Rags 2 Pitches: A Secret Baby Sports Romance Read online

  Rags

  2

  Pitches

  

  Jessica Evans

  Copyright © 2016 Jessica Evans

  Rags 2 Pitches

  By Jessica Evans

  All rights reserved.

  This book may not be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. All characters and storylines are the properties of the author and your support and respect is appreciated.

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Both author and editor have taken great effort in presenting a manuscript free of errors. However, editing errors are ultimately the responsibility of the author. This book is written in UK English.

  Warning: This book is full of foul language from a bad boy that was brought up on a London Council Estate*.

  Ryan

  I might be a thug, but that's what it takes to get respect on the football pitch. If you're not a flat-out beast, every other player treats you like a p**sy.

  I've worked hard to get where I am. On top of a grueling training schedule, I work two jobs and keep an eye on my younger brothers and sister.

  Nothing could get in the way of my dream. Nothing was going to stop me.

  Even the sweet, curvy girl from across the road. Nicola. She was an innocent temptation that I like’d to keep an eye on, even though I knew that she would complicate everything.

  The one that I saw every morning on my way to school.

  Nicola

  I had been a good girl all my life. I worked hard and turned a blind eye to all the crap that was going on in my house. Ryan may not have looked the part and been a bit rough; no, more than a bit. Every other word the man said was obscene. But I didn’t care, because I knew that he had a heart. He was the first person that listened to me, he really cared about me.

  I needed to avoid him, because as much as I long for Ryan, my dream was to go to university and he would complicate everything. But I couldn’t stay in that house one more month without going insane. I had to get away and nothing could stand in my way, not even him.

  * A public or social housing built and owned by the government in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

  Author’s Note

  All characters depicted in this work of fiction are 18 years of age or older.

  This book is written in UK English.

  For a limited period there is a free sports secret baby book that is included with this book.

  Disclaimer

  The school, location and team in this book are figments of my imagination and are not meant to resemble any existing team or school. This book takes place somewhere in the United Kingdom.

  Chapter 1

  Ryan

  “Mum, what’s up? I’m late!” I shouted out of the door. Like I did every fucking morning. Always the same thing. She’d be too tired to take my brothers to school. How can you be too tired if you’re unemployed? She didn’t work. Lately she’d been doing nothing but following whatever boyfriend she was chasing. That ain’t work, but then judging from the state of her every morning, she made it look like hard work. When was she going to wake-up and realise that the only way to get anywhere in life was to work hard? Not chasing some piece of shit.

  “You need to take your brothers to school. How many fucking times do I have to tell you this?! You ain’t stupid Ryan, so don’t act like you are.”

  With that last statement, I shut the door. She was my mum and I knew I should respect her, but she needed to learn to earn it; it wouldn’t be given on a plate. She seemed to think that she could just speak to me however she felt like and I would to take it. Not anymore. Not me. The sooner I got out of the fucking house the better.

  I wasn’t a babysitter. I was going to be eighteen next week, and she treated me as if I was their legal guardian. Just so, she could spend her nights trying to get the next man to knock her up. Which would mean that she could claim more money off the State, so she didn’t have to get a job. With four kids, she struggled to pay the bills, how would one more make it easier? The government was being strict about this type of thing. Too many women were working the system; women like my mum.

  I could hear her screaming over the balcony. I could still hear her even when I’d left the estate and I didn't care, it was about time she learned to look after the twins. Soon I would be leaving home. I was already paying into the football academy. I never qualified for the football scholarship, but John got it. They only offered one per year, the competition was getting tougher for kids like me. It was great for him, but it just meant that I needed to be so tight with money. I knew that I would get a professional contract; scouts had already seen me playing at The Palace Academy and they were interested. The question was more about them taking it that step further and offering me a professional contract, even if it meant only being a reserve. When that happened, then she’d have no one to fob them off to, and she’d have to take the responsibility of looking after her own kids.

  “Shit, you’re mum’s got a set of lungs on her,” Paul laughed as I ran up to him. One thing about my mates. They were all in the same situation, their mums were no better than mine. In fact, Paul’s Mum was even worse, she had six kids.

  “Yep, just ‘cause I won’t take the twins to school.”

  Paul winked. “Don’t blame you. Maybe I need to put my foot down too.” I looked ahead and saw three of his sisters walking holding hands. I started to wonder why neither of our Mums had been sterilized by the government.

  “Well at least yours hasn’t got a new boyfriend. Mine spends her night making too much noise.”

  Paul shouted, “She doesn’t!”

  I nodded, “She does. Sometimes I wonder if everyone on the Estate knows that she’s at it.”

  That’s when I saw her, like I did every morning, standing across the street. She walked alone these days, before she used to go to school with her Mum. I could always recognize her with her dark hair and beautiful blue eyes that seemed to shine across the street.

