Dating: For the Assist

by Stephanie Street

  “I’m sorry!” I blurted. “I’m an idiot.” Turning away from her, I ran my fingers through my hair and took a second to collect my thoughts. I’d really bungled this one. But it wasn’t as if I was expecting to kiss Dannika, and thereby throw my whole existence off kilter.

  I needed to get a grip. And fast. Then, I somehow had to convince Dannika to be my date to prom and then convince myself not to kiss her again. She obviously wasn’t as affected by that kiss as I had been. I’d just have to keep my hands and my lips to myself. Maybe Dannika did used to have a crush on me, but it was apparent those days we’re over. She’d probably just dared me to kiss her as a joke.

  Yeah, that was it.

  Whew.

  That made things so much easier. We were friends. We could go to prom, have a great time, and then go our separate ways. We didn’t even have to pretend to be into each other. I never told Abby I was dating Danni, just that she was my date. People went to prom as friends all the time. It was no big deal.

  I turned back around to find Dannika watching me, her full bottom lip clamped between her teeth. The sight of it brought back our time in the closet together and a rush of desire hit me full force. This was never going to work!

  Yes, it was!

  I wanted Abby. My girlfriend. Not Dannika, the annoying girl who slept over in my sister’s room three to four nights a week.

  Oh, no.

  This was a disaster. Dannika only two doors down? Just yesterday it wouldn’t have mattered. But now? Now that I knew what it was like to kiss her?

  I closed my eyes. You can do this! I told myself. But could I? I would have to, because she was Piper’s best friend and hopefully, she was going to be my date to prom.

  I took a deep, steadying breath. “Danni, I’m sorry. And I am an idiot. But will you please go to prom with me?” I kept going when she didn’t say anything. “Just as friends. No expectations. We don’t have to pretend we are anything more than what we are, two people who don’t have a date going together because it’s senior year and this is the last dance of our high school career.”

  I couldn’t read her expression. Had I won her over with the just friends thing? Or was she offended because we’d just made out like we were headed to the alter and I wasn’t committing to anything more than one date?

  How had everything become so complicated?

  “Just prom?” she asked, her expression guarded.

  I nodded. “That’s right. Just one night.”

  “So you can get back at your ex.” When she said the words it didn’t sound like a question but that’s exactly what it was.

  “No. So I can get her back.” I wanted to be honest. And even though I’d been pretty much rocked to the depths of my soul when I kissed Dannika, I wasn’t in love with her. I loved Abby. That whole kiss in the closet, Seven Minutes in Heaven thing, that was an anomaly. Surely it wouldn’t be like that every time I kissed Dannika. If I were to ever kiss her again.

  But I couldn’t do that.

  If I went through with this, this date with Danni, I had to promise myself I wouldn’t try anything. There would be no kissing. Danni was a friend. I didn’t want to hurt her. Flirting wouldn’t be nice. I couldn’t play with her emotions. She used to have a crush on me. For all I knew, she still did and she’d just become an excellent actress in the last hour. Either way, she was Piper’s best friend and everyone in my family loved her. Breaking Dannika’s heart was out of the question, if it was even possible she cared enough for such a thing to occur. Causing her any kind of pain at all was a big no. I had to remember that if this was going to work. And at this point, I needed it to work. Badly.

  Because I wanted Abby back. I did.

  Dannika stared into my eyes. I still couldn’t tell what she was thinking, but that was fine. I wanted her to know I was sincere about my motivation. Friends. Friends who’d kissed, but still just friends.

  Finally, she was the one to break eye contact. Dannika held out her hand. “Prom. One date. As friends.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief. “Ohmigosh, you’re awesome. Yes, one date. Just friends. It’ll be fun.” I took her hand, but it wasn’t right. Without thinking, without remembering the pact I’d just made with myself, I wrapped her in a hug I meant to be friendly. But as soon as my arms settled around her body I remembered things. Things like her legs around my waist and my hands on her thighs and her mouth on mine. Desire. Desire thicker than I’d ever felt it slid down my throat. I wanted to kiss her again. Taste her mouth.

