavy silence filled the room and Benjamin swallowed hard; he wasn't overly sure what was going on, but knowing what little he did about Pete's family history, he was almost certain he didn't want to be in the middle of it.
"Aye," he nodded to Allie who seemed almost startled that someone was talking to her. "Seeing as you're the master of the glitter glue, how'd you fancy helping me out next door for a sec?"
Glancing at her fiancé, then his brother then back again, Allie fought the urge to shake her head and simply pick up the small chair she was stood next to and hurl it at Steve's head.
"Sure," she pasted a smile on her face and nodded.
"Right," Benjamin rubbed his hands together and smiled tightly at Pete. "So we're gonna…" he gestured to the hallway and then sighed, grabbing Allie's hand and pulling her out of the doorway with him leaving the two Dunham men alone.
"How's the nose?" Steve asked after a long moment. Regarding his younger brothers face for a moment he caught sight of the purple tinge marring his usually handsome face, stretching up to meet the corners of his almost luminous blue eyes.
"I've taken worse hits than that in my time," Pete snorted, perching on the edge of one of the desks and picking up a glue stick, staring at it was though it were the most amazing thing he'd ever seen.
"That's not what I asked," Steve shot back.
"Caring as I know you can be," Pete stood up and chucked the glue onto the table top. "Something tells me you didn't come all this way to find out how I am."
"Nah," he sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Nah, I didn't." Sighing deeply, Steve shook his head and met his eyes. "Pete, I'm sorry,"
"Its fine," the younger Dunham shot back straight away. "So are we done 'ere?"
"Oi, hold on a minute!" Steve snapped. "I know you're fucked off but that doesn't mean…"
"You've said sorry, Steve," Pete laughed. "Mate, I teach fucking ten year olds that can string together a better apology,"
"Yeah, well I don't hear you saying sorry for talking to me like you did," Steve told him harshly.
"You told me I was fucking up my life," Pete snorted. "And you want me to fucking say sorry to you?"
"You know what your problem is?" Steve shouted, his patience finally snapping. "You always think you know better."
"Me?" Pete scoffed. "Fuck off! All I ever do is get lecture after lecture from you about how I shouldn't be doing this or how I'm supposed to do that," he shook his head. "It's boring, mate,"
"Funnily enough I don't do it for a bloody laugh!" he snapped. "You're my little brother, I'm supposed to look out for you,"
"How?" Pete shouted. "By smacking me one at the every given opportunity?"
"Someone had to knock some sense into you, you ungrateful bastard!" Steve cried. "Jesus Pete, you can't expect to live like this and not have any consequences. I'm trying to get you to realise what I did too late," he shook his head. "That the GSE isn't everything. Pete, look around you," he gestured to the classroom. "Mate, you did all of this; you put yourself through Uni, got the job you wanted, you've got a beautiful girl," he shook his head. "Why're you so fucking dead set on throwing it away?"
"I'm not," Pete protested. "I love this job, I love Allie,"
"Yeah," Steve raised an eyebrow and lifted his brothers hand, pointing to the grazes over his knuckles which he had earned in a fight a few nights ago. "Well, this begs to differ," shaking his head, Steve walked back to the door and picked up his briefcase. "I know I should have gone about it differently," he told Pete, still facing the door. "But you're my brother, I love you. I just don't want you to make the same mistakes I nearly did,"
"I'm not you, Steve," Pete told him firmly. "And I'm not Dad either,"
"Good," Steve nodded. "If that's what you really believe, then prove it," he glanced over his shoulder once more before strolling out of the room. "Before it's too fucking late,"
"And I just thought well, its all well and good saying you gave me the tropical tan but look at my fucking skin, yeah? I'm practically Jamaican, ain't I?"
Allie stared wide eyed at the blonde across from her who was still stirring the Bacardi and coke she'd ordered about 20 minutes ago. Looking down at her own glass, Allie almost groaned aloud seeing that hers was empty; Jesus, did this woman ever stop talking?
