The Love Game (13 page)

“Umm.” I hide my face.

“You've done it already?!” Lila shrieks, jumping up.

“Oh my god, no!” I wave my hands. “No, no, no!”

“But you've done something, haven't you?” Kay asks, her eyes wide with humor. “I can tell.”

“Y-yes.” I mumble.

Megan licks her lips, smiles, and uncaps her pen. “So, do tell.”

“I'm not telling you that!” My cheeks burn.

“Oh!” Kay laughs. “Priceless! She's embarrassed over a game! Oh my god. It gets better, guys.”

“Go away,” I mutter. “I just
.... I'm not giving sordid details.”

“Come on,” Megan grins. “Just say it. We've all done it all.”

“You guys,” Lila scolds and turns to me. “Maddie, did you have sex with Braden?”

“No.”

“Did you, you know, blow his whistle?”

I snort. “Blow his whistle?”

“Did you suck his lollipop?” Kay lies on her stomach, shaking with silent laughter.

“Ew! No!” I laugh.

“Okay, then.” Lila shrugs. “Well, did he bite your burger?”

I fall backwards on my bed, my stomach tensing as I laugh harder than I've laughed in ages. I'm pretty sure tears are stinging my eyes.

“Bite.... My.... Burger?” I take a deep breath. “What, on earth, is that?”

Kay tries and fails to get the words out, waving her hand dismissively before burying her face in her pillow.

“It's, licking, um, y'know.” Megan shakes her head and laughs. “I can't. I can't do it.”

“Oh! Oh, oh no. No burger biting.”

Megan nods and gives me a thumbs up.

“Okay, so was there bean flicking?” Lila continues, her shoulders bouncing.

“I'm not even....” I shake my head. “Going to ask.”

“It's just, uh. How do I put this?” Lila leans her head back.

Kay looks up. “Did he play with the bait while he went fishing?”

Megan collapses on the floor laughing hysterically, her whole body shaking. “I
... Oh.”

I look at Lila, and she shakes her head, dropping it so she can't see me.

“Um, yes?” I guess, trying to keep my giggles in.

“Woohoo!” Kay shouts and my cheeks flame.

“I can't believe I just told you that. I actually can't believe it,” I mumble.

“Oh, what do I write for that?” Megan wipes under her eyes.

“Write? Wait, what?!” I sit up. “You can't write that on the plan!”

“I have to,” she replies. “It's so we can keep track.”

“So wrong, Megs.” Lila shakes her head.

“Put fishing.” Kay snorts. “No one is gonna know what that means.”

“Oh my god.” I cover my face with my hands. I hear Megan uncap the pen lid and the scratchy sound of the pen moving against the paper. “Oh, my god.”

“There.” She sits back. “Fishing, in week two. Definitely ahead of schedule, my little player.”

“That's a good thing, right?”

Lila nods enthusiastically. “Oh, yeah. This was just a rough idea. If you can get it done before the month is up, even better.”

“Sounds like it'll be done before the week is up,” Kay says slyly.

“What, two days?” I shake my head. “He's not in love with me yet. Wasn't that the point?”

“True,” she acquiesces.

“He's getting there, though,” Megan offers. “I can see in it his eyes.”

“You think he's falling in love with me after like, twelve days?” I snort. “Yeah, okay, Megs. This isn't some trashy romance novel where you get that crappy insta-love. There's no supernatural pull from the fates demanding we be together as soul mates for all of eternity while fighting off the bad guys. Love takes time. It takes work. It's not just something you throw yourself into because if you do it right, you'll only ever have to fall in love once. I only intend to fall in love once, and when I do, I won't be falling in two weeks time, and Braden probably won't either. People like Braden don't fall in love like that. But the point is, you can't control love. You can't make it happen.” I get up and look out the window.

“But isn't that what you're doing now?” Lila asks softly, her gentle brown eyes focusing on me. “Trying to control love, to make it happen?”

“No. I'm just trying to beat it to the finishing line. It's just a game. Love is like Clue - you might take a few wrong turns, but you'll get there in the end. For Braden, I'll be a wrong turn, and he'll barely be a blip on my radar.”

“So because we're not in a book, it means you can't be in love instantly?” Megan raises her eyebrows.

“Yes. This isn't a dream world, its reality, and reality is a bag of balls.”

She snorts. “But what if you were in love before you knew it? It's been scientifically shown that we're automatically attracted to people who 'match' with our pheromones.”

“Gross,” Kay mutters.

“So why can't you just fall in love as easily as that?” Megan continues, unaffected. “What if love is instant, but our human brains aren't yet advanced enough to know? What if each of us have a soul mate? What then?”

“Then the world would be a better place,” I reply quietly. “Because No one would get hurt. That's an ideal, Megs. The real world isn't ideal. There are rules you have to play by - unwritten rules, granted - but they're still there. Break them and you're back a level. Follow them and life is perfect. With this plan, I'm just skipping a few rules. I'm going to beat the game.”

“I'd like to believe we have someone out there for us that's perfect for us,” Lila says quietly. “I'd like to think the natural way of life governs even that.”

“I wouldn't,” Kay grumbles. “Fuck having someone in control of my life and love.”

“That's because you don't believe in love, Kay.” Megan looks at her pointedly.

Kay returns her look. “Neither do you.”

Megan gives her a small smile, a soft smile that somehow manages to brighten her whole face. “Oh, I believe in love, Kay. I believe that each of us have someone out there that will love us no matter what. I like to believe that. Otherwise, what would be the point? Love is beautiful, it's free from judgment and it never condemns. It enlightens, it embraces, and it makes even the hardest day worth living through. Who wouldn't want to believe in that?”

“You've been reading too many romance novels, Megs.”

