Kiss Kiss

by Various Authors

  Actually, he is right about that.

  Danny finally shows up at the hospital about an hour later, with flowers for me.

  He’s so sweet!

  By this time, my tests have come back, and it’s been determined that I do not have meningitis.

  Thank God!

  Instead, I have a severe case of strep throat, and evidently strep throat can be very dangerous and have serious complications if not treated.

  As in, you can get rheumatic fever and go into heart failure.

  Something I did not know and really wish I hadn’t discovered.

  I’m dehydrated and weak, so they hook me up to an IV and give me two shots of antibiotics.

  One in each butt cheek.

  Um, not cool.

  I’m still trying to figure out why they didn’t just put the antibiotics in my IV. I’m pretty sure it was the doctor’s way of paying me back for possibly getting Danny Diamond sick.

  “Danny, I’m Dr. Daniels. I’ve been taking care of your friend, Jadyn, here,” the doctor says, shaking Danny’s hand.

  Phillip and I glance at each other and roll our eyes.

  The man is a doctor and he’s kissing up to Danny. That tells you how important football is in the Cornhusker state. Phillip and I are used to it now. We just try to fade into the background. Sometimes I don’t know how Danny does it. How he manages to be so nice to people who just come up to him, even if he’s, like, right in the middle of dinner or a date or something.

  He takes it all so well, though. Luckily, he has the kind of personality where no one is a stranger. He’ll shake old guys’ and little kids’ hands all day long. He tells us being a Husker quarterback is a privilege, and he needs to act like a role model and honor the legacy of all the great Husker players in history, or some bullshit like that.

  Actually, though, he really believes it.

  I’m really very proud of the way he handles himself. He always speaks clearly and intelligently to the media, and they seem to love him. Of course, it helps that the team is winning and Danny is playing well. And he has a standard line he uses when the media asks him what he wants out of his football career: I just want to bring the National Championship trophy back home to Nebraska.

  They eat that kind of crap up. Of course, that really is what he wants.

  The media is tricky though. Over the years, we’ve seen them be totally ruthless to very talented quarterbacks who, frankly, just didn’t have the right team combination to win.

  So, Danny is smart enough to know that as far as the media is concerned, you’re only as good as your last game.

  My thoughts are interrupted by the doctor asking Danny for an autograph. For his kid.

  Sure it is.

  Danny looks at me wearing his shirt. “Hey, Jay, give me your shirt. I’ll sign that.”

  Excuse me, but I’m wearing it!

  After much ado and embarrassment, I’m now in a stupid hospital gown and the doctor is proudly holding a Danny Diamond autographed shirt.

  I hope it has strep throat germs all over it!

  Danny, as usual, is getting all the attention.

  The team doctor shows up at the hospital. My doctor had called him. Even though Danny says he feels fine, they decide to do a strep test on him.

  “We can’t risk him getting sick this week.”

  Hello? I’m the sick one here. Do we really need to be worried about Danny? He looks just fine.

  And I do mean fine.

  I don’t know where he was, but damn.

  He’s wearing an aqua blue T-shirt that is just the right side of tight and that makes his eyes a blazing blue.

  And I must be feeling better, because I didn’t really notice that before.

  Just my luck, he tests positive for strep and ends up in the bed next to me.

  Phillip smirks at the two of us. “How adorable. Matching antibiotics, IVs, and hospital gowns.”

  “Shut up, Phillip,” Danny tells him.

  Thank you!

  Danny looks over and grins at me. “Well, I guess that’ll teach me to kiss you.”

  Phillip, the comedian again, slams us both by saying, “I would’ve thought you’d learned that lesson by now.”

  But don’t worry, all you Nebraska fans out there. Danny was in tiptop shape for the game on Saturday.

  I still didn’t feel that great, so Phillip stayed home with me and watched the game on TV.

  Thank God we won, 17-6, otherwise I would have the whole state mad at me, instead of just Phillip.

