“Um …” Flustered and shaking, she turned bright red and started messing with the combination on her locker, though she’d just gotten all her books out and closed it. She swallowed. “Gifts?”
She continued messing with the lock, turning it one way, then the other, but her hands were shaking really bad—and she wasn’t actually doing anything. I mean, she was making absolutely no progress with the lock.
I eyed the notebook in her hands. It had a combination scribbled on the front in big bold print.
“Yeah, gifts—food and poems and gummy bears.” I gently moved her aside from the locker. I felt her body instantly react to my hands on her waist. It made me grin. But I tried really hard to ignore it, spinning her lock instead of grabbing her and kissing her soft pretty lips like I was tempted to do.
I opened her locker for her easy, though. It was the combination written on her notebook, just like I thought.
Her lips parted slightly and she gasped. “How’d you do that?” She tilted her head up at me. “How did you know my locker combination?!”
I grinned but didn’t answer. Instead I arched my eyebrows. “Are you giving me gifts?”
“No,” she lied in a breathy whisper, ducking her head into her locker, like she was searching for something important in there—maybe something to help her breathe, since she seemed to be hyperventilating.
She swallowed, and then lied further. “I don’t even know what you’re talking about—poems?”
I laughed softly and pulled one of her “anonymous” poems out of my pocket. It was written on a silver guitar shaped post-it note—exactly like the pad of guitar shaped post-it notes she was holding in her trembling hands.
I blatantly eyed the pad in her tiny grip. I didn’t say anything, though—I just leaned against the locker next to her and silently watched her reaction.
She squeezed her eyes shut and made this tiny groan noise from the back of her throat. It was adorable. Then she calmly shoved the post-its into her locker and silently shut the door. Finally, she turned back to me. “Maybe I wrote you a poem or two,” she mumbled.
I choked on a laugh.
She was too much. Irresistible.
I smiled, “You’re weird.” I leaned in close to her and whispered in her ear, “I like weird.”
I felt heat sizzle through her tiny body, which sent fireworks through mine. I wanted to stand here all day, feeling the heat of Heaven.… Only, I was the devil.
Reluctantly, I pulled away from her with a rueful grin. Instead of making off with her like I wanted to do (wolfishly bad) instead, I handed her a slip of paper. “Here’s my locker combo.” An amused grin tugged at the corners of my mouth. “Put the gifts inside the locker.” I raised my eyebrows. “Just ‘cuz Hailey gets jealous. She’s not my girlfriend or anything—but she’s kind of … territorial. I don’t want her to hurt you or anything.”
“Oh,” Heaven murmured, still sounding dazed about the “weird” thing. She whispered, “Me either.”
I breathed out a soft laugh at that, but then cringed wondering how she’d feel if Ms. Sharp came after her.
The thought made me shudder.
I needed to ditch Ms. Sharp. Fast.
CHAPTER 29
Breaking up with your teacher may not be as easy as you think. They might like you more than you expect. At least that was the case with me.
A few days after giving Ally my locker combination, I saw Ms. Sharp sitting alone at her desk during lunch hour. I drew out a breath, and paced around a while, then finally, I silently went into her classroom and shut the door.
When she saw me, her eyes immediately lit up. A slow delighted smile spread across her lips. “Griffin,” she purred. “I was beginning to think you’d lost interest.”
Yeah well, then she was beginning to think right. Finally. I rubbed the back of my neck, leaning against the door. Maybe I didn’t even need to come in here. Maybe it would have been better if I had just walked on by and pretended nothing had ever happened between us. That’s what I’d normally do … only I was worried about Ally.
Plus, “Janice” kept texting me with suggestive suggestions for the two of us.
I kept ignoring them, but she wasn’t really getting the hint. Or she was ignoring it. But the thing was, she didn’t really need my attention. I mean, she had something going with some big moneymaking (married) lawyer dude, so I’d thought it would be easy to just fade off her recreation list. Apparently not.
Ms. Sharp got up from her seat and perched seductively on her desk. She crooked her finger for me to come closer.
