by D. C. Renee
“All good now,” he responded. We were silent a moment before he spoke again. “So you think I’m hot, huh?”
I threw a paper at his head. It didn’t quite reach, so it definitely didn’t have the desired effect. But it lightened the mood.
“Death by paper cut. That’s a new one,” he laughed. And we were back.
chapter thirteen
“So, did you guys find good candidates for me?” Travis asked the next day when we met up to start really working on the bet.
“We sure did,” Brent answered with a smirk.
I only nodded, seeing as I was sure I would burst out laughing if I opened my mouth. Travis eyed me warily as if he had never seen me being quiet. Come to think of it, I really was very rarely quiet. Hmmm. Thoughts for another day.
“It took some research, but if we hurry, we can catch Abby number one getting out of class,” Brent stated.
“Abby number one? Just how many did you find? And how many do you think I need to charm?”
“Just a few, some back-ups just in case,” I finally spoke, my voice squeaky.
We headed toward the history building. When I spotted Abby, I pointed her out to Travis. His eyes grew a bit wide. She was gorgeous, stunning actually. She was tall enough to be a runway model with smooth, porcelain skin. She had boobs worthy of being a Victoria’s Secret Angel and hips that curved out just enough to make a guy’s mouth water.
“Well, well, well. Looks like I can count on my friends after all,” Travis spoke smoothly. “Piece of cake,” he added.
I stifled my laugh, and as I looked over at Brent, he was having a hard time holding his in too.
“So, game plan. Trav, what are you going to do?”
“Uh … aren’t you supposed to help me with that?” Bingo! Game on.
“All right, fine,” I huffed as if this was horrible for me. “I don’t really know too much about her, so I can’t think of something to woo her with. Hmm … maybe walk really quickly and bump into her on accident and then help her pick up her stuff.”
“Okay, but then what do I say?”
“Oh, hmm, how about, ‘You are probably expecting me to say some cheesy line like “Your beauty distracted me,” and I know I shouldn’t. But, really, I’m sure you already know that.’”
“Wait, aren’t I supposed to come up with something deep?”
“Well …” I had to think of a good excuse. “The fact that you cared enough to admit it’s a cheesy line should work.”
“If you’re sure.”
“I’m sure,” I said confidently. “Now, go make me proud.”
“Better.” Travis laughed.
“Yeah, if you’re a soccer mom,” added Brent.
“One of these days, I’m going to come up with a kickass send-off, and you guys won’t know what hit you. Oh, hey, that gives me an idea for the next send-off.”
“Oh, God, no,” mumbled Travis before heading off.
As soon as he was out of earshot, we couldn’t hold it in any longer. Brent and I started laughing at the impending doom.
What we didn’t tell Travis was that yes, sure, Abby number one was beautiful, but apparently, thanks to obvious poems and rants, she was tired of people only seeing her as an object and nothing more. Not only that, but she was a lesbian. And wait for it, it gets better. She was a man-hating lesbian because it was the opposite sex that kept trying to fit her in some beauty box. Travis didn’t stand a chance. Especially after my help.
“That was a good one, with the whole beauty distraction thing,” Brent said.
“I know, right? I’m so awesome. Sometimes, I just want to live in my own head and laugh along with myself.”
“Oh, Kim.” Brent chuckled some more and shook his head.
And that was when we heard it. I was pretty sure the entire school heard it.
“You asshole!”
“Huh?” Travis’ confused remark could barely be heard over the next string of curse words that came out of Abby’s mouth.
“Oh, you think that just because I have a pretty face that I’m nothing more? You think because I have a great body that I have no feelings?!?! I hate you! I hate all of you! What right do you have to label me? Who’s to say I’m pretty and someone else isn’t? Why is society so fickle? And you, people like you,” she jabbed a finger at Travis, “continue this biased, stupid tradition. I am a person. I’m not an object. I’m not beautiful. I’m not ugly. I am just me. And I am certainly not a ‘distraction,’” she screamed.
