Heartbreaker Hanson (20 page)

But
there was nothing. No mouth crashing against mine, no
I love you, Ally
confessed in my ear. No nothing. I leaned in
further and waited.

And
waited.

Still
… nothing.

Finally,
cautiously, I peeked my eyes open just a squint wondering what was up but
afraid that my face was right next to his.

It
wasn’t.

Griffin
was just watching me, his seductive brown eyes glistening like he knew exactly
what had been going on in my brain. He gave a husky little laugh and then (oh!)
he drew his soft, pink lips against mine, just brushing them—lightly,
tenderly.

Though
it felt oh-so-good—or maybe
because
it did—I tensed and jerked a bit. Just a tiny bit, but still, I jerked.

“Relax.”
Griffin’s sexy, pink lips hovered over mine, just barely—teasing me,
making me yearn. Then his hot mouth pressed against mine for real.

Only
for a second though, because just then Mrs. Finkle barged into the room from
the side-door, which connects to Mr. Johnson’s class. The large woman plopped
down her armload of books on the nearest desk but we didn’t really notice. We
didn’t notice anything except our tongues and heat and passion. Well anyway,
that was all
I
noticed— until
her loud, booming voice made me jump a mile in the air.

 
“I’m going to give you two exactly one
second to clear out of my classroom,” Mrs. Finkle huffed impatiently. “Then I’m
handing out detention slips.”

***

So,
that was the first time I kissed “Griff the Grief-Master
.
” And I—at the time—wasn’t even sure it counted. I
mean, it counted for
me
because it
was amazing. I’d felt tingles all the way down to my toes. Seriously. Tingles.
It had me in a dreamy, hormone-induced daze for hours.

But
I wasn’t sure if The Griff would count it as a real kiss since we’d only barely
touched lips—well, tongue—when Mrs. Finkle barged in and
interrupted. Dang her! … Or, uh, lucky me. Depended on how you looked at.

Anyway,
I wasn’t sure Griffin would count it as a real kiss.

So,
as my best friend, Jazz, and I waited to meet up with Aiden after his hockey
practice I was incredibly anxious. Jazz and I sat huddled over our trig books
in the school library pretending to be doing equations, but really worrying and
discussing whether The Griff had punched in my boyfriend’s face or not.

I
hadn’t told Jazz about the kiss or what Griffin had said—that if I kissed
him he wouldn’t kill Aiden. I’m not sure why I kept it from her. I basically
tell her everything. But I didn’t tell her that. I guess I was kind of
embarrassed about it … and felt slightly guilty. I guess. My feelings were all
tangled and confused. Anyway, I just couldn’t bring it up.

I
gave a literal sigh of relief when Aiden finally came into the
library—his adorable face still intact. I sighed again as he slid into
the seat beside me and grinned, showing off his little cute dimples.
Love!

“I
saw Griffin at practice,” Aiden said, leaning in close and talking
confidential-like as we were in the library where you aren’t supposed to talk,
and so that anyone that didn’t already know The Griff had a beef with Aiden
didn’t find out now—add fuel to the drama flame.

Another
smile crept on Aiden’s adorable lips as he went on whispering to me animatedly,
obviously still on a high from his escape from near death. “When Griffin showed
up at practice—late—I was ready to have it out—totally ready
to die—right there, at practice. And The Griff made a move toward me,
like ‘
I’m going to kill you, punk
.’
But then he laughed and said, “Nah, just kidding. We’re square.”

Aiden
chuckled, like it was hilarious, but I knew it was just relief. He’d been
scared, even more scared than he was letting on. Aiden had wanted to fit in
with “the guys” on the hockey team. But he wasn’t like them. He was sweet. When
he tried to be “tough” it just pissed everyone off. The guys on the team called
him a “poser.” It hurt his feelings, and definitely if he got his face smashed
in by The Griff that wouldn’t have helped.

So,
deep inside me things were gushy and excited. My heart was doing acrobats.
Griffin had let Aiden off the hook—because of me. Because of my kiss. How
cool! My kiss had saved my boyfriend’s pretty face. Awesome,
awesome!

I
felt all warm and tingly and tried telling myself that it was just because I
was glad Aiden was okay and intact and didn’t get pounded to the ground in
front of his teammates. But I wasn’t really sure that was the only reason. I
mean, I wanted it to be the only reason, but I was afraid it also had to do
with The Griff—that he had let Aiden save-face (literally) because of me.
I felt … touched.

