by Alessa James
Nodding, I started following him toward the dance floor thinking oh my God, oh my God, oh my God! I was going to be dancing — with Jayden freaking Stone — in front of most of the freaking school! This had to be a dream. I tried to breathe normally, but I was sure I was blushing like crazy. Him inviting me to the dance, then whatever happened in Mr. Kaplan’s classroom, and now I was about to dance with him — this was totally not normal reality. Not for me at least.
“I really like this song,” I said nervously as we walked onto the dance floor.
“Yeah, me too.”
I was kind of surprised by that, because for some reason I didn’t think it was possible to have anything in common with Jayden Stone. But when I looked up at him again, he didn’t look happy. I actually couldn’t think of a time when I had seen him looking less happy.
Okay, this wasn’t totally true. In eighth grade, I heard all this stuff about his mom cheating on his dad and running off. Then, after that, I remembered seeing him a few times looking serious and sad and it made me want to give him a big hug.
Crazy, right?
We ran in totally different circles, but everybody knew he was a little wild. Not like Mike Jensen wild, though. Mike Jensen was the type of wild where he would wreck his giant pickup and not care because his dad would just buy him a new one.
Jayden led me to the middle of the dance floor, and I nervously lifted my arms and put them on Jayden’s shoulders like he had shown me in Mr. Kaplan’s classroom. Then he put his hands on my waist, and I shivered a little bit. But a few seconds later, I was burning up.
We weren’t really dancing that much, which was a relief, because it meant I couldn’t step on his toes, trip, or do anything else really embarrassing. Finally I looked up at him, and that was when I realized that Jayden was staring down at me like the freaking world was going to blow up or something.
“Molly, can you just pretend like it’s just you and me?” he whispered, his voice raspy and serious.
I laughed a little, but my throat was completely dry. When he brought his hand up and brushed my cheek, I stopped laughing. My skin was on fire, which was even more embarrassing because the dress Stace had loaned me scooped kind of low in the back. Totally not my style. At least the other day in Mr. Kaplan’s room, I had been wearing a sweater when we sort of danced.
Suddenly Jayden pulled me in even closer until my chest was pressed up against him, and I totally stopped breathing. He still looked super serious as I stared up at him, and my lips parted. I wanted to say something, but I couldn’t.
Ohmygod. Was he going to kiss me? His lips looked so perfect, and I wondered what it would feel like … to be kissed by Jayden Stone. I didn’t even know how many times I had heard other girls in the bathroom talking like, “Oh my God! Jayden Stone!” but I had always pretended not to care, mostly because I had always known that I was never ever going to be one of those girls.
I took a few choppy breaths, but I still couldn’t even move. The smell his aftershave was making my mouth water. I inhaled and moved my hands off his shoulders, kind of steadying myself against his chest. Then, before I knew it, my hands had kind of glued themselves to his muscles. When his thumb traced my lower lip like the other day, I nearly melted. This time — even more embarrassing — my knees started to give out. Lucky for me, his arm around my waist kept me from falling down and melting into the floor.
My eyes drifted closed, like I was in a trance. When I finally opened my eyes again, Jayden was staring down at me with this sort of conflicted look. I watched as he slowly he bent toward me. Then my eyes closed again, and a second later his lips brushed against mine. I gasped and felt sparks shooting through me. It was like fireworks were going off in my head, and I totally would’ve totally collapsed if his arm hadn’t been so tight around my waist.
He pulled back a little, and I felt his breath on my neck. He cupped my cheek in his other hand and when his lips grazed mine again, everything started spinning. Then, all of a sudden, he kind of nipped my lower lip, and I jerked and whimpered softly in the back of my throat.
He groaned and pulled me in even closer, and I totally forgot we were in front of a bunch of people. My hands gripped his shirt even tighter … and that was when I heard it. The sound of clapping right next to us. It was like a splash of cold water in the middle of summer — shocking. In a daze, I turned and saw Mike Jensen’s smirking face a foot away from mine. Jayden immediately let go of me.
“Nice, Stone. You said you could get any girl in school to give it up on command, but The Bookworm?” he crowed. “Awesome!”
