Double Time (2 page)

Keesh starts walking over to the water polo guys, who are now standing in the corner, red plastic cups in their hands, chatting away.

“
What’s she doing?” I ask Steph.

“
You never know with her, but it’s gonna be big no matter what it is.”

We try to keep dancing while we fake talk and spy on Keesh. I’m sure we look like idiots, barely moving and bobbing our heads.

“
Oh shit, here she comes,” I say.

Steph smacks me. “And not alone.”

“
Look what I found,” Keesh squeals as she walks back with three very hot looking guys.

Steph and I don’t utter a word, but smile.

“
I brought you ladies an early Christmas present,” she continues. “David is for you, Megster.” He plays along with her and holds out a hand to shake mine. When I put my hand in his, he pulls me toward him and spins me around.

“
Hey,” I tell him with a giggle.

“
And, Stephanie, this is Doug.” He leans in and kisses her cheek.

“
I’m not as graceful as he is.” Doug waves his hand at David.

Steph looks mesmerized. “That’s okay, I’m far from graceful myself.”

“
Steve, these are my girls … Stephanie and Megan.”

“
What up?” he greets us.

“
Word,” I say. WTF. Did I just say that? I may as well have flashed a peace sign while I’m at it.

“
Don’t mind her,” Keesh says. “Let’s dance.”

“
You wanna?” I look up at tall, fine David and ask.

“
Word,” he replies. Funny
and
fine. He has my approval.

And he can move. Thank you. I absolutely refuse to go out with a guy who can’t dance. I’d go out with the most butt ugly dude if he could dance before I’d go out with the most gorgeous guy in the world if he had zero in the rhythm department. I need a man who can do a little bumpin’ and grindin’ with me.

And David sure can.

We’re dancing face to face, fingers laced together, moving side to side with the beat. My heart is thumping fast and I’m feeling warm all over and not just because I’m getting a workout. This guy is H-O-T and he’s making me feel like I have my body in a fireplace. He drops one of my hands and places his on my hip. As we sway, he pushes me away slightly and spins me around so my backside is up to his front. With both of his strong hands around my waist, I feel like I’m going to burst. I feel his breath on my neck and I sneak a peek up at him. He smiles at me. I wanna say, “Kiss me fool.” But I don’t. One side of my mouth curves up with a flirtatious grin.

Tearing my eyes away from his, but leaving my ass shaking in his lap, I glance back at the party and my jaw drops in shock. Or horror. Or both.

“
What are you doing here?” I ask, as my steamy dance comes to an abrupt stop. I can almost hear the music cut, like it does when the geek shows up at the party in a movie, as time comes to a screeching halt.

“
Nice to see you too, Meggie.”

Two

“
Hold on a sec,” I say, holding up a finger to Ben. I turn toward David.

“
That’s not your boyfriend, is it?” David asks.

I shake my head. “No way, just a friend. But I need to talk to him. Can you give me a minute?”

“
Yeah.” He walks back to the rest of his team. I think I just blew my chances. Shit.

“
Wow, Travis wasn’t kidding,” Ben says.

“
Excuse me?”

“
Sorry, but that was … wow.”

“
Are you kidding me? I was just dancing. What’s that supposed to mean? Wow?”

Travis comes out of nowhere. “Thank god you have clothes on or we’d have to watch him do you doggie style.”

“
Screw you, Travis.” What an ass.

“
Hey, back off,” Ben shouts at him. Travis walks away. “It wasn’t that bad, but dang, Meg.”

“
Really? I was just having fun. Wait…what are you even doing here? I thought high school parties were long gone for you.”

“
We just came to get Eric’s brother. He doesn’t wanna kick it with the little kids.” He flashes his big smile at me.

“
Little kids, my ass,” I tell him. “You said ‘we.’ Who’s we?” I cringe.

“
Don’t worry, he’s in the car.” He. He as in Alex. Omigod. “He didn’t want to kill your game.”

The thought of my ex here irritates me to no end. “No, he just sent you in here to do it.”

“
Hey, I just came to get Frankie.” I’m surprised Frankie doesn’t want to stay here with all the girls. It’s not like he’s ever had a problem with younger women.

“
Yeah, right, and you just couldn’t help coming over and interrupting me. I was having a good time dancing, you know.”

“
If that’s what you wanna call dancing.”

“
If I remember correctly, I danced with you like that a couple years back. Are you saying it wasn’t just a dance?” I put my hand on my hip.

He chuckles.

“
That’s what I thought,” I say. He’s not about to go there.

“
Just give poor Travis a break, okay? The guy looks like he’s gonna die over there.” I steal a glance at Travis and the look in his eyes is pain. Or anger. Probably both. But it doesn’t matter. He’s not my boyfriend, or even my ex. This summer was fun, but we agreed we’d chill once school started. Well, I agreed. But he knew what my plan was all along. He needs to stop acting like such a girl.

“
Not my problem.”

“
Come on, Meg.”

“
Just go already. Let me have some peace. I swear you guys are worse than girls. If I had a penis, I’d say you guys are the biggest freaking cock blockers ever.”

He laughs at this, but he can’t argue. “Okay, I’ll let you get back to your new man. Have fun. Call me if you need anything.” He leans over and pulls me in for a squeeze. “Be good, little one.”

“
Whatever. Just go away,” I say, shrugging him off.

“
Do you think this whole single thing is gonna work this year?” I ask the girls.

Keesh takes a swig of her morning coffee. “It would if the guys let us.”

