Kiss List (16 page)

“What’s the clue?” I asked.

“Oh, right,” he said. “Sophia told me the words ‘high tower.’”

“That’s it?” I said in exasperation.

Sam shrugged. “That’s all I’ve got,” he said. “I was hoping it would mean something to you.”

“We can figure it out as soon as we get out of here,” I said.

“Easier said than done,” Sam responded with a grimace.

I opened the fitness room door and almost jumped back in terror. El Diablo was standing directly in front of the door and glaring at me.

El Diablo stood on her tiptoes and looked over my shoulder at Sam before dropping back down to stare at me. “I see you’ve decided to let him go,” she said coolly.

“What exactly were you planning to do?” I asked. “Keep him down here forever? And what was with the strawberries and whipped cream? He’s not a pastry. That’s some kinky stuff.”

El Diablo’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “I won’t forget this,” she hissed. Then she went back up on her tiptoes and gave Sam an enormous, almost maniacal smile. “Sorry we couldn’t have more fun, Sammy,” she said sweetly. “Call me some time, okay?”

“Sure Carly,” I heard Sam mumble.

I steeled myself and brushed past El Diablo. The rest of the girls in the room watched me go with hate-filled eyes as quietly as they had watched me come. I only got a few steps past El Diablo when I heard Sam yell “Whoa!”

I looked quickly back over my shoulder at him. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“She pinched my butt,” Sam whispered hoarsely. “Let’s get out of here. Move. Go, go,
go!”

We sprinted out of the basement with girls yelling farewells after Sam and the feeling of El Diablo’s eyes boring into the back of our skulls.

I called Payton as soon as we got back to the car
.“Do the words ‘high tower’ mean anything to you?” I asked her urgently. “Maybe a really tall guy or something?”

“Enough,” Payton said. “Girl, I can tell that you’re in trouble. Fess up. What’s going on?”

I sighed and then told her that Missy had kidnapped Sam and David. “But we can’t contact the school or the authorities or anything,” I finished. “Missy has blackmail material on Sam and me.”

There was silence on the other end of the line. Then Payton said, “High Tower is what people from Churchill call one of their parks. It’s by a tall water tower. I know about it because one time the cheer girls defaced it by spray painting ‘sucks’ after the word ‘Churchill.’ Missy was there at the time.”

“Great, thanks Payton,” I said. “I’m heading there now.”

“No you’re not,” Payton said in a stern voice. I had never heard her sound so serious before.

“Excuse me?”

“You are not going to bring Sam with you to see whatever embarrassing thing the Churchill jerk wrestlers did to David. David’s been humiliated enough. I’m going to go to the park now to make sure David’s okay. You drop Sam off at his house and then you can come and meet me.”

I drove Sam home and continued on to the park as fast as I could, hoping that Officer Coleman and his colleagues were not out patrolling the streets. Still, it was nearly 9 PM by the time I reached High Tower Park.

I saw Payton’s car in the parking lot and parked beside it. I ran out towards the playground, not sure where I might find David. Then I thought I heard something. I froze and took slow breaths to try to quiet my breathing so I could figure out where the sound was coming from.

Someone was talking. I could hear it distinctly now. I rushed towards the sound of the voice. It was coming from the other side of the playground. I ran up a long wooden ramp on the playground. Bad idea. I sound found myself weaving around all sorts of corners and obstacles.

I lost track of where the sound was coming from. I stopped again and listened. Now I could distinctly make out two people talking. I walked over the playground quietly so I wouldn’t lose the sound of their voices. Why were they speaking so softly?

Then I had them. I could see the dark shapes of two bodies outlined behind the slats of wood of one of the playground walls. I was about to call out to them when I heard my name.

“Do you like Sadie?” Payton asked in a low voice.

