But like I said, now she was sad. So my kiss-deal thing was just a joke. And my fixing her car for her was just my way of trying to make her feel better.
I glanced back to Kendra. “Why didn’t Ally come in here herself?”
She smirked. “Ally’s too shy to be around a bunch of skeezy mechanics.” She drew close to me and purred in my ear, “But I’m not.”
“’Kay, well, I’ve got to get busy,” I said, and yeah, it was to blow her off. After all, Zack was my friend. Not only that, she was Ally’s cousin. But also, I really did need to get busy if I was going to have the car done in time. Besides, I don’t particularly like being called “skeezy.” If she were a guy I might have slugged her for it. But then again, that’s just because I like to fight.
***
After school, Kendra and Ally showed up right as I was finishing with the car.
Ally squealed with happiness when she saw it was as good as new. Her squeal made everything worth it—I mean, me going to be in big trouble and everything. Totally worth it.
“Wow!” she gushed again. “How much do I owe you?”
I eyed her a moment, then gazed back at the car. “Twenty bucks.”
She blinked. “Whoa! Really? Just twenty dollars?”
I grinned. “And the matter I spoke to Kendra about.”
She blushed. “… the kiss.”
I raised my eyebrows in acquiesce. “The kiss.”
“About that.” She cleared her throat. “I was wondering if I didn’t really have to. I mean, I guess Kendra said I thought you were a skeezy mechanic or something. I don’t think that. I mean, I can see how that would make you want to prove a point or something. But,” she drew out a long breath, “I don’t think that.”
A smile spread on my lips. “I’m glad.”
I gave a soft laugh, my smile still growing. “But I didn’t require it to prove a point.”
“Oh.”
She bit her lip, and put her hand over her heart in a distracted, my-heart-is-going-to-explode kind of way. “Um.”
My gaze kept darting between her heart and her big, blue eyes. Then it stalled on her lips.
She cleared her throat again. She seemed to be wanting to say something, but was having trouble concentrating. Maybe because my eyes couldn’t leave hers. Finally, she just spat it out, “Aiden and I broke up.”
My smile grew even bigger. “I know.”
She breathed out “Oh” in a tiny whisper. She seemed to have been thinking I’d only asked for the kiss to mess with Aiden again.
Now we were looking at each starry eyed. Neither of us speaking—or remembering that there are words and they come out of your mouth. That’s definitely not what I was thinking about doing with my mouth.
Kendra rolled her eyes. “Get a room, guys! You two look as though you’re going to jump on each other any second.”
That made Ally snap out of the heart-seducing daze we were under. Bummer.
She swallowed and turned bright red, her eyes darting to her cousin. She gave Kendra a look that seemed to say, ‘Help me.’
I scratched my chin with a grin. I figured this seemed like a good time to tell her I was just messing around about the kiss. Only this was a little bit too entertaining.
“I’ll kiss you,” Kendra blurted out. She batted her eyelashes at me, seeming half-playful, half-not.
I tilted my head. What had she and Ally cooked up?
Kendra gave me a smug, sly smile. “I mean, it would totally piss off, Zack—totally.”
She said it like that explained everything, but it didn’t. I was clueless. I quirked an eyebrow, trying to figure out what she was getting at. “Why would I want to piss off Zack?” I grinned, totally lost. “Zack’s my friend.”
Kendra reddened. “Oh. I know but—” She gestured at Heaven. “Ally said you only wanted to kiss her to piss off Aiden, and since they already broke up, and she’s not going to tell Aiden anything about it …”
She trailed off since I wasn’t looking at her anymore. My eyes were trained on Ally. I took a step towards her. It made her take a shy step back, which made me take another step towards her. I grinned as she took yet another step back, our gazes locked on each other the whole time.
I eyed the space she put between us, then took another and another step towards her until I had her backed into a corner.
“I didn’t do this to prove a point or piss anyone off,” I said, my voice coming out husky and low. I brushed her soft hair behind her shoulders and whispered near her ear, “I just wanted three more minutes in Heaven.”