“
I’m gonna have to find new friends if I’m gonna get any action.” Steph jokes. “You guys seriously need to do something about Travis and Josh. And Ben too. What is he? A babysitter.”

“
Game killer,” Keesh says.

“
I called him a cock blocker.”

“
If you had a penis.” Steph laughs.

“
That’s what I told him.” We all giggle.

“
I can’t believe they just stared at us the whole night.” Keesh shivers at the thought.

Steph glances at both of us. “I bet the guys thought you’d break and decide to be with them.”

“
Well, that didn’t happen, so maybe they’ll take us seriously now.” Although, it’s not likely.

Steph shakes her head. “I doubt it.”

Sipping my too-hot-to-drink coffee, I gaze back and forth at the girls. I think Steph is right. “So what do we do then?”

“
I don’t know,” Keesh says, with a slight shake of her head.

“
Me neither.”

“
Well, last night was fun and I wouldn’t mind catching a water polo match sometime soon,” I tell them.

“
Hey now, don’t start getting all hot for David. I thought we had a plan to date a bunch of guys, not just one.” Keesh gives me a disapproving stare.

“
Dancing last night hardly qualifies as a date. I wanna see him again,” I tell them. Steph glares at me this time. “Just once, though, and then I’m on to someone else. Tell me you guys don’t want to hook up with his friends?”

“
Well, Steve was pretty cute,” Keesh says.

“
And Doug was funny,” Steph adds her two cents.

“
See,” I exclaim.

“
I guess it’s a good thing I gave Steve my number then.” Keesh smiles wildly.

“
You what?” Steph asks. “Doug didn’t even ask.”

“
No kidding, neither did David.”

Keesh wiggles her brows. “No need to worry girls, I got your backs.”

Steph asks, “What does that mean?”

“
Well…”

“
Well, what?” I ask, excitedly.

“
Well, I do believe our water polo friends will be joining us for a swim later on.”

“
What?” Steph and I both yelp.

“
If it’s okay with your parents, Meggie, they’ll come over,” she says. “Go ask…they’ll be here at noon.”

With a game of water polo going on, I’m starting to think the guys had some ulterior motives making the teams boys against girls. I’ve lost count of how many times David’s hand has “accidentally” brushed up against my boobs in an attempt to swipe the ball from me. Dude, that’s totally a freshman move. I’d expect more from a junior. But I guess all guys are the same—they’ll take any chance they can to feel a boob. Well, I hope the feeling is better for him than it has been for me. For some reason, the quick little brushes aren’t doing a thing to stir up some heat. If a guy is gonna try and feel me up, it’s going to take a little bit more than a swift swipe across my tit to get me going. How about a kiss first?

Game over and the guys win. No surprise there. I’d be sad for our school team if we actually won. I’m impressed they didn’t just let us win though.

After finally getting comfortable in my lounge and trying to get some sun, I let out a long breathy sigh.

“
What’s up?” David asks.

“
Oh,” I chuckle. “I just got cozy and I forgot a drink.”

David stands. “I’ll get you something. Be right back.” Before I can place my order, he’s heading to the cooler.

“
Oh no,” Steph whispers. “Did you invite them, Meg?”

I look over at the slider and witness Josh and Travis coming out of my house.

“
What the hell, Meggie?” Keesh says.

“
It wasn’t me,” I tell them.

Doug and Steve stop tossing a football ball back and forth and stare at our newly arrived guests.

“
What up?” Travis tells the guys, offering a hand. WTF. Doug takes his hand first, and then smacks hands with Josh. David joins them, holding our drinks in his hands. It’s like we’re watching this in slow motion on mute. I think they’re talking, but I don’t hear a word they’re saying.

The girls and I are silent.

Travis comes over and plops down on the chair next to me.

“
Hey, Megster,” he says cheerfully.

I look at him, puzzled. “What are you doing here?”

“
Wow, that doesn’t sound very inviting.”

“
Well, I didn’t invite you.”

“
Your mom did. I called and she said to come over to swim. So here we are.”

I’m going to kill my mom. “How nice of her.”

David takes a seat at the edge of my chair. “Here’s your drink.”

I take the
Coke
from his hand and frown at it. “Thanks.”

Travis gets up, runs over to the cooler, and is back in a flash.

“
Here,” he says, offering me a Diet Coke. “I’ll drink that one.”

“
No, it’s fine,” I tell him. “I’ll drink this one.”

“
Well, that’s dumb. You don’t like regular Coke.”

“
Well, maybe I do now.” I crack open the can and take a long swig of the nastily sweet fluid into my mouth. Once I get it down, I smile at David. “Thanks,” I tell him again, and then I lean forward and plant a quick kiss on his lips. He smiles at me with his eyes, and leans in for another kiss. This time he holds the back of my head in one of his hands and pulls me into him. His tongue thrusts into my mouth and it’s all I can do to not pull away from him. I’d been anticipating this all afternoon.

Hoping for it actually.

But not like this. Not right in front of Travis.

I mean, I guess I kissed David just to piss Travis off. But this kind of kiss is not what I had in mind. As much as I want to enjoy David’s fingers woven through my hair, pulling me closer to him, I just can’t. Not when I know Travis is looking at us in complete shock, filled with hurt. Or maybe he’s trying to look away, hiding his embarrassment. I want to open my eyes and look, but I can’t. I should probably stop kissing him all together—but I can’t do that either. And not because it’s a good kiss, it’s really just okay. But because I’m afraid to. I’m afraid to face Travis.