Beware of Bad Boy, Page 36

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  “I find beauty in unusual things, like hanging your

  head out the window or sitting on a fire escape.”

  -Scarlett Johansson

  GIANNA

  When I woke up the next morning my mouth felt dry. I must’ve been dehydrated from drinking so much alcohol last night. Slowly opening my eyes, I stared at the ceiling. Not too bad, I didn’t think I was going to throw up or anything. Wondering if I’d missed ballet, I turned my head to find out the time.

  “You missed class,” I heard Caleb say.

  Rolling my head the other way, I found Caleb propped up on one elbow, staring down at me. Had he been watching me sleep?

  Pushing the thought aside, I groaned. “My instructor is going to be so mad.”

  Caleb shrugged one shoulder. “What can she do to you? Take away your favorite tutu?”

  I laughed, placing one hand over my eyes. “We don’t wear tutus in class, only in performances and only sometimes then. Besides, you’ve never experienced the wrath of a little old Russian lady. She could even whip you into shape, Caleb.”

  Caleb was silent, so I removed my hand from over my eyes to look up at him. He had a thoughtful look on his gorgeous face. “How do you feel?”

  “I haven’t sat up yet, but I don’t feel nauseous. I’m very dehydrated though.”

  He pushed me back down as I try to sit up and hopped out of bed. “Wait here. I’ll get you some water.”

  “Thanks,” I sighed, glad not to get up yet. While he was gone, I thought back on last night. The last thing I remembered was leaving the club.

  After that, nada.

  Caleb returned and handed me a glass of water. I sat up and guzzled it down. Caleb stood a couple feet away from the bed with a weird look on his face. I unashamedly checked him out in his boxer briefs. My guy was hot.

  “I’ll make some breakfast.” He exited the room so fast I began to wonder if I’d done something embarrassing last night. He would tell me if I did, right? I couldn’t see him missing an opportunity to tease me.

  I was only a little dizzy when I stood up. Grabbing my duffel bag, I went into the bathroom to shower. A shower and brushing my teeth were definitely in order.

  Thirty minutes later I walked into the kitchen where Caleb was already sitting at the table eating. He motioned for me to sit down in front of where he’d already served me. He still wasn’t acting like himself and avoided my eyes.

  “So anyways,” I began. “What did we do after the club?”

  He met my gaze looking suspiciously relieved. “You don’t remember?”

  “I remember up until we left the club and after that, nothing. Why? Did something happen?” Now I was beginning to think I’d done something crazy like streak through downtown naked.

  “No, nothing happened,” he assured me with a blank face. “We came back here, had a snack and you went to sleep.”

  “Oh, from what I remember, I had a good time. We’ll have to do that again. Next time we could invite some friends.”

  Caleb finished eating and went to take a shower. I ate my food then cleaned up the mess in the kitchen. While waiting for him, I flipped through the channels. He appeared back to normal when he sat down on the cushion next to me and pulled me onto his lap. “I’m glad you had fun last night. I had fun watching you have fun.”

  “I didn’t do anything stupid?”

  “Nothing stupid,” he reassured me.

  I studied his face for a few more moments. Something had been up with him earlier. “I’m glad you had fun too.”

  “What time do you have to be at Cece’s house?” he asked, rubbing circles on my back with his thumb.

  “Not for two more hours.” His touch was soothing and I burrowed my head into his neck.

  “Do you want to go for a walk?”

  I lift my head to look at him. “Sure.”

  Getting a pair of sneakers out of my bag in his room, I slipped them on. The weather was perfect outside. We leisurely strolled around the trendy downtown neighborhood for about an hour. He was sort of giving me a tour since all I’d seen of his neighborhood so far was the short walk between the parking garage and the apartment building. Caleb greeted a few people he knew, mostly girls. He told me he and his mom had lived here since the divorce.

  When it was time to head over to Jared and Cece’s house, we picked up my bag at the apartment. Caleb eyed my bag. “You could just leave it here.”

  “Well,” I said drolly, “I’ll need pajamas to change into tonight and clothes to wear tomorrow.”

  “You’ll be wearing those pajamas here tonight and changing into those clothes here tomorrow morning,” he insisted.

  I was holding my duffel bag over one shoulder and I noticed he didn’t offer to carry like he usually did. “Since when do you tell me what to do?”

  “You’re my girlfriend. My place is wherever you are and vice versa.” He crossed his arms over his chest as if he weren’t going to budge on the issue. “And I really don’t want to have a sleepover at Jared’s house. I don’t think he’d appreciate me sharing a bed with you and Cece.”

  I laughed. “You’re right, he wouldn’t. Fine, we’ll come back here, but I still need to take my bag because it has my outfit for tonight.” Why not give in? It wasn’t as if I wanted to be apart from him.

  He narrowed his eyes at the bag. “Alright, I guess you’ll need to take your bag.”

