It Girl: Unforgettable

It Girl.

Unforgettable.

Cecily von Ziegesar.

Most people were raised to believe they are just as good as the next person. I was always told I was better.

-Katharine Hepburn.

1.

A WAVERLY OWL KNOWS GOOD THINGS DON"T ALWAYS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT. REALLY, WHO HAS THE PATIENCE?

Jenny Humphrey stepped out of Jameson House after portraiture cla.s.s and took in a breath of crisp fall air. Two tall, lanky senior guys in cargo pants and Waverly sweatshirts were tossing a Frisbee around on the lush green quad. They paused as she pa.s.sed, and Jenny felt herself blushing. She walked away quickly, the fallen leaves crackling beneath her mustard-yellow suede ballet flats, wishing more than almost anything that she were headed down Amsterdam Avenue with her dad to get a couple of vanilla b.u.t.tercream cupcakes from the Viennese bakery around the corner from their Upper West Side apartment. All she wanted was to get lost on the streets of Manhattan among millions of strangers, none of whom would look at her and think, There goes the girl Easy Walsh is about to dump.

Jenny tugged at the hem of her short gray wool Anthroplogie miniskirt. She"d spent a little extra time getting ready today, antic.i.p.ating seeing Easy for the first time since Sat.u.r.day"s disastrous party while the Dumbarton girls were all supposed to be on lockdown. She wore a pair of dark pin-striped Wolford tights that made her legs look longer than they were and a black RL b.u.t.ton-down with three-quarter-length sleeves that made her chest look smaller than it was. But then Easy hadn"t even bothered to show up for cla.s.s. Jenny"s heart had sunk when Mrs. Silver closed the door to the studio and Easy"s almost-black curly mop was nowhere to be found. What did that mean? Was he actually avoiding her?

She hadn"t spoken with Easy since the terrible revelation-during a very public game of I Never on Sat.u.r.day night, no less-that he had taken Callie Vernon, her unbearably tall, skinny, beautiful roommate who just happened to be his ex-girlfriend, out to an intimate dinner with his father. Not only had he not invited Jenny, his supposed girlfriend, he hadn"t even told her about it, though apparently half the world already knew. And then the rest of the world found out after Tinsley "Definition of Pure Evil" Carmichael broke the news to an entire roomful of happily partying Waverly Owls during the I Never game.

Easy had e-mailed Jenny on Sat.u.r.day night after the party disastrously disbanded, asking if she wanted to talk, but she"d written back and said she wasn"t ready-she needed to figure out what the h.e.l.l she was feeling first. But even having said that, she couldn"t help hoping he would try to sneak in to see her with a handful of wildflowers or slip one of his goofy caricatures into her student mailbox. She didn"t want to be one of those girls who said the exact opposite of what she meant, but still-it would have been nice to see Easy try.

Suddenly something sharp hit Jenny in the back of the neck, and she whirled around, expecting to see one of the Frisbee guys rushing toward her apologetically. But instead, a white paper airplane made of thick watercolor paper lay on the cobblestone path near her feet. She picked it up and unfolded it, her heart starting to thud in her chest, but nothing was written inside.

"Psst!" She glanced toward the cl.u.s.ter of birch trees to the left of Jameson House. There, nestled among them, a yellow leaf stuck behind his ear, was the boy she couldn"t stop thinking about. Easy"s enormous dark blue eyes looked nervous as he motioned her over.

Jenny shuffled slowly in his direction, a vision of Easy sitting across a candlelit dinner table from Callie and his father, chatting and laughing, flashing across her brain. She started to feel a little queasy and tried to replace the image with the memory of Sunday, when she"d hung out in the Dumbarton common room with Brett and Kara and even, surprisingly enough, Callie. They"d all complained about boys-no specifics, just general, feel-good, boy-dissing bonding. It wasn"t that long ago they were swinging from trees, reaching for their bananas, Callie had declared, and then they"d all made monkey noises the rest of the night. Now, seeing Easy among the leafy branches, Jenny had to suppress an ooooh ooooh eeeeee eeeee!

