“Probably not,” she says. “My friends never want to go.”
“You should come with me. You can meet my roommate, Katie. And we’re meeting Dawson and Riley and some other people.”
Aiden growls, “You have a threesome date? You, Dawson, and Riley. I mean, you’ve kissed them both. Isn’t that kind of weird for them?”
“I’ve never kissed Riley, but if I had, it wouldn’t have meant anything.” I turn around and look straight at him. “Kinda like our kisses.”
Annie’s eyes get big as saucers.
Aiden storms ahead of me out the door, while Annie grabs my arm. “So, wait, you’ve kissed Dawson and Aiden? You’ve only been at school for a few days!”
I nod my head.
“Oh my gosh,” she giggles. “I want your life. Or at least a boyfriend.”
“Come with me tonight. We’ll find you someone cute to kiss.”
“What happened with you and Aiden? I swear, he is so hot. When he first sat down behind us yesterday, I held my breath until I almost passed out.”
“He is hot. Honestly, I’m, like, in love with him, but he’s either been wildly romantic and amazing or a total jerk, so I gave up. I don’t need my heart stomped on. Not when there are so many other cute boys around.”
“That’s why I take French. I want to go to Paris, meet a sexy French guy, and live happily ever after.”
“You’re a hopeless romantic, aren’t you? The photos, French.”
She laughs nervously. “Kinda.”
"L'amour est la poésie des sens."
“Oh my gosh, that sounds so pretty when you say it. You speak French good. What does it mean?”
“You don’t know?”
“Well, I know that l’amour is love, but no, I don’t know the rest.”
“It means, “Love is the poetry of the senses.” Some French poet said it. I can’t remember his name. So, meet me at the bench at seven, and we’ll walk down to the game together. Actually, on second thought, come to my dorm room. Pennington 6B. At, like, 6:30.”
“Cool,” she says, and then breezes off.
Evil inner zen.
Soccer.
Coach makes the actual announcements of who is on what team. I did make Varsity, but she also tells us that since the actual season isn’t until spring things could change. Which means I’ll be working out with Peyton twice every day. At least Whitney isn’t in dance or soccer.
We’re doing some running drills on the track that surrounds the football field, where the football team is also practicing.
Aiden runs alongside me for a few seconds, going out for a pass, and it reminds me of how cute he was on Saturday with the points for dances thing.
But then I think about what a jerk he can be. I know it was kinda bitchy when I talked about Dawson in front of him, but he brings it out in me.
He infuriates me.
I swear, no one has ever made my blood boil like he does.
Later, when I’m sitting on the track, stretching my legs out after practice, I can’t help but stare at him. Unfortunately, he catches me and holds my eyes with that power he has. My mind is screaming, Look away! Look away. But it’s too late; I can’t. I just stare into those eyes. Those deep green eyes that are too far away to see the color, but I can still recall every fleck of blue, the little golden line around the edges.
Luckily, Dallas steps in front of me and sits down, breaking the god’s spell. I see his wrist is bandaged up.
“What’d you do?”
“I dunno, sprained my wrist, broke it maybe. If it’s not better tomorrow, I’ll have to get it x-rayed.
“Does it hurt bad?”
“Not too bad. Hey, you wanna sneak out to the cave tonight, just us? Look at the stars again? I’m feeling stressed.”
“Why are you feeling stressed? Because you’re in pain?”
“No, cuz your evil inner zen is corrupting me. And I’ve had a very stressful day trying to perfect my ability to predict the color of a girl’s panties. I also may have got slapped a couple times when I tried to prove my theories, but that is the life of a visionary.”
I laugh. “You’re so funny. And you don’t seem the least bit stressed.”
“I’m not, really, I just want us to hang. I feel like I haven’t talked to you in forever.”
“It’s been a day.”
He nods his head, “Like I said, it’s been too long. Don’t think just cause you have your little thing with Dawson you can ditch me.”
“Fine. Can we go after the game is over?”
“No. Be there at the stroke of midnight. I vant to suck your blood.” He does a vampire imitation.
“Vampires can be out before midnight—haven’t you seen Twilight?”
“Yeah, but you know, you catch me in the sun and my brilliance will be too dazzling for you to handle.”
“It’s sunny right now.”
“And you’re dazzled, right?”
Best friend love sucks.
6:30pm
Katie and I do an extreme makeover on Annie’s hair. Then I put her adorable, petite, and way-too-covered-up figure in one of Katie’s tight little school T-shirts instead of the big oversized one she was wearing. She’s nervous that it’s too tight, so I tell her what my mom says. You can have all the brains in the world, but it takes a body to get most men’s attention.
I throw on a pair of jean shorts with a little black tank top that says Wild about Cougars in clear and gold rhinestones and my black Koolaburra boots.
Dawson is waiting outside my dorm, sitting on the short brick wall that surrounds the grounds.
“Hey, cutie, I just texted you,” he says and gives me a sweet kiss on the cheek. He holds my hand as we walk over to his dorm.
“Sorry, we were busy trying to get beautiful.”
He looks at the three of us and says, “Mission accomplished.”
I introduce him to Annie, but he says, “I know Annie. We had a photography class together last semester. You still taking your amazing photos? You were by far the most talented one in our class.”
Annie beams, and I giggle. “She was out taking pics today, actually, and took a few of us, um, sitting on the bench at lunch.”
“You mean kissing on the bench at lunch?”
“Well, yeah.”
He turns to Annie. “I wanna see those, okay?”
She nods her head. She looks really cute. And I’m thinking about who I could try and set her up with.
But when we get to the dorm and Riley, Bryce, Tyrese, and Ace walk out, I notice Ace totally looking her over. So I decide to not play matchmaker and let nature take its course.
And nature is taking its course. Ace, who I thought was sorta a douche, really, is acting like a well-mannered guy and talking to her about Greek Mythology.
And I can’t help it.
That makes me think of the god I know personally.
I’m definitely texting my mom tonight to see if she has some advice. I know she won’t sleep tonight. She can never sleep before she leaves to go on location.
Dawson is sitting on the bleacher behind me, and I’m comfortably leaning back between his legs. He runs a finger down my arm and whispers in my ear. “You have leopard print on your shirt. That mean you have on the leopard bra I wanna see?”
“Maybe.”
“Grrrrr,” he purrs softly in my ear.
I’m shocked by how immediately turned on I feel by this.
“Can I see it tonight?”
“Hmmm. I don’t know. Leopards are pretty wild—you up for that?” I tease.
He plants a kiss just under my ear and whispers, “I am.”
I turn around to face him. “Dawson, we need to talk. About Whitney. About what you’re thinking.”
“I’m really not thinking about her anymore. You seem to have me captivated.”
“We were going to find you a suitable girl to date. That girl was not supposed to be me.”
“Are we dating?”
“No, I just meant—you know what I mean. Don’t give me shit.”
“Maybe we should be.”
“Should be what?”
“Dating.”
“No way.”
“Aw, come on. Why not?”
“You told me three days ago that you're still in love with her.”
“Oh yeah, that.”
“Yeah, that. If I’m gonna date a guy, I want him to like me, not be wishing I was someone else.”