Kiss Kiss

by Various Authors

  “But I don’t think we should date.”

  I knew it. Fuck.

  “Why?”

  He sighs. “Part of me thinks we’d be great together, but I know we’d fight. You know how we fight.”

  “Yeah, I know how we fight,” I laugh. “Danny, I don’t understand. You love a challenge. Why do you always date girls who worship you? Where’s the challenge in that?”

  “There isn’t one—that’s the point. I have enough challenge in other areas of my life. With the girls I date, I just want simple, smooth, and easy.” His hand goes out in front of him, making a calm water gesture.

  “Easy to get along with or just plain easy?”

  “Both is good.” He laughs. “But, either way, not words I would use to describe you. Oh, I don’t know,” he shakes his head, “a lot could happen. But I do know this. If we dated, it would ruin the picture. Probably ruin my game.”

  Football. There’s the real reason!

  Doesn’t that just suck!

  Then he adds sweetly, “But, most importantly, I’m afraid it would ruin us. I love you, Jay. I love our friendship,” he shakes his head and closes his eyes, “and I really, really, don’t want to do anything to screw it up.”

  Figures.

  The one nice guy I try to date is too nice.

  Thank God he passed out last night, and we didn’t have sex.

  “Danny,” I say diplomatically, “in the last eight days, I’ve gotten dumped by my boyfriend for a slut, buried both my parents, and,” I smile at him, “just recently learned one of my best friends has a sick perversion for me. I really don’t think I could handle a relationship right now.”

  I’m totally lying. I could so handle a relationship with Danny. Well, I think I could. Really, I don’t know. But I let him off the hook because I don’t want to ruin our friendship either. I seriously don’t know what I would do without him and Phillip.

  Especially now.

  He kisses me on the cheek and gets off the hammock, being careful not to tip me. “You know you love me.”

  “Yeah, I know. And you’re damned lucky I do.”

  Cuz he is.

  “Here’s a thought,” he adds seriously.

  “Yeah?”

  “You’d be good with Phillip.”

  And with that, he left.

  What the hell is that supposed to mean?

  ΑΒΓΔΕΖΙΤΚΛΜΝΞΟΠΡΣΤΥΧΖΦΗΧΩ

  It’s all Greek to me!

  The rest of my senior year flew by. I slowly adjusted to not having my parents around, but it was hard. Sadly, what they say is true. Life does go on all around you, whether you want it to or not. I’m trying to take it day by day. Some are better than others because I have this constant empty ache inside of me, but I keep going. Phillip and Danny’s families have been awesome, though, and I haven’t ever felt completely alone, like I was so afraid I would. Before I knew it, I was a high school graduate and then down in Lincoln and officially a college girl!

  Choosing the University of Nebraska as my college was pretty much a no-brainer. It has a beautiful campus, outstanding academics and, well, the Huskers. I mean, I couldn’t imagine myself at another school, going to a football game and cheering for their team. Especially now that Danny is the starting quarterback. Phillip is here too, so that made the choice even easier.

  I’m living in a dorm with a pretty cool roommate. At least, she seems that way so far. We went through rush together, and even though we pledged different sororities, we are getting along well. We have similar backgrounds, having both grown up in small towns. We like boys and clothes, and thank God, she hates mornings almost as much as I do.

  Oh, and newsflash: I’ve started going by my real name, Jadyn, instead of JJ. I think it sounds much more mature.

  Phillip blew out his knee playing basketball this past summer and isn’t going to walk-on the Husker football team as originally planned. He’s okay with not playing football anymore. He went through rush and ended up pledging the same fraternity that our dads were in. Our dads always had great, wild stories about their time here, and I’m sure we only heard the watered-down, tame versions of most of them.

  Tonight I’m going to experience a wild fraternity party firsthand.

  At least I hope it’s wild!