I looked at Travis’ horrified face. He looked shocked and embarrassed, and I felt a momentary twinge of guilt. And then Abby continued and I went back to laughing.
“Thank God, I don’t like penis, or I would probably kill myself.”
“Wait, what?” That snapped Travis’ head.
“My girlfriend understands me better than any of you pigheaded, dull-brained, think-inside-the-stupid-box idiots.” She said this while waving a hand at all the gawking onlookers.
“Next time you decide to hit on an unsuspecting person, how about using some tact you stupid, selfish, testosterone-induced, no brained, muscled caveman. God!” And then she stormed off. By this time, everyone around was staring—some with wide eyes, some with jaws dropped, and others full on laughing like Brent and me. We were clutching each other because we were laughing so hard. Not only was the situation hilarious, but we had anticipated it. And we knew Travis; we set it up. It was classic. The look on his face was unreal. It couldn’t have gotten any better if we had tried harder.
Travis walked back to us, almost like he was in a daze. “What the hell just happened?”
As Brent and I tried to come down from our laughing high, I momentarily realized that I was holding on to Brent, and it felt nice being that close to him, sharing a moment with him, our own secret. Then I sobered up, calmed down, and let go. I immediately felt the loss of the heat his body was giving off, and he seemed a little stunned, too. But that was obviously at Travis’ expression.
“I don’t get it. Even lesbians love me. They may not want to sleep with me, but they still love my charm. What went wrong?”
He hadn’t even noticed our amused faces.
“I’m sorry, Trav, but it looks like this one was a bust. She clearly has issues with men. Obviously, we wouldn’t have been able to tell that from a few pictures. Next time, though, we’ll get it next time.”
That snapped Travis out of it. “Damn straight. Fuck, that girl was crazy. Don’t worry, Kim, I got this. I’m Travis McLeod. No way is another girl turning me down.”
“That’s right,” I said but shared a smile with Brent. We had many more Abbys to go.
chapter fourteen
I swore I didn’t know how Brent and Travis talked me into things, but here I was at the gym with Travis. I had told him that I wanted to start slow and try walking around outside for a bit. But apparently, when Travis turned on his charm, I wasn’t as immune as I thought I was. Dammit!
So, here I was on a treadmill next to Travis. I was walking, and Travis was running in all his slick and sweaty glory right next to me. He was oblivious while I stared at his muscles rippling from exertion. Maybe this scenery was actually better than being outside after all.
And then he slowed his pace and looked over at me. He reached over and increased my speed. What? I liked walking like a grandma! Now I had to walk like someone my age? Hell no!
“Next time, we’ll try getting you to walk faster than a snail.” Travis laughed as if reading my thoughts.
“You’ve been doing this since forever!” I whined. “You can’t expect me to start running like you right off the bat.”
“You call what you’re doing attempting to run?”
“No, but it’s fast walking.”
“I think a little kid could walk faster than you.”
“They have a lot of energy, those deceptive little bastards,” I pointed out.
Travis shook his head in mock dismay and laughed some more.
“You wonder why I like having you around. There’s never a dull moment with you.” We had walked next to each other in silence for a few minutes before Travis spoke again. “So, Kim, tell me about yourself.”
“Huh? What is this, an interview? If I don’t pass, then you won’t work out with me? Because, if that’s the case, I’ll give you whatever answers you want if you stop torturing me with this stuff.”
“You’re not even doing anything! You’re just walking. How is this torture?”
“This is more than I’ve done in a while. I’ve already,” I looked down at the treadmill, “walked three miles! Three miles! That’s a record for me or something.”
“And you have three more to go.” He smirked.
“You’re killing me. My feet are killing me. When can we stop?” I whined.
“Start talking and I’ll think about letting you stop earlier today.”
“Okay, what about me?” I asked.
“I’ve known you for a couple of months now, and I know what gets you going and what coffee you like to drink.”
“You do?” I interrupted.
“Yeah, white chocolate mocha with extra whip cream. You always order it.”
