Hookup List

by J. S. Abilene

  Liam glared at me. Finally, he gave up and rolled his eyes. “I don’t even know if he likes me,” Liam said.

  “Again, another thing you won’t know unless you talk to him and – gasp – maybe even ask him out. What a concept,” I said dryly. “How is this so hard? I get why it’s tough when you’ve got a girl involved ‘cause they always complicate things but shouldn’t it be pretty straight forward with another guy?”

  “Fine. I’ll give it a shot, Cupid,” Liam said. “But don’t think I don’t know why you’re doing this. You’re trying to get close to his sister. Well, it’s not going to work. If you want to go out with her, you’re going to need to man up and take your own advice.”

  Liam found a way to start a conversation with Bryson. They never stopped talking for the rest of the night. By the time we had to leave to get back home in time for curfew, I saw Bryson slip Liam a piece a paper with some numbers written on it. Liam caught my eye and I grinned.

  “Not a word from you,” Liam said as soon as Bryson had walked out the door.

  “What? I wasn’t going to say anything,” I said innocently. “I wasn’t even going to say, ‘I told you so.’”

  As time went on, Liam started seeing more and more of Bryson. Soon, they were inseparable, though they acted like nothing but friends at school. Sadly, Liam was right. While Bryson was happier now and would even smile at me occasionally in the hallways, I seemed no closer to going on a date with Trinity.

  That was okay, though, because there was no girl who was out of Nathan Caldwell’s reach. I had a foolproof backup plan. My brother, Aaron, was coming home for Thanksgiving. Zach, my best friend from Southcrest, had managed to convince his parents to let him spend Thanksgiving with us as well. Of course, I also had David here. So, I would have both of my brothers and my best friend in one place. That was three stellar wing men.

  I was sure I could get one of them to ask Trinity to go out with me.

  Chapter 42 – Another Beginning

  “He’s gotten fat, hasn't he Zach?” Aaron said critically.

  “You’re telling me. He looks a bit like a marshmallow,” Zach replied.

  “Shut up you morons,” I said with an irrepressible smile across my face.

  Zach dropped his suitcase on the airport floor and gave me a man hug – a handshake with a left-arm wrap-around smack on the back. Then he let go and slapped a one dollar bill in my hand. “Bring the luggage, okay kid?” Aaron put his arm around Zach’s shoulders and the two of them walked away chatting to each other. I shook my head, hefted up Zach’s heavy suitcase, and walked after them.

  It felt good to have Aaron and Zach around. Aaron had arrived on Wednesday and we went to the airport together on Thursday to pick up Zach. By Thursday afternoon the three of us were back at my house playing pool.

  “So… let me get this straight. You’re not hooking up with anyone right now?” Zach asked skeptically.

  “Not at the moment, exactly, no,” I said.

  “And why is that?” Zach said.

  “Perhaps it’s because he’s saving himself for the right girl,” Aaron said. There was a little twinkle in his eye.

  Zach laughed. “Nate Caldwell? You don’t know your own brother, man,” he said. “Eight ball, left corner pocket,” he said. He took the shot. The cue ball ricocheted off the eight ball, which missed the pocket.

  “Dude, I’ve hooked up with almost a dozen chicks since I’ve been here,” I said. “Even I have to rest once and a while, ya know?” I bent down and aimed my cue stick. “Eight ball, right side pocket,” I said.

  “So the fact that you haven’t landed Trinity London yet doesn’t have anything to do with it?” Aaron asked.

  The words hit me like a sledge hammer. I was so surprised that my hand slipped and my cue sliced the side of the cue ball. It missed the eight ball altogether. “Who told you that?” I demanded, looking up at him. “It was Sadie, wasn’t it?”

  “Nope,” Aaron said. “Get out of the way. It’s my shot. Right back pocket.” Aaron sunk the eight ball with a rocket shot. “I’ve got my sources,” he said as he stood back up.

  I scratched my head. Who else knew that I liked Trinity? “Was it Dylan?” I asked.