"Hey," she said instead.

Easy"s smile fell, as if he had been expecting a friendlier greeting, and Jenny felt herself softening. "Why are you hiding in the bushes?" She raised an eyebrow.

He stepped out from the thatch of trees, glancing around. Easy was wearing a Waverly rugby shirt covered in gra.s.s stains, and his normally bright eyes were a little bloodshot, as if he hadn"t been sleeping well. Well, it was only fair that he"d have trouble sleeping-she"d been tossing and turning for the past three nights, visions of tall, gorgeous Easy and tall, gorgeous Callie plaguing her brain.

"Didn"t want Silver to see me." He rubbed a hand over his eyes. "I told her I was sick." "Then why are you here?" Jenny couldn"t help but blurt out.

Easy"s dark blue eyes clouded over. "I . . . don"t know. I guess I just wanted to talk to you." "Oh." Jenny fumbled through her bag for her brandless white aviators that she"d bought on the street in SoHo before school had started. It was sunny out, but mostly she didn"t want Easy to be able to see exactly what she was thinking. Her brother, Dan, used to tell her that her face was about as hard to read as a stop sign. After rustling through her disorganized bag without any luck, she stopped searching, not wanting to accidentally unearth a tampon or something equally embarra.s.sing. Instead, she shaded her eyes as she glanced up. "Wanna walk me back to the dorm? I"ve got to get ready for practice." He nodded slowly and they turned in the direction of Dumbarton.

They walked side by side down the cobblestone path, the shouts of students at sports practices in the distance ringing through the clean autumn air. They were both silent for a few minutes, and Jenny became painfully aware of the enormous s.p.a.ce between them. Easy walked just out of her reach, and she had no idea what he was thinking. She wanted to turn and tackle him into a pile of leaves and kiss him, but she just . . . couldn"t. She started to dig through her bag again, at last finding the sungla.s.ses. She untangled them from the Owl pendant key chain she"d bought at the little shop in Rhinecliff that sold all things Waverly and slipped the aviators on her face.

A pack of girls in plaid miniskirts and kneesocks huddling on the library steps stared at them as they pa.s.sed. All of Waverly had been buzzing with the revelations from the I Never game on Sat.u.r.day night-there was Tinsley Carmichael, and Brett Messerschmidt"s unmasked virginity to discuss, not to mention the revelation that Jeremiah Mortimer, Brett"s longtime boyfriend, was suddenly not a virgin, and neither was the pretty blond St. Lucius girl who had mysteriously followed him over to Dumbarton. And of course the fact that Easy Walsh had sneaked out on a date with Callie Vernon behind Jenny"s back. The fact that Alison Quentin and Alan St. Girard had hooked up at the party seemed totally ba.n.a.l in comparison and ranked relatively low on the Waverly gossip meter, even though hookups usually received top billing.

Easy shuffled his feet as they walked along. "I just . . . wanted to apologize. Again." Jenny sighed. She knew he was sorry. But that didn"t really mean anything. Sorry about what? That he"d taken Callie out to dinner instead of her? That he"d hurt and embarra.s.sed her? That he"d completely messed things up between them?

Or was he sorry because he knew he was going to break her heart?

Jenny stopped walking. She"d overheard some girls in her English cla.s.s talking about how they"d gone apple picking over the weekend, and Jenny couldn"t help picturing herself there with Easy, his hands around her waist as she reached for the highest, most perfect red apple she could find and plucked it off the tree. She"d never actually been apple picking before, but it sounded so idyllic. She wondered if they"d ever have the chance to go now. Or if maybe he"d be taking Callie instead. She was so tall he wouldn"t even have to help her reach the stupid apple.

"I guess I"m just . . . confused." Jenny stared at the ground. "Why did you want to go out to dinner with Callie?" she finally asked, wondering if Easy could have feelings for both of them at the same time. Maybe, but Jenny wasn"t interested in being one of the people Easy loved. She wanted to be the one.