“I did,” David replied morosely. “I mean, she’s like the perfect girl. She’s smart, beautiful, athletic, and funny. I figured, what’s not to like? I never thought she’d go for a guy like me. I’m not good with girls at all. I’m just too shy and stupid around them. When she seemed to like me I felt like the luckiest guy alive, you know? I thought that maybe this is how it happened; love just fell into place like that. But then she told me about the stupid kiss list and I realized she didn’t really like me at all. She just needed to check me off the list. I was only a stupid dare. And you know what the worst part is? There was a moment in the gym when I forgot about it and just remembered how much I liked her. Now look what happened to me. I swear every time I get near that girl something terrible hits me. So no, I guess I don’t like her anymore.”

My heart felt like it was breaking. I could hear the pain in David’s voice and realized that I had caused it. The air seemed to have been sucked from my lungs. My eyes stung and watered.

“You can’t put that all on her,” Payton said. “We put your name on the kiss list. That was our fault. But she really does like you. She’s told us all, she thinks you are really cute and a great guy. I’m serious.”

“That’s nice of you to say,” David said sadly, “but even if it were true, what difference would it make? She’s dating Dylan and if she wasn’t I wouldn’t be interested. She keeps getting me hurt. I don’t think I could survive spending much more time around her. I don’t know how some guys do it. They just seem so smooth and confident with girls. Maybe I’m doomed to spend the rest of my life alone.”

“Are you kidding?” Payton asked. “David, you’re only 17 and you’re one of the hottest guys in our school. You just need to believe that and get some confidence. Hell, a lot of girls are way more intimidated by you than you are of them. Do you know how scared a girl can feel when she’s around a great guy like you? Trust me, a lot of girls in this school are dying for you to make a move on them.”

“Really?”
David said doubtfully. “And if they saw me now would they still be wishing that? I’m handcuffed to a pole and covered in obscene writing. Thanks to my friends from Churchill, I got to enjoy a two-hour wedgie before you got here. Do you know how embarrassing that is? They even put duct tape across my mouth so I couldn’t call for help. How many girls do you know are dying to go out with me now? After those pictures come out, what girl is going consider me boyfriend material?”

I retreated several steps and quietly walked to a bench on the playground. I suddenly wasn’t ready to face David and Payton. David’s words hurt me deeply. I had screwed up.
Badly. And now people like David had suffered enough and didn’t want anything to do with me.

My phone vibrated in my pocket. I took it out and looked at the screen. It was a text from Dylan.

“Missy sent me pics. We’re done. I dont even want to talk about it. Im moving on.”

The fragile pieces of what was left of my heart disintegrated into nothingness. So Missy had betrayed me.
Of course. I wasn’t surprised. The girl was rotten to her core. I couldn’t even blame her. I was the one who had messed up over and over and over again. Perhaps she had even done me a favor. I wanted the best for Dylan and he was better off without me.

Tears rolled down my cheeks. It was the first time all day that I had stopped to think. Perhaps I had been running from my own conscience up until this moment. It suddenly seemed like too much to deal with. I had always thought of myself as a nice girl with a bright future. Somehow I had let that get all screwed up. I kept on hurting people like David and Dylan. Why?
Because I had thrown myself into the world of boys. Other girls like Missy had become jealous and acted out against me. That, in turn, had caused me to retaliate against them. I had gotten locked into a downward spiral of anger and revenge. So what was left for me? More retaliation against Missy? What would that accomplish?

I didn’t have answers to my own questions. All I knew was that I couldn’t go back. It was impossible to rewind history. I could, however, try to fix my mistakes going forward. That meant starting with David. If he was feeling emasculated, well, at least I knew a cure for that. The dark path I had unwittingly been walking down had taught me a few useful things.

I steeled myself and marched around the playground to where David and Payton were. David had all sorts of drawings on his body. His singlet was still rolled down to his waist. Payton was standing in front of him trying to wipe off the writing with a towel.

When they saw me David’s jaw tightened. Payton sighed in relief. “Thank goodness you are here,” she said. “Now we can get him free. The Churchill wrestlers had another key and they handcuffed him to this pole. There was no way I could... hey, what
are you doing with...”

As Payton spoke I grabbed a discarded piece of duct tape. I walked right up to David and put it across his mouth. He stared at me in shock.

“What are you doing?” Payton screeched in horror. “You’re putting the duct tape back on? Have you gone insane?”

