“This is a job for Cold Stone,” Kendra said.
She bought me chocolate cake-batter ice cream in a white-chocolate covered cone and she told me about this loser guy she used to date, Zack.
“I was so in love with him,” she said. “But he kept cheating on me, so I had to break up with him—had to. But it was so hard and I cried all the time. But now I’m dating Seth and soooo happy.” She licked at her ice cream, then went on with a laugh, “Now, of course, Zack calls me all the time, wanting to get back together. But no way. He’s dog. I’m so better off without him.”
It was kind of comforting to hear her say that. That the break-up had made her sad, but now, after all the heartbreak, she was happy and better off. That was comforting.
But the thing was—Aiden wasn’t a dog.
And I missed him.
I did.
I wasn’t sure if I was better off without him or not. It kind of seemed I wasn’t.
***
The next morning, I woke feeling optimistic. Not about Aiden. That seemed over, whether I wanted it to be or not. It was just the way it was. So, I decided to try harder to be okay with it. I decided to try harder to like Milo. After all, he really was perfect for me. Really. He was a nice guy and he liked me a lot and he was cute.
Everyone said we’d make a perfect couple. So … okay. I’d give it more of a shot, try harder.
And really, I’d had fun with him at the concert. I did. Sort of. It was just—he wasn’t Aiden, and I would have to get used to that—a different guy. A guy I didn’t know so well and sometimes didn’t know what to say to.
Like I said, it was awkward, but not horrible. I could deal with it.
That’s what I was thinking before school. But then something bad happened.
See, Kendra talked me into driving my mom’s car to school. Because well, Mom wasn’t around, and there was her car in the garage, not being used, and we would’ve had to take the school bus otherwise.
And well, Mom didn’t say I couldn’t take her car to school. She never said that. I just never did before—because she always needed it. But I couldn’t get her on my cell to ask. So in the end we took her car, and then like I said, something bad happened.
Kendra had me stop at the 7-Eleven for a Slurpee before school and it was really, really foggy. Really foggy. And when we were backing up to leave the parking lot, we accidently backed into a dumpster. And when I say “we” I really mean “me.” I backed into the dumpster. Because it was super foggy out. And I didn’t see it. (Okay, I’m not the world’s best driver, I admit it.)
So, that was fatal.
Especially because right then I got a text from Mom that said she would be coming back this afternoon. (This afternoon!!) My aunt’s boyfriend ended up wanting to go to Belize after all. Toad!!! But Mom said she was swamped at the work, so she was glad things turned out the way they did.
But I so wasn’t! I had to get the car fixed—now!
I was freaking.
Kendra looked at the dent in the bumper and shrugged, like no big deal—but then, she wasn’t the one that was going to have to pay for it. Or hear my Mom scream about it. (Not that Mom would scream, but she’d be mad. I mean, I didn’t even ask.)
“It’s not that bad,” Kendra said.
Not that bad? Not that bad! The bumper was like, totaled. Okay, maybe not totaled, but noticeably messed up.
I was all shaky and not sure what to do. Scrambled, frenzied worries raced around in my brain. I needed to get the car fixed, and I only had fifty bucks, and I doubted that would be enough. Only, how much was enough? I had no clue how much it would cost. A hundred? A thousand? More? A lot more? I had absolutely no idea.
And I had a test first period that I couldn’t miss and I didn’t know where to take the car to get it fixed or how I would get there or get back to school when I brought it there and …
Ugh! The list went on and on. It had my head reeling.
I didn’t actually say anything aloud, though. I just stared at the car, my pulse racing and my head burning and my eyes watering.
But I guess Kendra could tell I was freaking out.
Because she said, “Chill, Ally.”
Like I was screaming or throwing a tantrum or something.
She was all matter-of-fact and told me her ex-boyfriend, Zack, would look at the car. “He has auto-mechanics first period. He can fix it.”
She said it like, case closed, no big deal.
I let out a breath. She had said last night Zack was a dog. Still, I couldn’t help but get my hopes up—a little. Because getting the car fixed on school grounds while I was able to stay at school and be a good-girl and take my test and go to classes—that would be perfect. Awesome even.
