“You want me to kiss you, all you have to do is ask. You don’t have to try and be all sneaky about it.”
I whip my head forward, flipping my hair in his stupid face. “Kissing you is the last thing I want to do,” I mutter.
“In your life?”
“What?”
“Are you telling me that will be your dying wish? It’s the last thing I want to do. Have his lips on mine. Then I can die happy,” he says dramatically.
“You really should’ve tried out for the play. Drama king.”
“I’m not a drama king.”
“Ha! Everything about you is drama.” I turn back around and smirk at him. “Big production. But no one is buying the tickets.”
“And you’re the little production that gets out of hand. Turns into a massive time and money pit. Then goes straight to DVD.”
I think about something sad and let tears come to my eyes. “That’s harsh.” I dab the corner of my eye for effect. Hang my head down a little.
I’m so sad.
His face completely softens. I can tell he feels bad.
“I was just teasing. I already told you that you’d get amazing reviews and I . . .”
I slowly let my face break into a wide shit-eating grin.
“Seriously? You can bring on the fake tears that easily?”
I shrug a shoulder. “It’s a gift.”
A good send off.
3:30pm
We don’t have dance practice, since there’s a game tonight, so I drag Dawson to his room to kiss him.
Actually, I’m thinking about doing more than kissing him. His parents are coming for the game and he’s going back home with them, so I won’t get to see him later. And he’s going to be hanging out with his brother and lots of other girls.
I’m thinking he needs a good send off. And I have the perfect thing for that.
I reach down and skim my hand across the front of his pants.
Dawson gives my body a squeeze. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”
“You don’t want me?” I pout.
Shit. Maybe Riley is right. Maybe I should be worried.
He pushes himself against me, so I can feel that his body does want me.
“I do want you, but you’ll wear me out. I need to be fresh for this game. St. Thomas is a big rival, and I thought you had to tutor Aiden?”
"I thought you were jealous of Aiden?"
"Well, that was before. When I thought he liked you."
“And now you think he doesn't?"
"It's pretty obvious that he doesn't. He could’ve taken advantage of what happened last weekend. Instead, he told Riley about it. So that Riley would tell me. I was wrong to be jealous. He’s obviously not into you, so I'm fine with you tutoring him. I mean, we do need him. He's our starting kicker and since Cole got hurt, he’s starting at receiver too. We don't want him to get kicked off the team because he’s failing.”
“I know, but . . .” I make a sad face. Now I am feeling jealous. I don’t want to sound like a whiny, jealous girlfriend. But still. “Will your brother encourage you to cheat on me? Riley says he will. Says I should be nervous,” I blurt out.
Dawson smiles at me and pulls me down on his bed. “Is that what this is all about?”
“Kinda, yes.”
“You’re going to New York with a bunch of girls. Are you going to be looking for guys? I suspect you could pick up a guy any time you wanted.”
“You’re silly. Guys really don’t pay that much attention to me.”
He gives me a look. “I’m not buying that.”
“At my old school, my best friend used to tell me I was good bait. Apparently, I’m easy to talk to. Which meant I’d become their friend, and she’d sleep with them.”
“Was she not as pretty as you?”
“She was very pretty, but more like Whitney. Not very approachable.”
“So she was a big bitch?”
I can’t help but laugh. “Kinda, yeah.”
He grabs both of my hands and looks at me seriously. “Keatie, I love you. I’m not looking for other girls. I just want to hang out with my brother. It’s weird not having him here every day.”
“Are you closer to him than you are with Riley?”
“Riley and I are getting closer, but he wasn’t here the last two years. It was me and Cam.”
“That makes sense.” I sigh. “I guess I better go.”
He leans in to give me what I assume is a good-bye kiss. But it’s better than that. His lips press hard against mine and he pulls me up onto his lap.
“I am leaving right after the game,” he says in between kisses.
“I’m wearing the leopard print bra,” I whisper as I kiss down his neck. “And, I have a little surprise for you.”
“Then it’s settled. You’re not going anywhere.”
If I only had a brain.
5:30pm
Dawson and I walk hand in hand down to the field house. He gives me a fiery good-bye kiss, smacks my ass, and walks into the boys’ locker room to get ready for the game.
I head to the dance room and see Aiden and Peyton walking toward me.
Shit.
I forgot to text Aiden about not doing tutoring.
Peyton gives me a radiant smile.
Aiden raises his eyebrows at me and frowns. “So you’re not dead.”
Peyton smacks him on the shoulder. “Be nice.”
“She ditched me.”
“I did ditch him. I’m sorry. I, um . . . I had something else I needed to do, and I kinda forgot to text you.”
Peyton giggles. “Was that thing you needed to do Dawson?”
My mouth hangs open. I don’t know what to say. “Um . . .”
Aiden shakes his head at me in disgust.
Or hate, maybe.
“He’s going home with his parents after the game, so I won’t get to see him tonight. I just, we just, I wanted to say goodbye. And he . . . ”
Aiden seems to recover from his hate quickly because a little smile starts playing on his lips. It’s the smile that makes a girl feel weak at the knees.
Not my knees.
Just probably girls in general.
“That’s understandable,” he says. “So then we’ll have to do it tonight.”
“You have a game.”
“After the game. After curfew.”
“Everyone is going to the Cave tonight.”
“Everyone but us. We’ll be in my room studying.”
“No. No, we won’t.”
“Will Dawson get jealous?”
“No, he has nothing to be jealous of, but I don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea. I love Dawson.”
Aiden tilts his head at me in question. I can tell he’s dying to know if I told Dawson yet.
“Yes, Aiden. I told Dawson I love him. Yes, I was confused for a while about love. That happens after you go through a break up. It’s normal to question it and become more cynical of love because you don’t want to get hurt again. But Dawson’s not going to hurt me.”
“Awww,” Peyton says. I didn’t realize she was still here. Aiden has been staring at me with so much intensity. And, apparently, using some of that godly power.
The one that makes you feel like the scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz.
If I only had a brain.
“When did you tell him?” she asks.
I get that gooey feeling. That feeling like I’m being hugged by Dawson. I hug myself and gush, “It was the other night. I told him I hearted him. He asked if that was close to loving him. I hadn’t said it because I was scared to. But he makes me happy, and I wanted him to know it.”
“I love that feeling,” Peyton gushes back. “It’s so dream—”
Aiden interrupts her. “I’ll let you ladies finish your love fest here. I have to get in the locker room.” Then he gazes deep into my eyes and says, “I know where we can go. I’ll be outside your window at one. We’ll study then go party with everyone.”
“Really?”
He shrugs. “What? You think you’re the only one with plans?”
Has he tried?
11:30pm
Katie and I are in our room packing for New York.
“Wasn’t the way Riley asked Ariela so adorable?” she gushes.
“It was. I was a little nervous though. He whipped that football at her pretty hard. Can you imagine if it would have hit her in the face? It could have gone horribly wrong. Of course, when we were coming up with the idea, I didn’t think of that. As soon as he threw it, I started thinking about all the bad things that could happen. It hitting her in the face. Someone else catching it.”