by Jillian Dodd
“He was rubbing your temples. Yeah, sure he was.”
“Come here.”
I grab his arm and drag him over to where Dawson is sitting.
“When I was in your room yesterday, laying on your bed. I told you, Oh that feels sooo good and please don’t stop. I even say it the way I said it yesterday, closed eyes, lowered dreamy voice What were you doing to me?”
Tyrese interrupts and is like, “Damn girl, I don’t know what he was doing to you, but the way you just said it got me all hot and bothered.” I roll my eyes at him.
Ace is like, “Yeah, Dawes, what WERE you doing to her?”
Dawson moves his chin slightly to the left, winces one eye. I can tell he’s trying to decide if he should tell the truth or make up something good.
I plead with my eyes. “Tell him the truth. Please.”
Dawson rolls his eyes. “I was rubbing her head like this.” He puts his own hands up to his temples and rubs.
“SEE! God, you’re dumb!”
Then I grab Dawson’s shoulder, lean down and say in his ear, “Lets get outta here,” and drag him out of the cafe with me.
He’s laughing at me, while I’m marching and dragging him madly behind me.
“You’re pretty sexy when you’re pissed. Come sit down.”
We sit on a bench under a big maple tree. He casually lays his arm across the back of the bench. “What did he say that set you off? And was he actually listening outside my door?”
“He asked if he could lick hot fudge off my face too. And yes, he was.”
“That was fun. He’s jealous.”
“He’s dumb.”
Dawson leans in toward me, slowly pushes my hair back off my face, looks into my eyes, then glances down at my mouth. “Well, I’m not.”
And he slowly kisses me.
We sat on the bench, the sun filtering through the leaves and feeling warm on my legs, and kissed, and kissed, for the rest of lunch.
And I really liked it.
Could I be falling for Dawson? (I think so, Keatie. Maybe a little too fast, but that’s why they call it young love. It’s not always right.)
I held my breath til I almost passed out.
French.
Aiden is sitting behind me, already burning holes into the back of my head with his mad eyes. But then as we are chatting in a group about what French film we’d like to watch this Friday, Annie, the girl who sits just to the left of me touches my arm and says, “I saw you kissing Dawson out on the bench under the tree today. I was out taking pictures for my photography class, and you two looked so cute. He is soooo hot.” She fans herself. She’s a cute girl. But you have to look close to notice. She has delicate bone structure, a perky nose, and a gorgeous creamy complexion. But her hair needs serious help. Someone needs to teach the girl how to use a straightener. Her hair right now is frizzy and totally overpowering her face. (I love Annie! I love how each girl she is friends with at Eastbrooke has such a different personality, different sexual experience, and comes from different a social group at school. Once I knew what K went through with trying to break away from Vanessa, this became a really great way to show her growth at Eastbrooke. She chose friends based on interaction and mutual interests as opposed to who was the prettiest or sat at a certain table.)
I giggle. “He is really hot.”
“Does he kiss good?” she giggles back.
And I swear, I feel a laser shot to the back of my skull.
He hates this, but I don’t care. He could stop it anytime he wanted. All he’d have to do is talk to me, or text me, kiss me. Whatever.
But in the mean time.....
I lean toward her, grab a strand of my hair and twirl it around my finger. “That was the first time we like really kissed, but yes, he is a good kisser.” I’m speaking in a very girly version of my voice, one I rarely use. It has that dreamy quality. I laugh, lower my voice and tell her conspiratorially, “He licked hot fudge off the edge of my lip last night.” I even point to the spot. “And then he kissed me. It was the most ADORABLE thing ever.” (Oh, Keatyn, you are bad . . . but boys do react to stuff like this.)
I gush. And I find that I don’t really have to pretend. I did like it, and it was adorable.
I liked kissing him today, a lot.
Very surprising.
Considering a few days ago, I considered him the Worst Kisser Ever.
