Date Me (21 page)

After the meeting, I’m leaving the building when Aiden runs up from behind me. “Where are you going?”

“I have to go get my stitches out.”

“Are you going by yourself?”

“Uh, yeah. Everyone says that it doesn’t hurt.”

“I’m coming with you.”

“No, you’re not. I’m fine.” I study his face. “Is it gonna hurt?”

“Sometimes they come out easily. Other times they sort of grow into your skin and it hurts a bit.”

I wince thinking about the possible pain. “I’m kind of a baby when it comes to stuff like this.”

“Really? You always seem so tough.”

“Emotionally, maybe I’m kinda tough, but with physical pain, I’m a wimp. I don’t know how I’m ever going to have kids.”

He gives me an intense look.

“What?”

“I was just thinking you’d be a great mom. Lots of fun.”

I smile. “I adore my little sisters. I think I’ll love being a mom. Pregnancy and birth, that’s another story.”

“Pleasure and pain.”

“Kinda like love in general. It can be really great or just a great big pain.”

Aiden nods his head agreeing with me.

“I was fine before, but now you have me all nervous.”

“I make you nervous?” he asks, moving closer to me in a way that makes me feel a completely different kind of nervous.

Because, hello, I have a boyfriend.

Who I love.

Get that tight-fitting T-shirt away from me.

“What’s with you lately? It’s like your goal in life is to pin me against the wall. I’m not going to fall for your little tricks,
friend
.”

“What little tricks?” he asks innocently.

“
Hammering. Nailing. Screwing.
Give me a break. Your tight white T-shirt may leave most of the girls at school panting, but it doesn’t work on me.”

“And why’s that?”

“Because I think there’s a lot more to a person that their looks. And I really don’t like you all that much.”

“Bullshit. You’re afraid to like me.”

“Afraid to like you?” I roll my eyes at him. “Is this a new experience for you? A girl that doesn’t fall into bed with you.”

“I’m not like that.”

“Please. I’ve heard enough from Maggie to know that’s
exactly
what you’re like. I’m just not interested in a guy that’s a player. I’ve been burnt by that kind of guy. I’ve been lied to by that kind of guy. That’s part of what I love about Dawson. He’s not a player.”

“Except for his summer in whoredom.”

“You’ve heard about that?”

“Hard not to when he bragged about it all during football camp. All the girls. All the parties. All the meaningless sex.”

“He was just on the rebound after Whitney. She broke his heart. He had fun. Big deal. Everyone has rebound sex.” I remember Aiden telling me that Dawson was just a rebound, so I quickly add. “I mean, it’s something guys do. Girls just cry.”

He shakes his head at me. “And what about the party? When he was pawing your shirt? He’s still rebounding. So are you for that matter.”

“You don’t know anything.”

“Keatie,” I hear Dawson call from behind us. “Wait up.”

Aiden and I turn around as Dawson catches up to me. “I’m coming with you to get your stitches out. My hand has recovered. We should be good.”

I laugh at him. “I’ll try not to kill your hand this time. Jake told me this is the easy part. Although Aiden says it might hurt a little.”

“Aiden’s right. Sometimes it hurts a little. And with today being a special day and all, I couldn’t let you go alone.” He throws his arm around my shoulder and pulls me in for a hug. He turns to Aiden. “You going to see the nurse too?”

The tops of Aiden’s cheeks turn slightly pink. “Yeah, I’ve, uh, got a sore throat. Wanted to get it checked out. Don’t want to be sick for the big game.”

Dawson slaps him across the back. “Good plan. We don’t want to disappoint all the alumni. Dean would be pissed off for a week. And you know what happens when he gets pissed off.”

Aiden nods in agreement, but I say, “What happens?”

“He just gets all pissy, which causes the teachers to get pissy, which causes our dorm advisors to pay more attention than we’d like. But we’re lucky we have Aiden. Everyone thinks he’s a good boy. That’s why we always party in his room.”

Aiden grins back at Dawson, but there’s something there. Something fleeting in his eyes.

After a surprisingly pain-free removal of the stitches, Dawson says, “You did good. Let’s go celebrate.”