I heard her sharp intake of breath, and felt glorious, exquisite heat radiating from her like she was burning up (for me).
My eyes lingered on her lips, then I looked back at Kendra. She was watching us from across the room like we were Romeo and Juliet.
“Can you give us a minute?” I said. “Alone?”
Kendra’s eyes cut to Ally. From the way she looked at her, it was pretty obvious Ally had instructed her not to let us be alone together. Kendra seemed to be weighing the situation, negotiating it all in her head. Finally, she let out a sigh.
“You know, I really can’t,” she said. “Ally’s my cousin. She’s like, totally innocent. She doesn’t kiss guys like you.”
My lips quirked a grin. “She doesn’t kiss guys like me?”
I gave a soft laugh at that, because she had kissed a guy like me—me. And she liked it. A lot. I was pretty sure.
It was kind of hilarious that Ally’s own cousin had no clue we had kissed—not just once, but twice. I didn’t rat her out, though. Of course. ‘Cause it was just funny. Instead, I cocked an eyebrow at Ally, “I thought we had a deal.”
I said it really low and close to her ear. But Kendra seemed to have heard me. And she was the one that had told me we had a deal—that Ally would kiss me if I fixed her car. And well, I held up my end of the deal. I fixed the car.
So Kendra sighed. “Look, I know you’ve been working on the car all day and planning something sleazy. So, okay, you have three minutes—exactly three. I’m going to be waiting outside the door—right here, right out the door. I’ll hear my cousin if she yells—seriously.” She gave me a look like, So you better not try anything.
But then she gave Ally a look that said, Of course he’s going to try something, but hey he’s cute—and I’d have fun kissing the sceezy guy if it was me. Just enjoy it.
Then Kendra stopped talking with her eyes and said aloud, “So, it’s like the game, ‘Three minutes in Heaven’—”
She was going to go on talking, but I interrupted her, cocking an eyebrow. I grinned, “Three minutes in heaven?”
I said it like a question. Like I’d never heard of the game. Only, I was watching Ally as I said it—watching her turn bright pink. I enjoyed saying the name, ’cause that’s what I’d been calling her lately—“My Three Minutes in Heaven.”
Kendra tilted her head, like she realized she was missing the joke, but then she went on anyway, “Yeah, Three Minutes in Heaven.”
Then she told us how to play the game—that we had exactly three minutes alone and then she was going to open the door. “But if I hear my cousin yelp, yell or scream,” she said, “the game’s over—right that minute—got it?”
I gave a soft laugh, my eyes still on Ally, watching her face turn pink. “Got it,” I said.
Kendra left the shop with one last warning, “I’m going to be right outside the door.”
Then she was gone and we were alone—just me and my Heaven.
My hands slid down the sides of her shivering arms, totally forgetting my amusement. Or the rest of the world. My lips brushed her ear. “You okay?”
She swallowed and nodded, though being this close to me made her shivery and tremble and seem to be about to pass out.
“You don’t have to do this,” I said. “I was just messing around.”
“I know,” she murmured.
She looked up at me, being brave, and gave me a teasing smile. “But
you earned it.”
My eyebrows shot up. For a minute my heart stopped. Then I grinned huge, my pulse going wild. Without a word; immediately, I crashed my mouth on hers … ecstatic to get another three minutes in heaven.
CHAPTER 22
When Kendra yanked open the door three minutes later, declaring “Times up!” I made a low groaning noise. Reluctantly, I pulled away from Heaven, resting my forehead against hers. For a minute there was just me and Heaven in the world. Us breathing hard, our flushed faces, and exploding hearts. Us panting together as we tried to catch our breath. Only us.
I wanted it to last forever—me and her in each other’s arms.
But Kendra laughed, yanking Ally away from me. “Wake up, Cous—love trance time is over,” she announced. “You told me not to let you do this—you want a nice boy, remember? Not The Griff.”
My head jerked up at that. Amused and highly intrigued by this information, though I pretty much already knew it.
Cracking a smile, I looked from Ally to her cousin. “What else did she say?”
