I was frozen in shock as both Ms. Diaz and Mr. Hayes were standing at the doorframe, looking right at me.
"Emma? Are you okay, dear?" Ms. Diaz said.
"Um, yeah..." I was scrambling for an excuse, "I just have some questions to ask Mr. Hayes about the AP art portfolio,"
"Oh, okay," she said and turned her head back to Mr. Hayes, "I'll see you later, then?"
Mr. Hayes smiled and nodded. Ms. Diaz was glowing in confidence as she strode away, leaving the two of us alone.
"You have something to ask me?" Mr. Hayes' gaze sharply turned to me.
"I... uh, was wondering if I could borrow some... chisel for my art piece,"
The chisel was the first thing I saw when my eyes darted into the room for help.
"Sure, just sign your name and make sure you return it," he gestured to the sign-in sheet on the desk.
"...Okay," I made my way into the classroom awkwardly, grabbed a chisel from the cabinet, and wrote my name on the sheet.
All the while, Mr. Hayes was just standing there, leaning against the doorframe, looking at me with dark, brooding eyes.
I got everything I needed and I was about to walk out the classroom, but I couldn't help myself and my mouth blurted out, "So, I guess the rumors are true. Are you going out with Ms. Diaz?"
Mr. Hayes looked taken aback by this question. Cocking his head to the side, he studied my face and said, "What I do with Erica Diaz is none of your concern, Emma,"
"Right..." I trailed.
"I didn't say anything about you and that jock-kid," he sneered.
Jock-kid? Did he mean Ryan? Oh, so he heard us this morning.
We looked at each other for a while as our eyes were narrowed sharply at each other. There was this unspoken tension in the air and it was getting uncomfortable.
"Whatever, this is pointless. You're right. I'm sorry I even said anything," I said finally, breaking off the staring contest.
Mr. Hayes didn't say a word in response, so I decided to walk away.
"Enjoy your date," he said suddenly and it made me stop my tracks.
His words sounded bitter. Or maybe I was the bitter one.
Without turning around, I breathed out, "You too, Mr. Hayes,"
EMMA's POV :
"I don't think I'm ready for a full-on date yet. I get all nervous just thinking about it,"
I groaned into my pillow and threw my head back on the bed. Tiff and Carrie were sitting next to me. It was a typical Thursday night for us girls. We were binge-watching Sex and the City for the gazillionth time when I got a text from Ryan. He was asking if we could go out tomorrow night.
"We can all go as a group? Maybe that'll take your mind off things," Carrie suggested.
"Actually, that's not a bad idea," my body shot up in response.
If we were all going out as friends, it might even be fun.
"And I know just the thing. There's a party tomorrow night at Madison Davis' lake house. Everyone will be there. It'll be perfect," Tiff made a good point.
"That's a great idea, Tiff. And Em, if the date turns out to be sucky, you can always hang with us," Carrie added.
I nodded at their suggestions. Not wasting any more time, I replied to Ryan's text, asking him about going to the party at Madison's house.
"He says he'll be there!" I squeaked as soon as I read his response.
"Yay! This is gonna be fun," Tiff shot Carrie and I a knowing look.
It had been a while since I got a chance to let loose and have fun with my friends. The last time we did that was for my birthday and look at how it all turned out. I just hoped that things would start looking up from here on now.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Friday night came in a blink of an eye.
Tiff and Carrie came over after school so we could get all get ready at my house. Mark would pick us up at 8.30 or so and we'd all head to Madison Davis' lake house.
I had to admit, it was fun trying out clothes and getting ready for a party with my friends. We played a lot of J Balvin and Bad Bunny songs to get us in the mood, and it was working. I was thoroughly happy and I felt great when I stepped out in my crop tank top and skirt and my girlfriends started fake drooling.
"You're gonna give Ryan a heart attack with them skirts!" Tiff commented.
"Yeah? Tell that to your cleavage," I motioned to her choice of outfit, a very tight black tank top.
"Guys, Mark is here. Come on, we have a party to get to," Carrie said as we scrambled to get our things and shoved them into our tiny purses.
"Hey, do you want one?" Tiff whispered to me suddenly, revealing a pack of condom in her hand.
"Oh, no," I muttered quickly, "I don't think things are gonna go that far,"
"Just better be safe than sorry," she said again and quickly slipped the condom into my purse.
"What are you two chit-chatting there about, come on, chop-chop!"
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Madison Davis was the Queen Bee at our school. She was head cheerleader and her parents were loaded. She reminded me a lot like Regina George from Mean Girls, except she wasn't that mean and she loved throwing parties. She was dating Brad, captain of the football team, and they were the power couple of West Lake High. The Kanye and Kim K, if you must. Which was why it was important for them to throw awesome parties every now and then to assert that dominance.
Tiff, Carrie, and I were the in-betweeners. We were social and somewhat popular, just not at the top of the food chain. But I liked that about us, it gave us a range. We can party like animals when we want to, study like nerds when we need to, and still have the best of both worlds.
The Davis' lake house was this huge awesome two-story glass mansion that you would often see in Architectural Digest. As soon as we pulled up to the driveway, we noticed the already many cars that were parked there.
