Her Kiss (Griffin)

by Marks, Melanie

  “Griffin helped,” Ally said, giving me this look like I was awesome.

  My pulse jack-hammered. I shot another peek at her. The girl brought me to my knees—and all she did was look at me.

  Bianca plunked her armload of streamers down on the refreshment table, eyeing me like most girls do—like she was curious to walk on the wild-side.

  Her eyes drank me in as she purred, “It all looks really great, Griffin.” She batted her eyelashes (not even kidding) and leaned in close. “Could you put up this sign for me?”

  I tensed my jaw muscles slightly. “No, sorry. I’ve got to go.”

  Her flirting gaze turned into a glare. She waved me off, like Whatever dude. But we both knew I’d shot her down and she was pissed.

  The girl’s a witch. I didn’t like her. In case that wasn’t obvious.

  She turned to Heaven, being her bossy self. “So, finish with the streamers and then hang this sign right over that door and I think we’re set.”

  Ally grimaced, so immediately I knew Bianca had been giving her orders all afternoon. ‘Cause Ally’s not one of those girls that grimaces. She’s the kind that smiles and says, “What do you need?” And then she stays until the work is done—even when she’s too short to reach the ceiling.

  Bianca immediately left, saying she needed to check on something.

  Once she was gone, I shot Ally a look. “Want me to put up that sign?”

  She blinked, tilting her head. “I thought you had to go.”

  I grinned. “I just didn’t want to help Bianca. I don’t like her.”

  Ally got a huge grin on her pretty face. Oh man. I was pretty sure she had no clue what her smile could do to a guy. What it was doing to me. My heart was purring like a kitten.

  She said all soft, “But you’ll help me?”

  I climbed the ladder, holding the sign. “Sure.”

  “Because … you like me?”

  My hands stilled.

  Was she really wanting to do this?—have this conversation?

  Slowly, I turned to her and cocked my head. “Well, I don’t hate you.” Then I glanced up at the ceiling before looking back at her and grinned. “Of course I like you, Heaven. That’s why I keep asking you to the river and parties, but you keep shooting me down.”

  “You ask me to the river because you like me?” Her voice sounded skeptical—probably because that’s where people get drunk and hook up.

  On reflex, I looked back at her a moment and then back to the sign, centering it. I didn’t answer her because what could I say? Those were the places I was used to. The only places I knew. She was probably right to always run from me. I was no church girl’s dream. I was a nightmare if you really thought about it.

  She whispered, “Ask me somewhere else.” Only I don’t think I was supposed to hear. She said it so quiet. I think it was more like a wish. A prayer.

  My insides twisted.

  When I was done with the sign I came over towards her. She backed away shyly, but I kept coming towards her anyway. I kept coming until I playfully had her backed against the wall.

  I played with a tendril of her soft hair, staring into her gorgeous eyes, my heart doing weird, pleasant things. Unrecognizable things that it only did around her; this cookie-baking, church-going, piano-playing, heaven-making girl. She had my heart all stirred up, begging for her to pet it. “I have a crush on you, Heaven.”

  I felt her intake of breath and saw her eyes turn all starry. I was so in love with that reaction, I practically choked.

  Her frosted lips parted slightly. “I have one on you too,” she whispered.

  “I know.” I tugged playfully on her lock of hair. “You told me.”

  She gave a soft laugh, sounding like she was in a dreamy fog-filled daze. (Sort of like me … well, exactly like me.) “Oh yeah,” she smiled, making my eyes stall on her pretty lips. Crave them.

  Heat skittered over my body. I drew in a long breath, then said with amused resign, “Okay, Heaven,” I shifted slightly to get a firm hold on her shy gaze, “you won’t go with me to a party. Will you go with me to the dance?”

  I felt (and heard) her gasp.

  She blinked, like she couldn’t believe what she thought she just heard. “You’ll … come to the dance?”

  She sounded incredulous.

  I raised my eyebrows. “If you’ll come with me.”

  A huge smile spread on her beautiful face.

  My heart pounded, loving that I made her do that. Smile like that. “So will you go with me?—to the dance?”

