by Jillian Dodd
I open his closet and peek inside at a jumbled mess of clothes. I could so never marry a man that had a messy closet. I’m just saying.
“You’re cold,” he says huskily.
I close the door and walk closer to his bed and examine his chest of drawers.
“You’re getting warmer.”
I open his top drawer. He keeps condoms there, underneath his boxers. I eye an unopened box of them. I grab the box and hold them up. “Is this it?”
He laughs. “Nope.”
I shut the drawer, look in the rest and move to his desk.
“You’re getting even warmer.”
I look around his desk, in his drawers, don’t find anything, so I walk over to his bed.
“Oh, yeah, now you’re getting very warm.”
“I am.” I smile at him then strip off my shirt to reveal the leopard bra he’s been dying to see.
“Aw, damn, Keatie.” He hops off the bed quickly and stands in front of me staring at the bra. Then his eyes follow his hands as they move slowly across it. He’s touching the bra almost reverently. Like it’s a trophy.
His hands caress their way down my sides and grip my waist. I reach through the open sides of his shirt, run my hands up his back, then pull his shirt off. He undoes my bra, letting it fall to the floor. I let him kiss my chest for a few minutes. His shirt is still in my hand, so I pull it over my head, putting it on.
He stands back admiring me in the shirt he just had on. “That may be the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen you in.”
Then he grabs me, throws me on the bed, and strips off our shorts.
“I am so late,” I say as I’m getting dressed. “I’m going to have to pretend I got sick or something.”
“You got something alright,” he says with a satisfied grin.
I laugh. “Were you my present?”
“Shit, no. I almost forgot.” He grabs his shorts off the floor, pulls a small wrapped box out of his pocket, and sets it in my hand. “Open it.”
I untie the distinctive robin’s egg blue ribbon, open the box, and pull out a little blue pouch. I turn the pouch upside down and out drops a necklace. A Tiffany key necklace. My mom went a little crazy with the key necklaces for me when they came out, but I don’t have one like this.
“It’s really pretty.”
He takes it out of my hand and says, “Let me put it on you.”
I hold my hair up while he fastens it around my neck.
He leans in and whispers in my ear, “I know we’re supposed to be taking it slow. I know you don’t want to be in a relationship until we’re sure, but I wanted to give you this.” He runs kisses across my face and when he gets to my lips, he murmurs, “It’s the key to my heart.”
Awww. Ohmigawd, that’s so adorable.
But no.
No. No. No.
I unfasten it and take it off.
“Dawson, I can’t accept this.”
“Why not?”
“You know why.”
“You think I’m still in love with Whitney.”
“I think you’re not ready to be giving away your heart.”
“Fine then,” he says, while fastening it around his own neck. “I’m wearing it. I want you to see it every day. When you’re ready, you take it back.”
I give him a long, sweet kiss. “You have a deal.”
He smacks my ass and says, “You’re so late.”
Saturday, September 10th
Glitter everywhere.
1pm
The dance sleepover is actually really fun. We spend many hours learning a new routine for a dance competition that we’ll be in later this year. Then we spend another few hours on team-building activities. Mostly silly, but fun games to help us all get along. After that, we eat junk food and gossip. Katie and I get home at seven this morning and both immediately fall into bed.
At one, I meet with Brad and the dean. We discuss the idea of having a themed weekend once a month. How we would like to involve multiple groups and clubs. How we want to support a charity. And how it will promote school pride. The dean loves our idea in theory and approves us to move forward with a specific plan. He tells us if we can get the plan together, he’d like to have our first weekend in November, when perspective students come to visit for the weekend. He thinks it will be a great selling point for the school.
After that I meet Katie, Maggie, Riley, Dallas, Jordan, and Parker in Annie’s dorm’s common room to work on posters. We have a ball making signs and sneaking off to her room to take nips of wine.
I’m a little tipsy and covered in glitter when I meet Dawson later to watch the lacrosse game. I still don’t understand the sports here, exactly, but somehow Logan is able to play both lacrosse and football. He is a decent quarterback but it’s clear that this is where he puts on a show. Vanessa always had a thing for the lacrosse team and I went to quite a few of their games. Logan is a damn good player. Those back muscles that I’ve admired in math class are being put to good use.
Dawson pulls my hand up to his mouth and kisses it. “I’ve missed you today. Can we hang out tonight? Maybe go play mini golf and get some dinner or something?”
“That sounds like fun. And I missed you too.”
He brushes a finger across my collarbone. “You have glitter everywhere.”
I laugh. “I know. I’m pretty sure it’s literally everywhere on my body.”
His dark eyes smolder at me. “Maybe I need to find all the glitter.”
“Gonna be hard to do at mini golf.”
“Maybe we need to make a little wager on golf.”
“What kind of wager?”
He wraps his arm around my waist, pulls me in close to his side, and puts his mouth up to my ear. He nibbles on it before whispering, “I win, we go parking.”
“I’ve never been parking. I might just let you win.”
“Really? Well then, there’s no bet. We’ll put that on our list for tonight. You’ve really never been parking?”
“No. Is that weird?”