"Seems like the party has started," Tiff said in a singsong way.
Leading the way, she pulled my hand so we would walk faster toward the door. As soon as the door opened, I saw people in every direction and they were drinking, dancing, laughing, making out, playing beer-pong-basically everything hormonal teenage kids would love to do when the adults weren't around.
"Hey, you made it," I heard a familiar voice as we entered the living room.
I turned around and saw Ryan, smiling his mega-watt smile at me. He was with his other football friends, but he left them and strode over to me.
"Hey," I said to him.
"Can I get you a drink?"
I looked at Tiff for a split second and she was grinning at me with two thumbs up.
"Sure,"
"Okay, I'll be right back," he said as he slipped toward the kitchen.
"You two kids talk and I'll go get myself my own kind of refreshment," Tiff winked naughtily.
"And if you ever need anything, just come look for us," Carrie said sweetly, gesturing between her and Mark.
Moments later, Ryan was back with two red plastic cups in his hands. Tiff, Carrie, and Mark took this a sign to scoot away.
"So, how're things?" Ryan started with small talk. He looked kind of nervous.
"It's great. How was practice?"
"It's good. Just a bit tired. But all good,"
Somehow we both were being awkward and didn't know what to say to each other. Thankfully, Madison and Brad were walking by and they stopped to talk to us.
"Guys! Come join us, we're playing a game. We need another couple to play," Madison was slurring her words a little bit.
Couple?
"Upstairs. Now," Brad was motioning for Ryan and me to follow him.
Ryan and I exchanged a look and we just shrugged. Seconds later, we were climbing up the stairs to the second floor master bedroom, right behind Madison and Brad. Madison flung the door open and revealed four other people were sitting around in the middle.
"Found us some more players!" Madison cheered.
Everyone welcomed us in and gestured for us to sit around the circle. Brad closed the door shut and joined Madison around the circle.
"So, what are we playing?" I asked the group.
"It's a couple truth or dare," some girl answered me.
"Pretty self-explanatory," Madison added as she picked up an empty beer bottle and placed it in the middle of the circle.
"Oh, but we're not..." I looked over to Ryan and he just grinned sheepishly.
"Let's start!" Brad announced as he spun the bottle around ferociously.
Before I could say anything else, the bottle was spinning and spinning until suddenly it stopped directly in front of Ryan.
"Ryan! Truth or dare?" the group cheered in excitement.
"Uh..." Ryan thought about it for a while and said, "truth?"
The group looked at each other, grinning mischievously before one person asked, "What are you guys' favorite position?"
I almost spat the drink in my mouth, but I quickly held it together. I shot a look over at Ryan, who was looking right back at me, not knowing what to say.
"Err, we actually haven't done anything," Ryan admitted finally.
"Boo! No way!" The group protested.
"Come on, man!"
"Stop lying!"
"It's the truth," Ryan laughed and the group continued to groan. Meanwhile I just smiled sheepishly at everyone.
Guess they picked the wrong couple for this game.
"Okay, okay, just spin it," Madison ordered and Ryan complied.
The bottle spun again for a few seconds, and lo and behold, it landed in front of me.
"No more truths for you two," Madison said quickly before I could say anything else.
"So... that means... dare?" I asked cautiously.
"Yes!" The group cheered and clapped.
"I dare you two to make out in the bathroom for seven minutes," Madison squeaked and the group cheered harder.
"Seven minutes in heaven, classic choice, babe," Brad added.
I looked over at Ryan who just smiled and shrugged. I gave him a small smile back as he gave his hand out to me. People started oohing as Ryan and I made our way to the bathroom.
As soon as the bathroom door closed, we heard someone yelled, "seven minutes starts now, lovebirds! Make it count!"
I could hear the group's giggle and laughs in the background. Ryan shuffled nervously and he raked his dirty blonde hair with his hand.
"Yeah, this is stupid. We don't have to do anything if you don't want to," he said finally.
"Okay," I breathed, thinking for a while before saying, "But they probably can tell,"
"Well, maybe we should, like do something to make it look like we made out,"
I raised an eyebrow and asked, "Like what?"
"Like..." he took a moment, scanning around the room, and then he came over to me and started ruffling my hair with his hand, "Like this!"
"Hey!" I protested and moved to ruffle his hair in exchange.
Next thing we knew, we were laughing and chasing after each other. We ruffled each other's hair and pulled each other's clothes so it looked all crumply. I was standing at an arm's length away from him, my hands were fisted into his shirt, trying to crumple them. When I looked up, I saw his bright blue eyes gazing deeply into mine. We stared at each other for a few more seconds and all of a sudden, he closed his eyes and leaned in until his lips landed on mine.
My breath hitched immediately as I didn't expect it. His kiss was nice and sweet, so I let him kiss me for a bit, before I finally relented and started kissing him back. After a little more kissing, I felt his tongue grazing against my lip. I parted my mouth slightly and allowed his tongue to delve inside, meeting and intertwining with mine.
His hands were on my hips and my hands were on his chest. As our kiss grew deeper, hands traveled around my back and gripped my butt tightly. I let out an involuntary moan as he let out a muffled groan.