Hooked (7 page)

     “Well, well
,
sweetheart, sure as hell wasn’t expecting to see you standing here
,
”
h
e said smiling his smug smile again at me.
 

    
I opened my mouth to ask him what the heck was wrong with him or at least figure out who he was talking to
,
but then I remembered what Jess told me to do.  So
,
what did I do?  I took the cigarette from his lips, took one long drag squinting around the smoke
,
threw
it on the ground and
s
tomped it out.  It took all I had not to completely choke right then and there considering that was my very first and only drag off of a cigarette.

     “Interesting
,
”
w
as all I said as I opened the door and went inside. 

    
I could have died when I got in there.  I still needed to cough
,
but I was afraid he would hear me.  I slid down the door wondering what in the hell I had just done.  This acting like I didn’t care was harder than it looked.  Just then
,
Cara and Jess rounded the corner.  “What in the hel
l---”

     “SHH
.
”
  I put my index finger to my lips. 

    
They both got down beside me and Cara whispered
,
“What’s wrong?  What is it?”

     “Is he still out there?”  I asked to afraid to get up and look.  Jess got up and went to the window and looked out.

     “There is no one out there.  What happened?” she
asked
.

     “Well, I kind of did what you suggested and I acted like he didn’t
faze
me
,
” I said very quietly not knowing if I did a good job at it or not.

     “What?”  Jess yelled.  I looked up at her and she was smiling.

    
Cara looked at us both like she was lost.  “What did he say to you?”

     “Umm, when I walked up to your door
,
he came out of his smoking a cigarette.  He said something smart to me
,
so I took the cigarette out of his
mouth
took a puff off of it and then threw it on the ground?”  I squeezed one eye shut, waiting for their reaction.  They
looked
at me, looked at each other,
and then
back at me again.

     “Hell to the yeah!”  Jess screamed.

     “Oh my gosh, girl, that’s freaking awesome!”  Cara said.

     They were both giving me high
-
fives and
hugging me.  “You really think?
  I almost puked in front of him out there!”  They started laughing at me.

     “Okay, start from the beginning and don’t leave one single detail out
,
” Cara said grabbing my hand.

     So
,
I started from the beginning and when I got to the part where he called me sweetheart, Cara sighed.  I told them that the only word I said to him was
“
interesting
” and
Jess seems to think this is where I hooked him. 

    
“There is no way that dude is g
oing to be able to resist that!
  Good job
,
Millie
.
I couldn’t have done better myself.”  I smiled at this because if there is one thing Jess can do
,
it is act uninterested.  Hey, maybe I did
a good job
after all
,
I thought.

     We spent the rest of the night laughing and talking about
everything
under the sun.  We finally went to bed around midnight.  I laid there in Jess’ bed and thought about Cash.  I tried to be as still and quiet as I could
,
thinking maybe I could
hear
something
from Cash’s apartment.  I couldn’t believe he was merely feet from me probably lying in his bed as well.  I imagined what it would be like if he was holding me
here in this moment
. I imagined w
hat his strong arms would feel like.  I wondered if
his
facial hair would scratch my face or be soft enough to tickle me.  Man, I have got to get a grip.  I know nothing about this boy
,
but he invades my mind on an hourly basis.  I ended up hearing nothing and finally drifted off to sleep.

CHAPTER 4

     I didn’t get to socialize hardly at all on Thursday.  I had four test and none of them were for sure A’s.  I had been studying all week
,
but last night after all that happened with Cash, I couldn’t think about anything else.  I used every spare moment I had to study today.  I even used my lunch break to study.
 
By the time I made it to P.E.
,
I was kind of nervous.  Yeah, I
did
good last night
according to Jess and Cara
,
but now I had time to think about it and I didn’t know what to say to him.  I didn’t want to be mean to him
,
but I didn’t want to
f
ollow him around like a puppy either.  How do people find that balance?  I didn’t know,
hence
,
my nervous breakdown before gym.

     
I walked out of the locker room and went to get a basketball.  Coach was letting us shoot around this week.  He said next week we were starting hockey.  I was not looking forward to th
at
because I couldn’t skate that well.
  I grab
bed
a ball and
went
down to the end goal.  There was only half of our class in gym today because the football players were at a lunch meeting and I know a couple of people on the school paper were in Ms. Winston’s class working on that.

