Which was actually pretty awesome in my book. What man would turn down an offer like that, from an incredible girl like her?

I sighed dramatically, “Come on then little girl, let’s get you to school,” I said pulling her back up.

She laughed and let me drag her from my room to my truck. This place didn’t really wake up until mid-morning so there was no one around.

“You’re sure you don’t want me to come and pick you up from school? I could drive you to get your car….” I trailed off, looking at her hopefully, as I pulled up into the parking lot of her school.

“Honestly, it’s fine. Stacey will,” she assured me, leaning over to kiss me lightly. I put my hand on the back of her head so she couldn’t pull away, deepening the kiss, loving the taste of her on my tongue. Kissing Ellie was out of this world and I would happily kiss her all day if she would let me.

I pulled away when we were both breathless and kissed her nose. “So, do I get your number this morning?” I asked hopefully. She nodded and held out her hand for my phone. I passed it to her, watching her tap it in and I couldn’t keep the smug grin off of my face.

She pushed the phone back into my pocket, patting it lightly, teasing the crap out of me because of how close her hand was to my crotch. “There you go, stud. Now you can give me a booty call whenever you want.” She winked at me as she climbed out of the truck, giggling and skipping off through the parking lot.

I watched as people swarmed around her, begging for her attention, boys and girls, all trying to talk to her. She didn’t look to comfortable with the attention, the easy smile she’d been wearing all morning was replaced by an obvious fake one. She was obviously some sort of queen bee at her school, I could tell that by the way all of the people were swarming around her.

Jeez, I’m surprised she would want me to drive her to school in my crappy truck, she probably has some sort of image to keep up. I’m surprised she wanted to be seen with a piece of crap like me at all, but this was her suggestion. As I pulled out, she waved, I couldn’t help but smile because she’d acknowledged me in front of her friends. She really was incredible.

I spent the whole day walking around trying to find a job, I went in to every single store, bar, restaurant and office, trying to find something but there was literally nothing, not even cleaning toilets. As the day dragged on I got more and more worried, I couldn’t think of anything. I was starving hungry but I didn’t want to spend any of the $25 I had, because then I would be even more short.

I thought about going to see Connor and asking if I could get some sort of advance on the sale of the car, but I didn’t want to do that and blow my chances of this working out. I couldn’t go in there and ask for money when I was the one trying to convince them to go for this idea, that would just make me look like a prick.

I sat in the park and thought about it, there was no other way I could think of, I couldn’t lose the place I was living. Sure it was a crap hole, but it was better than sleeping in my truck, at least I had a toilet, a shower and a bed. I never appreciated it until I thought about not having it. I pulled open my phone and called Ray.

“Hey kid!” he chirped happily.

I put my head in my hands, this needed to be done. “Hey Ray, I need some help man,” I stated, squeezing my eyes shut.

“What’s up, kid?”

“I need money.” I sighed.

“Sure kid, how much you need?” he asked sounding concerned.

“I don’t want to borrow money, Ray. I have no idea when I’d be able to pay it back, but I need to get my hands on some money, quick.”

“I’ll lend you some money, you don’t have to worry about paying me back, just spot me when you can,” he said sternly. I shook my head, I couldn’t owe anyone, that wasn’t going straight, even owing Ray I would feel a debt and I needed to do this on my own.

“Ray, I don’t want to borrow money. I was actually wondering if you could call Jensen and set me up for tonight?” I asked hopefully.

He gasped, “No f**king way kid, I’m not doing that! Those things have moved on a lot since you last saw one, no way, nope!” he almost shouted.

I knew he’d react like this. Ray’s cousin Jensen ran an illegal fight club every night, people bet on the fights and the fighters got paid to enter. Just entering would be enough to pay my rent, I didn’t even need to win, just get the snot kicked out of me for a few minutes. I just prayed it was still in operation.

“Ray, I need this. Does he still run it or not?”

“Kid seriously, you know I’ve always hated those things. The fights now are brutal, it’s not just a couple of guys wanting a bit of spare cash now. These guys that enter, they really want it, they want to win. I’ll lend you what you need,” he said pleadingly.

“Ray, thanks for the offer, but please can you call Jensen for me? I need this to happen tonight if he still does it, if you wont do it then I’ll have to find him on my own. Please Ray, do this for me, please.” I ran my hand over my almost non-existent hair, nervously. I had no idea how to find Jensen myself, so I prayed Ray would set this up for me.

“Kid, you know you’re gonna get f**ked up, right?” he asked quietly. Heck yeah I knew that, I just needed to enter and lose.

“Yeah I know. How much they pay now? It still $30?” I asked hopefully.

“It’s fifty now I think. The rules have changed now though kid, there are no rules,” he said quietly.