Dating: For the Assist Page 2

  Ew.

  It was Gemma’s turn. Just as she was about to spin the empty two-liter bottle, two girls walked up to the circle wanting to join in.

  Oh, man.

  It was Dannika! And her friend, Leah. Freaking Dannika. She was like a bad penny. She just kept showing up everywhere I went. It didn’t matter that she was my sister’s best friend which gave her an excuse to always be around. It still felt like she was stalking me.

  Plus, I knew all about her little crush. I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes just thinking about it. I mean, come on, my sister’s best friend? Where was the challenge in that? It was just so…convenient. So obvious.

  Besides that, I’d seen Dannika in her pajamas after just waking up, sitting at our kitchen table looking like a family of birds had just taken up residence in her nut brown hair. I knew what she looked like with green goop smeared all over her face and cucumber slices covering her eyes. Her favorite thing to wear was a ratty t-shirt that used to be her dad’s in high school and had a picture of the band Queen on the front. It was so old and had been washed so many times, it had turned from what I assumed was the original black to this sickly shade of gray that, in my opinion, was a clear sign it needed to be retired. Permanently.

  Dannika had puked in my bathroom once when she had the flu and her mom was out of town so she’d stayed at our house until she was better. Her favorite cereal was plain corn flakes. Who liked plain corn flakes? Nobody. Nobody normal anyway. And Dannika wasn’t normal.

  And it wasn’t like I was the only one who knew things. She knew plenty about me as well and it was disturbing. Like my obsession with all things Star Trek. Not Star Wars like everyone else. I liked Star Trek. And not even the newer cool versions, but the old series from the sixties. Seriously, what was cooler than William Shatner as Captain Kirk? Certainly not that wannabe Chris Pine.

  But worst of all, she knew about piano. My worst secret. Maybe not my worst, but definitely my biggest. The guys knew I played. Of course they did. It was no secret my mom made Piper and I do something artistic. She had some crazy idea it would balance out all the basketball we played if we put our minds and hands to use doing something else, hopefully something beautiful. Her words. Piper had been doing pottery since she’d grown out of play dough. We had several sets of mugs and bowls in the cupboards at home she’d made at the art center where she worked and took classes. She even taught a beginners class.

  Yeah, Piper had pottery. And I had piano. I didn’t even remember how it happened. I think I said something about liking music and wanting to learn an instrument and the next thing I knew I was sitting in front of a grand piano. A piano. Why couldn’t she have picked something awesome like guitar? Then I could be one of those guys that sit under trees between classes strumming on my guitar while women swooned at my feet because I was so cool.

  The thing about it was I would have switched to something different a long time ago if I wasn’t some dang prodigy or something. I couldn’t remember this either, but my mom liked to tell her friends (definitely NOT my friends, because then I would never speak to her again) about the day she picked me up after my first lesson. My piano teacher, some mom making money on the side teaching kids the basics, had met her at the door wide-eyed and determined not to have me back. She told my mom I was a genius or something stupid like that and she wasn’t equipped to teach someone like me. I had no idea what she was talking about but I never went back to her house again. Instead, Mom got online and found some master pianist to teach me. He said I had perfect pitch, which means I can hear a note, any musical note, and know what it is and recall it. So, for instance, when the First Lady had tried to teach me to play had played a small section of a famous piece of music, by Beethoven, I played it back for her note by note.

  And thus ended my life as I knew it. Instead of playing with my toys or watching cartoons on Saturday mornings, I had to play the piano. I didn’t love it. I mean, it was kind of cool that I was so good at it, but it was also kind of intimidating. The man Mom hired to teach me to play was a famous pianist from New York City. He used to play in music halls across the world, but now he was too old and his fingers had arthritis. I was his only student, which was unfortunate because he focused all his attention on me. Mom was thrilled. She admonished me daily not to squander my talent. Blah, blah.

  Ugh. Whatever.

  The point was Dannika knew all about piano. And piano, even at the level I played, just wasn’t cool.