"It"s not that I wanted to." Easy turned to look at her, and she was glad she"d found her sungla.s.ses. "It just seemed easier that way." He leaned down and grabbed a fistful of dry leaves off the ground, then opened his hand and let them float back down to the gra.s.s. She waited for him to say more, but he didn"t.

It was not the answer she wanted-although she had no idea what answer would have made things all better. Maybe there wasn"t one. Jenny stared at the brilliant orange oak trees behind Easy, avoiding his eyes. "I don"t really know what to say to that. I think I need some time to figure things out." She bit her Stila lip-glossed lip. "Maybe you need to do some figuring out too." She held her breath, waiting for him to say that he didn"t need to figure anything out. That it was her he was crazy about, and no amount of thinking would change that. That he was sorry, and that he would be right here waiting for her when she got her own feelings in order. Say it.

But Easy just nodded his head slowly, his hands buried deep into the pockets of his faded, paint-splattered Levi"s. ""Kay," he half-whispered.

Jenny straightened up. She let out the air she"d been holding in, feeling suddenly . . . deflated. "All right. I"ll see you later, then." Her voice came out much colder than she"d meant it to, so she tried to soften it. "Don"t miss art cla.s.s on Friday. You know Mrs. Silver loves you." Easy smiled. She could see his Adam"s apple bobble in his throat. There was a patch of beard scruff beneath his chin that he had missed, and Jenny fought the urge to lean in and kiss him hard, right then and there. Maybe if she had, she could have made things go back to the way they were, before the stupid party, before the stupid dinner, before everything had gotten off track.

But he was already stepping backward, away from her, across the gra.s.s. "Right." He touched two fingers of his right hand to his forehead in a mock salute. "I"ll . . . uh . . . see you then." Jenny turned toward the dorms, refusing to look back. What had just happened? Was it . . . over? Tears sprang to her eyes, but she gulped quickly and tried to think happy thoughts: chocolate-sprinkled cupcakes from the Viennese bakery; Barneys sample sales; rainy days curled up inside with an old Nancy Drew mystery; the stately, ivy-covered brick buildings all around her.

But happy thoughts weren"t enough to erase the uneasiness she felt. Easy was everything she"d always wanted in a boyfriend-she"d felt so impossibly lucky that he liked her. But maybe that was just it. Maybe it was impossible.

From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Date: Tuesday, October 8, 2:08 P.M.

Subject: Please don"t delete Babe, please answer your phone . . . or let me come see you? I need to explain-I need to talk to you, in person. I"m so, so sorry. What I did was-well, it was the biggest mistake of my life. And for a guy like me, you know that"s saying something.

Kidding. But please. Call me.

This is killing me. Please.

HeathFerro: Hey, s.e.xy. Wanna come over and study for the bio test?

KaraWhalen: Uh . . . I"m not in bio.

HeathFerro: Oh. Well, how "bout you come over and we fi nd something else to do?

KaraWhalen: That"s a gallant offer, but I"ve got a real study date planned. Some other time.

HeathFerro: You mean it?

KaraWhalen: No.

2.

WAVERLY OWLS KNOW THAT BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER!.

"How come the women in here all have enormous b.o.o.bs?" Brett Messerschmidt asked as she flipped the pages of one of Kara Whalen"s X-Men comics. She flicked a lock of chin-length fire-engine-red hair out of her eyes. "Is that where they get their superpowers from or something?" The two girls lay on their stomachs on Brett"s silky fuchsia Indian-print comforter, paging through a stack of Kara"s comic books. Their chemistry lab had let out early-owing to an "experiment" by the group of geeks who were always huddled together in the library that had ended in a small explosion-and Brett and Kara had planned on using the time to study for their upcoming chem midterm. Their teacher, Mr. Shaw, hated his life and reportedly kept a tally of all the times he had made a student cry, so the test was practically guaranteed to be mind-blowingly impossible. But their study plan had lasted all of three minutes, before Brett flicked on her stereo and asked Kara to bring in some of her vintage comic books. Fortunately, Tinsley had a late-afternoon cla.s.s on Tuesdays, so they had the room to themselves. Brett had made a point of memorizing Tinsley"s schedule and taking advantage of times when her violet-eyed, eternally spiteful roommate wasn"t around.

