Kiss List (4 page)

I heard a against the window. I looked around and saw my dad’s face staring in the car window.

Dylan let out a little squeak of panic and bolted out of the car. I felt my face get flushed and I gave a moan that sounded as if it had been emitted by a dying person. I slowly got out of my car.

My dad was giving Dylan a hard stare.

“Hi Mr. Anderson, sir, I, hi,” Dylan said.

My dad just continued to stare at him.

“I, I mean, I was just dropping Sadie off,” Dylan said.
“From the commons. I, uh, saw her at the commons. We were, uh, playing soccer.”

“Uh-huh,” dad said.

“Okay, well thanks for the ride Dylan,” I said. “Bye! Dad? Dad. Come on. Let’s go in the house.

Dylan didn’t need
anymore encouragement. He got back into his car so fast and was gone so fast that I would have missed it if I had blinked.

Dad shifted his dangerous stare to me. “Well this will certainly give us something to talk about at dinner tonight,” he finally said. “Yup, I think you and I are going to be having a nice long discussion.”

“Boys,” dad explained, “are a lot like dogs. You need to train them and if they get out of control you need to walk away.”

The message behind his words was clear. Making out with a boy was bad. Making out with a boy in the boy’s car was really bad. I needed to get it across that I did not want to make out in the boy’s car. If the boy still wanted to make out, I needed to leave.

Interspersed into dad’s lecture were vivid descriptions of how boys were fundamentally evil and strong warnings for me to stay away from them at all costs – at least until I reached an appropriate age “like 30.” Unfortunately for my dad, I disagreed with the very premise of his argument. Where he saw vicious attack dogs waiting to rip my throat out, I saw cute and cuddly puppies. Kissing Dylan had just fueled my desire to spend more time with boys. Dad’s lecture only succeeded in persuading me to make sure he wasn’t around when I did.

The girls, of course, were furious when I told them about Dylan. “But we didn’t discuss him,” Olivia exclaimed. “We didn’t put together a Dylan strategy. You got a kiss but no pictures and now your dad has scared him off. You might not be able to get him back.”

“Never again,” Payton said. “Your lack of planning and horny, carefree attitude nearly got us found out. You need to buckle down if you want to shack up.”

Eventually, the girls let up and it was decided that I would go back to the original plan and try to make something happen with David. I had moved too fast with Dylan, they said. Moving in on a friend without taking precautions had introduced my home life - in particular my father - to the equation. I needed to take a step back and hone my skills on David.

Then we spent the rest of the night dishing about what a jerk Sam was.

It wasn’t hard to find out when the next cross-country meet was; the team captains announced it on the morning announcements. I managed to convince my soccer coach to let me do the strength-training portion of our afternoon practice before school the following morning so I could get off early. Then Olivia and I went to the meet.

We arrived just in time to see the varsity boys run.
When the boys passed us at the three-kilometer mark David was in third place for the team and in 10th place overall. Not too shabby for someone just running as cross-training for wrestling. Olivia and I screamed and cheered as loudly as we could when we saw him but his face had a look of intense determination on it and I don’t think he even noticed us.

“Well,” Olivia said when they were gone, “this is a boring sport. All they do is run and we just get to see them for a few seconds. The boy better appreciate our effort. Let’s go find him. There were a few cute runners from our team, maybe we can find someone for me as well.”

We found David at the aid station after the finish line. He was downing water from a tiny paper cup and had a dissatisfied expression on his face. I knew that look. It was the same one I wore after a soccer game when I didn’t think I had done my best even if the team had won. Competitive athletes could be very hard on themselves.

I felt excited but nervous as I thought about walking up to David. I had already kissed two boys now but somehow I was still intimidated by David. He was normally shockingly good looking and he even looked hotter now after his race. His sweat made his blond hair curl at his temples and his skin shine, showing of the contours of his muscles. He was the kind of guy who did not realize just how attractive he was. He didn’t have Sam’s swagger or Dylan’s playfulness but his innocent, aw-shucks style made a lot of girls I knew want to do not-so-innocent things to
him. Once again I felt like a little girl about to approach a perfect guy who was way out of my league.

Olivia broke off and started talking to one of the other “cute” runners as I walked up to David. At first he looked at me with glazed, unfocused eyes and an uncomprehending expression. Then he blinked in surprise and stared at me more carefully.

“Sadie,” he said. “What are you doing here? Come to cheer us on?”

“Of course,” I said. I thought about what Alyssa had said about complementing him. “I told you that I wanted to see you run. You did so well! That was pretty amazing.”

“Ah,” he said, waving his hand dismissively, “it wasn’t a great day for me. I had been hoping for a PR.”

“You were still in the top ten when you came by me,” I said. “That’s pretty impressive considering this is your secondary sport. If all the other boys had to carry your big wrestler muscles around, they would be a lot slower.”

