Luke rests his hands on my shoulders and looks straight into my eyes. “Don’t let me down, Agresti. I’m counting on you and your sobriety to anchor us. I had no idea Willow apparently drinks like a pirate, and now I’m scared.”
I can’t help but laugh.
“Look at you, all loosey-goosey,” he says, shaking his head, but he winks at me.
I’ve never played beer pong and it shows in my first few attempts at landing a ball in a cup. Most bounce off the table. Or don’t even hit the table and just whack people standing nearby.
“It’s okay,” Luke says, nudging me in the side with his elbow. “Sometimes it takes a while to become at one with the cups.”
“All right, Buddha,” I snort.
Alisha is, distressingly, awesome. She lands almost every one of her shots, and if she wasn’t so damn nice, I’d have to hate her for it. And Willow comes as advertised. On the few shots Luke lands, she chugs her cups of beer defiantly and still maintains an air of sobriety. She’s also a pretty good shot herself.
This, however, means Luke and I are drinking a lot. By the end of the first game, which Alisha and Willow of course win, I’m getting jittery from caffeine and sugar. Luke, probably because he’s so tall, doesn’t seem that buzzed.
“Rematch?” Luke yells across the table.
Willow points back at him with a determined “You’re on!”
A.J. appears then with a tray of the appetizers and offers them to us.
“How’s it going?” he wants to know as he scarfs down a pizza bagel.
“Pretty terrible,” I sigh.
“Nonsense. Agresti is learning as she goes,” Luke says, putting his arm around me. I try not to think about how nice this feels, and chalk up this gesture to the alcohol finally kicking in for him.
“Ooh, ooh!” A.J. says, placing the tray on the table. “Try throwing more on an upward angle and then aim down.” He pantomimes throwing and I follow his lead, and amazingly, this seems to work. I fire at a cup and actually manage to get the ball in.
“Eeeeeee!” I say, jumping up and down. Luke gives me a double high five and even Alisha and Willow clap their hands delightedly.
Alisha’s incredible aim still kills us, but at least I land two shots in the next game. Luke, exhibiting signs of buzzdom, collapses dramatically into a chair next to the table as Willow and Alisha do a victory dance to the Jay-Z song blaring from the living room.
“If you all will excuse me for a bit, I need to get my dance on,” Willow says, boogying into the living room.
“I will never underestimate anyone’s drinking ability again. Even if they are under five feet tall,” Luke says, chugging a big cup of water. I stand in front of him and jokingly fan him with a place mat.
“Are we throwing in the towel?” I ask, and the weirdest thing happens. Luke looks up from his cup and his eyes lock on mine with such an intensity that I feel it—like I’ve been hit by a burning cattle prod on the inside. Then, ever so slightly, his knee brushes mine. And I think it’s intentional. It catches me off guard so much that I stop fanning. I don’t even know what to say or what to do, but I do know—
“You guys gotta stay,” A.J. says, making me jump. “I wanna play you!”
“I’ll be your partner!” Alisha pipes up with a big smile.
“Great,” A.J. squeaks, his ears turning pink. He totally likes her.
So now we definitely have to keep playing. There’s no way I can let my terrible aim and Luke’s growing drunkenness stand in the way of a possible love connection. Especially since I’m glad it diverts from the cattle-prod feeling inside me because I don’t even know what to do with that.
Luke raises his eyebrows at me and grins. “I guess we’re gonna keep going.”
“I guess we’re gonna lose again,” I laugh, as Alisha and A.J. bring in new cups on their side.
Luke stands up and his smile gets bigger. We’re so close, our sweaters are trading static electricity. Like, if I were to touch him right now, we’d get zapped with a shock. “We’re having fun, right?”
I nod.
“Good,” he says. Then he leans his face a little closer to mine. “And I haven’t told you this yet, but you, uh, look really nice tonight.”
I feel the heat rising to my face and pretend to study my outfit so he can’t see it. “Oh, thanks. So do you. Navy’s, uh, your color.”
“Is that so?” he says, straightening up and making his chest puff out. “Well then, I guess we make a good-looking pair, huh?”
