Kissing Jayden: a romantic teen thriller (4 page)

What had I been I thinking, anyway? Guys like Jayden would never notice a girl like me … unless it was all a stupid bet!

A couple of weeks passed, and I really tried to forget about everything that had happened with Jayden. Then I showed up at my locker after lunch one day, and when I opened the door, there was a little black jewelry box. I just stared at it like it was a poisonous snake or something. Afraid to even touch it, I left it there, trying to figure out who had the combination to my locker other than Stace.

I guess most girls would have been all giddy and excited to see a jewelry box left by a secret admirer. I was more scared or angry, or both. If it was from Tyler, why didn’t he just say he wanted to go out again? If it was Jayden — well, that just didn’t seem like his style. Jayden was smooth, charming. Direct.

Why would
anyone
leave weird stuff in my locker? Again — creepy. This time I didn’t even tell Stace about it.

Chapter 5: Party from Hell

When my phone buzzed super late on Saturday night, I sat up in bed and grabbed my phone from the nightstand. Looking down, I saw a text from Stace saying she was stuck at some house in the hills with Kelly, who was super drunk and acting out of control.

Kelly’s step-mom was a realtor, so sometimes Kelly would “borrow” a key from her and go hang out in one of the houses while there was nobody living there. She hadn’t gotten caught yet, so I guess she was feeling invincible or something. I never went with them, because I
was
afraid of getting caught.

After a while Stace and Kelly had kind of stopped telling me when they did it because I never went with them. Tonight, though, Stace’s text sounded really desperate. While I was figuring out what to do, she texted again and said that Kelly had drunk dialed all these people and invited them to the house. Stace really wanted to get out of there, but neither one of them could drive because they had both been drinking.

I had done this once before — driven out and picked them up. But that time they hadn’t invited a bunch of people. Besides, I totally didn’t want to get into the habit of being the friend who always went and bailed everyone out when they did stupid, crazy stuff. It’s not like I
wanted
to go driving around in the hills — in Mom’s car without her knowing — to show up at some empty house.

I did it, though. I got up, put on a pair of jeans, T-shirt, and a hoodie. Then I grabbed Mom’s car keys from the front table before sneaking out to the curb. It was really late, so I didn’t think Mom would wake up, but I’d probably get grounded if she did. Stace had texted me basic directions, but it was dark, so it took me forever to find the turnoff. From there, it was easy. And kind of scary. All I had to do was follow the parked cars.

When I saw Mike Jensen’s pickup, I got this nauseous feeling in the pit of my stomach. I was so mad at Kelly! And poor Stace! Sure, she went up here with Kelly and everything, but she’d probably had no idea that Kelly was going to invite people like Mike Jensen.

I parked behind some other cars and took a few really deep breaths. All I had to do was go in there and grab Stace — and Kelly — put them in Mom’s car, and then drop them off. Easy. Or at least that was what I was hoping, anyway. When I got out of the car, there was music blasting. I kept telling myself over and over that all I had to do was grab my friends and make a run for it.

By the time I got to the house, the front door was wide open and there were people everywhere. I saw a couple of guys from the baseball team look over like, “What’s
she
doing here?” Girls like Stace, Kelly, and me didn’t go to parties like this. And if Kelly was sober right now, she’d probably be scared out of her mind, because she would be in so much trouble if the house got trashed.

When I found them, they were out back. I cringed. Kelly was hanging all over Mike Jensen, who was playing beer-pong with some other guys. Stace saw me and rushed over.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you! I’ll owe you for like a million years.”

I smiled and squeezed her hand, but I was really thinking, “Stace, I’m gonna kill you tomorrow for making me come out here with all these drunken psychos!”

“Come on. Let’s get Kelly and get out of here!” I yelled over the music.

I wanted to get out of here before Mom woke up, went down the hall, and found my bed empty!

We started walking toward Kelly, who was swaying on her feet as she watched the game of beer-pong. As we got closer, I saw that Mike Jensen was playing with …
Tyler
! My pulse jumped, and I just hoped that Tyler had the good sense to lose rather than get his face pounded over a stupid game.

