Cold as Ice

The dismissal bell rang and everyone stood up. Chairs scraped the tiled floor as people hurriedly shoved them in and left the classroom. It was Monday. Why were people in such a hurry to get out?

Johnny caught me at the door. "I'll wait for you outside, okay?"

"Sure." I leaned against the wall in the hallway, waiting for Bailey. I saw her in a sea of people, elbowing her way through, hurrying down the hallway with a get-the-hell-out-of-my-way look on her face. She broke out of the crowd and ran toward me, gripping my shoulders.

Her eyes were wild with excitement as she shook me back and forth. "You are never going to guess what just happened to me!"

"What just happened to you?" I asked her, as we headed for our lockers.

"You know that senior hockey player in my study block that you've been crushing on since the beginning of forever?"

I blushed at the thought of the very cute and very popular Cayden Nicols. "What about him?"

"He totally wants to ask you to formal." I raised my eyebrows. Bailey nodded. "I'm not even kidding!"

I raised them higher. "No!"

"Yes!" She squealed. "He told me to tell you to meet him outside after you get your jacket... and he said he thinks you're a real babe."

"No way!" I opened my locker and grabbed my jacket. So it was Cayden who was the popular guy who liked me. This was a huge deal for me.

Bailey stomped her feet in excitement as she opened her locker and got her black messenger bag and jacket out. "I am so happy for you. You don't even know."

My locker door slammed as I elbowed it shut and locked it. "I can't believe this." My heart was pounding. "I'll call you later!" I ran out of the locker pit, and went outside. Cayden Nicols thought I was a babe. For a second, Johnny's face came into my mind, his eyes glittering as he stared down at me, pinning me with his body against my kitchen counter. You're kind of hot when you're angry.

I shoved him out of my mind and looked for Cayden. I hadn't spoken to him much, but we crossed paths at least three times every day in the hallways. I'd had the hugest obsession with him since my first day in kindergarten. Third-grader Johnny had pushed me into a puddle and ruined my pretty yellow sundress. Cayden, also in third grade, helped me up and took me inside. Johnny received detention. I was in love with Cayden ever since.

I spotted Cayden's black hockey jacket and laid-back stance and nervously approached him. "Cayden?" I asked quietly.

He turned around and smiled at me with his movie star teeth. "Hey, Avery."

"Bailey said you wanted to talk to me?" I chewed on my lip.

"Yeah," Cayden chuckled, touching the spot under my chin with a curled index finger. "You're cute when you do that."

I felt my face go red. "Thank you."

"So, I was thinking about how the Christmas formal is coming up in a few days, and I don't have anyone to go with. Since it would be no fun to go alone, I was wondering about who I would ask - and I thought of you." He stroked my cheek with his soft thumb. I swear I felt the world go into slow motion. "If you're not already going with someone... do you want to go with me?"

"I'd love to." I said.

"Great. What colour is your dress?" He chuckled. "Yellow?"

I smiled. "It's blue."

"Good. Hopefully Johnny won't ruin this one. I can't wait to see it on you." Cayden winked at me, putting his hand in his pocket.

"HEY!"

We both jumped, and I turned around to see Johnny in the parking lot, his black Mustang idling with the window rolled down. "Get over here!"

"Is that... Johnny Frost?" asked Cayden, squinting his eyes. "I thought you two hated each other."

I looked up into his eyes as he glared over at Johnny. They were a deep shade of brown. "I'm getting a drive home with him - my brother's orders."

"Oh." He frowned, but then smiled down at me. "Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"Mmhm," I smiled and ran toward Johnny's car. I waved to Cayden as I got inside and closed the door. Johnny rolled the window up with a button on the steering wheel and drove away, his engine roaring. I'd never been inside Johnny's car before. Of course, I'd never wanted to, and I'd never had a reason to be in it. But now that I was in it, I noticed how nice the interior was. It was all sleek and leather, and there were blue lights under the seats.

I watched Cayden disappear in the rearview mirror, and stomped my feet and shook my head excitedly, snowflakes falling from my hair. "Oh. My. God!" I leaned my head against the headrest.

"What was that about?" asked Johnny, as he made a left turn. "You and Nicols have a thing going on?"

"Kind of." I smirked over at him. "Why, are you jealous or something?"

"Um, gross." He crinkled his nose and skipped a few songs on the CD that was playing, coming to rest on an Alice Cooper song. "I was just asking. Is that not allowed?"

