Kiss List (18 page)

“So you just walked away?” Olivia asked furiously.

“What was I supposed to do?” I said. “He told me that he didn’t want me there.”

“Hmmm... Ryan must be in love with someone else,” Olivia said thoughtfully. I had no doubt about whom she hoped he was in love with.

“That’s settled then,” Payton said. “He’s in love with you so now we can move on to Jamal.”

“Oh no,” Olivia said. “We’re going to try this again. I want to find out more about Ryan before I make my move.”

“Can we talk about this later?” I asked. “We should really get to class. The lunch period is almost over.”

“Chicken,” Olivia said. “We’re going to talk about this soon.”
With that, she hurried away to class. Not even boys could make Olivia late for an opportunity to learn something.

Payton shook her head. “That girl is nuts. She’s obsessed. I’ll bet Ryan isn’t even into girls, if you know what I mean.”

“As much as that would make me feel better, I think a more reasonable explanation is that he just isn’t into me,” I said. “I think he’s heard about my reputation and has wisely decided to stay as far away from me as possible.”

Payton argued against that assertion, of course, but my mind wandered. I needed Alyssa around to talk to. She was my rock, providing a moderating influence to counter Payton’s brusqueness and Olivia’s eccentricity. Lately, though, she had been spending a lot of time with Sarah Thomas. That surprised me; I had never noticed that Alyssa and Sarah were close before. Alyssa had always been my best friend while Sarah and Lindsey, who were both seniors, were best friends with each other. Why would Alyssa promise to find out if Aaron liked me and then spend all her time with Sarah? As far as I could see Sarah had nothing to do with Aaron. Perhaps Alyssa was just as disturbed as everyone else by my kiss list behavior and had decided to move on.

“Yo, Anderson!”

Payton and I stopped walking and I looked around, trying to figure out who was yelling for me. Lindsey jogged up to me. “Hey Ramen,” I said, copying her use of my last name. “What’s up?”

“Well, these couple kiss adventures we’ve had with Graham and David had gotten me kinda excited,” Linday said. “Okay, a lot excited. I haven’t had this much action since I was dating Troy as these boys are so much better than Troy ever was! So anyway, I got to thinking, why stop? Why not kidnap another boy and keep this going?”

That’s just what I needed, more boys to get in trouble with. “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea,” I said hesitantly. “Who would the target be?”

“Go big or go home, I always say,” Lindsey said with a twinkle in her eye. “Who’s the hottest boy in the school? Whose abs could you wash clothes on? Whose eyes are capable of looking deep into your soul while he makes your heart pound so fast you think it’s going to explode?”

I was mystified but Payton caught on immediately. “You’re talking about Aaron Caldwell,” she said.

“Bingo!” Lindsey cried excitedly. “Aaron is having some guys over for drinks and a poker game tonight at his house. He’s got some relatives who have come back from Europe to his parents’ hometown to celebrate Thanksgiving early and his parents are going to be gone visiting them. It’s just going to be Aaron and his friends at home and Noah Cafferty said he would let us in.”

“What did you have to promise
Cafferty to swing that?” Paton asked.

Lindsey shrugged. “I said I would fix him up with Darcy,” she said.

Payton shuddered. “That’s a terrifying idea,” she said. “Can you imagine what their children would be like? There should be a law against the two of them procreating.”

The rest of their conversation washed over me. My attention was decidedly elsewhere. For the first time I dared to think that it might be possible to kiss Aaron with no strings attached. I wondered what his lips felt like. I desperately wanted to find out. Then another idea occurred to me. “Lindsey,” I said. “Did you come with the idea to kiss Aaron all on your own?”

Lindsey thought about it for a moment. “No,” she finally said. “I guess Sarah mentioned it to me first. I just thought it was a brilliant idea and ran with it.”

Alyssa. Suddenly it was all clear to me. Lindsey was forceful, hard-headed, and a leader. Sarah was the opposite but Lindsey still listened to her because they were best friends. Alyssa must have gone through Sarah to get to Lindsey to organize this. Yes, Alyssa finger prints were all over the plan. There was no way anyone could blame it on me; they’d have to trace it from Lindsey to Sarah to Alyssa back to me and there was no way anything was getting through Alyssa. The girl was an evil genius.

