“Because kissing on the lips to me is more intimate.”
“More than what happened the other day?”
“Uh huh ...”
Reece is so ...
I don't even know how to express it.
He’s complicated but so beautiful.
His silences say a lot more than his words often do and I can see how fiercely loyal and protective he is with the people he loves.
And I wanna be one of those people.
He kisses my cheek with those impossibly soft lips and then he takes one more step forward, making our fronts touch everywhere.
He’s hard and I have to keep myself from grinding against him.
“Tonight we need to make an appearance at Marlene's party but after that ... Would you come to my room? Spend the night?”
I’m confused.
“But you won't kiss me?”
He smirks again.
“Not on the lips, no. That's for our date. But I promise that I’ll kiss you everywhere else. Pryce isn't the only one who knows how to make you feel like you did the other day.”
I gasp at what he's implying and he winks at me.
“I gotta go now. See you at the game, baby!”
And I swear to God, I must be filing all the books in the wrong locations, because I can't think about anything else but Reece's lips.
11.
Game On
Max
I LEAD BHPA TO VICTORY and I’m named MVP.
The crowd goes absolutely crazy.
I think if I were a rockstar, girls would start throwing panties at me.
But the only girl I’d like to hear cheer for me, my rally girl, only has eyes for my ex-besties and former brothers.
She even runs up to Chaz when we're about to leave the field and kisses his cheek.
He picks her up and spins her around with a huge smile on his face.
Fucking sickening!
I can't believe that any girl would even go close to those assholes after what they did to my ex-girlfriend.
I try to meet Abi’s eye but she won't even look my way, so when we get to the locker room, I’m already in a fucking foul mood.
Things don't improve when I see her hug Reece and kiss Pryce quite passionately in the parking lot.
I wasn't sure that I really wanted to go with Lissa’s plan but I decide there and then that I do.
Anything to knock that arrogant smile off of Reece's face.
As soon as we arrive at Marlene's house, I pour myself a glass of scotch to get some liquid courage.
This is another crazy effect that Abi has on me: I’m a confident guy but the way she looks at me, definitely makes me feel unsure of myself.
I constantly feel as if I were doing something wrong when I’m under that innocent blue gaze of hers.
People begin eating and drinking and the huge living room is not that crowded, so it's very easy to spot her when she arrives with those three bastards.
“Yo, rally girl!”
I holler and she winces, as if my voice was bothering her.
But I’m not giving up, so I walk up to her and when I’m about to talk to her again, she speaks first and I don't miss the annoyance in her voice.
“Hi, Max. By the way, my name isn't rally girl, FYI.”
I try to give her my most seductive smile but she doesn't seem impressed, so I correct myself.
“Ok, Abigail.”
“It’s Abilene.”
Pryce corrects me with the biggest smart ass expression on his face and I really have to exercise all my restraint not to kick the shit out of him.
“It's such a pretty name.”
She looks at me without saying anything, waiting for my next move.
“What can I get you to drink?”
I nod towards the drinks table but Reece comes over handing her a bottle of water and wrapping a possessive arm around her shoulders.
He whispers something in her ear and she smiles.
Once again, it's as if I weren't even there.
Especially when Gabbie approaches them with Scott in tow.
I look at Abi's bestie and wonder if I could persuade her to put in a good word for me with my rally girl.
But the truth is that despite attending BHPA together since kindergarten and gravitating pretty much in the same social circles, Gabbie and I have never really exchanged more than a few words here and there.
I guess she's too serious for my liking and I know that she thinks I’m a bit of a douche.
Before last spring, I didn't really worry about anything else: I had my brothers and we did everything as a unit.
Then we met Emily, she chose me and my time was divided between the A-Team and my new girlfriend.
Was that the beginning of the end?
Should we have dated her together?
Hookups had always been more fun that way, but love?
Can a serious relationship work when there's only one girl and four guys?
It seems that they're trying to make it work with Abi and the three of them.
Even though I’m not sure if they're together or just fucking.
For a second, I feel a painful clench in my heart: this is why I hate them the most.
What they did on Prom night last year didn't only mean the end of my relationship with Emily.
They took away our brotherhood and for the first time, I was truly alone.
So, yeah. If I want Abi, the only way is to make her choose me.
After a little while with the drinks flowing, everybody is pleasantly buzzing and as the nights are starting to get chillier and Marlene doesn't have a hot tub, it's game time.
We start playing that game where you're wearing a card on your forehead with a celebrity or a character from a movie or an animal and you have a certain number of questions to guess who or what you are.
“To make it more interesting, anyone that loses will have to complete a dare. Since I’m the cheerleaders’ captain and Marlene’s our host, it’s up to us to assign the dares. We’ll take turns to guess going in a circle clockwise. If Marlene or I lose, Max and Turner will decide our dare. Scott you're up.”
She takes a card from a pile on the coffee table and mounts it on a headband with a cradle, which she places on Scott’s head.
