Free The Deepest Cut by Natalie Flynn Page A

Jake,’ she said.
    It was comedy gold. I wish I had thought to record it. Kelly Dawson coming on to Jake? Pretty much every boy in our year wanted to tap that girl. She never gave it out to anyone. Made out like she was a proper saint and that. It had to be a wind up.
    I was trying so hard not to laugh.
    â€˜I know,’ Jake said. ‘That’s just what friends do.’
    â€˜There’s a film on I quite want to see, you know,’ she said to him.
    I gasped. It wasn’t a wind-up. Him climbing up that effing tree to get my stupid no-name trainers down, which, quite frankly, really stank and could have done with being incinerated, made Kelly Dawson fall in love with him. Or just want to shag him. But even that was a miracle in itself, owing to the fact she was all virginal and stuff.
    It could have gone either way for Jake, depending on what his next line was. I braced myself for it.
    â€˜I can take you if you like?’ He said. It was short. It was sharp. It was straight to the point. He sounded like he was about to choke on his own words, probably in disbelief at the situation, but he’d done it.
    â€˜Saturday? The day after we break up for study leave?’ She asked.
    â€˜Yeah, babes, I can do that,’ he said.
    â€˜Add me on Facebook, yeah? I’ll inbox you my number,’ she said, standing up. She smiled and walked over to her friends and Jake leant back all cool. He blew her a kiss and she giggled.
    As soon as they were out of our eye line, he grabbed my arm so tight, and put his face right up close to mine, and squealed like he was five again.
    â€˜Oh my fucking God, Adam. Oh my God, did you see her tits?’
    â€˜I did see her tits,’ I said, but he wasn’t listening.
    â€˜Fuck me, oh my God, oh my God,’ he said. ‘I’m going out with Kelly fucking Dawson.’ He was bouncing around so much that you would have been forgiven for thinking he’d just eaten his entire body weight in Skittles and was on a huge sugar rush.
    â€˜I know you are,’ I said.
    â€˜Let’s go,’ he said.
    â€˜Where?’ I asked.
    â€˜I dunno, let’s go and celebrate, innit. We can go round Meg’s and tell Nath,’ he jumped up off the bench and bounced off towards the park gate giving me no choice but to follow him.
    We were back in Jake’s kitchen after Nathan had told us firmly to piss off and leave him and Megan to it. We’d told Debbie and she was hopping from one foot to the other with excitement.
    â€˜Is she pretty?’ She asked. ‘Get her up on Facebook; I want to see what she looks like.’
    â€˜Mum, please,’ Jake said.
    We helped ourselves to an orange juice lolly out the freezer and were sitting at the table while Debbie emptied the contents of her purse out.
    â€˜Mum, serious?’ Jake asked, looking at all the coins all over the place.
    â€˜Yes Jake, that’s all I’ve got until Monday,’
    â€˜I can’t go on a date with a score worth of pounds and fifty pees. She’s gonna think I’m a right cheapskate,’ he said.
    â€˜Change it up down the shop, then,’ Debbie said, counting it out.
    Jake stood up. ‘Right, let’s go check out my threads,’ he said to me. ‘I gotta make sure I look reem.’
    â€˜You’ve got four days yet. You don’t need to choose your clothes now,’ I said following him out the kitchen.
    â€˜Yeah, true dat. Let’s go play Xbox then,’ he said.
    For the next four days Jake and Kelly did nothing but flirt at school. They were so sickly sweet and disgusting, it made me want to throw up all over them. Then we broke up for the summer – apart from exams, but in our head they didn’t really count – and it was the day of Jake’s date with Kelly.
    I walked him down to the corner, calming his nerves and trying not to choke on all the Lynx he’d doused himself in. When we got there, I gave