Griffin looked our direction, and I swear, Destiny moaned. But what he said was: “I want Poser’s girl.”
His teammates laughed, and Aiden blanched.
I totally would have protested, totally said no. Of course. Only, I couldn’t help remembering Aiden’s goofy grin when Fauna led him to the closet.
Or his lame defense afterwards.
It made me jut up my chin and be all defiant and basically—yeah, okay—petty.
“It’s not my fault,” I hissed to Aiden and hopped to my feet.
My legs were all wobbly like rubber as I stumbled to the closet. I couldn’t believe I was doing this. Griffin couldn’t seem to believe it either. He had this quizzical smirk on his face as he watched me get up, but he smiled and followed me into the closet, his friends busting up.
They were chanting, “Look out Poser!” And Jake was all, “Griff is hot for School Girl!”
We got more noise than any other couple that went into the closet—and there had been a lot of noise for a lot of couples, namely Aiden and Fauna.
When the door was shut, Griffin and I were in the pitch black dark, and my heart was beating so hard I thought for sure it was going to slam out of my chest and ricochet off the wall. I couldn’t believe I was really here. What was I going to do? Was I really going to kiss The Griff—for real this time?
The thought filled me with a jumble of emotions—excitement, curiosity, fear. But at the same time, I worried about Aiden. I’d been mad at him, that’s what spurred me here. But was I mad enough to do this? Kiss The Griff?
It would hurt Aiden. Kill him.… Just like it killed me that he kissed Fauna.
My head was swimming, my thoughts sporadic and confused—but that was nothing compared to my heart. It was a twisting, thumping, scrambling mess.
Griffin whispered in my ear. “Are we really going to do this or are you just mad at Poser?”
His hot breath on my neck made me kind of woozy and lightheaded. But still I snapped, “His name is Aiden,” defending him because that’s what I did. Always. Defended Aiden. His teammates made me mad—livid. But then again, tonight Aiden had made me mad. And he broke my heart.
I let out a breath, losing any fight or nerve I had.
“No, we don’t have to do this.” Then I added, just trying to be diplomatic, since he was being all sweet, giving me the option and everything. “I mean, if you don’t want to.”
Griffin flicked a penlight on, lighting up his tempting, luscious lips—making me melt, though he had no idea that’s what he was doing.
He said softly, “I want to.”
“Oh,” I squeaked, suddenly a shivering wreck. The way he said that—it had me panting.
“Relax. I’m not going to hurt you.” His voice was gentle, seductive, with just a touch of amusement. He backed me against the wall, bringing his warm hands up to either side of my face, gentle, gentle, gentle. Then slowly, tenderly his hot mouth pressed against mine, soft and sweet and tentative. I felt tingles all the way down to my toes.
His kisses—they were so tender and warm and perfect. Things heated up quickly, though—went from toasty warm to sizzling. Griffin tangled his large, fervent hands in my hair, his lips becoming passion-filled as he drew me closer still, his seductive velvet tongue entwining, searching, tantalizing, his kisses growing with intensity until I was sure my heart was going to explode.
Heat rushed through my whole body. This moment, this experience—it was so intense and awe invoking. Strong, trouble-making Griffin turning tender and passionate—it had me weak in the knees. Before long, he had to hold me up to keep me from toppling to the floor because I was gone—my brain, my body, my heart—every part of me melted into a puddle from his heat.
“You okay?” Griffin pulled away slightly to study my face, his fingers lightly stroking my hair. Already I missed his hot mouth against mine, yearned to have it back.
I nodded, trying to catch my breath, embarrassed that I couldn’t stand steady without his help. “Yeah. You’re just a—a really good kisser.” A fire burned inside me. I was glad it was dark enough he couldn’t see how red I was. I hoped.
Griffin made a small laughing sound, then his yummy, soft lips were on mine again … totally giving me three minutes of heaven.
When the time was up the door was flung open, bright light poured into the closet. Griffin groaned, giving me one last kiss and then he pulled away—making me ache for him to come back, to hold me longer, hold me forever.