Jazz
raised her eyebrows then furrowed them, obviously astounded by the unexpected
turn of events. “We’re square? Griffin said that? We’re
square?
”

She
said it again, incredulously, like:
No
way
.

Aiden
shrugged, still smiling. “That’s what he said.”

Jazz
didn’t look convinced. “Maybe he wants it to be a surprise attack.”

Aiden
shrugged again. “I don’t think so. He seemed in a good mood—like he just
aced a test or something. He let me off the hook—we’re square.”

“Griffin
Piper doesn’t let people ‘off the hook,’” Jazz said knowingly, like she was all
up on Griffin. “He’d beat you up on principle alone. You called him a
Neanderthal
.”

Aiden
didn’t miss a beat. “He is.”

“Yeah,
but see, that’s just it,” Jazz said. “He has a reputation to uphold.”

I
traced my lips, still feeling the warmth of Griffin’s hot mouth, or imagining I
could. Obviously, Jazz was wrong. Griffin didn’t care about maintaining his
bad-boy reputation as much as she thought. Apparently.

Either
that or … he wanted to kiss me pretty bad. The thought made my body kind of
spastic and had all the hairs on my arms standing on end. Only that was nothing
compared to my heart. It was beating all crazy. But it was dumb to get so
worked up over the ridiculous thought. I knew that. It wasn’t like Griffin had
a “thing” for me or anything. He didn’t. I knew that. I don’t think he even
ever noticed me before.

Well,
I used to think that—that Griffin didn’t notice me. But he knew my last
name was Grange, and that Aiden was my boyfriend, so obviously he knew more
about me than I thought. But we never had any classes together—and he
never talked to me before. Well, except once.

It
was a long time ago, though.

Back
in junior high I’d been carrying an armload of books as I had to change lockers
since the girl that had the locker above mine liked to make-out with her
boyfriends at her locker, which was, you know, in the same proximity as
mine—like right on top of it. And I totally hated to interrupt them to
get into my locker, especially because the girl was kind of scary. I mean, I
was actually slightly afraid of her. So, instead of being late for every class,
or hauling my books around with me everywhere, I decided to change lockers.

Anyway,
I was carrying an armload of books and some guys were joking around, wrestling
with each other in the hallway and one of them, Jake Edwards, accidently bumped
into me and knocked down the top couple of my stacked books.

Jake
laughed about it and called me a “school girl,” and in case you can’t tell,
Jake was a jerk back then (and still is, by the way).

But
Griffin had been one of the guys messing around with Jake. He might have even
been the one that pushed Jake into me. I’m not sure. But anyway, there were
three of them—three big, bully-guys. So I was nervous and just wanted to
get away from them. I even considered leaving the dropped books behind and just
taking off. Seriously, that’s how bad I wanted to get away.

But
as I contemplated making a dash for it, Griffin quickly picked up the fallen
books. Only then he didn’t hand them back. At first I was terrified he was
going to start chucking them at me or at random people as Jake and his friends
would probably do something like that, and Griffin had seemed like that kind of
jerky guy too. But he didn’t chuck them or do anything mean.

Instead
he said, “Sorry, about that. Your arms are pretty full.” He started to take the
rest of the stack from me. “I’ll carry your books for you, okay?”

His
friends razzed him for that, making kissing noises and saying, “Aww, Griffin’s
all soft for School Girl.”

But
Griffin just quirked his eyebrows at them like they were idiots—which
made me right then and there instantly get a monster crush on him—and
secretly keep it for the whole next year, though Griffin never talked to me
again and immediately started dating skanky girls—one right after the
other.

So,
that was that.

Until
that day—

When
Griffin kissed me and didn’t bash in Aiden’s face.

***

I
hope you liked the sample

HIS
KISS
is available now
and only costs a dollar.

http://www.amazon.com/His-Kiss-Young-Adult-Romance-ebook/dp/B00631JXEO

Other books in the HIS KISS series by
Melanie Marks:

High School Boys
:

The book includes two novels: The standalone
novel, High School Boys; plus:
More Of
His Kisses
, which is the sequel to the book,
His Kiss
.

Summary of

HIGH
SCHOOL BOYS:

Nicole
and Matt have been best friends forever. Sure Nicole has always fantasized
about being more than friends, but Matt goes through girlfriends like
lightning. So, Nicole figures her heart is safer if they just stay buds. But
then—gasp!—one night Matt kisses her. And it’s everything Nicole
dreamed it would be—everything—hot, tender, perfect, everything …
except now it seems their friendship is ruined. Nicole desperately wants things
to go back to the way they were. But the kiss changed everything.