“So what? We all have to get our hope from somewhere, and if getting lost between the pages of a deep book gives me hope, then I'll keep on getting lost, all the while hoping that one day I'll have a real love I can get lost in. Because it will happen, to each of us. One day we'll get so lost in love that we won't be able to find our way back out.”

My eyes flick up, and I can see the top of the frat house across the street. Third floor, second window from the right. Braden.

“How do you know, though?” I look back to Megan.

She gives me the same small smile she gave Kay. “Oh, I don't know. But I hope, and at the end of the day, without love, hope is all we really have, isn't it?”

I rub her hair between my fingers, watching her intently. She fidgets under my intense scrutiny, and all I can think of is the way she fidgeted underneath me as she came.

She sighs and wriggles, shifting away from me. A slow smirk breaks out on my lips, and I twirl the same lock of hair around my finger. She runs a hand through her hair. I drop her hair, immediately picking it back up when she drops her hand back to the table. This is fun.

“Mr Carter, are you concentrating?” Mr. Jessop asks me.

“Yes, Sir.”

“On my lesson, or Miss Stevens here?”

“That would be the last option, Sir.” I turn my head and grin. “But at least I'm concentrating, right?”

“Yes.” He hides his smile. “As lovely as Miss Stevens is, do you think you could concentrate on my lesson for the last ten minutes of class instead?”

Maddie looks at me and smiles. I wink at her.

“I'll try, Sir, but I'm not promising anything.”

Mr. Jessop shakes his head and turns back to the board.

I drop Maddie's hair, letting my forearm rest across the back of her chair. She glances at me, and I raise my eyebrows innocently.

“What?” I mouth.

She shakes her head, her lips curving upwards, and bites her pen. Her plump lips seal around the pen cap, and she spins it in her mouth, her lips puckered. Fucking tease.

I move my hand to her shoulder and begin to trace light circles on her bare skin, eliciting a shiver from her. Bingo.

I face forward, pretending to concentrate on the lesson but in actuality, I'm focusing on the way Maddie's lips are around that pen. I'm jealous of that pen. Really fuckin' jealous.

I shift in my seat slightly. This girl is turning me into a walking hard-on, and it's all because my dick isn't used to waiting for what it wants. I'm not used to waiting for what I want. Is class over yet? No?
Fuck.

Maddie looks at me out of the corner of her eye, the green in it brighter from her amusement at the situation. Her eyes bore into mine as I turn my head slightly. My finger trails up to her neck, her hairline, and back down. She shivers again, stronger this time.

“Stop it,” she hisses at me quietly.

“Why?” I whisper back. “I thought you liked that.”

“Braden, we're in class!”

“And?” I grin cockily at her. “Maybe I'm having a fantasy about taking you on my desk, and this class isn't helping that thought.”

Her mouth opens, and her pen falls out. Blood rises in her cheeks, flushing them.

“Oh my god,” she mutters.

“What?” I chuckle silently.

“I can't believe you just said that.”

“Why? It's true. I am imagining having sex with you on my desk.”

The bell rings, and she gathers all her stuff up, shaking her head with her still-flushed cheeks. I shove my stuff into my backpack and join her round the front of the desk. I slip my arm round her waist and cup her hip as we leave the classroom.

“I don't get it,” she says as we make our way outside.

“Get what, Angel?”

“How you managed to think of that in the middle of studying Moby.... Y'know what? Never mind.”

I laugh out loud. “Yep, I was pretty sure I heard the word 'dick' at some point at the beginning of class, and you just confirmed it.”

“But how did you get from a whale to... Yeah.”

“Maddie, if someone says 'pussy cat' I instantly think of sex. Same with Moby Dick, whale or otherwise.”

“Say if you go into a restaurant, what if someone ordered something to do with sausages? Would that make you think of sex?”

“Yeah, probably.”

She giggles and sits at the base of a tree. The sun is glinting off her hair, making the copper hues even shinier. I sink to the ground next to her and dig my hand into my backpack.

“What are - oh!” She exclaims, seeing the blueberry muffin I produce. “When did you get that?”

“I ran by before class. Thought I'd surprise you.” I grin at her genuinely delighted face. I'm actually happy she's happy - that I've managed to make her happy. Yep, I'm starting to care about this girl and how she feels. Shit.

“Oh!” She touches my cheek. “Thank you. That was thoughtful.”

I put my hand on top of hers and gently turn my face into it, pressing a kiss to the pulse on her wrist. She takes the muffin from me and begins to eat it in her normal way. I've discovered it's not just a muffin thing. She actually picks most of her food apart as she eats it.

“Why do you do that?”

“Do what?” She puts some more muffin in her mouth.

“Pick it apart. You do it with all your food.”

“Oh.” Her voice is so quiet I barely hear it. “I didn't eat much after Mom died, and what I did eat, I picked at. I guess it's become a kind of habit. I never realized.”

My foot is so far in my mouth it's probably about to come out my ass.

“I'm sorry, Angel, I didn't realize.” I put my arm around her, and she lays her head on my shoulder.

“Why would you?” she asks softly. “Actually, you're the first person that's noticed it. Well, the first person that's ever mentioned it, anyway.”

Have I really watched her that much in the last two weeks that I'm picking up on her habits? Yeah, I have.

Fuck.

The game, Braden. The game.

“Come stay with me tonight?”

She leans her head back, sad eyes meeting mine. “Why?”

I kiss her. “Because I want you to.”

“I'll be at the house anyway. For the party.”

“Fuck the party.” I shake my head. “Don't go. We'll grab a movie and some junk food. We'll spend the night upstairs in my room, then tomorrow we'll go out and get breakfast.”

She blinks a couple of times. “Really?”

“Really.” I smile. “You sound surprised.”

“I am, a little.” She smiles back shyly. “Okay.”