"I don"t know," Kara admitted. "Lots of male ill.u.s.trators, I guess." "Typical." Brett was still completely bitter about what had happened with Jeremiah. They had been broken up for all of a week and he had managed to actually sleep with someone else. To be fair, she was the one who"d broken up with him. But at least she had managed to keep her pants on-more or less-and that was more than she could say for him. "Guys. All they care about is b.o.o.bs, b.o.o.bs, b.o.o.bs." She"d already told Jeremiah that it was over for good. A few pleading e-mails had appeared in her inbox, begging her to talk, but she"d deleted them without so much as opening them. If he wanted to stay with her, well, he"d have to find some way to reverse time and undo his hookup with that hippie chick, Elizabeth. Maybe he could look into that superpower.

"You should let some of that Jeremiah bitterness out," Kara advised, as if she could read Brett"s mind. She wound a lock of stick-straight honey brown hair around her index finger. "Or it"s going to eat away at you." Brett looked up at her in surprise, once again astonished that five days ago she hadn"t even known Kara"s name. She"d just been the Girl in Black who lived in the room next to the broom closet and was in a couple of her cla.s.ses. Then, after Tin-sley had shown up to Sat.u.r.day night"s party wearing a s.e.xy outfit from Kara"s closetful of clothes by her designer mother, Kara had gone from quiet n.o.body to the cool girl. Cool girl who threw a Waverly mug of warm beer in sleazy Heath Ferro"s face, Brett reminded herself. And now here they were: Kara lying on Brett"s bed next to her, wearing a flouncy black-and-white polka-dotted skirt and a fitted white b.u.t.ton-down, listening to cheesy "80s music and examining bodies of superheroines. What a difference a few days made.

"I can"t help it," Brett admitted, twisting her rose-gold stackable rings around her fingers. "I"m just so . . . angry at him." "You know, when you think about him, your face turns practically the same color as your hair." Kara laughed as she turned over on her back. The corners of her wide-set greenish-brown eyes were accentuated with a teeny touch of Brett"s Urban Decay Twice Baked eye shadow. She looked pretty-like she wasn"t afraid of people actually noticing her anymore.

"Speaking of which . . ." Brett pulled a lock of her glossy hair in front of her eyes and examined it. It was practically the same shade as her Bourjois Code Red freshly manicured nails. "My roots are showing-I"m way overdue for a coloring. I"m thinking I might go less red this time." When Jacques, her colorist, had first made the mistake and used a blue red instead of a yellow red on her, Brett had been horrified, worried that everyone would start calling her Crayola or Muppet or something. But now she"d gotten used to her somewhat punk-rock coloring, even if it did make her stand out among all her natural-blond and pedigreed-brunette cla.s.smates.

"Definitely not." Kara tilted her honey-streaked head, shaking it slowly. "No one at Waverly has hair like you. You look like Jean Grey." She flicked through one of the X-Men comics, searching for a picture, and then held it up for Brett to see.

"Oh. When you put it that way . . ." Brett laughed. It did make her feel good to think that something made her unique. Not freak-show or trashy-Jersey-girl unique, but rather the-cool-girl-with-the-one-of-a-kind-red-hair unique. She ran her hand over her scalp, tousling her hair to hide the darker roots. "You know, we had a DC meeting over lunch today, and there was this case involving members of the-get this-Compet.i.tive Eating club." "What?" Kara sat up, tossing her head so that her hair fell neatly behind her shoulders. Tiny blondish wisps framed the edges of her face. "What the h.e.l.l is that?" "You know. Like, they see how many hot dogs they can eat in ten minutes." Brett sat up too and turned toward Kara. "These two freshmen guys-probably the only two members-got caught stealing four pounds of raw hot dogs from the dining hall freezer after dinner last week." Kara raised her eyebrows in disbelief. "They defended themselves to the DC by saying they were "gathering materials for club activities,"" Brett made air quotes with her long fingers, "and that they"d had to resort to covert methods because they hadn"t received any funding." She rolled her eyes. "Does the entire male s.e.x suffer from a complete inability to see beyond their carnal impulses?"