He leaned his forehead against mine even as his teammates cheered in the open doorway, whooping and chanting as though he’d made a goal on the ice. He murmured near my ear, “That went by way too fast.”
Man oh man, he wasn’t kidding. I could have done that all night. For weeks, months, years, forever.
I don’t think I said anything. I could hardly breathe, let alone speak. I was too woozy and entranced. I stumbled out of the closet, my legs like rubber, my heart pounding so hard I was sure it was going to pounce out of my chest.
I tried to play it chill, but I couldn’t wipe the dreamy smile off my face. I know it looked dreamy because Jazz and Destiny kept whispering that to me, even though Aiden was sitting right next to us, looking mad but trying to look like he wasn’t. I think that was partly why Jazz and Destiny were doing it—gushing on about me beaming. They were mad at Aiden for kissing Fauna. They were good friends. And Aiden was a lame, stupid, jerk of a boyfriend that deserved to hear their gushing.
I could tell Jazz and Destiny wanted to ask me questions, giggle and get the juicy details about kissing The Grief Master, but they just kept giving me sidelong glances, telling me with their eyes that they wanted to know every single detail the minute we left the party.
Griffin kept giving me sidelong glances too, but I don’t think they were trying to tell me anything. He was laughing and talking to his group of friends—mostly Hailey. Still, I’d catch his eyes cutting to me every now and then. I figured he was just amused by my “beaming” and probably entertained that my friends kept gushing about our “Minutes in Heaven.”
Later that night Griffin caught me covertly watching him and he smirked. Ouch. I looked away and never peeked at him again though I could feel his eyes on me the rest of the night. I wanted to look so bad. But I resisted because I was red enough as it was.
“Did you have fun?” Aiden hissed in my ear. It was the first thing he’d said to me since I came out of the closet. He’d been texting on his phone ever since I came back, probably complaining to his friends that I’d willingly gone into the closet with Griff, The Grief-Master.
“Dang yeah, I had fun,” I chirped, trying to sound breezy. “Probably as much fun as you had with Fauna.”
He slitted his eyes at me. “That wasn’t my fault.”
“Neither was mine, Aiden.”
He shook his head, looking like I can’t believe you.
Then, with his eyes flaming and his expression totally take that, he snipped, “Fauna texted me a second ago. I’m giving her a ride to her friend’s house to get her car. She needs a ride—come on.” He got to his feet, acting like I would go along with this arrangement—his punishment for me going into the closet with Griffin.
No way.
I stayed on the floor. “No thanks. I’ll stay.”
“I’m not coming back,” Aiden growled through gritted teeth.
I huffed and got up, just so we wouldn’t be making such a scene—me on the floor, him above, but what I said was, “Fine. I’ll find my own ride.”
It was an empty threat—totally. I’d die if he left the party with Fauna. And I had no idea how I would get home since everyone here seemed pretty drunk. But no way was I getting in my boyfriend’s car with Fauna. Either he was going to give me a ride or her, not both.
Griffin was at my elbow in a second. His lips twitched with an amused grin. “I’ll give you a ride, Grange.”
Aiden opened his mouth like he was going to protest but then he snapped it shut. It was p
retty funny to see. If I wasn’t so near tears I might have laughed. Instead, I just tried to keep from crying, grateful that Griffin had come to my rescue. If nothing else, at least there was that—someone on my side, even if it wasn’t my boyfriend, even if it was The Grief-Master.
Aiden grabbed my hand, trying to drag me toward the door, but I didn’t move. Finally, he let out an exasperated breath and slammed down my hand. “Ally, the guy’s not interested in you. He just wants to piss me off. He’s never even looked at you before.”
Griffin didn’t say anything to that, but he quirked his eyebrows at me with a playfully sardonic expression, like, Ohhh, you didn’t tell him.
And it was kind of funny because, you know, he’d obviously noticed me before. Since we’d kissed that time in room 204. But ... come to think of it, that could have been to piss Aiden off too.
