Every Girl Does It (11 page)

“
And
?” He prompt
s flashing a wicked grin
.

“Nothing,
let’s
just watch the stinkin
g
movie.” Tugging at the headphones in my bag, I duck as
they
break
free after the final tug.

“Ouch
,”
Preston
yelp
s
.
They struck him in the face,
but this time it wasn’t on purpose
,
promise!

“And I should have known
.”
He rub
s
his head
.

“
Known
what?”

“That you
’
d try
to threaten my life yet again. D
o you even realize how many times you’ve hit me with either your own hand or other flying objects?”

At this I
giggle, I know giggling is
gi
rly but it cracked me up,
he was so right! He had to think I was some sort of violent lunatic!

“Sorry
,”
I mumble as I look at his stri
kingly handsome face. It
could take
girl
’
s
breath away. His dark hair, green eyes, tan skin, strong jaw, and perfectly straight white teeth
all melted together to make a masterpiece of God
. He noticed me daydreaming again and raised an eyeb
row in question. So I turned
toward the screen to watch the movie he picked.

I don’t remember when or why
,
but somehow about halfway through the flight my body decided it was exhausted and fell asleep on me. The last thing I remember is slurring my words as I asked Preston about the Disney movie we were watching.

I
’
m fully awake now
,
bu
t I don’t want to move. There
’
s s
omething hard underneath my head
,
and
I’m
scared to open my eyes. My nose wakes up as well and I
smell something that
I can only describe as pure man; a
mixture of aftershave and some sort of
spicy
cologne next to me. T
hink,
I command myself. D
id I fall as
leep on the window or on him? Oh
my gosh
! I
f I fell asleep on him
,
that means I could have drooled on him
.
I tend to do that when I sleep.
When I was at church camp in Jr. H
igh, the girls would call me water works because of all the drool that came out of my mouth when I slept.

Okay,
Amanda
,
it
'
s not a big deal
.
J
ust open one eye
.
Y
ou don’t even have to
open two. Just take a sneak peek
.
I open
one eye and look.
Preston
is happily reading and
I am
,
in fact
,
leaning on his shoulder, and might I add that I look rather awkward. I
’
ve pulled my legs up into the seat and am leaning my entire body on his side.

“Hey
,
you’re
up!” Kristin
turns
around and
is
irritatingly chipper.

“Uh, yeah.” My voice is hoarse from my nap
,
and I can’t stop the yawn that is about to swallow the plane is darkness. Being quick yet discreet, I push away from Preston’s shoulder praying no one
notices
or will comment that I
’ve
just been using him as a pillow.

“Why were you just laying there with
your eyes open, it looked kind of
freaky
,
Am
anda
,”
Kristin teases. I
want to stuff my pillow in her mouth. Does she not get it? I feel shaking next to me and turn to face the music.

Preston is staring at me with a calculating glance as if to say
,
“I know that you know that I know tha
t you fell asleep on me; a
nd I’m holding it over your
head
for eternity
”
.

“I must admit,” Preston says as he looks b
etween me and Kristin
.
“Never have I seen
a girl drool quite as much as Amanda.
Are you dehydrated?”

At this Brad turns around and gives Preston a high five who then in turn winks at Kristin who gives me an apologetic, “Sorry
,
do you want me to defend you?”
look
.

I roll my
eyes and pretend to be grumpy,
that is until
I smell. “Hey is that…” Pointing
at the bread sitting in front of Preston
I feel my mouth begin
to water. Be still my heart.
Carbs
!

Then everything hap
pens in slow motion
,
and I can’t
be blamed for any of my actions
.
I
’
m just recovering from a nap and s
till out of it. Fast as
possible,
I
slap Preston on the back of the head while simultaneously grab his bread and
proceed to
stuff it in my mouth.

He turns
,
mouth open
,
to face me. “Spit it out.”

At the moment I have an entire roll in my mouth
and
I can’t speak, so I shake my head no.

“Spit it out
,” he
says again
,
this time holding out his hand in front of my mouth. He
’
s at least smiling.

This time I make a noise with my head shaking.

Then he lunges toward me to grab my head with his hands. I shake and start spitting bits and pieces out to please him. Then he does something that I swear, and you’ve heard it here first, I will never forgive him for.

