The Game Changer (10 page)

He lifts my chin, forcing me to look at him. “I’d never make fun of anything
important
, but this... is nothing... and… I can help with this... I’ll be your first kiss,” he blurts out lightheartedly. “It’ll be practice… consider it… a friend helping a friend.” He leans in closer so that our faces are almost touching.

My eyes are glued to his. I can tell he’s not teasing me. I begin to protest. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea, I won’t be any good at it, I...”

“J, shut up… follow my lead,” he whispers softly while I focus on his dimples and his perfect smile.

Without giving me a chance to refuse, his lips softly touch mine. He closes his eyes as he slowly parts his lips. I decide to take his advice and follow. His mouth is warm and inviting. His tongue moves softly and slowly with mine. One of his hands is placed on my neck, gently tilting my head, giving him better access to kiss me more thoroughly.  His other hand slides gently down my bare back. Chills run through my whole body at the same time as heat burns from my feet to my head.

I try to focus. I don’t want to stop, but I don’t want to look overly eager, either. After all, he is only doing me a favor and I am enjoying it
way too much
. I place my hands on his chest, so that I can slowly pull myself away and feel his heart racing as fast as mine. I’m sure he knows that I notice it because we both pull back instantly.

He says nothing, but his eyes are burning into mine. He pauses momentarily, giving me the slightest chance to move away, but I don’t. I can’t tear my eyes from his. He moves closer and begins kissing my lips softly, as he stares into my eyes. I close my eyes and begin to relax. My lips part to allow his tongue to once again explore my mouth.

The kiss gradually grows more intense, but, this time, neither one of us pulls back. His mouth hungrily tastes mine. The warmth of his hand resting behind my neck while the other is wrapped firmly around my waist, pulling me closer to him. He’s persistent, passionate; his mouth only leaving mine for a moment so that he can run his mouth along my neck, softly planting kisses along the way. I glide my hands up his chest encircling them around his neck so that I can run my fingers through is hair as I guide his mouth back to mine, tasting him once again. His strong hands stroke my bare skin as he slides them down my back, moving them to my thighs as he guides my legs around his waist, pulling me closer to him. So close, that I’m aware of every hard muscle in his body since it is molded to mine. He presses me firmly into him, as if he is trying to pull me even closer even though it is no longer possible. I don’t want him to stop. I can’t breathe, but I don’t care...

“LUKE! WHERE ARE YOU?” We both jump. Pull back, the moment over.

He looks at me, smiling. “Oh Shit,” he says breathlessly as he rests his forehead on mine. His hands are still planted on my waist as he gently eases me back onto the log.

“Go, Luke! Go!” I say nervously, trying to catch my breath while pushing him away.

He holds out his hand for me. “I’m not going to leave you here; come with me. Who cares what she thinks? I’ll tell her we were talking.” His face is flushed.

“No... Please… Don’t! That will just make it worse. I don’t want more attention drawn to me tonight. I promise, I’m right behind you. Go!” I plead breathlessly as her voice grows closer.

“Are you sure?” he asks, torn over whether he should leave or not.  I nod to reassure him and he leans down to kiss the top of my head. Then, lighten the mood, he says, “See, you’re a professional now, you learned from the best.”

“I was wondering how long it would take you before you threw in one of your comments. See ya later, Luke,” I say sarcastically, trying to hide the fact that I’m still breathless and on the verge of having a heart attack.

“You know me too well. Are you sure you’re okay?” he asks. I reassure him that I’m fine before he disappears into the woods.

Alexa is so close and still calling his name. I hear him answer, “I’m right here.”

“What were you doing?” Alexa asks angrily.

“Goin’ to the bathroom,” he says calmly.

I can’t help but giggle to myself.
Good answer,
I think to myself. I wait a few minutes not only to let them get a good head start in front of me, but also because I need to pull myself together. I’m not sure what just happened here. I’ve never felt anything like that, ever. I need to focus, think of a good excuse as to why I ran away, but I’m having a hard time thinking of anything else except that kiss. I shudder at the thought, my body covering in goose bumps.