Actually, any attention Griffin ever paid me—it could have all been just that: to mess with Aiden. That made way more sense than anything else I could come up with. After all, Griffin had spent the whole night hanging out with Hailey—Hailey! That was the kind of girl he liked, the total opposite of me. Total opposite.
Suddenly, the butterflies I’d been feeling over Griffin’s kiss dissolved. Poof. They turned into a pile of rocks at the bottom of my stomach along with all the other rocks that were already there. This night was a nightmare and getting worse by the second.
As if to prove my point, Fauna came out of the bathroom just then and cozied up to Aiden. “I’m ready to go,” she said.
Griffin bit back a laugh at that, raising his eyebrows as though he wanted to make a smart remark about her comment. Only, I could tell he was resisting—though it seemed hard for him. Still, he didn’t make a peep. Instead, he stayed silent just watching my face and flinching his jaw.
He seemed to be waiting for something. I wasn’t sure what—me to cry? That’s all I could think of because I was afraid that was going to happen any second. I was going to start bawling.
Aiden said it again through clinched teeth, “Ally, when I go I’m not coming back.”
I nodded, swallowing. “Good, don’t. If you leave with her, I don’t want you to come back.”
Fauna flashed me a wicked smile. Then she tugged on Aiden’s arm. “Come on,” she purred. “I’ve got to go.”
But Aiden didn’t move. He stood looking at me, and I stood looking at him. I was ready to cry and he looked ready to do the same—burst into tears. Which was bad. His teammates would never let him live it down.
I knew I should just give-in. I knew that. There was no way Aiden could win in this situation—not now. If he backed down, the guys would call him “whipped.” They did anyway, all the time. They said I led him around by a tight leash. So, this wasn’t helping.
But ugh!
He made-out with Fauna in a closet!
Made-out. With her.
No way was I getting in the car with that nasty witch.
Finally, The Griff let out an impatient breath. “Come on, Fauna. I’ll give you a ride.”
Fauna blinked. “What? No. I want Aiden.”
Griffin’s lips twitched a smirk. “Yeah, no kidding. We all know that. But you’ve caused enough trouble for the Innocents tonight.” He pulled her towards the front door. “Come on. They want to make up.”
“But—but—”
Griffin ignored Fauna’s protests leading her outside.
When they were gone Aiden let out a deep breath and then swallowed, still dangerously close to tears. “Ally, I’m sorry.”
“I know,” I said, pulling him toward the front door. I didn’t want him to cry in front of everyone and once he started apologizing he would be a blubbering mess. Me too. I knew that—so I didn’t want the apologies to start now. I wanted them—big time. But not now. Not here. Anywhere but here.
As it was, the guys were saying, “Look at Poser, he’s about to cry.”
Jerks!
I led Aiden outside and he immediately hugged me tight as soon as we were out the door. “Ally, I was an idiot.” He sobbed into my hair. “I’m sorry.”
I started bawling too because I loved Aiden, but he was a total tool—or at least he had been tonight. Actually, had been lately—ever since he became chemistry partners with Fauna. It made me want to smack his head against the wall really hard. But I didn’t. Because he was crying and he was sorry that he was an idiot and bashing his head in would be wrong.
Only … at the moment, it seemed it would feel really, really good.
CHAPTER 5
Okay, I have to tell you that Aiden doesn’t go around crying all the time. He doesn’t. But he is really sensitive and emotional. That’s what I loved about him. Two years ago, when we got together, that’s what drew me to him. I mean, besides the fact he’s gorgeous—with dimples and blond, curly hair and everything.
But I didn’t really, truly give Aiden a second thought until he had to read this essay he wrote in Honors English. He got all teary-eyed as he read it, and it got me teary-eyed. It made me think, “I want to get to know him.”
And once I did, then … I wanted to kiss him.
But we didn’t just automatically get together after that essay—well, not exactly. See, he was shy and I was too. So, it took us a while to even have a conversation. It helped that I would hear his friends tease him about me whenever I walked by.
They’d whisper stuff like, “Ohhh, look at Aiden blushing—there goes his crush.” Stuff like that. Stuff I wasn’t supposed to hear. Only, you’d have to be deaf not to.