  I watched as Leah pulled Danni closer to the circle around the two-liter. Two girls. We had even numbers without them. Secretly, I hoped someone would tell them to go away. We’re all good here.

  Of course, that didn’t happen. And it was all because of Jared and his big, fat mouth.

  “Hey, everybody scoot over.” He shoo-ed everyone into action making the circle bigger and shot me a wicked grin. Then he leaned over and called out to the guys playing pool. “Hey, we need two more!”

  Kyle Foster and Ryan Oliver, two guys from the baseball team, the traitors, handed their pool sticks to a couple of the girls who’d been watching the guys play before making their way to us. I wanted to pound Jared. He knew exactly how I felt about Dannika and he also knew how she felt about me.

  Suddenly, the circle seemed to be closing in on me. But I wouldn’t leave. First of all, Leah was one of the school’s worst gossips. Having her there was almost as good as taking out space in the school paper. News that I’d gotten over Abby would be all over by the time the night was through. All I had to do was kiss one of the girls in this circle.

  I just hoped to all heck it wasn’t Dannika.

  3

  Dannika

  We’d been sitting around the plastic bottle for two rounds while I pondered the appeal of this game. So far, I’d been witness to Heather pecking Kyle on the lips so lightly it could hardly be called a kiss and an uncomfortably long aggressive kiss between two people I didn’t even know. I was so busy glancing between the pair and wondering if they even went to our school when I heard my name.

  Trying to figure out what I’d missed, my gaze darted around the circle. Every pair of eyes focused on me. Like a magnet, the bottle drew my attention. Of course, it was pointed directly at me.

  Good grief. Why was I doing this again?

  A wave of anxious anticipation shivered down my spine. I knew where I wanted the bottle to point when it was spun again. His warm eyes watched with wariness. He didn’t want to kiss me. But that was okay. I expected that reaction from him and I didn’t care. All I wanted was a chance. Just one tiny little chance to get him to look at me as someone other than his sister’s best friend. If he kissed me would he feel a spark? And if he did, would he admit to it?

  I didn’t know the answer. All I knew, I wanted to kiss Luke Hines, had wanted to kiss him since I could even remember.

  Unable to drag my eyes away from the boy I’d loved for so long, I missed the bottle being spun again. The circle around me was quiet as everyone watched it spin around and around. I knew the second it stopped and who it was pointed toward without even looking because his face fell, his eyes darting to mine filled with dread.

  It hurt.

  I thought I could handle the fact that he didn’t want me at all, but the truth was he’d never come out and rejected me. Avoided me, yes. But he’d never done anything that had actually hurt.

  This hurt.

  “You don’t have to do it.” I’d give him an out. Piper was my best friend. I practically lived at their house. My path and Luke’s were bound to cross for the rest of our lives. I didn’t want to make him hate me. And maybe a part of me didn’t want to know his kiss only to experience it once.

  Jeers from the circle erupted around us. They were taunting him. Daring him. It was just a kiss, after all. Not a proposal of marriage. Would he do it?

  Luke’s skin turned green. Was I truly that repulsive to him? Suddenly, the last thing I wanted was a kiss from my crush. Didn’t I have more pride than this?
I didn’t have to beg for kisses, did I?

  “Seriously, just forget it.” Turning to Michael, who was supposed to spin next, I said, “Just skip us.”

  “No way!” Leah cried, lurching halfway across the circle to point at the bottle. “The bottle has spoken. Either kiss here or it’s Seven Minutes in Heaven in there.” She pointed ominously to a closet in the basement. I hadn’t really noticed it before, but it had those accordion style doors that folded back when you opened them.

  Seven Minutes in Heaven? I felt sick.

  Thinking fast, I scrambled for a solution, an out for Luke. For me. How humiliating! Now, not only did everyone know I had a crush on Luke, they knew he utterly despised me.

  “No-” I started to say, rising to my knees to get everyone’s attention, but Luke interrupted me.

  “We’ll do Seven Minutes in Heaven,” he said and my mouth gaped open.