“Mike, man. Back off,” Jayden snarled, turning to face Mike with his fists clenched.
It took a couple of seconds for reality to catch up with me, and when Jayden turned back to me, my hand flew, connecting with his surprised face a second later.
All I could think was: How stupid could you get, Molly?
I should have known it was too good to be true!
Chapter 3: Kissing in the Dark
It was terrible. Awful. But I had to admit that for weeks after the dance, I kept thinking about that kiss. The feeling of Jayden Stone’s lips pressed up against mine. I couldn’t help it. It was addictive. In class, if I got really bored, that’s exactly where my mind went. I replayed that scene — right up until Mike Jensen’s stupid, leering face — in my head too many times to count.
Kelly and Stace were really supportive. They kept saying things like, “That jerk!” But I could tell they were thinking that it made sense — the fact that the whole thing had turned out to be a bet between Jayden and Mike Jensen. Yeah. Invite poor little never-been-kissed Molly Adams to the Valentine’s Day dance and then embarrass her in front of everybody. The thing I still couldn’t believe, though, was that I had actually slapped Jayden Stone in front of everyone!
About a week after the dance, I had gotten another major surprise when Tyler Williams from my Trig class had asked me out. Later, he told me that the whole thing with Jayden had made me seem more “approachable.” Whatever that meant. But with shaggy blond hair, big brown eyes, and dimples, Tyler was everything Jayden Stone wasn’t. Cute, harmless, and nice.
But one thing I found out fast — not all guys could kiss like Jayden Stone. The first time Tyler had kissed me, it had been okay. Comfortable. Definitely no fireworks. The problem was: it hadn’t really gotten any better the next time. Still, Tyler said stuff like, “Molly, you’re so pretty.” Plus, he had started picking me up in the mornings so I didn’t have to ride the bus.
I mostly tried to forget about Jayden Stone, his lips, the bet … and Mike Jensen. Forgetting about Mike Jensen, though, was next to impossible since every time he saw me in the hallway, he’d chant like he had back in middle school, “Look at the bookworm squirm.”
And maybe I should have hauled off and smacked his face rather than Jayden’s since I had liked Jayden before all this. Because on top of being really hot, Jayden had never seemed like a total and complete jerk like Mike. Mike was scary mean. But they were buddies, so maybe Jayden was more of a jerk than I had thought.
Any time I saw either of them, I just looked down and walked away as fast as possible. In Government, I told Mr. Franklin that I was having trouble seeing the board, and he let me switch seats. That way, at least Jayden was behind me, and I didn’t have to spend all of class sitting right next to him, red-faced.
A couple of times, Jayden had come up to me after class, looking miserable, but I had just walked right past him, feeling my eyes burn. There was no fixing getting humiliated in front of half the school. What I was really wondering, though, was why me? What had I ever done—other than refusing to let Mike Jensen copy off my vocab test in middle school? Just the thought made me cringe. I had seriously thought he was going to kill me. But Jayden? I had never done anything to him except secretly crush on him.
Either way, it was Jayden’s fault that people stared at me in the halls.
For a while, every time Stace and Kelly as
ked if I wanted to go out, I made up excuses. And when Tyler and I would get together, I’d tell him that I’d rather stay in and watch Netflix. I even bribed him a couple of times by making my mom’s famous brownies. Anything to avoid the humiliation of running into Mike “The Jerk” Jensen. Or Jayden.
Finally I agreed to go out to the movies, figuring that it was pretty safe, because the movie had been out a couple of weeks. Wrong. The minute we got into the theater, I saw Mike and Jayden and a bunch of guys from the baseball team with their dates. I could feel my cheeks getting flushed, so I turned and joked with Stace and Kelly while the guys got popcorn and stuff. But seriously? Did we have to end up at the same movie on the same night? It wasn’t fair!
Tyler held my hand all through the movie, which was kind of sweet and kind of annoying since his hand was sweaty. Every few minutes, I had to pull away and wipe my hand on my jeans. Gross.