“Sure, I’m in, that sounds cool,” I said in my best nonchalant voice. Inside, I was so excited and nervous that I wanted to burst.

The remainder of the day passed at an excruciatingly slow pace. I didn’t have any classes with Alyssa so I couldn’t see her until the end of the day. When I finally did catch her in the hallway, I slammed into her with such a fierce hug that I nearly knocked both of us over.

“A kiss competition with Aaron Caldwell? Why didn’t you tell me you were working on that?” I exclaimed.  

“I didn’t know if I could make it happen,” Alyssa said with a laugh. “You’re not mad?”

“Mad? It’s brilliant,” I said. “What are you planning now? How are we going to find out if Aaron likes me? What arrangements are you making?”

Alyssa opened her mouth to answer me but just then Sarah walked up and began chatting with her. We couldn’t shake Sarah until it was time to head home. Payton was giving me a ride so I reluctantly left Alyssa.

I started trying on clothes as soon as I got home. Dad had to come up to my room and pound on my door to get me to come down for dinner. Ultimately, I decided on the same top and pair of jeans I wore to school. It was better to play it cool and not make it looked like I had given any special thought to the occasion.

I gave Dad the usual story about going to Alyssa’s house to study. I was excited when Alyssa arrived to pick me up, hoping that I would finally get the details of what she had planned, but when I walked to the car I saw that Lindsey and Sarah were already inside. Sarah must have convinced Alyssa to give them a ride.

“Let’s go!” Lindsey called out the window as I walked up to the car. “There’s a hot boy that needs kissing and a few girls who need to get out of this flower car before anyone sees them.”

“What’s wrong with my car?” I heard Alyssa ask.

“Nothing, it’s beautiful,” Lindsey said. “Now come Anderson, get in this piece of junk so we can get moving.”

My nervousness grew the closer we got to Aaron’s house. Just the thought of being in his house made me excited and uncomfortable at the same time. Would he be happy to see us? Or would he think that we were being stupid and tell us to leave? The more I thought about it, the more doubts I started to have. I always thought about things too much. Why couldn’t I be like other girls who instinctively seemed to know what to do and say around guys? I doubted Missy would have felt nervous while going over to Aaron’s house.

Aaron lived in a modest house on a quiet suburban street of Lakeville. As soon as his house was in sight Lindsey took her phone out and started texting. Doors to dark cars parked all around the street suddenly opened and girls started piling out. I gasped when I saw how many of them there were. This wasn’t just the varsity soccer team. It looked like Lindsey had invited the JV and freshman teams as well.

‘“Lindsey, what are all these girls doing here?” I asked.

“With the soccer season over, I thought it would be fun to do one last thing together with all the soccer girls. You know, something they will remember in future years,” Lindsey said. “Don’t worry though. I’ll make sure only the varsity girls get time alone with Aaron. The younger girls can learn the ropes and who knows, maybe they can hook up with some of the other guys at the party, but they need to learn their place. Aaron is ours.”

The rest of the girls filled in behind us as we walked up to the front door. They all looked too eager for my liking. How was I supposed to stand out to Aaron with all these girls around? For that matter, how could I stop them from all kissing Aaron? Lindsey could say that she would control things all she wanted but I knew how girls could get around a boy as hot as Aaron. They would stampede over her if they needed to. I wished I could talk to Alyssa to find out what her plan was but there was no opportunity to pull her aside privately.

Lindsey stopped on the front porch. Instead of knocking on the door she started texting on her phone again. A few moments later the front door opened inward to reveal Noah’s grinning face.

Noah looked us over and then saw Darcy. “Hey Darcy,” he said with a smirk.

“Oh yeah, Darcy, I promised Noah I’d make you go out with him,” Lindsey said in a bored voice.

Darcy clasped her hands over her heart as if she was touched. “You sold your friend out for me?” she said to Noah.

Noah nodded. “Absolutely. You’re hot.”

Darcy looked like she was about to cry with happiness.

“Okay, that’s enough of that,” Lindsey said. “Now get out of the way Cafferty. Where’s the hottie?”

“Downstairs,” Noah said.

