Kiss Me (5 page)

“What do you mean?”

“He told me that’s why he had so many girlfriends last year. When he knew they weren’t right, he’d break up with them. He doesn’t want me. Maybe we’ll be friends, though. He seems nice. And he’s, like, the most beautiful boy I’ve ever met, and that’s saying a lot since I grew up around Hollywood.”

“You like him,” she says in a singsong voice, teasing me.

“He doesn’t like me, so I can’t really like him,” I sing back.

Aiden runs down the field past me, leaps up and catches a pass thrown by Logan, the gold team quarterback. He was wide open and runs the ball a few yards for a touchdown. Then he runs right back by me and says, “Boots, how about I get a dance for every point I score?” 

“Uh, sure,” I say, and then nervously shake my red and gold metallic pompoms.

“We’re supposed to be cheering for the Red team, Keatyn,” Peyton laughs.

“But they’re all our guys. Shouldn’t we cheer for both sides? And you have to cheer for your brother!”

“You know, he’s gonna score a lot of points. I told you, he likes you. And now you owe him six dances. Oh, wait.” She watches him drill an extra point through the uprights and says, “Make that seven.”

I scream. Shake my pompoms. Shake my ass. It’s a really fun scrimmage. 

Because of Dawson’s major hangover, he plays poorly. At one point, he walks behind the bench and throws up on the turf. I feel sorta sorry for him. It’d suck to be in love with someone like Whitney. 

Tyrese plays well. He’s a running back and has this little stutter step before he cuts in a certain direction that no one can seem to guard. Plus, he’s pretty big and hard to knock down. Katie has been cheering her heart out. She’s a bit hung over herself. She didn’t take my advice on the only have two drinks thing. Dallas plays defense, linebacker for the gold team. He has some great tackles and sacks Dawson like four times. Coach finally takes Dawson out, and Riley comes in as the red team quarterback. 

And then there’s Aiden. I don’t know how it happens, but the Gold team, specifically Logan and Aiden, get on a roll. Aiden catches twelve passes and scores on three of them. He kicks five extra points and two field goals. 

Meaning I owe him twenty-nine freaking dances.

After the game, I’m standing with a group of dancers when he comes strolling up, helmet off, hair sexily messed. He even looks beautiful when he’s all sweaty and gross.

He grins at me. 

“So, you scored quite a few points out there. You don’t have to dance with me twenty-nine times. I know you said your dance card was already full.”

He stops walking and stands really close to me. “No,
you
said my dance card was full. And now it is. With you. Twenty-nine dances. That pretty much makes you my date.”

“I promised I’d dance with a couple other people.”

“Fine. Dance with them at the start of the dance. I want all twenty-nine in a row. And then I’m going to kiss you again.”

Pledge my undying love to you.

Ask you to marry me. 

Have my babies.

Oh, wait. Sorry. There my imagination goes again.

He glances down at my barely-there dance uniform, raises his eyebrows in amusement, and says, “I saw you cheering for me. You were excited I scored, weren’t you? Can’t wait to dance with me all night.”

“I was standing next to your sister. I
had
to cheer for you,” I tease.

“See you tonight, Boots.”

Glitter whores.

6 pm

Peyton and I are standing in the coffee shop line after the game. 

Whitney struts up to us. “Who picked out the uniforms this year? For God’s sake, you look like glitter whores.” 

Peyton stands up a little straighter and says, “The guys really seem to like them.”

“I suppose. Guys are dogs. Are you going to introduce me to the new girl?”

“Uh, sure. Whitney, this is Keatyn Monroe.”

“Nice to meet you,” she says. “Peyton, why don’t you go on. Let us girls get to know each other.”

Oh boy. I know what this means. Queen Bees never say anything mean in front of anyone. They’re like politicians. Plausible deniability. If no one heard it, it didn’t happen. 

I put on my fake smile and stand and wait. This should be good.

Peyton nods, puts her head down, and says to me, “You did good your first time out there. Have fun tonight.”

What the hell is wrong with Peyton? She’s confident until she gets around Whitney. Why does she put up with her shit?

But I guess I can’t say much. I was the same way with Vanessa.

As soon as Peyton’s out of earshot, Whitney says, “Heard you kissed Dawson.”

“I . . .”