Kara leaned back on one elbow and shrugged her pet.i.te shoulders. "Well, they are freshmen." The comic book slid off the edge of the bed, landing with a slap on the hardwood floor next to Brett"s neat piles of notebooks. Brett and Tinsley had moved their beds to opposite sides of Dumbarton 121 when they"d moved in, but that still wasn"t far enough.

"Yes, but more important, they"re male-which means they only think about immediate gratification, with no foresight into the future. I mean, come on-what about Easy?" Brett asked suddenly, sitting up to unbunch the bottoms of her Citizens of Humanity cigarette-leg jeans. "He certainly suffers from the same affliction. I still can"t believe he took Callie out to dinner with his dad instead of Jenny." Kara bit her pink ChapSticked lip. "I saw Jenny last night at the art studio. She just looked so . . . sad." She grabbed her Dasani bottle from on top of Brett"s worn oak nightstand and took a long sip. "Do you think she"s going to be totally crushed?" "You mean if Easy and Callie get back together?" Brett shrugged. She honestly didn"t know. It was weird. She"d been so used to Easy and Callie as a couple-they"d been practically inseparable all soph.o.m.ore year-that it was strange to see him suddenly with someone else. But then, to her surprise, she"d quickly gotten used to it. Easy had always seemed a little too . . . nice for Callie. Something about Jenny and Easy together had almost seemed more natural, as if two artistic, like-minded souls had found each other. Not that Brett exactly believed in that romantic c.r.a.p anymore.

Then again, if Easy was about to dump Jenny, maybe he wasn"t as nice as she"d thought.

"Jenny"s tougher than she looks," Brett finally answered, surprising herself. She reached up and fingered the gold hoops along the top of her left ear. She was always paranoid about her ears being sort of elfin-shaped, and hoped that the earrings would distract people from noticing.

Kara nodded and sucked in her cheeks like a goldfish, making Brett giggle. "Guys really do suck, don"t they?" "Seriously. Why didn"t we get the bulletin, like, years ago?" Brett grabbed one of the white goose-down pillows on her bed and started kneading it with her fingers. There wasn"t anything especially profound about Kara"s statement, but it made Brett"s mind start to race. Guys did suck, truly. Why did she feel like she was the last to know? "If there can be a freaking Waverly club dedicated to the sport of stuffing as much food down the throat as possible, there should be a, like, Guys Suck club-we can let the frosh know before it"s too late." Kara raised her thin, light brown eyebrows skeptically, running a palm over the ridges on the cap to her water bottle.

"Hey, I"d join it." Brett put the pillow down emphatically, and it landed on the plush comforter without a sound. Then she hopped off the bed, making her way toward the white iBook on her desk. "Just a place for us to get together and talk and support each other . . ." she went on, the idea taking form in her head. It would be sort of like what Tinsley had originally proposed for her Cafe Society, although that had immediately dissolved into an excuse to get drunk, do stupid things, and exclude as many people as possible. Brett sat down at her desk. "We could use a little sisterly spirit around here, you know?" Kara nodded from her perch on the bed. "Actually, I think that"s kind of a brilliant idea. Why don"t we put together an invite and send it around?" Brett smiled at her new friend before flipping open her iBook. As much as she hated to admit that she"d do something to spite Tinsley, the idea that she was going to start a club that was more meaningful than Tinsley"s shallow, catty, overs.e.xed Cafe Society gave her an itty-bitty thrill. She felt her green eyes gleaming wickedly as she hit the power b.u.t.ton on her laptop. "Agreed. But before we send anything, we need to choose the guest list." And she knew one roommate who wouldn"t be on it.

