“
Cool, I’ll call you.”
“
Meg,” he says, then pauses. “I miss you.”
I smile into the phone. “I miss you too.”
“
Was that Alex?” Andi asks. My friends surround me now.
Travis puts his arm around me. “Of course it was. When will he be back?”
I ignore his question. “Did you hear our good news?”
He squeezes me tight. “Sure did. Congrats, Meg. Didn’t I say you’d kick ass?”
Steph and Josh take turns giving me a congratulatory hug.
“
Let’s party then,” Josh yells. “Time to celebrate the ladies. Once the real practices start, they’re going to be too tired to do anything.”
Andi frowns. “Is it that bad?”
“
Hell yeah,” Keesh says.
“
Dude, I better start drinking lots of water,” she says. Keesh and I look at each other and laugh. The rest of the crew looks at us like we’re crazy.
Seventeen
My lovely parents ruined my fun last night. When they heard the good news, they were adamant about taking me out to dinner. I mentioned my plans, but Mom gave me the guilt trip face, so I canceled with the crew. They all kicked back at Josh’s and played King’s Cup. I should probably thank my mom because Keesh woke up with a mad hangover.
The last time we played that drinking-slash-card game was at the end of school year, and I got drunk, sobered up, and kissed Travis for the very first time. I loved that kiss. It was sweet. Who knew it was going to lead to plenty more that would have me getting all weak at the knees and hot all over?
Okay. Enough about that. I just went from parental guilt trips to hot kisses with friends. Moving on…
There’s a knock at my door. Finally.
I open it to find Andi. “You ready?”
“
Yeah, but come in real quick. I want you to meet my mom.” Her smile widens and I notice something different about her hair. “Omigod. You changed your color.” I reach for the tips of her pony and shake them. “Orange. I like it.”
“
Dude, school colors. I thought it would be fun to do it for the season. You know, for games and stuff. I can do yours if you want.”
“
Hmm. I’ll think about it.” I walk toward the family room to find my mom watching TV. “Mom, I want you to meet Andi before we leave.”
She gets to her feet, startled, and practically sprints to us. “Oh, Andi, I’ve heard so much about you. So nice to meet you.” She envelops my little friend into a giant bear hug.
“
Mom, c’mon. You’re squashing her.” I chuckle. “Sorry, Andi. She thinks hugging a Boston girl will bring her one step closer to her five favorite guys.”
“
Dude, you and my mom both,” she says. “My mom has met them several times and it still doesn’t seem to be enough.”
“
I’m going to have to meet your mother. Maybe she’d be interested in playing Bunco with us. We often do New Kids themed nights.”
Andi studies my mom like she’s grown three heads. I look at her the same way half the time when she gets started about her guys. She hasn’t even heard her go on about Ryan Seacrest yet.
“
Okay, we gotta go,” I tell them. “The rest of the gang is waiting outside.”
I reach out to hug my mom and she kisses my cheek. “Have a good time, honey. Just be good.”
“
Always, Mom.”
“
Where did your parents go, Josh?” I ask when we finally make it to his house. They always seem to be gone when we’re on a school break.
“
Vegas, baby,” he says. “Won’t be home till tomorrow night so I got the whole place to myself for my birthday.” He slings his arm around me. “They have a king-sized bed. Wanna check it out? It could be my gift.” He waggles his brows. Flirting and being taken seriously is not one of his talents. He needs to stick to baseball. What a dork.
Andi looks a little shocked, or scared. I shake my head. “Don’t worry, Andi. He’s not serious.”
“
I’m totally serious, Meggie.” He laughs at his own joke. “But since you’re not interested, I’ll just let someone else have a piece of this. Andi, you game?”
“
Uh, no, thank you,” she tells him, suddenly very interested in inspecting her nails.
“
So you guys ready to partay, or what? We got everything set up out here,” Travis hollers from the doorway leading to the garage.
On our way out, I whisper to her, “Don’t worry about Josh. He’s just a big tease. All talk and no action. Not with us anyways.”
Josh’s dad has the ultimate man cave. Big LED screen TV mounted on the wall, with every game console connected to it. Electronic dartboard on the other side. A pool table. And let’s not forget the beer pong table as well. It’s not just your regular old beer pong table either. It has a frosted glass top with fluorescent and black lighting underneath it. The color of the lights changes throughout the night. And it has a fog machine too, for a more dramatic effect, I suppose. I can’t begin to imagine my dad playing beer pong, but Josh’s dad and all his friends are into it. I’m not judging, but aren’t they kind of old to be playing beer pong? Especially with black lights and steam?
“
Anyone want to play darts?” Steph asks.
I make my way toward her. “I do.”
Steph pushes all sorts of buttons to get the game started, while I choose my darts, lightweight with purple wings. Josh always has a stash of pretty ones for the ladies. “You can go first,” she says.
On the first throw, I bang the dart up against the wall. It doesn’t make any contact with the board itself. “Whoops.” The second time, I hit a double thirteen. The third sucks butt when it hits a three. There’s no way I’ll beat Steph with these scores. She’s really good.
“
Move over,” she hip-checks me. “Big Mama is gonna take you down.”
Bam. Triple sixteen. Bam. Double twelve. Bam. Even harder this time. Triple twenty. Shit. I’m done. It’s going to be like this until she murders me. When she brings her score down to zero, I’ll probably still have 185 points left on the board. Not good.
We started at 305 and the goal is to count down to zero. I have a long way to go. I finish another round. This time I bring my score down by twenty points total. Still no good. I go to the board to take my darts out when I hear a familiar voice. “You ready for a drink?”
