The Way to Game the Walk of Shame (4 page)

My head flew up, and I winced. Oh god, what if I was awful? Like too-much-saliva, garlic-breath horrible? I’d only kissed three guys in my life, and none for more than ten seconds. And barely any tongue. I wasn’t exactly experienced. Then again, since Evan ended up taking me home, I guess I couldn’t have been
that
bad, right?

Not knowing the inner turmoil her comment caused, Carly picked up my unused fork and stabbed at the cold mystery meatloaf on my plate. “Are you sure you guys didn’t do it?”

“Carly!”

“Come on! You have to at least tell me if you did. Remember, I lied to your mom for you.” She waved the fork at me. “You owe me some details.”

“I told you. Nothing happened.”

“Seriously?” Her eyebrow rose. “You went home with the dude, and you guys didn’t
do
anything? How is that even possible? He’s Evan McKinley, for god’s sake.”

I looked down at my half-eaten plate. The memory of waking up in his bed was still fresh in my head. And the image of a nearly naked Evan was practically seared into my mind. “I don’t know. It’s complicated.”

Her dark eyes brightened with excitement. “All the best stories start off that way. Spill it.”

I let out a halfhearted laugh. No matter how hard the day was, I was glad to have Carly by my side. Loud and bossy as she was. “Well, it all started when I woke up and didn’t smell any apples…”

3

-Evan-

“McKinley!”

Figures. I’d been here for less than an hour, and Aaron had already found me. Did he have some sort of sensor on me or something? Usually I would be happy to see him, but lunch with Mom and Brandon had made me want to punch someone, and I was pretty sure Aaron wouldn’t want to be that someone.

Pretending I didn’t hear him, I ducked my head lower and wove my way through the crowded hall. But he wasn’t Nathan Wilks’s second-string running back for nothing. He could have easily been on the first string if he gave a shit about the team and went to practices like he was supposed to.

He dove between Lucy Kim and her group of flag-team members to grab the back strap of my bag, yanking me backward. “Sorry, ladies. We’ve got urgent business to talk about. Where were you all morning, man?”

I glanced at the group of girls, who were obviously eavesdropping, and brushed him off. “Just busy,” I said, deliberately sounding mysterious as I winked at Lucy. She grinned and motioned for me to call her before walking away.

Hmm, did I even have her number? At least
she
thought I did. Maybe she’d given it to me before and I forgot.

“I’m sure you were.” He shoved my left shoulder. “So tell me, what was it like?”

“Huh?” Great, now I sounded like an idiot. So much for being mysterious.

“You know.” Instead of explaining, he wiggled his eyebrows and grinned down at me.

Not up for another one of Aaron’s guessing games, I walked toward the vending machines by the cafeteria. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Look, I don’t know why you’re trying to be noble. Everyone saw you leaving the party with her the other night.” I didn’t have to look up to know he had a sneer on his face. It was evident in his voice. He moved forward until he blocked the drink machine in front of me with an outstretched arm. “Don’t be shy.”

“I’m not being shy, I just don’t know what the hell you’re—” An image of Taylor smiling up at me as we swayed to the fast-paced music popped in my head. My hands were wrapped tightly around her waist. Us laughing and plastered against each other as we walked around the block to my house. It had been like this all weekend—just brief flashes of us in my head. But as much as I tried, I couldn’t figure out what happened once we
got
to my house.

Judging by the dopey smile on Aaron’s face, I can imagine what everyone assumed happened. “You’re an asshole. Now either move or buy me a drink.”

He laughed and dug into his pockets for some change. “Fine, I’ll just imagine it on my own.” Aaron snorted and shook his head. “Dude, I still can’t believe you were able to hit that Ice Queen. You, my man, are a god. A modern, womanizing Zeus.”

At his words, a broad smile crossed my face. It was wrong, since technically I didn’t “hit that,” but who didn’t like being called a god? On any other day, I would have happily obliged Aaron’s request. Hell, I was usually the one to start bragging about the chicks I hooked up with. In detail. But lunch with Brandon earlier still left a sour taste in my mouth. I shouldn’t have taken up Mom’s offer and had lunch with them. I didn’t know what I was thinking. Usually I’d rather mow the lawn with my teeth than eat a meal with my stepdad.