  Phillip’s frat is hosting a party tonight, and apparently most fraternity parties have some kind of theme. Some of the themed parties they’re hosting this year are: Secs and Execs (everyone dresses up as business people), Get Lei-d (obviously a Hawaiian party), Heaven and Hell (where’s Mary Beth Parker when you need her?), Around the World (which has something to do with drinking a different shot in every room of the frat house), and, of course, the timeless favorite, Toga.

  This one is called Frosh Frenzy.

  All week, Phillip has been forced to interview freshmen girls. I say forced because the pledges have to, but it’s not like Phillip minds. Interviewing is a great excuse to start talking to a cute girl. He has this little notebook, and he has to fill out a sheet on each girl he interviews. They’re kind of like the slam books that we had in ninth grade. The pledge asks each girl a variety of questions. Innocent things like name, hometown, high school activities. And what they call vital statistics, like cup size, height and weight, hair color, phone number. And then personal information, like what you like in a guy, your idea of a great first date, how far you will let a guy go on the first date, things like that. This part varies and tends to border on the risqué.

  The interview process is supposedly a time-honored tradition. I remember Dad telling me that he met Mom when he interviewed her, but I had always thought maybe he worked on the school newspaper or something.

  Now I understand and, quite frankly, I really wish I knew what she said because my dad was a total catch.

  Phillip told me the interviewing process helps the pledges get to know their fellow classmates. I pointed out to him, very sarcastically, that if they really were trying to get to know their fellow classmates, they would interview a few fellows. But he just laughed at me.

  Of course, all freshmen girls, me included, are intrigued by the fraternity system and eager to answer the questions.

  Especially from adorable Phillip.

  And he is adorable. I mean, Phillip has always been a very cute boy, but he seems to be getting even better looking the older he gets. He’s leapfrogged the line separating cute from hot and has landed deeply into hot territory. I swear, if he keeps this up, I may just have to keep him for myself.

  Anyway, I’ve had to endure sitting by him in the student center while he does his interviews. I hope I never gush like that over a boy. And some of the answers these girls give. I’m sort of embarrassed by them, and I don’t embarrass easily! Sometimes an active will see a girl he thinks is hot and specifically tell the pledge to interview her. The active writes his initials at the bottom of the page, which lets everyone know that he saw her first.

  And they say girls play games!

  The party is a meet and greet party. Only interviewed freshmen girls are invited. It’s held under the guise that they are trying to make their pledges more social, but I really think it’s so the older guys can hit on the young, naive, freshmen girls.

  As we walk down to the frat house, Phillip is telling me a whole bunch of rules he thinks I need to follow for the evening.

  I swear, you’d think he was my father!

  I’m half listening and half thinking about the cute guy I met in chemistry class today. Somehow I need to get him to be my lab partner. That would make Chemistry 101 a lot more interesting!

  I hear Phillip saying, “Don’t go upstairs with anyone.”

  “Don’t go on any so-called tours of the frat house.”

  “Don’t drink anything that you didn’t pour yourself.”

  “Never leave your drink out of sight.”

  “Check in with me every half hour.”

  I’m bored by Phillip’s rules, and my mind wanders back to chemistry
boy. I wonder if we get to pick our lab partners or if they’re assigned? Maybe by alphabetical order? Shoot, I think, when I realize I still don’t even know the cutie’s name.

  “Are you listening to me?” I hear Phillip ask.

  “Uh, of course.” Now what did he just say? “You told me about checking in with you. I’m listening,” I lie. “Please, go on.”

  So he does.

  On and on and on.

  “No getting drunk.”

  “No table dancing.”

  Like I’d ever do that!

  “Don’t get into a game of quarters.”

  Well, maybe that . . .

  “Be wary of the upperclassmen.”

  No way!

  “Stick by me . . . ”

  Boring!

  I thought at college you were supposed to abandon all rules. At least the ones you had to follow in high school. My mind wanders back to chemistry boy again.

  I can’t help it!

  Maybe we can choose our chemistry partners based on chemistry, get it? Of course, I’m not sure if we have chemistry because all I did was smile at the boy, but he did smile back. It’s a good start. Now I just need to find out his name and then—

  “Ahh!” I scream.

