Date Me (12 page)

“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.”

“Well, she caught it. And the look on her face when she read it. You could tell she was really surprised.”

“I loved how they both ran toward each other and kissed in the middle of the field.”

“Now I wish I had made Dallas ask me. Do you think he would’ve come up with something cute?”

“Probably. How’s that going? We haven’t really talked about it. You kissed, right?”

She grins. “Of course we’ve kissed. I’m not Annie.”

“That’s kind of mean.”

“Oh, I didn’t mean it that way. I just meant I won’t wait. He’s too cute.”

“What do you mean by
you won’t wait
?”

“I’m going to attack him tonight at the party.”

“Don’t you think that’s rushing it a little? You’ve only hung out with him twice, and you aren’t going out yet.”

“Did you wait until Dawson asked you out?”

I sigh. “That’s not really the point. I just think if you like him, you might want to wait. Let him try before you attack him. Has he tried?”

“Not really.” She giggles. “He’s obsessed with my boobs. But we’ve done more than kiss.”

“Hands more or mouths more?”

“Just hands, but tonight I plan on changing that.”

I’m a little worried about this. My poor baby Dallas is going to get attacked tonight, and I feel like I should protect him or something. Part of me wants to tell her to keep her slutty mouth off him.

“So what are you packing to wear shopping?”

“I think this,” I say, setting my grey Frye boots on my bed along with a funky pair of silver sequined shorts.

“I swear, you are the only person I know that could mix sequins and cowboy boots and get away with it.”

I laugh as I pull more clothes out of my closet. A bright peach silk J. Crew pintuck-front blouse, a slightly gaudy silver rhinestone necklace, and a little Louis Vuitton Eva bag.

“Have you checked the weather?” I ask.

“I think it might be chilly in the morning, but it’s supposed to be sunny.”

“I better wear a jacket then,” I say, grabbing a gabardine Burberry trench coat with fun black leather sleeves. And even though it might rain, I throw in a pair of big black sunglasses.

Her phone buzzes with a text. She looks down, smiles, and turns her back on me.

Um, hello? Weren’t we in the middle of a conversation here?

I finish packing then say to her, “So I’m going to sleep for a little before the party.”

She gives me a barely perceptible nod of her head as she laughs to herself and furiously texts.

My own phone buzzes.

Dawson: I’m still in the car with my parents. Bor-ing. But before the game was really fun ;)

Me: Which part was really fun?

Dawson: The gummy lifesaver part.

Me: Who knew they the stretched like that.

Dawson: You knew.

Me: Only because I overheard a couple of the girls from dance talking about it. I’ve never tried anything like that before.

Dawson: Me either. It was sweet.

Me: It did make it sweeter. LMAO.

Dawson: It’s just really cool that you wanted to try it with me. I love you. Seriously. Love you.

Me: I love you too.

Dawson: Jake says everyone is partying at the Cave tonight. You going?

Me: Yeah, later. I have to help Aiden with French first, since I ditched him today for gummy lifesavers and won’t be here all weekend. We have an oral test on Monday. But he has plans and I’m going to the party, so I’m sure we’ll get through it fast.

Dawson: Oral test? You better not be tutoring him with gummy lifesavers.

Me: You’re bad. And, no. Definitely nothing like that for Aiden. I miss you already.

Dawson: Ugg. My mom says I need to put my phone away and talk to them. Which means they are going to grill me about you, Riley, Ariela, what Cam has been up to, blah, blah.

Me: I miss my parents. Talk to them. They’re dropping you off at Cam’s tonight, right?

Dawson: Yeah, we’re going to a party.

Me: I’m jealous.

Dawson: I’ll probably be texting you the whole time. I love you.

Me: I heart you.

Where’s the harem?

1am

It seems like I just shut my eyes and all of a sudden Katie’s phone alarm is going off.

She pops out of bed, pulls her jeans on, and practically dives out the window. “I’ll see you at the Cave, okay?”