  “Nuh-uh,” Aaron said. “David told me.”

  “David? What? How did David know? When were you talking to David?” I asked.

  “From what I gather, Faith told him that you liked Trinity,” Aaron said. “She’s a pretty observant girl, you know? She figured that your big brothers might be able to do something to help.” Aaron walked over to me and put his arm around my neck. “And as for when I was talking to him, well, of course I called him after I found out who your father was. We needed to figure out how to share our little brother. He gets you for most of this year but next year we’re splitting you equally. I get half the vacations and he gets the other half. We both reserve the right to kick your ass whenever you need it.” Aaron tightened his grip on me and gave me a noogie that made the top of my head feel raw.

  “Ah! Okay, okay, I get it. Let go,” I exclaimed, finally managing to get away from him. For some reason, though, I had a stupid smile plastered on my face.

  “So, what are we going to do about this girl?” Zach asked. “I guess we should go find her and get the two of you together.”

  “Oh no,” I said. “It’s become very clear to me that I can’t let you two bozos around her.”

  “It seems my little bro has become so smitten with this girl that he’s terrified of her,” Aaron said to Zach. “Therefore, David and I, as his big brothers, had to step in.”

  Uh no. “What did you do?” I asked with trepidation.

  “We called the girl in question up, told her how you’ve been pining after her but are completely tongue tied, that you lack quite a bit more brain cells than the average person and, it seems, balls, but that you’d nonetheless love to take her out on a date,” Aaron said proudly.

  “You didn’t,” I said in horror.

  “Oh yes,” Aaron said. “She agreed to go on a date with you tonight… whether out of sympathy or something more, I do not know. I’d imagine sympathy but who can say?”

  I stared at his face, trying to see if he was bluffing. “You’re a bad liar,” I said uncertainly.

  “That’s why I never lie,” Aaron said seriously. “Oh, and Sadie and Faith are coming over to help get you ready. We want to make sure you don’t look like a bum for once. I’d have thought they’d be here by…”

  The doorbell rang.

  “Ah, that’ll be them right now,” Aaron said happily. “Just stay right there. I’ll go let them in so they can get started.”

  “Started? Started on what?” I yelled after him as he ran upstairs.

  Grooming. It turned out that Sadie and Faith were not so impressed with my usual carefree look.

  “You kissed him?” Faith said to Sadie. She was looking at me critically. “You didn’t make him comb his hair or something first?”

  “He had just come out of the shower,” Sadie said.

  “Ah, that it explains it. He was clean. He hadn’t contaminated himself yet,” Faith said.

  “Hey,” I protested.

  “Don’t worry,” Sadie said. “We’ll get you ready. Now get in the shower.”

  The girls wouldn’t take no for an answer. Aaron watched in amusement and Zach outright laughed as the girls marched me upstairs and ordered me into the bathroom. They left me alone only long enough to shower. Then, as soon as I had shut the water off and put a towel around my waist, they busted back in and pulled out their instruments of torture.

  “Ow. Ow!” I exclaimed. “Stop that!”

  “Don’t be such a baby,” Sadie said. “I’m just plucking a few rogue eyebrow hairs. Hold still.”

  “Ow!”

  “Okay now lean back,” Sadie said. “We’re going to shave you.”

  “Uh, are you sure?” I said. “Don’t girls like some stubble? And do you know how to shave a guy?”

&nbs
p; “Girls don’t like stubble on high school guys,” Sadie advised me. “You’re still a kid. Own it. There’s plenty of time later for the stubble. Plus, if you get a kiss, you don’t want that to scratch her. And of course I know how to shave a guy. If I can shave my legs every day I think I can shave a face.”

  It turned out that shaving legs had nothing to do with shaving faces. By the time she was done, I was bleeding from several places.

  Faith parted my hair on the left side and brushed it back on my head. “I look like a nerd,” I complained once they let me look in a mirror.

