Chapter 28 - Caught Under The Bed

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"So you just walked away?" Olivia asked furiously.

"What was I supposed to do?" I said. "He told me that he didn't want me there."

"Hmmm... Ryan must be in love with someone else," Olivia said thoughtfully. I had no doubt about whom she hoped he was in love with.

"That's settled then," Payton said. "He's in love with you so now we can move on to Jamal."

"Oh no," Olivia said. "We're going to try this again. I want to find out more about Ryan before I make my move."

"Can we talk about this later?" I asked. "We should really get to class. The lunch period is almost over."

"Chicken," Olivia said. "We're going to talk about this soon." With that, she hurried away to class. Not even boys could make Olivia late for an opportunity to learn something.

Payton shook her head. "That girl is nuts. She's obsessed. I'll bet Ryan isn't even into girls, if you know what I mean."

"As much as that would make me feel better, I think a more reasonable explanation is that he just isn't into me," I said. "I think he's heard about my reputation and has wisely decided to stay as far away from me as possible."

Payton argued against that assertion, of course, but my mind wandered. I needed Alyssa around to talk to. She was my rock, providing a moderating influence to counter Payton's brusqueness and Olivia's eccentricity. Lately, though, she had been spending a lot of time with Sarah Thomas. That surprised me; I had never noticed that Alyssa and Sarah were close before. Alyssa had always been my best friend while Sarah and Lindsey, who were both seniors, were best friends with each other. Why would Alyssa promise to find out if Aaron liked me and then spend all her time with Sarah? As far as I could see Sarah had nothing to do with Aaron. Perhaps Alyssa was just as disturbed as everyone else by my kiss list behavior and had decided to move on.

"Yo, Anderson!"

Payton and I stopped walking and I looked around, trying to figure out who was yelling for me. Lindsey jogged up to me. "Hey Ramen," I said, copying her use of my last name. "What's up?"

"Well, these couple kiss adventures we've had with Graham and David had gotten me kinda excited," Linday said. "Okay, a lot excited. I haven't had this much action since I was dating Troy as these boys are so much better than Troy ever was! So anyway, I got to thinking, why stop? Why not kidnap another boy and keep this going?"

That's just what I needed, more boys to get in trouble with. "I'm not so sure that's a good idea," I said hesitantly. "Who would the target be?"

"Go big or go home, I always say," Lindsey said with a twinkle in her eye. "Who's the hottest boy in the school? Whose abs could you wash clothes on? Whose eyes are capable of looking deep into your soul while he makes your heart pound so fast you think it's going to explode?"

I was mystified but Payton caught on immediately. "You're talking about Aaron Caldwell," she said.

"Bingo!" Lindsey cried excitedly. "Aaron is having some guys over for drinks and a poker game tonight at his house. He's got some relatives who have come back from Europe to his parents' hometown to celebrate Thanksgiving early and his parents are going to be gone visiting them. It's just going to be Aaron and his friends at home and Noah Cafferty said he would let us in."

"What did you have to promise Cafferty to swing that?" Paton asked.

Lindsey shrugged. "I said I would fix him up with Darcy," she said.

Payton shuddered. "That's a terrifying idea," she said. "Can you imagine what their children would be like? There should be a law against the two of them procreating."

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