“You’re sooo lucky. He is THE cutest senior, for sure. Probably the best looking guy in the whole school. Um, I hope this doesn’t sound stalkerish, but you guys were so cute and it just seemed like this special moment, so when he pushed your hair back, I took a few pictures. And then when he started kissing you, um, I took a few more.”
“I’d like to see the pictures. Maybe I can put one in a frame and give it to him or something.” My voice sounds giddy at the prospect. (She’s so throwing Dawson in Aiden’s face.)
She gets all excited. “I’ll bring my laptop tomorrow and show you them.”
I hear Aiden mutter from behind me, “Can’t wait.”
“Hey,” I ask her, “you going to the freshman football game tonight?”
“Oh I don’t know, my friends never want to go.”
“Well you should come with me. You can meet my roommate Katie. And we’re meeting Dawson and Riley and some other people.”
Aiden growls, “You have a threesome date? You, Dawson, and Riley. I mean you’ve kissed them both. Isn’t that kind of weird for them?”
“Uh, Riley’s bringing Audrey. They hooked up Saturday night. And yeah, me and Riley kissed, but it didn’t mean anything.” I turn around and look straight at him. “Kinda like our kisses.” (Mouth hangs open. Did she really just say that?)
Annie’s eyes get big.
Aiden storms ahead of me after class, and Annie grabs my arm. “So wait, you’ve kissed Riley, Dawson, AND Aiden? We’ve only been at school for FIVE days!”
I nod my head. “Yeah, I had a crazy weekend. I also kissed Dallas.”
“Oh my gosh.” she giggles, “I want your life. Or at least a boyfriend.”
“Come with me tonight. We’ll find you someone cute to kiss.”
“What happened with you and Aiden? I swear he is so hot. When he first sat down behind us yesterday, I held my breath til I almost passed out.” (She’s funny. And it’s good to see that pretty much all the girls at school think Aiden is a hottie.)
“He is hot. Honestly, I’m like in love with him, but he’s either been wildly romantic and amazing or a total jerk, so I gave up. I don’t need my heart stomped on just yet. Not when there’s so many other cute boys around anyways”.
“That’s why I take french. I want to go to Paris, meet a sexy french guy, and live happily ever after.”
“You’re a hopeless romantic, aren’t you? The photos, French.”
She laughs nervously. “Kinda.”
I say, "L'amour est la poésie des sens."
“Oh my gosh, that sounds so pretty when you say it. You speak french good. What does it mean?”
“You’re in French 2, don’t you know?”
“Well, I know the L’amour is love, but no, I don’t know the rest.”
“It means, Love is the poetry of the senses. Some French poet said it. I can’t remember his name. So meet me at that bench at seven, and we’ll walk down to the game together. Actually, on second thought, come to my dorm room. Pennington 16A. At like 6:30.”
“Cool she says, and then breezes off.”
Your evil inner zen is corrupting me.
Soccer practice.
Coach makes the actual announcements of who is on what team. I did make Varsity, but she also tells us that since the actual season won’t be til the spring, that obviously she will still be moving us around some.
We’re doing some running drills on the track that surrounds the football field, where the football team is also practicing. Dawson waves at me, but seems to be taking practice seriously. Which means he is taking his image revamp
seriously.
Aiden runs along side of me for a few seconds, going out for a pass, and it reminds me of how he was so cute on Saturday with the points for dances thing. And I wonder if I am doing the right thing. (No, not really, Keatyn. You’re being kind of mean to him. But…it works.)
Should I be flaunting Dawson in his face? Should I be kinda mean to him? And can I talk to Brooklyn about this, or should I ask my mom?
And when I am sitting on the track, stretching my legs out after practice, I can’t help but stare at him. Unfortunately he catches me, holds my eyes to his with that power he has. My mind is screaming, Look away! Look away. But it’s too late, I can’t. I just stare into those eyes. Those deep green eyes that are too far away to see the color, but I can still recall every fleck of blue, the little golden line around the edges. (I love how she describes his eyes. Also, tractor beams.)