David gave me a shy smile. I could tell that he was pleased I had called him strong, though he was far too modest to follow up on it. “Yeah,” he said, “I just can’t wait for wrestling season.”

We talked for 10 minutes as he got some more water and put on his sweats. Finally, with his coach’s third warning that he needed to go for a cool-down immediately with the rest of the guys, he thanked me for coming and said goodbye.

I figured I had made a pretty good start with David. I went to find Olivia but discovered that the little hussy had moved onto flirting with boys from an opposing school. I sighed. Not wanting to interfere with Olivia’s game, I waited a little distance away. Five minutes passed. 10 minutes. Maybe she didn’t see me. I walked into her line of vision behind the boy she was talking to. She remained stubbornly fixated on him but still managed to give me a distinctly dismissive wave. Her meaning was obvious:
I came all this way after school for you so you can darn well give me this
.

“Hey Sadie, couldn’t get enough of me?” a voice asked after another 10 minutes had gone by.

I turned to find David standing behind me. “My friend is too busy flirting with the enemy,” I said with a nod to Olivia. “Looks like I’m stuck here for another few minutes.”

David chuckled. “I’m just going to stretch, he said, “but you’re welcome to talk to me until she’s ready to go.”

Great. Now I was the lame dork waiting for her friend and David had to do me a favor to save me from losing face. That was not how I wanted to position myself to him.

We picked up our conversation again. I realized I had reached a critical juncture. In his mind, David was trying to sort out whether I was a friend or whether I had the potential to become something more. I could see that he was leaning towards the friend category, growing increasingly comfortable as he talked and joked with me as he would an old pal. It was easy for us to get along this way because we seemed to be on the same wavelength.
Too easy. If I was going to turn this into something romantic, I needed to do it quickly.

My opportunity came a few minutes later and I almost missed it when it did. “
Argh,” David grunted as he stretched, “I’m sore.”

“Legs?”
I asked absentmindedly as I tried to think up some excuse to comment on his sexy body again.

“No, my back,” he said. “I get stressed at meets and my back gets knotted up. It’s really tight. Know of any good stretches to loosen it up?”

I thought about that for a moment. “No,” I finally answered. “I think only a massage can work the knots out.”

“Oh man, that’d be amazing,” he said wistfully. Then he laughed. “Not a lot of back rubbing going on in an all-male team. Guys are a bit squeamish about that stuff.”

That’s when I realized that all the pieces had suddenly and perfectly come together. I had the perfect excuse to put my hands all over his body and make him associate me with a warm, relaxed, fuzzy feeling.

“I’ll give you a massage,” I blurted out.

He looked at me in surprise. “You will?” he asked a bit incredulously. We still didn’t know each other that well and I think he was slightly terrified about the idea of an unknown girl feeling him up.

I didn’t give his shy self an opportunity to reassert itself. “Of course,” I said quickly. “Take off your jacket.”

David hesitated for a moment but then did as I instructed. I sat down on the ground cross legged and motioned for him to sit down in front of me. He stripped off his cool-down jacket, revealing only his running singlet underneath, and sat down.

I laid my hands on his shoulders and marveled how rock hard his muscles were. This boy definitely did his pushups. I ran my hands across his back and felt the tension in his muscles.

“Relax,” I said soothingly. I felt him exhale and saw his shoulders sag slightly.

I started by kneading his neck and shoulder muscles with my hands. Then I explored his back, seeking out knots. When I found one I attacked it vigorously. I flexed my fingers and hands as hard as I could. David grunted as I pressed harder and harder.

“Is that hurting too much?” I asked.

“No, it’s good,” David said. I didn’t think he would have admitted it if it did hurt too much but he genuinely seemed to be enjoying it. His back was relaxing more and more as I massaged it and his grunts seemed to evolve into moans of pleasure. His head began to roll around and I thought his eyes were closed. He had gone from feeling self conscious to not caring; it felt too good.

Finally, David was too relaxed to sit up straight. He sagged against me. That didn’t give me enough room to continue to rub his back so I turned my attention back to his shoulders. Then, taking a chance, I massaged his pecks and his head. He leaned back heavily against me as my fingers combed through his hair and worked his scalp. Some people held tension and stress in their scalps and for them a head massage was like flipping a magic switch. David was definitely one of those people.

I looked around and saw that many people were now staring at us. David’s teammates were smirking, pointing as us, and making comments to each other. Several of the female spectators were looking at me enviously. No doubt they wished they could not put their hands all over David’s body as well. Sorry girls – at least for now, he was mine. Olivia had finally returned from talking to the boys on the other teams and subtly walking around with her phone held low in her hands as if taking photos. Did she think we were going to kiss right there in front of everyone?