Then again, Tyler was getting the crap kicked out of him anyway, so I didn’t think there was any real danger. All of a sudden Mike Jensen roared like he had just won NASCAR or something. Grinning, he looked around like he was surveying his kingdom. What a freaking jerk!

“Let’s see,” he leered over the music, his eyes narrowing. “I think I’m gonna choose —
that one
.”

I froze before we could get to Kelly, and then I glanced over at Stace.

“What does that mean?!”

She had this look, and I could tell instantly that she was really sorry. She leaned over and whispered in my ear really fast.

“They’ve been playing for favors … Like whoever wins gets to pick who they’re gonna go in one of the rooms.”

My face went pale, and I swallowed. I was seriously going to
kill
Kelly when I saw her on Monday morning. And I was never,
ever
going to drive anywhere in the middle of the night to pick anyone up. This sucked! And no way. I wasn’t going to go along with it. This wasn’t my party or my problem. I was just here to get Stace and Kelly and leave. I didn’t have to go anywhere with anyone.

There were plenty of girls here dying to go in the back with Mike “The Jerk” Jensen. Whatever! Let them. If other girls wanted to worship psycho jerks, then fine. Putting on a fearless face, I pointed at Kelly.

“Come on! We’re going!”

“House rules, little girl. We go out back, or your little friend isn’t going home.”

Suddenly I saw Jayden. He walked past me, through the crowd that was forming around the table. Every single person was watching our tense little standoff.

“You haven’t played me yet,” Jayden said, his tone humorous, but also a little defiant.

My heart started really pounding. I hadn’t spoken a word to Jayden since our weird conversation after the baseball game — and I hadn’t been that nice to him that day. Instead, I had just run off. And now he was here sticking up for me. Sort of.

“Rules are rules,” Mike shot back. “I get to choose whoever I want.”

“What? Afraid I’ll beat you?” Jayden said, picking up one of the balls.

This really seemed to piss off Mike, which I didn’t think was good. I just stood there, wanting this all to go away. If Mom woke up and found out I was gone … I’d be grounded for life.

“All right. Let’s get this done,” Mike said, thumping the table with an open palm.

When they started playing, I thought maybe Stace, Kelly, and me could sneak back to Mom’s car, but there were too many baseball guys there watching us, and Kelly was really unsteady on her feet, anyway. We would have to carry her to get her to the car. I just kept thinking how I was seriously going to kill her on Monday for getting me into this. I had never really watched anybody play beer-pong before, but it looked like Jayden was really trying to win. It was sweet … and it also made my heart hammer like it was trying to jump out of my chest.

Every time Mike scored a point, my heart sank. The last thing I wanted to do — ever — was go into some empty room with him. I would not, I repeat, would
not
go anywhere alone with Mike. Over my dead body.

Almost everyone at the party had packed together, watching their game like it was a battle to the death. It was really strange — really, really strange — that Jayden was being this super competitive with Mike. With their dads running a company together, they had been hanging around together since at least middle school. Plus, Jayden was always really laid back, and most of the time he could talk Mike down when he got out of control.

All of a sudden everybody started whooping and screaming, and that’s when I realized that Jayden had won the game. The front of his shirt was damp and his chocolate-brown hair was a little wild. When he started walking toward me, my breathing totally stopped. Stace was whispering frantically in my ear, but I couldn’t hear anything she was telling me.

My head started spinning when Jayden came up, grabbed my hand, and started tugging me toward the back of the house. I followed after him, but my feet felt like they were floating. I glanced back once at Mike, who looked like he was ready to kill somebody, and I was just glad it wasn’t me.

When we got inside the house, Jayden opened a door, and I followed him inside. The room was empty and dark. A small bedroom with nothing in it. He closed the door behind us and turned to face me. I could tell he wasn’t happy.

“What are you doing here?” he snapped.

Feeling defensive, I stood up a little straighter.

“Stace texted me and said she was stuck here with Kelly who was really drunk and had invited half the baseball team. She’s my best friend, and she needed my help.”

“Well, you should’ve called me, and I would’ve taken them home,” Jayden smirked.

“Uh, yeah. I don’t have your number!”

“Give me your phone,” he said with a half-smile.

“Why?”

“Because I’m going to give you my number so you don’t have to pick up your drunk friends in the middle of the night. And I’m going to take your number, just in case.”