He licks his hand and wipes it across my face.

“Okay
,
you can have it
,” he
says as he sits back down in his seat.

My face is now wet, but at least I have the bread. I swallow before I punch him in the arm and ask
,
“What was that for?”

He doesn’t meet my gaze
.
“Well
,
I figured it was only fair. Since you drooled on me so much and stole my snack. Did you like that?” He turns to smile then sees my face and laughs instead.
“I think I bring out violence i
n you.”
I feel water dripping down my chin and want to scream.

“Didn’t you say you had a thing about water?” He leans in a little too close for comf
ort “Does that include bodily f
luids
,
too? Like spit?”

He stops inches from my face and smirks. “How do you even kiss a guy if you can’t handle a little spit
,
huh?”

W
ant
ing
to spit on him for saying such a thing
, I take evasive action and
grab the
water bottle on his tray
and pour it over his head.
It
was well deserved for such a cruel comment.

“Oh my
,” I say as I put my little finger to my chin
.
“I guess I’m not so scared of water after all
.
Towel?”

Just then Brad
turns
around to ask Preston a question. He burst into laughter when he
sees
little water droplets cascading from Preston
’
s hair. The little rat, he
even looks good all wet. I
f he
had
done the same thing to me,
I
’
d look like a caged raccoon. How is it fair that he looks like he just got done shooting a com
mercial underneath a waterfall?

“Dude, you okay?” Brad asks as he nudges Kristin to turn around. She puts her hand over her mouth and chuckles then shoots me daggers as if to ask
,
“Did you do this?”

I look away quickly as I try to avoid any sort of eye contact
from her. T
he whole mom radar
makes me fe
el guilty. Now I wonder if I pushed it too far.
What
’
s wrong with me?
He must work hard thinking of ways to bring
out
the worst in me.

Preston wipes his face with the towel I
threw
at him and grunts
.
“I’m okay, just needed a little refreshing, isn’t that right
,
Amanda?”

“I can neither confirm nor deny his accusations
,
”
I say
,
putting my hand
over
my heart
,
forcing myself not to blink as three sets of judgmental eyes point my way.

“Are we ther
e yet?”
I ask as I pull
out my new
magazine
. Maybe if
I change
the subject everyone will f
orget my little water incident.

Preston looks at me and scowls before asking Kristin if she has a sedative she can give me for my irritability
,
at which I then openly mock him by repeating what he aske
d in a whiny voice. M
aybe I do need a sedative or something.

“She doesn’t do well in small spaces
,”
Kristin answers as she gives me a pitiful look.

“
Oh my gosh, Mrs. Butterworth
!”
Jumping
out of my seat forgetting tha
t my seatbelt is still attached, I notice people are staring.

“Easy
,
tiger
,”
Preston says as he helps unbuckle me. “And why are you yelling your cats name in first class? People are staring.” He whispers too
close to my face if you ask me.

“I forgot to leave her food and water
. She
has
to be going crazy on this flight
. D
o you think they
’
ll let me
run
down there and s
lip her something?” A
sking this question
must seal Preston’s assessment of my mental, or lack there of, stability.
P
reston’s
expression is calculating, and I
wonder if he thinks I
actually
am crazy.

“Um sure
,
Amanda, why
don’t we just ask the pilot if you can go into the cargo storage while the plane is moving and feed your cat, sounds totally
reasonable?
” Sarcasm drips off his every word.

“I think I hate you.” I re-buck
le
my seatbelt
.

“You do
not
. You
just hate me for what I bring out of you.”

“Which is?” I snort
.

“Honesty
,
” he answers smugly.

“I was honest enough before you came along
,”
I fire back.

He leans over the arm rest towards me making my heart feel like
it’s
going to jump out of my chest. Surely he can hear it. “
You get frustrated easily.” He picks up his hand as if to brush my hair from my face and wipes next to my mouth leaving where he touched permanently tingly. “You had a little leftover bread.”

I then took the liberty of punching him square in the chest before turning toward the window in frustration. The pilot then came over the loud speaker letting everyone know we
’
d be landing within the next hour. Hold on
,
Mrs. Butterworth
.