by Jillian Dodd
Aiden makes me melt one minute and boil the next.
Why would I want a relationship like that?
Dawson is sweet, he’s a good friend, a good boyfriend and he makes me hot.
What more could I want?
Annie and I are in the locker room changing out of our swimsuits.
I see my phone in my locker. I have numerous texts and a couple missed calls from Dawson.
Dawson: Hey :) I wanna see you tonight <3 (6:15pm)
Dawson: Where are you? (6:42 pm)
Dawson: Why aren’t you replying? (7:14 pm)
Dawson: I heard you were in the library studying with Aiden and now no one seems to know where you are. Just fyi, I’m headed up to his room. (8:22 pm)
Dawson: This is bullshit. (9:10 pm)
Me: Hey, sorry. What’d ya want? (9:26 pm)
Dawson: What I want is to know where you’ve been and why you weren’t replying.
Me: I didn’t have my phone.
Dawson: Okay. You wanna tell me where you were?
Me: Oh, yeah, sorry. I was studying in the library with Annie, Aiden, Nick and some other people for our French test. Then we ordered pizza and ate it in Nick’s room. He’s in a different dorm. Then we decided to study in the hot tub in the rec center.
Dawson: We’ve never lied to each other right?
Me: That’s right. And I’m not now. Ask Annie, Nick, Stewart, Angela. They were all there.
Dawson: It seems like Aiden is always trying to find an excuse to spend time with you. (He’s got a valid point.)
Me: You’re the only one I want to spend time with. Can I come over now, make it up to you?
Dawson: What did you do that you have to make up for?
And that text, I have to say, makes me mad. So screw my adorable boyfriend. I don’t need this right now. I had a good night with some friends and I’m not going to feel bad about it. I also have more homework to do.
Me: I thought maybe I made you worry, or whatever. Never mind. I’ll see you tomorrow.
Dawson: No, I’m sorry. I’m being a jealous jerk. Meet my outside your dorm. We can go for a walk?
Me: <3
I’m such a pushover.
“So studying in the hot tub is a good idea. We need to go in there. It’s usually pretty private. We could have some fun,” Dawson tells me as we walk down to the football stadium. I know this is where we’re going.
“Yeah, it was nice. Although, we didn’t do that much studying once we got there. Everyone was screwing around and talking. Aiden threw me in the pool. He can be such a jerk.”
“Well that wasn’t very nice. Why’d he do that?”
“I don’t know.”
“How did he do it?”
“Do what?”
“Throw you in the pool?”
“Uh, what do you mean?”
“I mean like did he push you in?”
“Um, no. He like picked me up and like carried me screaming while he jumped in.”
“He carried you?”
“Nick did it to Angela. They don’t like each other. Okay, you know what. I’m done with this conversation. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“No, but, never mind. I’ll take care of it.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’ll just talk to Aiden.”
“And why would you do that.”
“He needs to stop flirting with my girl.”
“Oh my gosh. Seriously?”
“You think I’m being dumb, right?”
I get a big grin on my face. “I think you need a talking to.” I push him gently with both my hands, but I gestured big, which made it look like I was trying to push him hard. He lets himself get pushed up against the brick wall that surrounds the stairs going up to the bleachers.
He gives me a little grin.
I grab the front of his shirt, get in close to his face, say, “I love you,” and kiss him hard. He wraps his arms tight around me and we kiss and kiss for awhile.
“You make me so hot. Can we go back to my dorm?”
“No time. Plus I’m on my period. You’ll have to make do with kisses for tonight. And any other night you act like a jealous boy.”
(I think this scene is cute. I like how Keatyn doesn’t take his crap—even though she may deserve it.)
Monday, September 19th
Just throwing out a lot of love there.
7am
Social Committee meeting. Why else would I be up so early? (Keatyn and I both hate mornings.)
Aiden, Peyton and Brad and I all give updates on where things stand on the French weekend. then Peyton says, “Okay so let's talk about homecoming. It’s only three weeks away. We also need to decide on a theme for our next event. I’m thinking since Homecoming is only a few weeks away and then we go into November and Thanksgiving, maybe we do it somewhere in between like say the second weekend in November.
Everyone decides that sounds great. Brad decides he is going to do a social committee facebook page and then he’s going to ask a questionnaire where people can vote for 4 different themes. We decided we didn’t want each one to be about a different country so we decided on Eighties, Greek (as in Mythology and togas), Elizabethan era, (think Jane Austen), Hogwarts/Harry Potter.
He’s also going to do a wall post asking people to comment on what they liked, didn’t like, suggestions, right after the French movie night.
“Okay, on to homecoming.” Peyton says. I really don’t think there is anything we can do for Homecoming. It’s such a big tradition, it’s all pretty much set in stone, but I was thinking it would be cool if we could come up with something. So each day of spirit week, we dress up. We have the voting for court, the parade, the pep rally and bonfire, the alumni tailgate, the game, the coronation, the alumni picnic and then the dance.”
