Hilton smiled happily as she went to meet Jill and Todd, who were now walking up the dock, both of them soaking wet. She did still like Landon, and breaking up with Reed had put her in a great mood. And now she and Jill had the whole summer ahead of them to work on getting the guys they wanted.
***
“This is so fun,” Hilton said several hours later as she and Jill sat at a picnic table sharing a beer. Hilton was actually drinking most of it; Jill had only taken a few sips, but she hoped Todd would see her and think she was living it up a little.
She’d been disappointed when Todd didn’t go skinny-dipping with everyone else, but she’d made a point of being extra loud and giggly, splashing around energetically and swimming closer than normal to some of the older boys, hoping Todd would notice and maybe even be a little jealous as he stood up by the stone wall with Bennett. She wanted to look like she was having a good time and didn’t need him around in order to do so. She was having a good time, but one eye was constantly seeking him out, looking to see if he was watching her, willing him to come talk to her.
“Look at Lorylyn and Brady,” Hilton said in a relaxed, contented tone of voice, pointing lazily. “They’re so adorable. I love them.”
Jill’s gaze followed Hilton’s outstretched finger. Lorylyn and Brady were dancing playfully to a slow song, stepping clumsily around in a big circle and smiling intimately at each other, as if enjoying a private joke.
“They are adorable,” Jill sighed. “Man, I want a boyfriend so bad!”
“Hey, did you notice Matt and Brooke have been hanging out like, all night?” Hilton nodded toward the opposite side of the patio from Lorylyn and Brady. Just off the cement, Brooke and Matt sat side-by-side on a chaise lounge spread out in the grass. They were almost out of the light that flooded the patio, but it looked like they were smiling and having an animated conversation.
“Hmm, interesting.” Jill stretched her legs out in front of her and leaned back against the table. She suddenly felt exhausted. She raised her hand to her mouth to cover a yawn.
“You made me yawn,” Hilton said, covering her mouth as well. “Hey look, Reed’s talking to Jen. Aww, that’s good. Maybe they’ll get back together.”
“That’d be cool, I guess. You wouldn’t care?”
“No.”
“Hey, ladies.”
Jill and Hilton turned to see Landon approaching.
“Hey, hottie,” Hilton said with a flirtatious smile.
Jill envied Hilton’s ability to talk to the guy she liked so confidently; she couldn’t ever imagine herself saying “Hey, hottie” to Todd.
“So, I hear the gorgeous Hilton Joliet is single.” Landon took the beer from Hilton’s hand and took a long swig.
“Maybe,” Hilton said.
“Maybe?”
“I don’t know. Who’s interested?”
“Wow, I think I just got shot down,” Landon said dryly. He glanced at Jill, and she laughed.
“Were you proposing something?” Hilton asked, a smile pulling at the corners of her mouth.
“Maybe,” Landon grinned.
“Maybe?”
“What would you be up for?”
“Hmmm.” Hilton pretended to ponder the question. “Maybe a dance?”
“All I get is a dance? Damn. What do you think, Jill? I think she’s shooting me down.”
Jill grinned and shrugged.
“A hug?” Hilton asked.
“I’ll take a hug and a dance.”
“I don’t know, that’s a lot...”
“Oh, you little tease!” Landon laughed and pulled Hilton up off the bench, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and neck in a monstrous hug.
Hilton giggled and slid her arms around his waist, swaying her hips and shoulders and rocking them both from side to side.
“Okay, now I get a dance,” Landon said, grabbing Hilton’s hand and dragging her toward the patio.
“Jill, save me!” Hilton cried. Landon hooked his arm around her neck and pulled her head down, and the two of them laughed. As they walked up to the patio, Hilton turned and flashed Jill an excited smile.
Jill grinned back, happy for Hilton. Just then the bench beside her sank in as someone plopped down on it. Jill turned to see Todd.
“Hey, Jilly.” He was out of breath, and his long hair was all over the place.
“What were you doing?!” Jill asked, even though she knew because she hadn’t lost sight of him all night.
“Playing football.” Todd motioned down by the water. “Damn, I’m thirsty. Wanna get a beer?” He laughed and swatted at her hair.
“I’ll share one with you,” Jill said bravely.
