Snake Bandit - YA Rockstar Read online

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, watching Matilda drop her head into her hands.

  “Nothing’s wrong with her, she just thinks it’s lame. Don’t you Matty?”

  Matilda looked up at Lessie with fear in her eyes, having no clue how to lie. She wasn’t nearly as practiced as her best friend, despite being the better actress.

  “What’s on the damn camera, Lessie?” Rafa insisted, taking a step closer to her.

  “Birds.” Lessie answered him with a curl of her lip and an attitude that told her brother he was stupid.

  “No, what else?”

  “Nothing else. I told you.”

  “Matilda, what’s going on?” Hettie asked, crouching down next to her sister. “Why do you look scared to death while Lessie is acting all mean?”

  “I’m not mean.”

  “You’re acting like you’re up to something, Lessie,” Rafa said, poking her in the arm. “Now show me what’s on the camera before I go home and tell Mum and Papa that you gave Rocco a loan.”

  “How did you know that?” she asked, thrusting a hand to her hip, while keeping tight hold of the camera with the other one.

  Rafa grinned. “I didn’t, just guessed. He had to have got the money from somewhere so he could sneak out, so figured it must be you. Now show me the pictures, Lessie.”

  Rafa held out his hand and looked hard at his sister, his stare never once leaving her. It was a battle of wills, who would blink or look away first. Lessie was good, Rafa had to give her that, but he’d had two more years’ experience of dealing with their siblings than she had.

  “Oh fine,” she finally snapped, thrusting the camera at him. “But just so you know, I’ve already sent them to the Cloud.”

  “Oh God,” Matilda groaned, scrambling to her feet and moving to Lessie. “Why did you give it to him? They’re going to kill us.”

  “What is it Rafa?” Hettie moved over to him and, standing on tiptoe, looked over his shoulder.

  “They’re saved, it’ll be fine,” Lessie hissed. “Stop panicking.”

  “Hettie will kill me.” Matilda glanced over at her sister with a pained look, thankful that she appeared to be smiling.

  “Hmm not bad,” Hettie said, turning her head to Lessie. “But if you closed the aperture a little more, you’d get a great picture where everything except for what you’re focusing on is blurry. I could give you some lessons if you like.”

  “You’re not mad?” Matilda asked.

  “No, why?”

  “Because if I know my sister, she’s going to bribe us with them,” Rafa muttered, not looking up but continuing to flick through the pictures of him and Hettie snogging.

  “Oh really?” Hettie shrugged. “Dad won’t care.”

  “He will,” Matilda cried. “He’ll go mad.”

  “I’ll just tell him the truth.”

  Hettie went back to looking at the pictures with Rafa, both discussing the merits of each one and where they could be improved upon.

  “Ah, but, Hettie,” Lessie said, bored of the photography lesson. “Your dad will go mad. He’ll say you’re too young to have Rafa as a boyfriend, then he’ll tell my Papa who will go mad at Rafa for upsetting Uncle Tom.”

  “Oh, we’re not boyfriend and girlfriend,” Hettie offered.

  “You’re not?” Matilda gasped, surprised at her sister kissing a boy who wasn’t her boyfriend.

  “No.” Rafa screwed up his nose. “We were just practising.”

  “Practising kissing?”

  “Duh, yes Lessie. I thought you’d have got that, seeing as you took the bloody pictures.”

  “Oh,” Hettie cried. “You see that one, you had your hand in the wrong place.”

  “Where should it be?” Rafa peered closely and then nodded. “Oh yeah, that’s more on your ribs than your boob.”

  “You really were practising?” Matilda asked.

  Rafa and Hettie turned to face her, Rafa handing the camera back to his sister.

  “Yeah,” he replied and nudged Hettie. “You were pretty good. Maybe a little less tongue and you’ll be perfect, oh and maybe put your brace in a plastic bag before you meet the boy.”

  “Really? Never thought of that.”

  “What about me?” Rafa asked.

  “Just soften your lips a little and well, yeah, great.”

  Matilda and Lessie stared at them open mouthed, both knowing that even if the photos were in the Cloud, they were useless to them.

  Then Lessie had an idea.