“Kinda.” He laughs but puts his mouth up by my ear again. “Don’t worry. I’ll be gentle.”
I push his shoulder away from me. “I don’t think gentle is in your dictionary.”
“Maybe it will be tonight.”
I roll my eyes at him.
“Come on. Let’s go get ready and get out of here.”
We walk down the bleachers and head toward the dorms. “I probably should shower.”
He pulls me tightly into his body. “Don’t you dare. I told you, I plan on finding every speck of glitter on you. But what I didn’t tell you is that I’m gonna lick every speck off.”
“Hmmm, well then I might need to swing back by Annie’s and borrow some extra glitter. I’m pretty sure the glitter isn’t really everywhere.”
He drops me off at my dorm, smacks my butt, and says, “Anywhere you want my tongue,” and walks away.
I’m tempted to run to Annie’s and roll myself in glitter.
Sunday, September 11th
She’s really pretty.
9:30am
I’m lying across Dallas’ bed. He’s sitting on the floor in front of me while I massage his shoulders. Riley is sitting in his desk chair, rolling around and trying to figure out how to rule the world. Or, at least, how to sleep with it.
He’s holding up our history project sheet and rambling off the different projects we can do.
“We can do a video!” he says excitedly. “I’m good at doing videos.”
I roll my eyes at him. “I don’t even want to know about the kind of videos you are good at doing.”
He shakes his head at me. “I told you, I’m more than just a sex god. Let’s do a video. We’ll do a reenactment video. You can dress up and I’ll shoot you being told your husband was killed in the war or something. Don’t worry, the camera will love you.”
I cringe when he says this. Vincent said something very similar. I close my eyes tightly and drop my head down on Dal
las’ shoulder.
He puts his arm up over his head and runs his hand across my hair. It’s a sweet gesture that makes me reach down and give him an upside down hug.
“So did you and Katie get to hang out last night?”
He shakes his head. “No, but Riley met a girl.”
“Really? Who?”
Riley stops spinning. “Ariela.”
“She’s the pretty cheerleader with the long, dark hair, right?”
“And the most gorgeous green eyes,” he says dreamily. “And a body built for sin.”
“You know she’s a prude, right?” Dallas says.
“So?” Riley and I say at the same time. We look at each other and start laughing.
I stop rubbing Dallas’ shoulders. “What does that even mean, anyway?”
“I actually like that about her,” Riley says, before we have the chance to discuss. Both Dallas and I look at Riley like he just told us he is gay.
He holds his hands up in the air, like, whatever. “I didn’t even try to kiss her.”
“What did you do then?”
He shrugs a shoulder and starts rolling around the room again while he talks. “Just flirted with her. Turned on the Johnson charm.”
I laugh out loud. “The Johnson charm is designed to get a girl into bed.”
“Okay, so I didn’t turn it all the way on. Didn’t want to scare the poor girl away. She’s really pretty.”
“You said that already.”
“So, what am I supposed to do now?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m in uncharted waters here, baby. I like her. I’ve never asked a girl on a date.”
“So you’re not afraid to ask a girl to hook up, but you’re afraid to ask one on a date. That’s priceless.” He gives me a pathetic look and I can tell he’s serious. I sigh. “Have you texted her?”
“No.”
“So do it now. Tell her you had fun hanging out last night and ask her on an actual date.”
“Can’t I ask her to just hang out?”
“You could if you wanted to be just friends.”
“But I do want us to be friends. You and Dawson are friends.”
“Yes, but he’s not in the friend box.”
Dallas stops texting whichever one of the girls he is currently texting. “I could make a really naughty comment about what box he is in.”
Riley laughs. “Ha! I didn’t even catch that. I must be in love.”
My mouth drops open and my eyes get big. Dallas and I look at each other. His face looks like mine.
“Did she give you her number?” Dallas asks Riley.
“Yeah,” he says.
“Then she’s interested in you, Riley,” I say. “How could she not be? You’re one of the cutest guys here.”
“Yeah, but she’s one of the prettiest girls here. Like, she is really pretty.”
“I think we know that now,” Dallas quips.
“Does she make you nervous?”
“Yeah. Like all the lines that usually have girls crawling all over me, she thought were funny.”
“Did you take off your shirt to test her?” I say with a laugh.
He rolls over and swats me with the notebook he’s been nervously rolling up in his hand.
“I’m sorry. Okay. So, you like her. Dallas, you know if she’s seeing anyone?”
“She’s still seeing a guy from home. Guy she met this summer.”
Riley’s shoulder’s droop. “So what do I do?”
“Well, you already have the advantage because you’re here. Maybe you should just ask her to hang out. This sounds dumb, but why don’t you invite her to make signs with us? It’s a group thing. No pressure. Then when we’re done, I’ll ask if you two want to go get lunch with me and Dawson.”
“It’s like a stealth date?” I nod my head as he tosses me his phone. “You do it.”
“You’re such a chicken.”
Riley: It was fun hanging out last night.
Ariela: I thought so too.
Riley: I’m helping Keatyn make some signs today at 10:30. Would you want to come help us?
