Haze Bois

Chapter 7

Jade stared at her phone, waiting for Jay to reply.

Minutes passed.

Then hours.

She tried to ring him, but it went straight to answerphone.

Eventually, she decided to stop procrastinating and go over there. She spent most days at Katie’s house anyway, so could pop over before seeing her friends. It was hardly an imposition, but she dreaded bumping into Cal.

They lived on the other side of town, close to the centre, so it would take roughly thirty minutes to walk it. Jade sighed to herself, wishing that the buses would run on a Sunday. As she speed-walked, music blasting in her ears, her mind began to wander. She had been excited to see Jay after his incarceration and had assumed he would be excited to spend time alone with her. Like most of Jade’s s****l encounters, the entire thing had been disappointing, awkward and less than satisfying. Jade was probably to blame, building up this bad-boy image in her head. He was nothing like the hardened criminal people around here painted him as. Gentle, kind and sensitive, he was everything most girls wished for. But not Jade. The pair had stayed up late, talking for hours. The way he had spoken about his time in juvie led Jade to think he missed the place. The only time he smiled was when he told stories of friends he’d made on the inside.

Jade always thought the prison situation would be all gang fights and getting raped, but her only point of reference was from films.

When Jade arrived, she saw Cal and a couple of his mates were sitting in Katie’s living room. Sighing heavily she joined Katie on the sofa with Haley.

“Oh god, look at this,” Haley lifted her phone. It took a moment for Jade’s eyes to register what she was seeing. A hand, bloody and half-covered in bandages. One of the fingers was missing.

“Oh gross,”

“Lawnmower accident,” Haley read and grimaced. “This is why I don’t do gardening.”

“Neither does Johnny Carter,” one of Caleb’s friends commented with a laugh.

Jade was going to ask a follow-up question when she noticed a large box on the table. It was moving.

“Erm… What’s in the box?”

“What’s in the box? What’s in the box?!” Katie cried enthusiastically. When she noticed the sea of blank faces staring back, she tutted. “Don’t any of you watch movies?”

Kenny opened the box and pulled out a kitten. “My dad said I have to drown ‘em.”

“What?” Jade felt herself becoming enraged. She didn't find cats adorable, or even like them, but the idea of hurting a small helpless creature made her sick.

“We can’t afford to feed them or get them wormed,” Kenny sighed, looking down.

“You can’t do that!” Cal cried in horror. Jade felt herself smile at his indignation.

‘Maybe you aren’t so bad after all,’ Jade thought.

“You have to snap their necks first,” Caleb continued. “Drowning is a crappy way to die.”

As Jade was about to comment Katie jumped up, putting up her arms as if halting traffic. “Or… just throwing it out there…we could give them to Anne-Marie who lives three doors down. She works at the animal shelter.”

Kenny smiled gratefully but another lad huffed. “Aww, but I wanted to kill ‘em.”

“Ryan,” Cal tutted, “This is one of those times where you need to keep the thought in your head. You know. So that you don’t come off looking like a psychopath.”

“You’d know,” Jade blurted. She hadn’t meant to say anything to provoke him further, but the words had slipped out on autopilot before her brain could catch up. This was the very meaning of the term, ‘force of habit.’

Caleb flashed her one of his evil looks as he got up and carefully picked up the box. As the group of teens left Kenny stormed back into the room.

“Are you thick?” he aimed the question at Jade alone.

“What—” Jade started to argue.

“Are you thick, though?” Kenny repeated. “You know your brother owes him money and you saw what he did to Johnny’s hand.”

“That was a lawnmower accident—” Jade frowned.

“Lawnmower?” Kenny laughed. “Johnny lives in a flat on Shropshire! The closest thing they have to grass are the plants growing in Teemo’s spare room.”

The girls were all leaning forward on their chairs, as though getting closer to the boy might help them understand what he was saying.

“No way,” Katie was shaking her head.

“Yes way, I was there, he said we were just gonna scare him and make him cry,” Kenny explained, voice breaking. “I thought I was going to get to steal some hard drugs but all I got was PTS-f*****g-D.”

“Kenny?” Cal popped his head around the door.

“Just saying bye,” Kenny squeaked, and silently waved his fist in exasperation at Jade once more before being pulled away.

The girls sat in silence for what seemed like forever. Jade felt the terror growing in her chest. Would Caleb hurt her brother? The two of them had always seemed friendly. Jonas, though a good seven years older, would sometimes sit and chat to Caleb and his mates in the skatepark.

“I guess episodes of extreme violence run in the family,” Katie said, breaking the silence.

