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Damien’s eyes lifted to me, as if sensing my approach, and a smile lit his face. “Hey, Cas.”
He stood, taking my hand and guiding me away from Barrett and the others. “Come here for a second. There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.”
“Give Damien a kiss for me, Cas!” Barrett called, and the rest of the group whistled and laughed as Damien lead me away. My cheeks and ears grew warm, and for once, I wanted to smack them myself. I looked over my shoulder at them, throwing Barrett a crude gesture, to which he only responded with more taunting.
Damien groaned at their antics. “I swear, they only get away with it because you’re here.” As soon as we were out of earshot, he turned to me. “I was wondering if you’d like to go out this weekend.”
Though I tried to hide my surprise, my heartbeat quickened and any words I might have said became jumbled in my throat. Was he asking me to go out as friends? Or go out. I was still unsure of where we stood, the kiss we’d shared only making it more confusing.
“W–well, I’m going over to Kat’s to spend the night tonight.” I paused, my mind running in every direction. “I’m free the rest of the weekend though.”
“How about tomorrow afternoon then? We could go to Stackhouse to start, and go from there?” He seemed anxious, nervous even, but at the same time, happy.
I lit up at the mention of Stackhouse. It was a large, wooded park, one of my favorite places to go when I was younger, and it had been years since I’d visited.
I calmed myself, not wanting to seem too eager, but I couldn’t help the smile that crept across my face. “Ok. Sounds like fun.”
Something came to life in his eyes. “Pick you up from your house at two?”
“I’d love that.”
There was no way this was really happening.
* * *
“You’re going on a date with Damien?”
“I mean, I wouldn’t call it a date. I think he likes me, but I don’t think he likes methatmuch,” I murmured. “We’re just friends.”
I’d been wondering if this was to make up for what happened with Marcus. Was he doing this because he felt guilty? It hurt to think that everything he’d done might be out of pity.
“Oh, shut it. You told me he said—” She lowered the tone of her voice, trying to imitate Damien. “I was wondering if you’d like to go out sometime. That’s asking you out on a date!”
I could barely stifle my laugh. “First off, that was a terrible impression. Secondly, I just find it hard to believe someone like him would even be interested in me.”
A devilish grin spread across her face, and my heart fluttered in my chest as she spoke. “Yeah, except friends don’t just kiss the way he kissed you.”
She wasn’t entirely wrong, but she also didn’t have all the details of why the kiss happened in the first place. Kat put her car in park in front of her cozy, tan house. We’d spent the evening studying and doing homework at the campus library, and it was already a few hours past nightfall.
I climbed out of her car, taking my bags with me as we walked inside. Kat’s house was far cuter inside than my own, neatly decorated and full of the nicest furniture. I followed her up the stairwell to her bedroom, tossing my bags on the floor and falling back onto her bed.
Kat walked over to her entertainment center, rummaging through her shelf of DVDs. “What’s Damien like, anyways? Besides those dreamy eyes and cool demeanor.”
“Despite the rumors you warned me about, he’s been nothing but kind to me.”
Kat glanced back at me over her shoulder. “I see the way he looks at you.”
A smile spread across my face, and my eyes fell as I tried to hide it. “I won’t deny that Damien looks like a hard ass and his friends enjoy causing trouble. I could see where rumors would come from. Still, he’s helped me out a couple times since I’ve met him. I know he’s not a bad person.” Marcus' face flashed across my mind, and I inhaled slowly. Anything but that right now.
“Helped you how?” Kat asked, interrupting my train of thought.
I scrambled for a second, remembering I’d yet to tell her about Marcus, and now was definitely not the time to bring it up. “You remember when we went to the mall the week classes started? When I went to get us drinks, we bumped into each other, and I spilled the drinks. He felt so bad and insisted on buying us new ones. It was pure coincidence that I bumped into him again on campus.”
A coy grin spread across her face as she drifted closer to her bed. “Was that why you were asking about him the first day of classes?”
I shrugged. “I kind of hoped I’d get to see him again, so when I saw them, I had to know who he was.”
“It’s like it was meant to be.” The back of her hand pressed to her forehead as she fell back onto the bed in a false faint. I rolled my eyes and laughed.
