New chapters released (tonight for me, probably tomorrow for you) of Downright Delinquents on Chapters Interactive!

We stay up all night talking, touching, kissing, losing ourselves in each other.

I'm so confused at how this happened so quick. Last week I was beating his face with my fists. And now – the concert, us together, him asking me to be with him... I'm truly speechless.

Slowly peering through my eyelid, I see Jake lying on his side, smiling at me.

"Now who's staring?" I mumble.

"I'm allowed to, you're my boyfriend now."

"That wasn't a dream?" I whisper.

He shakes his head. "No, not a dream."

I reach out and run my fingers down his darkly inked arm. How is the beautiful, broken boy mine? How did we manage to survive the heart ache, the pain, the anger?

"I'm scared."

He lifts his eyes to meet mine. He hasn't shaved for a couple of days; stubble having formed across his jaw. I remember the feel of it against my throat last night.

"Of what?"

"You," I murmur. "Breaking my heart."

"I don't want to."

"Then don't."

He pulls me to him, hugging me close. The sun rays filter in through the blind, casting a golden glow across us and providing us some morning warmth. I snuggle into him, not wanting to move from here, ever.

"I'm probably going to screw this up," he says. "But I'm going to try not to."

"Please try," I sigh softly. "I can't go back after this weekend. You've shown me how good it can be. Please don't ruin this."

He kisses my forehead. "Anything for you, you little shit."

I roll my eyes. "And there it is. Jake Haze, everyone."

He gives me a boyish smile, his dimple flashing at me. I peck at it cheekily and he kisses me back just as quick. We steal kisses from each other until I hear Ellie and Haze's voices in the kitchen.

Reluctantly, I remove myself from his warm arms. He trails behind me as I head to the shower.

"No," I say softly with a laugh. "Hands to yourself."

"I want to shower with you," he pouts.

"I know exactly what you want to do."

"Just a play," he smirks.

Even though I want nothing more than to do that, I finally convince him to not be inappropriate with my sister and his brother right down the hall. Walking away from him is one of the hardest things I've ever had to. But also, makes me can't wait until we're home and can eventually be alone again. Because now that we're together, there is nothing holding us back.

My mouth waters when I enter the kitchen. Haze is cooking everyone breakfast while Ellie sets the table.

"Morning!" she chirps. "How did you sleep?"

"Great," I say, my mind reeling back to Jake's mouth on mine and his hands on my body.

"Coffee?" she offers.

"Please."

Jake strides into the kitchen next and I laugh. Haze and him are dressed the exact same – an over-worn black hoodie and ripped jeans. They both have messy bed hair, scruffy stubble and sleepy eyes.

"Can you stop trying to be me," Haze groans.

Jake scoffs. "Get over yourself."

They both yawn at the same time and reach for their coffee cups. Ellie and I glance to each other. The older Jake gets, the more alike Haze and him become.

We spend the morning gushing about last night and how incredible it was. It's nice all us being here, hanging out. It's comfortable, relaxed and just right.

We head out before lunch but don't rush to get home. We take a few detours, explore some beaches, go on a cliff walk and then stop by some markets in a tiny town I've never heard of.

Something has changed since last night. It's like our skins are magnets. We can't stop reaching for the other's hand, wrapping our arms each other or even openly making out against a wall. I can't get enough of him.

We browse through all the different stalls. I shout us both a frozen drink from a lovely old man who apparently has been mixing this particular blend for over forty years.

I must stare down at our hands intertwined about a hundred times as we roam through the stalls. I guess I can't wrap my mind around this.

"I need a new key chain," I announce when we pass a funky little stall with disco balls hanging from the ceiling. They're selling all different items; I can't tell what the main theme is. "I keep losing my house key in the bottom of my bag."

"I'll pick it out," Jake says before taking an obnoxious slurp.

"Fine, then I pick one for you."

"Deal," he agrees before wandering off.

It takes a solid twenty minutes or so sifting through the piles and piles of key chains before I find the matching ones that I like. A small gold C and a J. They're two separate ones but I buy them both for him to attach to his key set. I hope he doesn't think I'm too much of a sap. I'm half-expecting him to buy me a motorbike key chain or something.

When we meet back up, I hand mine over. "Don't be a dick about it."

He rolls his eyes and opens the packet. He grins down at it. "That's a bit cute."

"I know."

He hands me mine and I cautiously open it. A globe dangles from the chain. In black marker, he's written J & C. We had pretty similar ideas, then.

"For you," he says softly, using his finger to tilt my chin up so that I'm looking into his hypnotising blue orbs. "My world."

***

Jake and I don't stop talking the entire trip home. Energy is buzzing around us. He talks more than he ever has before. He tells me about some good times with his dad and some not-so-good times. He tells me about his time away. I've learnt so many things about him that I never knew before.

As we continued to stop by a series of places, we don't end up arriving back to my house until it's night. When Jake offers to carry my bag inside, I don't protest, wanting nothing more than to spend as much time with him as possible.

"Hey Ma!" I call out once the door is open.

"Hi Love, how was your weekend?" she yells back. I see the soft glow of the T.V which tells me she's in the lounge room.

"Awesome!"

"Hi Mrs Browning," Jake greets her.

A look of pure mortification crosses Ma's face. I should have warned her; she'd be dying having him see her dressed in her cat pyjama pants and fluffy pink socks. She yelps, snapping the leg rest of the lounge down so aggressively that the sound echoes around the room.

"Jake!" she exclaims, throwing a look at me. It then dawns on me that I've completely forgotten the fact that we're no longer meant to be associating with each other. "What are you doing here?"

"Just helping Callum bring his things inside," he answers.

Her mouth falls open. "You went with him?"

He nods casually. "Yeah."