  “Hey,” she cried, excitement lacing her voice. “How do you two feel about giving kissing lessons? I could take photos to help and we could split the profits.”

  Rafa’s head inclined forward as he considered his sister’s idea. She never gave up trying to make money.

  “No Lessie,” he finally replied. “Not happening.”

  “But why?”

  “Because I don’t want to.” He turned to Hettie. “Do you?”

  “Ugh no. It’s one thing kissing you, but some of those other spotty idiot boys at school—no thanks.”

  “There you go,” Rafa said with a shrug. “The answer is no.”

  Lessie thought about it for a few seconds. “What if I managed to get Bella Devine as a customer?”

  Rafa’s eyes widened momentarily and he thought about it for a few seconds. A few seconds where his heart sped up a little and his palms got a little clammy. Then he remembered Bella had a boyfriend; plus, Bella Devine taking kisses lessons from him – nope, he’d embarrass himself in the worst possible way.

  “No.”

  “No? Really?”

  “It’s a no from both of us,” Hettie said. “So, you’re going to have to think of some other way of getting some cash.”

  “Hey,” Rafa cried, startling them all. “I know that Hendrix is having a pool party this afternoon for the football team, including Harry Johnson.”

  Rafa grinned, knowing that both girls had a thing for Harry Johnson, despite him being older than them.

  “He is?”

  “Oh yeah,” Rafa exclaimed. “There’s going to be loads of them, all topless.”

  “Really?” Matilda said on a breathy gasp of awe.

  “Yep, so how about you forget about what you saw today, and we won’t let Hen know that you’ll be taking photographs through that small hole in the fence that Ernie made when we were little. You know the one that is directly in line with the pool.” Rafa winked at his sister, hoping that she took the bait.

  Finally, after a few seconds of contemplation, Lessie nodded. “Okay. Deal.” She held out her hand and thrust it into Rafa’s who shook it vigorously.

  “Right, we’d better go,” Hettie said. “Practice is over and I’m going shopping with Mum. You coming Midget?”

  Matilda shook her head. “No, I’m going with Lessie.”

  Grinning widely, Rafa and Hettie strode away from the girls.

  “That was quick thinking,” Hettie said once they were out of earshot of their sisters.

  Rafa grinned. “I’m too clever for my sister, despite what she thinks.”

  Hettie looked at him and rolled her eyes. “How the heck are you going to get Hendrix to have a pool party at this late notice?”

  “I won’t need to.”

  “Why?” Hettie asked.

  Rafa pulled her to a stop and pointed up at the sky toward the huge black cloud that was rolling their way.

  “I reckon ten more minutes and it’ll be raining. It’s here for a few days apparently, so maybe she’ll forget about it by the time the sun is back out.”

  “You sneaky devil.” Hettie elbowed her friend and laughed. “You think she’ll stick to the deal though.”

  “Oh yeah. She’s nothing if true to her word, my little sister.”

  As they reached the fork in the well-trodden path in the grass, Rafa held up a hand to high-five Hettie. “See you tomorrow maybe?”

  “Yeah, I’ll see if my friends are doing anything, but if not, we could go
and hang out at the café.”

  They started to go their separate ways, when Rafa pulled up short and called Hettie.

  “What?”

  “What do think about that idea of Lessie’s, you know giving kissing lessons?”

  Hettie grinned. “I think it’s brilliant. Bring a pen and pad tomorrow and we’ll draw up a business plan.”

  Rafa laughed and with a wave of his hand continued toward his own garden, hoping to God that Lessie didn’t find out that they’d nicked her idea, otherwise his life would become full of misery

  Chapter 14

  As Rocco and Ethan watched their parents carefully, Eliza watched them and wondered what on earth they were plotting.

  They were still working hard but had managed to sneak out a couple of times using money that Rocco had loaned from Lessie. Eliza knew because Gigi had told her, and when she had, Eliza’s heart had ached at the thought of Rocco still hooking up with girls. She knew about the girl, Maddy, at the studio, but she’d pushed her to the back of her mind as soon as Gigi had mentioned it, but now the sickly, jealous feeling had returned and every night since she’d tossed and turned in her bed wondering who Rocco was with. Then, two nights ago, Freddie had asked if she’d wanted to go for a pizza after their shift at the Leisure Centre and they’d had a really great evening. Freddie was attentive and funny and had become a really good friend who she knew she could rely on. That night Eliza fell straight to sleep, not once thinking about her manwhore best friend.