My heart is racing. And I really don’t think it’s the caffeine.
* * *
Two hours later, Luke and I have finally won a game of beer pong (though I think Alisha and A.J., who seem to have a growing flirty vibe going on, took pity on us and let us win), the crowd has thinned out, and we’ve cleaned up and bagged most of the bottles and cans, which are now ready for the recycling facility. And all that soda I drank has made me majorly, majorly hyper.
“How can we be that bad at beer pong, Luke?” I squeal as we leave Alisha’s house. “Oh my god, it’s cold!” My heart is hammering and my hands are shaking, but I’m way giggly. There’s no way I’m sleeping tonight, thanks to all that sugar. Maybe I should’ve stuck with the alcohol after all.
Luke cups his hands around his mouth and yells/sings, “Weeeeee aren’t the champions, my friehennnd.”
I whack him in the arm, unable to control my laughter. “You’re going to wake the dead.”
“Yeah, singing’s not my specialty,” Luke says. “Nor is throwing Ping-Pong balls into cups. But I kind of suck at basketball, too, so it makes sense. My little brother says that even though I’m tall, I don’t look like a basketball player. What does that even mean?”
“Who needs to look like a basketball player anyway?” I say, skipping in front of him. “Especially when you’re what Almanzo Wilder is supposed to look like!” What am I thinking? Oh, wait, I’m not. It’s the overabundance of sweetened caffeine I ingested talking.
Luke stops in his tracks and laughs so hard that he doubles over, resting his hands on his knees. “Who is that?”
“You know, from the Little House books.”
“And I look like this guy?” he says, wiping his eyes.
“No, you should.”
“I am so confused right now,” Luke says, and he starts laughing again. “I just hope it’s a good thing.”
“It is, I think,” I say, giggling. “I had a crush on him. At least the one I had pictured in my mind.” I realize what I’ve just said, and before Luke can register that, I babble on, “And then I got into my Weather Channel anchorman stage.”
“You had crushes on anchormen?” he says, and it looks like he’s on the verge of cracking up again.
“And reporters! Those guys who go out into the crazy weather and report from the middle of hurricanes and stuff? I found that really hot when I was twelve.”
There’s no hope now. Luke is doubled over again. “Man, Agresti, you’re on fire tonight.”
“Well, maybe not so much in the beer pong department,” I say.
“We all have our talents. You and I just aren’t going to take the beer pong circuit by storm in college is all,” Luke says, wiping his eyes. Then he looks up. “So, weather expert. There’s a ring around the moon. Does that mean anything?”
I study the almost-full moon. There’s a giant halo surrounding it and it’s quite gorgeous.
“It’s ice crystals,” I say, noticing I can see my breath in the moonlight. I can also see the natural highlights of Luke’s hair. “It means it might warm up a bit, thank god.”
“Damn, I was hoping for snow,” Luke says. “But does it have any other meanings? Like, is it an omen?”
“That’s my mom’s territory, not mine. She’s into all that new age stuff,” I say. Then I cringe, remembering how that bothered Hunter so much.
But Luke surprises me when he replies, “That’s so cool. Does she have crystals and stuff? My aunt has a whole b
unch of those around her house.”
“Oh, she has crystals, all right. And incense. And tarot cards.”
“So, your mom likes to read into the future … and you like to predict the weather,” he says. His eyes go wide like he’s just discovered the theory of relativity or something.
He’s pretty cute when he’s drunk.
“You might be onto something. Oh my god, it’s so friggin’ cold!” I hug myself to try to retain some body heat.
“Come on, you’re wearing like three layers of clothes—no way you’re that cold. I’ll race you to that stop sign,” he says, pointing up ahead. “That can warm you up.”
Then he takes off with no warning.
“No fair! You don’t need a head start. Your legs are like an entire foot longer than mine,” I yell, but do my best to catch up. The only problem is, I’m laughing so hard I start coughing and have to stop. Luke jogs back toward me and pounds me on the back, to aid with my coughing.
“You’re such a gentleman,” I cough-laugh.