  She nodded, like she was too amazed to speak.

  I sort of was too. ‘Cause the girl finally said yes to me.

  … Not only that, she got me, Griff-The-Grief-Master, to go to a school dance.

  Wild.

  CHAPTER 36

  Mason is smiling when I wonder into the locker room. I know he must have just recently had a conversation with Summer, because that’s about the only time the guy smiles. (Yeah, I hang out with a really cheerful crowd.) I’m only half-kidding about the smile-thing, though. He does it sometimes. Occasionally. But after talking with Summer, his smile is different. It’s dopey. And dreamy.

  “Have a nice chat with Summer?” I ask, opening my locker.

  He jerks his head up and looks at me stunned. Like how did I know that?

  The smile grows back on his face. “Yeah—I’m going to make her dinner tonight,” he says with an incredulous laugh.

  “Far out,” I murmur, since that’s about as strange as me going to a school dance. In fact, it’s so much like it that I mention it.

  I grin knowing my strange will beat out his. “I’m taking Ally Grange to the school dance.”

  He coughs with surprise. “What?!”

  A half-smile forms on one side of my mouth. Can’t help it. I’m as shocked as him. “It was the only way I’d ever get her to go out with me.”

  It’s the truth. And I know it. The girl holds her ground. No matter how mind-blowing the kiss or deep the temptation (which was excruciatingly deep—for both of us) she was never going to break down and give me a chance. She would have just kept running from me. Forever. So, though I’ve never gone to a dance before in my life, I said the words I thought I’d never say to anyone, ever. (Ever. Ever. Ever.) ‘Will you go to the school dance with me?’

  But hey, she finally she said yes to me. So, score.

  My first date, my first dance, my first crush—all of it rolled into one. If it weren’t for the dance part I’d be ecstatic.

  Mason shakes his head slightly, a sardonic smile playing at the corner of his mouth. “I guess a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.”

  “Right.” I grin, “So I guess you’ll be putting on an apron.”

  He raises his eyebrows. “And you, my friend, will be putting on a suit.”

  I close my eyes.

  Right.

  He laughs. “But you’re going out with Ally Grange, man. I know you, weird-o. You want the school girl—you’ve always wanted the school girl.”

  Right.

  Apparently, I’m pretty transparent, but that’s okay, I’ve got nothing to hide … well, except the stuff my counselors tell me to. Oh yeah, and that stuff with Ms. Sharp. I scratch my chin. Once again, I’m not feeling like a big prize … yet, you have to admit, I won a big prize—a date with Heaven. It doesn’t even matter that now I’m trapped into going to a school dance and apparently I have to get a suit or something—still, my heart is beating all wild and hard and happy, ’cause man, she said yes!!

  CHAPTER 37

  “I can’t believe you’re going to a school dance,” Hailey grumbles for the hundredth time. “And with her. Why her, Griffin?” She says it like I’ve betrayed her. Like Ally is her biggest enemy, and me going to a school dance is going to mark the end of our friendship. Or maybe even the entire world.

  I’m at the mall, looking for a suit for the dance. I brought Hailey along, so I can get her opinion. I also brought her thoug
h so she can feel needed or whatever. She is extremely pissed I’m going to the dance. She’s not jealous, I don’t think. Not exactly, anyway. She feels threatened by Heaven. I get it. Sort of. Hailey’s used to being the only girl in my life. But like I said before, I don’t really think of her as a girl anyway. I really don’t. I mean, I’d never kiss her. Never. Not even if the world was ending. When she gets drunk she sometimes tries to get me to do it, but no way. Hailey is my bud, and girls that I kiss usually end up hating me, it seems. I don’t want Hailey hating me, the girl is scary. I say that in jest—mostly. (But not completely.)

  But I really mean it, I don’t want Hailey hating me. And I also mean it that I don’t want to kiss her. ’Nough said.

  As Hailey bitterly trails me from one store to the next, I keep getting this ache in my stomach. At first I thought it was because of the suit, ‘cause really, I can’t afford a suit. But after a while, I have to acknowledge that the jabbing at the side of my gut is not worries over the suit. It’s a freaking appendicitis. Great.

