I feel like Meg Ryan in Top Gun. I just want to scream aloud, Danny, you big stud. Take me to bed or lose me forever.
Uh. Like, now.
Seriously.
Who cares about making Jake jealous?
But, evidently our PDA was all Jake could take.
He grabs my shoulder, jerks me toward him, and says, “JJ, what the hell?”
I can feel Danny right behind me. He’s so mellow about this. He just wraps his arms around my waist, pulls my back in tight to his chest, and leans his chin on my shoulder.
Like this is an everyday occurrence.
God, I wish it were.
Of course, that is exactly what he wants Jake to think.
I can only imagine the look he’s giving Jake.
If it were me, I would have my thumbs stuck in my ears, with the rest of my fingers waving at him, going nana, nana, boo, boo.
But I doubt Danny is doing that.
Because my ego has been substantially boosted by Danny’s attention, I look very blankly at Jake and let out a breathy sigh. “Well, Jake, Danny was just kissing a very ticklish spot on my neck. One that you’ve never managed to find and, well, you’re interrupting.”
I raise my eyebrows at him and shrug my shoulders in a what’s-a girl-to-do gesture.
So many boys; so little time.
Scratch that.
One boy and not nearly enough time.
Jake studies Danny and me, and then says very calmly, “I didn’t realize the two of you had stayed so close.”
Of course this was exactly the opening Danny had been waiting for.
“Well, I guess you could call it that.” Danny chuckles. He looks down at me, kisses the side of my neck and runs the back of his hand down my side, from boob to waist, very slowly and suggestively.
Jake is clearly pissed. His face looks twisted, but I don’t think he dares throw a punch at Danny, especially now that the two linemen have come to stand directly behind us.
So, Jake, being the loser that he is, goes for the weaker link.
Me.
Jake speaks very loudly, so everyone, anywhere within earshot of the North 40, can hear. I feel a crowd gathering around us. “Well, hotshot,” Jake snorts, “Don’t think you’re gonna get anything from that,” he says, with a scowl at me.
Like I am an inanimate object.
“As you can see,” he continues, as Boobs magically appears at his side, “I had to go elsewhere.”
Jake tosses his arm around Boobs, and they both laugh at me like I’m some big inside joke.
Sadly, I probably am.
Of course, I’m humiliated by the fact that my alleged virginity is being discussed in front of half the student population.
Do I have a witty comeback?
What should I say?
Maybe I’ll just punch him.
No, bad idea.
But I don’t have to say a thing, because Danny steps up to the plate.
He pulls me a little closer. I didn’t think I could get any closer but, hurray, I could!
He runs his hand across my thigh, sending chills up my spine. Then he laughs out loud at Jake and says, “Hey, Jake, ya think maybe there’s a reason she’s never done it with you?”
I can see by the look on Jake’s face the thought never crossed his mind.
Hey, wait a minute. I could be a player too.
Or not.
Danny cocks his head and shrugs at Jake.
“Might explain all them trips to Lincoln . . . ” Then he looks at me in a way that can only be described as hungry, and I give him a kind of slow sexy smile that I didn’t even know I was capable of.
It takes a few seconds for the implications of what Danny said to sink into Jake’s little brain. When Mr. Rocket Scientist finally puts two and two (well, one and one) together, his head looks like it’s going to explode, or, quite possibly, implode.
He flies toward Danny. I instinctively duck down just as someone grabs my arm and pulls me out of the way of the flying fists.
Of course—who else?
It’s Phillip.
He holds my arm tightly and practically drags me out of the party.
We get to his car and he orders, “Get in. We’re leaving.”
I can tell he is mad at me, and I probably shouldn’t argue, but I cross my arms in front of my chest and say, “What about Danny?”
I am so not done with that boy yet.
“And me? And maybe I want to see Jake get the crap beat out of him. And, hey, Prince Charming, why aren’t you in there helping to defend my honor anyway?”