It was bad enough that they showed up unannounced for my drug test, something Brandon—the dickhead—insisted on when he found drugs in my room once. They weren’t mine, but he didn’t believe me.

Mom knew the drugs weren’t mine. I would never touch the stuff after my cousin Stacey died from an overdose. We were pretty close. She used to watch me whenever Mom went to work after Dad went to jail. That was before Mom met Brandon Willard.

But instead of sticking up for her own son—and, god forbid, getting in a fight with her saintly new husband—Mom would rather make me suffer the embarrassment of getting a professional monthly drug test. Brandon suspected I would somehow tamper with the home tests. Mom even spoke to the principal and the office about my “appointments” so I could be excused.

Someone deserved the Best Mom of the Year award.

I was tempted to fail the drug test on purpose just to piss off Brandon even more, but I settled on cutting school whenever I could. The school calling him at work to tattle on me always embarrassed the hell out of him, and that was more than enough satisfaction for me.

I had almost chugged down half the can of Sprite when hoots and wolf whistles filled the air. “What’s going on?”

Aaron shrugged and stepped toward the cafeteria. I followed him and stopped when I spotted Taylor sitting with her friend Carly a couple of tables from the entrance. There was a crowd of jocks surrounding them.

“Well, look who it is. Anyone ready to party?” some dude asked. I think he was a junior or something. He braced his hands on the edge of the table and sneered down his pointy nose at the girls. “Dang, Simmons, I should have introduced you to tequila a long time ago. Especially now that you dropped your good-girl front and acting like you’re better than us all the time.”

I expected her to explode, but to my surprise, Taylor just bit her lower lip and turned away from him. Her cheeks burned, but she still didn’t say anything in response to the jerks around her.

This was a far cry from the girl I’d danced with at the party. And especially from the one who woke up in my bed yesterday. That girl smacked my jaw and made me swear not to tell anyone about what happened. Not that I could have if I wanted to. But the point was that
that
girl was fierce. My jaw still ached.

Her hands clenched and unclenched, but she still didn’t say anything. Suddenly, Taylor looked up, and our eyes met across the room. Pursing her lips together, she lifted her chin and looked away. Her face was still red, but she looked a little scared. Not of the guys around her, but of …
something
.

Something in me snapped, and I automatically grabbed Aaron’s arm, ready to beat the crap out of those guys.

I had barely taken three steps forward when Carly whipped around in her seat and glared them down, despite the fact that they were all twice her size and could probably squash her like a bug. “Oh yeah, Todd? If you want to talk about fronts, why don’t you tell everyone again how you wet the bed until you were twelve? How many mattresses
did
your parents have to throw out before you finally learned how to use the toilet?”

Todd’s face grew blotchy. But she didn’t even bat an eye and continued to stare at him. Hell, she even leaned up so she could be more in his face.

To my surprise, he muttered something low under his breath and jerked his body away to storm off. His cronies snickered behind their fists and followed.

Taylor slumped forward onto the table and whispered something to Carly. She just snorted in response. “Don’t worry about it. I guess now that he can use the big-boy potty, he thinks he’s all badass,” Carly said, not even bothering to lower her voice.

I couldn’t help laughing. Man, if anyone was a badass, it was Carly. Right now I kind of wanted to go over there and give her a hug. And Taylor, too. But judging by the way she was glaring at me now, she’d probably scratch my eyes out if I tried.

Seriously, I just didn’t understand that girl.

Carly waved at me as Taylor dragged her past us through the doorway. I turned my head to watch them leave.

Aaron pulled his arm out of my grasp and crossed his arms. He had a goofy look on his face. “Interesting.”

“What?”

“Nothing, it’s just interesting. So that’s why you don’t want to tell me anything? ’Cause you have a thing for her?”

I gaped at him. “That’s stupid—I don’t know what you’re—” This time I was the one to chase Aaron down as we walked to our lockers. “Are you kidding me?”

He stooped down to tug on his combination lock. “Hey, it’s cool if you do. The Ice Queen’s not as hot as the girls you usually date, but she still ranks pretty high. I mean, talk about untouchable.”