I freeze for a moment as it hits me. I turn around and jump into his arms. My hands fly around his neck and my legs wrap around his waist. He holds me in a tight squeeze that makes my day. It’s like everyone else is invisible.
“
Hey, baby,” he whispers in my ear, his face nuzzled in my hair. “I missed you.” I can feel his breath on my neck and it warms my heart. His lips graze my skin and it’s all I can do to not cover his mouth with mine.
My fingers run through the back of his hair and I inhale his familiar scent of outdoorsy soap and minty gum. “Oh, I missed you too. So much.”
“
They all stopped talking,” he mutters. “Everyone is watching us.”
“
I don’t care,” I whisper, my lips so close to his earlobe I want to nibble on it. He pats me on my bottom with one of his hands, while holding me with his other. “Fine. I’ll let you go.”
“
Not for long though, babe. I wanna hold you like this again, soon.” Reluctantly, I unravel my legs from around his body, and he puts me down with a quick peck on my cheek.
Thankfully, the music is booming, so I doubt anyone heard our exchange. When I finally take my eyes off him, I see Ben is here too.
“
Hey, Ben.” I hold out my arms to give him a hug.
“
What? You’re not going to jump all over me too?” he jokes.
I smack his chest as I back away from him. “Shut up. I see you all the time. Not often enough though. When are you going to pick me up from school so we can get Slurpees?”
He chuckles and ruffles my hair. “You’re on break. Wait until you get back. When you’re dying to ditch math, call me.”
I swat his hand away. “Count on it.” I link my hands in the crooks of both Alex and Ben’s arms and guide them toward our new friend. “Boys, this is Andi. She’s new to our school and she’s on the soccer team.” I introduce her to the guys.
“
Dude, nice to finally meet you both. These guys,” she gestures to all of us, “talk about both of you all the time.”
“
Meg’s told us a lot about you too,” Ben tells her, causing her to blush. I remember the first time I hung out with these two. I couldn’t stop from going red at the sight of them either. I thought I was going to turn into a cherry tomato, I blushed so much. Sometimes, I still do.
Eighteen
I’m heading into the kitchen when I notice we have a new visitor. I stop suddenly and whip around to search for Steph. Her mouth practically falls to the floor when she sees him walk through the door. His hulking presence is making a statement as always. It’s been so long since I’ve seen him. He looks taller and leaner, manlier. His messy curly mop even looks styled.
I watch as he’s greeted by the guys with the chest bump hug and secret handshakes. With every move, he seems to have one eye on Steph. The guys quiet down and get back to what they’re doing as Josh flies by me to get him something to drink. Her eyes are fixed on him as he makes his way over to her. Keesh is on the other side of the room and we meet each other’s worried gaze for half a second before we continue to observe Steph and Dominic together again.
There’s no doubt something is still there between them, even though they’ve steered clear of each other all year. They are so much better at breaking up than me and Alex. They’ve really followed through with moving on. Until now, that is. They still haven’t said anything, but the look in their eyes says it all. If they were alone, there’s no doubt they’d be all tangled up, devouring each other by now.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see that Keesh is on the move. Andi is chatting away with Travis.
“
Should we do anything?” Keesh mutters.
“
I don’t think so.” I can’t seem to peel my eyes away. “She doesn’t look upset or anything. Let’s just give them some time.”
“
Ladies, leave it alone. Let them catch up,” Ben whispers to us. “It’s been a long time. I’m sure it’ll be okay.”
I chuckle inside. I’m sure Ben can see the wheels turning in my head. “We’re not going to do anything. We’re just watching, you know. You see the way they’re looking at each other? They look like they want to eat each other.”
Keesh giggles. Ben shakes his head. “Yeah, I know. Where have I seen that look before?” he says.
“
Oh, I know where,” Keesh tells him, elbowing me in the ribs. “We all just witnessed it about a half hour ago.”
Ben sticks out his knuckles to her, and they do the fist bump, laughing.
“
You guys suck.”
“
Hey, you know who else looks like she’s ready to eat someone?” Keesh asks, with a grin.
“
I bet I can guess.” Ben gestures toward the pool table.
Huh. “She does look ready to pounce,” I agree with them. “Looks like Andi has a little crush.”
“
Yeah, and Travis doesn’t have a clue,” Ben says. He’s right. Travis is being his normal friendly self, showing her how to line up a shot. “I wonder how long it will take him to figure it out.”
Forever, probably. He’s not good at that kind of thing. I know from experience. He doesn’t take hints too easily. I don’t know how many times I told him to back off, and he wouldn’t have it. He’s probably just as clueless when it comes to seeing that a girl actually does like him.
“
Are you okay, Meg?” Keesh asks. “With Andi giving him the dreamy eyes?”
“
Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” She raises her brow at me. “I’m serious. I’m cool with it.”
“
We’ll see about that when Alex leaves and Andi is still up on your other man.” Keesh walks away and Ben practically spits out his beer.
“
Like I said earlier, you guys suck!” I yelp, heading back to the kitchen.
Okay, so Keesh may think she’s on to something, but I was totally serious. I wasn’t lying when I said I’m okay with Andi fawning over Trav. As surprising as it is, even to myself, I really am. I’m not quite sure what that means. Maybe it means my mom was right. Maybe it means I’m really moving on. Maybe it’s just because Alex is here, just a room away from me and I get to spend the week with him. Although, I don’t think so. If Andi and Travis hooked up, I’d be happy for both of them and wish them the best. Really.
After Steph kicks everyone’s ass at darts and Josh does the same at pool, the party starts breaking up. Ben is the first to leave. He has some late night plans, which is otherwise known as a booty call. The girls and I start gathering up red plastic cups and beer bottles so Josh isn’t left with a mess.