“You noticed,” I said softly. It made my heart skip a beat.
“Hard not to,” he responded as if it was no big deal. But it was. I had ordered that same drink for as long as I could remember, and Will never got it right when he was my boyfriend. And yet Travis had it after a short time.
“As I was saying, I can state a few facts about you, especially how you hate to work out and read like it’s a sport. But I don’t know anything about you. Your family, growing up, past lives, high school heartbreaks, what you wanted to be when you were a little kid. We’re friends. I want to know these things about you.”
“Do you know these things about Brent?” I asked.
“Yep, known him since we were in junior high.”
“Okay, well, then you have to give me the same after I tell you all about my embarrassing childhood.”
“Deal. So?”
“Hmm, okay, where to start. Well, I wasn’t this absolute knockout when I was younger.” I laughed at my sarcasm, but Travis didn’t find it amusing. “Okay, okay, fine. I had braces when I was in seventh grade, but I hated wearing my retainer. I have a younger brother who is still in high school. Jared. He’s a pain in the ass, but I wouldn’t trade him for the world. He used to let me dress him up like a doll when we were growing up. Of course, he didn’t really know better, but he just liked being around me. He looked up to me, and I, being the self-absorbed person that I am, loved it.”
“You’re the least self-absorbed person I know,” he interrupted.
“Ha, thanks. Don’t get me wrong. Just because I got to punk him around doesn’t mean anyone else did. I would kill for him, but he shot up and grew into a giant pretty quickly, so he ended up taking care of me a lot. I was always kind of clumsy and nerdy. And I can’t say I wasn’t popular. I wasn’t unpopular, but I was the one everyone got a laugh out of. And it’s not the same as you and Brent chuckling at my dorkiness. Sometimes, kids are mean and they don’t realize it. But Jared would find me, tower over everyone, give them one look, and they would run away like scared little rabbits. I miss him, and I don’t get to see him enough since I went to college. Best brother ever.”
“I like him,” mused Travis.
“Yeah, me too,” I laughed.
“What else?”
“I used to hate reading.”
“What!?” he asked, shocked.
“Yeah, for school, we’d have to read. I’m sure you did, too.” He nodded. “Well, I hated reading because it was demanded. I was slow at it back then so I couldn’t get through all the assigned pages in one night. I wouldn’t even bother, and I always failed those tests. But I was good at the rest of the English stuff, so I passed just fine.”
“I can’t imagine.”
“It took me a while, but I got into it one day and then couldn’t stop. And now I love it. It’s my sanctuary, my escape. When I don’t like the day I’m living, I get entranced by the fake one I’m reading.”
“Your parents?”
“We’re close. They were actually the ‘cool’ parents. They let me have friends over whenever I wanted. They let me drink alcohol if I wanted. I didn’t have a strict curfew. They had decided that if they let me do all these things then they wouldn’t be as ‘forbidden’ and I wouldn’t want them as much. They were right. I never really got shit faced … well, not much. And even if I did, I didn’t feel awkward telling them. I felt their disappointment and that was enough for me not to want to displease them, but they never yelled or anything unless I did something really bad.”
“You couldn’t do something bad.”
“Oh, yeah? Well, one time, I had a party at my place. My parents knew about it, but they’d made me promise not to let anyone drink the alcohol that they had locked up because they were saving it for a special occasion. Well, this was one of those times I did let alcohol get the better of me. I was trying to impress, what was his name? Jack, I think. Well, Jack was the hottest thing since sliced bread. What’s up with that saying? I don’t get it. Well, anyway, I wanted to impress him, but he had his tongue down my friend’s throat the entire night. He didn’t even look at me once. So I might have had a few too many shots. The next thing I know, I, me,” I said as I pointed a finger at myself, “was drinking my parents’ special liquor. I was grounded for that. But, even then, it was only for a week.”
“Jack was an idiot.”
“Well, then so was Tim and Jace and Adam and a few others. Oh and don’t forget Will,” I murmured. “I’m starting to believe they're not the idiots. Obviously, it’s me.”
