Gettin' Hooked (6 page)

Wrapping
my hands around the warm paper cup, I cuddled up next to Kayla, tucking my feet beneath me on those comfy little sofas they have in Starbucks' lobbies, and leaned my head on her shoulder. Dasia had slept over at Kayla's, too, and we'd been up hella late, laughing, gossiping and messing with GettinHooked.com.

But I was tired now, not having slept well after we'd finally knocked out for the night. Every time I closed my eyes, I could see Maurice's, the way we'd looked at each other and the way he'd stared me down when I was dancing with Darian.

Kayla and Dasia had filled me in all about him as soon as we'd skipped out before the cops arrived.

Holding back a yawn, I closed my eyes, allowing the warmth of the latte to seep up my arms, and the soft murmuring words of Kayla and Dasia to loll me into my own thoughts, and memories of the evening before.

Darian Gage. Junior at Creekside. Played basketball and football for the school.
Kayla, Dasia and I had spent about an hour going over his GettinHooked profile, and from what I could peep about the boy, we actually had a lot in common. I could get into him, consider him as prom-date material, even. Except he had a little bit of a rep as being a playa.

Still, he was hella fine. Not Maurice hottie status, but fo' real, few compared. As I'd lain there, curled into the oversize beanbag chair, trying to sleep, I kept thinking about these two dudes. The one I'd wanted and the one who wanted me.

I'd kept remembering the way Brie had been touching Maurice, the way he'd been grinding with her, enjoying the way she moved against him. And I'd kept wondering if they were hooking up right then, as I was restless on a beanbag on my cousin's room.

Then there was Darian, with his muscular body and obvious interest in me. I could tell; we'd danced hexa close. I felt a little guilty about the way I'd teased the poor guy, used him actually to make Maurice jealous. Or at least let him know I wasn't hung up or bothered by seeing him with another girl.

“I signed up.” A new girl's voice entered the mumbled words of my cousin and friend, pulling me from my drowsy closed-eyes musings.

Lifting my lids, I checked out the newcomer, a chick I didn't know. Must have been one of Kayla's Creekside classmates, I decided, allowing my lids to flutter closed again, deciding I'd rather just listen than take part in the conversation.

“Cool. You digging it?” Kayla's voice. I knew it well.

“Oh, yeah, girl. I already started talking to someone. Jonathan Brown. You know him?”

I did. He was in my chemistry class. I didn't say anything though, because I didn't know he'd made a profile page. He already had a girlfriend.

“We went to the movies last night.”

Shit.
Okaaay, I hadn't really thought of the fact that some folkies may use this as a way to double up on who they'd already got. I think I'd have said something to Jonathan had I seen his profile up there, but there was getting to be so many it was hard to keep up.

Our number of profiles had jumped again, nearly reaching five frickin' hundred now. We'd been around for two weeks. My girls were all over this. Some had even made prom date commitments already. Things were bouncing off just as I'd hoped they would. Better. Except for me. Maurice was out of the picture, but at least I had a possible backup in Darian.

Dasia giggled. “You have fun, Leza?”

“Oh, my God, yes!” She laughed. “He's fiiinnnee.”

“I know I am, girlie.” A new voice. A guy. I opened my eyes to see who'd just walked up on us.

Darian. Aww lawdy, I was wearing baggie sweats, had my hair in a pony and most of my lip gloss was lingering on the rim of my coffee cup.

“Hey, Darian,” Dasia and Kayla said in unison, Kayla discreetly pinching me on the side.

“What up?” He nodded at them, but was looking right at me, a smile threatening on his lips.

“Hi,” I whispered. My voice cracked, sounding like I'd just woken up.

“Can I talk atcha for a sec?”

My face heated like crazy, and I wondered if Darian and my girls could see the pink rising on my cheeks. My heart rate kicked up some, more about the situation than Darian, though. “Fa sheezy.”

“In private?”

Oh, snap, it was like that?
“Sure.” I straightened on the mini-couch, then, still cradling my warm cup, stood up right quick.

I felt a sting on my butt and knew Kayla had pinched me again. Turning back, I gave her a wide-eyed look with a little shrug. She'd be able to read my confusion, because she was hella good at knowing just what I felt. Instead of offering up a little twinkle of sympathy for my embarrassment, she was grinning all wide, which made me wonder if she maybe had somethin' to do with this.

I was straight whupping her ass later, if I found out she'd set this up. Turning away from my cousin, I followed Darian outside.

The rain was splatting hella hard again, sheets sliding off the overhang of the building, causing a ruckus of noise as they smacked the cement. But it also acted like a curtain, a wall of water blocking a good vision of the parking lot.

We walked in silence, Darian leading the way until we'd cleared the huge plate-glass windows that made up the walls of Starbucks. I knew he was walking far enough so they couldn't see us. My stomach flipped, not sure if I should be excited or nervous.

“What's goin' on?” I asked when he finally stopped walking and turned toward me.

He shrugged, and I could tell he was a little nervous, which helped cool me out. “Just wanted to talk for a minute.”

“Just? For
just,
we coulda stayed inside,” I replied, pretending to shiver as I snuggled my steaming cup closer to absorb the warmth. Really, I didn't need that, 'cause my body was plenty hot already. But the pretend shiver of cold was a good disguise of my real issue. The tremble of nerves.

He didn't wanna talk to me outside, in the rain, just because. The boy wanted something.

“You're cold?” His hand landed on my upper arm, and tugged me a little closer, then with ease turned us so my back was toward the wall and his body was shielding me from the rain and cold.

He didn't stand close enough to touch, but he was close enough where I could feel the heat of his breath wash across my skin. “Better?”

I glanced up at him and smiled. “Yeah.” Then slid my gaze away to watch the plump raindrops. When I tucked my bottom lip between my teeth to keep them from chattering, he made some little noise, so I brought my eyes back to his face and waited for him to tell me what we were really doing out here.