Only, it sounded too good to be true. Way too good.
I bit my lip. “Will he help me?”
Kendra waved off my question. “He’ll help me.” She sounded like there was no doubt. “He may be a jerk and have no idea how to treat a girl, but he knows his cars.”
I trudged back to the driver’s side of the car and slid in. I hoped my cousin knew what she was talking about.
***
All during first period I worried about my car, which made it hard for me to concentrate on my test. Kendra had taken my car to the auto shop at our school before first period. She said she needed to talk to Zack about it “alone.” I was okay with that. Whatever she needed to do with him “alone”—well, I didn’t want to know.
I just wanted my car fixed.
And I hoped, hoped, hoped it wouldn’t cost a thousand dollars.
I texted Kendra twice during class. She never texted back. It had my stomach in knots, but when I came out of first period there she was, waiting for me outside the door. She was all smiling and looking … hmm. I don’t know. Mischievous?
The smiling part had me relieved. The mischievous part? Not so much. It had my heart in a frantic uproar—not sure what to do, be excited or anxious.
“So, what happened?” I asked. “Did Zack say he would fix my car?”
“Oh, Zack didn’t come to school today.”
Whhh?
I felt as though I’d been punched in the stomach, especially because Kendra said it with a huge smile, still looking mischievous. It pissed me off. I mean, I needed help. My mom was going to freak and never let me use her car again, ever. And I’d never be able to buy my guitar. Ever. I was going to owe Mom money until after college. Maybe even after that. It had me sweating and aching and Kendra’s smile made me want to slug her.
“So, why are you smiling?” I snapped.
Kendra’s smile grew. “Because, Zack wasn’t there … but another guy was.” Her smile got even bigger and more mischievous. “He said he’ll do it. You just need to pay for the materials, and—” she laughed, “—you have to kiss him.”
I blinked. “What?”
She gave out another laugh. Then she raised up her hands, like she couldn’t believe it either. “That’s what he said.”
My stomach was suddenly doing strange flips. “Who said that?”
My voice hitched as I asked, because I was pretty sure I knew.
Kendra eyes danced, as though this was hilarious and she couldn’t wait to see my face when I heard the answer. “You know that hockey guy? ‘Griff The Greif Master?’—him.”
She smiled kind of dreamy-like. “I’d do it. He has gorgeous lips. Don’t you think he has gorgeous lips?”
I swallowed.
Yeah, I thought he had gorgeous lips. I’d fantasized about those kewpie-doll lips of his night after night. Non-stop. For months. Because they were amazing—gentle and sweet and Mmmmm.
So, no. No way. I couldn’t kiss him again. I couldn’t.
It took me forever to get over that kiss—to stop longing for it. (Okay, I hadn’t stopped.) But it took me until last night to actually decide to definitely focus back on “nice” guys—guys I could actually date and hold hands with as I walked down the school halls. Guys like
Milo. Milo, who just this morning I decided I’d soon be dating. Because Milo and me—we made sense. We took the same honors classes and were on the same school committees. We were “right.”
And Griffin was wrong.
Wrong, wrong, wrong.
All wrong.
So, no. I couldn’t kiss him again.
I just couldn’t.
Kendra gave a little laugh, like this was so fun—watching my face flush red as a beet. Grrr!
She put on lip-gloss as she summarized her meeting with The Griff. “He said he’d do it for free. You just have to pay for the parts—the backlights and stuff. He said it will be about forty bucks.”
“Forty buck?” I raised my eyebrows. I had forty bucks!
I practically jumped up and down—okay, I did jump up and down. “Really? That’s it? Really?”
She laughed. “That—and the kiss.”
I waved my arm at her as though to brush off her comment, like it was silly. “He was only teasing. He’s not going to make me do that.”
