“She didn’t look like a friend telling you ‘no’ when I walked in on the two of you kissing on the couch.”

I broke into a huge smile with just the mention of the kiss we shared. I shouldn’t have because it was a dead giveaway for my feelings about Payton. “We’re friends.”

“You may be, but I can tell by that ridiculous look on your face that you’ll be trying to change that as soon as possible.”

I couldn’t deny that, so I didn’t.

“Son, if you don’t hear anything I say, please hear this. There’s only so far you can walk this road and still have the chance to turn back. There will be a point of no return with this girl. Don’t go there with her because it will only ruin you for the rest of your life. Trust me; I know it all too well.”

“You act like Payton’s gonna ruin my life or something.”

“You don’t think so but she has the power to break you. Maybe not today, but she will if you pursue this thing with her.”

He made it sound like she was some kind of succubus demon. “She’s just a friend.”

“Friend or not, she’s a gorgeous girl and I know what you’re thinking about when you look at her. Believe me, I remember and it’s more dangerous than you can imagine because you don’t see the power she can have over you.”

He had one thing right. The decision was mine and I knew what I would choose if given the opportunity but I was done talking about this with him. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore. I’m going to bed.”

I walked the hallway to my bedroom with my hand on the wall as a guide and shut the door after I was in my room. I put my phone on the nightstand before I stripped down to my boxers and then crawled into my unmade bed. I reached for my phone and stared at it through blurry vision, trying to decide if I should text Payton or not. After several minutes of debate, I decided I had to.

“Fair Bear ok?” I hit send and then thought too late about how really cheesy that message was. Ugh! Maybe my dad was right about one thing. Payton had power over me, the kind to make me act totally stupid.

“He’s good & your face? Better I hope.”

“Much. TY.”

“Good. Wouldn’t want U scarred 4 the ladies.”

There was only one lady I was concerned about. “K to call U tom?

“Sure, Friend.”

What the hell? Was that supposed to be her way of acting like nothing happened between us tonight? Something happened...something significant whether she wanted to admit it or not but I wasn’t about to discuss it through shorthand texting.

“Sweet Dreams Doll Face.”

“Good Nite. ;)”

I didn’t know what to make of ‘Sure, Friend’ except that I didn’t care for it. Man, I wished I hadn’t texted her because now I would spend half the night thinking about her reply instead of spending the whole night thinking solely about our magnificent kiss.

≈ ≈ ≈

When I woke up, I couldn’t imagine how I managed to go to sleep last night. My every thought was of Payton and I wondered if she was thinking of me the way I was of her. It was doubtful considering most of my thoughts were really fantasies of everything I’d love to do to her to make her scream my name.

I was doing it again, thinking of things I planned on doing to Payton when Jake swung my bedroom door open without knocking, fully living up to his role as the asshole older brother.

He ran over and jerked my comforter off and started laughing. “Dad thinks he talked some sense into you about that chick, but I can see that he was wrong based on what you’ve got covered with your hands. You definitely have Miss Fancy Pants in your head. What were you thinking about, huh? How you were going do this to her?” He humped my mattress and I wanted to throw up when he started groaning with each thrust. ”Uh. Uh. Uh.”

I kicked my foot at him and nailed him in his inner thigh. “Get your crotch rot off my bed, dude. Go hump your own mattress before I need a new one.”

“I don’t have to hump my mattress because I get to do this to Gabbi.” I couldn’t take it and turned my head away. “You’re disgusting. Get out of my room, Dickhead.”

“Wait. Check this move out. Even a rich girl like Miss Fancy Pants will like gettin’ it this way.”

I couldn’t look as I heard my box springs squeak and felt the motion of my mattress. I’d had enough of his shit about Payton. I kicked him harder and knocked him into the floor. I wasn’t trying to cause any real damage, but I would if he kept jacking around about Payton like that.

I slid off the bed and stepped over his cacklin’ ass on my way to the bathroom, but he wasn’t finished harassing me because I could hear him as I went down the hall. “Going to the bathroom to finish the job? It would probably help get the deed done quicker if you have a picture of her on your phone. You want me to slide it under the door for you?”