Okay. I might have gone a little too far with that one. Sometimes my mouth gets away from me. Phillip is very obviously not happy with me.
“Get. In. The. Car. Now!”
“Okay, Okay, fine,” I say to Mr. Bossy as I slide into the seat. After he slams my door, walks around, and gets into the car, I finish, “but I’m not going home yet.”
Phillip drives down the gravel road that will take us back into town. It’s deathly quiet in the car. He hasn’t said a word to me, and I’m not about to break the silence. I’m mad about the way he treated me at the party. I know he thinks he’s helping, but was it really necessary to drag me out of there? I’ve seen fights at parties before and survived them.
Okay, so I’ve never been the direct cause of one before, but that’s beside the point.
I’m sure it broke up quickly and is already over. The guys are probably back to drinking, telling stories, and having fun.
Without me.
It’s not fair. I could be kissing Danny right now.
I really, really liked kissing Danny. I was also very much looking forward to what might happen next, as in I just might have taken Lisa’s advice and attacked him. I need to get back to the party; back to Danny.
Phillip pulls his car off to the side of the road, puts it into park, then turns to me and says, “Stop glaring at me.”
“I’m not glaring at you.”
But I may very well be giving you mad glances.
“Yes, you are.”
“Well, you’re glaring back.”
“Look, I know you didn’t want to leave, but, unlike you, I did the right thing tonight,” Phillip brags.
What is he talking about? This has nothing to do with right and wrong. Except that he was wrong to make me leave.
“The right thing?”
“Yes, whereas you never thought once about whether any of the things you were doing were right or wrong.”
He is chastising me.
I have had about enough of jerk boys tonight, thank you very much.
“I didn’t do anything wrong tonight, Phillip, if that’s what you’re insinuating.”
“Really? Did you once stop to think that getting Danny into a fight could possibly get him injured and ruin his football career?”
I stare at him. And uh, no, that thought did not cross my mind, but I will not share that piece of information with him.
“You ought to think about someone besides yourself for a change,” he says, adding insult to injury.
“I didn’t make Danny do anything. He wanted to. In fact, the whole making Jake jealous thing was his idea!”
This boy is infuriating!
He says to me, “Whatever. I’m not going to fight with you about this.”
He puts the car in gear and starts driving again.
Not only are we done fighting, evidently we are done talking too.
“So where do you want to go?”
“Back to the party.”
He glares at me, so I say, “I really should let Lisa know where I am. I was supposed to ride home with her and don’t want her to worry.” What I don’t say is, I wanna see Danny, I wanna kiss Danny, I may even want to, uh, do it, with Danny. I am not ready for this night to end. Why did I let him drag me to the car? What was I thinking?
“I already told Lisa that I would take you home.”
Wait. How did he do that? We never stop
ped to tell her, and the fight broke out quickly, so that means he planned this.
He’s not just a jerk.
He’s a premeditating jerk.
“Before the fight started?” I call him on it.
“Yes.”
“So you planned this?”
“Well, let’s just say that I was smart enough to figure out exactly what was going to happen tonight. So, where?”
I really don’t know what to do. I just know I won’t give him the satisfaction of taking me straight home. Maybe the fight will break up the party and everyone will head back into town.
“Let’s go to the Gas Stop. I’m hungry.”
“Great.” He gives me a smart-ass smile. “I need to get gas anyway.”
“You would have to turn it into something practical,” I mutter under my breath.
Of course, he hears me. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Oh I don’t know, Mr. Spontaneous.”
I get the glare again.
“Well, I was almost spontaneous tonight. I almost dragged you out of the party before the fight started, but I decided to give you the benefit of the doubt. Obviously that was a mistake.”
We pull up to the gas pump. Phillip jumps out and starts the pump, then gets back into the car. I’m checking out the parking lot between the Gas Stop and the bowling alley and see, sadly, that no one is around.
Darn. Now what?