‘Cause suddenly I knew he wouldn’t. Or anyway, I was pretty sure he wouldn’t. Griffin just liked to mess with Aiden, and it seemed The Griff found it was entertaining to do it through me—shy little Ally Grange who had a fan-girl crush on him. It was like he could mess with both Aiden and me with one kiss. It amused him. Way too much.
But it wasn’t like Aiden and I were really on Griffin’s radar. I mean, it’s not like he was up on mine and Aiden’s relationship. He wasn’t. He probably didn’t have a clue we’d broken up. I was pretty sure the kiss would lose all of its fun for Griffin if it wasn’t going to piss off Aiden.
Like that—the kiss would lose all of its appeal.
“Oh I don’t know, Ally,” Kendra said. “Griffin seemed pretty serious about it. I mean, the guy is going to have to miss classes to work on your car.”
For a moment that touched me, deeply. But then my brain screamed, “Wake up, Ally!”
This was Griffin we were talking about. Rough, wild Griffin. The Griff. The Grief Master. He didn’t do favors—he did pranks. And mean stuff. (Except when he was doing nice stuff, like pulling wild, mean Jake off Aiden when I asked, or helping to carry my books. But that stuff didn’t happen very often.)
I smirked—but more for show than anything else, because really, I was still touched. “Does The Griff even go to classes?”
Kendra grinned, like she hadn’t thought of that. “I don’t know. Probably not. I guess you have a point.” She flipped open her cell. “So, I’m supposed to text him back and let him know if we have a deal—do we?”
I bit my lip, then nodded. “Sure.” I had to clear my throat ‘cause it was all pitchy. “Right. We have a deal.”
***
So, my head was not on my classes as I went to each of them. I tried to listen to my teachers—I did—but all I really heard was a persistent question at the back of my brain. “Am I really going to kiss The Griff again?”
The thought got me all oozy and gooey inside. Got my heart pumping frantic and wild and made my palms sweat so bad I couldn’t hold my pencil properly.
But no.
Of course I wasn’t going to kiss him.
Of course I wasn’t.
Of course.
I was still convincing myself of that. But it seemed pretty definite I wasn’t. Griffin was just messing around. He was always messing around. He didn’t have a “thing” for me, wasn’t pining away to kiss me again. I was a joke to him. Me and Aiden both. We were a different species to The Griff. Seriously. To him we were alien, foreign creatures—weird and amusing, fun to toy with. I could tell he thought that by the way he was always grinning at me. He thought I was weird.
And me having to kiss him again? It was a joke to rile Aiden up again. That was it. It had to be. I mean, he was The Griff, the school’s Bad-Boy-slash-Hero. He tore it up on the hockey rink and seduced girls when he sang in his hot band. Then he just played around with the girls’ hearts never letting them anywhere near his. If he had one. He went from bad-girl to bad-girl, never getting serious. Just playing around.
So, I definitely knew—for sure—he wasn’t pining for my kiss. Didn’t care if he got one or not. He was just doing the usual—playing around.
And lets face it, I wasn’t his type anyway, at all. I was so far from it, it was funny. Maybe that’s why he always smirked when he saw me coming—my crush on him was a big, fat joke. Just like him wanting to kiss me—that was a big joke to him too. Part of his perverse humor—that I seriously didn’t get. At all.
Grrr!
I got a text from Kendra during fifth period. She texted: “You practicing your puckering?”
Then she wrote again right after that: “I hear The Griff is a great kisser!”
I slunk down in my seat. She heard that right—but not from me. I didn’t tell her I had kissed The Griff before. I didn’t tell her anything. In fact, until this weekend I don’t think I’d had an actual real conversation with Kendra since junior high. So, I was reluctant to “share” with her something huge like that—because, to me, kissing Griffin was huge. Gigantic.
I texted back: “He’s not going to make me kiss him. He was kidding.”
I was almost positive of that now. The further the day went along, the more sure I became. Still, I was sweating and shivering and my heart started up like a jackhammer whenever I let it think about Griffin’s sexy, soft lips, or warm, gentle hands, or … a closet.
Kendra texted back: “We’ll see, Cous.”
