He looks at the clock and says, “merde,” again and then stops and looks at me.

“Good luck, Aiden.”

Annie runs up to the table and tosses a poster on it. “What do you think?!”

She’s very excited.

“Oh my gosh! That looks fantastic! I love how you did the Roar part coming out of a megaphone with the cougar sticker on it. Adorable.”

She looks around. “Can I talk to you?”

“Sure.”

“Ace asked me to hang out in his room on Saturday.”

“And?”

“And, does that mean he wants sex?”

“Not necessarily. Have you asked him?”

“No. I don’t want to sound stupid. I don’t want him to know I’ve never done it.”

“I was in Aiden’s room recently. Nothing happened.”

“I’m hoping to kiss him this weekend.”

“He has nice lips and awesome arms. I think kissing Ace would be fun.”

“You want to kiss him?”

“No! Like, I think you will enjoy it.”

“Yeah, probably. I hope so. What if he doesn’t try and kiss me?”

“Kiss him?”

“Maybe.”

“So are you going to do it with Dawson soon?”

“Do you think I should?”

“He seems to make you happy and kind of giddy. You still sort of obsess over Aiden, but it seems like you’re always mad at each other.

“Yeah, and you’re right. Dawson does make me happy.”

Party, celebrate, hookup.

10:40pm

We win the game. I dance well. Dawson plays really well.

I meet him outside the locker room afterwards to give him a kiss before I go to the dance thing.

He throws one arm around my shoulder while we’re walking toward his dorm with Ace, Brad, and Bryce.

“So what are you guys gonna do tonight without us girls around?”

“Oh, there’s gonna be plenty of girls around,” Brad tells me.

“We’re gonna party, celebrate, and hookup,” Bryce yells.

“Amen, brother,” Ace adds.

I look at Dawson. He’s grinning too, like that’s exactly what he’s planning on doing.

And that irritates me a bit. I know I have no rational reason to be irritated, but I am.

I walk faster, causing his arm to fall off my shoulder. “Well, you have fun. See ya later.”

Then I walk fast toward my dorm, not looking back. Actually, I’m not walking fast. I’m marching. I probably look like Gracie does, when she screams, NO! and marches away from you, clutching whatever she doesn’t want to give you back. Usually your phone.

From behind me I hear Dawson say, “Keatie, why did you just leave like that?”

I try to keep the emotions I’m feeling out of my voice. Which means, I resort to my bitch voice. “I have to get to the sleepover, and you have to get to your celebrating and hooking up.”

“Yeah, I actually want to talk to you about that.”

Great. See, I was right. He didn’t want me to kiss Dallas last night, but it’s okay for him. Damn. I totally should have made out with Dallas.

“Go ahead,” I say. “Talk.”

No wait. I’m not doing this. I’m not gonna be disappointed. I’m the one that doesn’t want to be in a relationship. He can kiss whoever he wants.

But then I look at him standing there, dark and gorgeous in front of me, and I can’t help but feel jealous. I don’t want his hot lava kisses touching anyone else’s skin.

He pulls me into his arms. I want to resist, but I can’t. He kisses me. I kiss him back. And it’s a really good kiss. Why would he want to kiss anyone else?

“Mhmmm. I love kissing you. Keatie?”

“Yeah, just say it, Dawes. Get it over with.” I roll my eyes at him.

“Get what over with?”

“Telling me you’re gonna hook up with other girls tonight.”

He kisses my check. “I don’t wanna hook up with anyone but you. I wanted to tell you that I’m going to miss you. I know you think we’re not ready to be in a relationship, but I’m not interested in anyone else.”

“Really?” I smile. It’s hard not to smile about that. “That makes me happy.”

“I want to make you happy. So, um, any chance you can sneak away tonight?”

“Probably not.”

“Then come to my dorm room real quick,” he says with a grin. “I have something I want to give you.”

“Dawson,” I say, assuming what he wants to give me is currently residing in his pants. “I have to go.”

He takes my face in his hands. “Please.”

“Okay, but we have to hurry.”

We run to his room. I’m slightly out of breath when he pushes me against the door and gives me a deep kiss. My body immediately heats up.

I press my fingers into his sides guiding his hips closer to mine.

“Mhmmm, Keatie, you’re going to have to stop that or I’m going to forget why I brought you here.”

I press my lips into his neck and suck on the spot near his ear that seems to drive him wild. “I thought this was exactly why you brought me here.”

He playfully makes a big gesture of pushing me off him. “There is a little present for you somewhere in this room. It’s your job to find it.” He walks over and lies back on his bed. “Better start looking.”

“Do I get any hints as to what I’m looking for?”

“How bout I tell you if you’re warm or cold?”

“Or hot?” I say, my eyes smoldering, taking in the sexy way he’s lying across his bed. He’s freshly showered, wearing red Cougar athletic shorts and a white XXL Cougar T-shirt with the sleeves and most of the sides cut out. I can see glimpses of his buff chest and abs. He’s got his elbow bent and is leaning on his arm, which causes his bicep to flex.

“You’re already hot,” he says. “I have a hard time focusing on the game when you’re dancing. I have this little fantasy where I get to strip that gold glitter thong off your sexy little ass and do you right there on the field.”

“Dawson!” I shrill, then giggle. “What am I looking for again?”

“Small wrapped package.”

I open his closet and peek inside at a jumbled mess of clothes. I could so never marry a man that had a messy closet. I’m just saying.

“You’re cold,” he says huskily.

I close the door and walk closer to his bed and examine his chest of drawers.

“You’re getting warmer.”

I open his top drawer. He keeps condoms there, underneath his boxers. I eye an unopened box of them. I grab the box and hold them up. “Is this it?”

He laughs. “Nope.”

