Stalk me. (The Keatyn Chronicles)

by Jillian Dodd

  She gives me one of her neck crushing hugs. I love when they try to hug you so hard you can barely breathe. Hugs like that make me melt.

  “I wuv you, Kiki,” she says sweetly. Then she scrunches up her nose, runs back out into the hall, and says to Emery, “Ha. Ha. I smell like a princess, and you don’t!”

  I take one more look in the mirror, walk back out, and smile at Cush. He’s standing in the doorway with the girls, who are pulling flowers out of the bouquet he’s holding. It’s adorable.

  He also looks very adorable—no, make that sexy—in a deep plum shirt and shiny black slacks that we found in the back of his closet.

  “Why don’t you go show Nanny your flowers?” I tell the girls. They tear off toward their playroom.

  Cush gives me a what-could-I-do grin and holds out what’s left of a tattered bouquet. “These are supposed to be for you.”

  I throw my arms around his neck and press my lips hard against his, crushing what’s left of the poor flowers between us.

  “Um,” he says, “you might just get flowers all the time if that’s the kind of response I get.” He leans back and takes in my dress. “You look beautiful.”

  I smile and feel a little embarrassed. Probably because he said the word beautiful. That’s a word usually reserved for my mom. “Uh, thank you.”

  He hands me the flowers. “Do you want to take them with us or leave them here?”

  “The girls would love it if I left them here especially if they can put them in water.”

  “More like drown them?” Cush laughs. I love when he laughs because I get to see those dimples.

  He nods yes, so I yell for the girls.

  We have a late dinner at a great restaurant overlooking the ocean, and then he drives to one of the most gorgeous hotels in Beverly Hills. The hotel I dreamed I’d lose my virginity in on prom night. Brooklyn would tell me that it’s stupid. That it doesn’t have to be expensive to be special. I think back to the night when he told me to take off my shirt. How I didn’t ever want to leave his room. How just having him kiss me felt special.

  But then.

  He ditched me. Hooked up with other girls. Got mad at me. Hasn’t spoken to me since.

  I shake my head to rid it of Brooklyn and focus on Cush. I know things have moved kind of fast, but we’ve been friends for so long. He’s so handsome, and I’ve always known he has a sweet side. I was just blind, I guess. Blind to the fact that he was crushing on me. Just like Brooklyn was probably blind to the fact that I always crushed on him.

  Obviously, I’m done caring what Brooklyn thinks, but there’s part of me that wishes I knew if it was really just a hookup. Maybe I was blinded by love and wasn’t thinking with a level head, but it just didn’t feel like a hookup. The way he kissed me in front of his friends on the beach. I just don’t understand.

  And even though I’m not in love with Cush yet, at least I know where I stand with him. I just need a little time to get over Brooklyn. I need to forget about him and let myself fall head over heels in love with Cush.

  “So what do think?” he says, nodding toward the hotel as a valet opens my door.

  “It’s perfect. The exact place I dreamed of.”

  He gives me a huge, white-toothed smile and leads me to our room.

  The room is exactly—and I mean, down to the tiniest detail—as I scripted. Plush duvet on the bed. Rose petals sprinkled across the floor. Champagne chilling in a silver ice bucket. Chocolate-covered strawberries on a glass platter, arranged in the shape of a heart.

  “It’s perfect, Cush. It’s exactly how I always imagined it. How did you know?”

  “It’s how I always pictured it too,” he says sweetly.

  I wrap my arms around his neck and give him a proper thank you kiss.

  He unzips the back of my dress while we’re kissing.

  “Wait!” I say.

  “Why?” he says, looking confused.

  I smile big. “Cuz I have something on under the dress that I want you to see all at once. Did you ever imagine what I might be wearing?”

  He laughs and gives me his naughty Cushman grin. “I’m pretty sure I pictured you naked.”

  I roll my eyes at him and laugh. I’m not feeling the least bit nervous, and I’m so glad we did it last night. What the heck, I’m even going to use the line I scripted for this night.

  “Why don’t you pour us some champagne while I slip into something more comfortable?”

