Kiss List (Book I of the List Series)

Chapter 11 - Dylan Part II

I stopped fighting and let Dylan guide me to the edge of the pool.

"Do you want to..." he started to say.

"Just get me out of here," I whispered to him as the laughter continued. "Please."

Dylan put one arm around me and used his other arm to push his way through the crowd. Paul was still standing and sneering in the spot where he had shouldered me into the pool. I heard a few other people try to speak to me but I ignored them. As soon as we got to the gate of the fence and he opened it, I bolted through to the front yard. "Sadie. Sadie!" Dylan yelled. A moment later he caught up to me and I felt him throw his arms around me.

"Stop running," he said. "It's okay. My car is right here."

I let him hold me. The night fall air felt cool against my wet skin and so I pressed myself against him. I could feel the warmth of his body through his wet clothing. And then I started to cry.

"Don't cry," he said as he stroked my head gently. He held me like that until my sobbing had turned to sniffles.

"Sadie, are you okay?" another voice said. Missy's face suddenly appeared beside Dylan's shoulder.

I nearly jumped back when I saw her. "What do you want?" I asked, unsuccessfully trying to stifle the sniffles.

"To make sure you were alright, of course," Missy said. I saw her slip a phone into her purse. Had she been taking pictures of me in the pool? Crying? "I saw the idiot Paul push you. I can't believe he did that. I'm so sorry he bothered you. I'll give him a piece of my mind."

"Like when you told him that I liked him?" I asked angrily.

"Is that what he told you?" Missy said. "I don't know why he would have lied like that. Oh, I remember now, your name did come up once. Graham - my boyfriend - asked who you were. He said he had heard you were the reason why that big fight started. I was talking about you and Paul must have overheard. He was so drunk he must have misunderstood what I said."

"So... so you what?" I sputtered. "You were jealous that your boyfriend asked about me? That maybe boys were fighting about me at school? So you decided to sabotage me with Paul?"

The mask of kindness instantly fell from Missy's face to reveal one of rage. "I am not jealous of you!" she seethed. "Graham isn't interested in you. We're exclusive now. And if those other boys fought over you the only reason was because they thought you were easy," her eyes flickered to Dylan and back to me. "Have sex with all of them and they might fight over you but you still won't be as popular as me."

Dylan and I were speechless. We watched her turn on her heel and storm away in stunned silence.

When Missy was out of sight Dylan shook his head in amazement. "Wow, I actually feel sorry for her," he said. "She is so twisted and evil that it's almost like she believes her own garbage." He let go of me, punched the fuel door on his car, and retrieved a set of keys he had hidden there. "I leave my keys here for soccer. It's sort of become a habit," he said by way of explanation.

Dylan opened the trunk and retrieved a towel, which he handed to me. "Do you have one for yourself?" I asked.

"Only the one," Dylan responded. "You take it." He took off his shirt and then patted down and wrung out his shorts. I realized that I was staring at his bare chest and abs, glistening with water, and forced myself to look away as I toweled off. What was going on with me? I had gone from never having kissed a boy to being boy crazy.

We didn't say much as Dylan drove me home. That was good; there was not much I wanted to say. I was too embarrassed from falling into the pool and then crying in front of him. In fact, I never wanted to say anything to anyone again. Maybe I could change schools so I would never have to look into the faces of everyone who laughed at me and have to answer their stupid questions. Or maybe we could just keep driving around forever like this.

My house drew gradually closer, however. When we were a block away Dylan pulled the car over.

"What are you doing?" I asked. "My house is just up there."

"Yeah, and last time I stopped there for more than a second your dad almost killed me," he said with a smile. "I wanted to have a moment with you before I let you go." Then he reached over me into his glove compartment and took out his phone.

"What's that for?" I asked.

"People can be jerks," Dylan said. "You're beautiful. You're the most talented soccer player at our school. Well," he said with a smile, "the most talented female soccer player, anyway. People are jealous of you and some of them are going to enjoy seeing you embarrassed. So I think we should shut all those people up and show that you were not embarrassed and have moved on. I want you to kiss me right here, right now, and I will take a picture and upload it to Facebook. The story tomorrow is not going to be Sadie Anderson falling into a pool. It's going to be Sadie Anderson, life of the party, going for a swim and then finding some incredibly good-looking stud to make out with."

I couldn't prevent a giggle escaping my lips as I heard how Dylan refer to himself as a "incredibly good-looking stud." Though in truth, he was right. His brown hair was still damp and clung to his forehead but his cute brown eyes seem to shine with his usual playful excitement. His seat belt stretched across his lean shirtless body. And those abs... they were not quite as well-defined or muscular as Sam's or David's but they were still beautiful. Dylan was so skinny that I felt like I could wrap my hands around his waist.

This was a beautiful boy and he was kind to me. My heart filled with appreciation and happiness. I leaned forward and kissed him. I felt Dylan reach out and take a picture with one arm as we kissed but my attention was on him and those lips of his that felt so amazing against mine.

Dylan pulled back and looked at the picture. "It worked!" he said. "We got it."

I was not done, however. His lips felt too good. I unbuckled my seat belt and leaned farther across the center console to kiss him.

Dylan laughed. "I said we got it, Sadie." When I kissed him again, however, he got the message. He returned my kiss. I felt his tongue tease mine and then he laid back and unbuckled his seat belt. He reclined his seat, rested his hand on my hip, and applied light pressure. It was an invitation for me to join him.

I didn't hesitate. I slid over the console and knelt on either side of his seat, straddling him. He tilted his head up to look into my face. I bent my head down and placed my mouth on his. We began to kiss again and I felt his hands sliding down my body, feeling me, pulling me in closer to him so our bodies were like one. The smell of hair and body was intoxicating to me. This boy didn't wear cheap colon or body spray. His car carried his usual hint of musky colon, enough to overpower the smell of salt from Chloe's salt-water pool, and other than that he just smelled clean. Sexy and clean. It was hot.

I had an urge to take my shirt off. I wanted to feel my skin against his, to get closer to him. When I felt his fingers begin to lift up the edges of my shirt, however, I stopped kissing him. I wasn't ready for that. "I'm sorry, Dylan, I..."

"Don't worry," Dylan said a light voice. "Seriously, I want to take this slowly. We've gone far enough for one night. Sit back. I'll take you home."

Dylan did not waste any time in my driveway. Once I was out of the car, he backed into the street. He really did not want another run-in with my dad. I noticed, however, that he idled in the street until he saw that I closed the door behind me safely.

I bounded up to my room and logged onto Facebook. Sure enough, Dylan had already uploaded the picture of us. We looked soaking wet but also very happy and like we were in love. Below the picture he had added the caption, "Yep sorry boys I got the girl!!!"

I lay back on my bed and closed my eyes. Thoughts of Dylan swirled in my head. He had almost made me forget the torture I went through at the party. Almost. A thought had just popped into my head.

I got up and reached under my desk for my trash can. When I got it I reached in and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. I opened it up and smoothed it flat against the top of my desk. It was the kiss list.

I grabbed a red marker and scanned the list. I added a smiley face next to Dylan's name. I knew it was girly but I couldn't help it. Just seeing his name made me feel so happy I needed to express it somehow. Then I found another name. I took my pen and carefully circled the words "Graham Knight" over and over again.

This one was going to be for Missy.