I rub my hands up and down my arms as I try to justify what just happened. Alright, the first kiss, he can pass off as a lesson, but the second time... I don’t know... it felt like more to me than just a lesson.
I can’t get it out of my mind. What is he thinking right now? Is that normal for him? 

Okay, focus on your story
,
I keep telling myself. As these thoughts swirl though my head, I trot through the woods trying to find my way out. Finally, I stumble onto the beach, tripping on a branch, right in front of Mikey and his new pretty girlfriend. He looks at me, then looks over in the direction of Luke, who is a good distance ahead of me... then back to me. He knows something is up. I put my head down and try to walk past quickly, trying to avoid him. Too late.

“Hey, JJ, what’s up? You’re looking a little flushed,” he teases.

“Its sunburn,” I shoot back, not looking at them.

“Really? You didn’t look
sunburned
earlier.”

“Shut-up, Mikey!”  I hear him laughing as I keep walking. I cut in the other direction so I didn’t have to walk past Luke and his blond bimbo. By
this time, she is all over him. It annoys me, knowing he was just with me. I know we’re just friends, but… I don’t know what I’m thinking right now, but I better come up with a good story and quick. They’re all staring at me. Thank God, De isn’t back. I can’t face her now.

Billy gets up and meets me before I reach the blanket. “Jesse, are you okay? What happened?”

We start to sit on the blanket with everyone else. At least, this way, I don’t have to lie twice. “Yeah, I’m fine. Billy, I’m so sorry I ran off like that, the smoke from the fire just got to me, my throat and eyes were burning. I just had to walk away for a few minutes. I’m fine now.”

“You scared us; we didn’t know what happened,” Cathy adds.

“Sorry guys, I should have said something. I just couldn’t talk at the time.”

“That’s okay, as long as you’re alright,” Billy says.

Oh, my God; it worked. They bought it. We are sitting close to the bonfire and so the story just popped into my head. Phew! That was close. Worries over, but I wasn’t getting off that easy.

“So how about that walk?” he asks.

He wasn’t going to let this go, but I don’t panic this time. I think I was taught over and beyond the basics of kissing. Besides, maybe it will get the other one out of my head since he doesn’t belong there. I glance over in his direction and can’t help but feel like he sure looks as if he moved right along to his Pamela Anderson wanna be.

“Sure,” I answer, as the jealousy begins to consume me.

***

(Luke)

What the hell just happened?
I ask myself as I walk off with Alexa. I couldn’t stop,
didn’t want to stop
. I wanted her so badly. Jesus, I still want her. Thank God for Alexa, she brought me back to reality, whether I want to be here or not.

Focus. Shake it off
, I keep telling myself. I’m feeling so rattled, what is going on with me? Why did I just do that? I should know better. I know her deal. She’s not ready for anything like that or anyone like me, for that matter. I have to fix things before I leave. I know one thing I can shake off right now and that’s Alexa, but she isn’t having it. I can’t deal with her hanging on me. I need to gather my thoughts, but she’s not letting me off the hook that easy. Maybe I should just take her back to my house, like she’s begging me to do. It’s probably better if I get out of here. I may end up causing a scene if I watch Lidell put his hands on JJ one more time.

Panic sets in as I watch him take her by the hand and walk towards the water. I quickly pick up our blanket and tell Alexa, “Let’s go.” We walk towards them to cut them off before they get past me. I make up a stupid excuse to talk to her before she leaves with him. I feel the urge to kick his ass and he’s the nicest kid in the world, too.

“Hey, Jess, come here a sec, my mom wanted me to remind De about something, can you relay the message for me?” I walk away from Alexa and meet JJ in the middle.

“What, Luke?” she asks impatiently, probably expecting me to make some kind of sarcastic comment.