  I run into the bathroom, strip off my dress, put on the garter, and glide the stockings over my legs, being careful not to run them. Then I throw one of the hotel robes on. I hear the champagne pop, check my hair in the mirror, and make my grand entrance.

  He looks a little disappointed. “I gotta be honest. Can’t say I ever pictured you in a white bathrobe.”

  I give him my most seductive smile and slowly untie the robe. Let it fall open. His frown turns into a grin as I let the robe slide off my arms.

  “That’s fucking hot.” He takes two steps closer to me, hands me a glass of champagne, then sits back on the bed. “Can I just sit here and stare?”

  “It’s not naked. Do you still like it?” I’m feeling bold, so I don’t wait for his answer. I put my heel up on the bed next to him.

  He glides his hand down the silky hose.

  “Undo it,” I boss.

  He unclips the hose from the garter and slowly rolls the stocking down my leg. Then he kisses his way back up, sending shivers of excitement up my spine.

  “The other one.” I put my other foot on the bed.

  “This is so hot. No girl has ever dressed up for me before.”

  “They’ve never had the chance,” I laugh. “But I’m glad you like it.”

  “I’ll show you how much I like it.”

  He sets his champagne on the desk, grabs me, and dives onto the bed.

  Sunday, May 22nd

  Body shots!

  11:30pm

  “I still keep thinking about last night,” Cush tells me.

  I snuggle up closer to him on the couch. “What do you think about tonight?”

  He looks around the party taking place at his house. “We did good. Everyone we invited tonight is pretty cool. It’s a good mix of people, I think.”

  “And there’s no drama.”

  “That’s because Vanessa isn’t here causing any. No one is trying to hookup with anyone’s boyfriend. No one is crying because Vanessa made fun of them. RiAnne isn’t mad at Vanessa. There’s only twenty people instead of a hundred, and your boyfriend isn’t puking in the bathroom. Sander was always such a mess at parties.”

  “Yeah, that probably is why.” I grab the front of his shirt and pull him straight to my lips. After I give him a juicy kiss, I say, “Speaking of a mess. I think it’s time we get messy. Really get this party started.”

  I pull him up off the couch, drag him over to the long bar, and yell out, “Body shots!”

  He picks me up and sets me on the bar, pours himself a shot of Patron, then grabs a lime and some salt.

  He’s supposed to lick up my neck, but instead he pulls my shirt off. Everyone screams like I’d just stripped naked even though I’m wearing a bikini underneath.

  Cush carefully balances the Patron shot in my cleavage. Then he slowly and deliciously runs his tongue across my stomach.

  It tickles and makes me laugh, but it also seriously turns me on. Probably because my mind flashes back to some of the places his tongue was last night.

  He sprinkles salt on my stomach and puts a wedge of lime in my mouth.

  “Crank the music up, Alex,” he yells.

  Alex is sitting by the sound system’s controls. He eyes the stack of equipment, finds the right knob, and turns it up to we’re-going-to-be-deaf-when-we’re-old volume.

  Cush does a goofy little strip tease dance and pulls off his shirt.

  It’s hard for me not to stare at him. Lately I’ve been seeing the adorable, sweet, sexy, loving side of him, but there’s no
denying that the boy has a hot body.

  Everyone starts chanting, “Cush, Cush!”

  He grabs my waist, licks the salt off my stomach, and flashes me a big grin. Then he buries his face in my cleavage, maneuvers the shot glass into his mouth, and tips it back.

  He dramatically slams the empty shot glass on the bar, and then kisses me to get the lime.

  He sucks on the lime, throws it into the sink, then kisses me again.

  It’s a hard, deep, incredibly fiery kiss.

  Guys are lining up girls on the bar, so Cush passes down the bottle.

  I stand up on the bar and dance.

  Monday, May 23rd

  The biggest bitch of all.

  12:30pm

  I’m lounging in a chaise on the beach in front of my house, thinking I should’ve avoided the last two body shots last night.

  But what can I say, licking salt off Cush’s abs was too impossible to resist.

