Kiss List (The List Series)

by Abilene, J. S.

  I tried valiantly but couldn’t hold it in. The image of the ultra-cocky baseball stud being garnished like a pie by the group of girls was too much. I burst out laughing.

  Sam jolted on the bench. “Who’s there?” he asked in a somewhat terrified voice. “Who is that?”

  “Relax,” I said. “It’s me, Sadie.”

  Sam lay back on the bench and groaned. “Just perfect,” he said. “Could you at least let me go please? These girls are insane.”

  I unsuccessfully tried to stifle a giggle as I walked over to him and pulled his goggles off. “It’s a good look for you, Sam,” I teased. I took out the keys Missy had given me to the handcuffs. “Now let’s get you out of here so we can help David.”

  “That figures,” Sam said.

  “What’s that?” I asked absentmindedly as I tried the first key. No luck, it must be the second.

  “That you just came to help me so you could get David free,” Sam said. “If David hadn’t been taken as well you would have left me here and let those nutcases undress me and play with me like I was some sort of frickin Ken doll. Do you know what they did to me? Don’t let the fact I still have boxer briefs on fool you. El Diablo is very thorough. Very, very thorough. Thank goodness David is in trouble so I can get a bit of help as well.”

  The second key slipped out of my fingers. I scrounged around for it on the ground.

  “Don’t be like that, Sam,” I said. “I want to help both of you. I just meant that you have the clue to getting David help and that’s the next step.” My fingers circled in around the key. I picked it up and stuffed it into the lock.

  “Only if I tell you what the clue is,” Sam said.

  I froze. “Of course you’ll tell me,” I said. “Why wouldn’t you?”

  “It’s always David this, Dylan that,” Sam whined. “How come you never care about me? Why should I help David out anyway? He hasn’t exactly been nice to me.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “I do care about you, Sam,” I said. “Every bit as much as I care about David. Dylan is my boyfriend so that’s different, but I care about you as a friend.”

  Sam was quiet. “Just get me out of here,” he finally said.

  I paused. “Well are you going to tell me where David is if I let you go?” I asked.

  “Maybe,” Sam said. “Or maybe I’ll wait a while to give those Churchill guys a little more time with him. It’d serve him right.”

  I slowly took the key back out of the lock. “Sam, this is serious,” I said. “I need you to tell me where David is. He could be getting badly hazed right now.”

  “And if I don’t?” Sam asked. “What are you going to do? Leave me here? That’s exactly what I’m talking about. You like David more than me."

  “Sam,” I said, “you matter too but I have to make sure you’re going to tell me where David is. I need to get you both out of this situation, not just one of you.”

  “It’s your fault I’m here in the first place,” Sam said accusingly. “You need to let me out of these handcuffs. Then I want to have a real conversation with you before we go get David.”

  David didn’t have time for is for us to have a long drawn-out conversation. I stared at Sam in exasperation. “I can’t do that, Sam,” I said. “One way or another you’re going to tell me that clue right now.”

  “Are you threatening to torture me if I don’t?” Sam scoffed. “I don’t see any IcyHot around.”

  “If you think IcyHot is the only way to torture someone then you don’t know much about girls,” I said. I grabbed the beer goggles and put them over Sam’s eyes.

  “Hey, what do you think you’re doing?” he demanded.

  I walked back to the fitness room door. “I’m going to bring in one of the girls,” I said. “El Diablo, I think. She seems to really like you. You don’t have any problem with a girl who looks like she’s 11 having her way with you, do you?” I asked. “I can tell her that you think it’s absurd you still have your boxer briefs on. You said something along those lines, right? I hope I’m not misinterpreting your words.”

  “She’s crazy,” Sam protested.

  I twisted the handle of the door and opened it a crack. “She’ll be right in,” I said

  “Hey, no, come back,” Sam said. I thought his voice sounded a little more frantic but he was still giving orders. That was no good.