To: Undisclosed recipients From: Date: Tuesday, October 8, 3:05 P.M.

Subject: Women of Waverly Greetings, esteemed cla.s.smates.

A couple of us have decided to establish a Women of Waverly club (WoW!) to bolster the sense of sorority on campus. Don"t want it to be anything too formal or ritualistic or anything like that (no goats, please), but rather a place for Waverly girls to get together and discuss any issues or concerns facing us on campus. s.e.x, love, drugs, jerks who call themselves men-anything you want to talk about is fair game.

The first official meeting will be tonight at eight o"clock in the Atrium, and it is open to all female members of the Waverly community. Dining services will be providing snacks and beverages.

Estrogen power, xo Brett Messerschmidt Junior Cla.s.s Prefect JulianMcCafferty: Dude, where exactly in Hopkins Hall would I find the Cinephiles screening room? Never been there before.

HeathFerro: Curious request. Before I can hand anything over, I"ll need to know why.

JulianMcCafferty: Nothing juicy, Ferro. Just wanted to join up.

HeathFerro: It"s in the bas.e.m.e.nt, dips.h.i.t.

JulianMcCafferty: Thanks. You"re a real sweetheart.

HeathFerro: Kisses.

3.

A SMART OWL WILL TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE EXTRAORDINARY RESOURCES WAVERLY OFFERS.

Tinsley Carmichael lingered in the screening room in the bas.e.m.e.nt of Hopkins Hall after Signor Giraldi dismissed his Advanced Italian cla.s.s. They"d just watched Fellini"s La Strada-much preferable to sitting in a boring old cla.s.sroom and watching the spit bubble at the corners of Signor Giraldi"s mouth as he conjugated Italian verbs. Something about watching old movies, especially old foreign movies, in the dark, leaning back in the leather reclining seats of the screening room, made Tinsley"s pulse race. Movie theaters were so freaking s.e.xy. She was ready to tear someone apart. A very specific someone, in fact.

"I can close up, signor," Tinsley purred as the others filed out of the room and Signor Giraldi tried to look like he hadn"t just slept through the two-hour film. "I was planning on doing some work for this week"s Cinephiles meeting, if you don"t mind. I"ll be sure to lock the door behind me." Signor Giraldi glanced at his watch. Rumor had it that he and his wife, who lived in Thompson Hall, one of the girls" dorms, had a standing booty date every afternoon at 3:30 sharp-which was fortunate for his Tuesday afternoon students, as he always let them go a little early. "Grazie, Signorina Car-michael." Signor Giraldi smiled absently at her before quickly dashing out the door. Apparently, black-and-white Italian films turned him on too.

The second she was alone, Tinsley dimmed the lights again and propped her Isabella Fiore brown leather stacked-heel boots onto the arm of the chair in front of her. She arranged the hem of her burnt-orange mohair minidress higher on her thigh. With her thick dark hair parted perfectly in the middle and falling in a straight curtain around her face, she felt like an overs.e.xed go-go girl from the "70s. She closed her eyes and waited for Julian.

The soundproof door creaked open behind her. "Hey." Tinsley pressed her eyelids together. Her heart thudded eagerly in her chest. It had been three days since they"d been alone. Last night at dinner, the two of them had sat across from each other at a table filled with their friends, and although Tinsley had been able to feel the weight of Julian"s gaze on her face, she"d refused to treat him differently than she did any of the other guys. Which meant that she flirted with him, but only as much as she did with everybody else. The whole situation made her feel like Lily Bart, the consummate flirt in The House of Mirth, a book she"d first picked up when she was thirteen and had read every summer since. She could tell Julian had been a little disappointed, but that was just the way it had to be. She couldn"t very well have the entire campus know she was into a freshman.

Tinsley squirmed in her seat. Ten seconds had pa.s.sed since the door creaked. Was that not him? Her eyes flew open.