  What did he just say?

  “What?” I gasped over the ohh’s and aah’s from our friends in the circle.

  Luke didn’t answer. Instead, he got to his feet and took two steps through the center of the circle until he stood right in front of me. “Come on. Get up,” he demanded, holding out his hand to me.

  Shocked as I was at his behavior, I was even more upset at his tone. I might have a massive crush on Luke, but I knew him. I saw him and spent time with him every single day. He did not intimidate me and he did not order me around.

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “Get up?” I said through clenched teeth.

  Luke started to roll his eyes but then he caught himself. Much as I knew him, he knew me. And stubborn was my middle name. “Please,” he said through his teeth.

  Well, since he asked so nicely.

  Ignoring Luke’s hand, I got to my feet on my own. Our friends hooted and called out making my face burn. I wasn’t used to that kind of attention. For the most part, I was Piper’s shadow, content to be on the sidelines and not playing the game. And I didn’t just mean basketball.

  I sent Jared a look. It seemed he was the one making all the rules. “You have a timer?”

  He held up his phone with a grin and I wanted to hit him. Jared was Luke’s best friend. The four of us had spent many an afternoon, evening, and night in the the Hines’s living room watching movies together or playing video games. It was beyond my comprehension how Luke even put up with Jared, he was such a punk, and the fact he was enjoying our discomfort only solidified my opinion.

  Luke stalked to the closet and opened the doors with a flourish. With my head high, I marched through the door and into the darkness. Clothes hanging from the bar across the top had been pushed to one side. The floor was empty except for a vacuum cleaner and a single pair of snow boots. The tiny room smelled of paint and dust.

  Stepping to the side, I wrapped my arms around my stomach and waited. Luke sidled up beside me, because there was no where else to go, and pulled the doors shut behind him.

  The doors were flimsy and did nothing to hide the noise outside, but for some reason I felt as though we were completely isolated. It was dark except for the faint light coming in through the slats in the doors. I could just make out Luke’s shape until my eyes adjusted and then I saw his face.

  His lips pinched and his eyes were tense. I resisted the urge to huff at him.

  “You don’t have to kiss me, you know.” I didn’t know why I said that! Of course he knew he didn’t have to kiss me. Now that we were in the closet, we just had to wait until Jared’s stupid timer went off and then we could go back to business as usual. No one would be the wiser. I realized now that was his plan all along. In the closet, neither of us had to reject the other in front of anyone. They could decide for themselves if they believed we kissed in the closet or not and no one would lose face.

  “I know,” he whispered back. He was irritated. I could tell from the sound of his voice, could feel it in the tension in his body beside mine.

  I’d been close to Luke a million and a half times, but there was something about being this close in such a small space. Without even touching me, he seemed to be everywhere. I felt the heat of his body, smelled the scent of his spicy cologne, heard the deep, even sound of his breathing.

  I wanted him. I thought I might even love him. He was a good guy. Not always to me, but I had a feeling he might think of me as a sister and treated me as such. To the rest of the world he was kind, thoughtful, funny. He laughed easily and loved hard. If you were lucky enough to be his friend, you had a loyal and true ally for life.

  Sometimes it hurt how much I wanted him to love me back, but I wasn’t weak. I could be a strong person, a strong woman, without him. I just might not be as happy as I could be with him.

  “Don’t worry.” I kept my voice low in case anyone happened to be listening. “I get it. Kissing me could be dangerous for you.”

  That’s right. I’d resorted to taunting. Like I said, this was my last chance. If I wanted to prove to Luke there could be sparks between us, this was it. Take it or leave it, if he kissed me tonight, at least we’d both know.

  I could almost feel his frown.

  “Dangerous? What could possibly be dangerous about kissing you?”

  I had all of his attention now as he took a step closer, his eyes narrowed.

