Her Kiss (Griffin)

by Marks, Melanie

  My stomach shriveled. “Ally wouldn’t be glad, though. She’d be hurt.”

  Fauna blinked. Then she gave an incredulous laugh—like she couldn’t believe her ears. “You can not seriously be into Ally Grange.”

  I didn’t say anything, just stared out the window.

  Fauna made this huff noise. She sounded irritated. Almost as irritated as Hailey always did when Ally was involved in a conversation that had to do with me. Like just the thought of us together made her mad.

  Fauna’s voice was bitter, “You can have pretty much any girl you want—why her?”

  I could have pretty much any girl I want? I was not aware of that. But either way—if I could or couldn’t—unfortunately, the girl I wanted was Ally. And no, I couldn’t have her. She normally ran from me. In fact, she wouldn’t let me near her unless it had something to do with her boyfriend. Still, I wasn’t going to discuss it with Fauna. I wanted the loser out of my car.

  She wasn’t getting the hint though. Instead she drawled out with an evil smirk, “Look Grief-Master, we’re alike.”

  I raised my eyebrows at her, my silent: No way on earth.

  She laughed. “Yes we are! We’re in the same boat. The exact same situation. Why don’t you just lead her away from Aiden?”

  “She doesn’t seem to want to be led away.”

  Fauna shrugged. “So? You could just lead her anyway.”

  I shook my head slowly, letting her know—no matter what she said—we weren’t the same. Not even close. “I don’t do that. Now get out of my car.”

  CHAPTER 17

  Monday morning Ally and Poser looked as though they’d made up. Well, pretty much. But not exactly. They were walking down the school hallway together. But they weren’t holding hands or being all cuddly like they usually were.

  As they passed my locker I smiled at Ally. I couldn’t help it. She was staring at me, but it was like she was trying her hardest not to. It was so cute. And it got my heart all craving her.

  “Hey, my Three Minutes in Heaven,” I drawled near her ear as she and Poser walked by me.

  Poser stiffened. Actually Ally did too. She did a cute little gasp and turned all pink. My eyes washed over her, drinking her in. I was craving, craving, craving. But she didn’t say a word to me as she walked by. (No shock there.) She just kept walking—though now kind of unsteady.

  But I saw her peek back at me after they’d passed by me a bit. I gave her my best smile and a wink. She quickly darted her head back around as though we’d both been doing something naughty. Maybe we had. My heart was sure drumming faster than normal. But that was because, hey, she looked back at me. Didn’t act like I was invisible like she usually did—well, like she usually tried to do.

  My eyes lingered on her, until Hailey nudged me with a growl. “She’s so not your type!” she hissed. “The girl goes to church.”

  I shrugged. “I could go to church.”

  Hailey howled a laugh. “Yeah, right!”

  I set my jaw, but couldn’t help grinning. The building would probably burn up if I took a step in it. I knew that as well as Hailey, but I liked messing with her. She was so belligerent, all over Ally who practically went up in flames whenever I came near her. It wasn’t like Hailey had anything to worry about. Ally wouldn’t even let me approach her—except to give Poser a little taste of his own closet medicine. But even then she called it a mistake. And now she was back to not looking at me—well, pretty much.

  I grinned. “No, seriously,” I told Hailey, just to freak her out. “I’ve been thinking about going there—to church—to pick up Church Girls. They’re so friggin’ cute with their Bibles and kittens.”

  Hailey laughed. “If you even stepped foot in a church the preacher guy would throw his Bibles at you and hide all the women and children.”

  I smiled mildly, not really into the conversation—but I can always talk. “Thanks Pop-fly, glad to hear you think so highly of me. I mean, needing to hide the women—”

  “—and children,” she reminded.

  “Yeah. Thanks.” I wasn’t really paying attention to our conversation though. Ally and Poser were at Poser’s locker. It was way further down the hall, but I could see them in deep conversation, very much not smiling as they talked.

  Ally’s eyes flickered my way then stayed on me a second. She probably only looked because she could feel me staring. But her eyes on me like that had my heart drumming a little faster. In fact, it sent fireworks through my body.

