Haze Bois

Chapter 23

Katie sat by Haley’s side as she opened an attachment from Caleb. Inside were pictures and information on a man named Peter Manning.

“He’s not that bad,” Haley said, squinting and frowning at the images. “I mean, it could be way worse.”

Katie groaned and fell back on to the bed, covering her face with a pillow.

“I can’t do this! It’s crazy,” she cried. “What if go over to him and he doesn’t like me?”

“Oh, I don’t think that is the issue here,” Haley said. “Why don’t you just say no. Forget about it.”

“If I do that, I can’t see Jamie,” Katie whined.

“Caleb is an asshole for making you do this,” Haley decided. “All those times he scared guys away and now he’s forcing you to kiss this freakin’ loser.”

“I thought you said he wasn’t that bad?” Katie pouted. There was no point in lying, they both knew he was ‘that bad.’

“You should just forget the whole thing, find someone else and stay away from Cal,” Haley advised. It was, in all honestly, the best advice she could give, even if it was partly based on the fact she couldn’t bear to see Jamie and Katie as a couple.

Since the incident with the awful shop manager Haley must have looked at Jamie’s ** pictures somewhere in the region of a million to a billion times. She would sit at her home computer and scroll through incognito mode; afraid the images might save to her phone and be seen by Katie. That would be a bugger to explain to her very best friend in the world.

‘What would I say?’ Haley wondered. ‘Oh, sorry, but you bigged him up so much I started to see the appeal.’

“I just can’t,” Katie said. She pulled in her legs and hugged herself, curling up on the bed in the foetal position. Haley leaned over and gave her a hug.

“It will be fine,” Haley tried to cheer her up. “At least Caleb didn’t say you had to shag him.”

Katie laughed, then made an exaggerated sad face and sighed. “But this will be my first kiss. I don’t want my first kiss to be with some weird old dude.”

“Then kiss someone before you go?” Haley suggested, puckering up. “I’d be your first kiss.”

“That’s sweet, but it isn’t the same,” Katie said. “I just don’t swing that way, as much as I love you.”

Haley pulled Katie to the window, a wicked plan forming in her mind. She pointed at the lads sitting by the fence, smoking and chatting. “Which one is the cutest? Besides Jamie of course.”

Jamie wasn’t there anyway, thankfully. Just the usual suspects.

“Eww,” Katie screwed up her nose, but continued to inspect the crew, eyes narrowing. “Kenny isn’t too bad, is he?”

Haley took this as her cue, running out to gather Kenny. Like a shepherd herding a sheep she pushed him inside the house, ignoring his questions and protests.

“What do you want?” Kenny asked, looking a little afraid.

“We need a favour from you. A big favour,” Haley explained. “And it has to be our little secret.”

Kenny flipped his too-long blonde hair from his face and threw up his hand. “Well? Spit it out then.”

Haley heard Katie giggling and couldn’t help but join in. She noticed that Katie’s cheeks were a scarlet shade of red and she couldn’t stop the nervous laughter.

“Whatever, I’m going,” Kenny went to leave, but Katie shrieked, “No, we need you,” and Haley grabbed him by the arm. Remembering Kenny’s Jujitsu training, Haley knew he could throw her off and leave if he really wanted to. He was choosing to stay, so Haley led him to the bed and sat him next to Katie.

“She’s never kissed a boy before,” Haley explained to the confused lad at last and smiled expectantly, hoping he would get the hint and understand the purpose for which they had summoned him.

He didn’t.

“Really?” he said. “Wow, that’s… what? Never ever?”

“Basically, she has to kiss some guy Caleb wants to blackmail for whatever reason, but she doesn’t want her first kiss to be some gross old man… so?” Haley raised her eyebrows and smiled.

“What? Me?” Kenny gasped. “Caleb would kill me.”

“None of us would ever say a word about it. It won’t leave this room. We swear on our lives,” Haley promised.

Kenny turned to Katie, who was still pink in the cheeks. “You want me to be your first kiss?”

Katie nodded. “Well… you were the cutest guy we could find on short notice.”

“I’m not sure if I should be honoured or insulted,” Kenny said.

Haley was wondering if she should leave the room when Kenny placed a hand on Katie’s cheek and pulled her in for a kiss. The embrace lasted longer than Haley would have expected, and as Katie shifted to press her chest against Kenny’s and threw an arm around him, Haley thought for a moment that this was going to go further than a kiss.

When Kenny finally pulled away he asked Katie if she was happy, almost as though he expected a review or score out of five. Katie nodded and tucked her hair, looking up at Kenny with a shy smile and biting her lip.

“What should I say to the others?” Kenny asked.

“Erm… say we asked you to rescue us from a spider,” Haley suggested. This would be credible since it happened a lot, both Katie and Haley being complete wusses.

“So?” Haley asked as soon as Kenny was out of earshot. “What did you think? Will this kissing thing take off?”

Katie smiled and nodded. “I didn’t think it would be like that.” She shuffled over to the window, moving back the blind slightly to get a sneaky view of Kenny as he re-joined the others.

“First Jamie… now Kenny,” Haley joked. “I’m starting to think you have a thing for younger men.”

Katie turned back from the window, giving Haley a sideways look. “Just don’t tell that to Peter Manning.”