Jayden and Mike and their group were a few rows ahead of us. Mike, as usual, was showing off and being the jerk he was, making a bunch of noise and hassling people. Part of me wanted the usher to come in and kick him out, but Mike Jensen never got in trouble — mostly because people were too scared to say anything. And maybe that’s why he hated me — because I had stood up to him one freaking time.
When the movie ended, I went with Stace and Kelly to the bathrooms, but the line was super-long so I decided to go back and find Tyler. When I didn’t see him in the lobby, I went along the theaters in the back. By the time I got to the last theater, I still couldn’t find them, so I turned around and started walking back to meet up with Stace and Kelly.
Then, right as I passed the second to last theater before the lobby, the door opened and somebody grabbed my wrist and pulled me inside. It was pitch-black, and I giggled. This totally wasn’t Tyler’s style — at all.
“Tyler!” I squeaked.
We were off to the side where the stadium seats came down, so nobody could see us, but I knew somebody could come walking in at any second.
“Shh …” he whispered.
Then a pair of arms wrapped around my waist, and I put my hands on the broad shoulders in front of me while my eyes and brain adjusted. Suddenly I flinched. Tyler wasn’t this tall, and his shoulders were nowhere near this broad. And the aftershave I was smelling? It wasn’t Tyler’s, either. But I recognized it. I swallowed and started to pull back, but the arms pulled me closer. Then soft lips brushed my ear. I shuddered and closed my eyes automatically. I couldn’t help it.
I leaned forward, and I could feel his warm breath, his lips just a millimeter from mine. When I sighed, his lips finally came down on mine, gentle and teasing, making me want more. Way more. A hand slid around the back of my neck and held me in place as his lips pressed more firmly against mine. When his lips began to part mine, I shivered and leaned into him before jerking back and pushing against the solid chest in front of me.
“Mmm, Molly. You taste sweeter than I remembered. Sweet like sugar,” he whispered.
The sound of that deep voice snapped me out of it. There was no way I could even pretend for one second that the deep, raspy voice I had just heard was Tyler’s. Still dizzy from the kiss, I looked up and saw Jayden Stone staring down at me in a way that made my stomach clench. With a little squeak, I backed away from him just as the theater erupted in screams. Then I turned and ran.
“Molly! Wait!” he called.
Ignoring him, I ran out the door and didn’t stop until I got to the lobby. I looked around desperately, expecting Tyler to be waiting, worried about me. Then I did a double take when I saw he was sitting on one of the benches with Emma Simmons from my French class. Emma Simmons. The girl who had gone out with Jayden — and Mike Jensen. She was wearing a really tight red shirt that made the most of her ... assets.
Obviously I wasn’t going to make a huge deal out of it, because, well, I had just kissed Jayden Stone! Again! And Tyler was nice and everything, but we had barely been going out. Like less than a month. Plus, just thinking of Jayden saying “Mmm” was enough to make my knees weak all over again.
Trying to slow down my breathing, I walked over to where Tyler and Emma were sitting. I couldn’t help noticing Tyler jump back several inches when he saw me, like I had caught him doing something really awful. Of course, Emma Simmons and her tight red shirt didn’t leave much to the imagination. I couldn’t help looking down at my plain black sweater and pink T-shirt and feeling like a silly little girl compared to someone who had hooked up with both Jayden and Mike.
“Are you ready, Tyler?” I asked as sweetly as I could, still hoping that I wasn’t blushing too much after kissing Jayden — again!
“Hey, Tyler?” Emma purred, leaning in toward him. “Do you mind if I get a ride?”
When he looked at me like he was asking for permission, I just shrugged. Tyler and I hadn’t exactly had the “are we exclusive?” conversation, and I had just kissed Jayden Stone—again!
Emma was one of those girls who liked “a challenge,” and “a challenge” usually meant somebody else’s boyfriend. Whatever. Tyler wasn’t exactly my “boyfriend.” Besides, I felt too guilty to say anything. When we got to Tyler’s car, Emma gave him this pouty look.
“Tyler, I get really car sick if I’m in the back. You mind if I ride up front?”
I gritted my teeth, and it took me a second to smile. Tyler didn’t look thrilled, but I could tell he wasn’t going to argue or anything. Still feeling guilty, I just got in the backseat and stared out the window. This entire night was just starting to push Tyler back into the “friend zone.”