Kendra laughed. “Oh, wouldn’t you like to know. Look, stay away from my cousin.” She literally pulled Heaven towards the door. “Ally’s not your type.”
I sighed. Why did everyone keep saying that?
CHAPTER 23
Turned out Kendra’s words were right. At least sort of. I mean, no, she definitely wasn’t right about Ally not being my type. But obviously I wasn’t Ally’s. She went back to running away from me—though she did start leaving me “anonymous” baked treats taped to my locker on a fairly regular basis. At first I thought it was to thank me for fixing her car … but the treats kept coming. And coming.
One time there was a fried chicken leg taped to my locker (not even kidding). It was in a baggie and right next to it was a peanut-butter brownie (in a baggie also).
From a distance, I’d noticed it—that there was something taped to my locker. My pulse sped up, since I knew it was an Ally treat. At the time, I had a problem though. There was this girl with me, Shondra. She was letting me borrow her notes, so I couldn’t exactly send her away when I saw my locker had been Ally gifted.
I tried to think fast, but my eyes kept darting to my locker, all happy.
“Hey, maybe we can meet up after next class,” I said to Shondra, stopping in my tracks so we didn’t get any closer to my source of happiness. I wanted to get the gift alone.
But it was too late. Shondra had followed my involuntary gaze.
“There’s something taped to your locker, Griffin,” she said. Then she skipped over to it before I could stop her.
I blew out a breath and trailed after her.
“Oh, yum!” She smiled huge. “You must have a fan that has advanced cooking class third period. I have Spanish next-door to that classroom. I smelled those peanut-butter brownies baking all through class.” She grinned and her eyes lit up playful-like, “And I know you don’t like peanut-butter.”
She said it teasingly, since I’d just announced that to my whole class—like five minutes ago.
I mentally did a face-palm.
Our teacher had gone around the room having each of us stand and say something we were afraid of. (It was for some sort of writing exercise … I think.) When it was my turn I’d said, “peanut-butter.” The stuff gives me the shudders. It’s because that’s all my mom used to feed me—every day. Peanut-butter sandwiches, sometimes with no jelly. Every. Single. Day. For years.
Shondra’s eyes glittered. She was used to getting what she wanted. Especially from boys. She snuggled close to me. “So … can I have your brownie?”
I winced. I knew she was going to ask that.
I felt sort of trapped. I mean, she’d let me stick my tongue down her throat the other night at party, and now she was letting me borrow her notes, and actually she was going to write my paper for me, and I needed it written—like now. My grades—they weren’t so good.
But I couldn’t give her Ally’s brownie. That seemed disrespectful—giving it to a girl, even if I couldn’t eat it myself. It seemed like Shondra could get that on her own, right? But apparently not.
Mason came walking by right at that moment. His eyes lit up. “Oh, dude!”
I knew he was talking about the fried chicken. But I lied to Shondra, handing Mason the brownie anyway. “Sorry,” I told her all apologetic-like. “I promised it to Mason.”
Mason took it with a laugh, getting that I couldn’t give Ally’s treat to a girl. So he took it as a win and moved on to his next class.
“Here, you can have this instead.” I gave Shondra a red pencil that said, ‘You’re hot!’
Some girl had given it to me in my last class. But the girl was always putting down this awkward girl that sat in front of us. So, I didn’t really like Pencil-Girl too much and I had no trouble giving up her gift.
Shondra was pleased with it too, purring, “Aww, I think you’re hot too!”
I smiled as I downed my fried chicken.
It bit that Ally wouldn’t give me a chance, but man I loved her attention—even if it wasn’t the kind I craved from her. Still, it was something. And the something was delicious.
CHAPTER 24
I know break-ups are hard. I’d never personally gone through one. Because that would have required, you know, me having actually been in a relationship. Which I’d never been in. Ever. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’d had plenty of action with girls. Some might say, more than my share. But I didn’t go for the “dating” stuff. (Calling, or dressing up, or taking a girl to a movie, or a dance … or okay, anywhere that I wasn’t already at.) That stuff wasn’t my thing. Still, I knew a lot of people that had been in relationships (of course). So I was aware, break-ups suck.