My abdominal muscles were now starting to feel sore from the effort of supporting David. He leaned back a little farther as though he had just fallen asleep and my muscles suddenly gave out. I fell backwards and straightened my legs as his body fell gently on top of me.

“Sorry,” David said as he turned around, pushed himself up on his arms, and looked down at me. Then he froze. I was trapped underneath him. For a moment it felt like we were the only two people on earth. Then he lowered his head and his lips touched mine. We kissed and the sensation of his strong powerful body on top of me felt good, like a protective blanket. An extremely hot protective blanket with beautiful blue eyes, tussled blond hair, an enchanting smile, six pack abs, hard muscles...

“Oh, I... sorry,” David said as he pulled his hips away. “I...” his eyes got a startled look as if just realizing what he was doing. The magic of the moment evaporated and the rest of the world - and all the people in it who were watching us intently - came crashing down on us.

“It’s fine...” I started to say, desperate to reassure him.

“No, I... I’m sorry,” he muttered. He looked around and saw everyone staring at us. “Thanks for coming,” he said, barely above a whisper.

He bolted away before I could respond.

I was getting a reputation. On Tuesday morning when I got to school Alyssa rushed up to greet me at my locker. “Molly Tate said you and David Reagan were practically having sex at the cross-country running meet,” she said breathlessly.

“Oh come on,” I said in exasperation. “Molly Tate wasn’t even there. David and I just kissed. That’s all. I’m sure Olivia showed you the pictures she took.”

Gossip from Molly was just the beginning. My lab partner Lilly Wong asked if it was true that I had beat a girl up at the baseball diamond on the weekend. Sarah Thomas and Lindsey Ramen, two seniors from my soccer team, teased me about dating Dylan. By the time lunch rolled around, romantic rumors linking me to Sam, Dylan, and David were all flying
around. That’s when people started connecting the rumors, transforming them from tiny snowballs into full-fledged avalanches capable of wreaking mass teenage destruction.

“I’ve got your back,” Payton said at lunch, “but there’s a bunch of angry sophomore cheerleaders who think you cheated on Sam with both Dylan and David. They really like Sam. I’m pretty sure they were making shanks out of their school supplies and if they rush you at once I’m going to let them have you. I’m not going down like that. Those crazy girls can get real mean.”

“Melissa Hoffman said she was going to kill you for breaking Dylan’s heart,” Alyssa said, wide eyed. “She sounded very serious. It was scary.”

“Yeah, and Tim and Mike said you better not hurt David,” Olivia said.
“Something about him being really sensitive and you being his first girlfriend. They got word that you were seeing other guys and told me to tell you to be straight with David.”

“Are you girls hearing yourselves?” I exclaimed. “This is crazy. I’m not dating any of these boys. It was all just a silly game. We need to stop this now.”

Payton opened her mouth to respond but just then Sam walked up to the table. A group of boys hung back a little ways behind him. Why did he always seem to have a posse following him around?

“Sadie, can I talk to you?” he said quietly and a little sullenly.

I immediately felt bad about the way I had treated him. He might not have taken care of me at the baseball diamond but I was the reason this had all started. I had sort of led him on and he deserved an explanation.

“Of course,” I said to him as gently as I could. “Do you want to talk right now, or...
”

“Sadie,” Dylan said, suddenly appearing on the other side of the table. “I need to apologize for...”

When the two boys saw each other they froze. Neither seemed to know quite how to act towards the other one. What had they heard? If the rumors flying around were any indication, it probably wasn’t good.

“Do you two know each other?” I asked uneasily. “Sam, this is...”

“I know who he is,” Sam said, interrupting me. He didn’t sound happy.

Dylan’s eyes narrowed. “And I know who you are,” he said. “You’re a
chickenshit little underclassman who doesn’t know how to be respectful to girls.”

“Dylan!” I said quickly, desperate to neutralize the situation.

Too late. Sam’s eyes had lit up with fury as soon as Dylan said the word “chickenshit.” His face grew red, he bit his lower lip and clenched his jaw, and then he started moving. He took three quick strides around the table. Dylan only hesitated for a moment before following suit. The word “Dylan!” had barely faded from my lips when Dylan reached out to shove Sam. Sam didn’t bother with a shoving match. He led with his right fist. Dylan’s hands landed on Sam’s shoulder’s just as Sam’s fist connected with Dylan’s jaw.

One of the girls screamed as Dylan’s head snapped back. Sam stumbled a few paces but recovered as Dylan staggered around clutching his face. Then chaos broke out. One of the soccer boys rushed past Dylan and dove at Sam. Sam tried to jump out of the way but the boy got a hold of Sam’s shirt and they both tumbled to the ground. Sam was on top, however, and I saw his arm plunging up and down as he pummeled the other boy.