  When she quickly looked away, a piece of me died. I mean, it was full-on painful.

  Oh man. Not cool. I seriously had a thing for Church Girl.

  CHAPTER 18

  Not many days after my Three Minutes In Heaven with Ally Grange (aka, of course: My Heaven), Jake Edwards, a guy from the hockey team, was clobbering Poser in the school hallway. I don’t even know what the fight was about—but there were so many reasons to choose from when it came to whiney, annoying Poser. Plus, Jake is not a tolerant guy. If you make him mad, expect him to throw punches.

  Anyway, I was in the midst of the small crowd forming, enjoying the fight. But all of a sudden little Ally comes pushing her way through the mob of students.

  “Stop it!” she shrieked to Jake as she fought to get close to their fighting. “Leave him alone!”

  It was like she was planning to pull Jake off Poser or something, which was insane. Yet, that seemed to be her plan. I grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back a safe distance. “Don’t go in there.”

  I grunted as the feisty chick fought to break free of my hold. “Grange, you’re going to get hurt.”

  “No! Aiden’s getting hurt,” she cried. “Griffin, let me go! I have to stop it.”

  I quirked an eyebrow, still holding her by both wrists. I eyed her up and down. “How are you going to stop it?”

  She swallowed, about to stutter something out, but then she seemed to realize I was right. She would get massacred if she got anywhere near the violent wild fist throwing.

  She swallowed again, staring into my eyes, like I was some kind of answer. Everything inside me wound tight.

  Why was she looking at me like that? My pulse ignited. I wasn’t breathing, and my heart skipped a couple thousand beats. What the—?

  That’s what her stare did to me—things I didn’t get.

  Her eyes washed over me, pleading. Man, I was on fire.

  But then she said, “Will you stop them? Please?”

  I almost puked in my mouth.

  I collapsed back, dying a little. I choked. “Me?!—stop them?”

  Didn’t she get it? Every time I saw the guy I wanted my fist to meet his nose.

  I would have rather she asked me to bash my head through a brick wall than what she was asking.

  “Griffin, please. He’s getting clobbered. Please!”

  She had no idea how repulsed I was by her request. I ran a hand over my face as I looked at her, into her beautiful, pleading eyes, then up at the ceiling. The guy bugged me. So bad. And I winced every time I saw him with Ally. I didn’t want to help him. I wanted to bust his face in right along with Jake.

  “Griffin, please!”

  I groaned and slugged the locker next to me, then finally I reached for Jake. I pulled his hand back behind him. “Fight’s over,” I growled. Because I’m a sucker and would give Ally the world. Anything she wanted. Even this—me saving Poser.

  Jake grunted. “What? No way. What’s with you, man?!” He tried breaking free of my hold but I pinned his arm behind his back.

  “It’s over.”

  Ally ran to her bloody, stupid boyfriend.

  I winced, watching her gently kiss his lips.

  Seriously, every time I saw them together my heart died.

  I needed a funeral for my dreams of her. I wanted to bury them. Deep. Forget they ever existed.

  CHAPTER 19

  “… And I told the guy, ‘Look, if you can’t control your girlfriend, don’t expect me to. If she’s goin
g to chase me, she’s probably going to catch me—at least for a quick make-out.’” Mason was recapping his usual type story as we left fourth period.

  He was telling me about this guy he got into a fight with the other night at a party. Mason gets into fights a lot. Usually over girls. I’m pretty sure it’s just because he’s frustrated that he won’t make a move on Summer. Sometimes I bother to tell him this, but not usually. Unless I want to duel jabs with him—which is sometimes fun.

  Anyway, he was giving me the scoop as we were walking towards my locker after fourth period—then boom! My pulse thumped. Like exploded. ‘Cause I noticed Ally up in the distance. She was standing in front of my locker. And she was holding cookies. A huge smile spread on my face. I’d just saved her boyfriend, so I was pretty sure I knew what the cookies were about—her cute little silent thank you.

  Well, I was ready to tell her, “You’re welcome.”