Her voice drips with venom. “Stay away from him. He’s mine.”

I take a deep breath. I know what I’m about to do is going to piss her off. But I don’t care. She has a college boyfriend, supposedly, was making out with Jake, is making Dawson miserable, and she has the nerve to tell me to stay away from him? Uh, no. No one is ever going to tell me again who I can and cannot date.

“You were kissing Jake at the party. Why do you even care?”

“Look, I don’t know who you think you are, but I can make your life miserable here. Stay away from him.”

I’m Abby fucking Johnston’s daughter
is what I want to say. 

But I don’t need that. 

I’m going to make it on my own. 

And my own knows how to play the one-up-you game quite well.

“You don’t have to worry. I don’t want what you have. Besides, my boyfriend already graduated from college.” Well, my ex-boyfriend. But those are just details.

Then I turn on my heel and walk away from her, purposely shaking my glitter whore ass for all the boys in the coffee shop.

Knock his socks off.

7pm

I’m in the dance locker room, eating pizza with the most of the girls on the dance team. We’re laughing and getting ready for the dance. I don’t know many of the girls very well yet, but my initial impression is that they all seem to be very friendly. I’ve been surprised that I have yet to hear one catty comment from anyone. They all seem to get along and have gone out of their way to make me, Katie, and Bethany, the other new member of the team, feel welcome. 

My first day here, I looked casual in the knit dress, the cowboy boots, and straight hair. For the carnival, I looked mostly sweet. The little print dress. My hair in a pouf. The leopard wedges definitely gave it an edge, but mostly I’ve looked like a good girl. 

Tonight, I’m going to give them a different Keatyn. I’m wearing an Herve Leger black bandage dress. Mom wore this dress to a premiere in London last year. Kym told me I should pack it and wear it tonight for the dance. That it would look killer on me, which is good. The dress has a plunging halter neckline and a body-hugging design that leaves nothing hidden. Every curve of my body is amplified in this dress. And it’s ass-skimmingly short. But, actually, a little longer than the dance team dress I just took off. My shoes are black platform peep-toe Louboutins covered with studs. Tough girl shoes. The only jewelry I’m wearing is my locket and a large silver cuff bracelet. 

I’m curling my hair into a riot of big, sexy, just-got-out-of-bed-but-my-hair-looks-ah-mazing supermodel curls. 

I do my make up simply, with pretty pink lips and blush, but then add dark, smoky eyes.

I think I look pretty damn good.

At least I’m feeling kinda sexy.

Tonight I look like a bad girl. 

And that’s good because somehow I have to get through twenty-nine dances with the God of all Hotties. 

And I really want to knock his socks off, and maybe a few other articles of clothing as well.

Twenty-nine songs.

8:30pm

I go to the dance with Katie and Maggie, another cool girl from the dance team. Peyton ditched us to go get ready with Whitney and crew. Which is typical. I don’t care one way or another, but I am glad I don’t have to walk in here alone. We make a pretty good-looking entrance. Katie looks cute in a slinky royal blue dress that shows off her ample cleavage. Maggie is wearing a gorgeous copper-colored dress. It looks really pretty against her auburn hair and tanned skin.

I’m looking for Aiden when Dallas walks right past me, gives me a complete look over, and then walks away.

“Dallas!” 

He turns around, looks confused for a second, and then says, “Holy shit, Kiki! Look at you! I didn’t even recognize you. You look freaking hot!”

“I think you owe me a dance.”

“Hell yeah, I do.”

He leads me out to the dance floor. Grinds with me. Jumps around crazily. I should have known he’d be fun to dance with. I dance a long DJ remix of songs with him. 

Then another. 

Finally he says, “I’m dying of thirst.”

We walk to the drink table and grab a couple bottles of water. “Hey, you wanna go to the cave later?”

“Maybe. Did you hear I owe Aiden like thirty dances?”

“I heard it was twenty-nine. One for every point he scored.”

“You hear
way
too much.”

“Well, I’m more worried about what I didn’t hear.”

“What’s that?”

“I didn’t hear what happened with you and Riley this morning. Other than that he brought you coffee in bed and planned on not letting you out of it.”

“Nothing happened.”

“Kiki, seriously. We talked about this. No fibbing.”

“Okay, so I tried to put the moves on him, but he turned me down. Told me he just wanted to be friends.” I try hard not to laugh.

