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Wrinkling his nose at me like I told him to kiss the lunch lady or something, he rubbed his hand over his head. “No way. She’s like my sister.” His hand hovered by his knee as we climbed the steps to the gym. “We’ve played baseball and basketball together since we were little kids until the end of eighth grade.”
He shrugged as we returned through the gym doors into the lunchroom. “Yeah. She’s cooler than most girls, though. Plus, she likes to go fishing and camping.”
Walking a little slower, he sighed like he had second thoughts about talking her up to me. “Look. I get that she’s kind of hot and all. But she’s never had a boyfriend or anything, and she’s shy as hell.” Swinging his freckled finger at me, he turned toward me a little as we inched along the hallway. “So if you want to ask her out or whatever, don’t be a dick. You understand?”
I shook my head at the shirt I folded as we waited behind the crowd of kids smashing into the hallway. “We’ve been hanging out every day for like two months now. Do you really think that’s the kind of shit I’d do to your friend?”
Unlike everyone else here geared up to carry around a dozen books all day, his big ass had a single pencil stuck behind his ear. He pulled it out and pointed it at a half-open door ahead of us. “Just be nice to her. I’d hate to have to kick your ass, but that doesn’t mean I won’t.”
Through the rectangular window, I found Faith and her little blonde friend chatting it up. I nodded back to him as I pulled the door open. “That’s fair. Wait here a minute.”
Every eye was on me as I leaned into the doorway and whistled, but all I noticed was her sliding gloss across her lips and how it made my entire body ache. “Hey, Bennett.”
Making that golden pink glow rise on her cheeks every opportunity I got tickled me. So, as soon as her sun-kissed face lit up for me, I smiled at her and tossed my shirt across the room. “Think fast.”
On instinct, she snapped up to catch it one-handed. Unfolding it like I hid a bomb inside, she fluttered her eyes back to me. “What’s this?”
The row of guys behind her who talked smack in the locker room about what they’d do to her if she let them gave me dirty looks. But I was there to let them know those days of hounding her were over permanently.
My hand came to my chest as I winked at her and backed outside. “Can’t let my girl die on the first day of school. Can I?”
The door shut as ‘awes’ and whispers erupted all around her, and I turned to Jason, tossing up his hands. “Okay. You have my permission. That was cool as hell.”
I spun back to face him once we got around the corner to the next hallway. “So, do you think she’ll be at the game tonight?”
Motioning at the door ahead of us, he tipped his chin. “Most likely. She goes to just about every event if it’s held here at school.”
So he couldn’t get past me, I put my arms across the doorway and jerked my eyebrows at him. “So, you won’t mind playing matchmaker for your new best friend in the world, right?”
A smile started at the edge of his mouth. “Shit.” His finger went into the center of my chest. “You let me have that mint-condition Galactic Guardians comic on your bookshelf, and I’ll make sure you marry her someday.”
Making my mother buy me stuff I couldn’t care less about to punish her for being such an overprotective psycho was one of my favorite sports. If I somehow lost that comic, she’d make it her mission to find me a dozen more to take its place and keep me in line.
I bet Jason thought he was making out like a bandit. But when I put out my hand to him, I knew I was shaking on the best deal of my life. “It’s all yours so long as Faith ends up being all mine by this Saturday night.”
Only standing with his mouth hanging open as I shook his hand, he never even blinked until I punched his shoulder when the bell rang. “Come on. I still have about a hundred questions I need to ask you about her.”
Honestly, I didn’t care about much, but occasionally something fired me up inside. And that morning, Faith had a pocket full of matches with my name on them.
3
Soul Mates
Faith
The two cheerleaders sitting in front of me were waiting for all the gossip when I finished pulling up the zipper of his sweatshirt. “Are you two dating?”
Sliding my hands around the back of my neck, I pulled my hair loose and shrugged. “Um, no. Just friends, I guess.”
The bitchier one who lived in the huge white Colonial down Jason’s street twisted her mouth at me as she gave me a look up and down. “Yeah, right.”
Like every girl from our side of town was conspiring to steal all the boys from theirs, the snobby girl next to her huffed a laugh back at her. “She’s definitely screwing him. No guy tracks down his” — she made quotes with her fingers as she turned around again — “friend first thing in the morning to give her his jacket.”
I looked to Carolyn to save me, and she rolled her eyes at me. “Ignore them.”
Though she didn’t stand five feet tall and a hundred pounds soaking wet, she’d been my personal bodyguard against girls like them since first grade. “They’re only jealous because they can’t get someone so hot.”
After I flipped the too-long sleeves inside out, I brought them to my nose and closed my eyes. “Oh, God.”