Todd looked at her in surprise. “Really?”
“Yeah, sure, I just had one with Hilton.”
“Okay, then. Yeah, Jilly! I’ll go get one, hold on. I’ll be right back.”
As he headed up to the cooler by the patio door, Jill smiled in satisfaction. She wouldn’t really have to drink much, and now she had a foolproof excuse for spending the next twenty minutes or so with Todd.
But just as Todd returned to the picnic table, Landon stepped off the patio and announced it was time for spin the bottle. Jill was torn; she wanted to play, but she was disappointed she wouldn’t get to sit and talk to Todd now. She looked for Hilton and saw her step off the patio behind Landon and take a seat by him on the grass. Jill turned to Todd.
“Wanna play?” he asked. “Come on. Let’s go.” He stood up and grabbed Jill’s hand, pulling her to her feet. As they walked to join the circle, he handed her the beer and she took a small sip. She held the bottle up to her mouth for an extra second though, so it’d look like she was drinking more.
Todd smiled at her as she handed the bottle back. “See, it’s not so bad, right?”
Jill swallowed back a gag. “No, it’s all right, I guess.”
She was thrilled to be sitting next to Todd; at least if she didn’t get to kiss him, she’d still get to be close to him. As the game began, Jill was more conscious of Todd’s body next to hers than she was of the game. Every time he shifted she was aware of it, and when he pulled his knees up to his chest and his elbow briefly brushed her arm, she felt butterflies in her stomach.
“Ooohh, Todd!” someone suddenly squealed.
Jill looked up to see Blake Bishop walking toward them. Jill realized with a sick feeling that Blake’s spin must have landed on Todd.
“A repeat of New Year’s!” Blake giggled, and Jill felt like gagging even more than she had after every drink of beer. She’d been unbearably jealous when Blake had drawn Todd’s name on New Year’s and gotten to kiss him, and it just added to her list of reasons to hate Blake.
“Here,” Todd said, handing the beer bottle to Jill as he stood up to meet Blake.
She took it with a roll of her eyes. Great, I get to hold his beer while he kisses another girl, she thought sarcastically. She met Hilton’s eyes across the circle and they both rolled their eyes. Hilton stuck out her tongue ever so slightly, and Jill cracked a small smile.
She turned back to Todd and Blake, dreading watching them kiss but unable to not watch.
She was relieved to see it was just a brief smack on the lips. Todd immediately turned and headed back to his seat, and Jill could tell Blake was disappointed. Ha! she thought smugly.
Then Todd spun, and when the bottle stopped it pointed to Jill. She could hardly believe it. She was suddenly shaky all over from a mixture of excitement, nerves, and shock. She couldn’t even look at Hilton or Lorylyn. She looked at the ground, then at Todd.
“Hey, I don’t even have to get up this time!” Todd said, and everyone laughed. “Come here, Jilly,” he said teasingly, putting his arm around her and pulling her close.
Jill’s face was suddenly inches from his, and she was reminded once again of the time they’d had to hide, pressed tightly against each other, in the small pantry in the coaches’ lounge to save themselves from getting caught skipping
SRT, and Todd had teasingly brought his face so close to hers and then bit her neck.
Now, she quickly closed her eyes because she was afraid he’d be able to read everything she was feeling if she looked at him too long. Then his lips were on hers...full and warm and moist.
It was over before she could even think or breathe. Todd released his arm from her shoulders, and she quickly opened her eyes and pulled away, embarrassed. She hoped it hadn’t been obvious to him and everyone else how caught up in the moment she’d been, or how much she’d wanted that kiss. Her head was reeling and she felt suddenly dizzy.
Todd ruffled her hair. “You gotta spin now, Jilly.”
Jill blinked and laughed awkwardly. “I know.” She reached out and spun. The bottle landed on Hilton.
Jill breathed a sigh of relief. She didn’t think she could handle kissing another guy right now, plus she didn’t want to. She wanted to savor the taste of Todd’s lips on hers. She was afraid she’d look and feel shaky walking across the circle. Everything was happening so fast; she hadn’t expected the kiss with Todd, and she was in a sort of happy daze…it was like this wasn’t even real…none of it was actually happening.