“We’re going to celebrate getting my stitches out?”

He holds up the passes the nurse gave us. “Did you notice how I distracted her with questions when she was filling these out?”

“You were asking a bunch of dumb questions.”

“Yeah, she’s not a good multi-tasker. See this line where she’s supposed to write what time we left? She didn’t fill it out. That means we can go have some fun. And we need to have fun this week. When you start play practice next week, you won’t have any time for me.

“I like fun,” I say. “And I’ll make time.”

“You know what today is, right?”

“Tuesday?”

“Yeah, what else?”

“Pajama day?”

“Try again.”

“Uh, Taco Tuesday?”

“It’s our anniversary.”

“We have an anniversary? We haven’t even been going out for a full week yet.”

He grins. He’s got his school blazer off and the sleeves of his oxford rolled up. He looks so damn sexy.

“Yep.” He pulls my waist into his. “It’s been a month since our first time.”

“Our first time. As in when we had sex in the Hamptons?”

“That’s a night worth remembering, don’t you think?”

“Is it bad that we’re celebrating our sexual anniversary?”

“I don’t think so. It’s when we got together.”

“True.”

“So I have plans for you after Taco Tuesday, but since we have some extra time now, we might as well take advantage of it.”

“How are we going to celebrate this anniversary?”

“Exactly the way it started.”

He pulls me inside his dorm and pushes me against the door, kissing me. He drops his jacket and backpack on the common room sofa then pushes me against the wall in the hallway. He’s kissing me with that same intensity he did that first night. That night I knew there was no way I could resist him.

We work our way down the long hall. His hands are feeling their way across what’s underneath my sweater.

After seriously making out down the hall, we finally make it to his room.

He pulls my sweater off and takes in my little pink knit camisole set.

“Very cute,” he says.

“Take it off me. There might be something underneath that shouldn’t be categorized as cute.”

He gets a naughty grin on his face and slowly pulls up my cami, revealing a sexy black lace Agent Provocateur push-up bra.

He licks his lips, kisses my cleavage, then slowly pulls down my shorts to reveal the teeny matching briefs.

He stands back and looks at me. Then he literally leaps on top of me, pinning me to the bed.

“You always ruin my plans,” he says, as he strips his own clothes off.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

As he pulls off my panties, he says, “I always think I’m going to be able to go slow. I can’t go slow with you.” He covers my mouth with his and quickly proves his point.

A short while later, we’re dressed and heading to class.

“We’ll go to Taco Tuesday tonight, but we’re leaving early. Gonna do some more celebrating.”

“Where are we going?”

“Back to our lake.”

As in the lake where we parked and did it standing up against his car.

Dawson is like a sexual buffet. I never know what to expect, what’s going to be next in line. But I definitely want to keep going back for more.

Looking like a slut.

Lunch

Dawson and I are in line getting lunch. Whitney and Peyton are ahead of us and Peyton is getting chewed out.

“What is your problem lately? You go on one trip with Dawson’s little plaything and come back looking like a slut. Did she help you pick out those furry heels?” Whitney asks, scowling at Peyton.

I give Dawson a look. Like, what a bitch.

Dawson winks at me, walks past me, and smacks Peyton on the butt. “Looking pretty sexy there, Arrington.”

Peyton jumps slightly from the smack, but her face breaks out in a wide grin. A smirk, really, directed at Whitney.

Whitney doesn’t bite though. “My point, exactly.”

“Whitney, I don’t tell you how to dress. Why would you think you could tell me?”

“Because the five of us have dressed alike for every spirit day for the past three years, maybe?”

Peyton shrugs. “Well, if you were on the dance team, you’d understand. Sometimes you get tired of dressing like everyone else.”

Oh. Damn. She just slammed Whitney for not making the dance team.

Peyton’s bitch is totally coming out.

But I’m worried about her because I know what happens when you go up against a Queen.

You become just as big of a bitch as she is.

I want to tell Peyton it’s not worth the fight. Just do your own thing.

Then Damian’s song starts playing in my head.
Just do your own thing, do it up big, rocket to the moon, now everybody sing
.