HIGH SCHOOL BOYS is available now.

(The
book also contains, as a bonus, book #2 to the
His Kiss
series—with Ally and Griffin)

http://www.amazon.com/High-School-Boys-Plus-More-ebook/dp/B00AT4BH0Y

HER
Kiss (Griffin)

(This Novel is Griffin’s
version of Melanie Mark’ book,
HIS KISS
)

http://www.amazon.com/Her-Kiss-Griffin-Melanie-Marks-ebook/dp/B00KR0UHW4

Back
in middle school, she gave me a cookie. No other girl had given me a cookie
before. Hickeys, phone numbers, semi-dirty messages—those were the kinds
of things I was used to getting from girls. It intrigued me. The home-baked
cookie thing.

We’re
not in middle school anymore … but she still gives me cookies. (“Anonymously” …
she thinks.) I had to trick her into kissing me. But she wanted to do it, I
could tell. Pretty much. She just didn’t “want” to want to do it. Maybe because
she had a boyfriend … and I was known at our school as a “heartbreaker.” Or so
I heard. But I had no plans to break that girl’s heart. I planned to give her
mine.

This
is my story.

Who
am I? I’m hockey playing, Ally lovin’, high school bad boy (what???), Griffin
Piper.

(
HER
Kiss is available now.)

Note:
The book
“GRIFFIN”
is also available
now, but read
His Kiss
,
HER Kiss
, and
High School Boys
first. (Well, you don’t have to, but it’s
suggested.) (Note:
Griffin #2
is
available now as well. But read the other books first.)

Note: There is no swearing in any of the
books.

Below
is a short story added as a bonus. It is called,
The Kiss
. Don’t confuse it with Melanie Marks’ book, ‘
HIS KISS’
—which is a story about
Ally and Griffin.

****

The Kiss

By Melanie Marks

Don’t crowd me
. I can’t believe Matt said that to me.
To
me
. It’s not like I’m one of his
Barbie doll girlfriends. I don’t hang on him, drool on his shoes. We’re
friends. We’ve been friends since the first week I moved here, back in middle
school. Suddenly I’m crowding him?

He
passes me a note, telling me to meet him after class. Yeah, right.

Ever
since that
don’t crowd me
night he’s
been jumping through hoops, trying to apologize. What a jerk. I mean, why go to
all this effort? If he honestly feels this bad why did he say it in the first
place? And why in front of all my friends?

After
class Matt comes to my locker. “Why didn’t you wait for me?”

“Oh,
I forgot,” I murmur distractedly as I rummage through my shambles of books,
looking for nothing.

He’s
silent for a moment, watching me. “Are you even looking for anything? Come on,
Nicole just give me a second. Okay—I’m a jerk, but don’t I at least
deserve a second?”

I
shut my locker with a slam. “Look, could you just not crowd me?”

“Nicole.”
He grabs my arm, almost angry. “Man, just calm down. What do you want me to do?
Just tell me and I’ll do it, okay?”

“You
can’t
do
anything. You’ve said you’re
sorry. I forgive you.”

“Yeah,
you keep saying that, but when I call you won’t talk to me. And you’ve moved to
the front of the class to get away from me—”

“I
told you, I need glasses. I can’t see the board.”

He
gives me a look of disgust. “Okay,” he says. “You’re not mad. So, you’ll come
hear my band tonight, right?”

“Well,
I can’t. I have to …” I’m so flustered I can’t think of an excuse, not even
something dumb. The phrase “wash my hair” keeps wanting to pop out of my mouth.

His
eyes are fuming. “Okay, don’t come. Don’t talk to me. Do whatever you want.”

The
bell rings, and with my stomach in a ball of knots, I watch him walk away.

Why
can’t I just forgive him? Why can’t I do it? He’s called excessively,
apologized profusely. What does he have to do?

I
wish I knew because I’d have him do it in a heartbeat. We’ve been friends
forever. I miss the jerk. I want to forgive him and go back to the way things
were. I want to stay up all night like we used to, playing pool in his basement
and writing songs. I miss being able to call him when my car breaks down, and
having him come to me for advice about his latest Barbie doll girlfriend. I
miss him telling me I’m too good for Shane, that I should get over the
two-timing slug.

 
But weeks go by with me sitting in the
front of the class. Matt still goes out of his way to be massively nice, but he
doesn’t call anymore; doesn’t pass me notes.

I
don’t know what to do. I miss him so much I cry practically every night. But he
hurt me so bad. I really don’t think I can get over the pain.
Don’t crowd me
. Why’d he say that?

