Love Me

This comment immediately pisses me off.

I turn my back on him. “I gotta go, Aiden. See ya later.”

He grabs my shoulder. “You’re mad at me right now because you know I’m right.”

I set my face in a passive, disaffected look. “I’m not mad at you. I just have to go greet the prospective students.”

“Yeah, me too.”

Now I’m standing in a reception line, greeting prospective students as they arrive, with Aiden standing next to me.

Electricity is radiating from his stupid body.

Young girls are getting just as tongue-tied around him as I do. They come over in little groups, supposedly to say hi to Ariela, Maggie, and me, but by the way they are giggling, it’s obvious who they want to see.

The shirtless goalie from the video.

“Are you two going out?” an adorable blonde girl named Pressley asks Aiden, looking from me to him and blushing. Then she goes, “Uh, I mean, like, I, uh, saw you studying together in the library in the, uh, video. I can’t wait to take French. It’s such a romantic language.”

I look at Aiden, wondering how he’s going to reply. This is his chance to tell someone else what I want to hear. That he’s secretly in love with me. How we met. How it was instant. How if she comes here, it might happen to her. Her perfect fate.

“We have French class together,” he says with a radiant smile toward the girl, which causes her to turn a deeper shade of red. “She’s my tutor.”

“Oh,” she manages to reply. I can tell her dreams were just crushed along with mine. She wants to hear the fairy tale. She wants to know if she comes here, she’ll meet an amazing boy.

I decide to give her hope. “I’ve been dating a really hot senior.”

Aiden starts to say something, but he’s interrupted by a loud voice.

“Daddy’s home!” Braxton bounds up to me, wraps his arm around my neck, and gives me a big kiss on cheek. “Did you miss me?”

I grin and kiss his cheek back. “Of course I did!” I turn toward Aiden and the girl, who is still standing there. “Pressley, this is Braxton. He’s for sure attending Eastbrooke next fall.”

Braxton gives her a subtle once over and appears to approve. He removes his arm from my neck and wraps it around hers. “Pressley, that’s a really pretty name,” he says. “Stick with me, baby. I’ve got this place wired.” He starts to lead her toward the small auditorium for their informational meeting, when I see Embry, the dark-haired girl he’s been crushing on from his school, arrive.

“Hey, Brax, wait,” I say.

I walk up to Embry. Unlike most of the girls who have arrived in packs, she is standing confidently by herself. I can see why she dates older guys. She doesn’t look like an eighth grader. Long hair, slim, tight body, gorgeous eyes, and great teeth in a pretty smile.

“Hey, I’m Keatyn,” I tell her, introducing myself. “Are you here alone?”

“Yeah,” she says a little self-consciously. “None of my friends want to go to boarding school, but I think it looks really fun. I loved the video.”

“Thanks. We’ll get to talk a bunch later. You’re rooming with me and my friend, Katie, but now you have to get into the info meeting.” I lead her toward Braxton. “Do you know Braxton? I read that you go to the same school. And this is Pressley. She’ll be rooming with us too.”

Braxton looks a little shocked. Probably because his arm is still wrapped around the pretty blonde, Pressley. “Hey, Embry!”  he says. “We were just headed in. Wa

She smiles and seems relieved to see a familiar face. “Yeah, Braxton, that would be great.”

Braxton doesn’t miss a beat. He wraps his free arm around Embry and says, “We’re going to have some fun here, ladies.” Then he turns back and winks at me. “Keatyn, don’t be jealous. You’re still my favorite girl.”

I look over at Riley, who is shaking his head and laughing at his brother.

Riley and Dallas start discussing who were the hottest young girls.

“They are all, like, fourteen. Way too young for you both.”

Riley goes, “Just checking out the new crop for my little bro.”

But I’m not paying attention.

Because Chelsea, the cheerleader who is always flirting with Aiden, is now ru

I know I shouldn’t listen, but I can’t help it.

I’m straining to hear every single word.

Damn Dallas is talking way too loud. I want to shush him, but I can’t.

“You’re no fun this year. What’s the deal? We had lots of fun last year,” I hear her say.

Aiden doesn’t remove her arm from his, but says, “I’ve just . . . and I’m not . . . we did . . . understand.”

She apparently doesn’t like what she hears, because she lets go of his arm and puts on a pout. “Tonight. We’re having some fun, and I’m not taking no for an answer.” She walks away slowly, shaking her curvy ass.

I catch Aiden staring at it.

He looks at me and sort of shrugs, seemingly saying, I can’t help it all the girls are in love with me. I’m a hottie god. Get used to it.

My phone buzzes with a text.

Braxton:  I need a redhead to complete my trio.

How do you say fuck off in French?

5pm

Dawson comes to di

“Wow, Keatie,” he says, looking at the newly Greek café. “This looks great.”

“Yeah, the art students worked really hard today. I think it turned out pretty cool. Hopefully the rest of the weekend goes well.”

“It will. You helped plan it,” he says, leaning in to give me a sweet kiss.

As we get in line, Dallas walks up to me and holds his closed fist out in front of me. Like he wants me to open my hand so he can put something in it, or he wants me to guess what’s in it.

“What?”

He bugs his eyes out at me, so I hold my palm up to his hand.

“I’m pretty sure these are yours,” he grins, and drops an orange lace thong into my hand.

“Where’d you find these?”

“Ha! I knew they were yours! You wore them when we were in the limo. I recognized the little daisy charm on back. You don’t see that very often.”

“Yeah, where did you find those?” Dawson asks with a big grin. I can tell he is trying to think of where we might have lost them. Most likely the lacrosse field.

“At the Cave,” Dallas replies.

My eyes get big. “Oh,” I say, looking totally guilty. “Uh, thanks.” I quickly shove them into my bag. Then I turn my attention toward the food. Dawson loves food. “Wow, di

“No,” he says flatly, while I grab a tray and pile it with food.

I figure maybe if I get enough food, Dawson won’t ask me how my panties got left at the Cave.

And that appears like it won’t be a problem, because Dawson has gotten very quiet. He hasn’t said a word.

I start munching on a gyro. Try to feed him some hummus.

Finally he says, “Are you even go

“We’ve always been honest with each other, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, I’m going to tell you exactly what happened.”

He nods at me to go on.

“Last night after the JV game, I met Aiden at the Cave.”

His eyes get big, and his anger swells.

“Let me finish before you get all pissed, okay? He wanted to show me that thing he did with his hands before he kicked the field goal last night. It had been raining, and I sat on a stump and my underwear and my sweats got all soaked. Aiden had on gym shorts under his sweats, so he took them off and let me wear them.”

“How does a thong get wet when you sit down?”

“I don’t know. I sorta leaned onto the stump and it got wet. I was embarrassed. Aiden turned around and didn’t even try to look when I changed. Then it started pouring, so he wrapped it all up in the sleeping bag he brought to sit on. It must have fallen out.”