David’s eyes were bulging out of his head. He certainly believed I had.

“Just relax,” I said, trying to sounds upbeat and confident despite that fact that it felt like my life was falling apart. “We’ll let him go eventually. I’ve got a little plan we need to set into motion first. Payton, we’re inviting the soccer girls over to have a bit of fun.”

“So explain to me what we’re doing here,” Lindsey said.

The soccer girls were all assembled in front of me – at least those who were able to slip out of their houses late on a Tuesday night.

“Remember when we had that little kiss competition with Graham?” I asked.

“Oh yes,” Sarah said wistfully. “How could one forget?”

“That was amazing,” Lindsey agreed. “It was like a dream come true.”

“That’s right,” I said. I avoided looking at Payton. She was glaring at me and I needed to stay positive. If I didn’t pitch my proposal well and get the girls excited, this was going to go down very badly. “And how do you think it made Graham feel?”

“I can tell you exactly how it made Graham feel,” Morgan said slyly.

I didn’t even want to consider what she was talking about. Morgan was not afraid to get dirty. Focus, Sadie. “Graham had an entire team of soccer girls wanting to make out with him. He felt amazing. What guy wouldn’t? That’s why I asked you to come here tonight. Earlier today Missy James helped a group of Churchill wrestlers kidnap a good friend of mine. The wrestlers humiliated him so now I need your help restoring his confidence. If you all were to want to make out with him, it would make him feel like Graham, like the king of the school.”

Payton frowned and opened her mouth as if she was going to protest.

Thankfully, Lindsey spoke first. “Who’s the boy?” she asked.

That’s what I had counted on. The memory of Graham grabbed the girls’ attention, the story of the Churchill wrestlers tugged at the girls’ heartstrings and ignited their outrage, and the mystery of the boy’s identity captured their curiosity.

I waited a moment, letting their imaginations run wild. Then I said, “David Reagan,” letting the words roll off my tongue with relish.

The girls whistled and smiled excitedly. David might not have Graham’s popularity but everyone liked him. The girls certainly liked his body.

“That sounds good to me,” Jenny said.
“As long as I can do more than just kiss him. That tight singlet has been teasing me for years. I’d really like to see what’s under it.”

“Are you sure we should be doing this?” Alyssa asked. “This doesn’t seem like something David will go for.”

“Right, ‘cause boys hate when girls hookup with them,” Lindsey said.

“That’s not been my experience,” Darcy said.

“We just can’t make it seem like we’re doing him a favor,” I said. “David is bashful and shy. He’ll only agree to this if he thinks he’s the one doing us the favor.”

“Leave it to me,” Lindsey said. “I know just what to say.”

David’s eyes showed sheer terror when all of us girls walked up to him and looked at him. I prayed Lindsey could pull this off. If not, David might be emotionally scarred for life.

Lindsey sauntered up to David in the sexiest walk I had ever seen her do. She pulled the duct tape off his mouth carefully. He opened his mouth – probably to yell at me – but Lindsey put a finger on his lips to silence him.

“Just listen to me for a moment, sweetie,” she said in a sultry voice. “The girls and I were talking and, you see, we have this problem. We realized that you are the nicest guy we know so we were wondering if you could maybe help us out. Well, actually, maybe just forget it, I feel stupid even asking.”

“
Wha... What is it?” David asked uncertainly. The poor boy didn’t know what else to say and he was too nice to refuse girls in need. Lindsey had played him perfectly.

“It’s sort of embarrassing,” Lindsey said. She stroked David’s arm seemingly absentmindedly as she talked. “It’s just that we don’t have much experience with, uh, cute boys like you.”

“Oh, uh, really?” David said.

“Yes,” Lindsey said dramatically, feigning dismay. “Do you know how difficult it is to approach hot boys when you’re a star soccer player? I mean, the cheerleaders and dancers have it easy. They are so petite and pretty that boys snap them up. Soccer players can be intimidating, however. We are so passionate, athletic, strong yet gentle, and beautiful that we scare boys off.”

“Too sexual for our own good, really,” Sarah added helpfully.

