Eden

 

With Marshall’s lips plastered to my neck and his hand halfway up my thigh under my skirt, I began to wonder if I should be worried that we spent ninety-nine percent of our time together making out. It wasn’t that I didn’t like making out with him. In fact, it was dang hot, and I enjoyed it- a lot. But it was beginning to feel more like booty call and less like a relationship.

Whenever I brought it up or tried to nail down some kind of commitment, Marshall distracted me and by the time I was able to think straight again, he was gone. I’d even brought up the fact that we hadn’t been on a read date and he asked me what I thought JJ’s party was. Well, I didn’t think it was a date. A date was him picking me up at my house and meeting my parents. Dinner. A movie. A walk at dusk. It wasn’t grinding at a party while he was drunk out of his mind. But I was willing to wait a bit. See how things progressed. I still felt like Marshall was my best candidate for a boyfriend and I could be patient. Wait for him to catch up.

Until then, I guess I’d keep enjoying his kisses.

“You’re coming to the game? And the party after, right,” he asked later as he shouldered his duffel bag and I fixed my skirt.

“Yes.” I’d worked it out again with my parents, telling them I was going to Allie’s and that her mom would bring me home late again, so I could sleep in while Allie went to Saturday morning practice. They usually just watched film, but Allie liked to go so she could help with any injuries from the game the night before.

“Awesome.” He kissed me again, quickly before jogging off to the locker room. I waited, watching again to see if he would look back. He didn’t, not until the last possible moment before he entered the locker room and it was more like he caught sight of me out of the corner of his eye. He shot me a quick smile and then he was gone. And I was left wondering what in the world I was doing.

 

The game that night was packed. Connor was the best quarterback our school had seen in a long time. We’d already won our first two games and were up by twenty-one at half-time tonight. I sat in the bleachers in the student section with some people I knew but wasn’t great friends with. More like I sat by them not so much with them.

“Ohmigosh! There’s Dylan!” The breathless exclamation drew my attention. Of course. A few rows in front of me was Jessilyn Spears, the girl who’d cornered me at JJ’s party and then danced with Dylan later.

“He is so fine!” Jessilyn continued, fake swooning into the girl next to her.

Fighting the urge to roll my eyes, I searched the grassy area by the stands for Dylan. Dang. I had to agree with Jessilyn. It was cooler tonight than it had been, and Dylan was wearing a pair of well-worn jeans that fit him to perfection paired with his black combat boots. A white t-shirt peeked out from under a gunmetal grey hoodie. His dark hair was styled with messy perfection. I loved that he could look like he just walked off a photo shoot in something as casual as jeans and a sweatshirt.

“I’m going to go ask him if he’s going to the party tonight.” Jessilyn elbowed her way down the bleachers as the team made their way back onto the field to start the third quarter. Studiously keeping my eyes focused on Marshall as he ran up the sideline, I tried not to let it bother me that Jessilyn was so blatantly going after Dylan. Just because we’d shared a few moments recently and spent more time together than I’d been spending with Marshall didn’t mean I had some kind of claim on the boy. I didn’t.

So why did it suck so bad seeing Jessilyn throw herself at Dylan? He was my brother’s best friend. That was it.

Well, and he was a nice guy.

And gorgeous.

But he stole my food.

That was kind of funny, though.

And he made my pulse race when we danced.

It didn’t mean anything.

At all.

I dragged my eyes away from Dylan and focused on Marshall, waiting for him to look up into the stands and give me some small indication that I meant something to him.

He never did.

 

Dylan

 

What was I doing here again? I promised myself I’d stop worrying about Eden. I knew she was still seeing Marshall. I’d even gone so far as to ask Allie about it when I saw her walking off the field at the beginning of half-time. She didn’t have much to say, just that they walked to class and she’d seen them kissing outside the locker room after school.

I knew Eden was going to have to figure out for herself what kind of guy Marshall was but that didn’t keep me from wanting to protect her from getting hurt. I thought about threatening Marshall within an inch of his life, but I was worried about that getting back to Eden and had a feeling I’d accomplish was pushing her further into his arms.

Ugh. I just needed to get out of here. I couldn’t wait for basic. All this waiting was making me crazy. My mom couldn’t lay off the guilt trip. She couldn’t understand why I’d want to follow in my dad’s footsteps when he’d been killed in action. I couldn’t explain it. I only knew it was what I had to do. What I was meant to do. And then there was Derrick. I knew he loved me in his way. He was generous with his praise of my work at the construction sites. He worked hard to teach me everything he knew about the business end of things as well as the skills for building. If I ever changed my mind about being career military, construction would be my fallback.

But I had to try. I had to get out of here and spread my wings. I hated this damn limbo I was in.

“Hey, Dylan.”

“Hey, Jess. What’s up?” Jeez, this girl. She couldn’t take a hint. I thought I’d been upfront last weekend after JJ’s party. We’d danced once, and she acted like it was a marriage proposal. After gently explaining about not wanting to get into a relationship, I wished her a goodnight and headed for my truck. She’d shocked the hell out of me by running after me and attacking me with her lips. Floored as I was, I didn’t stop her as quickly as I should have and might have encouraged when I’d meant to discourage.

“You going to the party at Jason’s,” she asked, her eyes full of invitations.

Crap.

“I wasn’t planning on it.” But now I wondered if Eden was going. With Marshall. For what seemed the millionth time, I wished Josh was here to get after his sister. I’d seen her sitting in the bleachers earlier but forced my attention away from her. There had been a couple of close calls the last couple of weeks, times when I’d come so close to doing something I knew deep down I’d regret.

Jessilyn pressed closer to my side, her hand coming to rest on my forearm. Shifting my weight, I stood up from leaning on the fence and her hand fell away. I wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. This girl needed to know where I stood.

“Good to see you, Jess,” I said as politely and dismissively as I could and then turned away under the pretense of heading toward the concession stand. Maybe a popcorn and a Coke sounded good after all.