“Oh.”

He held out his hand for my phone, and I gave it to him, feeling like a jerk.

“Sorry,” I added. “I mean, thanks for saving me out there.”

I bit my lip before I could mention how scary Mike was. But that reminded me. If Jayden was such a jerk, then why did he bother standing up to Mike for me? Handing my phone back to me, Jayden stepped closer, and I swallowed nervously. It wasn’t that I was afraid of him, even though he was obviously tough enough to stand up to Mike. Or maybe that’s why I
wasn’t
afraid of him. He had stood up to Mike for me … to save me from being all alone
with Mike
.

Just the thought of being in a dark room with Mike made me wince. Mike was the last guy I’d want to kiss ever. He wasn’t bad looking or anything. Plenty of girls thought he was hot. But I didn’t. He had a meanness in his eyes, like he didn’t care about anyone or anything. I shuddered thinking about his cold stare.

“Little Molly,” Jayden said in a husky voice, making me forget all about Mike. “Can you promise me that you’re never going to come to one of these parties again unless I’m with you?”

I swallowed again and nodded, not sure what he meant. Then he pointed at my purse.

“Do you have lipstick in there?”

I nodded again, really confused this time.

“Put some on,” he said urgently, like it was life or death.

“O-okay.”

I took out the tube of lip gloss and put some on. Then I kind of shrugged at Jayden like, “Well?” But when he leaned toward me, I started breathing really fast. A second later, he put his hands on the sides of my face and gave me this heart-melting smile before his lips brushed my ear.

“I’ve been waiting to do this again,” he whispered against my ear.

Then I realized he was going to kiss me —
again
! But what I was really wondering was: could it possibly be as good as the last time? His breath was warm against my throat, and I felt his fingers slip into my hair, which was down for once—mostly because Stace had woken me up in the middle of the freaking night.

Jayden pulled back and looked at me again, his blue eyes shining in the little bit of light that was coming in from the window across the room. Then he brought his thumb up and brushed my lower lip so lightly — like he
knew
it drove me crazy.

I closed my eyes and shivered, leaning toward him as my legs went weak. But nothing happened. I was a little afraid to open my eyes, afraid if I did, I’d see the entire school standing there watching us like at the dance. Finally, I peeked and Jayden was smiling that half-smile of his.

“Sweet Molly. So sweet,” Jayden murmured.

He leaned down slowly, so slowly, until his lips were a breath away from mine. My heart was going a mile a minute, and I totally couldn’t feel my toes. What was he waiting for?! I whimpered a little bit. I just couldn’t help it. I didn’t want to admit it, but I was dying to feel his lips on mine again. I was almost going to beg. Then Jayden kind of chuckled in the back of his throat.

“
That’s
what I was waiting for, little Molly.”

His lips brushed mine again. And then again. He wrapped one arm around my waist as his other hand came behind my neck and brought me in closer. His lips were gentle, but coaxing and really warm as they teased mine over and over. Then his kiss became more urgent as his lips parted mine. I gasped, and my heart pounded when he growled deep in his chest. We were kissing and kissing, his hands pulling me closer and closer until I almost couldn’t stand it. My skin was on fire, and I just wanted — things I shouldn’t.

I wanted Jayden to really like me. I wanted to be his girlfriend … and that was just laughable.

Pulling away, I saw some of my lipstick on his mouth, and suddenly I understood why he had asked about the lipstick. He didn’t want it to look like we just came back here and hung out. Which was kind of funny, because we
totally
didn’t just hang out.

Kissing Jayden Stone was turning into a real habit. A really
bad
habit. How was I supposed to get over him now? Because it wasn’t like he really liked me. He was just saving me from Mike Jensen because he felt guilty about the bet.

The door to the room suddenly burst open, and the music jolted me out of my trance. When I finally looked over at the door, I flinched and felt my chest tighten. Mike Jensen was watching us with his cold, hard stare. Like he was wishing we’d both just explode into dust right in front of him. For a second, I wanted to yell at Mike. What was he looking all pissed about anyway? Mike Jensen was the one who had dared Jayden to kiss me in the first place! What now? Was he mad because Jayden had stuck up for me? I hated him. He was horrible. Awful.