"So," Sophie leant forward, her eye lashes thick and slightly clumpy from using too much mascara. "What's my Dave really like then?"
"What?" Allie laughed. "You tell me, you're the one dating him."
"Yeah but," Sophie wrinkled her nose. "Well its different, innit? He's not gonna tell me all the gory details for a while yet, so I figured I'd get 'em out of you."
"Uh," Allie shook her head. "I don't know about gory details,"
"Oh come on," the blonde gushed. "You hang out with a bloody firm; I bet you know some right ol' stories,"
"You do know that I'm not in the firm, right Soph?" Allie frowned slightly. The girl was sweet if slightly high maintenance but her brain was slightly…well, let's just say she had a good decade worth of bleach penetrating her skull.
"'Course," she cackled loudly and slapped Allie's leg. "I'm not that daft! I just meant you must know some…" she whispered. "Come on, you're engaged to the head of the GSE, you must know something,"
"If I'm honest," Allie told her with a smile. "I'm kinda kept in the dark about the major stuff,"
"Oh," Sophie pouted slightly. "Fine,"
Gesturing for Terry to get her another drink, Allie mouthed something rather unladylike at him as he glanced at Sophie and chuckled, shaking his head. When the girl who was the closest Allie had ever been to a life size Barbie in her life had walked into the Abbey, she had to admit…she'd suspected it was Dave pulling her leg. But Sophie Carter was alright once you got past the high pitched voice and rather overwhelming amount of knock off Chanel perfume. Or so Allie thought…
"So what's Pete like?"
"Pete?" Allie smiled. "He's only over there," she pointed to the table where her fiancé and the rest of the boys were sat. "Go say hi, he might look scary but I'm pretty sure he won't bite."
"No," Sophie grinned and shook her head. "I meant…" she wiggled her eyebrows. "What's he like?"
"Huh?" Allie frowned.
"You know," the girl pressed, somewhat frustrated. "In bed,"
Allie let the straw she was drinking through fall from her lips and stared at the brown eyed girl in complete shock. Surely, she hadn't heard that right?
"Did you just ask me…?" she shook her head.
"Oh come on," Sophie nudged her shoulder. "Pete Dunham's like the Holy Grail for most women, all we can do is imagine…but you," she looked her up and down and shook her head. "You've actually been there and done it."
Glancing at the drink Terry placed in front of her, Allie looked up at the smiling man and shook her head, feeling almost as though this wasn't real.
"You might want to make that a double," she smiled, pushing it back towards him.
"Oh, Allie let's do shots, yeah?" Sophie grabbed her arm and squealed excitedly.
Terry bit his lip, determined not to laugh, but the look on the Sloane Ranger's face was priceless.
"Terrence," she smiled sweetly. "Would you be so kind as to get us the two biggest shots of…" she glanced at Sophie.
"Oh, tequila!" she jumped in.
"The two biggest shots of tequila you can muster?" she finished.
"I shouldn't really be doing this," Sophie laughed loudly. "I've got a job interview in the morning," glancing at Allie she grinned. "Oh well, if I fuck it up you can always get me a place at Vogue can't you? I'm proper good with fashion, me."
Laughing and praying it didn't turn into sobbing, Allie dropped her head into her hands as Sophie continued to rabbit on about everything she'd learnt from watching The Devil Wears Prada.
Jesus, it was going to be a long night.
"She's alright, don't you think?" Dave asked, glancing around at his mates' faces, trying to gauge their reactions.
"Yeah," Ned nodded. "She's…she's proper lively, ain't she?"
All the men looked over to where she was currently jumping up and down next to Allie, singing 'Tequila makes me happy' at a fairly impressive level.
"Oh fuck me, I've made a mistake," Dave groaned, rubbing his temples. "Look at her! What the fuck was I thinking!"
"Well, at least Allie seems to like her," Ike smirked, watching the younger blonde as she vehemently shook her head at Sophie's over excited proposition of climbing up onto the bar and singing.
