Rewritten

Chapter 20: Scott

After my confession to her I brought to an empty park, the parking lot deserted for the two of us. Getting out she followed me behind and we both sat on the picnic table.

"Probation?" She asked with a squint.

"I used to gamble." I tucked my hands in my pocket.

"Well, I-I- when was this?" Maria stuttered.

I've never been nervous like this, ever. I felt sweat under my armpits and forehead. "Junior year. My dad hired me as a paid intern at his job for experience. I fucking hated it. I missed days and slacked on my work on purpose to get fired. He told me that since I'm being ungrateful, I should find another job or leave his house. I didn't feel like working anywhere else, so I asked my 'wonderful' cousin for what he does.

Whenever Aaron came over he had a wad of cash, he suggested that I do what he's doing. I found out that he was making bets at the race track. I actually liked it because it was fast money and I was good at it."

I paused, glancing at her her eyes still on me listening so I continued. "One day, I got a little cocky and placed a big bet on a horse that never wins to this big looking Italian man. He hated being wrong so we made a bet, I lost a lot of money and he said I owe him or I lose my fingers. I couldn't come up with it. I asked Aaron for help, his brilliant idea was to rob him. Me being a dumbass, I listened and I got caught, cops surrounded and arrested me. My parents were notified, but they don't know about Aaron being in on it. Since I was a minor they gave me community service. However I need to obey the law until I graduate university." As I finished, she had a blank expression until she frowned.

"What about the Italian guy?" she asked.

"He ran away when the cops showed up to some country."

"So it was basically a setup?"

"Yeah, the cops had a case about kids gambling illegally. I was impressionable, me and Aaron were close but he tricked me and found a way out. I called my aunt, his mother, and she told me he travelled to fucking Europe. Now he's back here and I don't know why." I ended angrily and stomped up from the table. The fact that I had to face the consequences pissed me off. Dad calling me a disappointment, the look on mom's face was something I could never erase.

"Maybe he's here to fix things with you." She told me.

"No, that's bullshit. He was always jealous when I made big bets and won, he's screwed up in the head." She needed to know the kind of person Aaron was, I ran my fingers through my hair and stood in front of her while she said nothing.

"You don't talk a lot, do you?" I questioned.

"What am I supposed to say, that it's terrible what you went through? I mean, you're atoning for the better." she held her hands up, I began to laugh. She joined in and she stood up.

"You're grandma's nice." she said while taking her breath from laughing.

"Yeah she's a sweetheart. She knows about it too, but didn't give me much grief like my dad did." I looked the other way saying this.

"It's nice that you talk about me," inching her way close to me.

"I told her that you're a teacher's pet at school." I said narrowing my eyes.

"Sure." She playfully winked at me and I shook my head. Lifting my fingers to hold hers but she backed away.

"Take me home. Please." Approaching the car she entered first. I followed behind, turning the car and leaving the park.

-&-

Fifteen minutes later I reached her home, no cars in her driveway.

"You'll be okay alone?" I asked her.

"Yeah, I mean if you want to come in for a while," she trailed off staring into my eyes like she's trying to tell me something else.

"Sure," I simply responded, both of us unbuckled our seat belts I saw her pulling out her keys and opening the front door.

Maria:

I knew it seemed weird that I'm inviting Scott over after he told me his juvenile ways, but he didn't kill anyone. My mom did the slot machines and the lottery scratchers based on luck. He said he wanted money, we all want money somehow, and Scott just did it illegally. I couldn't judge him, he is who he is. I put my backpack on the ground while he closed the door behind him.

"You want something to drink?" I asked him, making my way to the kitchen.

"Yeah," he answered following behind, I opened the fridge and handed him a bottled fruit punch. He muttered a thanks.

"I'm just gonna change into my pj pants. You can stay down here, watch TV or whatever. No stealing or anything, my dad will know and he will hurt you." I finished telling and ran upstairs, taking two steps at a time. No prom committee meeting today, yay. Closing my door took off my shoes, stripped off my tight ass skinny jeans, opening my top drawer rummaged through it.

"Where the hell is it?" I muttered.

A light snap of my underwear hit my hip, startling me. I jumped. "What the-"

"Nice panties," Scott said gesturing to my red boy short underwear.

"You never heard of knocking?" I asked frowning, continuing to search. There's no point in hiding myself, he's seen me in my underwear before. He traced his finger on my spine, I giggled recoiling from his touch.

"Hahaha, don't do that! I'm ticklish." I pushed his shoulder but he gave me this evil grin and I knew this was bad. He began tickling my stomach, and then went to my armpits. "Stop-haha-Scott-haahaha! I'm gonna kick you in the shin!" I screamed in between laughter.

"Shin? What the hell is that?" he asked as he stopped.

"It's your leg, the bone in the front of your leg." I pointed to the front of my leg while trying to catch my breath and wiped the tears from my face. He stopped finally but held onto my waist, gave a quick squeeze. "Scott," I whined trying to remove his grip but he pulled me into him our chests our touching. I looked into his light brown eyes, they're hazel, right? I could actually see my reflection in his eyes. I could get lost in a guy's eyes; his soft lips pressed on mine, it tasted of fruit punch as he kissed it softly. My eyes were still opened in shock.

"But Scott... friends." I managed to say, he kissed me again firmly. Giving in when he ran his hand through my hair, I held onto his neck as he deepened the kiss biting my bottom lip hard; his hand reached to my lower back, caressing it. Then he lifted me off the floor, as my legs wrapped around him. Pinning me to the wall I moaned slightly as his lips traced my neck. Our tongues massaging, he cupped my butt cheeks our bodies closer than ever.

He brought me off the wall, made it to my bed. With a bounce from the mattress I'm on top of him, grinding on his groin. Scott gripping my waist and kissing aggressively we switched positions now he's on top. My skin was feverish, lower region becoming moist as we groped each other bottom to top. His hand traced my stomach, to my belly button, to my underwear. "Scott stop," I detached my lips from his, attempting to push him off but he's too heavy.

"What's wrong?" Scott panted, his forehead against mine.

"I told you I'm not ready."

"Maria, we can just-" he nibbled my chin, I maneuvered it away.

"I'm serious."

Licking his lips he closed his eyes tight and got up, sitting on the edge of my bed. I took in a deep breath to calm my heart, wiping my mouth I stood up on my feet. Going into my second drawer I found the pj pants and slipped them on.

"I'm sorry, you probably want to go." The same cold feeling in my stomach hit. Thoughts of what happened with Tyler and Aaron. Head down I opened the door for him to leave. His shadow looming behind, his index and thumb picked up my chin, our eyes meet.

"I don't, sorry," he admitted. "I want to be here. We can take it slow."

"Thank you," I smiled genuinely, kissing his cheek.