Her Kiss (Griffin) Read Online Free PDF Page B

suddenly had the opportunity.
    But then coach rounded the corner.
“You’re not supposed to fight your own team, Griffin,” Coach said, making me
let go of Poser. He waited until I actually backed away from the
punk—which was hard for me to do.
    I mean it, it was hard to let it go—the need to slug Poser. I’d had a violent fight
with my dad the night before. Actually had to kick the drunk out of our house
again because he was fighting with my mom— again —physically, abusively. I wanted to tear apart Poser.
Get rid of the ache inside me.
    Later, I growled to him as I skated
past his stick-like body, “You’re going down after school.”
    The terrified look on his face was
enough to ease the knots in my gut. A little. But I still had every intention
of beating the whiney twerp to a pulp. Just the thought of it alone put me in a
better mood.

 
    ***

 
    That day, after lunch hour, I
closed my locker, then turned to find shy little Ally
Grange standing there. Right there, within inches of me. It was like she was
waiting for me. Me .
    I blinked, kind of not believing my
eyes. Or the moment. I mean, she was
here. Right next to me. Of her own freewill.
Looking scared, yeah, but determined. Of what, I had no idea. A dare? That was
all I could think of—but it didn’t fit. The girl wasn’t exactly the
daring type. Nor was she the groupie type that I usually found around my
locker. I mean, though I was completely mystified, I had the scrambling,
semi-conscious awareness she wasn’t here to tell me I played a wild game last
night or invite me to stick my tongue down her throat.
    Nothing that went through my mind
fit.
    I stared at her a moment—she
stared back. Not moving.
    The girl hadn’t said a word to me
since she’d given me that cookie—years ago.
    I tilted my head, quirking an
eyebrow. “You looking for me?”
    She sucked in her breath and gave a
slight nod. No words.
    Cutest thing
ever.
    My lips twitched slightly.
    I couldn’t help being entrained by
her obvious discomfort. Did she think I was going to slug her?—a cute
little girl?
    My grin grew despite my
puzzlement—or because of it. Not sure. The girl just made me grin. All the time. Just seeing her—she always managed to do
that, pull my lips into a smile. Every time I saw her.
    As my lips did their thing, my
eyebrows lifted. “What’s up?”
    She bit her bottom lip. It gave me
a little thrill. Those cherry red lips, man. It got me thinking—in vivid
detail—what she wrote about me in that notebook of hers. That she
wondered what it would be like to feel my lips on hers. I was still willing to
let her find out. More than willing. Her lips were seducing me at the moment. The
way she was sucking on them like that. It made me stare at them and wonder.
Tempting me. They were so red, like
cherries. I wanted to press my mouth against them—see what they tasted
like. Like that cinnamon cookie she gave me? … or juicy red cherries? Suddenly, I felt pretty certain it would be a combination
of the two. And I was more than curious what that would taste like. Curious
enough that I felt I might just grab her and find out. Though I knew I
wouldn’t, since just standing here with me seemed to be traumatizing to her shy
girly heart. I mean, I got that impression from the way she had her little
hands clasped over her heart like that—as though for dear life, like to
cage it in, because she was afraid it was going to leap out of her chest and make
a run for it. Like just being near me made it do violent things.
    All that stuff though—her
quivering and clasping and sighing—it made me tempted to put my hand over her heart too. I wanted to
feel it. Feel it beating for me.
    So those two things were going
through my head—kissing Ally and feeling her heart. It made me draw
closer to her without even noticing I was doing it.
    But then, whoa. She squeaked and lurched away from me. That’s how I woke up and noticed I’d
gotten closer. It was kind of