Letters to Nowhere #1 (Completed!)

Letters to Nowhere: Part 36

"No way," Tony said.

            The other guy laughed. "That's cute. How much did you let her drink, Bentley?"

            "You know how freshman babies get at their first party," Tony said. "They end up in the ER getting their stomachs pumped."

            "You're not drunk, are you?" Jordan asked, dead serious.

            I flashed him my best "judges smile." "Nope, not drunk at all."

            Then I took off to retrieve the orange sled. Of course Jordan jogged after me. "Is this gonna be like the triple back?"

            "No, because your dad's not here to yell at me," I said, heading up the hill. "Besides, what did you call my routines again? Clean and safe?"

            He laughed and kept following me. "Okay, okay! Forget I ever said that. You sure you want to do this?"

            "Positive."

            When we got to the top of the hill, I almost chickened out after seeing how steep it really was and estimating the speed I'd generate halfway down. But I didn't want this awesome rush to fade. Not yet. Jordan gave me a few pointers about when to shift my weight at certain points on the hill. I think most of the kids watching thought I was pulling some corny girlfriend move, sending Jordan off with a kiss or something. So I'm sure there were plenty of shocked faces when it was me who took off, surfing down the hill.

            I almost fell off, right at the beginning, but then I leaned onto my back leg and saved it. The hardest part was watching the tracks Jordan had already made (with what little illumination Tony's back porch lights provided) to make sure I got just a little closer than he had. When I did come within two feet of a huge oak tree, the most awesome rush of excitement and fear shot through my veins. I leapt off the sled, hitting my right shoulder into the snow first and then tumbling sideways. I watched the sled smack into the tree and do its own somersault in the air before landing with a thud.

            I lay in the snow, catching my breath and letting the cold wet substance beneath me numb my body from any pain that fall may have caused. A few seconds later, Jordan stood over me laughing. "I'm dead if my dad ever finds out you did this. You know that, right?"

            "Uh, yeah." I accepted the hand he stuck out to help me up. "That was so awesome!"

            He brushed the snow out of my hair, then he took off his white Cardinals stocking cap and pulled it over my head. "You must be freezing."

            "I'm in awe," Tony said when we stood in front of the fire again. "Total awe. I never knew it would take a freshman girl to make Bentley look like an ass. All he does is show off like some Hollywood stunt man. Someone needed to knock him down from his giant pedestal."

            Jordan punched Tony in the arm, but otherwise looked unaffected.I smiled at him and sat in front of the fire, trying to warm my hands and dry my jeans. Jordan adjusted the hat on my head, folding up the bottom to keep it from covering my eyes, then he plopped down next to me on the bench. "Give me your hands."

            I put both hands in front of him and he held them in his, blowing warm air on them. "That's very boyfriendly of you," I said. "So what's up with the girls you're avoiding?"

            He shrugged and moved his thumbs over the backs of my hands, rubbing them gently. "It's not anything bad. Lindsey, the taller one with overly-perfect teeth, started bugging me about not going out with anyone, like not having a serious girlfriend. I think it was her way of trying to get me to ask her out."

            "But you don't want to ask her out?" I couldn't blame him for that. She seemed very annoying and fake.

            "Correct," he said right away. "The problem is, when you turn a girl down and you're not dating someone else, you're basically saying that something's wrong with her. I hate getting into that shit."

            I smiled. "Oh, so you're secretly nice underneath all your shallow comments and observations of the opposite sex."

            "If I were nice, I'd just be honest and say no, but I'm too chicken to tell a girl why I don't like her. I mean, who wants to create a complex for someone, right? And your fingers are about five degrees away from frostbite." He quickly stuck my hands under the front of his shirt, pressing them to his bare stomach.

            My heart immediately started pounding. "Uh...is this your way of getting me to feel your abs? Because I'm pretty impressed. You have nice hamstrings, too," I blurted out.

            "I think I would blush if it were someone besides you saying that." His brown eyes swirled with reflected color from the fire. "But I have a feeling your compliment will be followed by asking me what type of core conditioning I've been doing."

            Maybe...

            Because I was pretending to be someone's girlfriend, it was easier to be bold now, kind of like wearing a costume. I pulled my hands from beneath his and gripped his fingers, sliding them under the bottom of my sweater. "Let's compare. But I'm sure you've got me beat."

            Jordan jumped, his gaze zooming in on his hands under my shirt, which I quickly realized meant something completely different than my hands under his shirt. He swallowed hard, his gaze lifting to meet mine.

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