Her eyes widen as she swivels her gaze to me. I give her a sheepish smile. "Er, did I not mention that?"

"No," she says in a voice that's way too calm to actually be calm. "You didn't."

"Ah, well, anyway," I shrug.

She gives me a look that means I'm in trouble. I give her an enthusiastic grin in return. I lead Jake up to my room where he places my bag onto my bed.

"I had the best weekend with you," I sigh with a smile.

"Me too."

I take his face in my hands and give him a strong, firm kiss. He kisses me back and it requires all my self-control to pull away from him.

"I don't want to go," he whines.

"I know."

He buries his head in the base of my neck. I wrap my arm around him, securing him close.

"I'll see you tomorrow," I say to him. "Boyfriend."

He smiles up at me. "See you then, boyfriend."

***

I dream of Jake that night and he's my first thought the next morning. It's official. My walls are down, I'm head over heels and I am damn terrified of this.

As I putter around the house, getting ready for school, I think of my conversation with Ma last night. Once I spoke to her, about everything, she had a completely different outlook on us together. She's now back on board, as long as Jake doesn't play around with my emotions too much, like he has been known to.

Callum: Hey boyfriend, want to meet up for coffee before school? My treat x

I've eaten, dressed and put myself into the car when I realise Jake hasn't replied. I peer through the windscreen at the dreary day. Rain drizzles across the glass as I sink into the seat. I wait a couple of minutes for him to reply, going through my social media. A photo of Rhett appears on my timeline. He's holding up a red plastic cup, a smile on his face, a girl beside him. It's a Happy Birthday post. It's a nice picture.

I exhale. We haven't spoken since that phone call. Before I overthink it, I search him in my contacts.

"Callum?" he greets with surprise.

"Hi Rhett, how are you?"

"Um, fine. How are you?"

"Good," I answer. "Look, I wanted to ring you and clear the air about the weekend. I'm sorry about that phone call."

"My fault, really. I drunk-rang you, knowing you were with him. I knew it would cause a fight, just thought it would be between the two of you."

I raise my eyebrows at his honesty. "Wow."

"Yeah... Not my finest moment. I apologise."

"Look, Rhett, I'd love to still get to know you but I don't want things to get messy here. I'm not interested in drama."

"And yet you're now apparently dating someone who breathes it," he points out.

"Jake is complicated, I know that, but this entire situation is a work-in-progress."

"Sure."

I hit my head against the car seat. "Rhett, come on."

"Sorry. This just... sucks. I kind of wish we never went on that date."

"I was honest with you from the beginning."

"I know, it's my fault."

"I shouldn't have gone, either." I agree, before shaking my head, snapping myself out of it. "No point dwelling on that now," I rub my fingers across my forehead. The only sounds are the wipers scraping against the window. I turn my heater on and settle back into the seat.

"Just for the record, when Jake screws up again, I'll be here. I don't care about being a backup."

I let out a snort. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," he laughs. "Just saying."

"Noted," I nod. "Anyway, I better get myself to school. Glad we could chat."

"Yeah, me too. See you around, Cal."

"See you."

I breathe deeply when the call ends. I feel a little better about that situation now. I still haven't heard from Jake so I send Grant a text, saying I'll pick him up. I take it slow on the road today, the rain drizzle upgrading to a heavier downpour the further into town I get. I switched my headlights on and increase the speed of the wipers.

"Hey!" he flops into my passenger seat loosely with a lope-sided grin on your face, his hair dripping water onto his shoulders. "How was your weekend?"

"Incredible."

I fill him in all about the concert. I end up taking Grant for coffee, since Jake is MIA. Kat and him went to a theme park, which makes me now want to go to one with Jake.

"How's it going with Kat? I spoke to her a bit over the weekend, just over text. She seems really happy."

"It's going really good. I don't want to rush anything but... yeah. It's good," he smiles. "What about you? Did you third-wheel with Ellie and Haze?"

"Well, no. Jake was there."

Since I haven't seen Grant since I was suspended, he has no clue what is going on. Frankly, he didn't have any clue what was going on before then.

"Wait. Jake? The guy you beat the crap out of and get suspended over?"

"Um, that's a long story."

He glances down to his watch. "We have nineteen minutes until the warning bell. Can we cram it into nineteen minutes?"

I sip at my coffee. "I can try."

It takes me about two of those minutes to try and figure out where to even begin. But we get there in the end. Grant's face is pure shock. I thought what was happening between us was glaringly obviously but apparently not.

"I literally could have picked 1000 people over Jake to be the mystery guy," he admits, shaking his head incredulously. "Wow. I can't even."

I nod slowly. "Yep."

"How have you kept that all to yourself?" he eventually asks. "Wow. So much has gone down. No wonder you've punched him."

I shrug. "Kat knows."

"What the hell!" he explodes. "And neither of you clued me in?"

"I'm telling you now?" I give him an apologetic look. "You're the only other person at school who knows. Oh, and Mike, that guy in the year below ours, saw us kiss once. Jake almost killed him."

"That kid is always showing up at the wrong time. Remember last year at the assembly, when he walked through the side door and straight onto the stage, thinking he could sneak in late?"

We both laugh as we recall. I had totally forgotten about that.

Grant's face sobers up and he leans across the middle, laying a hand on my arm. "Hey, look, I know I'm not Kat. I'm one of the boys, or whatever, but you know you can always talk to me about this kind of stuff, yeah? I think I've proved I don't judge."

I'm embarrassed to admit how much that touches me. I press my lips together and nod, not feeling confident in a verbal reply right now. He gives me arm a firm squeeze, before reeling back to his side.

"We better get going or we're going to get a late slip," he points out.

Nodding, I buckle myself up and make my way to school, feeling a whole lot lighter. It also feels that bit more real now that my best friend knows everything.

It's a damn good feeling.

------------------

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