“Oh don’t you fucking worry mate, I’m off. You think you can bring some cheap little slut in here to our home? Well, you know what?” Turning now to face the girl on the worktop, she shouted, “You’re fucking welcome to him.” She glared at Candice who still had the cheek to stare back smugly at Tanya.
“Oh I know I’m welcome to him, babe, I’ve been “having” him for months now; thanks for your generosity though.” She fluttered her eyelashes and blew Billy a big pouty kiss.
Tanya could restrain herself no longer and lunged forward to slap the little tart, but Billy had seen it coming and jumped between the two.
He had warned Candice about Tanya, told her what had been going on with her and his sister’s boyfriend, and even though cheating was an everyday occurrence round these parts, even though Billy had been at it with her, Candice was disgusted at what she had been told about the state Billy had found Emma in a few days previously, she found it hard to believe all that poor girl had been through, she knew part of Billy’s plan to sort Jay out, and had been more than happy to help him get his plan into action. Sitting here now, face to face, she could see what a cold-hearted bitch Tanya was, and that she also deserved whatever she got; Candice was actually really enjoying winding her up.
Billy took Tanya by the arm and marched her upstairs and stood in the doorway of their bedroom while she packed a few bits into a bag and threw on some clothes. He could see that she was fighting her rage and her tears, but he felt no sympathy for her; they were over, she had treated him like a mug and now she was leaving: end of.
Tanya put as much as she could into the bag then looked around the room, wondering what would happen to the rest of her stuff. She hoped that she would be able to come back and get it when things had calmed down. As angry as she was, she was going to bite her tongue until she had her stuff back. Billy’s eyes followed hers around the room, and once again, as if he was inside her head, reading her thoughts, he said in a cold voice: “I’ll send it all on to you,” then he followed her back downstairs and held the front door open for her.
Candice couldn’t resist one more dig; after all it was what Billy was paying her for this morning, to rub Tanya’s nose in it.
“Toodle-doo, babe, nice meeting you.” She waved from the front doorway, as Tanya walked down the path, then grabbed Billy by his shirt and gave him a passionate kiss, before closing the door with her stiletto-clad foot.
30
She was fourteen, but Jade knew that she looked older than that. Once she had her slap on, with her hair done, and was wearing the right clothes she always got let in to the local clubs. Once she even got into The Manor, an over twenty-ones club. It had been easy. It helped that she was tall and blonde and most of the door staff were men, and men were so pathetic like that. She could have any boy at her school she wanted, but she didn’t want any of them, because that’s all they were: boys.
Her mum would kill her if she knew half the things Jade did while she was slogging away at work all week. Jade had become a master at hiding her secret life from her mum. She rarely bothered going to school anymore, she always got up and dressed and made out she was going, but as soon as she had walked around the block she would go back, reaching home in time to see her mum’s car nipping off down the road. Most days Jade would just sit around on her laptop, checking out Facebook or watching crappy daytime TV. She was bored. Bored with her so-called mates who all seemed immature compared to her. She wanted excitement. Maybe, just maybe, she had found it.
Jay was lying in bed next to Jade; he was smoking a joint. Her mum would go ape if she could smell smoke in the house, but she hadn’t wanted to sound like a silly little girl and ask him to put it out, she wanted him to think she was grown up. Besides, she would open the window when he left, and spray air freshener, maybe her mum would think she had actually done some housework for a change. Jay rubbed her leg with one hand, and flicked his ash onto her bedside cabinet with the other. Jade’s room was a mess, looking around she wished that she had tidied it before he had come around, as it looked like a typical teenager’s bedroom. She had told him she was sixteen, although she wasn’t sure he believed her, but he didn’t seem to mind if he did realise she was younger. Her body still wasn’t as developed as she would have liked, and she had thought that that would have given it away. She had boyish hips and her boobs, she was barely filled an A-cup bra. She had also little sexual experience before she met Jay. A fumble with a fourteen-year-old boy behind the bins at the back of the school disco did not count as an “experience”. It had all been so quick and awkward, she hadn’t really been sure in the end if they’d actually had sex or not. Dean Woods had been one of the hottest boys in school, but lying on top of her on the cold damp ground that night and panting like an over-excited dog he had been anything but hot, at one point she thought she was going to have to stop and draw him a map. The whole thing had been embarrassing, they had avoided each other ever since.
So when she and Jay had first slept together it was a whole different game.
She met him at the parade, across from her school. All the kids in her year went over to the shops at lunchtime and spent most if not all their lunch money on cigarettes or joints or anything else that was on offer. Jay was a bit of a face; if you wanted some gear, he was your man, and all the kids knew it, and if Jay wasn’t around he had a few Year Elevens selling stuff for him. Jade had spent many a lunchtime batting her heavily mascaraed eyelashes in his direction, and although she had seen that she had caught his attention, he hadn’t approached her, which made her try harder.
It was by chance that they were at the same party on the estate; some lad’s parents had gone away for a weekend and the place was heaving. Jay was doing some deals in the kitchen with a few of the older boys from Jade’s school; when he was finally on his own, Jade had made her move. She hadn’t realised at the time how she seemed like she was offering it on a plate, but Jay could obviously see right through her, and within the hour they were upstairs in a bedroom. Jade had been frightened at first, she had felt out of her depth. He had known what he wanted, and although he asked if it was her first time, to which she told him it wasn’t, he must have known.
He had taken her hard on the bed, on top of the coats and jackets that had been dumped on there, at one point she had wanted to ask him to stop, it was hurting her. But she kept telling herself that this is what she wanted: a real man; excitement. It had been over before quickly, then she had come downstairs with Jay, and had been given a few looks from her schoolmates as if she had gained a new kind of respect from them, she was with Jay, after all.
That had been a few weeks ago, and now she was more than used to Jay’s sexual demands. She wondered if he was officially her boyfriend, whether maybe he loved her; she was hoping that that was the case, but not wanting to sound childish she didn’t ask, she would wait and see where it went. She was far too shy to ask him about his feelings; besides, that was playground stuff.
So far their relationship consisted of being in bed, but that is what all new relationships were like, right? Not getting enough of each other? He hadn’t told himself anything about himself, though, and hadn’t asked her much about herself, but they had plenty of time for all that stuff, she guessed. He had just mentioned introducing her to some of his friends one night, at some party, so maybe they were in a proper relationship. He wanted to show her off. Smiling, she put her hand under the duvet and rested it on his.