Luckily, Dallas steps in front of me and sits down, breaking the god’s spell on me.
“Hey, Dallas, good luck tonight! I’ll be cheering for you!” The Freshman team has their first game tonight. Dallas made JV, but I guess he’s playing tonight.
“Cool. Hey, you wanna sneak out to the cave tonight, just us? Look at the stars again? I’m feeling stressed.”
“Why are you feeling stressed?”
“You evil inner zen is corrupting me. And plus, I have had a very stressful day trying to perfect my ability to predict the color of a girl’s panties. Also, I may have gotten slapped a couple times when I tried to prove my theories. But that is the life of a visionary.” (LOVE DALLAS! He is so funny and laid-back and adds so much comic relief to the series.)
I laugh. “You’re so funny. And you don’t seem the least bit stressed.”
“I’m not really, I just want us to hang. I feel like I haven’t talked to you in forever.”
“It’s been a day.”
He nods his head, “Like I said, it’s been too long. Don’t think just cause you have your little thing with Dawson you can ditch me.”
“Fine. Can we go like after the game is over?”
“No. Be there at the stroke of midnight. I want to suck your blood.” He does a vampire imitation.
“Vampires can be out before midnight, haven’t you seen Twilight?”
“Yeah, but you know, you catch me in the sun and my brilliance will be too dazzling for you to handle.”
“It’s sunny right now.”
“And you’re dazzled, right?”
“Oh yeah.”
Best Friend Love Sucks
6:30pm
Katelyn and I do an extreme makeover on Annie’s hair. Then I put her adorable petite, and way too covered up, body in one of Katelyn’s tight little school T-shirts instead of the big oversized one she was wearing. She is nervous that it is too tight. I tell her what my mom says. You can have all the brains in the world, but it takes a body to get a most men’s attention. (Love that she gives Annie a little makeover.)
I throw on a pair of khaki cargo shorts and a little red tank top with leopard letters trimmed in rhinestones that spell out Cougars. And off we head downstairs.
Dawson is waiting for me outside my dorm, sitting on the short brick wall that surrounds the grounds.
“Hey cutie, I just texted you,” he says and immediately gives me a sweet kiss. He holds my hand as we walk over to his dorm. (Love how he called her cutie. And how it became Keatie. Really, I can see why readers were torn. Dawson is so sweet.)
“Sorry, we were busy trying to get beautiful.”
He looks at the three of us and says, “Mission accomplished.”
I introduce him to Annie, but he says, “I know Annie, we had a photography class together last semester. You still taking your amazing photos? You were by far the most talented one in our class.”
Annie beams, and I giggle. “She was out taking pics today actually and took a few of you and I, um, sitting on the bench at lunch.”
“You mean kissing on the bench at lunch?”
“Well, yeah.”
He turns to Annie, “Oh, I wanna see those, kay?”
She nods her head. She looks really cute. And I’m thinking about who I could try and set her up with. I’m thinking maybe Bryce or Parker.
But when we get to the dorm and Riley, Bryce, Tyrese and Ace walk out, I notice Ace totally looking her over. And I decide to not play match maker and let nature take it’s course.
And nature is taking it’s course. Ace, who I thought was sorta a douche really, is acting like a well manner nice guy and talking to her about Greek Mythology.
Which I can’t help it.
I makes me think of the god I know personally. (I love how obsessed she becomes with mythology because of Aiden.)
I am definitely texting my mom tonight to see if she has some advice. I know she won’t sleep tonight. She can never sleep the night before she leaves to go on location. She always worries about forgetting something. Which how could she possibly do that, when she has two nannies, a chef, two assistants, and four full time security guards going with them?
Dawson is sitting on the bleacher behind me, and I’m comfortably leaning back between his legs. He leans down and kisses my collar bone, runs a finger down my arm and whispers in my ear. “You have leopard print on your shirt, that mean you have on the leopard bra I wanna see?”
“Maybe.”