That’s when boys from all over the lunch room rushed in to aid the soccer players. Unfortunately, Sam’s friends were already there and they were not about to stand idle while everyone ganged up on Sam. The fight magnified to 10 then 15 and then 20 boys. Soon there were too many to count. It seemed like the entire lunchroom had gone crazy with blood lust. I looked around for the other girls but they had quickly been overrun by the mob. I felt boys press in around me as they fought each other.

“Sadie. Sadie!” someone yelled. Then David appeared at my side, shouldering past two baseball players. “Are you okay?” he asked with a worried expression.

“Yeah,” I said, trying to keep the fear out of my voice. “I just don’t know how to stop this.”

“You can’t,” David said. “Look, the teachers and hall monitors are trying. Leave it to them. Let’s get you out of this mess."

I looked around and saw that he was right. Principal Everett and several teachers and hall monitors were yelling at students around the edges of the battle. Principal Everett’s voice had become shrill as she warned the students of the repercussions of not stopping. At least for now, no one paid any attention to her. But David was right. There was nothing I could do to stop this fight. My presence might even aggravate the situation and being in the middle of everything put David in danger. We needed to get out. I nodded in agreement.

“Follow me!” he said. He grabbed my hand and pulled me after him through the mess of people. That’s when I saw Dylan lying on the ground with blood streaming from his nose.

“Dylan!” I cried as I stooped down to help him. As I knelt I saw one of the baseball guys about to kick him. “No!” I screamed.

David moved like lightening. He grabbed the guy’s knee and twisted and swept it with his leg so that the guy went toppling to the ground with David on top of him. Another baseball player rushed to help his fallen comrade but David leapt up to meet him and tackled him and the waist. The second player went down as fast the first had.

I pulled Dylan protectively into my chest and cradled his head. “David, watch out!” I yelled as a third baseball player jumped on top of David. Fear seized my heart but David spun quickly on the ground and somehow the guy ended up underneath him. David twisted the guy’s arm and the guy yelled in pain. David rolled off of him.

I breathed a sigh of relief as David started to get up again. He had taken on three of Sam’s baseball goons, whooped them, and emerged without a scratch. Thank goodness. I would have died if something bad would have happened to him because of me.

Then Sam suddenly appeared out of the crowd directly behind David. His face was red and had scratches on it. His shirt was torn and he seemed out of breath and tired. When he looked down at Dylan in my arms, however, his anger seemed to reignite. Then he saw David. David had just gotten to all fours in the process of getting up. Sam got a wild, evil smile on his face as he looked from David to me.

“Sam, don’t!” I screamed.

His evil smile only grew. “This one’s for you,” he said in a hoarse voice. Then he planted his front foot, swung his leg back as far as it would go, and drove his foot directly between Sam’s legs.

I play soccer. If the keeper had delivered that kick on a soccer field, the ball would have flown from the net to the halfway line. It was powerful enough to lift David a few inches up into the air. He landed in a heap.

“Hah. Hah!” Sam cried manically. “How do you like that?” he screamed at me. “You played me. You made me look like a fool. I take you out one time and you yell at my friends and embarrass me in front of them. Then you go off an make a scene with other guys.” His eyes almost seemed to be glistening with tears. Then he smiled. “Well, you can have them. You can have broke-nose and numb nuts. See how much action you get from them now.”

I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t scream. I was too horrified at his sudden display of evil and the thought that I caused it. I wanted to wake up and discover that this had all been one bad nightmare.

“Hey!” someone said and clapped a hand on Sam’s shoulder. Sam turned around just in time to see Aaron Caldwell’s fist slam into his face. Sam fell to the ground in a heap. Aaron shook his hand as though the punch had been so hard it hurt his knuckles.

Aaron looked down at me and took in Dylan and David. I felt like some type of barbaric beast who had just been discovered by a civilized human being.

“Give him to me,” Aaron said.

“What?” I managed to croak. I had no idea what he meant.

“Give Dylan to me,” Aaron said. “I’ll get him out of here. You take the wrestler and do the same. Quickly. These guys have been through enough with having to get suspended or expelled.” He nodded to David. “Get him some ice and have him put it on his boys. Stay with him and if the swelling doesn’t go down after a while take him to the school office and get them to call a doctor. Now go!”

It took me a moment to process everything Aaron said. By then Aaron had grabbed a hold of Dylan. He lifted Dylan into the air, slung him over his shoulder, and dashed through the crowd. I looked at David. He was still lying in a heap and moaning and clutching his groin. Then I saw Principal Everett over the heads of the students. She looked angry and was forcing her way through the mob in our direction.

I needed to make a split-second decision. Should I stay and get David some help and risk Principal Everett’s wrath? Should I flee? Or should I try to escape with David before Everett reached us?

I was rooted to the spot as David’s moans filled my ears and the principal’s angry face grew closer. I had no idea what to do.