  “She’s way out of your league, mate,” Paul reminded me, as he had done so many times.

  “One day, she’ll talk to me and one day I’ll make her mine.”

  Then, just like a fucking tornado out of control, I was brought back down-to-earth. On Tulse Hill High Street, my mum had two curlers in her hair and her bathrobe on, and she grabbed my arm and shouted, “Take the boys to school and don’t you fucking disrespect me ever again!”

  There they stood, with half their shirts out, both of them with the wrong foot in their shoes - it was obvious that they weren’t cared for. Well, not by her anyway. She left my brothers like they were rubbish that she had to dump at the side of the road.

  Shit, I hated her. They both looked at me with those big brown eyes and said, “Sorry, bro.”

  It wasn't their fault that she was our Mum, and I wouldn’t make them feel guilty for her ways.

  “Look it’s not your fault. When I’m a big star and I have enough money, you’ll come live with me, alright?”

  They both wiped their snotty nose and tears with their sleeves and Paul said, “Look I need to take my sisters too. So, come on. Let’s get to school or we’ll be late.”

  That was when I noticed that, for once, the brown haired beauty wasn’t walking by, but was looking across the street towards us. Maybe she’d heard Mum screaming like a crazy lady with a fag in one hand and my
brother's arms in the other. Maybe she’d seen me fighting with Mum. Either way, I got her attention, finally; it had been over two years since I’d first seen her walking across the street.

  I had a feeling that it wouldn’t be the last time that I’d grab her attention. I would make sure of it. One day I would ramp up the nerve to talk to her, but right now I had to get myself and my brothers to school.

  Chapter 2

  Nicola

  I knew that every morning he would look my way. He made it so damn obvious, but he would always be with his two little brothers and sometimes with his little sister too. I wondered what his parents did, and then I saw her as large as day in her bathrobe on the High Street.

  She didn’t even try and hide the fact that she was too lazy to take her little kids to school. One of them looked as if he was in uniform, whereas the other just seemed to have on whatever she’d managed to throw on him.

  I thought my family had problems, but looking at his I wondered what his story was. It was only a few yards to the school gates and as usual hanging outside were the cool girls. The ones that skipped school and supposedly had fun hanging around outside. Then they would pick on some girls, before they pretended to go inside. But, drifted off in the opposite direction.

  “Hey, Nicola. You okay?” one of them asked. I nodded, knowing that if I even thought of venturing into a conversation with them I would be in trouble.

  Unlike my best friend, Michelle, whose Mum drove her to school every morning, mine stopped doing that when I turned eighteen. After all, I was getting ready to go to uni, so she had to let me go at some point. It was less than half a mile from our house. Besides, I knew that she would be too busy trying to find out what dirt she could on Dad. That seemed to have become her full-time job. I just didn't see the point of her doing that. She should just get a divorce, it was clear that she wasn’t happy.

  “Not really.”

  Sharon, the head of the gang, shouted out, “Hey, maybe you’d like to hang out with us today?” Her brown eyes and blond hair made her look like an angel in her brown shirt and matching skirt. It was the most disgusting uniform in the world, but she managed to look good - and trust St. Christopher’s to make you wear a uniform, even in the sixth-form. All the other schools allowed kids to wear their own clothes, or even just skirts. Not ours, being a Christian school, the Headmistress came up with these stupid rules. I had thought praying every five minutes was bad enough, but no, they had to make the uniform disgusting too. I was just glad that I had passed my GCSEs with flying colours and in about six months’ time I would be on my way out of this school on summer break and on my way to uni.

  There would be no more listening to Mum cry herself to sleep, knowing that my Dad was supposedly on a business trip, but in reality he was with another woman. She had enough evidence to divorce him, but I knew what held her back. It wasn’t her love for him, or even me: it was her lifestyle and the fact that I was eighteen and deemed an adult. This meant that, in the event of a divorce, she wouldn’t get that much child support. Also, she couldn’t fly to Paris whenever she felt like shopping, and she would have to cut back and maybe get a job. That was why she stayed married to him and the only reason.

  I had an exam in around six weeks’ time, and I had studied for it like crazy. So when Sharon said, “Well?” I didn’t hesitate in saying, yes. After all, I had been the good student until now. The one that studied like crazy and lived in a mad house.

  “Nicola, where you going?” Michelle, my best friend, shouted as she saw me leaving in the opposite direction with Sharon.

  I laughed, “I don’t know.” I could see the confusion on her face. Last night had been a nightmare, Dad hadn’t come home and Mum had spent the whole night calling him. Then she made me call him too, to find out where he was. I thought about what she would do when I left home. Would she be calling me from uni and telling me find out where he was?

  Or, maybe by that time the penny would finally drop that he didn’t love her anymore.

  I knew it when I was fifteen and he started sleeping in the guest room.

