Page 105 of Kickoff

“Okay.”

I picked the cupcake from her grip and engulfed it in three bites after she shook her head when I offered her some. “Best birthday ever. Thanks, Shepard.”

I kissed her cheek and disappeared into the bathroom next door before I did something like kissing her to oblivion or eating her up like I’d dreamed of doing every night. I was playing with fire. The dance was in four weeks. It was our deadline. I had to keep it to myself until then. I could do this. Under the hot stream of the shower, the realization dawned on me. Melinda Shepard had licked my bare chest. By the time Winter Formal rolled around, I would be an aching mess if I didn’t regain some self-control.

I turned the temperature of the shower to the lowest setting, but the cold water did nothing to decrease the desire tightening my body.

I rested my forehead against the tiled wall, breathing in and out to slow the wild rhythm of my heart. For a second, I thought about rubbing one, but knowing Melinda was on the other side of the wall, in my bedroom, waiting for me, killed the idea. That thing she did earlier—licking my frosting-covered chest—was hot as hell, and I’d frozen, mesmerized by everything she was. I loved this new side of her, bolder and more assured around me. She was slowly breaking out of her shell, and I wanted to be the one she did it for—the one she did it with.

The tension in me lessened, and I toweled myself dry before dressing in a pair of jeans and a dark long-sleeved T-shirt with my jersey number printed on the front in gold ink.

An ache built inside me when I opened my bedroom door and found her there, in my personal space, and I had to fight with myself not to lay her on my bed. She wasn’t ready. I could tell she was still unsure about us. About me. Not about our friendship, but how much she could trust me. Since the beginning of the school year, I’d stepped up my game, and I wondered what else I could do to make her have total faith in me.

Melinda was busy going through the books on the shelf mounted on the wall opposite my bed, her back to me. Like a stalker, I admired her for a minute, relishing the way her stretch dark-indigo jeans made her legs look infinitely long, before I cleared my throat to announce my presence.

“I hadn’t pictured you as a fiction reader,” she said, her hand tracing the spines of the paperbacks before she spun on her heels to face me. “I don’t know why I never noticed these before.”

I shrugged. “Everyone needs to escape real life once in a while.”

Her lips curled up. “Good answer. Are you ready for a full day of fun?”

“It depends. What do you have in mind?”

“A lot of things. Come on, Birthday Boy, let’s get out of here.”

Melinda treated me to a mountain of waffles with berries and whipped cream at Breakfast at Midnight, a twenty-four-hour little eatery on the outskirts of town. She ordered a side of fresh fruits for herself after telling me she had a protein shake earlier. We spent the rest of our morning at the indoor roller-skating rink, something she had never done before. Not willing to risk Melinda falling and hurting herself—that was the bullshit excuse I fed her—I held her hand the entire time. It gave me an excuse to touch her without seeming too obvious about it.

For lunch, we sat in my car and devoured a picnic she had prepared earlier while we chatted about everything, and then spent the afternoon at the arcade where she beat me at air hockey. Twice. I got my revenge when we played roll and score right after, and I won all three rounds.

Things were simple and easy between us. I didn’t remember the last time I’d had this much fun and laughed for so many hours.

Until I bumped into Tanya when we were ordering tea at Beans, the coffee shop on Main Street. Melinda was waiting at the counter for our order to be ready while I was on a mission to pick a table by the wall-length window. The place was small and popular amongst teenagers who often came here for a coffee break or to study. It had cream walls, a dark exposed ceiling, blush-pink tables, and black chairs.

“Here you are,” Tanya exclaimed as if she’d been looking for me. She jumped into my arms like she had the right to, as if we were best friends who hadn’t seen each other in a while. “Happy birthday, Mase.” Her heavily painted lips smacked my cheek, no doubt leaving an imprint behind.

I stepped back and stuffed my hands into my pockets to create some sort of physical barrier between us.

“Thanks,” I spoke the single word with as much indifference as I could muster, my eyes traveling between the clingy cheerleader and Melinda, who had no idea we had company, deep in conversation with the barista, her back to us. How Tanya remembered my birthday was a mystery, one I had no intention of solving. Like ever.

“Are we celebrating or what?” She dragged her fingernails down my chest. “I have a gift for you.” Her lips swelled into a pout. “But I don’t have it with me right now. You’ll have to come to my place so I can give it to you.” She smiled in a way she probably thought was sexy. “I’m not sure it’s meant to be given in front of an audience anyway.”

“I’m not interested, Tan. I thought I made myself clear multiple times already.”

She flicked her wrist like I was being silly. “Nonsense. Everybody loves to be spoiled on their special day. When you meet me at my house later, I will—" She stopped her rant the moment Melinda neared us, two cups in her hands. “Aren’t you clingy?” She sighed. “You can keep walking, swim girl. Can’t you see you’re interrupting us? It’s Mason’s birthday, and we’re making plans for him to pick up his gift later.” She winked like we were both in on whatever she meant.

I took one cup from Melinda’s grip and draped my free arm over her shoulders. “Actually, Tan, I’m not available to come to your house today or ever. I’m here with Mel. If you would excuse us. See you around…or not.” I laced our fingers and led Melinda away. We sat opposite each other at a table in the far back. “I’m sorry. About that.” I pointed toward the door behind me, where I suspected Tanya was still standing, fury probably straining her features while spying on us.

Melinda shook her head, but the smile that had been a permanent fixture on her face all day had dipped. “Mase, if you have places to be, don’t stop on my account.”

I squeezed her hand over the table. “No. I’m here with you. No one else.”

Her eyes followed something over my shoulder, no doubt Tanya being her despicable self, and I could tell the easy bubble we’d been basking in since the morning had burst.

“I have to go home for dinner,” Melinda said after we finished our drinks and walked toward my car parked at a short distance from Beans.

“O-okay. I’ll drive you. About earlier…Tanya…she was messing with you. I have no intention of going to her place if that’s what you were worried about.”

“Mason. You and I aren’t a couple. You’re free to be friends with whoever you want. I’m not the police of you.” She forced the widest grin on her lips. “And by the way, you still have a red lipstick smudge on your left cheek.”