Brad says, “Yeah, it’s a really busy weekend. It’s fun, but a lot of it is geared toward the alumni. Like we always have a great time going out to dinner on our own, but then I wish they didn’t come to the dance too. Like our welcome back dance is always a blast, but you can’t like bump and grind in front of the alumni, or you get into trouble, so the music is kinda lame.”
“So why can’t we have our own dance?” I ask.
“They’d never let us,” Peyton sighs. “This weekend is a huge tradition. Been done this way for like decades or something. All the alumni come back, bring their families. They incorporate the class reunions into it.”
“So we can’t change what’s in place?”
“Right.”
“Can we add to it?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well there is something you’re definitely missing.”
“What?”
“An after party. We go to dinner, do the alumni dance, leave at eleven right after the coronation, go to our own after party.”
“What would we do, where would we have it?”
“I don’t know. Maybe we rent out a club, get a sweet dj, change out of our pretty dresses into something more club appropriate.”
“As in skimpy? I’m a fan of the idea already.”
Well sure, dancing's hard work,
There's no way the school would pay for all that. But it sounds so fun.
So why don't we?
We what?
We pay for it. Come on Peyton, you drive a Porsche, your brother drives a Maserati, Brad, I saw your Mercedes, saw Dawson's house, any reason we can't ask our parents to pitch in?
I don't know about your parents but I’m pretty sure mine would be cool with it. Maybe like 5 or 10 of us go in on it.
So does that mean we'd make it exclusive? Like only invite the coolest people.
No. That wouldn't be as fun. We want the place packed. I grin. But that doesn't mean we can't have a special vip area.
How would u decide who would get in there?
Well let's figure out what it will cost. We’ll need to pay to rent the club, hire a sweet DJ, we’ll need food, like snacks
when we get there, lots of energy drinks, then later, I think we could serve breakfast or all just go out for breakfast.”
“We could say if your parents contribute x dollar amount, that you get a VIP pass.”
“Could we make it tax deductible?”
“I would think so, we’ll run the money through our social committee account.”
“Perfect.”
“And maybe if you get a VIP pass, then you can bring in like so many friends or something. Make it like a place to sit, relax, chill.”
Then we want everyone on the dance floor.
Does anyone have any connections to a really good dj? Or know of a club?
brad says I have an idea for a club let me check it out. So we want it from say midnight to 6am?
Yeah. That will give us all time to go home, change and get there.
Perfect.
Anyone know a good DJ?
Uh I think I can handle that one.
Okay food?
Peyton says, let me talk to my mom.
And I can ask Dawson's mom. And I also might know someone who would do it.
You know what though. It will be a lot of work for us to try and do. And coordinate. Like it will be fine to work some during french weekend, but like for this night we just wanna party. What if we hired an event planner? We make the decisions before and they do it all the day of?
Yes.
Okay so let's meet back thursday morning. If were gonna do it we don't have much time.
Uh, y'all these 7am meetings are about to kill me. Any chance we could do the special discussion meeting for this event like later?
Aiden says yeah, let's all go out for dinner, get pizza work and eat?
Thank you.
And make calls today. I can get you a pass out of class if you need it.
Let’s meet at 6:30, then we can all carpool into town. (Sorry, this scene is pretty rough. It literally has no punctuation whatsoever.)
As we’re walking to get coffee, Aiden says to me, “You should go to homecoming with me..”
“I have a date already.”
“Bet he hasn't asked you to the after party.”
I laugh at him. “Cuz he doesn't know about the after party and plus I wouldn't think the after party would be a date thing. Its a shake your ass bump and grind with everyone kind of thing. See you missed out on that with your 29 slow dances.”
“I loved our 29 dances. I love to dance with you. I love to be with you.”
“Why don't you just say it?” I tease him. Give him my sexiest grin.
“Say what?”
“You love me.”
“Naw not yet. You have a bf.”
“You told me that I'm in love with you.”
“So?”
“So, you were just throwing out a lotta love there.” (Another one of my favorite lines.)
And all of a sudden Aiden looks like a normal nervous boy, there is a bead of sweat just below his hairline.
He changes the subject. “You have really good ideas. Like seriously.”
“only for parties lol”
“Naw you have that um like you think outside the box, you think anything is possible, you have like this cool version on the world. Its refreshing.”
“Well we can do whatever we dream. Can't we?”
He looks at me with those eyes. Says a bit shyly, “I sure hope so.”
“Aiden. What have you been dreaming about me?”
He blushes. Seriously, he actually blushed. And I was just teasing.
I mean I’ve had dreams about him. But he BLUSHED! That means his dreams were sexual. (He blushed!)
“Aiden!?”
“What?”
“You’ve had dreams about me. Tell me about them.”
“No.”
“Come on. I'll tell you one I had about you. It was naughty.”
Then I get the smile, the mega watt, can’t look directly into it like the sun cuz it hurts your eyes bright. “Do tell,” he says.
“No you first.” I tell him. “Did we have sex? Like in your dream?”
“Uh, yeah,”
“Tell me.”
“He doesn’t answer, instead he says, “Did we have sex in yours?”