I’m supposed to be hungry. That’s why I wanted to come here, but food does not sound the least bit appetizing. Not even Hostess cupcakes.
I must be more distraught than I realized.
Phillip snarls, “I thought you were hungry.”
I can tell he knows I was lying.
“What can I say? You made me lose my appetite.”
See? Something is your fault. You’re not perfect.
Jerk.
“I see.” He smirks.
The smirk on his face is pretty much the last straw, so I let him have it.
“Phillip, can’t you ever do something just because it feels good? Why do you have to think through and analyze every situation to death?”
“What? Would you rather I was like you and never think anything through? You were in trouble at the party, and you know it.”
“Maybe I wanted trouble, Phillip,”
“Well, you know what? That would have been fine, but then you had to drag Danny into the whole fiasco.”
“I dragged Danny?” The boy is playing rough.
Fine.
“Yeah, I dragged Danny, kicking and screaming, straight to my lips and forced him to kiss me. Many, many times.”
I don’t know why I think this will upset Phillip. I mean I know he doesn’t like me, but I do know something about Danny and me together bugged him.
So there.
“Besides, this mess isn’t my fault. It’s Jake’s. He started the whole stupid thing.” I shake my head at him. “And Danny’s a big boy. I can’t make him do anything.”
“Oh, you’d be surprised at what you can make Danny do,” Phillip says, like I’m some harlot.
“Phillip, he kissed me. Not the other way around. Granted, he may have done it because he felt sorry for me, but no one, especially not me, made him.” I stop and look closely at Phillip to gauge his reaction. “And what would be so wrong about Danny and me together anyway?”
Phillip looks exasperated. He shakes his head in disbelief and chuckles. “You’d kill each other, for one, because you’d fight constantly. It’d never work. And you’d completely screw your friendship.”
“Well, at least Danny and I feel strongly enough about things to fight about them. It shows we have passion, that something is important to us. You know, Phillip, it’s okay to have feelings.”
Phillip doesn’t respond.
So I say, “You know what? I give up. All you ever do is make me feel bad because I’m not perfect like you. I don’t need it anymore, and I’m not sure I want to be your friend either. Take me home.” I madly cross my arms in front of my chest with a humph.
“I thought you didn’t want to go home?” Phillip says in a snotty little boy voice.
I don’t get a chance to respond to Jerk Boy because his cell rings.
Maybe it’s Danny!
He sighs at me, looks at his phone, reads the caller ID and whispers, “It’s Dad,” before he presses talk.
“Hey, Dad.”
I listen to his side of the conversation.
“Yeah, I do. She’s in the car with me now.” He glares over at me. “I was just about to take her home.”
He gives me the snotty little boy look again, then his expression drops as the color drains from his face. I watch his eyes bug out like he’s hearing that aliens just landed on earth or something else unbelievable.
“Uh. Ok-ay.”
He looks at me sideways and lets out a sigh.
“We’ll be there as fast as we can, Dad.”
“I will.”
I ask, “What? What’s wrong?” I’m worried because whatever his dad said didn’t sound like good news. I wonder if there was a terrorist attack or something equally horrific.
Phillip takes a deep breath, like what he has to tell me is so very bad.
“Your parents were in a serious car accident.” He blows out a big breath. “They are being life-flighted to University hospital. My parents were following them home when it happened. They’ll meet us there.”
“What?”
Phillip flies out of the car and quickly shuts off the gas pump.We leave the Gas Stop fast, and he’s already speeding by the time we hit the viaduct going out of town.
I look at his speedometer and then at him, with a what-are-you-doing look.
Phillip never speeds.
Reading my mind, he says, “I know I’m going a bit fast, but Dad said to hurry.”
That can’t be good, can it? My world feels like it’s slipping out from underneath me and, to top it off, Phillip is mad at me. That’s fine. I’m mad at him too. But at the same time, I’m glad he’s here. This is scaring me.