  But since I live with him, it’s almost as bad.

  Actually he isn’t really mad at me. He’s just pretending.

  He can never stay mad at me.

  One day in early April, Danny surprises Phillip and me by asking us to help him pick out an engagement ring for Lori. We go to the jewelry store where he shows us the stone he’s already picked out. It’s a lovely two carat marquise cut diamond. Danny is stumped on what to do for the setting. He’s bound and determined to present her with a ring, not just a diamond, so we shop around and talk to the salesman.

  None of the settings seem right to me, so I get frustrated and draw what I think the setting should look like on a piece of paper.

  It’s a platinum band, that’s not too wide, with three baguettes coming out from each side of the solitaire, like a shooting star.

  “I love that,” Danny says. “Do you have something like this?” He shows my drawing to the sales guy.

  “No,” says the eager-to-please salesman, “but we can make it.”

  While we are waiting, for what seems like forever for him to write it up, Danny turns to me and says, “So what’s your idea of a perfect ring, Jay?”

  I nearly say I’ve never really given it any thought, but I’m bored and, well, what girl hasn’t given it at least the teensiest of thought? So I draw up my perfection. A two carat emerald cut diamond in a platinum setting. From each corner of the solitaire are baguette diamonds that form an X on each side before intertwining and becoming one at the back.

  Incredible, if I do say so myself!

  “Wow. That’s cool too. Danny studies it intently. “You know, it looks like you.”

  I smile.

  This from a guy who never gave a diamond a second thought unless it had something to do with baseball. Now he thinks he’s an expert.

  Afterward, we head to the bar to discuss Danny’s plans for popping the big question. Danny and the team did bring the National Championship home to Nebraska, just like he always planned.

  GO HUSKERS!

  We all went to the bowl game and had an incredible time. Danny graduated in December and will be going through the NFL draft later this month. He’s hoping the draft goes well and is excited to know which team he’ll be playing for when he asks Lori to marry him.

  He’s planning to propose on the anniversary of their first date, May 23rd. His plan is to take her on what seems to be an impromptu picnic—one that will be quite elaborate, thanks to our help—and propose.

  It sounded like the perfect plan, until Lori came crying to me because she just got another candle.

  Lori and I are sorority sisters, and I’m proud to say that, with her, Danny finally broke out of his SSE (Simple, Smooth, and Easy) rut.

  You didn’t think I’d ever let him forget that, did you?

  He begged me to set them up after meeting her at a party last year.

  Lori’s a great girl.

  Smart. Pre-med. Sky-high GPA.

  She has a wicked sense of humor, which I love, and which is a surprise from someone who looks so straight-laced.

  Really, I was sorta joking when I told Danny he should marry Phillip but, personality-wise, Lori is just that. A girl version of Phillip.

  Probably why we get along so well. We’re complete opposites. She’s the responsible to my reckless, the organized to my chaos, the calm to my manic, and the serious to my flippant. Plus, the girl can seriously party, so we have had a lot of fun over the year
s.

  She’s a natural beauty; just gorgeous, both inside and out. She has long strawberry blonde hair, a sweep of cute little freckles across her nose, and beautiful brown eyes. She’s 5’7” and weighs 120 pounds on a fat day.

  And, although she does have Danny’s prerequisite C cups, she is nothing like the girls he used to date.

  One: She has a brain.

  Two: She’s never been a cheerleader.

  Three: She knows zero about football.

  Four: There is nothing simple or easy about her.

  Five: She didn’t fall all over him when they met. In fact, she ignored him! She knew who he was, sure. I mean, you can’t live on campus and not know who the Husker quarterback is. But she had heard me talk about him enough to know that a guy like him, who dates so many different girls, really wasn’t the kind of guy she was looking for. She pictured herself with someone serious. She figured she would meet a guy in Med School and they will become brilliant doctors together. She seriously had no desire to date him.

  Really!

  Which is what I think really intrigued him.