“And don’t you forget it,” he says. His hand lingers on my back and even through I’m wearing “three layers of clothes,” a charge goes through me, and it makes me nervous. So, when my coughing subsides, I skip ahead, and pretty soon we’re at Luke’s street. I stop, but Luke keeps walking. “Nope, I am walking you home.”
“But it’s freezing,” I say, hopping up and down, but I feel the soda bubbles expanding in my stomach and I stop. “I can make it home fine by myself.”
Luke looks at me over his shoulder. “I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to you on the way home.”
Now I burst out laughing. “Here? Yeah, I think the only thing I can be abducted by is aliens.”
“Okay, I couldn’t live with myself if you got abducted by aliens on the way home.”
I’m kind of touched by this, but I’m still feeling silly. “The JAILE family would be down one person! The horrors!”
“Ah, you got me,” he says, throwing his hands up. “I’d miss you too much. But then I’d just put a wig on Isaiah and pretend he was you.”
I’m overtaken with cough-laughs again, and pretty soon Luke is laughing so hard he can’t speak, either. I seriously can’t remember the last time I had this much fun. By the time we get to my house, I’m actually bummed. I never would’ve guessed that all those hours ago, when I was ready to hurl my mirror out the window.
I climb up the front porch stairs and look down at Luke. “If you ever want to be beer pong partners again, all you have to do is ask.”
Luke laughs. “I’m flattered, especially since I, uh, let a four-foot-eleven girl out-drink me.”
“Winning isn’t everything, you know,” I say, and mockingly wag my finger at him.
“Except in class, where we have to beat out Jared’s group and Hunter’s group,” he says, stepping closer to the porch.
“Exactly.” I smile at him and he steps up on the bottom stair of the porch, and we’re almost even, height-wise. His eyes lock on mine, like they did at the party, and I’m suddenly nervous. I’m not sure what’s going on here, if it’s the giddiness of the night or the caffeine or the moonlight, but it feels like he’s going to kiss me. And I’m surprised that I want him to kiss me. No, I’m not surprised, I get it. I like him.
There it is. I like him.
But he has a girlfriend. A girlfriend who, if I remember correctly, stated, “You’re a better person than I am” earlier. And good people don’t think about kissing another girl’s boyfriend. Especially when they know how much it hurts to have another girl move in on your man.
“Agresti, can I—”
But I step back. “Don’t.”
Luke’s brow furrows. “Don’t what?”
“Don’t say what I think you’re going to say. Because I don’t think I could say no.”
“Damn, I guess I’m that transparent in wanting to kiss you, huh?” he says, running a hand through his hair and looking down.
The cattle-prod feeling comes rushing back, pulsating under my ribs, and my heart almost explodes right there.
“You have a girlfriend,” I say. It practically makes my throat ache making that come out.
Luke smiles softly. “No, I don’t. Greta and I broke up.”
I blink hard. “When? At the party?”
“We came to the party as friends. We broke up a week ago,” he says. “I’ve known for a while that I was having feelings for someone else, and I should’ve done it sooner.” He tugs at the bottom of my coat when he says this.
I want to believe him. But this all just seems convenient. Why would Greta go to a party with her recent ex? I didn’t even want to be in the same classroom as Hunter, let alone spend my free time with him.
Luke must take my silence for doubt because he sighs. “I was going to wait a little longer before I said anything to you, but I really had a great time with you tonight and I’d like more of that to happen. Sooner than later.”
Why? Why is he saying all this and looking so damn good in the light of my front porch? But then I suddenly flash back to the pained expression on Brynn’s face before. “He said you guys were done and you knew it.”
But Luke isn’t Hunter.
Luke steps up to the step below me and now I’m back to being shorter than him again. It’s like the air between us is crackling with some unseen fire because I realize I’m not even cold anymore.
“Do you, uh, like me?” he asks quietly.
I bite my lip. My heart is hammering and I know if I deny it, I’m still going to die of a heart attack on these steps and it would give my feelings away anyway. “I like you. A lot.” His face lights up when I say this.
“So, what do we do about that?” he asks, closing the gap of space between us by leaning in toward me slightly.