I shook my head, glancing up at the ceiling, then back at her. “Look, I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page,” I said, though I could tell we weren’t. Not even close. “This—you and me—it was fun. It was. But … it was a mistake.”
She made a tsk-tsk sound. “I think you’re making one now.” She got off her desk, walking seductively towards me as she said that, obviously planning to try and change my mind.
Oh man, no.
I didn’t want her to come any closer to me. I mean, I didn’t want to have to reject her further or do anything to hurt her feelings any worse. I just wanted out of this, and I wanted to make sure it would never come up and bite Ally. The girl was as innocent as they came and I didn’t want my mistakes to somehow harm her.
Before Ms. Sharp could get to me, I reached for the doorknob.
“I wish you the best, Janice,” I said, then I left her classroom, wishing I never had to come back … only she was my teacher.
CHAPTER 30
Okay, face it—I probably didn’t have to do that. “Break up” with Ms. Sharp. After all, it’s not like we’d been “dating.” Whatever it was, it wasn’t that. No promises were made. Or expected.
I ran a hand over my face, leaning against the wall outside of her classroom. I’d never had to do that before—make sure a girl knew I wasn’t coming back, ever.
But the kooky thing was, I did it for Ally. (Ally!!!) Ally, who would never go for me, anyway. So it was nuts that I felt I needed to do that. The tiny girl was driving me nuts.
It’s just … I wanted to make sure there was no misunderstanding. No way Ally could windup getting hurt.
But yeah, it was nuts. Although Heaven kept leaving me gifts—now in my locker—she would spend all of her time playing the piano in the auditorium. I’d walk past, hearing her play furiously. And I’d know all that energy wasn’t on me. I mean, I had made it pretty clear I was into her. And she’d made it pretty clear that though I was something to her, it wasn’t risk-taking worthy.
A lot of the time Milo would cozy up to her at the piano. To tell you the truth, she still didn’t seem too into the guy. She still seemed heartbroken over Poser. Yet she let Milo get close to her—and she wouldn’t let me…. Although once, as I was walking down the school hallway, she slammed into my chest. That doesn’t really count though. Because it was an accident. I mean, it wasn’t like some girls that “accidently” run into my chest. She definitely didn’t do it on purpose.
She’d been walking toward her locker, then she spotted Milo at it. Instead of running to him and giving him a big hug (which she would have done to Poser, but she never did to Milo. Ever. I mean, the guy was obviously no Aiden in her eyes) but when she saw Milo at her locker she stopped in her tracks. Froze. Then she abruptly turned to walk the other direction, away from Milo—only, well, yeah, she smacked into me. Right into my chest, hard. I grabbed her to steady her. She broke out in goose bumps from my touch, just as she usually did when my hands were on her.
I couldn’t help grinning as she backed away from me. She murmured soft apologies, turning bright red.
Entertained, my gaze flicked between her and waiting Milo at her locker. I raised my eyebrows. “Avoiding your locker, Heaven?”
“Um,” she hedged.
I got why she avoided me. I mean, come on, I’d just recently broke-up with my teacher. Not that anyone knew that, but I guess I just
seem like that kind of guy … I mean, since I am that kind of guy, apparently—since, you know, I just did that. But I have to tell you, I didn’t feel like that kind of guy. I liked Heaven. A lot. She got my heart all feeling things in a soft kind of way that no other girl did. But, yeah, I got why she avoided me. I did. What I didn’t get was why she was avoiding Milo. He seemed just like Poser and Baker—exactly like them as far as I could tell. It intrigued me that she was giving Milo mixed signals too, right along with me. But she was doing it the opposite way. She was letting Milo get near her—well, usually—but I bet she wasn’t writing him anonymous poems.
While Heaven seemed to be trying to answer my question (I guess that’s what she was doing) I pulled her out of the congested student traffic that was trying to get around us. I backed her against the nearest wall of lockers and leaned in close to her, breathing in her cinnamon cookie scent, enjoying the opportunity to be so near her (and getting to blame it on student congestion).