  She was his first real challenge.

  And, really, once I begged—and, quite possibly, bribed—her to go on a date with him, she could see what the fuss was all about. So she decided, what the hell, I know he never takes a girl seriously, so I’ll have a little fling with him. But, for the first time in his life, Danny made a girl wait. He told her she was different, special, and after a month of him dating no girls except her, she finally dragged Danny in his room by his ears and said, If I’m so special, let’s get to it. And I guess they did.

  And they have been pretty much inseparable ever since.

  They make an adorable pair and get along quite well in spite of their differences. He tries to teach her about football, and she tries to teach him Latin.

  The thing about her that amazes me is how she always looks dressed up. Even in a T-shirt and sweats, she looks dressy. She just has this class about her and, fittingly, she is president of our sorority.

  In our sorority, whenever someone gets promised or lavaliered, pinned or engaged, they pass their candle.

  It sounds sort of weird, but goes like this.

  Basically, the whole sorority stands in a big circle with the lights dimmed. We sing songs, and when the candle has gone around the circle the right number of times, the girl who is one of those things blows out the candle as a way of making her big announcement. When you are the girl who needs to pass your candle, you try to keep it a secret until the ceremony. The tricky part is you have to get your candle to the President. Sometimes, if it’s a younger girl, she just tells the President. But most of the upperclassmen are more secretive, because they want to surprise her too.

  Today, Lori got a candle in her house mailbox, and she doesn’t know who it came from.

  She plops down on my couch and says, “It’s just not fair. Ever since I saw my first candlelight ceremony, I dreamed that one day I would get to do it. And since I met Danny, well, I just assumed it would happen. I was so sure that once he got drafted he would pop the question.”

  Danny was the second pick in the first round of the draft. To my delight, he drafted higher than the cocky running back who won the Heisman trophy.

  Sorry, but Danny totally should have won that.

  He’s going to be playing for the Kansas City Chiefs, and Phillip and I are so excited, since we’ll be able to go to lots of his games.

  “But, instead, he’s gotten so he won’t even talk about our future together. We used to talk all the time about where we hoped he’d go, how we’d want to live, how many kids we’d have.” She starts gesturing big with her hands. “And, Jade, I bought it all. Now I don’t think he wants to marry me anymore.” She sighs. “I think he just wants to be some rich, single, pro player. KC’s most eligible bachelor. Whatever. I’ll probably end up married to a boring doctor, and I’ll see Danny on an episode of MTV Cribs. He’ll be in a huge house. A house with no furniture, except for a pool table, a big TV, and a stripper’s pole. There will be nothing in his fridge but beer and Gatorade. How pathetic will that be?”

  She’s starting to babble.

  I smile at her. It’s reassuring for me to know that someone so smart can also not have a clue when it comes to boys. Does she really not know how totally crazy Danny is about her? Is she really that blind?

  “I know I shouldn’t ask, Jade, but do you know anything? Has he said anything to you? I can’t sleep, I’m eating too much, and I can’t concentrate on studying for finals. I’m going to be a moose with a bad GPA.” She sighs again. “So should I just give him an ultimatum or what?”

  Wow, what do I say?

  Lori is one of my best friends, and I really want to make her feel better, but I can’t give the big secret away. I’m sure the reason Danny’s stopped talking about their future is because of the whole surprise factor.

  “Lori, you know Danny is pretty strong-willed, and he really doesn’t like to be told what to do. I think you should definitely not issue him an ultimatum, because even if he wants to marry you, well, that would just piss him off and make him not want to ask you. Why don’t you focus on school and, well, just let Danny quarterback the relationship for a while? Let him run the game. It’s what he likes to do.”

  Her face tells me that this is not very reassuring.

  So I pat her hand and add, “You know, someday he’s going to throw you that perfect long bomb into the end zone, and it will have been worth the wait.” I look seriously at her, because this I know for sure. “He’s worth it, Lori. He is so worth the wait.”