“Promise me, you won’t… you know…
the second time we
... you know... just don’t,” I whisper in her ear, unable to get the words out. I can feel my cheeks getting hot.

“What?” She laughs.

“I’ll explain later... promise.” I say, staring intently into her eyes while pushing the sweatshirt into her hand. “Take this; you look cold.” I give her a pleading look as I turn to walk away.

(Jesse)

After Billy and I get back from our walk, everyone is packing up to leave. When we get to the end of the path, back out on the street, we say our goodbyes. Billy gives me a quick kiss goodbye before joining the rest of the group to go their way, while Deanna and I go ours. As soon they get out of ear shot, Deanna demands to know everything.

“No, you first,” I answer, barely remembering my walk with Billy. Thoughts of Luke keep replaying in my mind.

“He’s really nice. This was the first time I really had a chance to talk to him. He’s sort of quiet in school, but he’s very easy to talk to. We talked about school, football, and what his plans are for next year. He’ll most likely get a scholarship somewhere. He would like to play for Villanova or maybe North Carolina. We walked down by the rocks and talked for a long time. I like that he just didn’t talk about himself, he asked a lot of questions about my interests, too.

“We actually spent the majority of the time getting to know each other. Most guys are just quick to make their move. I actually thought he would never get around to kissing me, but then, finally, he did. First it was just a quick kiss and then he looked at me, I guess to make sure it was okay…Which it was…And then we kissed again. It was great. He’s a good kisser. He’s taking me to Los Amigos next weekend. I had mentioned that I liked it there while we were talking.” She pauses for a moment, looking over at me. “Alright, your turn... what’s this about the fire burning your throat?” She rolls her eyes.

“Oh God, you heard about that already? Well everything was going fine as you could see. Billy was staying close. Then, you left to take your walk. I guess you gave him the idea... so… he asked me to take a walk and I panicked.” I pause because she is laughing. “It’s not funny, it gets worse.” 

“Sorry.” She lets me finish.

“Anyway… I told him I would be right back, I pretty much ran away, hoping he didn’t follow. I must’ve looked like such an idiot.” I wasn’t going to lie to her, she’s my best friend, I would never want to hurt her,
but I was going to stretch the truth… a little… maybe a lot
. I continue, “Luke must have seen me hurry past, I was pretty upset. He found me sitting by myself in the woods. He offered to look for you, but I wouldn’t let him. I knew you were with Timmy. He thought Billy had done something wrong. I didn’t want him to get the wrong idea, because he seemed angry. He was worried, I had been crying when he found me.” She looked at me apologetically, rubbing my back. “It was fine, really,” I reassured her. “I was so embarrassed because I thought everyone would think I was a freak for running away. I had to come clean and tell Luke the reason I ran. You know him… when I told him the real reason... he wanted to laugh, which I made him promise not to do. Then,
he offered to help me.
” I pause, waiting for her reaction. She seems to be amused.

“What do you mean,
help you
?” She asks curiously.

“You know... kiss me. He said... consider it like a friend helping a friend.”

She laughs. “He is such an idiot; you probably should have let him and got it over with.”

“Well that’s the thing... I sort of did.”

“What!? You let Luke kiss you? What happened?” Again, she is amused, not mad.

This is the part where I am going to stretch the truth. “Not much, because just as we started, we were interrupted by Alexa screaming his name. She was looking for him. I made him leave quickly because I didn’t want to have to deal with her. I was embarrassed enough. I waited for them to get far enough away and then I came out of my hiding spot. To make it worse, who do you think I bump in to?”

She was laughing hysterically and I was happy that she wasn’t angry. It actually seemed funnier now than it was then. I finish my story, telling her about practically bumping into Mikey. Then, I finally fill her in on my walk with Billy, which despite everything, turned out to be kind of nice. We kissed by the water, it was nowhere near in the same category as the kiss I shared with Luke, but it was nice. We made plans to go to a movie with Lori and Matt.