“Because of that we’ve become nervous and shy around boys,” Lindsey continued. She rubbed David’s shoulder and then stroked his chest. “And we wondered if you would be a gentleman and give us some education.”

David’s face looked like it was on fire. “Um, what, um, were you thinking?” he asked.

Lindsey looked up at the sky as though she were considering the question. Meanwhile, she let her hands stroke areas lower and lower on David’s body. David looked tense.
Very tense.

“Sorry, what was that?” Lindsey asked. She was now trailing her fingers along his lower abs. “Oh yes, sorry, I was just distracted by something for a moment. Seeing as how you are already all handcuffed and everything, we were wondering if you would let us practice being intimate with you. We’d go one at a time, of course, at least at first.” Lindsey played with the loose part of the singlet wrapped around David’s waist. “We could put the goggles back on so you wouldn’t know which one of us was with you at each time. Then we could try different types of kisses and things along those lines until we felt more comfortable. Would you be willing to make that sacrifice to help us out? We would really, really, really appreciate it.”

“Wow, I don’t think I...” David started to say.

The rest of his words were choked off because Lindsey’s hands absentmindedly dropped below David’s waist and began rubbing certain areas that were decidedly off limits in the presence of polite company.

“Please David,” she begged him. “You have no idea how intimidating it is to be a girl around male bodies as incredible and hard and sexy as yours. It would really be a wonderful favor to us.”

The rest of the girls jumped in with, “Please David!” and “Help us.”

David seemed a little short of breath when he said. “Uh, okay. I guess, yeah, of course, whatever you want.”

I shook my head in amazement. Boys could seem complicated at times but when it came to something physical they really were quite simple.

“Thank you!” Lindsey squealed. She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I promise you, you won’t regret this! Girls, let’s all be especially nice to David to thank him for this wonderful favor. Remember, if David tells you to stop at any time, you need to do it and then call us so we can let him loose. We will only continue for as long as he is up for it. Now Payton, the goggles, if you please?”

Once the goggles had been placed back over David’s eyes, Lindsey hustled all the girls to the other end of the playground.

“Okay, who wants to go first?” Lindsey asked.

The girls were whispering excitedly. When Lindsey asked the question all their hands shot up into the air. All, that was, except for Alyssa’s and Payton’s. Alyssa shook her head disapprovingly and Payton glared at me. Payton had apparently really connected with David and empathized with him. This was not like her at all. She opened her mouth like she was going to give me another lecture.

“How about you, Payton?” Lindsey said suddenly.

“Me?” Payton said in surprise. “I’m not a soccer player.”

“You’re a girl,” Lindsey pointed out, “and there’s a ridiculously hot shirtless guy handcuffed to a pole just over there. It wouldn’t be right to deprive you of that. Plus, you found him, so I think you should get to go first.”

Payton seemed to wrestle with the idea for a moment. Then, however, her desires got the better of her. The opportunity to do whatever she wanted to David without him knowing her identity was too much. “Okay,” she said, giving in. She walked around to where David was while the rest of the girls groaned and waited their turns impatiently.

I looked around at the girls and suddenly felt very alone. I didn’t want to be here. I just wanted to be home in my bed under my sheets where no one could bother me. I wanted to be someplace I could cry.

Finally I couldn’t take it anymore. “Here,” I said, holding out the key to the handcuffs to Lindsey. “You take this. I need to go home.”

Lindsey laughed. “Sometimes it sucks to have a boyfriend,” she said.

“I wouldn’t know,” I mumbled as she took the key.

“Hold up now,” Lindsey said. “What does that mean?”

I sighed. It was no use hiding it now. “Dylan and I broke up,” I said.

“Hmmm... Well, are we going after him?” Lindsey asked.   

“What?”

“Dylan,” Lindsey said. “Are we going to go after him and beat him down?”

I shook my head. “No,” I said. “I’m afraid this was
all my fault.”

“I see,” Lindsey said. “Well, in that case, stick around. You’re up next with David.”

“I’m really not in the mood,” I said.