She walked quickly to meet Hilton in the middle of the circle and they kissed each other lightly on both cheeks. Hilton was grinning from ear to ear.
“Hell yeah!” she whispered ecstatically. “Was it good? I wanna hear all about it!”
Jill grinned back, unable to hide her excitement.
“On the lips!” someone yelled.
“You wouldn’t kiss another guy on the lips!” a girl yelled back. “You guys never do! So why should we have to?”
“Oh, what the hell?” Hilton said carelessly. She grabbed Jill’s face in both hands and squashed her lips against Jill’s, making a smacking sound. Both girls giggled as all the boys clapped and whistled.
When Jill returned to her seat, the lightheaded feeling was gone and she was back to normal.
“Um, that was hot,” Todd said.
Jill laughed. “Must be the beer,” she lied boldly. She flipped her dark hair over her shoulder and pretended to be focused on the spinning bottle in the grass, secretly smiling to herself.
Although she’d barely had two sips of beer, this was what she imagined it must feel like to be drunk. A giddy high, a sort of blur, the careless ability to step outside of herself, to be bolder, more confident. More like the person she wanted to be on a regular basis. More like Hilton. And it was all because of a half-second kiss with Todd.
Wow, girl, you are out of control! she told herself, and then Todd was whispering in her ear and she leaned closer to hear.
“You were better than Blake.”
When she looked over at him, he flashed a goofy grin that she knew was meant to tease and punched her lightly in the shoulder.
Her heart soared. She didn’t care if he was serious or not. She wasn’t even going to analyze it. All that mattered was that he’d said it. He’d given her that compliment, and she wanted to take it seriously, so she would. He’d given her something to tell Hilton and Lorylyn about later, something she could always think about and smile.
She leaned back from his punch as if offended. “Well...obviously,” she scoffed, then laughed and ducked as Todd swatted at her with one hand and shoved the beer bottle up to her mouth with the other. She hoped this Todd high would last all summer.
chapter 2) perfect...
Every year for Hillary’s and Lorylyn’s birthdays, Jill, Hillary, Lorylyn, and Sam went to Cedar Point with Hillary’s parents. They always booked a hotel room and stayed overnight, and it was probably the one thing Jill most looked forward to every year besides spring break in Fort Myers Beach.
“So I was thinking this year, we go by ourselves,” Hillary said the day after Landon’s end-of-school party. She, Lorylyn, and Jill were standing around the shallow end of Jill’s pool, soaking up the sun on the first really hot day of the year. “Without my parents. And without Sam, of course.” She rolled her green eyes dramatically.
Jill, Hillary, and Lorylyn had fallen out of close friendship with Sam last fall when Sam had purposely failed to tell them about one of Landon’s parties and the three of them had all missed the party. Hillary had declared Sam no longer part of the pact the four of them had made before starting high school to always stick together.
Later in the year, Hillary’s obsession with her new boyfriend Dirk and a string of betrayals toward Jill had led Jill to bitterly eliminate Hillary from the pact in her own mind, but Hillary had never thought she did anything wrong and still considered herself very much part of the pact. For part of spring break Jill and Hillary had barely been on speaking terms, but since then things had smoothed themselves out, and Jill no longer felt bitter toward Hillary, but she did feel distant from her; she no longer felt the closeness she and Hillary had shared since preschool.
“What do you mean, by ourselves?” Lorylyn asked. “We can’t drive!”
“Well, I mean with the guys,” Hillary said, a sly smile sliding across her lips. “Like, Brady could drive.”
“Oh, that’d be so fun!” Lorylyn cried, clapping her hands. “Wait, though...we’d only be able to stay for the day then.”
“Oh, no, we’d definitely be staying the night,” Hillary said assuredly.
“What?! How could we do that?”
“Well, it’d be easy for you guys. You just act like nothing’s changed; your parents think mine are going, so just don’t tell them any different. I’m the only one who has to make something up. But I’ve already got it figured out. I’ll just say Lindy’s going and driving.”
“You really think that’ll work? Your parents won’t care there’s not an adult?” Jill asked doubtfully. She was nervous about lying to her parents yet again; it seemed it was happening more and more often. And she’d have to tell them Hillary’s parents weren’t going, because their families were good friends and it’d be bound to come up sooner or later. But she was excited too, because there was a possibility Todd would go if some of the other guys went. She could just tell him about it and make it sound like a big group outing and casually invite him...
