Ignited

by Dantone, Desni

  Yep, the secretary definitely knew who I was. Even the new kid noticed.

  After we were given the unexcused tardy lecture and ordered straight to our second period classes, we exited the office together. I barely took two steps before he swiped my excuse.

  “Kristina Young,” he read out loud. He turned to me, his hand extended. “I’m Alec, but I guess you already know that. It’s nice to officially meet you, Kristina.”

  I grimaced at the use of my full name, but took his hand. “Nice to meet you too, Alec,” I said. “And please, call me Kris.”

  “Kris?” He cast me a sideways glance. “Don’t like your full name?”

  “Despise it,” I said with exaggerated emphasis.

  We reached his locker first and I stopped to wait for him as we talked about everything, and yet nothing. Next thing I knew, we were standing next to my locker, the door open, my books unmoved, still chatting away. I heard of his confusion about foods popular in this part of the country, some language barriers he was adjusting to, what teachers he had, and what neighborhood he had moved to—not far from mine actually. I was in the process of dishing on the habits of certain teachers when the bell rang.

  I jumped and glanced at him with widened eyes. He shrugged at me as students brushed past us, hurrying to their third period classes.

  “I’m sure we didn’t miss anything,” he said. “I had more fun doing this anyway.”

  I retrieved the books I would need and shot him a small smile. “Me too.”

  He noted the incredulity in my voice, and feigned a broken heart. “Surprised by that?”

  “I just—” I stammered. “I didn’t mean anything by that. It’s just been a rough week for me.”

  I saw the flicker of recognition on his face, and knew that he had heard about the accident. It was the curse of going to a small town school. Everyone knew everything. For a moment, I wondered what the others had told him. Then, I decided it didn’t matter.

  With a secretive smile, he said, “Well, that’s about to change.”

  “What?”

  He leaned forward like he had a secret to share with me and dropped his voice, “People can’t help but have fun around me.”

  That I could believe.

  “And you’re on my radar now, so I have a feeling you’ll be seeing a lot more of me,” he added as he backed up, hands in his pockets. With a parting grin, he turned and walked away.

  A cluster of passing junior girls slowed and stared. I kept my eyes on his back as he navigated the hallway, ignoring the stares with perfected indifference. Half way down the hall, he glanced over his shoulder and shot me a killer grin. For the first time in weeks, the smile I returned wasn’t a forced one.

  * * *

  Callie cornered me at lunch. “Okay. Spill it.” She set her tray down and plopped into the seat next to me. She leaned her elbows onto the table eagerly, waiting for juicy details. She wasn’t going to get them. She should know by now that, when it came to boys, I wasn’t as exciting as she expected me to be.

  “Apparently you already know,” I said coyly, biting into a cracker.

  “I had to hear it from Kathy.” Her voice dripped of disapproval. Kathy was the self-appointed school gossip. Of course she would be all over Alec and me talking in the hallway. She also had a way of exaggerating the facts.

  “Heard what exactly?” I asked.

  “You and the new kid were skipping together and getting chummy this morning. I can’t believe you stood me up and didn’t at least tell me it was for a boy, let alone a hot one.”

  Our friends, Josh and Danny, sat down across from us. Josh had a thing for Callie, though neither of them knew it yet. In eighth grade, I endured seven minutes in heaven with Danny. Really, only thirty seconds. We spent the other six and a half minutes comparing playlists. That was the closest I have ever come to having a boyfriend.

  “I heard you two are going out tomorrow night,” Josh volunteered.

  “I heard the quarry tonight,” Danny countered.

  “The quarry?” I squeaked. Where the entire school goes to park and make out? Me?

  My three friends laughed. They knew me and knew how ridiculous the rumors were. The rest of the school unfortunately...

  I turned to Callie in desperation. “We just talked.” Not only was it embarrassing, but I felt a little guilty about it. She had been the one admiring him from afar for days. “It was nothing. He probably doesn’t even remember my name.”

  “Uh-huh,” Callie said with a goofy look on her face. She dropped her voice to a whisper. “Then why is he on his way over here right now?”