  I waited a moment and then closed the door loudly. I knew he couldn’t tell who was in the room with his goggles on. I wasn’t actually going to let El Diablo in. That girl really did seem crazy. However, he didn’t need to know that she wasn’t in the room. Sometimes the imagination was much more powerful than reality.

  “Who... who’s there?” Sam asked.

  I didn’t say anything. I just walked up to him and grabbed the can of whipped cream and shook it.

  “Carly,” Sam said nervously. “Look, this is fun and everything, but don’t you think it would be even more fun if I had my hands free?"

  I let out a high-pitched little giggle and Sam actually cringed. I sprayed some more whipped cream on his abdomen and began massaging it in. Sam tensed his abs defensively.

  “Uh, wow, that feels great,” Sam said in a flat voice. “Maybe you can free my hands now?”

  I knelt next to him and hesitated for a moment. I didn’t actually want to do anything physical with him. At the same time, Sam needed to tell me where David was. Right now Sam was feeling unloved and proud. Those feelings were preventing him from telling me the clue. The only way I knew to remedy that was to make him feel loved while at the same time taking him a little out of his comfort zone.

  Sorry Dylan.

  I bent my head and touched my tongue to his chest. Sam jumped so violently that I thought he would have hit the roof if he had not been attached to the bench. I began to lick the whipped cream off of him. It was disgusting, at least at first. But then my tongue felt the contours of the powerful muscles under his skin. The sweet taste of the whipped cream was strong but I also tasted a hint of salt from his skin. The taste mingled with my sense of smell, producing the intoxicating aroma that I had come to associate with a strong, sexy man.

  I marveled at how hard his body was. Thank goodness for sports. Too many women mistakenly thought of sports as a male domain. In my opinion, sports belonged to women. They allowed women to compete with one another in an aggressive but healthy, open, and constructive way. They also helped transform male bodies into the perfect sexual objects for women to enjoy. That was sports’ true purpose. After all, what else did sports accomplish? Without sports, I figured that high school boys would spend their days on the couch watching TV and getting fat. Give a boy a ball and a bat, however, and he would hit it and chase it around like it was the best thing in the world and lift weights so he could do an even better job hitting and chasing the ball. All this activity had helped sculpt the incredible male specimen before me. As my tongue, with all its sensitive nerves, made me aware of the feel of Sam’s muscles in a way I had never been before, I became very thankful for how enthusiastic he was about sports.

  “Carly, I don’t know... oh wow.”

  When Sam started talking I let my tongue slide along his body. His abs were so well-defined that a deep groove ran between his abdominal muscles. I let my tongue slip through the groove, savoring the taste of his body and the feel of his perfectly smooth skin. Then my tongue reached the waistband of his boxer briefs.

  “Carly, I think that’s enough,” Sam said nervously. The poor boy was near the breaking point. Time to push him over. Oh, of course I was going to keep it PG, but there was no reason that Sam needed to know that. Let that fantastic imagination of his run wild with the possibilities.

  I ran my tongue back and forth along the waistband of his boxer briefs. Then, just for a second, I let my tongue slip under the edge of the waistband.

  “Sadie! Sadie!!!” Sam yelled loudly as if trying to call me back into the room. “Carly, I think we’re done here,” he said to me as h
is voice cracked.

  I stopped and Sam released a sigh of relief. I had broken him, made him show he was still an inexperienced boy. Now I needed to make him feel loved. I had noticed that the bench he was sitting on had a hinge just below his waist. It was clear that part of the bench could be raised up. I lifted the part under Sam’s back so that he was sitting up. Then I grabbed a towel that was hanging over the treadmill and used it to wipe the whipped cream off of him.

  “What’s going on?” he asked uncertainly.

  I straddled his legs and sat down on his lap facing him. Then I leaned in and kissed him.

  Sam was the first boy I had ever kissed and nothing would change that. I didn’t love him. I knew that now. It was impossible not to be attracted to him, however. When my lips touched his I felt the excitement of kissing a handsome boy mingle with the nostalgia of my first kiss. The combination was electric. I felt my heart beat faster. Heat flowered throughout my body and passion welled up within me.

