Chapter 8

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Special thanks to astrid-writes for the amazing cover!

*Catherine's P.O.V.*


"Please tell me you are not Ryan."

"Sorry to disappoint you, sweetheart, but I sure am Ryan," he smirked and sat next to me.

"Guys!" our teacher tried to get our attention, but failed miserably.

"Guys," he tried again, earning nothing but complete rejection. After a couple more times, he gave up and sat down on his desk. So much for helping each other.

"What a pity," Ryan laughed.

"Tell me about it," I sighed out of relief that I was kind of skipping Math without even trying.

"So, what do you want to do?" he asked me, leaning closer. I could clearly smell his awfully expensive deodorant, feeling dizzy all of a sudden.

"Bring back the space that was between us," I told him and scooted away, breathing in deeply.

"You're playing hard to get," he raised an eyebrow. "I like that," he leaned to whisper in my ear.

"I'm not playing anything," I told him and scrunched up my face.

"If you want you can start with my-"

I interrupted him by shutting his mouth with my palm. The guy was hopeless...

"Just shut up," I said putting my earphones on to ignore him.

° ° °

The rest of the day at school passed like a blur. Our teachers started giving us homework, I had lunch with my friends,... The typical boring and completely energy-sucking high school shit.

I was now driving to the ice cream parlour where I had been working at since May. It's only a part-time job that I do three hours on week days and five hours at the weekends. Unless someone calls in sick. Then I work their shift too.

"Hello, Catherine, sweetie," Mrs. Pat greeted me as soon as I walked in. "How are you?"

Mrs. Pat was a nice old woman who owned the place since she graduated high school. She loved her little shop like her children and I guess it really loves her back if I judge from the income she gets by working in it.

Having money, though, didn't make her bitchy or even a bit intolerable. She was sweet with everyone and a sweet, welcoming smile was always plastered on her wrinkled face.

There weren't many people in the parlour, yet. The place usually got crowded at the after-school hours, since kids like ice cream no matter the season. Whereas adults take no risk even if it's about that heavenly dessert.

"I'm fine, thank you for asking. How about you?" I put on my pink apron, that had a cupcake stump on it. Sue me, there was none with ice cream on.

"I'm perfect myself, thank you," she smiled genuinely.

My first customer for the day was a nice-looking guy, around my age, who had came with his beautiful girlfriend.

"What can I get you two?" I smiled at the couple.

"I will have a scoop of Caramel Crackle and one scoop of Caramel Explosion," the guy said and then looked at the girl.

"And I will have one scoop of Chocolate Marshmallow and one scoop of Peanut Butter Cup," the girl said confidently and smiled at me.

I nodded and told them I will have their orders ready in a minute.

I really liked seeing couples having dates at our place. It reminded me of cute, old movies for some strange reason.

My truth is that I have only been in a couple relationships in the past, with them meaning less than minor to both me and my partners. But right now with all the responsibilities on my tired shoulders I don't think I would have time for that kind of stuff.

I quickly prepared the couple's order and served them in their booth. They paid for the ice cream and thanked me.

Some hundred scoops later, it was time for me to leave. I bidded Mrs. Pat goodbye and got inside my car.

I picked up little Freddie from his relatively big house before making a U turn and heading home.

Being a babysitter might sound easy, but it's truly not. You always have to be available, patient and ready to put up with whatever mood the kids are in. You have to watch your mouth, never do anything in front of them that you would want them repeating... Pretty hard if you ask me.

"Kids!" Hayden shouted from the kitchen. "Food is ready."

Jake, Max and Freddie went to the kitchen and ate, talking about the new video game that was coming out the following week.

"Hey," I told Hayden when he joined me in the living room. "Are you done with your homework?" I asked him with a small smile on my lips.

"I'm going to do it later. I only have a paper for Maths and something in American History," he shrugged and walked towards where we keep our cleaning equipment.

"Do you want me to do it? I am almost done with mine."

"Nah, I'm good. But you can search for part time jobs if you can," he suggested. "Find two or three and then I will check if I am into any of them," he said and I did as I was told.

I opened my laptop and went to findmeajob.com. I typed the name of our city and waited for it to load the page including all the information we needed. A couple seconds later, the results popped up.

The first one was a full time job at a hospital. Not for us. We don't want people dying any day soon. The second one was a part time job at a night club. I wrote down the details and the phone number, since it said that if someone was interested, he should ring them.

After half an hour of searching, I had found five possible jobs for my best friend.

"Let's see," he said and sat down on the couch next to me. "Night club, no. We have school, remember?" He rolled his eyes at my stupidity.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot," I said laughing awkwardly.

"Picking up dog poop? Seriously?" he made a face of disgust.

I laughed and he shook his head, moving on to the next one.

"Dog walker?"

"You have to pick up the poop for this one too," I laughed again already knowing I hadn't helped him one bit with finding a job.

"You really like seeing me suffer, don't you?" he asked.

"Next!" I ordered.

"Grass cutter... Well, this one is the best so far."

"There's one more," I announced.

"Poop eater?! What the-" he furrowed his eyebrows. "That's your number! Hey!" I laughed enjoying his reaction. "You are going to regret this," he warned me and started tickling me.

° ° °

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