  I knew it when he always found an excuse not to be home during the week. He would spend as much time with me, but never her.

  There’s nothing wrong with Mum. She’s pretty for her age, dresses well and looks after herself.

  There’s nothing wrong with Dad. He’s pretty much the same as Mum. He looks after himself and is always jogging or keeping himself fit.

  But there’s everything wrong with Mum and Dad together.

  As we got a few steps away from the gate, I had visions of the school calling me or, even worse, Mum or Dad.

  “Wait up,” I said as I reached into my pocket and turned off my phone. I was going to bunk off school for the first time in my life and one thing was for sure: I was going to make sure I had fun. Even if I did get caught, which I most likely would do. I would make sure it was worth it.

  Chapter 3

  Ryan

  I’d had such a shit day, and it got worse when I got home and saw the police standing outside. They’re always on the block. That’s why even the damn ambulances and taxis (not that I’ve ever called one, but I’ve been told) never enter the block. The estate was doomed from the moment they put us all in here. They call it the ‘Fuckers block’, because everyone lives here claims benefits. So, they think that we all have no prospects, and that includes the kids. That’s why I train hard at football.

  I’d managed to get a job at McDonald’s when I was sixteen and since then every weekend (the Saturday’s I didn’t play football) and holidays I worked there. I needed the money to pay for my boots, clothes and, more importantly, to stay in the Academy. That was my only hope of a scout seeing me play and signing me up. Mum wouldn’t give me a penny, even if she had it. She spent everything on making the flat look nice for her next boyfriend, or buying make-up to get a new one or keep the existing one.

  “What’s up this time?” I asked. I was fucking exhausted. I’d picked the twins up, dropped them home, went training for the big game this weekend and now there were a couple of pigs (slang for police) just standing there talking to Mum.

  “And what’s your name?” one of them asked, ignoring my initial question. I knew that I had to answer him, otherwise he would probably take me in for obstructing justice or something.

  “Ryan Thompson. Why?”

  The tall black pig was going to answer. He didn’t get a chance as the other lanky one who didn’t look like he could run a mile. Let alone tackle anyone on the estate, answered for him, “’Cause there was some trouble with…”

  He flicked through his notes and that was when I saw what the trouble was, as clear as day.

  “Mrs. Hope,” Mum said as she tried to open her right eye, which had clearly met the fist of her latest boyfriend. It was like the second time this week and it was only Tuesday.

  Mum liked to call herself, ‘Mrs’. I’d never understood why when she’d never been married and, by the look of things, would never be married. No man wanted her, my dad and all the others after him, just use her and, as soon as they get bored, they’re out of the door. That’s why she had four different kids by three different men and none of them had put a ring on her finger.

  “You live here?”

  I wondered how he’d got into the police force. He didn’t seem very sharp. He questioned me as I used my own key to open the door; first my name and now if I lived here. Before I could reply the tall one said, “Answer the question.”

  Really?

  I nodded, “Yes, I live here with my two brothers, sister and me mum.”

  I was waiting for them to ask the next question, where was my sister, as they started looking around the stuffy living room. This place was big, spacious compared to other flats, but there were just too many things in it. The sofa clearly didn’t fit, along with the oversized television, stereo system and everything else that she shouldn’t be able to afford on her benefits.

  “This is the sec
ond time we’ve been called this week, and the fifth this year.”

  At last someone had started to realize that Mum is not a fit mother. Do not get me wrong, if I’d had the dough, I would have taken my brothers and sister to live somewhere with me. And, in fact, what I’d noticed was the older she got, the more desperate she’d become. She seemed to cling on to anyone, not thinking about the welfare of my brothers or sister, only herself.

  “We’re going to have to report this to social services. Your neighbours are complaining about the noise. Your daughter; where’s she?”

  Mum didn’t hesitate, “With my sister.”

  They should go and check her out; she’s no better than Mum. I wanted to say something and, looking back, I really wished I had done. The only reason Mum had a black eye right now and the only reason my sister was not living with us was because this guy is not only violent with mum, but he’s a perv too. There’s no fucking two ways about it.

  I’d been the one who’d begged Aunt Dawn to look after sis. Mum was in some fucking la-la land and didn’t want to believe that she’d brought some sex-offender into the house, but it was true. It was so fucking obvious that this new guy, I don’t even know his real name, it changes every time he walks in the door, he must be on the fucking register or something. It ain’t normal for a grown man to ask an eight–year-old to walk around the house naked. It ain’t normal for a grown man to ask an eight–year-old to sit on his lap.

  Shit, they’d only been going out two months, but he’d asked sis to do it once and I’d told Mum about it. The second time, I’d begged Aunt Dawn to take her in. Just like Mum she thinks she deserves a lifelong welfare cheque for existing, never working or paying into the system.