Page 56 of Chase

“I am, I’m staying out of his way,” he throws back at Mr Williams.

I shake my head and walk over to set up my tool kit.

Halfway through the lesson, Yasmin manages to escape from Arden and helps me with the body work on the car I’m working with.

“Arden’s got some serious talent,” She says to me as we work. Last week we spent every lesson working on cars together and every day she shocked me with her skills and understanding. She understands what she is doing and if she doesn’t, she won’t hesitate to ask. I love seeing her get her hands dirty. Unlike Arden.

“Yeah I know. He should be doing a graphic design course instead of shop. But he said he wanted to spend time with me. There was always time for graph classes next year when he goes to uni.”

“That’s sweet. Have you heard back about any of the apprenticeships?” She asks.

“Not yet, but they told me they would make a decision early November. I’m not worried yet.”

“You’ll get something. They are stupid if they don’t see your talent,” she says, stopping what she is doing to look at me to make sure her words sink in. I nod my head. I close the gap between us and give her a quick kiss.

“I know. Are you coming with us to New Hope this weekend to check out houses?” I ask, hopeful that she’ll be coming. If all goes to plan, the house will be as much hers as it is ours.

“Arden offered, but Ally and I are going to stay back. We’re having a girls’ weekend with your mum, Millie and Julia,” she tells me and softens the blow by repeating my action and giving me a quick soft kiss.

“GW is going to New Hope for golf, so it will be a boy-free weekend. As much as I’d love to come with you, I need to do this. We need to make sure that we’re still spending time with our friends separately. I don’t want this to consume us and push other people away at the same time. Plus, this is the first time you’ve all been eighteen in New Hope. Go to a pub, have a drink, play some pool and try to come up with a way to get Rhys out of this shit with Ashley,” she says as she returns to sanding the door she’s currently working on.

I think I just fell in love with her even more. I love the fact that she is trying to build and maintain relationships with the girls, while pushing me to spend some quality time with the boys.

“Sounds like you girls will have lots of fun.”

“Not as much as you’re going to have trying to keep Arden in line.” She laughs. “I’ll miss you though.”

“I’ll miss you as well. Promise to call this time? Text messages just weren’t enough while you were at the hotel,” I say again letting my voice tell her just how much I missed her.

“Deal,” she says before returning her focus on the car.

***

The rest of the week passes quickly. We said our goodbyes to the girls before Arden, Rhys and I all hopped into Arden’s car and started for New Hope.

I’m looking forward to spending some time with the boys even though I’ll miss Yasmin. I know she was right.

“Guess what happened last night?” Arden asks as we turn out my street.

“What?” Rhys and I say at the same time.

“Chelsea and I were getting down and dirty in the car at the lookout and Stacey showed up.”

“What the fuck dude? I have to sit on this seat.” Rhys whines from the back seat.

I can’t help but laugh. “As in on purpose?” I ask Arden. Stacey is becoming more and more of a problem.

“Sure seemed like it. It was one a.m. There’s no other reason she had to be there,” he tells us. Unbelievable. I don’t understand why Arden insists on hooking up with girls at the lookout. He has a perfectly good bed.

“Do you want me to talk to Dad about a restraining order?” Rhys asks. Arden didn’t like this suggestion the first time Rhys offered, and it’s understandable. But Stacey is becoming a problem.

“Do you think he can find a way considering she hasn’t actually done anything yet?”

“The key word being yet. It’s escalating. We need to put a stop to it,” I comment.

“Yeah Dad will find a way. I’ll talk to him when we get back.”

“Thanks man.”

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