  “Jeez, thanks for permission, master,” I joked sarcastically. Caleb was just too funny when he got possessive. I couldn’t believe what he’d said about his place being wherever I was. It was funny how he could be sweet and bossy at the same time.

  He turned around after opening the apartment door. “What are you smiling about?”

  I wiped the smirk off my face. “Nothing.”

  “Uh-huh, sure. Let’s go, princess.” He motions for me to lead the way and locked the door behind us. He grabbed my bag out of my hand while I hit the elevator button to go down.

  The whole crew was at the house. Cece came up to give me a hug. “Where were you this morning? You missed ballet!”

  I looked at her guiltily. “I had a bit of a hangover.”

  “What? You got drunk without me last night? How much did you drink? You never do that! Where was the party?” Cece didn’t know how to limit her questions to one at a time.

  “Yes, I got pretty drunk off about five drinks, but not at a party, at a club.” I answered all of her questions in one go.

  “At a club? With who? Didn’t you say you weren’t going to do that ever again after you-know-what happened? Are you okay?” Cece’s questions were beginning to give me a headache.

  “Don’t worry, I was with Caleb.”

  “Oh, okay.” She settled down and I guessed that was a good enough answer for her.

  Jared walked into the garage and immediately spotted Caleb sitting on the couch up against the wall. Caleb smirked at him and Jared got a sour look on his face. “God, what’s he doing here again?”

  “He is my boyfriend and likes to watch us practice. You guys bring your little girlfriends all the time so why can’t I bring my boyfriend?”

  “Whatever, just tell him to stay out of my way.” What a big baby he was.

  We practiced for the next few hours and Caleb actually fell asleep. Either that or he was pretending to sleep to avoid talking to a girl one of the guys brought. At least I liked to think so.

  After we were done practicing, a group of us went to the Ramirez family’s restaurant. I loved their parents. They were always eager to feed people and I was one of their favorite people to feed. It worked out well all the way around. Afterwards, we went back to their house to change.

  Cece rode with me and Caleb to the club we were dancing at tonight. Club owners paid dancers like us to show up and add some excitement to their atmosphere. Thank god for those dancing competition reality shows on television. They helped crews like us find gigs by adding to our popularity.

  W
e did the routine we worked all afternoon on. Taye got the idea a couple weeks back for the routine while he was watching Braveheart. We all had one side of our face painted blue and were each wearing at least one piece of plaid clothing.

  Cece and I had our hair plaited. We also put blue eyeshadow on our eyelid that was on the bare side of our face. She and I were both wearing red plaid skirts with black tank tops and black leggings underneath. Jared wore a red plaid hoodie and Taye wore red plaid cargo pants. All of the guys managed to find some clothing item to wear that was red plaid, whether it was on their head, body or feet. Any other clothing was black.

  The music we’d chosen was an instrumental version of Eminem’s “Bagpipes from Baghdad.” Our routine consisted of a lot of aggressive popping and locking, plus some breaking. The crowd loved it. Making our performances a little theatrical made sure the club promoters remembered us and thought to book us again.

  Dante met us at the club which I took as meaning he was really into Cece. I’d have a talk with the boy about treating my girl right, even if Jared already beat me to it. Cece was so sweet it made her a target for guys trying to take advantage of it. Caleb’s best friend or not, Dante needed to know not to mess around when it came to her.

  After our performance, Caleb embraced me tightly. “You did good, little warrior.”

  To give credit to where it was due, Ezra and Taye were the best breakers in the group while Jared was the best at popping. Cece and I had skills, but sometimes I worried we were more eye candy to our audience than anything else.

  But other than skill, the most important part of dancing was confidence, so I told Caleb smugly, “I know.”

  “So it’s like that, is it? Little b-girl has a big dancing ego?” he teased.

  “Yep, it’s the one thing I know I rock at.”

  He kissed me while gripping my butt. “Do you want to go back to my place?”

  Before I could answer, Cece bounced up to us with Dante right behind. “Come on, guys, I want to go home and wash this paint off my face.”

  I laughed while wiping some blue paint off Caleb’s cheek. “My mom is out of town, how about we go there?” Caleb offered.

  “No way! Jared would kill me, plus I need to change at my house.”

  “My bag is at her place anyways,” I reminded Caleb.

  He got an annoyed look on his face. “Fine, we’ll go there first.”

  Cece ditched us to ride with Dante in his car, so it was just me and Caleb. Jared was about as interested in spending time with Caleb as Caleb was with him. When we got there, Jared and they guys didn’t show up the entire time Cece and I were showering and getting ready again. Cece and I grabbed beers out of the fridge and took them to our boyfriends in the living room. I had no interest in drinking after the night before.

  When Jared and the guys showed up, we were sitting on our boyfriends’ laps. Cece quickly jumped off Dante. The girl could move fast. I’d sit on my man’s lap if I want to. Jared wasn’t the boss of me.

  Following the guys into the house was a group of five girls. I didn’t know them and from the way they were dressed and acting, I didn’t want to know them. Cece and I were always irritated when the boys brought girls like this home from a club or battle.