I shut the drawer, look in the rest and move to his desk.

“You’re getting even warmer.”

I look around his desk, in his drawers, don’t find anything, so I walk over to his bed.

“Oh, yeah, now you’re getting very warm.”

“I am.” I smile at him then strip off my shirt to reveal the leopard bra he’s been dying to see.

“Aw, damn, Keatie.” He hops off the bed quickly and stands in front of me staring at the bra. Then his eyes follow his hands as they move slowly across it. He’s touching the bra almost reverently. Like it’s a trophy.

His hands caress their way down my sides and grip my waist. I reach through the open sides of his shirt, run my hands up his back, then pull his shirt off. He undoes my bra, letting it fall to the floor. I let him kiss my chest for a few minutes. His shirt is still in my hand, so I pull it over my head, putting it on.

He stands back admiring me in the shirt he just had on. “That may be the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen you in.”

Then he grabs me, throws me on the bed, and strips off our shorts.

“I am so late,” I say as I’m getting dressed. “I’m going to have to pretend I got sick or something.”

“You got something alright,” he says with a satisfied grin.

I laugh. “Were you my present?”

“Shit, no. I almost forgot.” He grabs his shorts off the floor, pulls a small wrapped box out of his pocket, and sets it in my hand. “Open it.”

I untie the distinctive robin’s egg blue ribbon, open the box, and pull out a little blue pouch. I turn the pouch upside down and out drops a necklace. A Tiffany key necklace. My mom went a little crazy with the key necklaces for me when they came out, but I don’t have one like this.

“It’s really pretty.”

He takes it out of my hand and says, “Let me put it on you.”

I hold my hair up while he fastens it around my neck.

He leans in and whispers in my ear, “I know we’re supposed to be taking it slow. I know you don’t want to be in a relationship until we’re sure, but I wanted to give you this.” He runs kisses across my face and when he gets to my lips, he murmurs, “It’s the key to my heart.”

Awww. Ohmigawd, that’s so adorable.

But no.

No. No. No.

I unfasten it and take it off.

“Dawson, I can’t accept this.”

“Why not?”

“You know why.”

“You think I’m still in love with Whitney.”

“I think you’re not ready to be giving away your heart.”

“Fine then,” he says, while fastening it around his own neck. “I’m wearing it. I want you to see it every day. When you’re ready, you take it back.”

I give him a long, sweet kiss. “You have a deal.”

He smacks my ass and says, “You’re so late.”

Saturday, September 10th

Glitter everywhere.

1pm

The dance sleepover is actually really fun. We spend many hours learning a new routine for a dance competition that we’ll be in later this year. Then we spend another few hours on team-building activities. Mostly silly, but fun games to help us all get along. After that, we eat junk food and gossip. Katie and I get home at seven this morning and both immediately fall into bed.

At one, I meet with Brad and the dean. We discuss the idea of having a themed weekend once a month. How we would like to involve multiple groups and clubs. How we want to support a charity. And how it will promote school pride. The dean loves our idea in theory and approves us to move forward with a specific plan. He tells us if we can get the plan together, he’d like to have our first weekend in November, when perspective students come to visit for the weekend. He thinks it will be a great selling point for the school.

After that I meet Katie, Maggie, Riley, Dallas, Jordan, and Parker in Annie’s dorm’s common room to work on posters. We have a ball making signs and sneaking off to her room to take nips of wine.

I’m a little tipsy and covered in glitter when I meet Dawson later to watch the lacrosse game. I still don’t understand the sports here, exactly, but somehow Logan is able to play both lacrosse and football. He is a decent quarterback but it’s clear that this is where he puts on a show. Vanessa always had a thing for the lacrosse team and I went to quite a few of their games. Logan is a damn good player. Those back muscles that I’ve admired in math class are being put to good use.

Dawson pulls my hand up to his mouth and kisses it. “I’ve missed you today. Can we hang out tonight? Maybe go play mini golf and get some dinner or something?”

“That sounds like fun. And I missed you too.”

He brushes a finger across my collarbone. “You have glitter everywhere.”

I laugh. “I know. I’m pretty sure it’s literally everywhere on my body.”

His dark eyes smolder at me. “Maybe I need to find all the glitter.”

“Gonna be hard to do at mini golf.”

“Maybe we need to make a little wager on golf.”

“What kind of wager?”

He wraps his arm around my waist, pulls me in close to his side, and puts his mouth up to my ear. He nibbles on it before whispering, “I win, we go parking.”

“I’ve never been parking. I might just let you win.”

“Really? Well then, there’s no bet. We’ll put that on our list for tonight. You’ve really never been parking?”

“No. Is that weird?”

“Kinda.” He laughs but puts his mouth up by my ear again. “Don’t worry. I’ll be gentle.”

I push his shoulder away from me. “I don’t think gentle is in your dictionary.”

“Maybe it will be tonight.”

I roll my eyes at him.

“Come on. Let’s go get ready and get out of here.”

We walk down the bleachers and head toward the dorms. “I probably should shower.”

He pulls me tightly into his body. “Don’t you dare. I told you, I plan on finding every speck of glitter on you. But what I didn’t tell you is that I’m gonna lick every speck off.”

“Hmmm, well then I might need to swing back by Annie’s and borrow some extra glitter. I’m pretty sure the glitter isn’t really everywhere.”

He drops me off at my dorm, smacks my butt, and says, “Anywhere you want my tongue,” and walks away.

I’m tempted to run to Annie’s and roll myself in glitter.

Sunday, September 11th

She’s really pretty.

9:30am

I’m lying across Dallas’ bed. He’s sitting on the floor in front of me while I massage his shoulders. Riley is sitting in his desk chair, rolling around and trying to figure out how to rule the world. Or, at least, how to sleep with it.