Lindsey gave me a look like I was insane. “Sarah,” she said loudly, “what would you do if you had just broken up with your boyfriend and someone gave you a
smokin’ hot, nearly naked boy handcuffed to a pole?”

“I would jump for joy and go do some very naughty things to that boy,” Sarah said.

“Jenny?” Lindsey asked.

“I would do naughty things to him all night,” Jenny said.

“Darcy?” Lindsey prompted.

“I’d probably let him go,” Darcy said.

That caught Lindsey off guard. “What?” she asked in confusion. “Why?”

“So he could help me go beat up my ex,” Darcy said. “We’d start with his kneecaps. But why would anyone break up with me? It doesn’t make any sense.”

“I swear, sometimes I feel like we need to have you committed to some type of institution,” Lindsey said to Darcy. Then she turned her attention back to me. “Anyway, you get the point. You’re a free woman now. Trust me, there are downsides to that, but are definitely upsides as well. This is one of those upsides. I won’t take no for an answer. And look, there comes Payton now. It certainly seems like she enjoyed herself. Come on, you’re up.”

Payton had a dazed look on her face. She walked up to me. “I was wrong,” she said. “Screw his feelings. This was a great idea. His body is amazing.
So amazing. I’ve never felt anything like it before. You have to give it a try.”

I looked back and forth between
Payon and Lindsey. “You two are nuts,” I said. “I can’t believe you’re encouraging me.”

Lindsey smiled. “Have fun,” she said slyly.

I walked around the playground to where David was. I approached with trepidation. He certainly would not want me around him. He had said as much. Still, it was hard for me to resist this opportunity. I had never been more intimate with a boy than I had been earlier in the evening with Sam. That had taught me a lot about boys but I still had a healthy curiosity. What girl my age wasn’t curious about the opposite sex? As David’s body came into view I marveled at the way the light from a distant street lamp illuminated his body. The obscene writing was almost all gone now, wiped off by Payton’s towel and hands. Muscles protruded from his skin and then dipped back down into shadow, leaving some mystery yet to be discovered. When again would I have an opportunity to touch a boy without him knowing who I was? Would I ever have this type of freedom?

I knew I should turn back – it was the right thing to do – but a moment later I found myself standing directly in front of David. He had to know I was there; he must have heard me coming. As I stood there I realized I didn’t know how to start. Should I kiss him right away? Probably not, he might recognize my lips.

As I stood there debating to myself, I noticed that his mouth was opening and closing like he was going to say something but was unsure of what it should be. He looked nervous. For some reason, knowing that this stunningly beautiful boy was nervous in front of me gave me confidence. Perhaps if I got him excited before kissing him he wouldn’t have the presence of mind to identify me.

I walked behind him and the pole. I smelled his manly, musky scent. I wrapped my arms around him and began to stroke his body. I started with his
pecs. They felt so foreign to me – hard with firm edges. I felt his muscles tense as my fingers touched his skin. I wanted to tell him to relax but couldn’t with words so I tried to do it with my hands. I touched him confidently and messaged his muscles with my hands. Then I continued my exploration, moving on to his shoulders and back.

I loved the feeling of his muscles and how powerful they were. Even Sam could not compare to David. This was a boy who worked out every waking hour of the day when he was not in class and then tried to melt every ounce of fat off his body to make weight for his wrestling matches. To me, his effort had been well worth it. His body felt incredible.

I stepped around in front of him and began to inspect his abs. I felt the deep groove between his abs, comparing it to Sam’s. I let my fingers trace the valleys between each abdominal muscle. Then I leaned in and began to kiss his neck. As I did I reached around and grabbed his firm buttocks. He jumped a little then but I noticed that a few happy-sounding groans escaped his lips. He didn’t tell me to stop so I kept going.

I couldn’t restrain myself to his neck. I began to kiss the rest of his body. I loved the taste of his skin and the way he seemed to squirm and yet enjoy the feeling of my lips at the same time. He was clearly not used to this type of treatment and yet something inside of him instinctively wanted more. It was thrilling and amazing to see him start to transform from a boy into a sexual man right in front of my eyes.