  “You look sweet and respectable for once,” Faith said. “Trinity will like that you made the effort. Don’t worry; you can go back to your regular slovenly self tomorrow.”

  “Good news,” Sadie said. “I borrowed a stylish blazer from Dylan and your brother has a great v-neck you should wear.”

  “That’d go well with that distressed pair of dark blue jeans you have,” Faith said. “What brand are they again?”

  “Uh, I don’t know,” I said. “You realize they’re authentically distressed, right? Like, from Aaron and then me wearing them.”

  “Oh. Well, that doesn’t matter, they look nice,” Faith said.

  I reluctantly put on the clothes the girls had laid out for me – more to earn a reprieve for my eardrums from their caterwauling than because I thought it would help. The hardest part, though, was walking out of my bedroom to face Aaron and Zach.

  “Hah! Would you look at that!” Zach cried. “They’ve dressed him up like a little prince. I’d hardly recognize him.”

  “I think he looks beautiful,” Sadie said with a smile.

  “Not bad,” Faith admitted.

  “He looks just fine. We can’t do anything about the funny nose, big ears, or height,” Aaron said.

  “I’m taller than you,” I retorted.

  “Hah! Well, your eyesight obviously needs to be checked then, but we can worry about that later,” Aaron said. “You’re going to pick her up at 6 PM and take her to dinner at Chez Jacques. After that, take her for a walk around the lake. It’s not too cold today.”

  “Chez Jacques? That fancy French place? I can’t afford that,” I protested. “Plus, I don’t think the valets even allow cars like your old rust pot in the parking lot. No offense.”

  “You don’t have to worry about that,” Faith said. “I explained the situation to my dad – our dad – and he said you could borrow his BMW.”

  My mouth dropped open. Matt was willing to let me borrow his car? They were all doing this for me? Why?

  “We love you, little bro,” Aaron said, answering the question in my head. “Don’t forget it or we’re all going to have to whup you. Now go get your crush and take her on the best date of your lives.”

  I hesitated. “She’s different,” I said quietly. “I can’t explain it. I barely even know her. There’s just something about her… I don’t think I can do this.”

  “Just relax and be yourself,” Sadie said with a smile. “Don’t worry. If you genuinely like her that much, than I think Trinity is going to be willing to overlook a bit of shyness and stutters. Something tells me, though, and that you’re going to do just fine.”

  Sadie and Faith drove me back to Faith’s house, where I picked up Matt’s car and drove all of about 5 miles per hour to the London house. When I arrived in the driveway I sat there for a solid two minutes, unable to muster up the courage to get out of the car. Finally, I wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans and got out of the car. The walk up to the Londons’ front door seemed like the longest of my life.

  Bryson answered the door and did a double take when he saw me. “Holy crap, dude. You look…”

  “I know I look ridiculous. No need to rub it in,” I said. “Is, uh, your sister here?”

  “That wasn’t exactly what I was going to say,” Bryson said softly. “Yeah, she’s here. She’s just been getting ready for, like, the past four hours. I’ll go see if she’s ready. Oh, and obviously it goes without saying, but if this date doesn’t go well, or if you hurt my sister in any way, I’m going to kill you. Slowly. And it’s going to be really painful.”

  The words sounded almost obligatory and half-hearted. Was Bryson actually warming up to me? “Completely understood,” I said. “I’ll treat her like a princess.”

  “Good,” Bryson said. “I’d hate to lose one of my best teammates. We’re going to need you next year to win that state championship.”

  Bryson went off to find Trinity and I went back to sweating. What was I doing here? Trinity was going to think that I was a coward for having my family ask her out for me instead of doing it myself. She had already made it clear that she was not romantically interested in me. Hadn’t she? This was a bad idea. A very bad idea. I should just slip out and save her the awkwardness of having to tell me to get lost.

  Yes. That was what I would do. She had probably forgotten about our date anyway. I half turned to go but at that moment Trinity walked down the stairs and stepped into the hallway.

