“Hey, I helped,” Peyton complained.
“Uh huh,” I said. If you count straightening the magazines after she was done reading them helping.
“Now you have the rest of the day to relax and have some fun,” Cole said.
“Just give me a few minutes to change and get ready.”
“I don’t have anything to wear,” Peyton said.
“Come on, you can borrow something of mine,” I said as I motioned for her to follow.
“Oh, I like your clothes better anyways,” Peyton replied and jumped off the chair.
We headed upstairs to my bedroom while Cole waited in the living room.
“I take it things went well on your date,” Peyton said as she plopped down on my bed.
“Um, it was nice,” I said not wanting to go into much detail.
She picked up one of my magazines from my night stand and said, “Well regardless, however it was, you must of did something right, cause that boy is in love.”
“Please, stop exaggerating.”
“I’m not. You should have seen him. When I walked up to the house he was standing there scratching the back of his neck, almost like he was practicing what to say.”
I flushed at the thought of watching Cole like that. I liked when he did that, I thought it was cute. I tried to hide my smile, but Peyton caught it.
She looked up from the magazine, “You slept with him, I knew it!” she yelled.
“God Peyton, no I didn’t. And if I do, I promise you’ll be the first to know.”
“You like him don’t you.” She used her devilish tone.
“I’m just having some fun.”
“Uh-huh,” she said and went back to pretending to read the magazine.
“Shut up, here.” I threw one of my bathing suits at her.
After we changed, I put some towels, sun-block, and everything else I needed in a bag and headed back downstairs. When we got in the car Cole turned to me and asked, “I have to pick up Tommy, do you mind?”
“No, that’s cool.” I didn’t have to turn around to know Peyton was grinning ear to ear.
When we got Tommy I offered him the front seat, but he said he was fine sitting in the back. I more or less offered it to save him from Peyton, but she seemed to be on her best behavior.
Once we arrived at the lake, I spotted my friends, and marched right over to Landon.
“Hey Tay, Ow! What the…” Landon said rubbing his shoulder after I hit him.
“Thanks for calling me,” I said in a huff.
“Peyton said you guys were going to be cleaning all day.”
“Well, we were, but Cole came over and helped, so we got done early.”
“How was I supposed to know?” he asked defensively.
“You still could have called,” I protested.
“I’m sorry. I promise next time, even if I know you’re busy, I’ll still call,” Landon said in an exaggerated voice.
“That’s better.” I gave him a kiss and put my stuff underneath a nearby tree. Then I went to say hi to the rest of my friends.
Alex, Kelly, Nate, and Jessie were sitting at a table with Landon’s roommates Jaxson and Billy. There were some girls with them I didn’t know and automatically my defenses went up.
“Hey guys!”
“Te te, what’s up?” Jaxson said as he got up from the table and gave me a hug and a kiss.
“Jax, you know I hate it when you call me that,” I said especially since it almost sounds like he’s calling me ‘titty’.
“I know,” he winked at me.
I bent down and gave Billy a kiss on the cheek. “Hey Tatum, long time no see.” Billy traveled a lot for his job so I didn’t see him much.
“How you been Billy?”
“Good.”
I turned towards the girls I didn’t know and asked, “Who are your friends,” as Cole and Tommy walked up.
“Tatum, this is Krystal, Kallie, and JoJo.”
I greeted them and introduced Tommy and Cole. Jessie walked over and pretended to clear her throat.
“Oh yeah, Tommy you remember Jessie.”
“Hey,” Tommy said to Jessie flashing his sexiest smile.
Once the introductions were done Landon came over and started cooking some burgers and dogs on the grill. I was happy. I didn’t get a chance to eat breakfast, so I was pretty hungry.
While we waited for the food to be done, I thought I’d take a dip in the water. It was just past two and the sun was getting hot. I took off my shorts and shirt and got out my sun-block. Cole offered to help me put some sun-block on my shoulders and back. I did not decline his offer.