Since we were so close, I was able to feel her tempting warmth. It made me unable to resist calling her out a little bit, ’cause man, I wanted her. I spoke softly in her ear, wanting to trail my lips down the curve of her neck, but I didn’t want her to run away. So, I was a good boy and just kept my mouth near her ear. “It seems like the cookies and the poems—they’re to tell me that you kind of like me, right?” I didn’t wait for her to answer since she hadn’t even answered my last question yet. Instead, I edged even closer to her. “But I want you to show me, Heaven.”
She lurched away from me looking horrified and ready to run. I breathed out a soft laugh and grasped her arm, gently pulling her back to me. “I didn’t mean that the way it might have sounded.”
I grinned, “I just meant—don’t run away from me.” I brought my mouth back down to her ear. “Maybe we should hang out.”
I raised my eyebrows as she looked up at me. Her startled blue eyes seemed to flicker with astonishment. And interest. It had my heart racing. She actually seemed to be considering it.
Oh-kay, calm down heart.
“There’s a party at Jake’s house tonight,” I said. “Want to come?”
Her smile fell. I swear, a second ago her pretty face had looked radiant and happy and like angels were singing and doves were flying around carrying magic wands. But now she looked like her kitten just died. What was that about?
“No, I’m sorry,” she said. “I told you—I don’t go to those kind of parties.”
Then—of course—she ran away from me.
CHAPTER 31
Quirking my head, I watched Heaven run away from me.
I leaned against the locker behind me and groaned—tortured, but amused.
I’d never actually asked a girl to do anything with me before—I mean besides let me mack on them a bit or whatever. But that was usually—(well, okay, maybe always)—at a party. One where we were already at. And that we had attended separately.
What I’m getting at is, that had been new to me: making a date type thing—a commitment-ish move. But I guess I should have known I’d get shot down. After all, she had already told me—and I already knew—she wasn’t a party girl.
But the thing was, I had no idea what else to ask her to.
“What’s up with you?” Mason nudged me, like to get me out of my Ally-daze. I hadn’t even noticed him walk up. “You look like you need advice. Or—” he sardonically rubbed his chin, “—to ‘explore your feelings.’”
He said it with mock-seriousness, enjoying using the term that was often shoved down our throats in anger-management, which we were both sent to a lot. The whole hockey team was. Well, except Poser.
“Yeah, well, see there’s this girl …” I started. Then I cracked a grin. Like I’d really do that—“Explore my feelings.” I mean, out loud. To Mason. Or a counselor. Or … anyone. Man, I had trouble just trying to explore them all by myself. So I normally avoided it.
“Yes, a girl, go on,” Mason said, doing an impressive imitation of our counselor, Mr. Firth. “No, I mean it, go on—I’m trying to write a novel and you boys are giving me scads of writing material. My, you hot-heads!”
Summer walked by and Mason forgot he was talking to me. His lips parted, and his eyes kind of glazed over as he watched her from a distance. But then his eyes narrowed slightly as she started talking to this guy, Justin.
I grinned. “Want to explore your feelings?”
Without taking his eyes off Summer, his lips quirked up. “I don’t have any.”
He watched Summer a little longer, then latched on to this chick, Jade, who I don’t think he ever even looked at before. But she was at her locker, which was conveniently located right next to where we were standing. Also she was blond. That always helped—since Summer was a blond. And she was wearing her cheerleading uniform, just like Summer.
I rolled my eyes with a laugh. The dude needed to ‘explore his feelings’ big time—obviously with a better counselor than Mr. Firth.
CHAPTER 32
“You’re seriously not going to drink tonight?”
I raised my eyebrows. “Seriously.”
Hailey looked mad, downing the cup of beer she’d just brought me. “The whole night?”
“Yeah. The whole night.”
I have a problem with drinking. I mean, I have a tendency to use it to drown stuff out. What I mean is, I drink until I pass out. I hear that’s not good. Plus, afterwards I’d always wake up feeling like crap and have no idea where I was, and having tons of people I had to apologize to, having to say things like, “I didn’t mean to tell her that.” And, “Sorry about your broken nose.” And, “Where’s my car?” or sometimes, “Where’s my shirt?” I’ve lost a lot of shirts at parties.