The plan was that I would pick up my car from the school’s auto shop after the final bell rang—when all of the classes were over and the building would be empty. That was “the plan.” Kendra and Griffin had made it in the morning before school started. Griffin had instructed Kendra to text him when I agreed to “the deal.”
Which I did. I agreed.
But I wasn’t actually planning on going through with it—with the kissing him. Seriously, the more I thought about it, the more I was convinced Griffin couldn’t care less about kissing me. He probably didn’t even want to kiss me. Even slightly. He just wanted to see me turn red and squirm and stuff. But he would let me off the hook when he heard Aiden and I broke up. My kiss would no longer hold any entertainment value for him. Pathetic as it was, my kiss would no longer be of any consequence to Griffin. At all. Which wasn’t exactly a cheerful thought, but it did put my mind at ease. After all, I was still on a mission to get over Griffin. Kissing him again sure wasn’t going to help with that. It would put me way, way, way behind. Way behind. Keep me aching for him until graduation. Even beyond. I’d spend the rest of my life pining over his kiss.
So no way. I wasn’t going to put myself through that. I made Kendra swear she wouldn’t let me be alone with Griffin.
When classes were finally over I trudged to the school’s auto shop building at the back of our school, dragging Kendra along. To me, the car accident was kind of her fault—I would have never taken the car if it wasn’t for her and I definitely wouldn’t have stopped at 7-Eleven. So, it was kind of her fault.
Then I found out the kiss was too. As we walked along, Kendra told me more about what happened this morning—when she went looking for Zack in auto mechanics and found out he wasn’t at school today. She said Griffin started looking at my car—knew it was mine, and wanted to know why she was driving it.
She laughed. “I explained to him you were too shy to be around a bunch of skeevie mechanics.”
I stopped dead in my tracks. That’s not what happened! I wasn’t too “shy.” She had said she wanted to ask Zack alone. And yeah, okay, I admit it, Zack is skeevie, and I had been incredibly relieved I didn’t have to be around when Kendra asked him for a favor. But whoa, I had never actually said aloud Zack was skeevie. I’d never even used the word “skeevie” before in my life.
I swallowed, trying to hold back my anger. “You told Griffin I think he is a skeevie auto-mechanic?” I couldn’t believe she said that.
She gave a little laugh. “Well, don’t you? But don’t worry, I said it in a playful way.”
I shook my head, still trying to fight back my anger. I never even mentioned Griffin to Kendra before, ever. Like I said, I hardly even ever talked to Kendra. How could she decide I thought he was skeevie?
Still, by the time we got to the auto building, I was less mad and more nervous. But Griffin smiled when he saw me came in, which got my heart fluttering and my brain vacating. He showed me Mom’s car and I squealed with happiness. It looked as good as new.
“Wow!” There was no way that could only cost forty dollars. Even I knew that. “How much do I owe you?”
He eyed me a moment, then gazed back at the car. “I got the parts for cheap,” he said. “I know this guy—he owed me a favor. It’s twenty bucks.”
I blinked.
“Whoa! Really? Just twenty dollars?”
He grinned. “And the matter I spoke to Kendra about.”
“… the kiss.”
He raised his eyebrows in acquiesce. “The kiss.”
“About that.” I cleared my throat. “I was wondering if I didn’t really have to. I mean, she said I thought you were a sceezy mechanic. I don’t think that. I mean, I can see how that would make you want to prove a point or something. But I don’t think that.”
A small, playful smile spread on his lips. “I’m glad.”
He gave a husky short laugh, the smile still growing. “But I didn’t require it to prove a point.”
“Oh.”
I bit my lip. Suddenly, butterflies were dancing around in my stomach, reeking havoc.
“Um,” I said hesitantly, not sure I wanted to mention it anymore, but feeling I should, because it was my plan—my way not to kiss him. I cleared my throat again, not sure I could talk because his eyes were on me so seductive and hypnotic I could barely breathe. Finally, I just spit it out, “Aiden and I broke up.”
Griffin’s smile grew even bigger. “I know.”
“Oh.”
His Kiss Page 5