  But she didn’t give me a chance. When she saw me smiling at her, she ran away.

  I watched her go, exhaling a long drawn out breath. My heart falling. Bummer. I’d wanted the cookies … and her to like, talk to me.

  Mason watched Ally running away and burst out a laugh. “There goes your cookies.”

  He knew about the “Ally Situation.” Sort of. He knew she ran from me all of the time—and he knew about the big cookie she had given me back in middle school. Also, he knew I broke up Poser’s pounding from Jake this morning because of her. So Mason’s teasing me about being “Soft for School Girl” was more knowing than the rest of our teammates. I mean, he knew something was actually up—more than me just trying to spin-up Poser.

  “The chick’s pretty weird,” Mason said.

  “That she is,” I agreed with a grin as we both watched her run through the crowd—away from me.

  “They were fresh baked cookies, too,” Mason informed me, rubbing it in that my cookies had just escaped me. The corner of his mouth quirked in a way you could call a smile. “I know because the chick has third period cooking class with Summer.”

  Oh, that’s what the smile was about.

  I gave a laugh, thrilled to redirect the subject. “Oh, so now you’ve memorized your ex-step-sister’s class schedule?”

  Mason shrugged, but he was grinning. “Well, when it involves cookies—yeah.”

  The guy and Summer were continually going after serial relationships that they knew were doomed, instead of just admitting they were hot for each other. So, I just grinned. “Poor guy, hiding behind baked goods.”

  He inclined his head. “Well at least I got my baked goods.”

  Amused, I gave a faint grunt, having to give him that. After all, mine had run off.

  Squeezing my eyes shut, I mentioned around a sheepish grin, “It’s the thought that counts.”

  Kidding aside though, I actually really felt that way, ‘cause I was actually touched that Ally had at least thought about giving me the cookies.… Actually, that she thought about me at all. It ignited a nice, longing feeling through me. Like: Aw, she cares!

  “Yeah, well, enjoy eating School Girl’s thoughts,” Mason said with a sardonic smile. “Meanwhile, Summer’s cookies were delicious.”

  I quirked a grin. “Spoken like a true brother.”

  Mason groaned, ducking his head with a sheepish laugh. “Shut up.”

  I sauntered over to my sad, cookie-less locker, “Hey, it’s all relative.”

  Mason flashed a grin. “No it’s not,” he said, refusing to acknowledge my pun out loud. “I got cookies—you didn’t.”

  CHAPTER 20

  Boom! My heart thumped after fifth period, ‘cause taped to my locker was a plastic baggie with a huge, fat, delicious looking, double-chocolate cookie inside—score!

  I was all smiles over the cookie, then I opened my locker and went perfectly still. My heart stopped. There was a note inside. It had been folded and slipped through the slots at the front of my locker. Reading the note, I collapsed against the wall beside me.

  A piece of me died of happiness. Cute little Ally had written me a poem.

  She didn’t sign it or anything. I guess it was supposed to be “anonymous.” I knew she intended it to be that way. But I recognized her writing from her journal/song notebook (which she never knew I had). Plus, she’d written it on this silver guitar shaped post-it paper. And I knew she had a guitar-shaped post-it pad lately, because, well, I noticed stuff about her. Like, she played the piano … but carried around a guitar shaped notebook. I found that interesting because she didn’t play the guitar. Neither did her boyfriend. But I did.

  The poem got my heart stirred up kind of wild. Her words were purposefully cryptic, I could tell. Since she was trying to be anonymous. (I guess she thought I had a bunch of fans writing me “thank you” poems all the time, but I didn’t. What I got were phone numbers and dirty messages and the occasional shocking picture. But poems? Not so much … unless they had to do with naughty suggestive stuff, which stirred up other parts of me—but not my heart.)

  To me, her poem was extremely romantic. I don’t know if that’s how she meant it to be. But that’s how I took it. I loved it as much as her songs about me … and as much as her mind-blowing kisses. (And that was a lot, my friend.)

  I carried around her poem with me the rest of the day, reading it and re-reading it, feeling like a werewolf. A really happy one.

