"Who cares," a kid in the back cut in. "Bitches ain't shit but ho's and tricks."

"Whoa!" I turned to the back seat. I eyed the kid; he couldn't be more than eight. "Which one are you?"

"Logan," he said.

I tried to joke with him, "What? No way, but I'm Logan!"

He rolled his eyes. "I know, asshole." Kid had a potty mouth.

"Where did you learn to speak like that?"

He shrugged, stuck his middle finger up at me, poked out his tongue, and then continued to look out the window.

Um...okay.

***

By the time we get into the diner, Cam had pulled three tables together and was settling the kids in their seats.

It took a good twenty minutes for everyone to order, and another thirty for our food to arrive. Within two minutes, shit was all over the place. Fries, nuggets, ketchup, sodas - everything, everywhere. Cam ate with one hand, the other too busy cleaning a kid, or wiping the table, stopping something from spilling, or picking something up off the floor.

"Great, you're here," our waitress rushed towards the door, already taking her apron off. "You have that table of eight. Good luck with that clean up."

"Thanks. Have a good day." I recognized that voice, and my head whipped to its owner.

Amanda.

She looked hot as hell in her uniform, which matched the theme of the diner. The skirt flowed outwards, but the top half was tight, showing of her killer tits and tiny waist.

I finally managed to peel my eyes off her and faced forward.

I'd spent the last week trying to call her. She never picked up. I tried texting. She never replied.

I smiled to myself. She couldn't ignore me anymore. Not when I was right fucking there.

"What's going on?" Cam pulled me from my thoughts. His eyes must've followed mine. They were focused on the front door, where I assume Amanda was still standing. "You know her?"

"Nope," I said, popping the 'p'.

"But you want to don't you?"

"Challenge accepted, Cameron."

"Dude, I didn't-"

"Challenge accepted!" I interrupted.

He laughed.

I felt her presence before I heard her voice. "Can I get you boys anything?"

Her eyes circled the table, and then landed on mine. Her face fell. My heart rate spiked. "Hey pretty girl." I faked cockiness.

"Matthews," she greeted. "Didn't know you'd taken up stalking."

Cam stifled a laugh as he watched this play out. He leaned back in his chair, waiting for the moment of rejection. But I wouldn't accept it.

"I'm not stalking you, babe. Swear it. It's like fate brought me here."

She walked away.

One of the older boys gagged and rolled his eyes.

Valid.

"What's the plan of attack?" Cam wore a shit-eating grin.

"Who cares," little Logan huffed. "Money over bitches...am I right?" His hand was up in the air, waiting for one of us to high five him. We didn't.

I searched the table for the youngest kid.

"You." I pointed. "What's your name?"

"I'm four," he said.

"Buddy," Cam spoke, "he asked what your name is, not how old you are."

"Oh. I'm Lachlan."

I smiled at him. "Okay, Lachlan. Want to earn a quick twenty bucks?" I asked him. He nodded his head enthusiastically, eyes big, a huge baby teeth smile on show.

He walked over to Amanda who was at the counter, returning a tray. He pulled at her skirt, making her look down at him, and then he put on the biggest pout I'd ever seen.

"I'm sad," he said.

She gazed over at me for a quick moment, and then looked back down at Lachlan. She bent so she was at eye level with him. "What's wrong, sweetheart? Is everything okay?"

He shook his head no. "I'm sad because you won't go out with my uncle Logan."

I didn't ask him to throw the uncle part in, but I was impressed.

She stood to full height and looked down at him, "I'm sorry, I can't go out with your uncle Logan."

"Okay then," he stated, shrugging his shoulders dramatically. He didn't move from her side though, just stood there. She went back to what she was doing, and he still didn't move.

She got called over to a table and as she left, Lachlan followed, gripping onto her skirt. She turned quickly when she felt him tugging at her. She looked down at him, confused, then continued to walk and he continued to follow, holding onto her skirt.

He followed her around like a puppy, still holding onto her, for a good five minutes. The entire time we sat and watched in silence, waiting for her to break.

When she finally did, she picked him and carried him over to the table. She stood him up on his chair and made sure he was looking at her. "You can tell your uncle Logan that I will go on one date with him. Only one. And I can leave whenever I want. You can also tell him that I'm busy for the next week so don't bother calling or texting until a week from now, got it?"

"Twenty bucks." He held his hand out, palm up, in front of me.

I stood up, took my wallet out, pulled out a twenty and handed it to him.

Amanda's jaw hit the floor. She turned to walk away. I held on to her arm gently, and then leaned in close. I heard her breath catch. My hand went to her waist. I think she stopped breathing. My heart stopped beating. "One week," I managed to say. "I can wait a week."

SEVEN

-Present-

"Fuck!" I hit the steering wheel and rolled my head against the headrest.

I had just left Jake and Micky's and was parked in front of the frat house. I couldn't get Amanda out of my head.

I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and pulled up her number. It wasn't the first time I'd wanted to call her.

I was about to hit call, when the front door of the house burst open, then slammed shut. Four of my frat brothers rushed out. Jackson was at the front of the pack, heading straight towards me, face red, fists balled. He was pissed. The others started talking shit, trying to calm him down.

"Dude!" Jackson yelled, finger pointed at me. "You slept with my fucking sister!"

Shit.

Not again.

***

I'd been packing to go home for the weekend to catch up on some studying, but mainly because Nathan, Jake's dad, had been blowing up my phone, which meant that something important was—or was about to—go down.

Dad had called and we'd spoken briefly, but he didn't know what was happening either. It was different now than it was when I was younger, because now I was an adult. And even though Nathan worked with kids mostly, he made an exception for me. Nathan didn't want to discuss whatever it was over the phone, so we'd made plans for me to go to his house and talk there. Jake wouldn't be at his parent's this weekend, in fact, he was having a few people over before the season started.

At least, that was the plan, until Nathan called. He had to fly out to an emergency job, so whatever it was he had to tell me could wait. He said it wasn't urgent in a time sensitive manner, just a need-to-know kind of thing. Whatever it was, I honestly didn't really care. It could only be about them. And I stopped giving a shit about them a long time ago.