“Oh, come on. Do you actually think it was Jay who attacked Rich? I mean… they say he ripped off the guys' kneecaps with a claw hammer.” Haley stated.

“But why would Jay take the blame? He had priors,” Katie mused.

“I’d go prison for you,” Haley said to Katie and the pair cuddled, pushing their noses together in an Eskimo kiss. Seeing their closeness left a small pit in Jade’s stomach.

‘Why can’t I ever have a closeness like that?’ She wondered. 

As the girls started talking about something else, Jade walked round to Jay’s place. As usual, both the gate and back door were wide open. She found Jay sitting on the floor, head in hands. His deadpan expression did not shift when he met her eyes.

“I can’t do anything,” he whispered. “I’m sorry.”

Jade sat beside him, took the broken phone from his loosely curled fingers, and reassembled it with ease. Hers was a similar model and fell to bits regularly.

“You tried. You shouldn’t have to fix my problem anyway,” Jade replied. Getting mad at one of her only real friends wasn’t going to help her situation. If anything, it would it worse.

“He just wants an apology. He said you were mouthing off,” Jay said, giving her a sideways glance.

“Yeah. That would probably have gone better if I hadn’t just called him a psycho,” Jade admitted, causing Jay to drop his head back into his knees in defeat.

“Well… in my defense, he does act like a psychopath. He cut some guys fingers off. That isn’t sane person behaviour—” Jade began to delve into a monologue before remembering why Jay had been in juvie. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…”

‘Haley’s theory was so convincing I forgot it might not be entirely accurate,’ Jade thought.

Jay shrugged it off. He didn’t seem offended.

‘Are Haley and Katie right in their theory?’

“It was Caleb, wasn’t it? The one who hurt your stepdad?” Jade whispered; afraid Cal might somehow overhear from wherever he was currently residing.

“I’m guilty too. I mean, I was there, and I didn’t exactly try to stop him.”

The urge to pry and ask questions about what happened that night was overshadowed by the need to be a sensitive and caring friend. Some dark part of her mind, hidden in the depths behind social conditioning and morality, wanted to know all the gory details of that night.

‘I guess I’m a sadist,’ Jade thought. ‘And I had the nerve to call Cal a psychopath.’

Feeling it vibrate in her pocket, Jade checked her phone.

A message from her brother.

‘Strange, he never wastes his credit on me.’

“Can you lend me any money. I am in big trouble,” the text read.

“Does this have to do with Caleb Hayes?” she replied.

After a few seconds, he replied, “How did you know?”

“Oh s**t,” Jade whispered to herself. She took a few deep breaths to steady herself, attempting to overcome the panic and sick feeling that rose in her throat. Jade had a part-time job but wouldn’t get paid until next Friday. As usual, she had wasted most of her last paycheck on alcohol and online gambling sites. Poker was becoming a real problem, though she hadn’t wanted to admit it until now. Just lately she found herself taking unnecessary risks. Wasting money. Making dumb decisions. She knew the behaviours was stupid and destructive but the thought of winning big was always enough to drag her back into old habits.

“Don’t Mum and Dad have any?” Jade texted back, before remembering her parents had left to spend the week camping in the Peak District. Maybe they would wire some money if she asked them.

‘Probably not, since they shouted at me for using gambling sites just yesterday.’ Jade thought.

She was racking her brain for any relative or friend who might have spare cash when Caleb and his group walked in. He gave her a huge, false smile.

“Hi, Jade,” he greeted, still smiling. She could see Kenny standing behind him, giving her a very pointed stare.

‘He’s worried about Jonas,’ Jade realised. ‘That’s why he had a go at me earlier.’

Kenny was a sweet kid. Why he hung around with Caleb and his gang of delinquents was anyone’s guess. But he was always following Cal like a shadow, being treated like a chump.

‘I’m going to be sick,’ Jade thought.

She clasped her hands together to stop them shaking. All of the heat in her body was congregating at her chest, making it hard to breathe and leaving her extremities to shiver.

‘Why am I so afraid?’

“Cal, can I speak to you in private?” Jade asked, gulping midway through the sentence.

As she pulled herself from the floor her legs trembled. That combined with the pins and needles from sitting awkwardly made it hard to stand, let alone walk.

“Oh, I wonder what this could be about,” Cal proclaimed with feigned shock, making his gang snicker. He led Jade into his room and sat in his swivel chair, turning it away from his computer to face Jade who stood in the middle of the room, trying to summon up apologetic words that didn’t sound sarcastic.

“You wanted to talk to me in private, right? So, talk then?” Caleb prompted.

The words wouldn’t come.

‘It’s like school presentation day all over again.’

