Kiss King - Mickey Miller Page 0,75
talking about. We’re talking about how you, Grant Taylor, yourself, feel about Maya freaking Waters. Did you, or did you not hook-up with her?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, dude. I’ve told you…we’re not spoiling our friendship.”
Nelson rolls his eyes, and hands out another round of beers. “So, you’re telling me that there wasn’t any magic at that concert between you two? You didn’t want to follow up that spin the bottle kiss where you embarrassed the hell out of her boyfriend? I can’t look at that guy the same way after that. She got wet when you kissed her, dude. She practically moaned.”
Finn furrows his brow. “Wait, what the hell happened?”
Nelson tells the story about the spin-the-bottle game, and I sit with a satisfied smirk on my face, which has the guys in stitches.
Nelson goes on, “And Jude is sitting there with this face, trying to be all ‘Oh yeah, you’re kissing my girl? I’m totally okay with that after she kissed me on the cheek. It’s just a silly spin-the-bottle game.’ Bro, he was just holding out, hoping that he’d get one of those special Maya BJs he’s heard so much about.”
“By the way,” Chris interjects. “For all of the talk about Maya being this BJ expert, who actually knows that for a fact? I feel like she could be all talk on that.” He looks around. “Anyone? Bueller?”
No one says a thing.
“Who knows, man, that was a long time ago,” Finn waves a hand through the air. “So, no one else? Maybe she is all talk.”
“Damn, I’d like to find out if she’s not,” Chris says.
I laugh. “Bro, you’ve got to lay off the porn. Seriously.”
“Oh, do not start with the Puritan porn tirade again.” Chris laughs.
I say, “It’s bad—”
“—Bad energy!” Chris completes in a mocking tone. “I know.”
“Well, if it’s not bad energy, then why haven’t you got laid all term?” I wiggle my eyebrows.
“Oh, snap!” DJ hoots. “Called out!”
“Bro, I’ve been so busy,” Chris rationalizes.
Nelson snorts. “Yeah, busy choking your chicken. Let’s pull up those browser tabs, bro.”
I grin. “The browser tabs don’t lie, Christopher.”
Finn interjects, “Okay, okay, go easy on the man. We all need a little digital love sometimes.”
I grin, looking at Finn. “How’s your browser history looking these days, Finny?”
“It’s still all teacher-professor porn. I’ve got Professor Flores again this term and she’s looking good. And she shoots me eyes. I can’t take it.”
Nelson adds, “It’s true about the eyes. I’ve seen it.”
Finn shoots me a look. “Changing the subject, you think we could get the Red Lemons to come to Alpha Z Island this year?”
Alpha Z Island is the party our fraternity holds every May.
It’s always a good time, and no matter what precautions we take, it seems to get us put on probation.
Every. Damn. Time.
“Jesus,” I say. “As if it wasn’t already an absolute shitshow, we’re going to have them play? They could be huge by then. And we’re going to have them throw a free concert?”
He shrugs. “So what? If we’re going to get put on probation anyway, we might as well have some fun doing it.”
I try to focus the group. “Fellas, let’s focus on the reality of tonight. We’ve got a fun night ahead. People are coming over to our basement party, we’ll have some good vibes.”
“Yes! Vibes,” Nelson adds, and then ribs me. “So, Mr. Shaman, since Vanessa is out of the picture, who is your target for the night?”
Fuck. I should have known this question would come up.
“Target? Dude, that’s a silly question. I’m just going to read the energy of the room and—”
There’s a collective eye roll from the room full of guys. I just grin. I don't give a shit what they think of me. Plus, I won't lie, I've been smiling on the inside through this whole conversation thinking about my and Maya's big secret. I'm not one who likes lying, but this is just a little harmless white lie. And it turns out...it's kind of fun to have a hidden romance. That's an aspect of this I wasn't expecting. I had a ridiculous laugh with Maya Thursday night over Coach Santorello's comments at practice this week. Whatever you did in that room, boy, maybe you should use that ritual again.
Oh, I'll use it again, alright, Coach. I smirk. I will use it again.
"What's so funny?" Finn notices my slight chuckle as we head down the stairs.
"Oh, nothing. So, who's coming by tonight?"
"Some freshmen,” he says. “And the Quad Squad." I laugh.
The Quad Squad is