Bad Boys & True Love

After putting my atrocious hair into a ponytail and putting on mascara—I know it’s just Mike, but I love my mascara—I was ready. I linked my arm with Christina and we skipped out of the house together, an action that could have only been made cooler if we’d been singing show tunes.

Her yellow VW Bug was parked at the end of the driveway. Automatically, like I did every time I got a ride with her, I hollered “Slug Bug!” and punched her arm. I had to punch upwards because I was so small, but it was still sweet vengeance. Maybe she should stop waking me up all the damn time.

“Ow, Stella,” she whined. “I hate it when you do that. God…”

“Shut up, you big baby,” I teased and giggled. She gave me a murderous glare though, so I backed off.

From the corner of my eye, I saw movement, and I instinctively looked over. Sean, the guy at the window, and two other girls were all piling out of his house. A second later, the guy whipped out of water gun and started attacking the two girls, who started squealing like mad. I looked at Sean, who was now holding a hose and helping his friend, and felt my stomach jump. That looked like fun.

Christina looked over her shoulder to see what I was staring. “Oh, there’s the douche bag. I don’t know about you, but I kinda want to kick him in the nuts.”

I snickered and climbed into her car. She started it and looked at me. “You can invite Sean if you want.”

I bit my lip. “Uh, he looks a bit busy to me.”

Christina sighed and turned on her radio. Some mainstream pop song started playing softly. I resisted the urge to turn it off; all that obvious Auto-tune annoyed me almost as much as not being able to stick a ballet routine. “Fine. You’ll never know, though; he might have jumped right in.”

“Shut up,” I mumbled and stared at the window as we drove by. Sean sprayed a pretty blond girl with his watering hose and looked like he was having the time of his life.

I bet he’d already put hanging out with me at Tony’s out of his mind. We were from two different worlds anyway, and I didn’t stand a chance.

*

“Mike!” Christina yelled happily as she flew into Mike’s outstretched arms. They embraced and I looked away. I know it was just hugging, but it felt really…I don’t know, intimate? I’d never had anything like that in any of my boyfriends.

We were at Mike’s house—sigh—and had approximately four hours until the movie. Mike better be as cool as Christina promised, or else this would seriously suckkkk .

They broke apart, Christina beaming, Mike smiling politely at me. He was very good-looking, I decided, with curly black hair that was thicker on top than on the sides, and a wide, muscular jaw. He also had hazel eyes like me, but I thought his were a bit better. Brighter, I guess. “Hey Stella,” he said warmly.

I smiled back and hugged him. He was just as tall as Christina, if not taller. Why was I so short? Even in my ballet class I was the shortest. Seriously not cool.

“Hi Mike. Nice house.” I looked around appreciatively. The walls were painted a forest green with a white trim and had tons of family photos on them. The back wall was completely made of bookshelves. And best of all, they had a giant plasma screen. I know where I’m spending my four hours!

“Thanks.” He grinned and wrapped an arm around Christina’s waist. She hugged him around his torso and kissed his jaw. Golly—they’d only been going out for a week and already acted like they were in love. “I guess I should give you a grand tour.”

I shrugged. “Completely unnecessary. Unless you wanted to, that is, because I really don’t mind. Your house smells good and everything.”

They laughed; I wasn’t joking.

“So, anyways,” Mike said, looking at Christina, “my cousin’s having this bonfire later on and you two can come if you want. It starts at sunset.”

Christina looked to me for permission. Hmm…a bonfire? That would be a first. My mind flashed back to Sean flirting with those girls in his front lawn. Well, he wasn’t the only one who knew how to have fun. “We’d love to!” I exclaimed. Christina’s face broke into a wide grin.

“Great,” Mike said, looking pleased. Did he notice Christina looked to me for an answer—because if so, now he knew who’s ass to kiss.

I giggled and they both shot me curious looks. “Oh…I just remembered a funny joke…”

Christina rolled her eyes. “You’re so weird, Stell.”

I mimicked her childishly. “Whatever. I just want to watch X-Men already. That’s movie’s going to be the shit, I can tell!”

“What? X-Men?” Mike repeated, because he had no clue I’d been bribed to come here.

Christina pretended she didn’t hear him and gripped onto his arm. “Baby, I’m hungry,” she whined.

“Stop complaining,” I teased.

“What do you want, sweetheart?” he replied back.

“Whipped,” I muttered jokingly. Mike shot me a playful glare—but he didn’t deny it.

“I want…” Christina paused to ponder her choices. “Oh! How about a snow cone?”

Mike looked at her with both infatuation and exasperation. “I don’t have any snow cones, Chrissy.”

Chrissy? I snickered under my breath.

“Baby,” she whined, jumping up and down. I think she only did that because it dragged attention to her boobs, which pretty much made guys do whatever you wanted. Sly little bitch,

I thought, grinning. “I want a snow cone!”

“Fine,” he said, trying to look very upset, “I’ll get you a fucking snow cone.” His smile broke through. He sighed heavily, like he had no clue why he was putting up with this crazy chick, before leading us to his truck outside.

I wanted to call shotgun, but I knew Christina would start to complain and I really didn’t want to deal with her bitching. We all climbed into the massive black truck. Country music started playing, surprising me. Mike looked more like a rock and roll kind of guy.

“So…where are we going?” I asked, since Christina seemed blissfully unconcerned.

“The grocery store has a snow cone vendor outside. It’s only about ten minutes away,” Mike explained, reversing out of his driveway.

“Who’s your cousin?” Christina asked randomly. “The one throwing the bonfire?”

“Drew Buchanan. He’s a senior.”

I felt a jolt at the sound of sexy Drew’s name. Did that mean Drew was going to be there? I should’ve put on more than just mascara! Ugh, and one of my cute dresses too! “Thanks for the warning,” I mumbled quietly.

Christina threw me a questioning look, but Mike hadn’t heard me. I looked out the window like I couldn’t feel her eyes on me.

We arrived at the grocery store just a few minutes later and Christina practically ran towards the snow cones, dragging Mike along with her. I followed along at a sane-person pace.

She was hopping up and down again, but this time it was because she was as hyper as fuck. “I want watermelon, I want watermelon!”

Mike grinned—he found this endearing?—and pulled out his wallet. “What would you like, Stella?” he asked me politely.

“Oh, I’m good,” I said. He probably only offered because it would have been rude if he hadn’t.

“No seriously. I don’t mind paying for you.” Mike smiled encouragingly at me. So I guess he did notice that I was the leader of our duo…

I almost snorted. Like I could control Christina.

I blushed. “I guess coconut,” I muttered sheepishly.

The line evaporated the snow cone vendor. A guy about our age was inside of it, trying to look like he was happy about working on a Saturday. “What’ll it be?”

“One watermelon, one coconut, and one…green apple. All large.” He paid for us, which was incredibly sweet, and handed me my blue snow cone. Yummy.