I can feel my pulse throbbing in my throat and I’m wondering if my blood (“Yes! Kiss him! Do thisssss!”) is trying to override my brain (“Isn’t it a little convenient that he’s saying they just broke up?”). “Whatever we do, I think we have to give the breakup a little more breathing room, okay? I felt like shit seeing Hunter and Brynn together right after we broke up, and I don’t want Greta to feel that way.”
Luke nods, and stops leaning. There’s still maybe, like, only a centimeter between us, though. “Okay, how long?”
He’s so close I can see the porch sconce perfectly reflected in his eyes. “Well, I don’t want Greta to go through what I did on The Buzz, either. Or you and me being made out to be a cheater and a home-wrecker or whatever BS Jared would concoct. So long enough for that to not be an issue.”
“But we know that’s not the case,” Luke says, his brow furrowing. “And I’m pretty sure Jared’s terrified of Greta, so he wouldn’t go after her.”
Luke isn’t Hunter.
“Still. We should at least give it a few weeks.”
“A few weeks, okay,” he says, gently taking a lock of hair that’s been trapped in front of my face by my knit hat. He expertly tucks it behind my ear, and I feel a rush of heat on that side of my face.
As if on reflex, I reach up and clutch Luke’s hand. He squeezes my cold fingertips, then shoves each of my hands in the front pockets of my coat. He rubs my arms up and down, as if trying to warm me up, and I finally lean completely into him. One, because it feels nice. Two, because he’s so warm and it’s cold as hell.
“I’m always saving you from frostbite, Agresti,” he says with a grin. Then he wrinkles his nose and looks so adorable that I feel my stomach get all warm, in a much better way than when the beer hit it before. “This is going to be a rough few weeks. I want to kiss you so bad right now.”
He isn’t Hunter. He isn’t Hunter. He isn’t Hunter.
I take a deep breath and look up at the sky, as if seeking permission from a higher power. I don’t know that I get an answer, but I know my willpower is almost at nil. “I think maybe we can make a provision for that. You know, like a test-drive.”
Luke’s eyes tw
inkle and he lowers his face ever so closer to mine. “And when does this test-drive start?”
I can’t take it anymore, I pull him by the open edges of his coat so now there’s absolutely no space between us, and he takes that as his cue to cup my face in his hands. Then, his lips brush mine, gently at first, then a little more insistent.
Good lord, he’s a wonderful kisser, not shoving his tongue down my throat in a slobbery fashion, like Hunter did the first time. And I may even enjoy the feeling of his stubble against my chin. It’s sweet and warm and this is how first kisses are supposed to be. There’s so much electricity zapping through me, I could probably power all of downtown Ringvale Heights right now.
“I don’t know how I’m going to wait to do that again,” he says when he pulls away.
“Are you kidding me? We’re doing it again right now,” I say, pulling him down by his coat collar and planting one on him. He wraps his arms around my waist and it feels so ridiculously right.
I suddenly hear footsteps approaching behind me in the house and I leap away from Luke just as the front door creaks open. Mom comes out with her car keys and purse, and I remember she has to pick up Dad from work. She jumps when she sees me standing there. “You just took ten years off my life,” she gasps, clutching her hand to her chest. Then she notices Luke on the steps and her eyes go huge.
“ThisismyfriendLuke,” I blabber, not knowing what else to say.
“Hey, Mrs. Agresti,” Luke says, with a little wave.
“Nice to meet you,” Mom says warmly, and I can tell from the sudden apologetic tone in her voice that she thinks something just happened between him and me.
“He walked me home from Alisha’s,” I say.
“Well, that was very nice of you,” Mom says, giving Luke a big smile.
“It was no problem,” Luke says, shifting his weight from one foot to another.
“He didn’t want me to get abducted by aliens,” I say, hoping that adding something funny might make my mom not think I was just engaging in serious smooching.
“Regardless,” Mom says. “It’s nice to know my daughter has friends who look out for her.”
“Well,” Luke says, stepping down off the stair and looking directly at me, “she is pretty awesome, you know?”
The Secret Recipe for Moving On Page 17