  “What?”

  I turned in a panic as Alec strolled up behind me, holding out a purple and yellow folder with a lily on the front that I recognized as mine. He looked like he thought he should be embarrassed to have it in his possession, but didn’t care. Not really. He was the type of guy that could take a small hit to his ego. It wasn’t going to go anywhere.

  “I found this mixed in with my math homework. Imagine how humiliated I was pulling it out in front of the whole class.” The smile in his eyes actually made the jade sparkle, and I had a hard time looking directly at them.

  “Oh, sorry about that.” I took the folder from him with a grimace. “That can’t be easy to overcome. That’s probably going to be how everyone will remember you now.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I’m ruined for the rest of my high school career. The whole four months.” He stared at me a beat, his hands stuffed in his pockets. “You owe me.”

  How did he make that sound so...hot? I smiled awkwardly as my cheeks warmed. A quick glance confirmed that at least half of the ever-observant eyes in the cafeteria were watching us. Alec noticed at the same time I did, and he took a step back, raising his hand as if to wave goodbye.

  And Callie kicked my shin. Hard.

  The words tumbled out of my mouth before I had time to second guess myself. “Hey, Alec, do you want to sit here? With us?” I shot a frantic look at Callie, who was grinning ear to ear. “Or do you already have a table?”

  He drew in a breath, and squinted his eyes thoughtfully as he surveyed the room. “I’ve experimented a bit. I’m definitely not welcome at the jock table. Or the smart kids table. The outcast table had some promise…”

  Our table had been uncomfortably empty all week, with only the four of us. I knew Callie was happy for Alec to join us. Josh looked up from his lunch with an indifferent shrug. Danny was on his phone, and not paying attention.

  “You can join the nomad table,” I suggested with a nod towards the chair next to mine.

  He glanced at Callie and Josh, and must have seen something reassuring because he sat down and threw me a look that made my head spin. “This might be my favorite one,” he said.

  I pretended not to notice the way I blushed under his gaze. “Good. Glad to have you.”

  Josh grunted something, and I wasn’t sure if he was agreeing or disagreeing with me. Callie, I swear, squealed in delight. She was certainly happy to have adopted Alec into our lunch circle. That close knit group was practically family. Well, it used to be. Maybe it could be again. Alec was nice, funny, and easy on the eyes. With him here now, lunch might not be as miserable as it had been.

  He couldn’t have come along at a better time.

  CHAPTER 3

  I was becoming me again—washing my hair regularly, wearing makeup, and all that. Thanks to Alec. He has been in my life for only three weeks now, but already, the boy had a way of getting through to me like no one else could. Not even Callie. Who would have thought? The super-hot-new-boy and me? The idea was as preposterous to me as it was to everyone else. I wasn’t the kind of girl guys like Alec typically went for. Sure, boys thought I was cute in an I-don’t-care kind of way, not in an I-get-regular-mani-pedis-and-got-fake-boobs-for-Christmas kind of way, like Brigit and Heather and their bobble-head cheerleader groupies.

  And Brigit got turned down hard by Alec, or so I had heard. From the d
aggers she was shooting in my vicinity, I assumed the rumor was true.

  I faced another direction and took a swig of beer.

  It was also because of Alec that I found myself here, at a beach party. By beach, I mean a narrow strip of sand along one edge of Big Pine Lake just outside of Boone and by party, I mean a bonfire, a throng of teenagers, and alcohol. It wasn’t a big lake, but it was a large crowd.

  Most of them were familiar to me in one way or another, either from seeing them every day in the halls at school or having partied with them in the past. Most looked surprised to see me. Some smiled, like they were glad I was back. Others shot me the usual awkward stare, but I was getting better at not caring about those.