  “Yeah, I know. I’m just sick of sophomores getting engaged.”

  When Danny gets home from Lori’s that night, he bounds into my room and plops down on my bed, jolting me awake.

  I squint to look at the clock. “Danny, it’s, like, two a.m. What do you want?”

  “Tell me about this candle passing stuff. Lori was talking about it. She didn’t come out and say it, but I got the impression it’s something she wants to do.”

  Duh!

  “Of course she wants to, but our last meeting is next week, so unless you move up the proposal date, she won’t ever get to.”

  “Why is this such a big deal, Jay? And what exactly do you do anyway?”

  What I want to say is can’t we discuss this at a time when my mind is functioning? But my eyes adjust to the light, and I get a good look at Danny. I can’t help but smile. He reminds me of a little kid sitting on the edge of my bed, waiting to get told a great bedtime story.

  He’s also looking at me sweetly with those eyes.

  I swear, I’d do just about anything for that boy when he looks at me like that.

  Fine. Now it is.

  “Don’t you remember the candlelight ceremony at spring formal when Bobby Allen and Linsey Newman got engaged? You were there. Didn’t you watch?”

  Of course, I know he didn’t watch.

  He and Phillip, who I had begged to go with me for lack of a decent date and who looked so hot that I wished it were a real date, were up at the bar doing shots with all the other guys. I know they never even looked over.

  “Well, uh, I remember you all got in a circle and sang, and then I think we hit the bar. I just don’t get the big deal,” he says with frustration creeping into his voice.

  This is going to take a while, so I sigh, sit up, and put my pillow behind my back.

  “It is a big deal to us girls, Danny. We have watched with wonder as upperclassmen have announced being lavaliered, pinned, and engaged, and each time you see it, you wish it could have been you. They always look so happy and in love and, let’s face it, love is what every girl dreams of.”

  Well, that . . . and the rock, and the dress, and the presents, and the honeymoon . . .

  “Okay,” Danny says, struggling to create a new game plan in his mind. “So, could she pass her own candle without knowing that it’s her candle? You know, could it be a surprise?”
r />   Maybe it’s the fact that I’m sleep deprived, but the boy is making no sense.

  “Danny, she really can’t be surprised because she wouldn’t know it was her candle to blow out. So it would just go around and around, like some bizarre nightmare. You know, like the one where you take the same final over and over and over again, but you never get it finished.”

  “Stick to the point, Jay.”

  “Oh, yeah.” Then my mind comes up with a brilliant idea. “Unless you want to ask her to marry you in front of the sorority, during the candlelight ceremony.”

  He gives that some thought.

  “I could do that,” he says bravely. “Do you think she’d like that, or would she prefer I ask her in private?”

  “Well, the question isn’t really would she like it, Danny—of course she would. The question is, are you sure she’ll say yes? You know, you ask in front of all those people, she says no, it could be a bit embarrassing for you.”

  I can’t help but tease him a little.

  “Uh, I think she’ll say yes,” he says, but I can tell he’s slightly worried.

  “But, honestly, even if she said no, half of the sorority would be in love with you themselves and be glad to take you up on your offer. I’m not sure if it can be done, though,” I ramble on. “At least I’ve never heard of it being done, but I guess it could be because the candlelight ceremony doesn’t have to be done in private. We have done it at formals and stuff, so my final answer is yes. I think you could, and should, do it.”

  “What about the serenading part that Phillip’s frat does? Is that important?”

  “Well if you were in a fraternity, yeah, it would be important. But what are you gonna do? Have the football team serenade her?” I laugh at the thought.

  “Well, maybe. Come on, Jay. Help me pull it off?”

  He gives me that look, the one I have seen so many times, usually before we do something that we probably shouldn’t be doing. But, for once, this is a case where we definitely should. He and Lori are amazing together, and I am so happy that he’s finally found a girl that’s perfect for him. And if I can help her wish come true, too, of course I am in.