  They said oh my god every other sentence and screeched when they were drunk instead of talking in normal tones. They needed to learn to use their inside voices. To get attention from the guys they acted like complete idiots. Some of the guys would definitely get laid, which was why they brought the girls along.

  “Oh my god, Caleb!” one of the idiots screeched.

  “Damn,” I heard Caleb mumble.

  The idiot teetered over on her stilettos and plopped down next to my boyfriend. Uh, hello, I’m sitting on his freaking lap! No matter how close you move next to him, I’m still closer!

  “Caleb! Where’ve you been? You never called me! I thought you liked me!” The idiot needed to shut her trap.

  “Oh, um, hey, um. . . .” Caleb’s discomfort was the only funny thing in this situation. He glanced at me and I stayed mute, merely raising my eyebrows at him.

  “What’s the matter, Caleb? Are you feeling alright?” The idiot actually had the nerve to place her hand on my boyfriend’s forehead as if to check for a fever.

  I’d had enough. Grabbing her wrist, I flung her arm away. “Nothing is wrong with him except while his girlfriend is sitting on his lap, some one night stand from his past shows up and he can’t even remember her name.”

  “Oh my god! You did not just talk to me like that! I’ll have you know that Caleb and I spent a beautiful night together! It was magical!” The idiot screeched and whined at the same time. Talented.

  “Caleb, baby?” I said sweetly.

  “Yes, princess?”

  “What is this slut’s, sorry, I mean girl’s name?”

  “Hell if I know,” he answered, shrugging.

  I bit back my laughter as the girl’s face turned red. She swiftly stomped back to her OMG posse. First thing I heard her say to them was, “Oh my God!” Then it was like, “Blah, blah, blah, screech!”

  At the end of her spiel, the volume in the room turned up. All of the OMG girls were trying to screech over each other in outrage. They were reassuring what’s-her-name that she was the best, most beautiful, better than me and didn’t need a guy like Caleb in her life. The song “Stupid Girls” by Pink began playing in my head. Unfortunately, not loudly enough to drown them out.

  Caleb was shaking in silent laughter. I couldn’t take it anymore. “That’s it! Caleb and I are out of here!” I announced to the room.

  “Don’t leave me, Gianna! Take me with you!” Cece shouted dramatically.

  While Jared was in the shower, Cece and I grabbed our things and snuck out with the guys. We ran out of the house, laughing as we saw one girl stumble into another in a drunken mess. It caused them all to start tumbling like dominos.

  Jared was going to be so pissed when Cece didn’t come home tonight, but he’d cover for her with their parents anyways. He was a good brother like that.

  As Dante and Cece followed in his car, I finally let out my frustration towards Caleb. “Is that going to happen on a regular basis? How many girls have you slept with, Caleb?”

  “Shit,” he muttered. “I was just waiting for you to bitch me out over it.”

  Turning in my seat, I asked him, “Do you think I should be okay with all these damn girls?”

  “No, of course not.”

  “How would you feel if I’d slept with a ton of guys who all came sniffing around trying to get seconds?”

  “I’d have very sore knuckles,” he responded, staring at the road ahead. “I can’t change my past, Gianna.”

  But would he even want to?

  “Never mind,” I told him, feeling ready to cry and not wanting to go there. Instead, I turned towards the window so I wouldn’t embarrass myself if a few tears slipped out.

  When he parked in his spot, he unbuckled my seatbelt and dragged me over to him. I hid my face in his chest, not wanting him to see how upset I was.

  “I’m sorry, princess.”

  I nodded against his chest. Reaching out, I pushed open the door and climbed out from his side. Before he could see, I wiped under my eyes. He took my hand and we met Dante and Cece where they waited in front of the apartment building.

  We mostly just chilled the rest of the night. When Cece used the restroom, I verbally pounced on Dante. I let him know Cece started the night as a virgin and she’d better end it that way. No deflowering on my watch. During our little chat, Caleb just looked up at the ceiling like he had nothing to do with the conversation, all but whistling to himself. Dante was a good sport. I thought Taye or Jared may have already given him the same talk.

  The next morning, Dante took Cece home and I warned him to drop her off at the curb and speed away. Beware Jared. Caleb made me breakfast again and I cleaned up afterwards. It was homey, but I was still slightly upset about the night
before.

  After breakfast, Caleb asked, “How would you feel about doing number five today?”

  Number five was a big deal. “Tattoo?”

  “Only if you want to, it’s sort of an important decision,” Caleb said seriously.

  I thought about it for a minute. “I’m ready.”

  Caleb smiled. “Then it’s a good thing I brought the sketch, isn’t it?”

  We went to Donna’s shop and several hours later, I had a two and a half inch tattoo on my hip of a boom box with wings. Caleb planned on licking it along with my belly button ring once they were both completely healed. I could safely assume that anything I got done at Donna’s shop would end up being licked by Caleb.