  “There’s Alec.” Callie nudged my shoulder, and I followed her gaze to the water’s edge, where he sat in the sand, forearms rested on his knees, beer bottle dangling from one hand, a cigarette in the other. Though not the most attractive habit, he more than made up for it with personality and raw good looks. In a green button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, tattered jeans, his favorite Sketchers, and a grin that might even manage to drop a nun’s panties, he was easily the most alluring guy here. Hovering around him and a few boys I didn’t recognize—friends of his, I assumed from the way they were carrying on—was a girl that seemed to agree. She wasn’t even subtle as she raked her eyes all over him.

  He was oblivious. Well, knowing Alec, he wasn’t oblivious, but he also wasn’t returning the interest. I smiled into my beer bottle.

  The whole school thought we were an item. I had to admit, there were times I had to wonder myself. Like when he sat beside me every day at lunch and had me laughing the entire thirty minutes, the times I passed him in the hall between classes and he met my gaze with a flirty wink, and the other times he’d be waiting for me, leaning against my locker like some Calvin Klein model. People stared. They whispered and speculated. I was used to being the center attraction for the gossip circus, and Alec, well, he didn’t really seem to care.

  Then there was the way he looked at me sometimes. That way that really got my heart racing and my palms sweating. He didn’t have to say anything, just look. Or touch. Like a few nights ago, when he brushed aside the hair covering the scar on my forehead and nearly put me into heart failure. “You don’t have to hide it. Not from me,” he had said, and I thought he might kiss me then. But he didn’t, and ever since I’ve been wondering what it would be like to kiss Alec, and wishing for it to happen.

  So, even if everyone else thought we were together, and there were times I thought we were heading down that path, the truth was I didn’t know what we were or where we stood. I mean, he was a friend, albeit a really cute, ornery one that I wanted to kiss.

  But when he did things like drag me off to the mall to do “girly stuff” when Callie had the flu, drive me to Josh’s to watch the NFL playoffs on the big screen, convince me to skip school to teach me how to snowboard, and graciously accept the detention we both received the following day with a suave, “It was worth every minute”, I really wanted to kiss him.

  That was why my stomach twisted into a knot when he spotted me now and fixed me with a hellish grin as he parted the sea of bodies on his way over to me.

  “I was wondering when you’d get here,” he said when he drew closer.

  “We had to go to the mall first,” Callie volunteered before I could find my voice. “Shopping, hair maintenance, you know, girl stuff.”

  Alec grinned, and I knew he was recalling our adventure last week. The funnest afternoon spent in a mall. Ever. “As a matter of fact, I do know.”

  “So, who are those guys you were hanging out with over there?” Callie tried to look around Alec. “Any cute ones?”

  Alec shifted to block her view. “No.” He turned Callie and I around, stepped between us, and placed an arm around each of our shoulders as he led us away. “Those guys are no good for you. Besides, if I brought you two over there, those girls would probably try to rip your hair out.”

  He was being silly as always, but I knew I hadn’t missed the alarm on his face when Callie had shown interest in his buddies. He didn’t want us to meet them, and there was more to it than girl fights and hair pulling. I didn’t have a guess as to what it could be and, knowing Alec, I doubted it was anything serious, so I set that mystery aside for dissection later.

  Brigit was staring at us like she was casting a spell of immediate and painful death on me, and that was a tad more significant at the moment. I wondered what exactly Alec had turned down to deserve that much hatred from her. Brigit was well-known, and it wasn’t because of her outstanding virtue or stellar grades.

  Callie must have seen her too, and leave it to Callie to leave no stone unturned. “So, Alec, what exactly happened with Big Tits Brig?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He feigned innocence, but the grin on his face gave him away.

  “Was it a lap dance? I heard she’s known for those,” Callie said.

  “Don’t forget quickies in the boys’ locker room,” I added. That had been last year’s scandal.

  Alec looked down at me with huge eyes. “Definitely no quickies.” He glanced at Callie reluctantly. “Perhaps an offering in the vicinity of a lap dance.”

  Callie and I busted out laughing. Wiping tears from her eyes, Callie said, “Man I would have loved to have seen the look on her face. You just shot her down?”

  “I’m not interested in her.” There was something about the tone of his voice that made me turn my head toward him. He gave my shoulder a squeeze and shot me a look that all but said, It’s you I’m interested in.

