Jonesy's eyes went to hers. With her heels on, they were about the same height.

"Saving you from this dumbass!" Jonesy said like, obviously. He folded his arms across a chest ripped with muscles from working all summer as a yard slave like the rest of us.

John and I were right behind Jonesy when Brody, Diego, Carson and Brett showed up.

This couldn't get any worse if I'd choreographed the whole tamale myself. I did a mental forehead slap and shifted my gaze to Jade. I wanted to know her position when Brett was in attendance. I didn't put anything past his weaselly carcass.

It didn't take a brain surgeon to see he'd picked up on the tension. Both mine and Jonesy's. I saw Brett drink in the sight of Jade and my heart sped. We'd managed the first two months of school pretty good without any problems. But now, the school quarter was coming to an end and we just couldn't seem to slide by without an altercation with these clowns.

"I don't need saving, if you hadn't noticed. Remember, you're the one that wants to go out with whatever," Sophie said disdainfully and leaned back against Buddy, who was a good shot taller than her... and Jonesy.

A vein in Jonesy's temple kept time with his heartbeat. He looked at Sophie for a long moment and I could see him trying to calm down with an effort. Restraint wasn't a Jonesy strong point.

"What's the problem here, Buddy?" Carson asked, all smirk.

Jonesy wrecked it again by saying, "It's your Buddy here, ya know, your butt-buddy? He's making the moves on Soph... and I don't think he's good for her."

Carson's eyes narrowed and he came forward. "And you're so great for her, Jones. Right? Cuz, how I see it, you'll go out with anything that's female with two legs." His eyebrows raised to his hairline.

He had him there. Carson was a supreme dick, but that was Jonesy, non-committer extraordinaire.

"No comment, Jones?" Buddy asked, talking for the first time, voice laced with sarcasm.

Thunder rode Jonesy's face, the dark skin of his face taking on a purple hue.

Sophie huffed and crossed her arms.

Tiff saved Jonesy's face by sidling up to Carson and saying, "Don't you have your own dick to scorch off or something? Hell," she swung her arm around to encompass the whole group of brainiacs, "you could probably do the whole group in like... five seconds."

Carson moved toward her. And since Tiff so didn't know when to quit she continued as she was backing up, "I mean, a pile of millimeter sausages like you queers would be rudimentary for you?" Her gum snapped, momentarily blinding her because of size. She was brought up short by John, who'd moved behind her protectively. His long fingers wrapped her upper arms.

"Tiff... quiet," John said in a low voice above her head.

"It's okay, Terran. Carson can't do anything, he'd get his pecker in a twist for sure," she said, supremely confident.

I wasn't, because I didn't think Carson gave a shit. After all, daddy would bail his ass out no matter what he did.

Carson got right up in Terran's grill and Tiff had a bird's-eye view of his chest. Her head leaned into John's chest and she turned her face away.

"Keep the corpse-lover in line, Terran. Or I'm gonna rethink my position on female beating. Maybe she needs to find out first hand what kinda junk I carry?" He leaned down close to her face and whispered with menace, "Up close package patrol for you, right?"

John's face became a mask of rage, his cool demeanor replaced by heat. He pulled Tiff back and even I could see Carson had rattled her cage. No small feat.

She recovered, unfortunately. "I wouldn't do you with my dog's dick, Hamilton. Keep your pathetic parts in your pants."

Carson moved toward her again and John put Tiff behind him as Brett grabbed Carson's arm. "Not worth it, man. Just take a chunk out of her brother's ass. Hell, she's got five. Pick one," Brett said with his logic.

Brett-logic was so flawed.

Jade spoke and I died a little as the males from this group trained their eyes on my girl. My beautiful, vulnerable girl.

"Listen, let's just... agree to disagree," she started.

Diego laughed. "Your friend just told us we had no dicks. Not gonna get over it fast, sweetheart."

"I'm sure she didn't mean it," Jade said weakly.

Tiff snapped her gum. "Totally. Meant. It."

Wow.

The bell shrilled and Carson gave Tiff a grim look, then turned his eyes to Jonesy. "You don't have territory rights here, Jones. She doesn't want you. Go hump some willing girl, you're good at that."

I saw the knife dig deep on Sophie's face. I didn't believe that Jonesy was having sex with a bunch of girls. He was a female appreciator though. That last had been for Sophie's benefit. If Carson could cause trouble in our group, he was all for it. The jackass.

Buddy gave a slow stroke on Sophie's arm and she gave Jade the thumb signal for a pulse in the future, her face carefully neutral. Like she hadn't just heard that Jonesy was a man-whore. Jade nodded, her face solemn.

They walked off, Jonesy's eyes trained on Sophie's back. I didn't think he was watching her butt. Unless that included Buddy's hand in her pocket.

Carson glanced over his shoulder, pegging Tiff with a look. She smoldered back at him in anger and he smirked, disappearing into the crowd.

John's eyes met mine over Tiff's head. Only two months into sophomore year and already a fire was burning.

Guess who the match was?

CHAPTER 2

I walked Jade to her next class, my mind turning over the events of Jonesy and Sophie. My arm was around Jade's shoulders, slowing my stride to match hers.

She had her hand on my bare forearm, lightly stroking it, breaking my concentration she said, "You can't fix it, Caleb."

Busted.

I looked down at her with a small smile, the door to Language Arts coming into view. "Yeah," I sighed, "I know. But.. " I looked deeply into those green eyes like swimming pools and swallowed, "just, I don't want you saying anything to him. He's spoiling to take care of that tard Buddy... what you said today..."