So, though I was inwardly rejoicing and dancing a jig that Ally was no longer tied to Poser, I was also sorry for her. The glow I was used to seeing around her had dimmed. It was more like there was a cloud over her now. I didn’t like that.
One morning at my locker, Hailey waved her hand in front of my face, blocking my view of watching Ally as she watched Poser and Fauna from a distance.
Hailey glared at me, like I’d been doing something perverted. And horrifying. But I wasn’t. I mean, I wasn’t stalking Ally—which to Hailey would have been unspeakable. And unbearable. And unforgivable. But I wasn’t. I mean, I’d just been at my locker, reading texts people had sent me (I get behind), then I looked up and caught sight of Ally—and she kept watching Poser, so I found that interesting. But I didn’t get out binoculars or anything.
Hailey growled. “She’s not free or anything, Griffin. If she snaps her fingers—Aiden will come back to her. Besides, to her you’re the devil disguised as a hot biker model. She’ll always run from the devil, Griffin—always—no matter how good he looks to her. Or how tempting.”
I quirked an eyebrow. The devil, wow.
Restraining a grin, I put my hand over my heart. “Ouch.”
Hailey rolled her eyes and went on, like calling me the devil wasn’t enough to make her point. “Besides, she’s already got another guy on her leash. And he’s just like Baker and Aiden. Exactly the same as them—exactly—which is totally the opposite of you. The total opposite. Face it Griffin, she’ll never go for you—never.”
I bit back another grin. “Take it easy, Pop-fly. I wasn’t planning my marriage proposal.”
Besides, I already knew about the guy she was talking about. This girly guy—Milo. He sort of swooped in and tried to take Poser’s place with Ally the minute they broke up. She didn’t seem to really be feeling the guy, but he was definitely giving it his best shot. Plus he was the star of the school play, and Ally was playing the piano for the production. So, they had that in common—the play.
Plus, Milo had a girly vibe. Ally seemed to be into that. Guys she could take shoe shopping, and cry over chick movies with, and swap make-up tips while they braided each other’s hair and did their nails. (Okay, maybe they didn’t do all that. I have no idea.)
But like I said—I could tell she wasn’t really into Milo. Unfortunately, like I also said, she wasn’t over Aiden. So, I couldn’t be too happy about their break-up … though I did start getting those “anonymous” gifts from Ally on a semi-regular basis. That I was happy about.
It was like I was her distraction from Poser or something. Only if I was, I was second tier. Her real distraction was Milo—since he got to get near her and everything.
Still, even with girly Milo buzzing around her—still—she was leaving me baked treats at my locker. And sometimes she’d even throw in a random vague poem that would whisper about “kisses” or “heroes” and stir up my heart, and make it hard to pretend it didn’t warm me up inside every time I looked at her.
Even though I knew it would piss off Hailey, I leaned against my locker and glanced back over at Ally. She looked sad. She was with her friends, but she kept sneaking looks at Poser and Fauna as they held hands and snuggled and kissed at his locker. She had a sad little frown on her face. I couldn’t take it. I looked away and let myself be distracted by this girl, Rita, that was all about tongue-hockey, and didn’t seem to realize we weren’t supposed to play it at school.
Hailey didn’t seem to mind that—me with Rita. In fact, she seemed relieved. Though she rolled her eyes and said, “Get a room.”
Then she trotted over to one of her friends that had a logo on her shirt that said, ‘Don’t mess with me.’ Then under that, in small print, it said, ‘ … Unless you’re cute.’
That wasn’t a shirt for Hailey. Hailey’s would say, ‘… Unless you hate Ally Grange and other nice people … or you’re the devil.’
I only kissed Rita a little after Hailey left. I mean, the kiss was heated. Rita was definitely into it. But I wasn’t. Unfortunately. I was just using the kiss as a distraction and it wasn’t really working. My eyes kept wondering over to Ally and her sad little frown.
My mood sucked when she frowned.
Her Kiss (Griffin) Page 8