The next thing I knew, I was off the treadmill, and Travis was holding my chin in his hands. “Don’t talk about yourself like that,” he said forcefully.
“All right, I’m sorry. It’s just that it’s always been someone else. Someone better than me, prettier than me, sexier than me, better in bed than me. So, I can’t help but feel like I’m lacking.”
“Kim, you’re anything but lacking. You’re pretty perfect. You just need to stop choosing losers.”
No, nope, he was pretty perfect, and he was making it really hard for me to remember we were just friends. He was all man, but there was this sweet, caring, sensitive side that I doubted most people got to see. But I saw it, and I liked it. I wanted it to be mine. I wanted him to be mine. When he looked at me the way he was now, I actually felt like maybe there wasn’t anything wrong with me. Maybe I was just looking in the wrong places.
“Hey, Trav,” a high-pitched voice called out to him, and I snapped out of my thoughts. Yes, sure, Travis might be a great guy, but that was as a friend. Nothing more. There were plenty of girls around, clearly, who wanted to give him exactly what he was looking for. And my hang-ups and I weren’t it. And I wasn’t going to jeopardize the affection he did show me.
He ignored whoever called him, still staring intently at me. “Say it,” he told me.
“Say what?”
“It’s not you. It’s them. Tell me you know that.”
“I, uh … what is this, Dr. Phil? You can’t make me believe something overnight, Trav. But I appreciate you being a good friend.”
I pulled away and he let me go, but I thought I heard him murmur, “Friend,” as if it was a disease. Wishful thinking.
“You know I’ll always stick up for you. If Jared can’t be here, then I’ll be here,” he said after a minute.
“Thank you.” I had to stop the tears that threatened to run down my face at the thoughtfulness of his offer. “I’ve learned a thing or two since coming to college. And except for you and Brent, and maybe Lauren, no one’s laughed at me or gotten the better of me yet. Hey, come to think of it, since you laugh at me, does that mean you have to kick your own ass?”
“As if anyone could kick my ass, even me.” He laughed. And after realizing I had walked
for seven miles instead of six, Travis let me off the hook for the rest, promising that he’d fill me in on his life the next time.
chapter fifteen
It was another day and another fake Travis/Abby situation. I was losing precious time, but stupid Brent and his charming smile got me every time. What was with the power of charming persuasion that Brent and Travis had over me?
“Come on, Kim, we have this awesome list of Abbys that Travis has to hit up. We can’t pass that up,” he whined, and I caved. Damn him. After this, I was going to get Travis a real date, one he couldn’t mess up, and we’d win the bet. Damn, who knew I was this competitive?
“All right, Trav. We’ve got another Abby for you,” Brent practically sang as we walked toward the music rooms.
“Why are you helping again?” asked Travis. Hey, the guy was smarter than I thought!
“Because I don’t believe that you can pull this off, even with my help, so I might as well join in on the fun.” Ooh, Brent was good. Smooth. Wait, maybe he really didn’t think Travis could pull it off. Of course, he could. With me helping him out, he’d win them all.
“So, this girl is into music. She spells her name with an ‘i’ instead of a ‘y.’ She seemed pretty artsy based on the info we got about her. The only thing we saw was that she was shy.”
This felt wrong. The girl was pretty, in a demure kind of way, so that wasn’t an issue. But from what we had gathered, the girl was like a hermit. She only came out to play music and she didn’t talk to anyone; she didn’t have friends. We couldn’t figure out why because she seemed okay from what we had learned. But the point was to see Travis try to talk to her and fail because she literally didn’t talk to anyone but authority figures. Again, see how wrong this was? Maybe she had anxiety issues? Maybe she had some other kind of issue and we were exacerbating it? Or maybe we were making fun of her, and we didn’t even know it? Brent spoke, breaking me from my thoughts, and I jumped. Stupid, stupid hormones; stupid, stupid emotions; stupid, stupid boys.