  Hailey’s busy jabbering on her phone—complaining to the millionth person in her contacts that I’m going to the school dance with school girl, Ally Grange—that I’ve lost my mind, and am no longer trustworthy as a loyal friend, blah, blah, blah. Her complaints are long and bitter—and embarrassingly loud.

  I grab her phone from her, and she gives me a dirty look—until she sees my face. I’m sure I’m pale as a ghost. I’m in a lot of pain.

  “Can you shut up for a second?” I give her a weak grin, since she looks so shocked—and concerned. Definitely not a normal look for her. “I need you to call an ambulance.”

  CHAPTER 38

  I wake in the hospital feeling like crap. Not because of the appendix surgery I just had (since they filled me with drugs). But I feel bad about the dance. That I was getting cut open while I was supposed to be picking up Ally.

  I told my mom to call her and explain—but Mom said Ally wouldn’t answer her phone.

  I had nightmares about it—Ally all dressed up, waiting for me to come to her house … and me not showing. It killed me to think of her all dressed up, waiting and waiting. Missing her dance.

  The girl didn’t trust me in the first place—now this. She was going to think I stood her up.

  I kept telling my mom, “Call her one more time.”

  Mom swept the hair off my forehead, her eyes looking strangely lucid, like me being in the hospital flipped on the mother switch in her haunted brain. Gave her a moment of clarity and protective purpose. “Griffin, who is this girl?” she asked softly. Then she added with amazement, “You were planning to go to a school dance?”

  She said it like the idea made her question her sanity.

  I think I mentioned to her that Ally was my werewolf. (Look, I was on drugs.)

  CHAPTER 39

  One minute my eyes are closed, the next I open them, and there’s an angel right in the doorway. My eyes stay fixed on her, drinking her in, while my pulse thumps.

  It’s late afternoon now. I was beginning to think she wouldn’t show. But here she is, Heaven in my hospital room.

  She’s come with a cactus. It’s, well—a cactus.

  She gently places it on my windowsill, explaining it’ll bloom a tiny flower in the sunlight. So, now I can see why she brought it—for that experience. But man, she didn’t have to. I’m just glad she came.

  She also made me soup. That one I get without her saying a word—but again, like the cactus, she didn’t have to do it. But then again, if she didn’t do it she wouldn’t be Ally. So I’m glad she did.

  She starts making some excuse about why she didn’t come sooner.

  (I have to tell you, I was worried she hated me and would never give me another chance with her—so I was sweating it out when it took her until now to show.)

  But I don’t need to hear her reasons. I’m sure there are plenty—and I’m positive they are all valid.

  But what matters to me is: she’s here, and I’m glad. I mean, really glad. I mean, like my heart may explode out of my chest from seeing her.

  Okay, it’s official (to me anyway)—I’m hers. Her werewolf.

  “Just sit with me,” I tell her.

  She slips into the chair near my bed and takes my hand.

  I swear, just from that—her soft hand voluntarily in mine … I’m in heaven.

  CHAPTER 40

  Heaven stayed visiting with me a long, heavenly while in the hospital that day. Well, I kind of forced her to, interlocking my fingers with hers. I wasn’t letting go. Not even when the nurse came in, needing to check my blood pressure.

  “I’m sure it’s high at the moment,” I told her with a grin.

  The nurse smiled, getting it. “Holding hands with a pretty girl will do that.”

  “That’s what I’m saying—and I’m holding hands with the prettiest.” I lifted my eyebrows a fraction, my lips quirking up like they do whenever I’m around Ally. “But if I let her hand go, she’ll probably run away—she does that.”

  “I won’t,” Heaven promised shyly, igniting my insides.

  My eyes flickered to hers, then stayed. I grinned, “I’m not taking any chances.”

  The nurse cleared her throat, probably because I wasn’t taking my eyes off Ally. Couldn’t. Which might have let her see I wasn’t kidding about the blood pressure—it wasn’t going to be normal while Ally was around … and I wasn’t letting her go.