Because life-flighted?
That’s bad, isn’t it?
Just as we climb the hill and go speeding by the high school, a police car’s lights come flashing on behind us.
“Shit! We don’t have time for this.”
“What do you mean, Phillip? How bad is it? Phillip?”
He pulls over and rolls down his window. Then he turns to me. “Bad. Really bad.”
“Bad as in broken bones? A bit smashed up? Paralysis, coma?” I pause and think, oh my God, “Or like dying bad?”
“I don’t know.”
The officer walks up to the window and shines his flashlight in our eyes.
“JJ?” the policeman asks. I hold my hand in front of my squinting eyes, trying to see whose face the familiar voice is coming from.
Phillip says to the officer, “You know, JJ?”
“Sure. Went to high school with her dad. Still play Wiffle ball together.”
Phillip looks up to the roof of his car and mutters, “Thank you.”
Then in a very businesslike tone, he tells the officer, “Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds were in a bad car accident and are being airlifted to the hospital. I was told to get JJ there. Fast.”
“Not the accident that has the interstate shut down?”
“Um.” Phillip gulps. “Yeah.”
“Damn. Leave your car here and come with me,” Officer Myers tells Phillip. “I’ll get you there.”
“Come on,” Phillip says, pulling me out of his car and putting me into the squad car next to him.
“Is there anything you’re not telling me?”
He tells me that everything will be okay, but his body language is sending out an entirely different message. He is way tense. I can tell that he is biting down hard on his back teeth. It’s making his jaw look very stiff. I can’t tell if it is because the accident was a bad one, or because he is so mad that he hates me now and can’t even stand
to speak to me.
“Let’s just get there,” he says, not really answering my question.
Officer Myers, who I do recognize now that he’s not blinding me with his flashlight, does play Wiffle ball with my dad. I think his first name starts with a J, like John or James, but everyone calls him Cookie. Don’t know where they come up with these nicknames. Everyone who lives in a small town, the guys that play Wiffle ball on Sundays, in particular, seem to have them. I think I remember hearing that they call him Cookie because in, like, fifth grade, he stole the neighbor girl’s boxes of Girl Scout cookies and ate them all.
I don’t know why I’m thinking about all this. I feel bizarre. I have tons of adrenaline rushing through my body. Part of me feels like I could jump the tallest building or run faster to the Med Center, but the other part of me feels numb. Like I can’t move. Like I’m paralyzed.
The police car goes fast, the lights flash, and the siren blares. I usually hate hearing sirens. They have always kind of scared me, but for some reason—maybe because it never stops—it’s almost comforting this time.
I pray the whole way there.
Please let them be okay. Whooh, whooh, whooh. Please let them be okay. Whooh, whooh, whooh. Please let them be okay.
It’s like the siren and my prayer have a sort of rhythm.
I close my eyes. Maybe I’m having a bad dream. Maybe this whole fucked up night is just some bad, horrible, messed up dream.
I will myself to wake up. I slowly open my eyes, only to see Phillip staring out of a police car window with a scared and numb look on his face.
So it’s not a dream.
Okay. I need to mentally prepare myself. Be rational. Whatever this is, I can handle it. Obviously, they are hurt badly if they are being airlifted. But lots of people get better after bad car wrecks. You see it on television all the time. Broken bones heal; scars can be fixed.
They are going to be fine. Everything is going to be fine.
I see the hospital up ahead. We’re almost there. I feel a hand on my shoulder, so I lean my head toward it and touch my cheek to it. I take a long, slow breath and feel myself relax. I feel comforted. As we pull up to the emergency entrance, I put my hand up to my shoulder for more reassurance, but my hand only touches my fuzzy sweater.
That’s weird. For a minute, I thought it was Mom’s hand I touched. She always holds my shoulder like that. But I shake my head at that thought because, duh, she’s obviously not here.
Kiss Kiss Page 143