"Ack!" she squeaked. Julian was standing two feet in front of her, leaning against the back of the chair in front of her, staring down at her face. "Jesus! You scared the s.h.i.t out of me." Shivers ran down her spine. She hated being surprised-almost as much as she liked it.

"Sorry, m"lady." Julian pulled his left hand from behind his back, revealing a single pink-and-white flower. "For you." Tinsley politely sniffed at the flower, pretending to be unimpressed. In truth, she loved it when guys brought her things. Last year Bradley Alexander, a senior lacrosse player, had heard about Tinsley"s sweet tooth and had tried to woo her with candy, employing other Dumbarton girls to leave packages of Swedish fish outside her door and putting tiny gold boxes of G.o.diva chocolates in her mailbox every day. It was fun to be showered with attention, but Tinsley could only eat so much candy before she"d start to bloat.

"Thanks," she said, taking Julian"s flower and putting it behind her ear.

Julian ran his hands along the tops of the leather chairs but kept his eyes on Tinsley"s. He had on a blue pin-striped Abercrombie oxford with the sleeves rolled up to just below his elbows and a pair of baggy True Religion jeans that were gra.s.s-stained at the knees. "This is awesome. Our own private movie theater." Tinsley stood up slowly and took a step toward him. She could feel the heat radiating off his body. "You mean, my own private movie theater," she purred, not touching him. He smelled slightly sweaty, and Tinsley knew his lips would taste salty and manly. But she wasn"t ready for that yet.

He tried to put his hand on her hip but Tinsley swayed out of the way. "Sit down. Make yourself comfortable," she ordered in a sultry voice.

Julian obeyed, sinking backward into the recliner Tinsley had just vacated. Some boys felt the need to challenge her, but what she liked about Julian was that he understood her rules.

And she planned on rewarding him for that. Once Julian was seated, Tinsley carefully perched herself on the right arm of his chair, stretching her legs across his lap, boot heels tucked under the left armrest.

"I saw you coming out of Stansfield with Benny today. Those boots," he said, groaning. He shook his head and traced his finger around the top of one of the boots before slowing running his hand up to Tinsley"s knee, squeezing it gently. She giggled before slapping his hand away.

Julian pretended to be offended. "Dude, you torture me with your s.e.xy texts all day, wear this insanely s.e.xy hippie-girl outfit, drag me down to your secret lair, and now you won"t even let me touch you?" Julian leaned his head back on the set, his handsome face taking on a pained expression. "You"ve got to give me something."

"You didn"t look very tortured at lunch, when you were chatting up Celine Colista." She slid along the armrest toward Julian until she was practically touching him.

Julian gave a deep, gravelly chuckle. "So is that what this is about? I"m being punished for being friendly?" She liked that he could tell she was joking. Like she"d ever be worried about someone liking fat-ankled Celine more than her. "That"s right. You"ve been very, very bad." Julian groaned again as Tinsley traced her long nails around the inside of his collar, clearly enjoying the feel of her fingernails against his neck. She leaned toward him with deliberate slowness, her lips inching toward his a millisecond at a time. When she was about two inches away, close enough to see the tiny golden sparkles in the irises of his eyes, Julian leaned forward abruptly and pressed his lips against her own. A thrill ran through her body-his lips did taste salty-and she slid off the armrest and onto his lap.

"I"ve got to get to practice," she said breathlessly. She wasn"t really thinking about practice so much as getting away from Julian. Something about feeling so comfortable with a boy made her a little panicky.

His long arms wrapped themselves around her. "You are killing me. I thought we were going to watch a movie-sneak in Casablanca, pretend we were stranded in the desert. . . ." He kissed her gently on the collarbone. "I like this spot," he said before kissing it again.

Swiftly, Tinsley extracted herself from his arms and stood up, straightening the hem of her dress. Deep breaths. He is not Humphrey Bogart, and you are not Ingrid Bergman. He is your freshman boy toy, and his time is up.

"Do you want to get together tonight at Maxwell? Have coffee? Make out in some dark alcove?" Julian grinned and got to his feet slowly.