Anyway, that helped me be brave.
So, one day before class started, I told him I really liked that essay he had read in class. It had been about breaking-up—loving someone so much, and then having to endure watching them move on and love someone else. I told him I was writing a song about it. (I happen to write songs about everything.) And he smiled all cute and amazed and said he liked to write songs too. And then he mentioned he plays the piano, and I play the piano, so … it was like there were cupids flying around our heads, shooting us with arrows.
The world was a beautiful place.
Not long after that, I asked him about the girl from the essay—asked him if he still liked her and he gave me this shy smile and said, “No. Now I like you.”
Awww. My heart melted, right there—became his to wound. I loved everything about him. Loved how he was shy but gorgeous, and amazingly talented but sweet beyond belief. The sweetest guy I ever met. I wanted to be around him all the time.
We started getting together to write songs, first in the library, then after school, and we’d play duets on my piano, and before long we were inseparable. And he fit right in with my friends, which was perfect. It was almost like he was one of the girls. Only he was a really good kisser. Really, really good. (Though I didn’t have a lot to compare him to.) He was awesome, amazing. He would go shopping with me and my friends and watch our “girly” movies with us and help us bake cookies. Plus, as I said, he was a good kisser. So see, he was a totally perfect boyfriend.
But then, ugh.
Last year he joined the hockey team—which was great. It was. Only, he wanted to “fit in” with those losers on his team. And he never would. Never. And I was glad because they were Neanderthals and Aiden wasn’t. He was the total opposite. He cried in Toy Story 3, bawled. It was sweet and I liked him like that.
It sucked that he tried to be a different person around his teammates. That’s why they called him a “poser.” Because he was. Around them. He tried to be someone he wasn’t, all tough and “guy” like.
So, our fight that night—after the Three Minutes in Heaven—could have gone differently. I could have been all understanding, knowing Aiden was just “posing.” Only it sucked that his “posing” meant he didn’t have a back-bone and he couldn’t say, “No, I’m not going to kiss you, skank—I have a girlfriend.”
Aiden and I fought long and hard after the party and I didn’t talk to him for the rest of the weekend. He
would call and call and call, but I wouldn’t answer. I was mad, fuming, and honestly considering breaking-up.
He had known I hated Fauna. He knew that. I had made it totally clear—multiple times. She was a sleaze and I knew she was after him. But Aiden always denied it. He always said, “She doesn’t like me like that, Ally. I know it looks like she does—but she doesn’t. She’s just a flirt.”
Then, when I huffed at that, he had this awesome comeback: “Look, Ally, she’s a hockey cheerleader—why would she want me?”
Grrr!
That had me seething. Like cheerleaders were so cool—so above everyone else. Like of course I was good enough for him—I wasn’t a cheerleader.
What really pissed me off (and broke my heart) was he seriously felt that way, really and truly. His teammates and the hockey cheerleaders—to him, they were Gods, in this world he wanted to be part of. So irritatingly bad.
Anyway, Monday morning I texted Aiden and told him I didn’t need a ride to school, Jazz had me covered. But Aiden showed up at my house anyway. He came extra early—bearing roses and an apology note that made me cry. It was so sweet and honest and said all the right words to get my heart all mushy.
Plus, I wanted to make-up. More than anything, I really did.
So, I let him drive me to school. But I didn’t exactly forgive him, not exactly. I felt wounded and betrayed and it didn’t seem that damage to my heart would ever heal, no matter what he said or did. It was sad, tragic, but that’s the way it was. It kept putting me near tears even after his note and apologies.
As we walked down the school hallway together—not holding hands, but not fighting either—we passed Griffin at his locker.
The Griff smiled at me as we walked by, getting my heart kind of fluttery and beating all spastic and wild though I knew it was stupid—stupid to get so worked up over a guy that was just playing around. But oh, his kiss! His kiss, his kiss, his kiss. It totally rocked my world—even now, still, I was reeling from it, even while I was bleeding from my boyfriend’s knife in the back.
The Heartbreaker Next Door (The Hockey Team Book 1) Page 11