     I had the goal to myself
,
so I started shooting free throws.  I lost myself in concentration as I got in the rhythm of shooting. 
My mind began to wonder to all the things I had going on like,
the party tomorrow, what I had made on my test
and
college applications. 

    
“Wow, does it take that much concentration to make those or were you thinking about me?”  I look up to see Cash standing there.  What do I say?  What do I say? 

    
“Negative to both
,
” I said as I walked around him to get my own rebound.

     “
Beautiful and feisty, I like it,
”
h
e said smoothly. 

    
Okay, I thought
,
I’m going to be mysterious and not respond.  Obviously
,
it’s working because he talked to me first today.  So…my bright idea?  Well, that turned into a weird stare off.  Wait a minute, I was trying to be mysterious and he thought he was going to stare me down?  Umm, no.
  This was so not going how I planned.  I had no choice but
to go with it now because goodness knows I had no idea what to say to him.
  I will win this thing and stare him into submission
, I think to myself.
 

    
Okay, so first off
,
I’ve never won one of these before and that was me going up against Eli
,
so I’m not feeling so confident at this moment.  Secondly, this is why when I get uncomfortable
and
I come up with stupid crap like this
, I need a friend that steps in and takes over my actions.
  I brought my chin up and took a shot at it.  I took a long look at the scruff on his chin and cheeks.  I secretly loved that.  After realizing I hadn’t even looked away from his jaw, I glanced at his amazing blue eyes.
M
ISTAKE.BIG.MISTAKE
. He
stared me down with the most conceited smirk.  Butthole
,
my mind screamed.  Forget it, I can do this.  I’m stronge
r than this.  My dad is a cop for goodness sakes.  I can do this!  So
,
I gave a smirk of my own raised one eyebrow and I stared back at him. 
Now, what made this the most embarrassing thing to happen to me today was that the whole class came up and stood around us in a circle. 

    
Cash and I stared at each other for what felt like forever.  The whole class was talking about us, cheering us on, you name it
…
they did it.  Dumb boy wouldn’t budge.  He stared at me like he does this for a living and he never moved a muscle.  I
,
on the other hand
,
stumble around
,
but my eyes never left his.  This is not only hard
,
but now I’m humiliated because we have an audience.  He, of course
,
is the epitome of cool and acts as though they don’t exist. 

    
Finally
,
the bell rang and the other kids started walking towards the locker rooms and Cash puts both his
hands
on my hips and asked
,
“
S
weetheart, you
wanna
take this in the
locker room
or are we
gonna
call truce?”  He actually chuckled a little bit.

     “I guess we have no choice being that we are at school, so we will finish this later
,
” I say proud of myself.

     “Oh, we will definitely finish this
,
but I don’t think you realize what you have started.”

     “Oh
,
really?”  I say trying like hell to sound a lot calmer than I really am.  What was I thinking I could be cool and aloof like Jess
?
  I should have known not to take her advice.

     He steps forward until his
chest
is touching mine.  I start to breathe really hard because I can tell he is about to kiss me.  He pulls me closer to him and dips his head and gives me the softest, sweetest kiss I have ever had.  It felt euphoric as I started to kiss him back.  Was I really just in a stare off with this guy and now we are kissing?  I didn’t even care enough to answer myself.  I got lost in it and realized I liked kissing him so
much that
I actually forgot where we were for a minute.  I couldn’t believe he just did that after a
fifteen
minute stare off. 

     My eyes were still closed when he broke the kiss and put his lips to my ear and whispered, “You may want to open
your
eyes because our audience is back.”

     Oh
,
no.  When I look up
,
everyone is looking at us like we just flashed them.  How much embarrassment am I going to have to endure
today?  All because I was going to try and get this guy to like me, l have been humiliated (to the max) not once
,
but twice in the last forty minutes. 
It wasn’t until I looked up at his face that I got a little upset.  His eyes looked like crystals and he had the cutes
t
smirk, no wait, it wasn’t cute, it was…wait
,
was he making fun of me? 

    
“Umm
,
” I just stammer around and lift one hand to his chest to get him to back up a little.  “You think it is funny that I’m embarrassed?”  I whisper yell at him.

     “Hell
,
no!  I think it is cute. 
The
blush in you cheeks kind of turns me on.  I’m getting all hot and bothered right now in fact
,
”
h
e says as he smirks at me again.