Ariela: Sorry, I can’t.
I make a frown and read what she said out loud. He gets a rejected look on his face.
Ariela: I’m at chapel right now, but I could meet you at 11.
I show Riley the text. He pulls me up off the bed and starts twirling me around.
“I’m revoking your man card,” Dallas says to him.
Riley falls with me onto his bed. “What’d you and Dawson do last night? Why didn’t you come to the movies with everyone?”
“We did mini golf. I won. I may have wounded his pride. Then we got dinner and he took me parking. I had never been before.”
“Did you go down by the lake?”
“Yeah. But parking sucks. Dawson barely fits in his own backseat. Let alone with me in there. And it’s impossible to maneuver.”
“Maneuver?” Riley says with a smirk.
“I’m not talking about sex. I hated parking. He finally grabbed a blanket out of his trunk. And don’t say it. I don’t even want to know where that blanket has been.”
Riley chuckles. “That blanket hasn’t been anywhere. It’s new. Mom saw something on television about some kids freezing to death in a blizzard. The blanket is part of the winter survival kits she put in all of our cars before we left for school.”
“Thank God.”
“I’ll have to let Mom know that the blanket has already come in handy.”
I flip him off and laugh. “Don’t you dare!”
He starts tickling me. I scream, laugh, and squirm my way off his bed, then manage to launch myself back onto Dallas’.
“What happened with you and Beth last night?” Riley asks Dallas.
Dallas gets a sneaky grin.
“Did you have sex with her?” I ask. Based on his grin he definitely got something.
He shakes his head and laughs. “No, but I can confirm the color of her panties.” He picks up a pair of jeans lying on the floor, reaches into the front pocket, and flings something hot pink across the room to Riley.
Riley catches it and holds up a hot pink cotton thong.
“That’s so gross,” I screech while Riley says, “That’s awesome.”
Dallas shakes his head at us and laughs. “Can you believe that? I’m starting a collection. I’m calling it Panties For the Poor. I’m going to collect as many as I can and then at the end of the year, I’ll donate them all to charity.”
“That’s very philanthropic of you. Your dad would be proud.”
Dallas starts laughing really hard.
I slap him on the back and say, “Come on, boys. It’s time to go play in the glitter.”
French kissing crisis.
7:50pm
Hottie God: Desperately need you. For workbook help.
Me: Library 20 min?
Hottie God: My room 20 min.
Me: NO!
Hottie God: Fine. Library it is.
The girls and I are in our hangout spot. On the floor of Katie’s and my room. Annie is sorting through all the signs we made this weekend. This afternoon, Annie had the brilliant idea of buying a bunch of Milk Duds. Like, she went and bought out every store in a ten-mile radius.
Now we’re wrapping then with leopard print labels that have big red and black letters on the front: Don’t Be Cougar Poo. Vote for Keatyn Monrooooo!
Which is really quite hysterical, if you ask me. Because Milk Duds do kinda look like cougar poo.
Annie says to me, “It’s too bad you didn’t come with Ace and all of us to the movies. We saw Running with the Angels. It was such a good movie. But then I love all of Abby Johnston’s movies. Isn’t she just great?”
I nod. “Yeah, she really is.”
“It’s weird, but she reminds me of you.”
Oh, crap. “Really? How so?”
“It’s not that you look like her, but your mannerisms and your gestures. The way yo
u tilt your head. Even your voice. They are almost identical.”
“That’s really weird. I’ve seen most of her movies and never noticed that.”
I look around at them. All spending their time to help me with my campaign. Doing it because we’re friends. I wish I could tell them the truth. I wish I could tell them even Tommy can’t tell us apart on the phone. But I can’t. Fortunately, Annie drops it.
“What did you and Dawson do last night?”
“We played mini golf. Got some dinner.” Spent a lot of time at the lake.
“So did you kiss Ace?” I ask Annie to change the subject.
“No,” she says disappointedly.
“Did anything happen?” Maggie asks.
“He held my hand most of the night. That’s a good sign, right?”
Maggie and I both smile at her and say at the same time, “It’s a very good sign.”
“Jinx!” We both scream at each other.
Maggie blurts out, “Ohmigawd, did you have sex with Dawson yet or what?”
“Look, I don’t want to disappoint you guys, but I don’t really think it’s anyone’s business, and I don’t want it getting around school either way. So I’m gonna have to say no comment.”
Annie looks at me, trying to size me up. “That means you did it.”
“No, it doesn’t. It means I don't want people talking about whether we did or didn’t, so I’m saying no comment either way.”
Katie huffs. “Okay, so you did some stuff, right?”
“Yeah, I can say we did some stuff.”
Maggie starts to play along, “And was that stuff good and fun?”
My eyes get all dreamy, I know, but I can’t help it.
“It was very good, very fun. Did you notice the key necklace he’s started wearing around his neck?”
“I did notice because it’s not something guys usually wear,” Annie says.
“It’s the key to his heart. He tried to give it to me the other night. I told him no, so he’s wearing it until I cave.”
“Oh, that is so cute. Why wouldn’t you want the key to his heart?” Maggie asks.