I think maybe I need to get Peyton to listen to that song.

I get my food then go to our table.

“That was sweet of you,” I whisper to Dawson as I set my tray down.

“So you have to help me win Mr. Eastbrooke,” he replies.

“What’s that?”

“It's a contest we have every year. The competition is held during the pep rally on Friday. Each boys’ sport chooses a junior or senior to represent their team. I got picked to represent the football team. It’s a big deal.”

“What do you have to do?”

“Dress up like a girl.”

I laugh. “Seriously? And you
want
to do that?”

“Of course. It's awesome. So you have to make me look pretty. I’ll need makeup, a wig, heels, and an outfit. We all walk out in heels and wave at the crowd. Then we have to do either a dance or a cheer.”

Bryce adds, “Everyone votes by clapping for their favorite.”

“Hmmm. I just can't picture you as a girl.”

He runs his finger down my arm. “Just think. You can grind all up against me and pretend I’m a girl. Only when you take me home, I’ll have a little surprise for you under my skirt.”

“I can handle the clothes. Do you want me to help you with a dance too?”

“No. Honestly, even though it’s always an option, no one ever dances. A cheer is a lot easier to learn. Riley said Ariela could teach me one.”

I finish up my lunch quickly, then tell Dawson I have some stuff I need to do. What I need to do is work my way around the freshman tables and start suggesting they vote for Peyton.

He’s sweet?

5:30pm

I’m just finishing up tutoring Aiden in the library when Dawson texts me.

Dawson: I’m STARVING and ready to start celebrating ;)

Me: I’m about done. Be there soon. Heart you.

“So I have to get going. A bunch of us are going out for Taco Tuesday.”

“I’m going to Taco Tuesday,” Aiden says. “Riley invited me, but he said it was a guy thing.”

“I’m the only girl that goes, usually. Well, so far, anyway. Dawson and I won’t stay all that long though. He wants to go celebrate.”

Shit. I shouldn’t have said that. Now he’s going to ask what we are celebrating.
How
we’re going to celebrate.

“I heard him say something about a special day this morning. What are you celebrating?”

“Um, just our anniversary.”

“Yeah, but anniversary of what? You haven’t even been going out a week.”

“It’s been a month since I stayed with him in the Hamptons. That was when we got together. Like, I was done with the Keats guy, and then I sorta started seeing Dawson.”

“And this anniversary of when you sort of started seeing each other, was this your idea or Dawson’s?”

“He remembered it, if that’s what you mean.”

“That doesn’t sound like something a guy would remember.”

“He’s sweet?”

“Lots of people said you had sex with him that weekend.”

“People speculate lots of things, doesn’t mean they’re true.”

“That would be the kind of anniversary a guy would remember.”

“Or, he’s just adorably sweet?”

“I can’t believe you had sex so soon.”

“I never said I did.”

“I know you did though. It makes so much more sense now.”

“What makes sense?”

He just shakes his head at me.

“Okay, whatever. I have to go. I guess I’ll see you at dinner.”

We’re definitely not.

6:30pm

I stop at my dorm and quickly freshen up. I don’t want to wear my pajama shorts to dinner, so I grab a skirt, throw it on, and then run down to meet Dawson at his car.

“There you are,” he says, eyeing my skirt then pulling me in for a kiss. “Damn, Keatie, you looked sexy today, but tonight you just look hot. Does this zipper work?” he asks, referring to the one that runs down the front of my black Valentino biker mini.

At Taco Tuesday, the boys are all talking about the Homecoming game. How they have to win. About how it sucks having their parents here. About how they have to help Aiden move the keg to the basement tonight because the dorm advisors are doing room checks tomorrow to make sure they look presentable for Homecoming.

Then they start talking about sex. One of the guys brags about doing it with one of the cheerleaders, and I’m slightly horrified at the intimate details he shares.

I’m so glad Dawson isn’t like that.

I’m also listening closely to what Aiden talks about. To see if he’s the type to kiss and tell.

Dallas tells everyone about the big ring gummy lifesavers Dawson brought to the party.