  CHAPTER 21

  Before school started one morning I was in my auto shop class. I was working on a motor, and not really paying attention to stuff around me. But then I heard a car pull into the service area of the garage.

  “We’re not working today,” I told the girl that hopped out of the car. “Tuesday’s a study-hall. Plus, we’re booked for the week.”

  “Is Zack here?” the girl asked. “I really need this car fixed—today.”

  I grinned, tilting my head. “Not going to happen. And no, Zack’s not here.”

  Zack was a guy in my advanced auto class. He misses a lot of school. But yeah, if he were here he probably would have worked on the girl’s car for her. ‘Cause now I placed the chick. She was his ex-girlfriend. And he still had it for her bad. Unfortunately, he had it bad for a lot of girls. Thus the “ex” in the word “girlfriend.”

  “Sorry,” I told her. I was swamped or I would have helped her out. But as it was, I didn’t have good news for her. “You’d have better luck at an actual auto-garage if you want it before next week.”

  “I need it fixed now—today.”

  I looked away from her because I really hate telling a girl no. To anything. “Sorry,” I went back to working on my motor. “I can’t help you out.”

  I didn’t bother going into my long list of reasons why—but the list was long. I was way behind on my work. As usual. I had a real job in a real garage, on the side. Plus I had hockey practices twice a day—early morning, then at night. I had way more stuff to do than I actually had time for. The thing I let slide was school—but I hear that’s not so good.

  “Here,” I handed her the business card for an auto shop in town. “They can probably fit you in tomorrow.”

  The girl moaned. “But I need it fixed now. Ally’s going to kill me.”

  My hands froze. My heart too. “Ally … Grange?”

  I squinted my eyes, giving the car another look. “This is Ally’s car?”

  “Her mom’s,” the girl said. “That’s why we have to get it fixed today—before school gets out and her mom sees it.” She seemed to realize I was into Ally—probably because I turned into putty when she mentioned Ally’s name. So she played the card, “Ally will get in huge trouble if we don’t get it fixed.”

  “Who are you again?”

  She smiled. “Kendra … Ally’s cousin.”

  The girl looked nothing like Ally. She looked kind of like Hailey—dressed in black from head to toe.

  “Ally would be really appreciative,” Kendra said.

  I squeezed my eyes shut, not knowing why I was even bothering to t
hink it over. I knew I’d do it for Ally. And it had nothing to do with Kendra’s taunting promise—that Ally would be “appreciative.” Since the girl had asked for Zack. I mean, I hadn’t even been in the picture.

  I looked over the car. It was going to be a lot of work. And there was no way I’d be able to get done my stuff that I really, really needed to. Funny though, it didn’t even occur to me to care. “Okay, tell Ally I’ll do it,” I muttered. Then I added with a grin, “… for a kiss.” My smile grew. “Tell her that—she has to kiss me.”

  Kendra blinked. “Um … ”

  She blinked again, then snorted a laugh like this was bizarre—even for me, The Grief-Master. Because it was about shy little Ally, not some juicy fan-girl. If it was she probably wouldn’t have been so taken aback. Or amused.

  She drawled out, “Oh-kay, I’m sure Ally would be willing to do that. I mean, probably. I guess.”

  She tried to hold back another laugh, like this was hilarious and majorly unexpected, but she was incredibly relieved at the same time. She asked, “So how much is this going to cost her … besides the kiss?”

  I ran a hand over my face. I would have loved to tell her it was for free. But the parts weren’t cheap even though I could get them used and some as trade-offs. Adding it up in my head, I figured it would probably be at least sixty bucks. I had twenty bucks in my pocket, so I said, “Forty dollars,” then to make sure we had the deal (that I wasn’t really planning on going through with), I added, “And the kiss.”

  The thing I have to tell you is, Ally broke up with Poser a while ago. It wasn’t this glorious, happy thing for me though—their break-up. Because now Ally looked sad. All of the time. I mean, it’s not like she wanted to break-up with him. Poser’s being seduced by Fauna just made her have to do it.