  Looking over at Rocco and Ethan again, Eliza was positive they were up to something, because they weren’t talking to each other, but were most definitely sending texts to one another, despite being side by side at her parents’ huge dining room table that they only used for holidays and birthdays, seeing as they had the biggest dining room it was where every family dinner was held. Today was Luke’s birthday, so the whole extended family was there enjoying one of Martha’s famous curries.

  “What are they planning?” Eliza asked Gigi, leaning closer to her.

  “No idea, but you can bet it’s something that’s going to get them into trouble.”

  “Have you paid him yet?”

  “No, not yet.” She gave a withering sigh. “And I don’t know how to tell him that I’m not going to.”

  Eliza’s eyes went wide as she stared at her friend. “Gigi, you can’t do that, you made a deal with him.”

  “I know,” she hissed, sneaking a glance at Luke. “But Papa evidently isn’t as stupid as I gave him credit for, and he’s said he’ll pay me at the end of the summer and when I argued he asked me what I needed the money for.”

  “And what did you say?”

  “What could I say?” Gigi shrugged. “I work every day and Amy is on holiday with her dad and his girlfriend for four weeks, so it’s not as if I’m going out anywhere with her.”

  Gigi had other friends, but her papa knew the only person she ever spent time with, other than the Dirty Riches gang, was Amy, so it would be out of character for her to suddenly go somewhere with anyone else in her gang of school friends.

  “I think he’s guessed though that I was going to give some money to Rocco.”

  “What makes you think that?” Eliza asked, glancing over at her Uncle Luke.

  “Just that one minute he was asking how I wanted to be paid, and then the next he was saying he’ll pay me at the end of the summer. He said I should think of it as a savings scheme.”

  “Did you do anything to make him suspicious?”

  Gigi shook her head. “No, I don’t think so.”

  Eliza thought about it and wondered how it was that their parents always seemed to be one step ahead of them, no matter how hard they tried to hide things from them. Her own mum had known before Eliza had even been to the doctors that she was thinking of going on the contraceptive pill – just in case Rocco happened to realise he was madly in love with her, although she’d told her mum it was for period pains.

  “Well, you need to tell Rocco soon, because he’s definitely planning something.”

  “Yeah, I guess,” Gigi sighed. “I just know he’s going to ream me out about it.”

  “It’s not your fault. He’ll just have to lend more from Lessie, that’s all.”

  Gigi started to giggle. “God, he’ll owe her everything that I’m going to give him. Her rates are extortionate.”

  “Well, it’s his own fault,” Eliza replied, pouting a little. “He shouldn’t be sneaking out at night then he wouldn’t need to ask his little sister for money.”

  “I know that and you know that, but my brother is so stupid he doesn’t know that. Anyway, less of him, what do you think of the present we bought for Papa?”

  Eliza giggled as she looked over at the matt black Zimmer frame with a huge bow on it.

  “How did he take it?”

  Gigi grinned. “He pretended to think it was funny, but you could tell he thought it was a shit thing to do. The limited edition, framed David Bowie print made up for it though. Now that, he did like.”

  “I can’t believe he didn’t like it,” Eliza replied, still laughing. “I mean, you pimped it up for him.”

  The Mahoney children had asked an old school friend of Rocco’s to spray paint it and to add silver skulls down each leg. Rafa had even managed to find a Harley, Odin skull, half helmet in matte black on eBay at a drastically reduced price. Luke had actually liked the helmet and mentioned about maybe getting the bike to go with it, but Lessie and Martha had both protested at that idea. In fact, Lessie had actually cried and crawled up onto Luke’s knee and hugged him, begging him not to. Needless to say, once Luke agreed the tears stopped and she clambered down and went back to being her usual hard-nut-to-crack self, as though nothing had happened.

  “I know,” Gigi replied. “But I’ve told him we’ll keep it in the garage until he needs it.”