"Oh fuck, they're coming over," Swill laughed, sipping his beer and watching as Sophie practically dragged Allie over to the table and slid into the booth beside her.
"Hey boys!" Sophie winked, downing another shot and cheering herself before pushing the other one towards Allie who looked much less enthused. "Come on, Allie," she pressed. "I can't be the only tipsy one here," she giggled. "This lot might take advantage,"
Forcing herself to smile, Allie stared at the shot in front of her and felt her stomach sink. She really hadn't wanted to drink tonight; in fact after his little conversation with Steve at the school, Pete had told her that all he wanted was to pick up some food, go home and spend the rest of the night with her, which to Allie had sounded perfect. But then they'd remembered that they'd promised to go to the Abbey tonight to meet Dave's new girlfriend…who was slowly but surely driving Allie out of her mind. How the hell had Dave, one of the nicest, most laid back blokes she knew managed to pull this thing?
"I'm actually starting to feel a bit…"
"Down it, you wuss!" Sophie laughed, lifting the shot to Allie's lips. "Come on, I'll be your friend forever,"
"Oh well," Allie gritted her teeth. "In that case…"
Pete and the boys grinned; it wasn't often they saw Allie pissed off but when they did it was priceless, mostly because the girl lacked any form of subtlety whatsoever. Throwing the shot back, she slammed the glass onto the table and winced; Christ, that tasted like pure petrol.
"Woo-hoo!" Sophie clapped. "Next rounds on me,"
Watching in utter despair as she dug around in her bright pink clutch bag for her purse, Allie shook her head.
"Soph, I think I'm done for tonight," she smiled. "But you…"
"Fuck off are you done!" she laughed and ruffled Allie's hair. "Two Goldschlager's coming up!"
Groaning, Allie dropped her head into her hands and hiccupped, grimacing when she tasted the vodka she's just downed.
"You alright, Sloaner?" Bovver asked, the smile evident in his voice.
"What?" she lifted her head almost as though she'd forgotten they were there. "Oh yeah," she smiled. "That girl…" she glanced at Dave and tried to look genuine. "That girl is fun,"
"You can't stand her, can you?" Dave asked, narrowing his eyes.
"What?" Allie gasped. "No! She's really sweet; I like her a lot,"
Pete shook his head and met Dave's eyes over Allie's head, mouthing 'liar.'
"Really?" Dave rubbed his chin. "Hmmm, 'coz I was actually just thinking that we're not really right for each other,"
Allie looked up at him for a moment, with so much hope in her eyes he had to keep from laughing.
"Oh thank Christ," she breathed, reaching across and grabbing his hand. "Dave the girl's a psycho,"
"Oi, Allie!" Sophie screeched from the bar. "Look, they've got them little umbrella things for cocktails!"
"Woo-hoo!" Allie shouted back, trying to look enthusiastic. "Hell yeah!"
Turning straight back to the table, her eyes widened and she shook her head at Dave.
"I can't get done for murder, Dave," she told him. "A girl like me wouldn't last three seconds in prison,"
"Fuck," the older man laughed, rubbing the back of his head. "What do I do, do I get rid of her now?"
"Yes!" the whole table chorused, looking at him as though he were crazy for debating leaving it even a second longer.
Sighing, he stood up and smoothed down the section of Allie's hair which Sophie had messed up as he passed her, walking towards where the blonde was leant against the bar, singing to herself.
"Poor bastard," Bovver shook his head, reaching for his cigarettes and watching as Dave shuffled from foot to foot, jamming his hands into his pockets. "How'd he meet her again?"
"She was stranded at the airport and he got chatting to her," Allie shrugged. It had sounded pretty romantic when he'd first told her, but now the more she thought about it, the more it sounded like a scene from Fatal Attraction.