  I dropped my arms. She was a hot coal and touching her again would burn me. Scar me for life. Like a brand.

  I had to go. I had to leave.

  Turning to the French doors, I took the first steps toward escape. “I’ll see you later. I have to go.” I wondered if Drew had a piano. Suddenly, I had a deep and abiding desire to play. Something powerful that would require everything I had to play it.

  I’d probably have to settle for a drink.

  Dannika

  Luke scurried away like a scared rabbit. Not that I blamed him. I was glad to see him go. I needed a moment to myself after everything.

  Putting up a good front had taken all I had in me, because inside I was dying. Luke Hines kissed me. But he didn’t want me. He wanted Abby back, that lying, cheating, stupid girl. How could she possibly want Aiden when she could have, did have, Luke? It made no sense. Sure, Aiden and the baseball team were the hot topic right now, but Luke and the guys on the basketball team were still on top. A lot of them were going on to play college ball, some at Division 1 schools, most at Division 2. But they were good! Not many teams won consecutive State Championships.

  Really, what did Aiden have that Luke didn’t? Nothing.

  I was being silly. None of it mattered. All that mattered was that Luke wanted Abby and not Dannika. After all these years of wondering what would happen if Luke Hines kissed me, I got my answer. We shared an epic kiss and that was it. Nothing changed. We were even going to prom together. As friends. Luke was never going to want me the way I wanted him to want me, the way I wanted him. It was time to accept that. I had my own life to live. College to attend. We were weeks away from graduation and it was time to stop worrying about high school things, put off childish hopes and focus on reality. Reality was becoming an adult. Getting a job. Going to school. Not worrying about my lifelong crush.

  Stupid boys. What a waste of my time.

  But that was done. I’d got to prom and I’d have fun and then, when it was all over, I promised myself then and there, I would focus on me. I had other hopes and dreams that didn’t revolve around Luke Hines. Didn’t I?

  Gosh, I was such a loser. But no more. I was going to figure out who Dannika really was, what she really wanted. My future was bright. I could go to any school I wanted. Study anything my heart desired. I just had to decide what that was.

  With a newfound determination, I set off in search of Piper. I hadn’t seen her since we arrived at the party together more than two hours ago, and I was ready to leave. The plan had been for me to spend the night at her house, but after making out with her brother a few minutes ago, that was out of the question. I needed to go home. I needed a plan. A list. Whatever it took to get my mind off Luke and his lips. One date. One date and I was done with Luke Hines.

  I was entering a new era where I became the center of my own universe!

  After leaving the upstairs bedroom where I’d sequestered myself with Luke, I went back downstairs to the main level and out the door leading to the pool. Drew’s pool was legendary. It was Olympic sized and had a waterfall feeding it at one end. At the top of the waterfall was a hot pool, and according to Piper the hot pool was very, very hot, if you know what I mean.

  Hopefully, those two were finished being hot in the hot tub.

  “Hey! Danni!”

  Turning, I saw Piper. She was still in her bikini, but had a cover-up on over it and she was headed my way. Sans Drew. Even better. Drew was awesome and I liked him a lot, but t
here was no way I wanted to have this conversation in front of anyone. And between Jared and Leah, who both knew about me spending seven minutes in a closet with Luke, there was no way the whole school didn’t know about it by now.

  “Piper! Where have you been?” Like I didn’t already know, but it was fun to tease her and she looked pretty and happy with her cheeks flushed. Drew was good for her.

  “Drew and I went swimming up top.” She pointed up with her index finger.

  Glancing around, I tried to spot the boy in question. Or, I should say, man. Drew was tall, six feet-six inches tall, and broad. Between his breadth and height and the rather severe way he appeared with his tattoos and lip piercing, no one would mistake him for a boy.

  Piper noticed me looking for him. “He went inside to play video games with the guys.”

  By ‘guys’, she meant the boys on the basketball team. They had a tight friendship. Even the guys who’d graduated last year still came around when they could and I knew they often texted or had group chats. If any of them playing college ball had televised games, the others would get together to watch. It was a cool friendship and I was glad to be included.