  I look at him. He’s out on a boogie board with a couple of the guys. I give him a little wave. He’s doing everything he can to make me happy. And last night we had so much fun. Cush has always been fun to party with, but being with him, having him hold me, kiss me, and take care of me made the party all that much better.

  Everyone seemed to have fun. Beer pong, shots, dancing on the bar, hot tubbing until five am. We all crashed for a bit, then got up and headed here for breakfast. Everyone was pretty hungover and the big, greasy breakfast tasted amazing.

  My phone starts to buzz again. I look down and see it’s not a text, it’s my alarm.

  A smile breaks out on my face as I realize it’s finally time to spread the news. RiAnne and Vanessa should be sitting down at their prized lunch table right about now.

  All alone.

  I turn to Mandy and Alicia, who are lying in the chaises next to me. “This has been so much fun. We need to tweet about it, upload some party pics, and tag everyone on Facebook.”

  “Maybe we should take a group photo?” Alicia suggests.

  “GROUP PHOTO!” I yell to everyone.

  We all line up on the beach, do some silly pics, and instantly post them.

  “Maybe we should post a few of the ones I took last night of you dancing on the bar,” Alicia says.

  “That’d be fun. I really feel sorry for everyone stuck at school. Today is like perfect. What a great way to blow off some steam before we have to start studying for finals,” Mandy says.

  Alicia flips through her phone. “What do you think of this one?”

  “That one’s good. My legs look skinny,” I laugh. “Although I look a little tipsy.”

  “You were a little tipsy,” Mandy says. “But if I was licking salt off Cush’s abs, I would have been totally wasted. He’s so hot.”

  “Um, thanks.” I think. I’m starting to think Mandy has a bit of a crush on Cush.

  “The way you can dance, I’m surprised you’ve never tried out for dance team,” Alicia says.

  “I thought about it, but Vanessa thought it would be lame of me.”

  “Well you’re breaking free of Vanessa and her evil, bitchy ways, right?”

  “Yeah, I guess. I just want to have a drama-free year next year.”

  “You still gonna be dating Cush?” Mandy asks.

  “I hope so. We’re having lots of fun. Saturday night was incredible.”

  I tell them all the hotel details. Every detail he planned. How he’s already told me he loves me. I’m so bragging. I normally wouldn’t kiss and tell, but I get the feeling Mandy would offer herself up to Cush if given the chance.

  My phone buzzes with a text from Vanessa. She texted me a couple times this morning, wondering why I wasn’t at school.

  But this text is different.

  She’s PISSED!

  “Oh, wow.”

  “Is it Vanessa? What’d she say?” Mandy’s eyes light up. I think Mandy enjoys drama a little too much.

  “She said, Do you really want to do this? Go up against me? You planned this, right? RiAnne and I sitting by ourselves, then you perfectly time the tweets and Facebook photos. I have to admit, I underestimated you.”

  Mandy and Alicia laugh, joke, and trash talk Vanessa.

  I don’t laugh with them. In fact, I barely register that they’re speaking because Brooklyn has just stepped foot onto the beach. He and Mark are dragging out their boards.

  The girls follow my eyes. “Who’s that?”

  “A neighbor. We surf together,” I say, but I sort of feel like my heart is shattering into a bunch of really small shards of glass, and those glass shards are trying to poke out through my chest. I wrap my hand tightly into a ball, trying to ward away the pain. I haven’t seen him since that night he asked me to go to Hermosa with him. I haven’t talked to him since our text fight, when he told me to grow up.

  I have to go say something. At least Mark is there. I can pretend I’m just being nice, normal, friendly Keats.

  I’m a bit hungover, but I have on big sunglasses, and I look good in a new bikini. “I’ll be back,” I tell the girls.

  I jog down the beach. “Hey, Mark!”

  Mark turns around. “S’up, girly. You having a party, and you didn’t invite me? Aren’t you supposed to be at school?”

  “We decided to do an all-nighter last night, skip school, and hang here. We have finals this week; thought we’d blow off a little steam.”

  “Sucks you didn’t come to Hermosa. We were so stoked. We met the coolest . . . ”

  Brooklyn cuts him off. “Let’s get out there,” he says directly to Mark. I swear his eyes have looked directly at everything on the beach but me.