He’s Gandhi but he doesn't guess and Lissa looks at him for a moment with her arms folded on her ample chest.
Last summer, Lissa got a boob job.
I wish she hadn't or that she hadn't gone for totally out of proportion DDs.
She's almost six foot tall but has quite a slender, lithe frame, so those huge tits make her look vulgar.
She looks at Scott for a second and then decides.
“I heard you got really drunk on Labour Day weekend and you got a tattoo in Tijuana. We wanna see it!”
Scott chuckles embarrassed.
“Are you sure?”
When Lissa nods, he grins and starts unbuckling his belt.
He turns around and drops his jeans and boxers to show us the tattoo on his butt cheek.
It’s a ‘I heart beer’
Everybody's laughing hysterically and I see Abi blush at the sight of Scott's bare ass.
Next up is Chaz.
He’s Michael Jackson and he guesses.
We keep going around the circle and I made sure to be last.
Our plan is that if Abi guesses hers, I’ll fail mine on purpose.
When Abi's turn comes, she gets Maverick from Top Gun.
And she fails miserably.
Her questions don't bring her even close.
I mean, she gets that it's something to do with pilots and aviation but she’s well far from the correct answer.
It makes me think that she might've not seen Top Gun.
I know it's an old movie, but come on it's a fucking classic.
Sometimes that girl gives me the feeling that she's been living in a bubble.
Lissa looks at her with an innocent smile: I’ve gotta admit that she has one of t
he best poker faces I’ve ever seen.
Lissa can lie her way in or out of anything.
“So, Abi. Since you're new here, I’m gonna be very lenient and do you a favour. All the girls at school would probably get their left arm cut off to do the task I’m about to give you.”
I keep my eyes away from Abi, I need to look genuinely surprised when I hear what Lissa tells her to do.
“Most of us have known each other since kindergarten, so we’ve been partying together for a long time. Since you're new, how about a nice old fashioned game of Seven Minutes in Heaven? You can use the cloakroom closet right outside the living room. And since today you haven't done anything to lift up the morale of our amazing team captain, which by the way is what's expected of you as his rally girl, I say Max should be the one. Seven minutes in the closet with Max. You can do anything in there but you must at least kiss and we’ll stand outside listening.”
Before Abi can even say anything, Reece complains.
“No! No way! That's bullshit! You can't make Abi do that!”
Lissa smiles softly, her pale blue eyes glowing with challenge.
“I can. When I told you all the rules, no one complained. Now you don't get out of the game. Or everyone at school will know by Monday that you guys don't uphold your end of a deal.”
Reece is about to retort something but Pryce, always the peace maker, intervenes and tries to bargain with Lissa.
Yeah, good luck with that.
The cheerleading captain agrees and her smile widens.
“Ok, just because Pryce asked nicely and I really like our new girl, I’ll offer her an alternative. Abi, if you don't wanna do the Seven Minutes in Heaven with Max ... you'll strip for us. Completely. And you’ll stand naked in front of us for seven minutes.”
Reece is even madder now.
“That's even worse! What the fuck?”
She interrupts him.
“If she doesn't do any of the challenges, I’m gonna have her put on probation on the team. I don't like how she doesn't do her rally girl duties and she shows no team spirit at all. And since being in the cheer team has got her out of PE, if Abi got kicked out of the team, let's say, in a few weeks, she’d receive an insufficient grade. That could even mean no graduation. Or summer school. Good luck being accepted at Stanford. Especially because with that incomplete grade and the slut reputation she’s been getting for hanging out with all three of you, no teacher will ever write her a recommendation letter. What do you say, Abi? Which challenge do you choose?”
Abi
“WHAT DO YOU SAY, ABI? Which challenge do you choose?”
Lissa's looking at me with a victorious look in her pale blue eyes.
I’m so shocked by the venom in her voice that it takes a moment to even start processing what's happening.
She seemed so friendly when we first met and I thought that Marlene and Kylie were the mean girls.
But observing their dynamics in the past few weeks, I noticed that Lissa simply sends them forward to do her dirty work.
So she can act nice and friendly in front of everybody but I realised that in the cheer squad she runs a tight ship.
She rules with passive aggressiveness and the constant threat of social ostracism.
She won't tolerate even the slightest diversion from her plans: everyone has to do what she says and look completely happy to do it or there’ll be hell to pay.
She's a psycho bitch.
And I’m already the one with the slut reputation.
I’m under no illusion that the only reason why I’ve been left alone is that the A-Team has been protecting me.
They might even have a serious bad boy reputation, especially with the doubt about those sexual assault charges, but somehow they're still popular and people at school still admire them and fear them.
I can't risk being kicked out of the cheer team and not graduating this year.
I’d look like a failure in front of my dad and he already made it clear that he thought that I would fail out of boarding school.
So I put a calming hand on Reece's shoulder and tell him that it's all right.
Kissing Max is the lesser of two evils.
I’m not stripping in front of half the football team and the whole cheer squad.