I really liked the way his hands felt on my shoulders. It was a sensual touch. I had to remind myself we were in public to keep from wanting to attack him with my mouth.
“Wow, you weren’t kidding when you said you got bored, a lot,” Cole said.
Most of my tattoos were hidden, but when I wore a bathing suit they were out in the open for all to see.
“What, you don’t like?” I asked innocently looking at him from over my shoulder.
“No I do, actually, I think they’re very…sexy,” he said in a low voice while trailing his finger down the middle of my back, stopping at my bikini bottom.
My whole body started to tingle. I bit my lip to keep from shaking.
“Hey you guys coming?” Alex yelled, snapping me out of it.
I jumped and took a step forward. “Yeah, coming,” I yelled back. I turned around to Cole, told him thanks, and quickly walked away. I stopped just short of the water, and stared out into the clearing. I was trying to forget about what just happened with me and Cole. Forget about the fact that every time he touches me I want to crumble to pieces; forget the closeness of him and how it makes me lose my breath and forget his eyes that make me want to get lost in them.
“Hello, Tatum, are you listening?” I was so caught in my thoughts I didn’t realize Kelly was trying to talk to me.
“Huh?”
“Earth to Tatum?”
“Sorry, What?”
Kelly just laughed at me and said, “Never mind.”
I stuck my toe in to test the water. It was pretty cold. I thought I would work my way in slow, warm up to it.
I saw some of the girls in the water staring behind me. Half of them looked like they were going to faint and the rest were fanning themselves. I turned to see what they were getting all excited about.
Oh. My. God.
Tommy, shirtless, and walking towards the water. He was like the perfect male form, like he was molded to perfection. Tommy was just too sexy for words. I wanted to run up and just rub my face on his abs. Doesn’t matter how vivid your imagination is, sometimes there’s nothing better than the real thing and Tommy was the real thing.
Tommy and Cole had reached the spot where I was standing and they stood on either side of me. Tommy put his arm around my shoulder and I could feel myself start to sweat.
“How’s the water?” Tommy asked.
“G-good,” I stuttered.
“Are you alright? You’re sweating pretty badly and your face is getting red.”
“I’m just…really hot,” I said fanning myself. “I’m …gonna go… in the water and cool off.”
I stepped out of Tommy’s arm and dove into the water. I didn’t care how cold it was. I needed that shock to cool myself off.
Tommy got in and went straight over to Jessie. Cole stood by the edge. I waved for him to come in, but he shrugged it off. I got out to see if he was okay.
“You don’t want to come in?”
“Not yet. I told Landon I’d help him with the food.” I just nodded and went back into the water.
I thought I should try to make nice with these girls the boys brought. Well pretend to at least.
Kelly and Alex were already talking to them. Peyton, like me, had her defenses up. She was just watching and listening. Jessie’s attention was on Tommy and vice versa.
“Wow! Yo
u’ve got a lot of tattoos,” said the one girl. I think her name was Juju? Or something like that.
“Uh yeah,” was my response.
I got that reaction a lot from stupid people. I really wanted to say, “Wow, you’re observant.” But I thought I’d keep my snide, sarcastic comments to myself—for now at least.
“I always wanted to get a tattoo, but like, I’m afraid of how much it would hurt. I’m not good with pain. I’m very sensitive,” said J.J.? Jackie? Crap, what was this girl’s name? Who cares, I’d probably never see her again.
These boys didn’t keep the same girls around long. I couldn’t even understand what interest they had in this one. After five minutes I had enough. Maybe she was just a tag-a-long.
The girl barely looked legal. She had medium length hair that was bleached so much it looked like hay. And probably felt like it too. Her eyes were brown and big and practically bugging out of her head. She was about medium height—shorter than me—and had the body of a twelve year old girl. The other two girls weren’t much different aside from their hair.
The one had a shaggy, short haircut, light-brown with very brassy highlights. The other had a cute bob, dark-brown, with some red highlights. She was the only one of the three who had decent hair, who didn’t look like she let one of the other ones practice on her. She was the tallest out of the three and looked the oldest and was quiet too. Still, I wouldn’t put any of them older than twenty-one. God, where did they find these girls? At the mall?
