Twisted

Sean flirted with me for the next two weeks. He also flirted with a basketball player named Marissa; Wendy, who had the drum solo in the marching band; both of the Smith sisters, and Abigail, the moronic junior who I put through the gym locker. I figured the only thing he saw in Abigail was the Corvette she had been promised for her seventeenth birthday. Sean was smart like that, always looking ahead.
If you lined me up with the other girls, you’d start singing “One of These Things Is Not Like the Others” from Sesame Street. The other girls, they all blurred into each other: rich, ditzy, athletic, and/or popular. Me, I stood out, the semi-rebel girl guaranteed to keep the excitement in his life.
Of course, there was always the chance that he was totally setting me up for major humiliation or that this was all mercy-flirting. But, honestly? I didn’t care.

---

You could tell that Halloween was just around the corner when the Christmas decorations went up at the mall. The weather finally turned cold, and girls started wearing turtlenecks that showed their bellybuttons.
Sean was also now touching me an average of 2.4 times a day.
The day the doctor gave him permission to perform on stage again was the first day he hugged me. Hug #1. He hugged a bunch of other people, too, including all his bandmates, Hipster Abigail, and both Smith sisters, but he was enthusiastic like that.

---

When I saw Mr. Benson at the courthouse that afternoon, he said I looked different.
“Got a boyfriend?” he asked.
“Nah.” I shook my head.
“Nothing like a man to lift a woman’s spirits. Be safe. See you next month.”

---

The night of the first hug, I dreamed about beating Kelsey Caine into a bloody pulp. She got in a couple of good shots; I had a black eye and my mouth was bleeding. My last punch sent her flying off the roof we were standing on. We were so high in the air, I didn’t even hear her land.
And then I was in Sean’s arms, and he wasn’t mad at all that I had just obliterated his sister. He put his fingertips under my chin.
My heart beat so fast I thought I was going to die.
He moved in slowly… and pressed his lips to my mouth.
I kissed back. Harder.
I would have been thinking raw caveman thoughts had I been a boy, but this time it wasn’t about beating a girl to death. I wanted a man, I wanted this man.
He cradled the back of my head in his hand. A strand of my hair fell into his eyes. The universe was spinning, and this kiss was the only thing that mattered. I opened my mouth. Sean’s tongue glided over my teeth. We tasted like blood and metal.
And then I woke up.
The dream was a sign, a magical intervention by all the saints and spirits in charge of helping outcast girls desperate for a boyfriend.

---

Those saints and spirits had nothing to do with decent grades, though, which is why the neck day began with another Calc quiz. But I forgot about it as soon as I was out the door, because he was standing there, waiting for me.
I almost swallowed my tongue.
“Hey, Elise,” he said.
“Hhhn,” I answered.
“Thought I’d come see you for a change. So… you going to the game tonight? ‘Cause I am. And then I’ll probably be at Wilson’s house- Tyler Wilson? His parents are in Jamaica. It’ll be a sick party.”
“Hmm?” I asked.
He blinked his eyes in slow motion. I wracked my brain trying to come up with something intelligent to say, something that would make sense, anything to keep him standing close enough so that I could keep smelling his cologne because it was hitting my brain like crack cocaine.
“Huh?” Is what I finally came up with.
“You silly girl,” he said with a sigh, disguised as a chuckle. “I want you,” (he put his hand on my left forearm and slid it up under the rolled-up sleeve) “To go with me,” (he stepped so close I could feel the heat coming off of him) “To a crazy Halloween party.”
I regurgitated my tongue and looked around at the crowded hall. “You’re not joking, are you? I mean… you know what I mean. You’re not punking me- nobody’s filming this shit?”
“No, Elise,” he smiled. “Look, I like you. We’re not going out, but I like you, okay? I want to spend time with you. You getting the hint here?” His fingers curled around my shoulder.
“Oh, uhm… yeah…”
While I struggled to remember a single word of my native language, the bell rang. Sean pulled away from me. I instinctively shivered.
“So, I’ll be at the bonfire tonight, and then the game. S’at Wilson’s house, too- the bonfire, anyway. See you there? If your dad doesn’t go off the deep end again, I mean.”
“...Yeah, sure.”
He flashed me a grin and a wink, then he was gone, striding down the hall.