“What’s the plan here?” I asked. “How are we going to do this?” I hoped Alyssa would be the one to answer.

“Simple,” Lindsey said. “We’re going to go downstairs and start giving the boys a hard time. I’ll find the right moment to draw Aaron off and then convince him to agree to a kissing competition. It’s like soccer; the best plans are sometimes the simplest ones.”

I shifted uncomfortably, suddenly questioning my decision not to wear something more flattering and feminine. I needed to make sure I looked good and maybe see if I could freshen up. “You go ahead,” I said. “I just need to use the restroom.”

Noah pointed to a hallway. “The bathroom is down there, just past Aaron’s bedroom,” he said.

I walked down the hallway. I heard the girls head downstairs as Lindsey shushed their excited murmurs and giggles. The hallway was narrow and dark except for a sliver of light shining out from beneath the third door on the left. Somebody was in it. I pressed my ear to the door and heard the sounds of running water like someone was taking a shower. That didn’t make sense. This was a boy’s poker party. Why would anyone be taking a shower?

Then my mind flashed back to when David had told me that putting
IcyHot in another boy’s jockstrap was a common prank. Who knows what other types of bizarre pranks boys liked to play on each other? Maybe during the poker game one of the boys had dumped a beer on another boy or shoved his face into a cake or something. I certainly didn’t pretend to understand the way boys thought or what they did. Regardless, Noah had said that Aaron was downstairs so it had to be another boy. I could wait a minute for the bathroom. I realized that I was now jumping at any opportunity I could to delay but perhaps the extra time would be enough for me to get my nerves under control.

Just past Aaron’s bedroom
. The words rang in my ears. I looked back at the door I had just walked past. Was this Aaron’s bedroom? I suddenly had an urge to look inside it. What kinds of posters did Aaron have on the wall? What pictures did he have? Did it smell as good as he did? Did he have things from his childhood – maybe a teddy bear stuffed in a corner or a baby blanket? Who knew, maybe he even had bunny footie pajamas like I did.

My curiosity was killing me. I wanted to know more about Aaron. He always seemed so cool and perfect on the outside. Maybe if I saw what he had in his bedroom, if I found something that humanized him, I wouldn’t be so intimidated by him.

I had made up my mind. If I got caught in his bedroom I could say that I was looking up for the bathroom or something along those lines. I knocked on the door hesitantly. No one replied. I pushed the door open. It was dark inside.

“Hello?” I called out. No one answered. Here goes nothing. I flipped on the light.

The bedroom was definitely a boy’s room. Sports pennants and several framed and signed soccer jerseys adorned the walls. A pair of jeans and a shirt was slung over a desk chair. An empty beer bottle was sitting by a laptop computer and a couple model airplanes on the desk. The bed was unmade. The colors of blue, grey, and brown were prominent. This was no sign of anything girlie in this room.

I noticed some pictures on one of the shelves and walked over to take a closer look. The pictures showed a cute blond-haired little boy playing soccer. There was a folded-up newspaper article from more recent years that mentioned Aaron as one “stars” of the Lakeville Pirates High School soccer team. Other similar newspaper articles were piled up underneath it. They appeared well worn, as if someone had read them multiple times. That was surprising. It was one thing to enjoy a bit of media coverage but to read the articles over and over again seemed vain.

Then something else caught my eye. I turned in surprise to see a large cutout of a model wearing a bikini taped to the wall. Ugh, was that the kind of girl that Aaron found attractive? She didn’t look anything like me. She was definitely athletic but she some sort of exotic ethnicity. Perhaps from one of the tropical islands in the Pacific. Her breasts were enormous and eyes were smoldering. How could I ever compete with that?

I rested a hand on the nightstand and leaned on my arm. I wasn’t paying too much attention to what I was doing, however, and I accidentally knocked a stack of magazines onto the floor. I swore. Just perfect, my clumsiness seemed to kick in at the worst times. I knelt down and started to pick up the magazines. It was hard though; several had slid far under the bed. I squeezed my upper body further under the bed. I realized I must look like an idiot with my butt
sticking up in the air and half my body squeezed under a bed but I could nearly reach the last magazines. Just a bit farther...