“Yeah. Well, I mean sorta. We did but I didn't know it was you.”
“How didn't you know it was me?”
“If I tell you that I have to tell you the whole dream.”
“If I’m going to tell you, I need alcohol. Meet me at the cave tonight.”
Tonight we are having a girls night. Me, Katie, Annie, Maggie, Mallory and we invited Angie too. We order chinese food, do pedis and manis, watch secret life of the American teen and Gossip Girl and drink some really nasty wine with screw top lid.
We had a big discussion of how the Gossip Girl books and show are so much different. We like Chuck and Blair together, but we really don’t see enough of Nate. He seriously needs to have a hot affair with Serena.
We also discussed possible homecoming dates. Annie is hoping that Ace will ask her. They have been doing some serious making out, but everything so far has stayed above the clothes, well, I think maybe he felt her up some. Katie and Carson are still kissing, but he is kinda not acting like he wants it to be anything more than that. She is thinking maybe Parker would be a better option. Maggie sorta hooked up a bit with a cute junior boy this past weekend, but doesn’t expect a date out of it. She really isn’t interested in him. Bryce and Mallory have been flirting when they see each other, but they aren’t talking yet. (This absolute mess of a few paragraphs got cut—with good reason. Although, I do love when the girls hang out in their dorm and gossip.)
Tuesday, September 20th
He thinks he’s a sex god.
History
Drank too much wine. Not enough to be tipsy even, but enough to like make me tired. I was already tired, so it relaxed me and I crashed. I didn’t go meet Aiden. He called and texted me, but I didn’t wake up.
“So you’re taking my brother to meet the parents...sounds serious.” (Riley says.)
“Well, it is kinda serious, I guess. But I met your parents like two weeks ago.”
“So how are things going between you two?”
“Good, great I think. He got mad at me the other night though and was acting kinda stupid jealous.”
“Would you rather have a guy that doesn’t care?”
“Uh, no. That would be like Brooklyn and no, I don’t want one like him.”
“He told me you were with Aiden last night.”
“And Annie and a bunch of people studying for our french test.”
“In a hot tub?”
“Well, that was the plan. Regardless, it was fun. And I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“So you’re not in love with the hottie god anymore?”
“That wasn’t love. I just, I thought he was cute, and he has a certain charm about him, but he tells me he likes me one minute, and that I deserve detention the next.” (Oops.)
Oh shit. Please do not ask me about this. Please. Let it slide.
“He told you he likes you? Was this recently?”
Thank you!!
“Um, no. It was a while ago. So what about you? You and are Ariela are cute together. She seems a little to sweet for you though.”
He flicks my hair.
“Hey!”
“What do you mean to sweet for me?”
“Well, she’s not like the whoredom girls I’m thinking. Is she still a virgin?”
“Actually, she is.” He grins big.
“Why are you grinning so much?”
“Cuz I kinda like that about her. I’ll get to be her first. Like I hope. But that won’t be for a while. She wants to be in love before she does that, like real love.” (This also changed. Ariela was not a virgin, but she did make Riley wait for what felt like forever to him.)
“And you want her to fall in love with you? Usually you’re good with just lust.”
“Yeah, well, I really like her
, I’m not just a sex god, you know,” he laughs. “Plus, like hooking up is fun, but I think it’d be cool to do it with like the same person. Truthfully, my brother has been so happy, I kinda wanna be that way too.”
“Your brother is happy because all of a sudden he thinks he’s a sex god.” (LOL)
Riley laughs out loud.
The teacher says, “Riley, you have something to share with the class?”
Riley clears his voice, trying to stop his laughing. “No, sir.”
As we’re leaving class, I can’t help but give him a big hug.
“What’s that for?”
“My whittle Wiley is growing up and falling in luuuvvvrreeee.”
“Do not tell anyone I said that. Ruin my reputation.”
Then I’m the one that starts giggling.
He grabs my sides and starts tickling me. “Hey, that is not something to be laughing about.”
He can go it alone.
French
I walk into class and Aiden is already sitting in his desk, book open, doing some last minute studying.
“Hey, sorry about last night. Did you not get my text this morning?”
“Yeah I got it. Just didn’t have anything to say back.”
He’s pissed at me.
“Oh. Um, you’re gonna do good on this test. Good luck.”
“Doubt it.”
“Why do you doubt it? We’ve studied hard.”
“I was up late, sitting outside, waiting for this girl to show up, when I should’ve been asleep.”
The teacher starts handing out tests, and I’m not supposed to say anything, but I turn around and say, “Maybe if you replied to my text, I could explain.”
“Sure you were busy with your boyfriend.”
Miss Praline says, “Keatyn, turn around, and no talking during the test.”
“I feel asleep. I’m sorry.”
Now I can’t concentrate. He’s mad at me. Mad I didn’t go to the cave. Mad I have a boyfriend. And that’s his fault really. I could have been his girlfriend ages ago if he would just stop all this, when you’re going to be together forever, time doesn’t matter shit. Because clearly it matters to him.