"It's not really a loss though, is it?" Swill reasoned, taking a sip of his pint. "She's a bit of a state, really. I mean look at how fucking humungous her arse is,"
"Tiny rack 'n all," Keith chimed in, shaking his head.
"And did you lot notice she'd got one of them weird fang tooth things?" Ned asked, pointing to his own teeth. "The bird was talking to me and it was taking everything I had not to pull my collar up and douse the freak with holy water,"
"Jesus," Allie laughed, shaking her head.
"Oh, shit here we go," Bovver smirked at her. "Here's the bit where she gets all defensive and starts yammering on about her inner beauty and shit,"
"What?" Allie exclaimed.
"Sweetheart," Swill shook his head and scooted onto the empty seat next to her, slinging his arm over her shoulders. "I know you birds are all protective of each other, but there's no denying that she," he pointed at Sophie who was smiling a little too sweetly as Dave explained things to her. "Is a monster,"
"She's not a monster," Allie shook her head and then rolled her eyes at the look she got from the rest of the table. "Alright, I'll give you the fang tooth thing, but Dave liked her, so she couldn't be all that bad,"
"Coincidentally, Dave hasn't gotten laid in about three months," Bovver told her. "And I can tell you that when you get to that stage a fucking drag queen would seem more appealing than deciding whether or not its going to be a right or left handed night,"
Against her will, Allie laughed; Bovver caught her off guard occasionally with things like that; it was almost as though he forgot he didn't like her all that much and treated her like one of the boys.
"I was actually just thinking did you lot judge me this badly when we first met," she teased them.
"Nah," Swill grinned. "We were all just secretly setting up a system of who got first dibs on you if Dunham failed,"
"You fucking what?" Pete burst out.
"Oh come on mate, look at her," Ned gestured to Allie. "One of us had to get in there, I mean you got first dibs 'coz you liked her and shit, but you actually think none of us would have given it a pop if you'd ballsed it up?"
Allie merely laughed; it's not like she should have expected anything less from this lot.
"By the way, that system still stands," Swill pointed at all of them. "Dunham pisses this up and I get first shot,"
Pete shot him a dark look, whilst Allie laughed and leant in kissing Swill's cheek quickly.
"Oi, oi!" he shouted. "See, I'm in already!"
"Has he fucking done it yet?" Keith frowned. "Only Dave could take a bloody hour to dump someone,"
"I'm still kinda worried that she hasn't stopped smiling," Allie bit her lip. "She looks like she's about explode,"
"You absolute wanker!"
The table gasped collectively as Sophie picked up her drink and calmly poured it over Dave's head.
"Oh shit!" Swill laughed. "Aw, mate that's fucking painful,"
"Shut up!" Allie hissed, elbowing him in the ribs. "She's coming over,"
Reaching down, Sophie snatched her jacket from under the table and glared at all of them, her eyes softening slightly when they landed on Allie.
"Come on," she jerked her head towards the door. "I need another drink, and I'm sure as hell not staying in this shit hole with these twats,"
Allie's eyes widened when she realised what Sophie was asking of her; what was she supposed to do? Follow some psychotic girl she'd known all of three hours to a bar and listen to her trash talk her best mates all night?
"Um, Soph," she smiled gently. "Hun, I actually kinda live with Pete so I should probably stay here, you know?"
"What're you yapping about?" the blonde frowned. "All I want to do is go get pissed, you're my mate and you won't come with me?"
Mates? Allie winced…oh Jesus had Dave had a lucky escape with this one…
"Sophie," she started gently, not wanting to upset her any more.
"Oh fucking forget it," she hissed. "As if I'd want to spent time with some snotty slag with a Mary Poppins accent anyway,"
Storming away from the table, all eyes were on the blonde until she pushed through the doors of the pub and disappeared into the darkness outside.
"Oh I will kick her arse," Allie shook her head, moving to stand up from the table, stopping only when Pete snagged her arm and pulled her down into his lap.
"Pete!" Ned hissed. "What the fuck are you doing? Let her go, it'll be genius!"