In
College Theme Writing our teacher, Mrs. Walker, has us sitting in a circle.
She’s going around the room, asking us these embarrassingly personal questions
she pulls from a box. My question is: If I could be any person in the world who
would I be? I answer with the first person that comes to my mind: “Synyster
Gates.” I feel dumb now though, because everyone’s looking at me like, “Who?”
So, turning red, I babble that he’s this awesome guitar player, and that I’m
working on a song of his, and that it’s giving me a lot of trouble. I ramble on
and on and through my whole, big, involved explanation I keep wishing I’d just
said Taylor Swift.

When
Mrs. Walker gets to Matt he’s reading a magazine. He doesn’t seem to have a
clue what’s going on. Mrs. Walker pulls his question from the box and reads,
“Who is the most important person in your life?”

Matt
looks up at me and answers, “Nicole Gladstone,” then goes back to reading his
magazine.

I’m
shocked. So is the rest of the class. They’re making shocked noises. My best
friend Sara gives me her right-on-girl smile. I roll my eyes. But inside, my
heart is thumping out of control. Why’s he doing this to me?

At
lunch break Cammy Armstrong, who’s not even in my College Writing class, and
who I seldom ever speak to anymore, comes over as I’m waiting for Sara at my
locker. “I heard Matt finally declared his undying love to you.”

“Well,
he didn’t,” I tell her, finding it difficult to keep from gritting my teeth.

“Well,
Jade’s really mad. She basically broke up with him.”

“More
power to her,” I murmur, wondering why Cammy and I only talk when she’s seeking
information these days.

“Well,
don’t you think you should talk to him? Forgive him? Nicole, he feels really
bad.”

Cammy
is tall and thin, like a tree. She’s lived down the street from me ever since I
moved here, and has always been like this. Little Miss Get-Into-Everything. But
the thing is, she’s really nice. She just has this motherly instinct to fix
things—things that are none of her business.

“Jade
really broke up with him?” I ask skeptically.

Another
thing about Cammy is she often doesn’t know what she’s talking about. She has
this delusion that she’s some sort of expert on Matt and his life. But the truth
is, if she didn’t happen to sit next to him in Government, and constantly let
him borrow her notes, he would probably have trouble remembering her name. Not
that he doesn’t like Cammy. He does. But she’s like a fond memory of his
childhood, not a living being thriving in present life.

“Well,
yeah. I mean, isn’t his girlfriend supposed to be the most important person in
his life?” Cammy gazes at me. “He’s really got it bad for you.”

That
is such a laugh. “He’s just playing games,” I assure her.

“Well,
he had to know it would get back to Jade.”

Sara
arrives and smiles her most patronizing smile. “Talking about Matt?”

“Yeah.
Jade broke up with him,” Cammy informs her.

“They
didn’t break up,” Sara says. “She’s just mad at him. But I think he wants her
to break up with him. I think he’s after Nicole.”

“Me
too!” Cammy exclaims. “He’s always talking about her in Government—saying
how she won’t forgive him, asking me what I think he should do.”

They
go on talking, but I’m not listening anymore. What they don’t know, because I
told no one, is I know for a fact Matt doesn’t want me. He made that perfectly
clear. See, a few weeks before he told me not to crowd him, we’d had this
moment. I mean, it was incredible. It started out casual enough. We’d been down
in his basement one night, around two, and he was teaching me how to play “Fade
to Black” on the guitar (he’s way better than me now) and suddenly he leaned
over and kissed me, and I have to say that it was the most gentle, passionate,
wonderful kiss I’d ever experienced in my entire life. But when we pulled away
we were both breathless and terrified.

“It’s
late,” I said. “I need to go.”

“I’ll
walk you.” He jumped to his feet, not even trying to dissuade me from leaving.

So,
we walked across the street to my house in silence. But before I went inside,
he gently backed me up against my front door, and kissed me again. And again,
it was the most tender, amazing kiss I’d ever encountered. “You’re getting good
at the guitar,” he whispered as I went inside.

I
didn’t know what to make of it. Matt and I had never kissed before. Ever. Sure
we’d had crushes on each other in middle school—back before he became the
object of every girl’s desire. But we had never kissed.

We
had though been getting closer since I’d broken up with Shane. But Matt had a
girlfriend, so we’d been incredibly tight, without getting romantic. We were
buddies—only friends. But his kiss … It suddenly made me think of him
differently.