No way.
So I look into Max’s brown eyes and ask him if he's ok with the seven minutes.
His eyes are actually glowing with excitement: I think for some crazy reason he likes me.
He offers me his hand and we walk towards the cloakroom followed by almost all our friends.
“You guys can choose if you want the light on or off. I’ll start the clock as soon as you shut the door and reopen it as soon as you’ve been there for seven minutes. There's no limits to how far you choose to go in there but you have to at least kiss. A French kiss, before you think you can get away with a peck on the cheek. Ready?”
My three boys don't look happy but while Reece looks ready to commit first degree murder, Chaz looks resigned and Pryce looks annoyed but he nods at me because he understands my predicament.
I enter the little confined space: it's dark so I stop as soon as I feel a shelf in front of me in the darkness.
Max is right behind me and he stops against my back.
“Oh, sorry Abi.”
He reaches behind me and flicks on a switch that floods the confined space with a dim light.
“Your seven minutes start now!”
We hear Lissa's voice from outside the closet and I sigh, facing to look at Max.
His brown eyes are trained on me and he's really intense and handsome looking.
I completely understand why a lot of girls at school literally swoon over him, with his looks and his status as QB1.
But so far, every interaction we’ve had has been less than ideal.
And he knows because he asks me flat out.
“Abi, why don't you like me?”
I’m caught up in his impenetrable gaze.
It's as if there was a wall there, preventing me from seeing what’s deep beneath the surface of the handsome, popular, slightly douche bag quarterback.
So I answer honestly.
“It's not that I don't like you. I don't know you. And I won't go out with you just because I’m your rally girl or because you're the quarterback. You can't demand people's friendship and you certainly can't demand a date.”
His hands grip my forearms gently but firmly.
He looks at me for a moment before asking me his question.
“Is it because you don't know me or is it that you don't wanna get to know me because of what Reece and the others told you about me?”
I shake my head with a bout of frustration.
“Reece, Chaz and Pryce haven't ever spoken an ill word about you, Max. But I can't say the opposite.”
His grips tightens and I can feel all his frustration in his next question.
“How can you hang out with them after what they've done? How can you feel safe?”
“Because I don't believe they've done what they've been accused of.”
His gaze hardens.
“Really? So are you calling me a liar?”
“I’m not. I just see how much pain this situation has caused all of you. How broken you all feel about it. And they're the only ones who’ve stood by me when the whole school was calling me a slut and bullying me.”
Max snickers and his tone is incredulous when he speaks next.
“Oh, how noble! They stood by you in exchange for pussy! Especially when no other girl at school would ever be allowed to be alone with any of them.”
“It isn't the way you make it sound. I’ve never had to do anything I didn't want to do. And I don't listen to rumours. I’ve been on the receiving end of them.”
“You must ask yourself if they've got anything to do with it.”
“No, Max. They don't. They know how damaging a false rumour can be.”
“I’m just trying to protect you, Abi.
”
“Thank you. But I think I’m fine.”
He sighs and takes one step closer to me.
His hands are still on my forearms and now I can smell his subtle scent of wintergreen and rainfall.
It’s earthy and masculine.
“I’ve wanted to kiss you since I first spotted you at that party. But you disappeared with them ...”
His deep voice is barely audible, just a whisper.
“But Max, if we kiss now, it's just because of this stupid challenge, it isn't ...”
“I’ll take what I can get, Abi.”
And he crushes his lips on mine.
I don't wanna kiss him, I really don't but it's as if my lips were on autopilot and I feel myself respond to him.
There and then I tell myself that I have to kiss him because of the challenge but I know I’ll need to rationalise all this later.
I guess one can feel physical attraction for someone they don't particularly like as a person.
His tongue demands entrance and I find myself allowing him in and losing myself in the sensation of his mouth on mine.
He definitely knows what he's doing, as much as Chaz and Pryce do.
He lets go of my forearms and settles my arms on his shoulders, taking a step forward and flattening me against the wall.
And then one of his hands sneaks under my skirt, cupping one of my buttocks.
I try to wiggle out of his grasp but he pushes himself closer to me and squeezes my flesh tighter in his hand.
I push him away with all my might but only manage to gain a couple of inches.
We’re both breathing hard and I feel aroused and angry at the same time.
“The deal was a kiss. I don't want ...”
His smile is arrogant and so is his tone.
“Oh come on, Abs. Live a little!”
“No. I don't. I’ve never ...”
I’m so furious and confused that I struggle to express my feelings.
“Stop playing this innocent girl game! You certainly have no problem fucking Reece, Pryce, and Chaz!”
I push him farther away from me and snap.
“I’ve never slept with them! I’ve never slept with anybody.”
His voice goes up an octave and his tone is derisive and conceited.
“Stop playing innocent, Abi. Everybody knows that catholic school girls are the worst little whores.”
Beverly Hills Prep Academy The Complete Boxset : A Light Bully Romance Page 43
