‘You admire him?’ Faria paused for a moment. ‘Is that the same as lust?’
‘No.’
‘You’re going red,’ Maisy pointed out. ‘So, if it isn’t lust then could it be love?’
Sensing that further protest would be pointless, Sasha told them both to grow up.
‘I like him, all right? Yes, he’s good looking, and the attention is great, but there has to be more to a boy than a pretty face. It can’t last otherwise, but obviously I’m hoping Jack will prove me wrong.’
‘When are you next seeing him?’ asked Maisy.
‘Any time now,’ said Sasha, and cast her gaze to the cut-through between the school and the field. ‘He’s made me a packed lunch.’
‘Really?’ Faria glanced at Maisy. ‘So, now he’s your mum?’
Sasha weathered the comment by smiling to herself.
‘I figured it would be rude to refuse,’ she told them.
‘Well, you didn’t have a problem saying no to the sex,’ said Maisy.
Sighing now, Sasha faced Maisy and Faria in turn before levelling with them both.
‘Had I just given in and gone for it,’ she said, ‘then right now I wouldn’t be feeling good about myself. Jack is my chance to prove that when it comes to my life I call all the shots. My dad has already marked him down as someone who could lead me astray. The last thing I want to do is make things difficult by acting like a sheep.’
‘You’re not a sheep,’ agreed Maisy with some certainty.
‘You’re a wolf,’ Faria finished for her. ‘A wolf in sheep’s clothing.’
Sasha stared at her shoes, nodding to herself.
‘As for lunch, here’s hoping you like carrot sticks.’
‘Listen, I’ll give it a go,’ said Sasha with a grin. ‘It’s all part of Jack’s challenge to turn me. I’m going veggie for a month.’
For a second, both girls looked lost for words.
‘You are kidding us,’ said Faria slowly. ‘You want his babies. Little vegetarian babies with names like Parsley and Basil.’
‘It must be love,’ Maisy agreed, and drew their attention to the cut-through. There, the young man in question had just appeared bearing a Tupperware box as if it was a bunch of roses.
Jack Greenway had a plan for Sasha. A meal plan. He’d been working on it since their supper together. The result was now folded inside his jeans pocket as he made his way out of the school to meet her. The corridors were swarming with kids. Ever since he’d started the year as a sixth former, it felt as if he were attending some kind of infant school. On the upside, the girls in their GCSE year looked up to him like he had collected an A star in maturity and cool.
‘Hey, Matilda… What’s up, Chrissie? Tess, is that a new ear piercing? What’s it called? A tragus! Wow. Looks good on you.’
As for the boys in the years below Jack, they might as well have been invisible. If they got in his way he would simply expect them to move. That lunchtime, it was Ivan who discovered this for himself. He’d just left the canteen, having collected a ham baguette, and was crossing the corridor on his way to chess club. Cutting across the flow of pupils was never easy, but Jack just made it harder for him.
‘Watch out, dumbass!’ he snapped, when Ivan walked right into him. ‘Have you any idea what you nearly made me drop just then?’
Ivan looked up at the young man clutching the Tupperware box. He knew full well this was the vegetarian guy dating his sister. Clearly Jack had no idea that he was giving Sasha’s kid brother a hard time here. Ivan glanced at the box and took a wild guess at the contents.
‘Looks like rabbit food to me.’
Jack Greenway heard him clearly. The kid was confident. He’d give him that. He was also shaping up for a kicking. Not that Jack was a fighter. Violence was something he opposed in every shape or form, from animal testing to any global conflict that resulted in a wrist band he could wear to put his views on display.
‘It’s got to be better than that muck,’ he said, and grabbed the baguette from Ivan’s hands. ‘What do we have here then?’
‘Give it back!’ the boy demanded.
Calmly, holding it from Ivan’s reach, Jack peeled the baguette apart and peered inside. A disapproving look crossed his face, which he shared with Ivan.
‘You know this ham is processed, don’t you? It contains saturated fat and all kinds of chemicals. In fact, it isn’t really ham at all.’
‘Well, I like it!’ protested Ivan, whose ears and cheeks had turned crimson with anger. ‘And you’ll be sorry.’
By now, the dispute had drawn a small crowd. Jack glanced around and grinned.
‘Kid, I’d be doing you a favour by binning this. If more people ditched meat completely this world would be a better place.’
Ivan had heard enough. Without warning, he leapt up with his all his might and snatched the baguette back into his possession. Then, before anyone could react, he swung it like a cricket bat directly into Jack’s groin. The impact caused the baguette to crumple between his legs and the breath in his lungs to exit in surprise. He looked down, utterly shocked, and then around at the crowd who had just begun to titter and smirk. The assault hadn’t really hurt him, but Jack’s pride had taken quite a hit. Ivan, meanwhile, appeared completely unrepentant.
‘Don’t mess with my lunch again,’ he said, before taking himself and his battered baguette away through the crowd.
Watching him go, Jack felt more sheepish now than stunned. He looked around, still clutching the Tupperware box, and attempted to dismiss the situation with a smile.
‘We’re just fooling around,’ he said. ‘Probably all the additives in that junk he thinks is ham.’
Turning quickly, Jack hurried on his way. He glanced down, just to check the assault hadn’t left him with margarine all over his trousers, and swore that he would get even with that jumped-up little toe rag. Just then, however, he wasn’t going to let it spoil this moment. For Sasha’s first vegetarian lunch, he’d prepared two pots of pineapple and cashew couscous with edamame beans, goat’s cheese and red pepper. With some fresh grapes to follow, he was quietly hoping she’d let him hand feed them to her in his car. The way to a girl’s heart was through her stomach, he believed. It had worked wonders on his previous dates. And once he had won them over, everything else would follow.
As soon as he saw Sasha, sitting on the skate ramp with her mates, Jack stopped and waved the lunchbox. He was pleased to see her climb off and make her way across the field. Sasha was his sole interest just then. Her friends were just a pain.
‘You’re going to love this,’ he said, having wrapped his arm around her and led her further from the skate ramp. ‘That’s if you haven’t changed your mind?’
‘I’m ready,’ she said. ‘I can see this is important to you—’
‘Not just to me,’ Jack cut in. ‘Think of the animals.’
‘Oh, OK! That, too!’
Smiling, Jack held her gaze for a moment. Sasha was engaging and smart, he thought to himself, and her willingness to give this a shot was flattering. It was just a shame that she hadn’t let him go all the way at the weekend. After all the work he had put into that meal, she’d hardly repaid the gesture. In the past, other girls had given in before he’d even served dessert. Jack hoped he wouldn’t get bored of her. He’d give it a month, he decided. At a push.
‘Promise me you won’t go back to your old ways over the next four weeks,’ he asked Sasha. ‘If you do, I’ll know.’
‘How?’ Sasha looked puzzled.