Not
that I hadn’t always loved him; I had. But us getting together was like a
fantasy, something I liked to think about, but didn’t expect to happen.

So,
needless to say, the night he kissed me I was excited and confused. I couldn’t
sleep. I was too wound up to believe I could ever sleep again. At first I was
simply elated. Elated by his kiss. Elated that he’d done it not once, but
twice. But then, I started thinking about Jade. Until that night I’d thought
she was a psychotic freak for giving me dirty looks whenever Matt and I started
goofing off together. I thought she was a lunatic for acting jealous of me.

And
then I started thinking about Matt. He’s not like Shane, my two-timing
ex-boyfriend. Matt’s a good guy. I mean, he doesn’t go around cheating on
girlfriends. He’s incredibly honest and sweet. Yet he kissed me—not once,
but twice—and he had a girlfriend. It made me suddenly wonder what was
going on with him.

But
all my confused feelings seemed to be a big joke once I saw Matt again.
Basically everything was exactly how it had always been between us. I mean, we
were slightly awkward around each other (kind of like, please, please,
please
don’t mention the slip-up), but
besides that, it was like the kiss never happened. And I began to think maybe
it hadn’t. I mean, I thought maybe I misunderstood it. Like, maybe it was just
a friendly, showing-your-affection type kiss, not an
I-think-I’m-in-love-with-you-lets-find-out type. I read too much into it. At
least that’s what I decided until I saw him that night at Graff’s and he told
me not to crowd him.

***

A
few days later I’m at school, fighting off this stupid junior that has a locker
near mine. He’s always leering at me—he’s gross. Today he started rubbing
up against me. The first time he did it, he just like, grazed me and I thought
maybe it was an accident. But this time I know it isn’t. I turn around and slug
him as hard as I can, and after he gets over the slight pain, and intense
shock, he lurches at me. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, Matt’s on him. He
throws the creep against the lockers and starts whaling on him.

“Matt,
stop!” I yell, but he’s out of control. The poor stunned junior is bleeding all
over the place.

A
teacher comes and breaks up the fight. She makes them go to the office. I stand
at my locker, wondering if I should go with them, wondering if I should explain.
I don’t though. Instead I go to class.

Earlier
today Cammy invited me to a slumber party at her house. That’s what she called
it, a slumber party. When we were in middle school she used to have them all
the time. They were fun. But that was a long time ago. Normally, I’d probably
think
slumber party? Lame
. But it’s
more of a for-old-time’s-sake type thing. See, Jenny Holt, who moved away in
the eighth grade, is visiting Cammy for the weekend. They’re having the old
“group” from middle school over.

Also,
since I broke up with Shane, the two-timing, back-stabbing, sleaze ball, my
weekends have been pretty pathetic. So, I’d kind of like to go to Cammy’s
slumber party. Only I can’t. I’m grounded. I’m not allowed to leave the house
for the entire weekend.

So
when I get home from school I just mope around the house. I can’t forget how
Matt kept pounding on that poor creep. I kind of feel sorry for him. (I think
his name’s Garth.) He looked so stunned, and then he was bleeding all over the
place. Still, I guess he won’t be messing with me anymore, not while I’ve got
my bodyguard Matt lurking about.

Around
eleven I break down and tell Mom about the slumber party. I haven’t seen Jenny
for a long time. We used to take Karate lessons together. I want to see her.
Mom gives me a reprieve on the grounding. So, yay.

When
I get to Cammy’s her house is dark. I stand outside wondering what I should do.
I’m cold, and kind of scared. I feel kind of like I’m dreaming—like this
moment isn’t real. For a second I contemplate turning around and going home,
but then I try the door and it’s unlocked, so I go in. It’s really dark, but I
find everyone in the den. They’re all in their sleeping bags, huddled together.
The only light is a single candle. It casts eerie shadows on their faces as
they talk in hushed voices. It’s spooky.

“Nicole,
yikes, you scared me!” Cammy clutches her heart.

Everyone
is excited to see me since they thought I wasn’t going to be able to make it.
It’s kind of nice. Jenny looks different. I would have never recognized her.
She rushes over to me, and I’m suddenly hugging this blond goddess. It’s weird.

I
start to strip down, when Cammy says, “Uh—Matt’s here,” and then I notice
him.

“Hi
Nicole,” he says, and I quickly pull my shirt back down.

In
middle school Matt was the only boy on our block, so yes, in a sense he’s as
much a part of the “group” as any of us. Only, he never came to any of our
slumber parties back then, so I’m more than a little surprised to see him now.
In fact, you could call me amazed.