“How bad did they hurt? I bet they hurt a lot. Did you cry?” asked the annoying blond girl again referring to my tatoos.
Before I could answer, the girl with the good hair responded. “JoJo, stop asking such stupid questions.”
JoJo, that was her name.
“I was just curious Krystal,” she whined like a twelve year old. “Come on Kallie, let’s go lie in the sun.”
She grabbed the other girl and they walked out of the water and over to some towels that were laid out on the grass.
“Sorry about that. She can be really annoying,” Krystal said.
“No biggie, I’m used to it,” I told her.
“Krystal right?” Peyton asked.
“You can call me Krys,” she said.
“How did you meet the guys?”
“I work with Jaxson. He invited me to come along today and told me to bring some friends. Instead I was forced to bring my sister and her friend JoJo.”
“Kallie’s your sister?” I said, basically restating what she already said.
“Older sister,” she corrected.
Huh, I would have guessed she was the younger.
“They’re both morons.”
I think I might like this girl.
A breeze picked up and I started to get cold in the water. I headed over to the grass to lay out in the sun for a bit and dry off before the food was done. Everyone else followed and did the same. I pulled the towels from my bag that I brought for Peyton and me and spread them on the ground.
“You want something to drink?” Peyton asked.
“Yeah, grab me a soda.”
Cole came over and sat next to me in the grass.
“Hey.”
“Food should be done soon,” he said.
“Having fun?” I asked.
“I like your friends, they’re very welcoming.” He was sitting Indian style with his hands in his lap. “What about you, make any new friends?” he asked gesturing toward JoJo and Kallie who were sitting about ten feet away.
“Who, tweedle dee and tweedle dumb?” I said.
“Be nice.”
“That was nice,” I said with a playful grin.
Cole just laughed.
In the little time we knew each other, he knew enough to know I was being nice.
“Hey Cole, can you grab the rolls from the cooler next to you?” Landon shouted.
Cole got up, took the rolls out of the cooler, and walked them over to Landon.
I pulled my legs up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. I rested my head on my knees. That’s when I saw JoJo eyeing Cole up and down, whispering and giggling to Kallie like little school girls.
I lifted my head when Peyton sat down next to me and handed me a soda.
“What’s up?” she asked.
“I don’t like those two,” I said looking back at Kallie and JoJo.
“Don’t let them bother you. You know they won’t last long.”
“I know,” I sighed. “That Krystal girl seems pretty cool.”
“Yeah, I like her,” Peyton agreed.
I peeled my attention away from the girls and yelled to Landon, “Landon, I’m starving, is the food done yet?”
“Yes, come and get it.”
Peyton and I stood up. I picked up my towel, and wrapped it around my waist. When I looked up, JoJo and Kallie were standing in front of us.
“So, are you and that Cole guy, like together?” JoJo asked.
“No.”
“So, he’s like single?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“Good, cause like oh my god, he is like so hot!”
“Totally,” Kallie said.
Apparently JoJo was the ring leader in this duo and Kallie was her drone.
“Come on Kallie, let’s go talk to him,” JoJo said as they made their way over to Cole.
“Why didn’t you tell them you guys were together?” Peyton asked.
“Cause we’re not. Cole can do whatever he wants.” Peyton just rolled her eyes at me and shook her head. “What?”
“You will never learn.”
We walked over to the picnic table and sat down. Peyton sat on the end and I sat next to her. Everyone else slowly filled up the open spaces. Tommy sat next to me on my right and Jessie next to him. Alex, Kelly, and Nate sat across from us. We quickly realized there wasn’t going to be enough room, so some of the guys pulled another picnic table over and pushed the two together.
“Hey Cole, I saved you a seat next to me,” JoJo said smiling.
Everyone at my table looked at me.
“What?” I exclaimed.
No one said anything. They just looked down or looked away.