  Biting back a smile, I worked to keep my expression from giving me away. Luke could never back down from a challenge and I’d basically called him out as a coward. It was now or never. Calling on my mostly non-existent flirting skills, I lowered my lashes and gazed at him through them in the near darkness. Reaching out, I touched his chest, first with my finger and then with the whole of my hand. His muscles were firm under his soft t-shirt. But I couldn’t let myself get distracted by that, I was on a mission.

  “What if you like kissing me? Hmmm?” My hand to slid over his chest until it reached his shoulder.

  Luke’s frown deepened. “What are you doing?” he asked softly, but not angrily. He sounded…curious. And maybe a little breathless.

  I didn’t answer. “Are you afraid to kiss me, Luke?” My other hand itched to touch him. I didn’t hold back, giving in to the desire to be close to him until my arms wrapped around his neck, my body pressed close to his.

  “Danni, what are you doing?” This time he sounded somewhat alarmed. But he didn’t push me away. In fact, his hands came up and rested on my hips. Briefly, I wondered if he realized when he pulled me closer.

  “Seven Minutes in Heaven, Luke. Are you going to kiss me or not?” I refused to kiss him. I’d done enough. I challenged him, taunted him, practically dared him. All he had to do now was reach out with his lips and kiss me.

  4

  Luke

  She was daring me. I wasn’t one to back down from a challenge, but this was Dannika! My sister’s best friend.

  Then why was my heart racing?

  When we first went into the closet, I felt confident. I was determined. Not once in all the years I’d known her had I been tempted to kiss Danni.

  But then she touched me.

  She looked at me.

  And I felt…something.

  I didn’t want to feel anything.

  Abby.

  I wanted Abby back.

  So, why were my hands on Danni’s hips? Why were her curves pressed into my chest and her arms around my neck? And why, for the love, was I having such a hard time breathing?

  Are you going to kiss me or not?

  Was I? Her lips were just a breath away. It was probably just hormones. What guy in his right mind wouldn’t kiss a beautiful girl in a dark closet when she was so willingly giving him her permission? None that I knew. I wasn’t stupid. And Danni was pretty. I’d always thought so. She had all this thick brown hair. It was soft. I knew because I’d touched it before. A bunch of times, in fact. Lifting one hand from her hip, I touched it again. It was like silk between my fingers.

  In the dark she dragged in a ragged breath.

  Danni liked me, or she used to. At one point, it had bee
n flattering, but over the years I was usually just annoyed by it. Then it seemed she got over it and I wondered what changed her mind. Not that I really cared. I’d never thought of her that way. Wouldn’t let myself.

  But now I wondered. Did Danni still like me?

  Meeting her eyes, I tried to read them. It was too dark to tell what she was thinking. Or maybe she was hiding her feelings.

  Are you going to kiss me or not?

  Releasing her hair, I set my hand in the curve of her hip again. Our time had to be almost up. Suddenly, I knew if I didn’t kiss her I’d always wonder. Who knew if another moment like this would ever present itself?

  My gaze drifted to her full lips. They’d never looked so kissable and for the first time in my life I felt an ache, a bone deep ache for another person. I never even felt that for Abby.

  And that scared me.

  Someone moved outside the door. It was now or never. If I was ever going to kiss Dannika, it had to be right now!

  “Danni,” I breathed just before closing the distance.

  On some level I knew I couldn’t just brush my lips across hers and be done. This was Danni for heaven’s sake! With Danni it had to be all or nothing.

  I had no idea what kind of kisser I was, had never even thought about it before. But this kiss was different from all the rest. Where usually I’d ease into a kiss, this time, I went for everything all at once and Dannika met me pass for pass. And for some reason I didn’t even know, there were sparks unlike anything I’d ever experienced before.

  Sparklers. Those little metal sticks you lit on the Fourth of July and wrote your name with in the air, that’s what other kisses had been like. And I’d been perfectly satisfied.

  But this kiss?

  I moaned a little into Danni’s mouth, my hands frantically searching for her face so I could pull it closer to mine. It wasn’t enough. I couldn’t get enough of her. Of her lips. Her taste. I wanted to swallow her whole.