  “Uh, sure,” Mark says, grabbing his board.

  Just as they are almost in the water, Cush grabs me from behind. I was carefully studying every move Brooklyn made and did not hear him sneak up on me.

  “Ahhhhh!” I scream.

  Brooklyn turns around to see Cush pick me up and twirl me around. Then he drops my feet into the sand and kisses me.

  It’s a long kiss, but I’ve yet to close my eyes. I’m still staring out at the ocean. Out at Brooklyn, specifically.

  And Brooklyn chooses this exact moment to finally lock eyes with me. The look of disgust he gives me makes me feel like the broken shards from my heart are now flying into my eyes, piercing them.

  And it pisses me off.

  It’s not my fault we’re not together.

  I didn’t leave him.

  I didn’t hook up with someone else.

  Um, okay, so I did, but that was only after he ditched me.

  I decide it’s only fair to throw a few shards back in the jerk’s direction.

  I leap up and wrap my legs around Cush’s waist. He grabs my butt to hold me up while kissing me. I close my eyes and get into the kiss. Start running my hands wildly through the back of his hair. Trying to show Brooklyn how much I like Cush. How what he did didn’t hurt me in the least. Because I’m happy, and lucky to be with a guy like Cush.

  After our big PDA, Cush sets me down. “Want a piggyback ride?”

  I don’t reply, just jump on his back, wrap my arms around his neck, and kiss his shoulder while he runs back up the beach.

  When I hop off his back, he turns to me and says with a smirk, “That probably pissed him off, huh?”

  “Probably. Is that why you did it?”

  “Yep.” Then he gives me the sweetest looking face ever and whispers, “Plus, I love you.”

  I give him a quick kiss on the cheek.

  “Well, I don’t care what he thinks,” I lie.

  I want to look back at him, but I can’t bear to, so I change the subject. “Vanessa is super pissed.”

  “We knew she would be.”

  I grab my phone and read him what she said. Another text pops up on my screen. This one I don’t read to anyone.

  Vanessa: You might just be as big of a bitch as I am. Enjoy your day in the sun, Keatyn. None of those people are your friends, and I’ll ruin you. Pinky swear! />
  I think about what I just did to her. How I made her look at school. How I wanted to hurt her.

  I look out in the water at Brooklyn and think about how I put on a show to make him feel bad. To hurt him.

  I gulp and realize she’s right.

  I may have become the biggest bitch of all.

  Friday, May 27th

  A herd of sheep.

  1pm

  Finally. School is out for the summer! We finished up the last of our finals, checked in our textbooks, and got out at noon.

  Vanessa and RiAnne have been ignoring Cush and me at school this week. Not that I blame them. And it’s what I wanted, right?

  It just doesn’t feel very good.

  Cush and I went out to lunch with a bunch of the guys from his soccer team and some of their girlfriends. They were all going to spend the rest of the day at a nearby water park, but we decided to go back to my house and lay on the beach instead.

  We’re tired. We both studied really hard for our tests, and I didn’t sleep well all week. I think my subconscious is trying to punish me for being a bitch by giving me horrible dreams.

  Kym is in the kitchen working on her laptop when we wander in the house.

  “Keatyn, let’s talk about your birthday.”

  “My birthday? It’s not until August.”

  “I know, but you’re going to be seventeen. Don’t you think it’s time we throw you a big bash? A Super Sweet Seventeen?”

  Cush says, “That’d be tight. You didn’t have a Sweet Sixteen.”

  “That’s because we went to Australia, and when I got home, they had remodeled my closet! It was my best birthday ever!”

  “Aren’t you supposed to want a car when you turn sixteen? That’s when I got my car.”

  “I get to drive the Rover and most of Tommy’s cars whenever I want, so I didn’t really need one for my birthday.”

  “So what kind of party are you thinking, Kym?” Cush says. He seems enthralled with the idea, and Kym is eating it up.

  “Well, I was going to ask the birthday girl what her dream party would be. But what do you think?”