  “I’ll come back later,” the lady murmured, then I guess she left the room, though neither Ally or I noticed. We were in our own little heavenly trance—well, I was. She seemed like it too. Her eyes were all bright and drinking me in. Like my eyes were doing to her.

  She entertained me with cute stories about her family and people from her church. She had some pretty funny stories. I loved the way her eyes twinkled as she told them, and sometimes she’d crack up laughing out loud in the middle of them. Man, I loved that so much—her laugh. Okay, to tell you the truth, I loved everything about the girl. You might have gathered that by now. In any case, I was in an Ally-induced rainbow-filled world.

  Here’s the thing though: she talked about the people from her church a lot. I mean, a lot. So, I knew her church was important to her, part of her life. And I wanted to be important to her too … and be part of her life. Like, a major part of it.

  The thing was though, her life was so different from mine. I was clueless how to even broach easing myself into it. But man, I was going to try.

  I drew in a breath, then started spewing my guts. “I like the way you glow, Heaven. I like it a lot.”

  She tilted her head like she had no idea what I was talking about. So I grinned and happily enlightened her. “You glow, Heaven. You do. The rest of my life is dark sometimes—but you glow. I think it has to do with the way you live your life. The choices you make. You won’t go to places that are going to dim your light—like the parties I go to. I get it—you won’t change your life for me.” My eyes clung to hers. “But, Heaven, I wouldn’t mind changing my life for you.”

  Her pretty lips parted with astonishment. She swallowed hard and her eyes got glittery. “I wouldn’t ask you to do that.”

  “I know, but your life seems grand. It’s full of nice things—mine not so much. I mean, my life is pretty messed up.” I grinned, since that was an understatement. I gently squeezed her hand. “So, I wouldn’t mind changing it up a bit.”

  “Griffin,” she breathed out softly, like she might cry or something.

  I squeezed her hand gently again, not wanting to blow her mind, but … “You know, I could go to your church with you sometime—if you want. I mean, I’m pretty sure the building won’t actually burn up if I went inside. I mean, I’ve been told I’m the devil—and that was by a friend. But I know I’m not, ‘cause I got to go to heaven with you that night at that party.” I grinned, my voice going low and husky, “And I’m in heaven right now.”

  Ally’s wide eyes went all sparkly and starry-eyed, li
ke they did that day I carried her books for her. So of course my heart was exploding.

  Her voice was full of wonder. “You’d go to church with me?”

  “I’d do anything for you.”

  I leaned in towards her, my lips softly brushing against hers. My palms finally let her hands go, so they could tangle in her soft hair, and our happy mouths got reacquainted.

  Unfortunately, right as my eager tongue slid into her warm, moist, bring-me-to-my-knees mouth, a bunch of my friends from the hockey team came bursting through the door. When they saw us mackin’, they started cheering—because that’s my friends, they’re like, ten.

  Startled, Ally jumped, but I laughed softly against her delicious mouth, holding her head as I deepened the kiss, ignoring my friends—because man, I was in heaven.

  I kissed her deeper and deeper until Ally moaned softly in my mouth. More heaven!! But also, unfortunately, more cheering from my friends—because like I said, they’re ten.

  I pulled away with a sigh, already missing Ally’s glorious mouth. “Nice timing guys,” I muttered, but it was only mock annoyance. I was in a good mood, my eyes staying on Ally, watching her catch her breath, and enjoying her glow. Man, I was hanging on the moon.

  My friends bore gifts of fast food, which was awesome. But they made Ally jumpy as they crowded around us, being their loud, boisterous selves. (AKA: foul-mouthed, unruly, obnoxious, gigantic ten-year-olds.)

  She was small and they were huge and obviously scary to her. Like she was afraid she was going to get trampled, like we do to people out on the ice. (Or like she saw happen to Poser that day at school.)

  I held her hand tighter as she quickly got up. “You’re not going, are you?” I protested.

  “Yeah, I should take off,” she whispered, totally lying. Her eyes kept darting sideways looks at Jake Edwards—the loud guy that had beat up Poser that day in the school hallway. The guy visibly gave her the shudders.