Cole sat down next to JoJo, smiled sweetly, and told her thank you. Once everyone was seated, we dug in, and ate. We passed plates of food up and down the tables. I watched as JoJo passed up every plate that went by her and she gave Kallie a dirty look for taking a burger.
“You’re not hungry?” Cole asked her.
“I don’t eat meat,” she said.
“Well, maybe there’s some fruit.” Cole looked around. “Landon, is there anything else, like fruit?”
“Uh, there are tomatoes,” Landon replied
“Tomatoes are a vegetable,” JoJo said. She would know, takes one to know one.
“I’m sure we can find something for you,” Cole told her. She touched his arm playfully and gave him a flirty smile.
Krystal apparently missed the conversation and asked JoJo, “Why aren’t you eating?”
“I’m a vegetarian,” JoJo said with a slight glare towards Krystal.
“Ha, since when?” Krystal laughed.
“Since forever.” You could see it in her face she was getting annoyed at being challenged.
“Uh, I’ve seen you eat meat,” Krystal said not letting up.
“That was tofu,” JoJo replied with an air of distaste, hoping to get Krystal to shut up. Krystal stared at JoJo for a moment, but let it go.
“Well you could walk over to the woods over there and look for some nuts and berries,” I said with a smirk. Peyton tried to cough to hide her laugh. Cole gave me a displeased look, saying he wasn’t happy with my comment thinking it was rude.
“Here, why don’t you take some of the lettuce and tomatoes and make a mini salad. You can even eat a plain roll,” Cole said to JoJo.
“Oh, it’s okay, I don’t want to be any trouble,” JoJo said all sweetly. Kallie almost choked on her food and JoJo shot her a look like
she had daggers coming out of her eyes.
“You need to eat and it’s no trouble,” Cole said.
“Well if it makes you feel better I will.”
Is he seriously falling for this crap? I couldn’t watch anymore. I sat silently and ate my food, while everyone conversed back and forth.
Every once and a while I’d look over at JoJo flirting shamelessly with Cole and picking at her food like she was a bird, but then I’d get nauseous and look away.
Tommy leaned down and whispered to me, “Don’t worry about her Tatum, Cole’s crazy about you. He’s just being polite.” Tommy may have been right, but Cole looked like he was being a little too friendly for just being polite.
When we were finished eating, we covered up the leftovers and put some stuff away. We spread out on the grass to relax and digest some before we went out on the boat. Well the girls did, the boys jumped in the water and tried to show each other up with stupid flips and stunts.
I sat in the shade with Peyton and Jessie. Kelly and Alex weren’t far off with Krystal, and the bobbsey twins were in the bathroom making sure their pounds of makeup didn’t melt off.
“How’d the second date go?” Jessie asked.
“Good.”
“Just good?”
“Yep.”
“Not gonna tell us anything?”
“Nope.”
“And it doesn’t bother you that that girl is all over him?”
“Nope.”
“You’re such a liar.”
“Whatever, I don’t care.”
“Please, you can’t bullshit us,” Peyton said.
“Just drop it.”
“Ooh, she’s getting defensive. We struck a nerve,” Jessie teased.
I looked at them and couldn’t help but laugh. “Shut up.”
“What are you guys talking about?” Kelly asked as her, Alex, and Krystal joined us.
“Tatum’s in denial,” Peyton said.
I rolled my eyes. Apparently they weren’t going to let this go.
“About what?” Alex asked.
“How she’s in love with Cole and jealous that JoJo is all over him.”
“Oh my god you guys. I’m not in love with him and I am not jealous.” Please, no way was I jealous of that little twerp, annoyed, but definitely not jealous. Sensing my not wanting to continue with this conversation, the girls moved on to another topic.
The guys started to get out of the water. Nate, Billy, and Cole, lay out in the grass, while Landon, Jaxson, and Tommy got things set up on the boat. Just as they were finishing up the girls came out of the bathroom and one by one we got on the boat.
The Hairdresser Diaries Page 13