The Kiss

mean, if you want, meet off-campus. For your questions,” he blurted as she turned away.
    “No, it’s all right. They’re not that important.” Positive that none of the men was interested in her, she didn’t get what he meant until he curled a hand around her upper arm and gently turned her to face him.
    “We don’t have to talk about the questions. We could talk about…class in general. Say, at The Zoo ?”
    Even if she hadn’t caught on , the wolf whistles Mike and Leo gave out certainly clued her in . She smiled. “Say, Saturday?” Also, someone needed to build a new bar-slash-club in her town, stat.
    “I’ll pick you up at your dorm. Is eight all right?”
    “Sure. See you then.”
    He crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Actually, you’re wrong.”
    “Huh?”
    “You’ll see me tomorrow in class.” By his goofy grin it appeared he was pretty darn proud of himself for making a funny . Eliza decided to call it boyish charm . After all, if he was her mystery kisser, a little goofiness could be forgiven.
    “Right. See you then.” She gave the guys a little finger-wave. “See ya.”
    She’d bet good money they were all staring at her ass as she swished it side to side on her way out of the cafeteria.
    ***
    “Well?” Krista didn’t even say hi when Eliza walked inside their room.
    “You first.” Eliza dropped her armful of books onto her desk, sat on her bed, and rested her right foot on her left knee to undo the laces of her sandal.
    Krista was face down on her own twin bed, head hanging over the foot of it. She carefully placed her book marker all the way to the spine of the book lying on the floor and closed it. “Me first, what?” She rolled to her side, slid a bit higher up the bed, and rested her cheek on her palm, obviously enjoying taking her time and playing dumb.
    Eliza let her sandal drop to the floor, reached behind her for her pillow, and threw it at her friend’s head. “You suck.”
    “Me suck, what?” They both dissolved in giggles.
    Eliza caught her breath first. “So, do I have a date for Friday?” she asked, fumbling with her second sandal.
    “Yess’m.” Krista gave her a mock salute. “Do you, um, have a date for Saturday?”
    “Uh huh.” She stood, grabbed a pair of tracksuit pants and a T-shirt from her closet, and walked to the bathroom.
    “Wait! With whom?” Krista ran after her, but Eliza slammed the bathroom door in her face. “ With whom ?” Krista banged her open palm on the wooden surface repeatedly.
    “ I can’t hear you.” She totally could.
    “Are you gonna make me wait?”
    “Yup. And I want to shower, too.”
    “I’ll wait.” A thump came from the other side of the door. Could have been Krista’s head.
    “You better.”

Chapter Four

    Nate felt like an idiot for sneaking out his window for a smoke at his age. His dad wouldn’t condone smoking under his roof, however, and Nate really needed his nicotine.
    And some sleep.
    He lit the cigarette, took a deep drag, and held the smoke in his lungs long enough to feel light headed.
    Exhaling slowly, he kept telling himself that he wasn’t screwed.
    His self didn’t agree.
    Nate still didn’t know why the hell he’d gone along with what Greg had asked him to do two years earlier. He didn’t even know why he talked to the big lug, let alone helped him do his dirty work. Except, that was the way it had always been, since the first year of junior high.
    Nate had still been Nathaniel then, a sniveling little boy with glasses and a lisp that denoted him as an outsider. Greg had beat up the bully who’d pressed Nathaniel’s face into the mud during lunch break, and Nathaniel had attached himself to the bigger boy’s posse, through the years winning his current place as Greg’s best friend.
    Only, at times like that evening two years ago, he wasn’t sure he wanted his hard-won position any longer.
    The petite blonde had been sitting with her back to him, but he knew it was her. He’d seen her enter while he’d been outside having a smoke. He’d noticed everything about her, from the arch of her eyebrow to the cute pink nail polish on her toes.
    He smiled, remembering her squirming. The way she’d obviously been trying to look perfect had been endearing. Then he remembered whom she’d been trying to look perfect for, and the smile froze on his lips.
    Greg had pointed her out to him once from afar, and Nate had been gob-smacked. She was far from the most beautiful woman