I bumped into Dallas on my way down the hall and prayed she hadn’t heard anything he said. “What’s that idiot carrying on about?”

“Trust me. You don’t want to know. You’d be scarred for life.”

She wrinkled her brow as she looked at my face. “What happened to you? You look like hell.”

“I got pepper sprayed last night.”

Apparently she found that to be pretty funny based on the way she was laughing and snorting. “Let me guess. Some girl finally got enough of you screwing around.”

“No. It was an accident.”

“Accident?” She crossed her arms and looked intrigued. She leaned against the wall, a sure sign she expected to hear the whole story. “How does one accidentally get sprayed in the face with pepper spray? Do tell.”

I tried to pass by her. “It wouldn’t interest you.”

She reached out and grabbed my arm to stop me from getting away. “Try me.”

“I’ll give you the short version. I was leaving the fair with a date and Ace Henry jumped me. She got scared and sprayed him, but some blew back in my face. See? Not an interesting story.”

“Not an interesting story? Come on, Nickolas Aleksei. You had a date? Like a real date?”

Ugh! I hated being called by my full name. It sounded like a nineteenth century Russian tzar. “Yes...no...maybe. I don’t guess it qualified as a real date since it wasn’t one to her.

“But you wanted it to be a real one. I can tell.”

She’d never be able to guess just how much. I shrugged my shoulders like I didn’t know or care, but it was a total cover. “Maybe.”

“Maybe, my ass. I can see that you really like this girl. You have to call her and ask her to spend the day with you before she makes other plans.”

Ooh. I didn’t know about that. What if she turned me down again? “I don’t know, Dallas.”

“Well, I do. Call her. She’d be crazy to turn you down.”

I wish I had Dallas’ confidence. “Well, she must be crazy then because she’s turned be down twice already.”

“She didn’t turn you down last night.”

Things with Payton were so back and forth, I didn’t know where I stood with her, but I guess there was only one way to find out. “Okay, I’ll call her but this is all your fault if she tells me ‘no’.”

“Trust me. She won’t.”

11 The Green Eyed Monster

Payton

I woke up to Claire thumping the end of my nose the way she did when we were little kids. “What the hell, Claire? Cut it out. You wouldn’t want to be woken up by me trying to thump boogers out of your nose.”

“Wake up. I want you to tell me what happened between you and Nick before Jessie gets up. I know you were holding out when you were telling us about it last night, so spill. I need details.”

Ugh! I rolled over and shoved my face into my pillow. I spent most of the night thinking about our perfect kiss and the other half of the night reminding myself how he had gotten so good at it. Practice made perfect and he had no idea how many girls he had practiced on. The thought made my stomach feel jittery and nervous at the same time.

“Something happened that shouldn’t have.”

Claire reached out and shoved me so hard I nearly fell off her bed. “Shut the front door! You did not play the V-card to The Sex Tricks Jedi?”

I reared my pillow back and bopped Claire in the head. “Is that a question or an accusation?”

“Which does it need to be?”

I met this guy all of three days ago. She couldn’t possibly think I had practiced making babies with him. “I was talking about him kissing me, Pervert.”

She wanted details. “And?”

“I kissed him back, which was a mistake.”

She looked confused. “I don’t understand. Why shouldn’t it have happened and why was it a mistake?”

Hello? Lights are on, anybody home? “You were there. You heard what Jessie said about him. He’s a Playah. I asked him how many girls he had been with and he had no idea. Literally. He couldn’t even take a guess at a number.”

“Jessie doesn’t know either. I don’t like it, but I put it out of my mind because I love him.

What was that supposed to mean? Was she comparing him to Jessie? “Is that your way of defending The Sex Tricks Jedi?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.” She shrugged her shoulders and cocked her head to the side a little. “I think you should give him a chance.”

Where was this coming from? “He is not my type at all so why in the world would you think that?”

“Because you can’t see the way you look at him and you don’t see the way he looks at you when you’re not looking.”

“And I think you haven’t seen the way he looks at my legs.” Okay, maybe that wasn’t completely fair since I was the one that had called his attention to them.

“Like he’d be the first, Payton.”