"Generally you don't care about anything that has to do with me, unless it has something to do with you, that's all." I sniffed, and checked my hair in the mirror.

"Your hair's fine." He rolled his eyes, and slowed at a stop sign. "And well, it kind of does have something to do with me."

I rolled my eyes. "What does me going to formal with Cayden Nicols have to do with you?"

"You're going to formal with him?" Johnny gave me a look, turning right. "Your brother is going to blow a vein."

"Why? What's wrong with going to formal with Cayden?" I tilted my head.

"What's wrong with it?" He laughed once. "Cayden Nicols will take a girl to a dance for one of three reasons." He held up three fingers at me, bending one each time. "One: to stand them up as a cruel joke. Two: to make some other chick jealous. Or three: to get laid at the after party. Tell me,"--he fluttered his fingers--"do you want any of those to happen to you?"

"No." I looked at the floor. Johnny was just lying to me; making that stuff up so I wouldn't go with Cayden to formal - and be happy. "You're lying."

He shook his head, putting his hand back on the steering wheel. Johnny drove with a lazy five-and-eight, or sometimes just five, rather than the standard ten-and-two. "No, I'm not. He's a bona fide man whore. He's the town fucking bicycle. Everybody rides him."

"How would you know?" I asked.

"Because I used to be his friend. But he used me to get into my older sister's pants so I busted his face in his own backyard."

"That was you?" I asked. I remembered hearing about Cayden getting beat up at an after party for prom last summer, when I was in ninth grade. Johnny's older sister, Alexa, had been escorted by Cayden. All I'd heard was that at the after party at his house, Cayden went outside after a fight with Alexa and never came back in. Some kids found him the next morning, passed out in the grassy back yard with blood all over his face. Nobody knew who had done it - but apparently it was Johnny.

Johnny sighed. "Yeah, it was me. That's why we hate each other. He tried to suck my sister in but she was smart and pushed him away. And because you're kind of like a sister to me, only a bit younger and therefore easier to take advantage of, I don't want it to happen to you. I'm just warning you. So believe me or not, but don't come crying to me because he broke your fragile little heart." The car pulled to a stop in front of my house. Johnny put it into park and shut the engine off.

We went inside and I took off my jacket, hanging it up. Johnny came in behind me and yelled out to my brother. "Hey, Princess! Guess who your little sister is going to formal with!"

Ash came down the stairs in his Marvel Heroes boxers, rubbing his eyes. "Who?"

"Two-Pump Nicols."

"What the hell? When did that happen? No. You're making that up. You're kidding me." Ash looked at me, suddenly very alert. "Tell me he's making that up. Tell me he's kidding me."

"No, he's not. And what does two pump mean?" I crossed my arms.

Johnny and Ash shared a look. Ash shook his head. Johnny turned to me and cleared his throat, making a circle with his thumb and index finger, and made a double pump motion with his arm, throwing his hand into my face. "Two pumps and blastoff."

I slapped his hand away. "You are some kind of disgusting, you know that?"

He yanked me close to him, leaning down into my face. I could smell the cinnamon in his breath, and see a stormy sky in his eyes. "No, Sweetheart. I'm being serious. He's easier than a kindergarten math quiz. And I'll bet my left nut on the fact that if he's being serious about going to formal with you, the only thing on his one-track mind is how skippy-wicked your little ass is, and how badly he wants to just..." His hand trailed slowly from its place between my shoulder blades and down my back.

"Johnny!" Ash shouted.

"What?" Johnny looked over at my brother, his hand lingering on my tailbone.

"Don't touch my sister."

"I wasn't touching her, touching her." He defended. "I was, like..."

"You were still touching her!"

Johnny copied my brother's sentence in the high-pitched voice he used when mocking people. "You were still touching her!"

"Real mature, Johnathan." said Ash. "Why don't you go back to third grade?"

"Blow me, Prissy Pants." Johnny spat back.

"I'm going upstairs." I wriggled out of Johnny's grip and went up into my room before the fight got worse, kicking the door shut behind me. I flopped down on my bed and called Bailey.

She answered the phone with "What did he do this time?"

I almost told her that it was Johnny that had beat Cayden up, but something told me that it wasn't exactly a good idea. But I told her the rest of what happened. "He's trying to tell me that Cayden is a bad guy. He and Ash called him Two-Pump Nicols. And then he tried to grope me."

For a moment, she was silent. "So they're saying Cayden's easy? And... ew?"