  I stopped breathing. I think my heart stopped pumping as well. Everything around me seemed to freeze. There was only her, standing in front of me like a beautiful angel. She was wearing some type of nice red shirt and skirt with a black jacket but I didn’t really see it all that well because I couldn’t take my eyes off her perfect, kind, innocent face.

  “Hi,” she said. There was a slight tremor in her voice.

  “Hi. You look, um, beautiful,” I said. Wow. How original.

  “So do you,” Trinity said.

  We both blushed.

  “This is painful. Just go already,” Bryson said. I blinked in surprise and realized that he was standing in the hallway as well. How long had he been there?

  Trinity and I walked out to the driveway and I held the car door open for her. Once she was in the car I ran around to the other side and got in as well. I took the keys out of my pocket but fumbled them and dropped them on the floor. “Sorry,” I mumbled without thinking. “I’m a little nervous.”

  “Nervous?” Trinity repeated. She grabbed my arm and I looked up into her eyes. Her beautiful blue eyes. “You’re nervous? I’m the nervous one. It took me almost four hours to get ready today. I probably shouldn’t have said that. I’m just… happy that we’re finally going out together.”

  The pressure was gone. She liked me and she was as nervous as I was. I smiled. “I’ve heard this restaurant is pretty great,” I said.

  “Expensive too,” Trinity said. “Want to skip it and just go for pizza? There’s a great little hole-in-the-wall place in town that I just discovered.”

  “That sounds amazing,” I said. Suddenly talking to Trinity seemed like the most natural thing in the world.

  We went and got pizza and then went for a stroll around the lake. From that moment on, we were pretty much inseparable.

  Epilogue

  I ran the back of my fingers down Trinity’s arm softly. She turned around and smiled at me. There was no more beautiful sight in the entire world.

  “Are you coming to my track meet tonight?” she asked.

  “Of course. You know I wouldn’t miss it,” I said.

  “How could I get so lucky to land such a handsome, kind boyfriend?” Trinity asked. She leaned against her locker to close it and then interlocked her fingers with mine.

  “I don’t know. You’re just blessed, I guess,” I said. I leaned forward and kissed her soft lips.

  I couldn’t believe I had been dating Trinity for six wonderful months. It had all gone by so fast and yet, at the same time, I had trouble remembering my life without her. I was a new man now. I was constantly happy. I had amazingly supportive friends and family members. Matt and I talked regularly. David had helped me through my first season of wrestling. Aaron and I exchanged texts on an almost daily basis. Faith and I scheduled regular walks to the ice cream shop. Things were great with Mom and Jerry. Oh, and I had the girl of my dreams. Things couldn’t get any better.

  “
Ew,” a male voice said. “It’s bad enough that you guys make out for hours on end at home. Do you really have to do it at school too?”

  I reluctantly pulled away from Trinity’s lips to see Bryson standing beside us. “Hey man, sorry,” I said. “What’s up?”

  “Trouble,” Bryson replied. “I wanted you to know right away. It turns out that the reporter known as Little Miss Aphrodite wasn’t approved by the school.”

  “Yeah, no crap,” I said. “What principal would willingly let a student publish an article about the hottest underage guys in her school?”

  “Yeah, well, it seems they figured out how Little Miss Aphrodite was sneaking the article into the print layout at the last minute,” Bryson said. “That’s what she was doing, by the way. The school didn’t use to bother to double-check the copies so it didn’t realize there were rogue articles until us students got our hands on it. Apparently, the girl’s mom is a realtor and has an office in the same complex as the newspaper printing company. The school contacted the printer and got a hold of some security footage showing the girl sneaking into the office and adding her stories on the printer’s computer. She’s in big trouble now.”

  “I can imagine,” I said. “Not just from the school. There’s got to be plenty of kids that want to get at her, especially now that El Diablo has come back to school. So who’s the girl?”

  “That’s the thing,” Bryson said. “Nate, it's Faith. She’s Little Miss Aphrodite.”