  Piper narrowed her eyes. “But I don’t want to talk about Drew.” She took a step closer and lowered her voice. “What’s this rumor I hear about my best friend and my brother hooking up in the basement?”

  Shrugging, I struggled to remain calm and appear casual. The last thing I needed was for Piper to read more into this than she probably already had. It was no secret to her how much I loved Luke. Hard as I worked to hide my feelings from everyone else, there was no escaping Piper. We knew each other too well, had shared too many secrets.

  “We were playing spin the bottle,” I said as though it were the most natural thing. It wasn’t.

  Piper’s eyes bulged. “What? Why?”

  I considered playing it off as a brief absence of brain function, but it was no use. Piper would see right through that.

  “Why didn’t you tell me Abby broke up with Luke?” I asked since the decision to play spin the bottle directly related to that tidbit of information.

  Piper’s shoulders hunched. “I’m sorry. I just found out myself this afternoon. I wasn’t entirely sure it was true. I mean, those two have been joined at the hip for months. I thought maybe it was just a fluke and they’d get back together.” Piper shot me a pained look. “I didn’t want to get your hopes up.”

  Ugh. My eyes slid closed. I really was pathetic. When I finally opened them again, it was to find Piper watching me, sympathy filling her gaze.

  “It was stupid. The bottle landed on the two of us. I didn’t want to just kiss him in front of everyone and Jared said anyone who didn’t kiss in the circle had to do Seven Minutes in Heaven.”

  Piper’s eyes widened. “You kissed my brother for seven minutes?”

  I shook my head. “No! No, I didn’t. And I had to practically dare him to get him to do it in the first place.”

  Piper paused, her brow furrowed. “So, wait. Did you kiss or not?”

  I thought back to those moments in the closet. “Oh, yeah. We kissed all right.”

  Piper’s grin started slow but then she squealed and grabbed my hands. “Danni, ohmigosh! This is what you always wanted. How was it? Do you think you’ll kiss him again? Holy heck! Do you think you guys will start dating? We could be sisters!”

  “Whoa. Whoa!” Leave it to Piper to jump from a first kiss to marriage in a matter of five sentences. “Nobody said anything about all that. We kissed and that was it.” Well, that wasn’t it, but I didn’t need to go into any detail. Piper tended to get a bit squeamish whenever anyone talked about Luke as if he were an actual guy and not just her brother.

  Piper frowned. “You kissed. And that was it? Did you even talk about it after?”

  I shook my head. “No, because as soon as we came out of the closet,” yeah, those words just left my mouth, “we ran into Abby and Aiden.”

  Piper’s eyes bulged again. “Are you serious? Did you guys talk to them? Oh, my goodness. That’s awkward.”

  “Actually, it wasn’t that bad until your brother decided to tell his ex-girlfriend I was his date to prom.”

  Piper blinked. She opened her mouth and then closed it again. “He did what?”

  “Yeah, apparently, I’m going to prom with Luke.” I gave her a look. “So he can make Abby jealous and win her back.”

  Piper stood up straight. “I’m going to kill him.” She began looking around. “Where’s Drew? He’s going to help me.”

  My best friend had a wild look in her eye and it was up to me to talk her down. “No. No. There will be no killing.”

  Piper stopped her search for her boyfriend and met my eyes. “Are you kidding me? How dare Luke do that to you! And Abby? I never understood what he saw in that wench. She’s not even nice. We can’t let him get away with this. He can’t kiss you one minute and then use you to get back some evil witch the next. He should have asked you to prom because the two of you are perfect for each other.”

  She was all worked up. And I got it, I really did. But it wasn’t going to help the situation for her to get mad at Luke. This was my fault. I’d done this. I should never have dared Luke to kiss me in the first place. He didn’t want me and he never had. Why I thought a kiss would change everything I’ll never know, but it hadn’t worked. He still just saw me as a friend. And not even his friend, his sister’s friend. It was time to accept the truth. Luke and I were not meant to be.