"You alright there, mate?" Pete looked up at Dave who was sliding back into his seat, his shirt saturated in what smelt like rum and coke.
"Yeah," he laughed, rolling his eyes. "I feel like a complete retard but other than that…"
"Whoa! What happened to you?"
Glancing behind her, Allie smiled when she spotted Lucy, Ike's little sister standing there gawking at Dave. Lucy was only a year younger than Allie, but it still made her the baby of the group and because of that she was treated like gold. It didn't hurt that she was possibly the sweetest girl you could meet either.
"Long story," Dave smiled at her, wringing his shirt out as best he could.
"And to think, I got all excited about coming to work tonight because Ike told me you were bringing a lady here," she winked.
"I did," Dave nodded. "She's the one that did this,"
"Oh," Lucy frowned and then winced, the reality of it dawning on her. "Oh, I get it,"
"Yeah, well I'm glad someone fucking does," Dave grumbled. "Where are all the nice birds? Y'know the ones that won't turn into controlling psychos?"
"We're not all like that!" Lucy protested.
"I know you're not darlin'," he shook his head and then glanced at Allie. "Neither are you, but its different, you two are almost like lads,"
Lucy gasped in horror and Allie shook her head; when would men learn to think before they spoke?
"I didn't mean that," he winced.
"Hopefully not," Allie shook her head. "Because if we are lads then first off we both have some kind of major hormone dysfunction," she glanced down at her chest. "And second off," she grinned at Pete. "You've got to be gutted, right?"
Laughing and shaking his head, Dave smiled apologetically at Lucy.
"Don't suppose you've got any spare shirts back there, have you?" he gestured to the Abbey shirt she had to wear for work.
"Yeah," she nodded her head. "Come on, we'll find you one,"
Allie blinked in surprise catching the look Lucy got in her eyes as Dave slung his arm around her shoulders and walked with her towards the bar. Lucy liked Dave! How the hell had she never noticed it before? That was the reason she had practically begged Terry to let her work tonight was so she could come down here and see what the girl was actually like without having to talk to her.
"What're you smiling at?" Pete leant down and whispered in her ear, lightly kissing it before following her gaze to the now closed door which Dave and Lucy had disappeared through.
"Nothing," Allie smiled back, leaning in and kissing him. Pulling away after a short moment, she looked around the table and sighed. "Right then," she nodded. "Come on, I think its only fair you lot fill me in on this little system of yours, don't you?"
"How was I supposed to fucking know who he was?" Sophie shouted at her Uncle as he paced the small living room of his house, his tall brutish form seeming to take up half the room.
"You haven't got a single fucking brain cell in that tarted up little head of yours, have you?" he snapped, glaring at her dangerously.
"Look, I said I'm sorry, ok?" she begged. "Its not like anything happened, and its over now, so there's no harm done, is there?"
"No harm done?" the older man screamed, walking over to the chair she was sat on and placing his arms either side of her, trapping her there and getting in her face. "You better start talking, little girl or I fucking swear…"
"I told you," Sophie sobbed lightly. "I don't know anything, I was only there for a few hours…"
"Bullshit!" the man screamed, slamming his hand down on the arm of the chair and making her jump. Reaching out, he grabbed her chin roughly and forced her to face him. "You don't want to piss me off, little Sophie, now do you?"
"No," she whimpered, shaking her head as he sat down next to her and smiled sickeningly. "Uncle Tommy, I'm sorry,"
"I don't fucking want to hear sorry," he hissed, leaning in, his dark eyes glowing eerily in the faint light coming from the old TV set in the corner of the room. "What I really want to know is everything you managed to find out about those boys,"
Tommy Hatcher leant forward, resting his hands on his knees and he glared dangerously at the young woman in front of him.
"Now be a good girl and start talking,"
Ooooh...its a cliffhanger! Haven't thrown one of those at you for a while, have I? :D Please be nice and review and I'll see what I can do about posting again before the weekend...;)