“Grrrrr,” he purrs softly in my ear.
I’m shocked by how I immediately feel turned on by this.
“Can I see it tonight?”
“Hmmm. I don’t know. Leopards are pretty wild, you up for that?”
He kisses down the side of my neck and says, “Yeah, actually I am.”
“I think we need to talk first. About Peyton. What you’re thinking and stuff.”
“I’m really not thinking about her anymore. You sorta have me captivated.”
“We were going to find you a suitable girl to date. That girl was not supposed to be me.”
“Are we dating?”
“No, I just meant, you know what I mean. Don’t give me shit.”
“Maybe we should be.”
“Should be what?”
“Dating.”
“No way.”
“Awe, come on, why not?”
“You told me three days ago you're still in love with Peyton.”
“Oh yeah, that.” (Yes, that, Dawson.)
“Yeah, that. If I’m gonna date a guy, get serious, I want him to like me, and not be wishing I was someone else.”
“Still. You're fun, and I really haven't thought about her much the last couple days.”
“Then you’re making progress.”
“And hows your progress going?”
I sigh. “He used his special powers to stare at me today.”
“You have it bad for him, don’t you?”
I look back at Dawson, who is gorgeous, and think, no, I don’t. Why would I want a stupid player boy, when I have Gorgeous sitting here next to me?
Yeah, I don’t. I want this boy.
This boy who I am going to fix. I’m going to heal his broken heart, remake his image, and I’m not going to give him back to Peyton all shiny and new. I’m going to keep him for myself.
He should probably know that, so I let him know by standing up, turning around, grabbing the front of his shirt, and pulling him into a kiss. The first time I have ever initiated a kiss with him. (Which is quite cute.)
Then I say, “I think I’m making progress too.”
At half time, Riley plops down next to me.
“Oh. My. Gosh. She is driving me freaking nuts!”
“Audrey?” both Dawson and I ask.
“Yes. Fine. We hooked up. That doesn’t mean I want to be tied to her for the rest of my life.”
“It’s been three days.”
“It feels like a lifetime.”
“I sure hope you used a condom, bro, or it might be,” Dawson slaps him on the back.
“Well that’s one thing you taught m
e. Thank God!”
I laugh. “You should be flattered. You must have been goooood, and she wants more of you.”
“Honestly, it was not good. I repulse myself.” (Oh, Riley…)
“Dude, it’s about quality, not quantity.” Dawson says.
“Oh, you’re one to talk. What was it you called the beach this summer, your whoredom?”
“Shut up,” he tells his brother.
“Like your kingdom, only your whoredom? Oh, that’s cute.” I laugh at him. Tease him. (The whoredom so makes me laugh.)
“I was broken hearted, what can I say?”
“Well I don’t really care about that. Just tell me HOW TO GET RID OF HER! Seriously, she meets me after class, walks me to my next class. Showed up at my room and left me cookies. Dallas wouldn’t eat them, he was afraid she drugged them or something.”
“My little bro has a stalker, how cute is that?”
Dawson and I both laugh.
“You’re not helping, either one of you,” Riley complains.
Finally I tell him, “Well you have a couple options. Ignore her. Tell her. Find someone else, fast.”
“Shit, here she comes. Pretend we are talking about something important. And ignore her. Do NOT talk to her!”
She walks up, sits down next him, and, of course, the first thing out of my mouth is, “Hey Audrey, what’s up?”
Dawson pulls me back between his legs and snickers. Riley groans.
She says, “Hey. How come your guys weren’t at the party Saturday night? It was soooo much fun. I was a little drunk, but we had fun, didn’t we Riley? Although, oh my gosh, I was so hungover on Sunday. It was awful. I threw up at church.”
“We really didn’t need to know that,” Riley growls.
“Oh sorry. Yeah well anyways, how are the freshman doing? I got to talking to Katie. Keatyn, you’re so lucky to have a cool roommate, and oh my gosh, to have made the dance team, that’s like super cool......”