  “It’s fine,” I reassured Piper. “It’s okay. We talked about it. I agreed to go with him. As friends.”

  Piper searched my eyes and I let her. No secrets between best friends. Well, except for the fact that her brother was the best kiss I’d ever had and probably ever would have, but she didn’t want to know that anyway.

  “Okay.” Piper finally relented. “But if he does anything to hurt you, I’m sic-ing Drew on him.”

  I had to laugh at that. “It’s a deal.” There was no reason to tell her Luke had already crushed me. I’d made my decision, I’d deal with the consequences.

  7

  Luke

  I evaded Piper’s wrath by making myself scarce and spending the night at Jared’s. He ended up drinking too much anyway. It was probably a good thing I was around to play babysitter. Not that I wanted to, but I didn’t want to deal with my sister either. And I was certain Dannika had filled Piper in on everything that happened at the party.

  How was I supposed to feel about the fact that the girl I’d kissed was likely sitting at my house, one room away from my own, telling my sister, my twin, all about it? What would she say? Would she tell Piper if it was a good kiss? Or would she throw me under the bus and say I was a terrible kisser? Did Danni think I was a bad kisser?

  These were the deep thoughts I pondered as I stood on my own front porch debating if I should go in or try and find something else to do on a Sunday afternoon.

  Luckily, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I removed it and saw a text from Adam Whitaker to the group trying to get a game together. I glanced down at my clothes. T-shirt and jeans. Shrugging, I decided that was good enough. At least I had on a pair of tennis shoes.

  Turning away from the front door to head back to my car, it opened behind me.

  I should have known my luck would run out.

  “Running away from me, Luke?”

  Stopping, I turned to face my date to the prom while trying to keep my expression neutral. “Why would I do that?”

  Dannika shrugged as she narrowed her eyes. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because you won’t even go into your own house?”

  Never more glad for a pick up game in my life, I held up my phone. “The guys texted. We’re gonna play.”

  Dannika rolled her eyes and side-stepped around me, calling over her shoulder. “Which explains why you turned around to leave, but not why you’ve been standing out here for the last five minutes staring at the door.”

  Dang.

&nbs
p; Much as I didn’t want to I let that one go. I had a date with this girl in exactly a week’s time. Well, not a date, a friend…thing. I shoved my hand through my hair with a groan and instructed myself to be cool. Dannika knew me well and that meant she knew how to push my buttons.

  “Hey, do we need to talk about prom?”

  Dannika stopped on her way to her house across the street and turned to stare at me. “What would we need to talk about?”

  Heat rose from my lower back up my spine to my neck. Silently, I cursed my mother’s fair skin which I’d inherited that made hiding any blush impossible. Dang Dannika, anyway. I went to prom last year. I knew what it was like. Weren’t there flowers to order? Dinner reservations to make? Tuxes to rent? Neckties to match to dresses? I wasn’t a complete idiot. And thank goodness I’d already rented a tux since, you know, I was supposed to be going with my girlfriend.

  This was basic stuff. Why was Danni acting like there weren’t details to hammer out? Girls loved dissecting details. Abby adored it. I could scroll for several minutes through all the messages that girl had sent me over the last few weeks about prom. The prom she was now going to with stupid Aiden, the baseball player.

  “You know what? Forget it.” This was Danni. What did I care if my cumberbun didn’t match her dress?

  If I thought my reaction would get to her, I was wrong. Dannika shot me a knowing grin and continued on her way.

  “See you later, Pukey Lukey,” she called over her shoulder.

  Cringing, I yelled back. “Don’t call me that!”

  Her laugh echoed across the asphalt, taunting me as I got back in the car Piper and I shared. She wouldn’t need it. She never went anywhere without Drew and he was going to the same place as me. Before I could pull away from the curb, my phone buzzed in my pocket. Digging it out with a sigh, I wasn’t surprised to see it was a message from Abby. She might be with Aiden now, but she hadn’t given me up completely.

  Are you really going to prom with that girl?