  Sam tried to withdraw at first but then something in him changed and he returned the kiss with equal passion. He had never lacked for that. As we kissed I let my hands rest on his chest. Did he like that? I slid my hands down his chest so I could stroke his abs. Then I lowered my head and kissed his neck. That seemed to drive him crazy.

  I tortured him for a little while longer by kissing his neck, at one point sucking his it to leave a hickey as my mark. Then I ran my hands through his hair and kissed him. He strained against his bonds and began to kiss my neck. He kissed lower on my chest, letting his lips brush suggestively against the hollow of my neck.

  I felt his hard muscles rippling under his skin. It felt like raw, virile energy that wanted to overpower me. He lust was like an ocean. I felt the waves of his desire crash into me, battering me as though I were a tiny wall of sandbags standing against a tempest. My heart now beat faster and faster. It was thrilling to think that all this force, this sexual longing exposed through primal instincts deeply ingrained in his male body, was under my control. With the simple twist of a key I could release it. Or I could leave it frustrated. I could tease and stimulate Sam, giving him hints of what it would be like to be with me while at the same time denying him that opportunity.

  I needed to stop. Things were going too far and I felt my body getting too worked up. Just the thought of being with him threatened to crush my resolve. If I didn’t stop now I wouldn’t be able to. I wrapped my arms around his back and hugged him tightly to me. We both panted as the fire of our desire slowly faded to glowing embers. I rested my head on top of his and breathed in the masculine and, to me, sensual scent of his hair. I let him rest his head on my bosom. My mind couldn’t decide whether I was comforting a boy or cradling a lover. Perhaps both.

  “Sadie,” he said softly.

  I pushed myself away from him. Did he just say my name?

  “Sadie,” he said again. “I know it’s you. I know those lips. They’re too passionate and yet too soft and caring to belong to El Diablo."

  I couldn’t answer him. I couldn’t admit what I had just done. I had thought I was invisible, as if I hadn’t really been cheating on Dylan if no one else knew I was doing it. I had told myself I was doing it to save David but I had enjoyed it. What did that mean?

  “It’s okay,” Sam said after a moment. “At least I know now that you do care for me. I get that you might love Dylan or David or some other guy more. I understand that you’re torn and that’s alright with me. I just wanted you to know that."

  I felt my eyes water up. “Sadie isn’t here,” I said softy. I wasn’t ready to face reality yet.

  Sam nodded. “I understand,” he said. “I can live with that.”

  I gave myself a moment to get composed. Then I lifted his goggles off his face and stared into his beautiful eyes. “Thank you,” I said simply.

  Part of me wondered whether he could truly be fine with always being my number two to another guy. I looked deep into his eyes, trying to tell for certain. I saw pain and discomfort there. Of course, I was an older girl he looked up to and admired and had a crush on. It was only natural for him to struggle with this evolution in our relationship.

  “Uh, Sadie?” he said.

  Here it comes. Now that we were eye-to-eye he couldn’t give me up. “Yes?” I asked with part reluctance and part excitement at the possibility of the forbidden passion being reignited.

  “Could you get off my lap?” Sam asked. “You’re, uh, crushing my junk.”

  I let Sam free and he put on his shorts. He stared at his shirt in disgust and left it. “Animals,” he said, shaking his head.

  “What’s the clue?” I asked.

  “Oh, right,” he said. “Sophia told me the words ‘high tower.’”

  “That’s it?” I said in exasperation.

  Sam shrugged. “That’s all I’ve got,” he said. “I was hoping it would mean something to you.”

  “We can figure it out as soon as we get out of here,” I said.

  “Easier said than done,” Sam responded with a grimace.

  I opened the fitness room door and almost jumped back in terror. El Diablo was standing directly in front of the door and glaring at me.

  El Diablo stood on her tiptoes and looked over my shoulder at Sam before dropping back down to stare at me. “I see you’ve decided to let him go,” she said coolly.