  Phillip has stopped walking and stepped directly in front of me. I awaken from my daydream to collide and then nearly fall over the top of him.

  “What are you doing?” I yell at him, as he grabs my shoulders to stop me from falling and taking us both down.

  God, he is strong. When I finally marry my prince, I hope he has strong arms like Phillip’s. Oh, and great abs too. I wonder if many princes come to school here. Now that would be something useful to put in the student directory and a good recruiting tool, I would think, as well.

  Phillip is talking loudly to me.

  “What are you thinking about, and why are you spacing out? This is important stuff.” He sighs big at me.

  “I appreciate that, Phillip.” He’s still holding my shoulders and is totally in my face. I’m half tempted to kiss him, just to throw him off guard, but he’d probably get mad at me, and I don’t need that right now, so I don’t. “But you know I’m not exactly the best rule follower. Why don’t you just pick the most important one, and I’ll do my best?” I say, with a wave of my hand.

  He lets go of me, gives me that eye, and says, “Fine. You’re leaving with me.” He pauses for effect. “Have you got that?”

  I nod my head.

  “Repeat it,” he bosses.

  Being the smart ass that I am, I raise my right hand up, like I’m taking an oath in a courtroom and say, “I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. I will leave the party with you.”

  “Continue.”

  I sigh. The boy knows me too well. “Even if there is a cute boy that I would rather leave with.”

  Then thinking of a possible loophole, I say, “Hey Phillip, what happens if I don’t want to leave the frat house. Depending on how it goes, maybe I’ll want to stay.”

  Phillip is getting irritated with me, I can tell. I kind of like seeing him a little irritated and, fortunately, I seem to be able to irritate him easily. He is usually so reserved.

  Shoot!

  I just realized that I am also very dumb, because I really should have kept that loophole to myself. I may have needed it later.

  That’s the problem with my mouth. Sometimes it talks before my brain can think.

  “God, do I need to get a lawyer just to get you to agree to something? Here it is. JJ, you are leaving with me when I am ready to leave. Got it?”

  “Yeah, I got it.”

  Jeez, he’s my knight in shining armor, whether I want him to be or not.

  Phillip and I walk into the frat house and are greeted by two pledges. They are sitting at a table in front of the door and matching girls with their pledge interviews. One of the boys takes a Polaroid picture (I didn’t even know those cameras still existed!) of each girl and writes her name on it with a permanent marker. I get my picture taken, we head into the party, grab a beer, and stand off to the edge of the party room, chatting and taking it all in. I keep catching a guy staring at me from across the room. Of course, being the terrible flirt that I am, I forget all of Phillip’s rules and bat my eyes at the guy. I watch as another guy hands him one of those permanent markers.

  What? Is he signing autographs later?

  Across the way, I recognize two girls from my history class. A group of us have been whiling away the boring lectures by writing notes to each other about what kind of nasty things we’d like to do to the hot grad assistant. Due to my lack of experience in this area, I can easily say that I’m learning way more than expected in history class.

  I glance back at the cute guy. Maybe it’s time I get some of that experience.

  “Don’t look now, Phillip,” I order, “but who’s the guy over there in the green Polo shirt?”

  “Why do you care?” Phillip asks me suspiciously, in his snotty little boy voice. I swear sometimes I think he’s twelve.

  “I don’t know.” I shrug. “He keeps looking over here. I just wondered who he is.”

  Phillip does as he is told and waits a minute.

  At least the boy can follow directions.

  “Do you think he’s cute?” he asks, before he looks.

  “No, not really,” I lie.

  Phillip rolls his eyes at me, glances over toward the green Polo and, says, “Ah.” He nods his head up and down and frowns. “That is Matt Fuller. He’s a senior and our Pledge Advisor.” He looks at me with squinty eyes and tries to read my mind. “He specifically asked me to interview you.”

  “Really?” I smile way too big, because now he totally knows I was lying about the cute part. “When? I’m pretty sure I’d remember him.” I look at Phillip quizzically.