We stopped and she turned into me, her hands wrapping my flesh... she was getting a lot of what I was feeling. We'd been working on me blocking some of my emotions from her with some success. But when I was feeling something hard enough, she usually got some overflow.

I finished my thought, "... it just gets him all fired up."

She stroked my skin again and my eyes fell into hers, drowning. She made me want to start kissing her right in the hallway.

She smiled.

"Knock it off, vixen."

She laughed and replied, "Just putting some moves on you."

I released the breath that I'd been holding and kissed the top of her forehead. Keeping my lips against her skin I said, "Just cut him some slack. He's gotta realize on his own that he cares about her."

She nodded, pulling away. "I know. But sometimes Jonesy needs a little push to see what the rest of us are seeing." She shrugged and I watched her sexy top slide a little further off her shoulder, balanced on there precariously. I was thinking about what was underneath the material.

She giggled, blushing. "Stop," she mock slapped my arm and I grinned. She gave me a peck on my mouth and I wrapped my hand on the back of her head, pressing her mouth harder into mine then reluctantly releasing her.

She turned out of the circle of my arms and walked into English without me. My arms felt empty without her in them.

I went to class, my friends' romantic entanglements swirling in my head like messy fog.

****

I walked up the exposed aggregate walkway, passing underneath the rafters of the atrium that signaled the entrance to my house and saw a flash of black in the window.

Onyx.

I smiled, he was faithful. Somehow he knew when I was going to be getting home from school. Some kind of weird dog-wisdom.

The Dog smelled a change in the air, lifting his nose and scenting expectantly. His Boy would be coming through the portal that sometimes opened but he could not see through. The Dog looked studiously at the light level that filtered in through the holes that did not open and sensed that the time was near for his arrival. He stood, stretching from the stiffness of relaxing and caught sight of the fragrant mass that the Boy would throw for him and picked it up, mindful of the sharp things inside his mouth. Soft mouth was important. He was not sure why, but the directive was firmly ingrained. He trotted to the narrow hole that did not open and waited.

The Boy would arrive soon.

Wag-thunk-wag.

I saw Onyx had that gross dog toy and sighed. Mom just had to get a new one. The thing was gray and dingy from reuse, slobber... and whatever else.

I opened the door and Onyx dropped the toy at my feet. I chucked the thing down the hall and he tore after it.

"Caleb?" Mom asked.

"Hey," I said, already making my way to the kitchen. I could smell the banana bread from the foyer.

I slung my backpack on the hook in a maneuver to avoid a "neatness rant" and plopped down on one of the stools that lined the breakfast bar.

Mom smiled and the light caught a hoop dangling from her ear. I smiled back. "How was school?" she asked, cutting off a hunk of the delicious bread, slathering it with butter and placing it in front of me.

I stood, walking to the dishwasher and feeling it. It was hot. I turned and went to the cabinet instead, picking out a fave cup. I walked over to the fridge and filled it with milk. I sat back down heavily.

Mom's brows drew together as I shoveled half the slice in my mouth; no girlfriend around to impress and my stomach making the decisions for me.

Mom grinned. "What... not a good day?"

I shrugged. Less was definitely more with Mom. "It was okay. Jonesy kinda got into it with a butt-wipe from that group." I edited my language for her benefit with effort. It wasn't an easy pulse-switch to turn off but I was becoming expert, finally.

"Oh... Carson and...?"

I nodded. "Yeah, that's the one."

"Why?"

I thought about how much she should know about Jonesy.

Less.

"Ah... Sophie is dating this tard... " she raised an eyebrow and I edited again, "this mouth-breather named Buddy."

"That's surprising. I thought she had better discernment than that."

I shifted, uncomfortable, thinking of the AP sex. "Ah... he's AP like her and Jonesy hasn't exactly been..." I didn't know how to finish without making Jonesy into being a jerk. He actually was being one a little. Not that I'd admit that to The Parents.

Mom pursed her lips. "I know Jonesy is in a run of... " Mom paused and it made me stop eating.

She wasn't speechless or something, was she?

"Experimentation," she finished.

"I don't know if that's it. He just seems like he doesn't want to go out with just one girl."

"Sowing his wild oats. Hmm?"

I rolled my eyes. "No, Mom. He likes Sophie, he just doesn't like the idea of being tied down."

"Well what type of girl is he dating?"

Skanks. Edit: "They're not as cool as Sophie."

"And he's dealing with his baby sister right now too."

"That's right, Helen had her baby and now he's the built-in baby sitter."

Yeah, he was so into it. Tiff was having a lot of fun with that.

I smiled and Mom said, "Penny for your thoughts."

"I don't think he's much for the crappy diapers and screaming."

"There is that," Mom said and we smiled at each other.

Onyx knocked my hand and I gave him his morsel for patiently waiting in his beg-spot.

The Boy was the very best master, the Dog thought as he inhaled the deliciously warm People Food. It flooded his sensitive olfactory senses, springing them to life. A little drool began and the Dog tried to camouflage his excitement from the Alpha Female. She would punish the Dog for begging.

He gave a small wag for the Boy.

I noticed Onyx's discreet wag and smiled. He just had to give a small signal of appreciation. I thought at him, good dog. And saw his mental dog wheels turning. Must-show-restraint.

Mom interrupted my thoughts, "judo today."

I nodded, thinking, judo every day but the weekend. Sometimes I wondered if it was worth it. But then I'd think back on my life and know that without some basic training, I wouldn't have been able to defend myself.

Jade.

I frowned as I stood with my plate and cup. "Hey Mom?"

She turned and looked at me, her hands already washing the bread pan, the soapy water sliding off and uncovering her wedding ring.

"What kinda progress has Dad made on that restraining order for Jade's dad?"