“You were bangin' last night.”

I laughed. “And sweats aren't bangin',” I teased, fishing for compliments, I guess, but hell no did I want him telling me I looked good last night but today I look like shit.

“Nah, girl, you top-notch in sweats, too.” He looked me up from K-Swiss to outta control curls as he spoke.

“Thanks—” I laughed, then holding the cup with one hand, used the other to hold on to his oversize Creekside hoodie, added “—you're not so bad, either.”

He nodded with a confident smile, licking his full lips. “I was wondering, Imani, you have a man?”

Right quick my mind flashed to Maurice and it was undeniable that my body reacted to his image with shooting pulse and heat in my belly in a way that Darian didn't cause. Feelings or not, I was through chasing him.

I shook my head. “Nah.”

His smile widened. “So can we hang, just marinate some?”

Can we hang, just marinate?
Not entirely sure what he was asking me, I took a sec before I answered. Fa sheezy, though, that can't be how dudes at Creekside ask a girl out. And I wasn't ready for all that anyhow, if that's what he was talking 'bout.

“We can get to know each, Darian. Is that what you want?”

“Yeah, girl. And this.” And before I knew what he meant, he was leaning close and his lips touched mine. Softly, at first, he just nipped my bottom lips where I'd had my teeth earlier. Then he kissed me a little fuller, opening his mouth on mine.

Closing my eyes, I tried to absorb the feeling, the smooth sweep of his tongue. He shifted closer, his body keeping me against the wall, but not close enough that we were pressed together, thanks to the latte I was holding.

And then he backed off the kiss just when I was diggin' it, dropping a few quick pecks before he pulled completely away, and turned his head toward Starbucks' door. It didn't take long to see why he'd ended the kiss.

A crowd was startin' to gather at the front of the building, shouts increasing over the rain's noise. As I scanned to see what was going on, my gaze stumbled over dark eyes glaring at me. Maurice's. Even from the distance I was standing, I could see he was mad, by the set of his jaw and hands curled into fists at his side.

It was pretty damn clear that he'd watched the entire kiss, but what did I care? And why should he? I was never his girl. We never did more than talk a few times, and last night he'd made it real obvious that he was cool playin'; but I guess when it comes to me, he was a hater.

“There's a fight,” Darian said, stepping away, but taking my hand in his. I tried to pull it away. We weren't like that. I wasn't a bopper, and despite lettin' him kiss me I wasn't ready to be claimed by him.

But his grip was insistent and he pulled me along as he started walking. At least by the time we'd gotten closer I was able to guide him to the other side of the gathering circle, the opposite way from where I'd seen Maurice. I wasn't 'bout to play games with him, and I fo' sho' didn't want him saying something to Darian.

As we shoved closer into the crowd, I could see what was going down. Kayla's friend Leza was getting her ass whupped by Jonathan's girl. Michelle was no joke, straight going savage and dropping fists on point into Leza's face.

Tearing my eyes off the brawl, I glanced around the circle, and caught sight of Jonathan, looking hella smug with his arms folded across his chest as he watched the bootches fight over him.

Wiggling my fingers, I loosed Darian's hold and pulled my hand free, my gaze roaming away from Jonathan to look for Maurice, realizing that Darian and Maurice both went to Creekside, and if Maurice had real beef, there wouldn't be shit I could do to squash it while they were at school.

And pow—just like it occurred to me that Leza was gettin' thumped on because of me, and GettinHooked.com. Aww, lawdy, I couldn't let this go down. Shoving my shoulder between a couple of yelling people, I dropped my latte to the cement and jumped into the mess, grabbing Michelle's arms and trying to hold her back.

Seeing I was getting involved others started helping, too, taking Leza and dragging her from the ground. Michelle was fighting me hexa hard, and some dude I didn't know helped hold her back.

“Stay away from my man, slut!” she screeched.

“He wanted
me
last night!”

See now, the girl had been gettin' beat down, why the hell didn't she just shut up? Leza's taunt caused Michelle to double her efforts at getting past me. “Bitch! You're a sleaze, give it up, bitch!” Michelle's arm snaked out toward Leza but caught me in the eye.

There were stars for a right quick sec, and I shook my head to clear 'em. Luckily by then the crowd had shifted all the way between them and Leza was being pulled away and Michelle subdued.

A few more minutes and the crowd started to disburse, people realizing the excitement was over so they went back to doing their own thang. Jonathan came up and I figured that was my out. Just as I was moving away my cell buzzed, so I flipped it open and read the text from Kayla letting me know she and Dasia were taking Leza home, and if Darian couldn't do it, they'd be back for me.

Glancing around, I looked for Darian. He'd moved back inside Starbucks now and was talking and laughing with some of his boys. Turning away, I decided I'd rather walk home than ride with him. I didn't want 'im trying to kiss me again. Didn't want 'im trying to make some sorta claim on me I didn't feel.

Missing the warmth of my cup of coffee, I folded my arms across my chest and rubbed my upper arms. It was raining like mad, but not all that cold. Still, I'd be soaked by the time I got home, but right now I really didn't care.

Puffing out a few gulps of air and angling toward home, I didn't hear footsteps over the rain until it was too late.

“Imani, hold up,” Maurice said, grabbing my sweatshirt firm enough for me to stop.

I closed my eyes but didn't turn. Just his voice did things to me. Bebopped a rhythm in my blood and made my knees feel weak. I took a slow breath, then turned toward him.

“What?”

“You talkin' to Darian now?”

I narrowed my eyes and glared at him, hella tempted to say “yeah” just so he'd leave me alone. I couldn't stand the feelin' of being mad and hurt mixed with this weird need to step into his arms.