“Sure,” I say. I peek at my clock, see it’s a few minutes to one, and try to figure out what I want to wear. Dawson won’t be here to keep me warm, so I throw on a long-sleeved Free People thermal shirt and some Rag & Bone jean shorts. I look at the Golden Goose boots that Cush gave me. They’d be perfect with this outfit.

I haven’t worn them since he told me his mom bought them. I’ve been sort of mad at them.

I pick the boots up and run my hand across the leather.

It’s not their fault that Cush lied. It really doesn’t matter how they became mine, what matters is what I thought. That these boots are everything I want to be.

I put the boots down on the floor and slide my feet into them.

Perfect.

My hear a little knock on my window and know it’s Aiden.

I climb out the window, laughing at how easily I glide out now. How different my life is now than when school started.

My boots should hit the ground about now, but instead I find myself sliding down Aiden’s body as he catches me.

“What are you doing?” I say madly. I don’t want to be in his stupid arms.

“Just catching you,” he says sweetly.

It’s really hard to be mad at someone that looks the way he does. Tonight, with the moonlight shining down on him, he almost looks angelic.

Asshole.

I try to push out of his arms, but he holds me tightly. “You can let go now,” I say.

He drops me to the ground and looks down at my feet. “You’re wearing boots.”

“I wear boots all the time.”

“Not
those
boots. You haven’t worn those since the day we met.”

How does he even know that?

I roll my eyes. “I’ve been sort of mad at them.”

He tilts his head to the side and squints his eyes at me. “Mad at your boots? You can’t be mad at
those
boots.”

“I’m not anymore. We made up.”

“Well, that’s good to hear. Let’s get French done so we can go party.”

His hand curves across the small of my back.

Electricity shoots straight up my spine, causing me to arch my back and jump away from him.

“You’re awfully jumpy tonight.”

“Stop touching me then,” I state a little too emphatically.

He stops touching me and leads me to the chapel, which is apparently open all night. I think I knew that, but had forgotten it.

We study in a very business-like fashion. Our test on Monday has a speaking portion, so mostly we work on his word enunciation.

“I think I’ve got it. I’ll keep working on it this weekend, but at least I know the proper way to say everything now.” He looks at his phone, which is loaded with texts. From girls. And Logan and Nick. And girls. “I better get going.”

“Um, okay. Yeah, me too,” I say, glancing at my phone like there’s something important in it. All my friends begging for me to get there. Unfortunately, there are no texts from anyone.

My friends suck.

When we get to the clearing known as The Cave, Aiden says, “Thanks for helping me. Have a good night.”

I watch him go over to where Nick and Logan are standing. A cheerleader that I don’t really know wraps her arms around Aiden's neck in a greeting.

I study her. Wondering if that’s what Aiden's dream girl looks like.

She's petite, with long dark hair, and a sweet smile. Her eyes are small and just a little too close together, but other than that she has a nicely proportioned face. And a body. A killer body. That kind of curvy body that boys love and I couldn’t get with the best plastic surgeon in all of Beverly Hills.

I look around.

All my friends are paired off. Which explains their lack of texts. Annie is sitting on a log with Ace. Heads together. Holding hands. Deep in conversation. Maggie is making out with Parker up against a tree. Katie isn’t really visible because Dallas is lying on top of her, groping her shirt.

Jake has his arm wrapped around Whitney. She’s smoking a cigarette and he’s drinking whiskey straight out of a bottle.

My eyes flit back to Aiden and the girl.

“S’up, girly,” Shark says, wandering over to stand next to me.

He appears to be a little tipsy, but his eyes follow mine straight to Aiden.

“Is she the dream girl?” I ask him.

“Chelsea? No.”

“She seems to like him.”

Shark laughs. "
All
the girls like him."

I watch as another girl bounces up to Aiden, shoves her boobs out, and hands him a shot. They click glasses and slam the shots together. Then she starts dancing in front of him. Grabbing his hands and trying to get him to dance with her.

“It appears that they do.” I say, realizing I’ve never seen this side of Aiden. He’s flirting. Laughing. Drinking. Doing shots. He even does a little arm shimmy, which gets the girls all worked up.