“Erm, well, you see…” Jade swallowed. “I just wanted to apologise for what I said to you, erm, today, and the other day, and, well—”

“So, apologise then,” Caleb advised.

“I’m sorry,” Jade said. She bit her lip; unsure what else she could say.

“Wow,” Caleb laughed. “You suck at apologies.”

“Look, I know I’m a b***h. I know I provoked you. It was stupid, but please don’t punish my brother for something I did.” Jade said, staring at her own feet.

“I won’t if he pays me back with the interest he owes me by Friday.”

“Next Friday?” Jade asked hopefully. “Wait… interest?”

“This Friday,” he corrected. “And it’s only thirteen hundred. I capped the interest at just a grand because I’m not a monster.”

“What? A grand!” Jade cried. "Who the heck has a grand lying about?"

“Yeah. He’s owed me for six months so a grand is nothing compared to what the Provident man would charge.” Caleb explained. He had a point, but still… a grand! Her paycheck would just barely cover the original £300.

“Look, we both know you’re only doing this because you hate me. So why not let me owe you the money?” Jade asked.

“No,” Caleb said

“Well, just let us have more time and I can get the money—”

“No,” Caleb interrupted.

“You aren’t being reasonable,” Jade blurted.

“Oh,” Caleb laughed. He stood and began to usher Jade from the room. “Great talk, we should do this more often.”

“Please,” Jade asked, grabbing the fabric of his top as he walked past. “Please don’t do this. Please? I’m sorry I was rude to you. I am. I’m really, truly sorry,”

Jade felt the heat rise in her cheeks. The humiliation of groveling wasn’t something she had experienced before. It felt alien, as though the words were a foreign language.

He looked down at her, frowning.

“Just please don’t hurt my brother,” she whispered, barely audible. “I’ll do anything.”

The last statement appeared to get his attention if the wicked grin was anything to go by.

“Anything? Are you sure about that?”

Jade nodded vigorously, her mind cycling through the likely situations she would soon find herself in. Was she going to have to sleep with him? She had slept with guys for worse reasons. Out of feelings of sheer obligation after a date, even a horrible one.

And it wasn’t as though Caleb was unattractive. He was tall, obviously worked out and had a nice enough face when he wasn’t scowling (which, to be fair, was most of the time). Plus, he had the bad-boy thing going for him.

“Get on your knees,” he commanded.

‘Oh, of course,’ Jade kicked herself for not thinking of it sooner. ‘Duh.’

She did as she was told, and stared up at him, waiting for the next order. He placed his thumb on her bottom lip and lightly traced the line of her mouth.

 She had a flash of a memory of Haley shrugging nonchalantly and saying, ‘Sometimes you just have to suck a few dicks.’ Katie and Jade had fallen about laughing at her statement.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

Jade nodded. She didn’t particularly like giving head but found it bearable. Something about the situation was almost appealing. She was going to take the initiative and unzip his trousers when he spoke up.

“Okay, reach your hand under the bed beside you. You should find a box with a laptop, a list, and money. I want you to get everything on that list. From ebay, gumtree, sss, personal ads, I don’t care. There should be enough money there but if you need more you can ask.”

 “Oh… okay.” Jade did as he instructed, finding the box after a few sweeps of her arm. It contained everything he’d listed.

Judging by the wads of cash nestled into the side of the box, Cal was one of the few people who did have a grand lying about.

“You can sit here on the bed. I’ll give you a twenty-minute break every four hours and pay you minimum wage. You aren’t allowed to do anything else but find these items. If I catch you procrastinating on f******k or some poker site, I’ll double your debt.”

“Okay, boss,” Jade spat before she could stop herself. She glanced up to gauge his reaction to the sarcastic comment. He didn’t look happy.

“Sorry.”

“You can drop the attitude. From now on every bitchy remark will also double your debt.”

“Oh, come on! Have a heart. I don’t even mean to say half the stuff that pops out of my mouth,” Jade pouted. It was true. Her big mouth was the one thing always getting her into trouble, though it had never cost her quite so much before.

Cal laughed. “Well, maybe it is time you learned how to bite your tongue the hard way.”

The list of items was printed on two A4 sheets of paper. Jade read through her itinerary, frowning at the strange assortment of products. A microwave. An old type of handset. A kid’s toy.

“Why do you need all this junk?” Jade asked.

Caleb frowned. “Junk?”

“Fine. Not junk. Stuff,” she conceded with a pleading glance.

“We are building a doomsday device.” Caleb winked

“Out of old junk?” Jade mentally kicked herself. “Uh, I mean this… random stuff?”

Caleb flicked her in the middle of her forehead.

“Just get to work, slave.”