  “I don’t remember exactly, but I think he saw me giving you a piggyback ride across campus.” Phillip shakes his head at me. “I really don’t know why I let you get away with the stuff that you do.”

  “Because I’m irresistible, Phillip.” I smile and shrug my shoulders. “You can’t help yourself. Besides, you didn’t go across campus. You only went about fifty feet before you pretended to have a heart attack from supporting my weight and collapsed on top of me in the grass.”

  “Oh, yeah. I remember. I think you’ve gained some weight.”

  I slug him in the shoulder.

  He ignores it and continues, “Come to think of it, I think that’s when Matt saw you.”

  He gives me a big grin.

  Like he just now remembered it.

  “You probably didn’t notice him because you were too busy rolling around on the grass with me.”

  “I’m pretty sure I was trying to get you off me.”

  “Well, it must’ve not looked that way to Matt, because he asked if you were my girlfriend.”

  “Oh, God. What story did you make up this time, Phillip?”

  He smirks. “Oh, I just told him that even though you’re madly in love with me, I don’t want to be tied down, so we’re just friends. Of course, what I should’ve said was Please, just take her. She’s more trouble than she’s worth.”

  I give Phillip the finger.

  Then I turn my back on him and stare over at Matt. I’m intrigued and excited by the fact that he wanted me interviewed. That means he’s at least somewhat interested. Matt is really hot. I’m guessing him to be about six-two, and he’s built like an athlete. In good shape, but not too big. He has thick, wavy, brown hair and I’m not sure if it’s his authoritative stance or the crispness of his Polo, but he looks like he grew up with a rich daddy. I can picture him driving a little BMW to the club for golf and tennis. He could probably be in an ad for the company that made his shirt. He would look right at home standing in the back yard of a big summer house on the ocean, playing croquet and holding a martini.

  Not my typical rough-around-the-edges guy. But, hey, I’m at college to experience new
things, right?

  Phillip, who has apparently been successful at reading my mind again, says, “I really don’t think you want any part of that, Princess. He has a playboy reputation, and the rumors of his sexual prowess are of practically legendary proportions. All the pledges are in awe of him, or at least of the stories about him.”

  “Everyone? Even you, Phillip?”

  Phillip just shakes his head at me. I frustrate that boy, I think.

  I smile though, because I like what I’m hearing about this Matt. Hopefully it’s not all hype. Maybe there is a bad boy under all that polish!

  Phillip frowns. “Unfortunately, I think he has you in his sights. So be careful, or better yet, just try to avoid him.”

  “Phiiiiiliiiiip, I am not going to avoid him.” I glance up to see Matt looking my way again. This time, I catch his eye. I hold his stare for a second, smiling, until he looks away, seemingly embarrassed.

  Some playboy.

  He is cute, though. What the hell? He probably made up his own reputation just to impress the pledges.

  I think What the hell has become my personal mantra. I may have T-shirts made up soon.

  “Okay. Then at least stop giving him those eyes. You’re making me sick.”

  I ignore Phillip’s eye comment. “I’m sure the rumors are exaggerated, and besides, he’s probably not that interested in me anyway. I bet he asked for lots of freshman to be interviewed. Plus, he doesn’t look like my type . . . ”

  “What? He’s not an idiot?” Phillip interrupts, taking a cheap shot at my taste in guys.

  I frown at him, put my hand on my hip, and flash a little attitude. “You know what? Just for fun, I’ll bet you five bucks that I can make him come over here now and talk to me.”

  We’ll test out some of my newly discovered powers of male-persuasion.

  “Really? And just how are you gonna do that?”

  Like I can’t.

  Let’s see, I have already smiled and given him the eye. (Apparently Katie and Lisa have taught me well.) Next step, make him worry that my availability is questionable.

  I face Phillip and lean my body close to his. Really, I pretty much just press the whole front of my body up against the front of his. I should probably mention that Phillip has an excellent body to be pressing up against.