I let out a frustrated breath of air, which blows my bangs up off my face, and just start French. “Okay, so chicken is what?”
“Poulet.”
“Good. How about bread?”
“Pain.”
“Right, but say it like this. Pain. It’s more like pan, but the N is more nasal sounding.”
“Pain. You’re going to be a pain in the ass, I can tell.”
“Hey, I’m helping you here.”
“How do you know I’m not purposely failing, so you will tutor me?”
“Because last year you almost failed, and you didn’t know I existed.”
He ponders that for a minute. “Naw. I’m good at every class. Straight A’s. All AP classes. How do you say fate in French?”
“Sort”
“Yeah, exactly. It’s sorta like fate.”
“Don’t you need to be getting to football? You know, so you can sit on the bench?”
“Silly, Boots. You’re looking at tonight’s starting Varsity receiver.”
“Oh. Well, congrats.”
“You’re going to be cheering for me.”
“I’m going to be dancing.”
“For me.”
“For the team, silly.”
“We need to dance again. Under my lights.”
“Say it in French.”
“Uh, danse avec moi, um, under lumieres, tonight, um, I mean, noir?”
“Close enough. Good.”
“So is that a yes?”
“Non, I have a dance sleepover.”
“Merde.”
“See you’re learning. And you’re gonna be late. Go.”
He looks at the clock and says, “merde,” again and then stops and looks at me.
“Good luck, Aiden.”
Annie runs up to the table and tosses a poster on it. “What do you think?!”
She’s very excited.
“Oh my gosh! That looks fantastic! I love how you did the Roar part coming out of a megaphone with the cougar sticker on it. Adorable.”
She looks around. “Can I talk to you?”
“Sure.”
“Ace asked me to hang out in his room on Saturday.”
“And?”
“And, does that mean he wants sex?”
“Not necessarily. Have you asked him?”
“No. I don’t want to sound stupid. I don’t want him to know I’ve never done it.”
“I was in Aiden’s room recently. Nothing happened.”
“I’m hoping to kiss him this weekend.”
“He has nice lips and awesome arms. I think kissing Ace would be fun.”
“You want to kiss him?”
“No! Like, I think you will enjoy it.”
“Yeah, probably. I hope so. What if he doesn’t try and kiss me?”
“Kiss him?”
“Maybe.”
“So are you going to do it with Dawson soon?”
“Do you think I should?”
“He seems to make you happy and kind of giddy. You still sort of obsess over Aiden, but it seems like you’re always mad at each other.
“Yeah, and you’re right. Dawson does make me happy.”
Party, celebrate, hookup.
10:40pm
We win the game. I dance well. Dawson plays really well.
I meet him outside the locker room afterwards to give him a kiss before I go to the dance thing.
He throws one arm around my shoulder while we’re walking toward his dorm with Ace, Brad, and Bryce.
“So what are you guys gonna do tonight without us girls around?”
“Oh, there’s gonna be plenty of girls around,” Brad tells me.
“We’re gonna party, celebrate, and hookup,” Bryce yells.
“Amen, brother,” Ace adds.
I look at Dawson. He’s grinning too, like that’s exactly what he’s planning on doing.
And that irritates me a bit. I know I have no rational reason to be irritated, but I am.
I walk faster, causing his arm to fall off my shoulder. “Well, you have fun. See ya later.”
Then I walk fast toward my dorm, not looking back. Actually, I’m not walking fast. I’m marching. I probably look like Gracie does, when she screams, NO! and marches away from you, clutching whatever she doesn’t want to give you back. Usually your phone.
From behind me I hear Dawson say, “Keatie, why did you just leave like that?”
I try to keep the emotions I’m feeling out of my voice. Which means, I resort to my bitch voice. “I have to get to the sleepover, and you have to get to your celebrating and hooking up.”
“Yeah, I actually want to talk to you about that.”
Great. See, I was right. He didn’t want me to kiss Dallas last night, but it’s okay for him. Damn. I totally should have made out with Dallas.
“Go ahead,” I say. “Talk.”
No wait. I’m not doing this. I’m not gonna be disappointed. I’m the one that doesn’t want to be in a relationship. He can kiss whoever he wants.
But then I look at him standing there, dark and gorgeous in front of me, and I can’t help but feel jealous. I don’t want his hot lava kisses touching anyone else’s skin.
He pulls me into his arms. I want to resist, but I can’t. He kisses me. I kiss him back. And it’s a really good kiss. Why would he want to kiss anyone else?
“Mhmmm. I love kissing you. Keatie?”
“Yeah, just say it, Dawes. Get it over with.” I roll my eyes at him.
“Get what over with?”