  I nearly choked on my next breath. Callie gave no indication that she noticed the exchange between Alec and me, but she picked that moment to excuse herself. Calling to Josh, who she had conveniently picked out in the crowd, she took off, leaving us alone.

  We stared at each other in silence for a moment before Alec took my hand, slipping his fingers between mine. “Come with me,” he said.

  Either I was rendered brain dead or his smile was impossible to resist, or maybe both, because I couldn’t utter a word as he pulled me after him, leading the way through the mass of bodies. The crowd thinned as we walked away from the bonfire, until it was just us, walking hand in hand down the beach. We passed a few couples who had ventured off for seclusion and I tried not to think about what they were doing out there, hidden in the shadows. Or what Alec was up to.

  “Where are we going?” I finally asked him.

  “Getting away.” He pulled me closer. “I don’t really want to be around a lot of people.”

  “Oh, okay.” That was it, the best I could come up with. I was heading off, alone, with Alec. Alone. I hoped I was ready for this.

  We wandered up on a battered playground at the edge of the beach, surrounded by woods and separating the lake from the park’s campground. This time of the year, there would be no campers, which left the rusty slide, death-trap swings, splintered picnic table, and half basketball court all to us. A lone street light atop the pole holding the backboard supplied a dim light. The hoots and hollers of fun on the beach barely reached my ears.

  We were so...so alone.

  Alec picked up a stray basketball and palmed it. Holding it out to me, he asked, “You ever play?”

  “Of course.” I took the ball and dribbled around him. What he didn’t know is that the orphanage had an old court, and I’ve been playing since I was five. My basketball career had sputtered out in junior high, when everyone else shot past me, and I was suddenly shorter than, well, everyone. I still had a mean shot and a wicked cross over though.

  “Ever play HORSE?” he asked.

  “Who’s never played that game?”

  “Let’s play. We can make it interesting if you’d like.” There was a challenge in his voice.

  “What are the stakes?”

  He eyed me doubtfully. “I assume playing for clothes is out of the question.” He hesitated
to read my reaction—which was utter shock and terror—and chuckled. “Thought so. I’ll think of something I want.”

  “And if I win?”

  He wrinkled his nose. “I don’t think we’ll have to worry about that.” As if to prove his point, he slapped the ball out of my hands, shot and sunk a basket. “I’m pretty good.”

  I ambled over to the bouncing ball, nodding my head appreciatively. “Not bad.” I dribbled as I worked my way farther from the basket, and took a shot from behind the three point line. It went in with a gentle whoosh and I looked at Alec triumphantly. “So am I.”

  Half an hour later, I sunk the final shot to clinch my win over Alec—HORSE to HORS.

  “I wish I could say that I let you win, but I didn’t.” He pretended to be more wounded than I knew he was. “You know, we never did agree to the terms. So what do you want?”

  Damn, I wish we had agreed to the terms first. The occasion called for a flirty response, something I was so not qualified to provide. Then, a genius idea came to mind. Or, well, I hoped it was as ingenious as I thought. And I hoped I could manage to pull it off smoothly. My pulse thundered as I watched Alec dribble to a corner of the court to take a practice shot. Without his eyes on me, I felt brave. Well, braver.

  “We could go ahead with the playing for clothes idea you had earlier.”

  The ball sailed from his fingertips and his eyes slanted to mine, shining a startling green in the dim light as a small grin spread on his face. The ball dropped through the hoop and bounced, forgotten, on the blacktop.

  He moved toward me gracefully, certain of his actions, and my heart nearly stopped beating from the way he was looking at me. “Looking forward to it,” he said with a wolfish grin.

  I must be missing something. “You lost,” I said. “Which means it’ll be you losing an article of clothing. Not me.”

  “That’s not how you play strip-HORSE. I sunk four shots and that’s...” His eyes trailed over various parts of my body as he calculated. “Enough articles of clothing to make me happy. And you, having sunk five shots...” He looked down at himself to count the number of items he was wearing, “leaves me naked, apparently.”