I went and talked to the guys. I found Bert trying to hit on Kim, but he didn’t seem to be having any success. I snuck up behind her and planted a big kiss on her neck. She tried to fight me off until she saw who it was. Bert’s ears turned red, so I let her go because I wanted to talk to him.
“You do realize you won us the game today,” I told him.
He looked at me in shock.
“The block you threw gave me the time to hit Bill with the touchdown pass.”
Bert suddenly had a huge smile on his face.
“You mean that, don’t you?” he asked.
“Of course, I do. Next year you’ll be even better. I expect you to work hard,” I said.
What I wasn’t saying was he couldn’t get any worse, and even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then. That would have been childish. I could tell I’d just made a friend for life by the way Bert was beaming when I left him. I also thought Kim was looking at him a little differently. He’d be a lucky boy if she decided he was ready.
Bill brought Pam back to me, and she looked undamaged. She gave me a hip-check when I made a show of checking for fingerprints. Bill just leered at her, gave me a wink, and went to find his girlfriend. He came up short when Cora took my other arm. I was sure the rumors would get started soon. We went and found Wolf, Jim and Cassidy.
“Hey, Sexy Ninja, can you spare one of your boys to dance with one of my girls?” I asked Cassidy.
She looked at Pam and Cora and gave me a hard look.
“Are you crazy? Jim and Wolf would leave me in a heartbeat to dance with them,” Cassidy complained.
I raised my eyebrows and wiggled them. She was smarter than the average girl, and she figured out that meant she could dance with me. She waved them over.
“David needs you to dance with his dates,” Cassidy said with a straight face.
Jim and Wolf looked at each other a little nervously. If Cassidy and I had something planned, they figured it couldn’t be good for them. The trouble they were having was figuring out the downside to dancing with Cora and Pam. I just grabbed Cassidy’s hand and led her out onto the dance floor. I figured if they were too dumb to dance with them, then so be it. The good news was they finally figured they had nothing to lose.
The song switched to a slow song. Pam was behaving with Jim, but Cora had Wolf flushed and looking like he was going to bolt.
“You might want to go save Wolf,” I told Cassidy.
“He’s a big boy. He can handle it,” she said, not willing to let me go.
“When are you going to pick one?”
“Soon. I think Jim’s interested in dating Piper,” she told me, and when she saw my look, she laughed.
“Yes, the rumor is you’ve been a bad boy with Piper, but it’s okay. You had no idea Jim was interested, so he isn’t mad at you. He is a little worried about measuring up,” she giggled.
“Jim has nothing to be concerned about. Plus, Piper and I have never hooked up,” I said to defend both Jim and myself.
“I know. He just doesn’t have your skills.”
I just rolled my eyes. I looked up and saw Wolf was red-faced as he brought Cora over. Cassidy took pity on him and we switched.
“You have to remember you’re dancing with high school boys.”
“They do grow them big here. I should take you boys to Southern California. The girls there would love you. I do think that last guy would stroke out if my friends got ahold of him.”
“I’m going to be in LA the first week of January. Maybe you could hook me up with some of your friends,” I suggested. “If they’re anywhere near as cute as you and your sister, I could see having a little fun.”
“My best friend tells me she’s breaking up with her boyfriend of several years. You might be just what the doctor ordered,” Cora said as she got out her phone.
She showed me a picture of a girl who looked like a young Adrienne, which made me very interested. Cora stepped back from me and took my picture. She sent a text to her friend. Two minutes later her phone was ringing. Cora went off to talk to her friend, so I went and got a beer. That was where Pam found me.
“What’s Cora up to?” she asked.
“She’s setting me up with one of her friends when I go to LA. She says she’s going through a breakup, and when I’m out there in January she might need someone to comfort her.”
“I bet. Be sure to double-wrap if you hook up with one of Cora’s slutty friends.”
“That bad, huh?” I asked, and she just nodded. “I wanted to tell you Cora isn’t buying that you’re my girlfriend. She said we just had sex, and she didn’t get the couple vibe.”
“Crud. We have to go back home and have you make passionate love to me,” she teased.
“This party sucks. I’m ready to go.”
She thought I was joking until I kissed her. We rather forgot where we were. The next thing I knew, Cora was prying us apart. She shoved her phone into my hand and pulled her sister towards the door to get some fresh air.
“Hi,” I said as an original opening.
“Cora said you were looking for some company when you come out to LA. Why’re you going to be out here?” she asked.
I told her about the movie, and how we were doing a read-through of the script. She didn’t believe me, so I told her about the website. She was suddenly very interested. I was suddenly very worried. Uncle John had warned me. This girl, I didn’t even know her name, wanted me to fly her here so she could get to know me better. She also knew all the clubs we could go to that she never was able to get into. Pam was right: I needed to stay far away from this girl.
I told her I was at a party and had to go. Speaking of the party, I had a blast the rest of the night. I’d switched to Mountain Dew, so I was sober when it was time to go home. I got Cassidy to have Jim take Cora home, and I took Pam back to my place. Mom was up, eating apple pie.
“You look to be in a better mood,” she told me.
I just smiled and offered Pam a slice of pie. I had the pecan, and Pam wanted to try the sweet potato since she’d never had it before. Greg joined us and had some pecan pie also. I needed to send him home soon, or he’d eat all of my pie. Mom and Dad claimed it was too sweet. Greg and I always fought over the pecan pie, so Mom would make one for each of us. The competition was to see who could sneak the most pie from the other one. I had a feeling there was a pecan pie hidden somewhere that would be going back to State.
I took Pam up to my apartment and gave her the slow loving she said she wanted. When we were done, I knew I’d made a mistake. Pam was sneaking her way into my heart. I even knew better, because sex changes things. If I wasn’t careful, I was going to have a problem with Peggy and Pam.
I took Pam home so her parents wouldn’t have a fit about her being out all night. Three in the morning wasn’t all that great, though. When Cal met her at the door, he didn’t look like he was going to kill her, so I went home.
Chapter 26 – Tattooed
Sunday November 30
I truly enjoyed my Sunday morning. I didn’t have anything to do except go to church with Mom. I even skipped running and slept in, causing Mom to have to wake me up. Church was a little bit of a madhouse, with everyone wanting to talk about the football game. I was dismayed when I was noted for helping during the storm as part of the sermon. It had not been done it to gain notoriety. I had done it for the pies and other baked goods.
None of us felt like cooking brunch, so we went to Granny’s. My day got even better when I discovered Peggy and her family waiting for us. Mom had surprised me. After Granny made a big deal over me, Peggy and I got to talk in semiprivacy as our parents talked with each other.
“So where did you go on your mystery vacation?” I asked her.