“Yeah, probably,” Hillary said, waving Jill’s question away with her hand. “They’ve loosened up a lot this year, now that I’m in high school. They had said I couldn’t date till I started sophomore year, but now they’re letting me right after my birthday. Even though Dirk can’t drive yet, so it probably won’t make much of a difference.” She rolled her eyes. “Or maybe I’ll say Lorylyn’s parents wanna take us this year. Whatever. All I know is I’m spending the night in a hotel with Dirk.” She grinned.
“Oh my gosh!” Lorylyn said, suddenly worried. “You’re not gonna have sex with him, are you? Oh my gosh, I don’t know if I feel comfortable staying in a hotel with Brady! Couldn’t we do like a guys’ room and a girls’ room?”
“Well, you two can stay together if you want,” Hillary said, motioning to Jill and Lorylyn. “But I’m staying with Dirk.”
“So are you really gonna sleep with him, Hill?!” Jill asked, completely shocked.
“I don’t know.” Hillary looked truly thoughtful. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot, you know? I mean, I’m gonna be fifteen. And wouldn’t it be perfect to do it for the first time on my birthday?” Her eyes had a dreamy look.
“Agh!” Lorylyn shrieked. “I am so not doing it on my birthday! Not until I’m like twenty-one or something! I can’t believe you’re thinking about it!”
Hillary shook herself out of her trance. “Well, it’s not like I decided for sure yet. So who knows. But I still think we should go with the boys. What do you think, Jill?”
“I think it sounds fun. Who all would go?”
“Um, like Dirk, Brady...I don’t know...maybe Todd, Bennett? Hilton? We should ask Hilton. And whatever guy she wants to bring.”
Jill’s pulse quickened. If there was any chance Todd was going, she was in for sure. “Sounds good,” she said, trying to
keep her voice casual.
“Lorylyn? You wanna ask Brady if he’ll drive? And we’ll probably need at least one other person who can drive. We can figure something out. And then I’ll tell Dirk to ask whoever else he wants.”
That would have to include Todd, Jill thought. Right? Todd and Dirk were practically best friends....She hoped so! Hillary’s birthday was June 10, and Lorylyn’s was June 12. They were going to Cedar Point the tenth and eleventh, next Wednesday and Thursday. Less than a week away. And so much could happen on a two-day trip with Todd, with no other girls as competition for his attention and a shared hotel room....Wednesday couldn’t come fast enough.
***
They left at 5:30 Wednesday morning, with Brady driving Lorylyn, Hillary, and Dirk, and Landon driving Todd, Hilton, and Jill. Jill was secretly thrilled Bennett’s family camping trip had kept him from coming. Brady had invited Landon, Dirk had invited Todd, and now they were like four couples...
Jill knew Hilton was excited too. The two of them sat in the back of Landon’s Jeep, singing loudly and playing games with road signs the whole way. They’d stayed at Hilton’s the night before and were hyper from Mountain Dew and lack of sleep, as well as the anticipation of the next two days.
Jill had told her parents Lindy was driving, and although they’d seemed a little worried about the car trip and warned Jill repeatedly to make sure Lindy was staying awake while driving, they hadn’t really hesitated to let her go. She felt a tad bit guilty about the lie, but her excitement outweighed any negative feelings.
“X!” Hilton suddenly shouted. “On that billboard! Ha!” She flashed Jill a gleeful smile.
“Dammit! I might as well give up; there’s no way we’ll pass two Xs on this road.” They were playing the alphabet game, where each of them had to go through the alphabet, finding each letter on a road sign, license plate, or billboard. The first one to get to Z won. Both girls had been looking for an X for what seemed like forever.
“Looks like I’m not getting any sleep,” Todd groaned from the front seat.
“Good! Sit up anyway, you’re like giving Jill no room for her legs!” Hilton said.
Jill looked at her and giggled, then thumped loudly on the back of Todd’s seat, near where she thought his head would be. “Yeah, come on, Todd, you’re being such a party pooper!”