Of all the crazy things Aaron was saying, the fact that he kept calling her the Ice Queen irritated me the most for some reason. “Her name’s Taylor.”

“Oh, I guess you two are on a first-name basis now that you’re so close, huh?” he said with a wink. “Anything else you want to tell me about her?”

There was a loud bang as someone slammed a locker shut. Aaron glanced past me and froze. His eyes grew wider with each second. I followed his gaze and saw Taylor standing behind us with crossed arms and a huge scowl on her face. Perfect.

With a cough, he bounced upright with the agility of a bullfrog just as the bell rang. He shook his head until his dark hair covered his eyes, shielding himself from her wrath. For a big guy, Aaron was always uncomfortable around angry women. And the one in front of us was so pissed, I wouldn’t be surprised if her ears started steaming. “Er, I’ll leave you two alone. I’ll see you in PE, Evan.”

I nodded, although I couldn’t help feeling as though he were ditching me at my own execution. The traitor. I crouched down to shut his locker for him.

When Aaron followed the moving crowd and turned the corner, Taylor shoved my right shoulder. Hard. My left hand shot back to hit the ground so I wouldn’t fall on my ass. “Hey! What was that for?”

She glanced around, but the hall was already more than half empty. The few people who lingered were slowly moving away, already pulling out their phones to text about our sweet encounter. “Why didn’t you say anything? Now he really thinks something happened between us,” she hissed.

I stared up at the bumpy white ceiling. Damn, this really wasn’t my day. “I tried. You could see that he doesn’t believe me.”

She snorted and rolled her eyes upward. “It didn’t look like you were trying
that
hard. I guess you can’t help it. With your reputation, no wonder nobody believes anything you say.”

Being called a liar was one of the less offensive things anyone could call me. Hell, it was more like a fact.

When it was obvious that Taylor wasn’t going to leave anytime soon, I sighed and plopped on the ground to get comfortable. I leaned against Aaron’s closed locker, one leg pulled up against my chest, and crossed my arms around my left knee. “Probably. So tell me again, how many people believed
you
when you told them what happened?” I asked with a raised eyebrow, already knowing the answer.

Her mouth opened and closed, but nothing came out. Instead she chewed on her lower lip and turned away. “Never mind. Sorry, you’re right.” She rubbed both sides of her forehead. “It’s been a really long day. Not to mention I have to get a new phone now because I lost—”

Before she even finished her sentence, I dug in my bag and whipped out the cell phone I had found stashed in my shorts pocket yesterday. I leaned forward and tucked it into her hand. “Your friend called a lot.”

“So I heard. Thanks.” After she stuck the phone in her back pocket, Taylor finally looked at me again. Her eyes slowly trailed from my face down to my scruffy gray sneakers. I raised an eyebrow at her. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought she was checking me out, but girls don’t usually check me out with frown lines on their forehead.

I climbed to my feet and stared back. Was this girl really the same person who had danced in the streets with me? It was hard to believe now that she was in front of me. Her long, dark hair was pulled back from her narrow face with pins. She wore casual jeans and a loose T-shirt, nothing low-cut or tight. Her left arm was piled high with books and binders. Aaron was right. She definitely wasn’t my usual type.

I couldn’t help thinking that she still looked pretty, though. Even with the dark, irritated look on her face. I moved a step closer to her.

As though Taylor suddenly realized what I was doing, she jerked her entire body to the right. A bright blush crept up her neck. “I have to go. There’s a quiz in my next class that I should study for, and I don’t know if I—”

I felt guilty for messing with her. Maybe it was the shadows under her eyes or the way she kept chewing on her lower lip, making it even pinker and puffier than usual against her pale face. I wanted to press my index finger against her mouth to make her stop, but I doubted she would appreciate that very much. And I didn’t want to get bitten.

It wasn’t her fault that she was tangled up in this rumor with me. I might be used to the gossip and lies that flew around—mostly because I encouraged them, just to piss off my stepdad—but Taylor wasn’t. And she definitely wasn’t handling it well.

“—never drink like that. Ever. But did we—I mean, I’m positive we didn’t, but I just wanted to make sure … because you know—” She breathed heavily through every couple of words as though they were being wrestled out of her.