  “What exactly were you planning to do?” I asked. “Keep him down here forever? And what was with the strawberries and whipped cream? He’s not a pastry. That’s some kinky stuff.”

  El Diablo’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “I won’t forget this,” she hissed. Then she went back up on her tiptoes and gave Sam an enormous, almost maniacal smile. “Sorry we couldn’t have more fun, Sammy,” she said sweetly. “Call me some time, okay?”

  “Sure Carly,” I heard Sam mumble.

  I steeled myself and brushed past El Diablo. The rest of the girls in the room watched me go with hate-filled eyes as quietly as they had watched me come. I only got a few steps past El Diablo when I heard Sam yell “Whoa!”

  I looked quickly back over my shoulder at him. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “She pinched my butt,” Sam whispered hoarsely. “Let’s get out of here. Move. Go, go, go!”

  We sprinted out of the basement with girls yelling farewells after Sam and the feeling of El Diablo’s eyes boring into the back of our skulls.

  Chapter 24 – Shattered Heart

  I called Payton as soon as we got back to the car.“Do the words ‘high tower’ mean anything to you?” I asked her urgently. “Maybe a really tall guy or something?”

  “Enough,” Payton said. “Girl, I can tell that you’re in trouble. Fess up. What’s going on?”

  I sighed and then told her that Missy had kidnapped Sam and David. “But we can’t contact the school or the authorities or anything,” I finished. “Missy has blackmail material on Sam and me.”

  There was silence on the other end of the line. Then Payton said, “High Tower is what people from Churchill call one of their parks. It’s by a tall water tower. I know about it because one time the cheer girls defaced it by spray painting ‘sucks’ after the word ‘Churchill.’ Missy was there at the time.”

  “Great, thanks Payton,” I said. “I’m heading there now.”

  “No you’re not,” Payton said in a stern voice. I had never heard her sound so serious before.

  “Excuse me?”

  “You are not going to bring Sam with you to see whatever embarrassing thing the Churchill jerk wrestlers did to David. David’s been humiliated enough. I’m going to go to the park now to make sure David’s okay. You drop Sam off at his house and then you can come and meet me.”

  I drove Sam home and continued on to the park as fast as I could, hoping that Officer Coleman and his colleagues were not out patrolling the streets. Still, it was nearly 9 PM by the time I reached High Tower Park.

  I saw Payton’s car in the parking lot and parked beside it. I ran out towards
the playground, not sure where I might find David. Then I thought I heard something. I froze and took slow breaths to try to quiet my breathing so I could figure out where the sound was coming from.

  Someone was talking. I could hear it distinctly now. I rushed towards the sound of the voice. It was coming from the other side of the playground. I ran up a long wooden ramp on the playground. Bad idea. I sound found myself weaving around all sorts of corners and obstacles.

  I lost track of where the sound was coming from. I stopped again and listened. Now I could distinctly make out two people talking. I walked over the playground quietly so I wouldn’t lose the sound of their voices. Why were they speaking so softly?

  Then I had them. I could see the dark shapes of two bodies outlined behind the slats of wood of one of the playground walls. I was about to call out to them when I heard my name.

  “Do you like Sadie?” Payton asked in a low voice.

  “I did,” David replied morosely. “I mean, she’s like the perfect girl. She’s smart, beautiful, athletic, and funny. I figured, what’s not to like? I never thought she’d go for a guy like me. I’m not good with girls at all. I’m just too shy and stupid around them. When she seemed to like me I felt like the luckiest guy alive, you know? I thought that maybe this is how it happened; love just fell into place like that. But then she told me about the stupid kiss list and I realized she didn’t really like me at all. She just needed to check me off the list. I was only a stupid dare. And you know what the worst part is? There was a moment in the gym when I forgot about it and just remembered how much I liked her. Now look what happened to me. I swear every time I get near that girl something terrible hits me. So no, I guess I don’t like her anymore.”

  My heart felt like it was breaking. I could hear the pain in David’s voice and realized that I had caused it. The air seemed to have been sucked from my lungs. My eyes stung and watered.