For a couple of minutes I tried not to think about Jayden Stone, but when Emma started giggling and reached over to squeeze Tyler’s shoulder, I decided that thinking about Jayden’s kiss wouldn’t hurt at the rate things were going. A few minutes later, when we pulled up in front of my house, I frowned. Tyler looked in the rearview mirror with a pleading expression.
“Uh, Molly. Emma lives over by my street, so I’m gonna, um, take her home next, all right?”
“Yeah, is that okay with you?” Emma asked in a fake-nice voice.
She turned around to give me another sly smile, and I smiled really big and fake back at her.
“Yeah, no problem!”
I jumped out, and when Tyler started opening his door to walk me to the house, I shook my head like, “Whatever!”
“I’ll pick you up Monday, okay?” he called after me.
I turned and waved once and then ran toward the front door. It wasn’t like I could get mad, but seriously? Did Emma Simmons really have to go after the second guy to even notice me? Then I remembered that Jayden Stone had only “noticed” me because that jerk Mike Jensen had made a stupid bet with him.
When I got upstairs to my room, I opened up the top middle drawer of my dresser and reached into the very back where I had been keeping the stupid poem that I had written in freshman English. It was all about Jayden Stone’s eyes being blue and sad. Stormy like the ocean. Total cheese, but Mrs. Sharp had said it was great — probably to make me feel better about sucking at poetry.
I always got A’s on the papers, but I hated writing poems. Mrs. Sharp had said to think about someone really special to us while we wrote our poems, and I’d had the biggest crush on Jayden at the time. Later I had found out that she had even read the poem to her other classes. Totally embarrassing! But at least I hadn’t used him name or anything.
When I got into bed and tried to go to sleep, my emotions were all over the place. Why had Jayden kissed me again tonight? There wasn’t a part two of the bet, was there? I shuddered. That would be the worst — Mike Jensen betting Jayden that he couldn’t get me to kiss him again after setting me up to get totally humiliated in front of everyone? That would suck majorly!
But the more I thought about it … the more I couldn’t figure it out. We had been alone tonight, so nobody else would know about it unless Jayden told them — which he totally could have done without bothering to ever kiss me again.
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br /> My phone buzzed before I fell asleep, and it was Tyler, texting to make sure I wasn’t mad. I thought about not texting back, but I wasn’t mad. I was busy thinking about Jayden Stone. I thought about texting Stace to confess, but I was afraid to. Even though I hadn’t been going out with Tyler that long or anything, I did feel sort of bad even though at the time I had kind of thought for a second that I was kissing Tyler. Okay, not really.
Tyler’s kiss versus Jayden’s kiss? Like no comparison. Every time before we kissed, Tyler would look crazy nervous and then lean in really fast. A couple of times he had crashed his teeth into mine. I had never said anything, though, because it wasn’t like I was an expert kisser. That was the thing though — I didn’t have to think about it with Jayden. When his lips had brushed mine, and then he stopped and waited, like he wasn’t going to actually kiss me? I could have died! Both times. Tonight, my heart had been going so fast that I thought it might just stop.
And when his thumb had skimmed my bottom lip? I had felt it all the way in my toes. At my dresser, I grabbed a tank top and pajama bottoms and changed. But even after I crawling into bed, I just stared up at the ceiling, trying not to think about Jayden Stone and his kiss.
Chapter 4: Stalker
“You did what?!” Stace squawked when I finally worked up the nerve to tell her about Jayden and me.
“Stace! Shhh!”
I dragged her off to a quiet corner of the library and tried to keep her from hyperventilating. Tyler and Mark were going to get here any second, and I had been desperate to tell someone about what had happened at the movies — or I was going to explode.
“You kissed him again?!” she squeaked when we got behind the stacks. “What were you thinking?”
“I wasn’t,” I mumbled. “Look, Stace. Technically, I didn’t even know it was him.” Well, that wasn’t true, but I wasn’t about to tell Stace that. “It was dark, and I couldn’t really see. So I kinda thought it was Tyler at first.”