"Apparently as easy as a kindergarten math quiz." I mimicked Johnny's deep voice while picking at my chipping black nail polish. "And he said that Cayden only asked me to formal because he thinks he'll get in my pants, or he wants to make some other girl jealous."

"In a way, it's flattering," Bailey tried. "Still, I can't see it being true. From all I've heard, he's a real sweetheart."

"I hope he is."

"Yeah... don't worry about it, Avery. I'm sure he actually likes you; I mean, he sounded like he did when he was talking to me."

"It just seems too good to be true, you know?"

She sighed. "I get what you mean. But why don't you just think of it this way: as far as you're concerned, you're going to formal with the biggest hottie in the school because he likes you. Give yourself some credit, okay?"

"Okay." I got up and opened my closet door, looking at my dress. It was strapless, with a heart-shaped neckline. The bottom flared outward and had black, glittery fluffy stuff underneath that fanned out when I spun in a circle. The colour reminded me of the ocean during a storm - the colour of Johnny's eyes. I quickly ignored the comparison and tried the dress on, spinning around in a circle in front of my mirror. I was delighted with how it made my legs look a mile long.

"Just a second." Bailey said. I heard her yell at her little brother for being an idiot.

There was a knock on my door. "Come in," I called. It opened, and I recognized Johnny's lanky arm as he slipped into my room. I told Bailey to hang on a second, but she said she had to go anyway - apparently her brother was going into her room and trying all her clothes on. I was thankful that I only had an older brother.

I hung up my cell phone and put it on my dresser, putting a hand on my hip. "What do you want?" I asked Johnny.

He stared at my body, taking his sweet time running his dark eyes all over it. They focused mainly on my legs, then flickered up to make eye contact with me. I raised an eyebrow at him, but felt myself blushing. He did that cocky half-smile and looked me up and down again. "Nice dress, Pipsqueak."

I felt the need to cover myself up, but instead I crossed my arms. From the corner of my eye I saw my reflection in the mirror; my cheeks were a light pink. "Answer my question."

He chewed his bottom lip. "Your dad just called. I guess he'll be staying in Florida or wherever he is for another week."

"What?" I dropped my arms to my sides. "Are you serious?"

"Serious as a heart attack." Johnny liked to think he was funny, but he really wasn't. He shrugged. "He told me he has more meetings than planned, and he said that he's sorry he's missing your formal. He wanted to see you all dolled up." He looked to the side. "Though I can't for the life of me figure out why anyone would want to see you for any reason."

"Said the boy who just undressed me with his eyes," I gave him my own version of his cocky grin. "Don't deny it."

"Right." He snorted, but I could see a slight change in colour on his cheekbones. "That's only because my imagination is twelve times better than what you actually look like undressed."

"You know, you need a brain in order to have an imagination, right?"

Raising a fist, he extended it toward me. "Watch your mouth or I'll knock your teeth in." I put my hand over it and raised my other hand in a fist. He smirked. "Ooh... scary."

"You're secretly afraid of me." I told him.

"Not really, no." He put his free hand over my fist, covering it whole. "You're like a little bunny rabbit."

"A bunny rabbit?" I stepped on one of his feet. "Well, you're like a big, smelly cow."

His laugh was deep. If it hadn't been Johnny's laugh, I would describe it as handsome. "It's funny how you think you can take me on."

I stepped on his other foot, raising on the balls of my feet. "I could, because I know your weaknesses."

"I don't have any weaknesses." He narrowed his eyes. "You're bluffing."

"Am I?" I narrowed my eyes.

"I don't have time for your stupid mind games." He let go of me and tugged his fist out of my grip, turning toward my bedroom door. Putting a hand on the doorknob, he looked at me one last time, piercing me with his eyes. "I really do like the dress on you. It's a damn shame, isn't it?" He closed the door behind him, and I balled my hands into fists.

What was it with him? He had moments where he was calm and almost nice to me, and then he had moments like that, moments that made me want to strangle him. I thought about what he had said about Two-Pump Nicols. Had that actually been the true story? Or was Johnny just pulling a sick prank on me?

I didn't doubt the fact that Johnny was the one who beat Cayden up. There were numerous times when Johnny stumbled into our house bloody, bruised and all fired-up from a fight. But had Cayden actually tried to get Alexa to have sex with him? The more I thought about it, the more it made sense.

It sucked. The very day that I was asked to the formal by my dream guy, Johnny shot me down. But maybe this time he was actually telling the truth.