  As the two girls continued to laugh, neither of them heard the doorbell, or noticed Amber go to answer it. It was only when she came back into the dining room with a rather bemused looking Freddie Price in tow that Eliza looked up and stopped talking to Gigi.

  “Look who’s here,” Amber said, smirking mischievously at Jake whose mouth had dropped open at the sight of their visitor.

  “Price.”

  Jake’s voice boomed out, startling Lucia who had just started to doze off.

  Freddie gave a nervous smile and decided that he’d totally done the wrong thing by dropping in to see Eliza. He’d spent most of the day procrastinating on whether to ask her on a date and when he’d seen her tagged in a Facebook photo with Gigi Mahoney, she’d looked so pretty he had a sudden urge to do it there and then.

  On the way over he’d thought it had been a great idea, but now that he saw the sea of faces all staring up at him, he wasn’t so sure. One face that seemed to stand out from the rest was Rocco’s and on spotting him, Freddie started to second guess even speaking to Eliza again, never mind asking her out. There was no way he could compete with Rocco. Freddie knew he was good looking, but Rocco had the whole tortured rock star thing going on. He also knew he was more ripped than Rocco, but maybe Eliza didn’t like a six pack and muscled biceps. Plus, Rocco had that fucking hair thing going on – women loved his damn hair for some reason. Freddie sighed and inwardly admitted defeat – it wasn’t even as though Rocco was a shit, he wasn’t. Yes, he was a bit of a slut, but basically, he was a pretty nice guy who happened to be his own biggest fan.

  “What do you want, Price?” Jake asked, standing up and crossing his tattooed arms over his chest.

  “Dad, don’t be such an idiot,” Eliza cried as Freddie opened and closed his mouth without uttering a word. “Hi, Freddie.”

  He gave her a sweet smile and Eliza couldn’t help but grin back, happy to see him.

  “Come and sit down, Freddie,” Amber said, throwing Jake a glare. “We’ve just finished dinner.”

  “I don’t want to interrupt.”

  “Okay, so you may as well go then.”


  “Jake, stop being a prick,” Luke growled as he stood up and pushed on Jake’s shoulder forcing him back into his chair. “You’re very welcome, Freddie. We’re going to have cake soon so you’re more than welcome to stay and have some with us.”

  “You’re pretty sure we’ve got you a cake,” Skins scoffed.

  Luke looked at Martha and raised a brow. “Did you make me a cake, babe?”

  “What do you think?” Martha’s eyes twinkled as she gazed up at her husband, the man whom she craved as much as she did when they first met.

  Luke recognising the look on his wife’s face felt his dick harden, knowing that he’d be getting his favourite birthday present later in the privacy of their bedroom. Needing to kiss her, he leaned down and pushed his fingers into Martha’s hair, kissed her hard, forcing her to open up and take everything he was giving to her.

  “Really,” Rocco moaned. “Kids in the room.”

  “Ugh, every time,” Lessie chimed in.

  “Aww leave them alone,” Tom added. “He’s taken his blue pill; he needs to take the sugar while he can.”

  Without stopping kissing Martha, Luke flicked his bandmate the bird.

  Freddie, not sure what to do, looked over to Eliza, who nodded to the seat next to her. He looked over at Jake tentatively, but when he saw that he was in a heated discussion with Amber, Freddie moved to Eliza and quickly plonked himself down.

  “Take no notice of my dad,” she whispered, with one eye on Jake who was now licking Luke’s face as he went back to his seat. “He doesn’t mean it.”

  “You sure? He looked pretty angry to me.”

  Eliza laughed and shook her head. “Dad is never angry. He pretends to keep up his bad boy of rock reputation, but he’s really a big softie.”

  Freddie nodded, but glanced over at Jake, not entirely sure he believed Eliza.

  “So, you come over for anything in particular?” she asked.

  Freddie considered asking her what he’d built himself up for, but when he heard Rocco and Ethan laughing to the left of him, thought better of it.

  “Was at a loose end and knew you wanted to go over the stuff for the lifeguard test.”

  Eliza grimaced. “I don’t know, Freddie. I’m not sure I’d be any good at it.”