Hailey slumped in the seat next to me. She couldn’t exactly complain that I wasn’t drinking. I mean, my dad’s an alcoholic. She just seemed to be suspicious that I was doing it for Ally or something. And I wasn’t. Well, I mean, not exactly. It’s not like she was coming to the party, right? She shot me down. It’s just the drinking—it’s not good for me. And Hailey knows it. So, she didn’t say anything else about it. But she also didn’t seem pleased. Like I was betraying her somehow by staying sober at a party.
“Deal me in,” a guy I’d never seen before said. He sat down next to Hailey looking interested in her. She growled at him, and got up. I guess she’d seen him before—or she was just in a really bad mood. Either was possible.
I didn’t go after her though, ‘cause I don’t do that. When Hailey’s in a bad mood, I let her be in a bad mood. (Otherwise, I’d always be chasing her.)
Jake dealt the new guy in, though the guy didn’t seem so interested in playing now that Hailey was gone. It would have been just as well with me if the guy left. Me and Mason and a couple of our friends were playing poker in Jake’s kitchen. At first it was just us, but more and more people from the party kept joining. I don’t exactly love drunk people when I’m sober. And it kind of depresses me to see what a waste I make of most of my life—acting like them. It’s stupid. I’m going to try not to drink anymore. But it’s kind of hard when all of my friends want me to drink—except Mason. He gets it. Hailey does too. She just doesn’t want me to be influenced by Ally—in any way. Plus, I think she doesn’t want me to judge her by being sober when she’s not.
I was in the middle of a good hand when this drunk girl brought a chair over near me. She plopped down really close beside me, like practically in my lap. “I love your lips, Griffin Piper,” she whispered in my ear.
Yeah, I get told that a lot—that I have nice lips. Mostly by drunk girls at parties.
“Thanks,” I grinned, not really bothering to look at her. She was drunk so, you know, you couldn’t in good-conscious make a move on her. I kept my eyes on my cards. “Been drinking a little?”
“A lot,” she said proudly. “I don’t usually drink. My friends don’t come to parties like this—but I knew you would be here. I want to kiss your pillow soft lips.”
&nbs
p; My friends cracked up laughing at that—the “pillow” thing. But I was busy trying to fight the girl off. “You’re Ally’s friend, huh?”
“Yeah, you kissed her in the closet at a party once. I wanted you to pick me, but you picked her.” She made a pouty face, though she didn’t stop trying to lock lips with me. “You can kiss me in the closet if you want,” she said, “—or right here. Mmm, you smell good.” She went from trying to get her mouth on my lips, to pressing her face into my neck.
Hailey came back into the kitchen just then and rolled her eyes when she saw that—me with a girl in my neck.
“Hey, Pop-fly, can you take this girl to the bathroom and try to sober her up?”
Hailey shrugged, annoyed like. “Why bother?”
“Because she’s Ally’s friend—and I want you to.” I added that last part because I knew the helping Ally out wasn’t going to give her motivation.
I would have taken the girl myself, but it didn’t seem like a good idea to go into the bathroom alone with the girl. She was pretty determined to have a make-out with me and I wasn’t sure cold water splashed in her face would help sober her up … but I definitely knew being alone with me would heat her up—I mean since she was already roaring and everything.
Hailey huffed, but she grabbed the girl around the shoulder. “Come on, Destiny,” she growled irritably. “Griffin doesn’t kiss drunk girls … when he’s sober.”
“Have a drink!” Destiny yelled to me as Hailey dragged her away.
My friends were practically rolling on the ground laughing so hard.
I just smiled. Drunk girls are a trip.
I got absorbed in the game and kind of forgot about Destiny until Jake came back to the table to play another hand. He mentioned he had seen Destiny making out with some college guy. “They were getting really heavy,” he said. “Right out in the living room.”
I got up, not happy. And sort of worried. I mean, the girl didn’t usually drink. “I’ll be back,” I said.
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