Haze Bois

Chapter 13

Jade pulled every item from her wardrobe, looking for a skirt to meet Caleb’s demands. Nothing was jumping out at her. She owned one maxi skirt but guessed it was not what he had in mind when he told her to wear a skirt.

‘He means one of those cute cheerleader style shirts. Short with pleats,’ Jade thought. She had no such item of clothing and it was too late to go shopping.

Jade didn’t want to go snooping around her little sister or parents’ bedrooms, so made do with digging thought the pile of washing that sat by the dryer, waiting for someone to take the initiative and do the ironing. It had piled up since her parents’ trip, and as the oldest child living under their roof, the responsibility fell to Jade. She decided to pull out the iron and get to work on the tower of laundry, if only to make her foraging look less suspicious to her siblings.

Halfway through she came across one of the black pleated skirts her sister wore to school. It was small, but being both petite and slim, Jade might be able to squeeze into it. She hid the skirt in her own pile before completing the boring chore and leaving neatly folded piles on the table. It wasn’t like anyone ate at the kitchen table. They weren’t a ‘sit down together and discuss your day over a roast’ sort of family.

Retreating to her room and locking the door behind her, Jade tried the skirt. It was tight but not enough to give her the appearance of muffin tops. She checked her figure in the mirror, wondering what would complete the look. Having never taken much interest in fashion, Jade turned to the internet for help, searching for ‘cute skirt looks’. The picture that drew her eyes was a girl with black knee socks, a pleated black skirt and a top with lacy arms. She had a similar top somewhere.

The top was crumpled on the floor with the rest of her wardrobe. It would do. A quick text to her college friend later and the socks were sorted too.

Jade surprised herself by sleeping soundly that night. Strange dreams haunted her but were quickly forgotten upon waking. The morning routine was as chaotic as usual, with all her siblings vying for the ‘good’ bathroom.

“Aww, you did the ironing! Thank you,” her little sister beamed. “But have you seen my school uniform?”

“Sorry,” Jade lied, knowing it was tucked into her bag.

The young girl shrugged. “I’ll wear trousers.”

Jade grabbed a quick slice of toast and was off. Her stomach couldn’t handle anything too heavy at the minute. After a few bites, she started to feel ill and threw the toast to the ground, earning her a dirty look from a passer-by.

“What!” Jade growled. “The birds will eat it.”

When she arrived at college her friends were waiting by the front gate. Mandy handed her a small bag, her face plastered with a silly grin.

“Do you have a date?” Mandy asked, nosy as ever.

Mandy and Laura appeared to have no love lives of their own from the way they reacted to Jade’s tales of conquest. They loved to hear the explicit details of her date and weren’t shy about probing her with questions.

“He said to wear a short skirt and no underwear,” Jade informed them, without filling them in on the fact it wasn’t a date. That little detail could remain her secret. What difference did it make?

The two girls shrieked with excitement at this titbit and followed up with a flurry of questions about what he had planned. They wanted to know all about him, so Jade embellished the truth just a tad.

By the time her last lesson finished, it occurred to Jade she had spent the entire day talking about Caleb. Never before had she had so much to say about a guy. It felt weird, and at the same time, it filled her with the sense of purpose she had been lacking.

There was only time for a quick nip to the bathrooms to change, Jade made her way to Caleb’s house. A chilly breeze threatened to raise her skirt and expose her nudity. Jade hoped the wind wouldn’t pick up any further as she started up at the angry black clouds forming overhead.

When Jade arrived, she found Jay making a sandwich in the kitchen. He looked at her with confusion, as though she had rocked up wearing nothing but a bin liner.

The encounter was an awkward one, but it was unavoidable and mercifully brief. The pair exchanged obligatory greetings before Jade excused herself, not wanting to be late.

Caleb regarded her with a chuckle and a help smile as she entered and stood in the centre of the room, showing off the outfit she was proud of. He looked impressed.

“Touch your toes,” he ordered.

Jade did so without even thinking and saw him twist his head to take a look.

“Good girl,” he said. “Do you want to take your punishment now or later on?”

Jade thought for a moment. “Erm, whenever you want to do it?”

He nodded. “Correct answer. I’ll do it later. You stay here and work. I’ll be back in a bit. I have some business to attend to.”

As jade was about to get to work Caleb’s mother popped in with a cup of tea and a home-made brownie. She was a kind-hearted woman. She didn’t have much but would never see anyone go without. She was the kind of person who’d spend her last tenner feeding the stray cat and go hungry.

Both the tea and brownie were delicious. Jade tucked in as she worked, trying to find one of the more obscure items. It was apparently a type of cooling system that was used in the gas industry. Finding one available second hand for a decent price was proving difficult.

Every so often Jade would remember Caleb’s plans for later and get a shiver of excitement and fear.

‘Is it going to hurt more than last time,’ Jade wondered, taking a deep breath.

‘I already know the answer to that question.’