“No way,” he says. “You’re lying.”

“Fine. I had a breakdown and cried on his shoulder.”

“Seriously. The cave tonight. We’ll chill, have some fun.”

“Maybe.”

Riley walks up behind us, grabs me around the waist, turns me toward him, and takes in my outfit. “God damn, baby, you look tough. Hot. Fuck-me-in-the-bathroom hot. Speaking of that.” He grins at me.

“I’m not going in the bathroom with you. You had your chance this morning.” 

He laughs. “Yeah, right.” Then he grabs both Dallas’ and my hands and pulls us out onto the dance floor.

 Riley’s dancing is naughty. Plain and simple. Seriously, I think we could get expelled for this. One hand is cupping my ass, he’s grinding into my hips, and the other hand is running down my arms, in my hair. Thank goodness the dance floor is packed by now, and we’re in the middle of the pack, surrounded by people doing their own version of the bump and grind. 

“I have to pee,” I tell him after quite a few songs. 

“You’re just trying to get me in the bathroom, right?”

I roll my eyes at him and walk off the dance floor. The boys stay out there. Riley has another girl grinding her butt against him almost before I step away. 

I look around for Aiden. 

Where is he, anyway?

As I work my way through the crowded dance floor, I walk by Jake. He’s dancing near Whitney, Peyton, and a couple other perfectly-dressed girls. 

Jake yells, “Monroe.” Then he grabs my arm and pulls me against him. 

“Hey, Jake. Having fun?” I ask, as I dance with him briefly.

“Oh yeah,” he says.

I lean in close to his ear and whisper, “Thanks for the dance. I’ll catch you later, okay?”

I really do have to pee. 

He nods at me and goes back to dancing with the girls. 

I pee, make sure my makeup looks okay, and head out the bathroom door.

As I come out of the bathroom, Dawson grabs my arm and pulls me off to the side. I’m afraid for a moment that he’s going to try and kiss me again. 

“Whitney knows we kissed,” he says.

“Uh,
everyone
knows we kissed.”

“I’m sorry, okay. I was pretty drunk. I’m still so hung over.”

“You should come with a warning label. Do Not Kiss When Drunk. It was horrible.”

“Sorry. I . . . I’m sorry. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“So, I saw you out there grinding on my brother. What’s up with you two anyway?”

“I want in his pants, and he won’t let me, basically.” I walk away from Dawson, who still has his mouth hanging open in astonishment.

Tee hee.

I look around for the god. He’s nowhere to be found, but I do see Whitney marching toward me. She looks perfect, except for a hint of wrinkle between her perfectly arched brows. Am I in trouble because Jake grabbed me? I thought she had some hot college boyfriend?

“Just who do you think you are?” 

I smile sweetly and cross my arms in front of my chest. “I’m Keatyn Monroe. But you already know that.”

I’ve played this game before. Vanessa was like the Alpha of all Queen Bees, an expert at the game. And, really, so am I. I’ve just decided to play for the other team this time. I’m already sick of Whitney, and I’ve only been here two days. No way a girl like this is going to intimidate me. I knew all Vanessa’s dark and dirty secrets. And she was one messed up girl. The way Whitney was snorting cocaine, drinking and making out with Jake
and
Bryce—well, my guess is Whitney’s messed up too. 

“In case you’re too stupid to figure it out, I’m the Alpha here. You can’t compete with me.” She glances down at my dress. “Especially wearing last season’s dress.”

“So?”

She cocks her head at me. “So. I can afford this season’s. This is straight off the runway.”

“Lucky you.” I smile sweetly again even though I’m thinking,
What a raving bitch
.

“Just because you hit the lottery or whatever, don’t think you can just walk in here and be popular. That’s my job.”

The lottery? What is she even talking about? 

“Money is green, no matter how you earn it,” I say.

“You’re no match for me, so don’t even try.”

I laugh and shake my head at her. “You don’t have to worry. I have no desire to be like you.”

“Oh, you will. You’re just the new girl. Fresh meat. That’s the only reason any of the guys are paying attention to you.”

I nod my head, agreeing with her and pretend to suppress a smile. “Yeah, I am. And I’m okay with that. Oh, and by the way, this dress isn’t supposed to impress you.”