“Sorry,” she says, taking a sip of her coffee and instantly pulling back as it burns her tongue, “I thought Nate might have come.”
“Huh?” I look at her. “I told you yesterday I would.”
Tora lets out a heavy sigh. “I know, I should have listened.”
“Damn straight, woman.”
“Watch it,” she scolds. “Just because I’m an idiot doesn’t mean I can’t kick your ass.”
I roll my eyes as I pull out onto the road and start getting our asses to school. “I’d like to see you try.”
Tora shakes her head and twists in her seat to look at me front on. “When’s your date with Kaylah?” she questions, making my eyes bug out of my head. Crap. This isn’t going to go well for me. “What?” she laughs, instantly suspicious.
“Nope,” I grunt. “Not going there.”
Tora grins wide, clearly realizing there’s a story to be told. “Nah, no way,” she demands. “What’s going on? Did she say no? Did that dirty slut break your little heart? Do I need to kick her ass too?”
Oh, geez. I can just imagine Tora going up against Kaylah. It would be like fire and ice.
“First off,” I warn. “Don’t call her a dirty slut or I’ll be forced to take disciplinary action.” I pause and glance over to her to find her waiting with a cocked brow and realize that she isn’t going to let this go. I let out a shameful sigh. “I, uh…couldn’t do it.”
“What?” she grunts with her brows furrowing. “What do you mean you ‘couldn’t do it’? Was she not there?”
“No…she was definitely there,” I explain, recalling the very moment I stepped into her and could smell her perfume. “I, uh…I chickened out like a little bitch. I couldn’t do it. I’m Jesse Fucking Ryder. I don’t ask out chicks. I screw them and give them bragging rights. I don’t date them. I mean, what if I did and it turned out badly? Every other chick I bang is going to expect something from me.”
“Holy shit, Jess,” Tora laughs. “That is the funniest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“It’s not funny.”
“It is,” she says, still with amusement loud and clear in her tone. “It’s a simple fix. Move on and find some other girl to make scream.”
I look over at her, unsure why I feel so damn conflicted with her comment. “No, I want that one,” I demand. “Three words. ‘Three-second rule.’”
She rolls her eyes. “Then stop being a little pussy, man the hell up, and ask the girl out.”
I narrow my eyes at her. “Let’s discuss your shitty relationship instead.”
“No way,” she shrieks. “You’re the one on trial here, not me. Besides, I have no issue telling Nate what’s up. You’re the chickenshit around here.”
I suck in an outraged breath. How dare she point out my chickenshit tendencies. “Fine, I’ll do it and when it all comes crashing down, you’ll be the one to blame.”
“It won’t come crashing down because you’re going to treat her like a fucking queen, and if it does, it’s because you would have screwed it up in some other way. See, nothing to do with me.”
“All to do with you. You’re the idiot convincing me it’s a good idea,” I tell her, though the idea of treating her like a queen…my queen, sounds so fucking good to me.
“Because it is a good idea,” Tora fires back.
I let out a deep breath, wondering if I’m a fool for saying this, but this is Tora, the only one who’ll listen to this bullshit. “Okay, I lied,” I tell her, making her narrow her gaze on me. “It’s more than just chickening out like a little bitch. I nearly shit my pants. My hands were sweaty. I couldn’t breathe. I swear, Tora, I don’t have these problems when it comes to girls.”
She presses her lips into a tight line and I see her trying not to laugh, but then she puffs out her chest as though she’s about to give me the best advice I’ll ever receive, so I listen up, knowing this is going to be good. “Okay, this is what you’re going to do,” she says as I pull into the parking lot of Broken Hill High. “You’re going to march your ass right in there and show her that Jesse Ryder is the man. You’re going to lock eyes with her and let her know exactly what you want. Then you grab her by the waist and slam her up against the wall, without giving her a concussion, of course,” she laughs as though she’s the funniest thing in the world. “You hold both her wrists in one hand above your head and slide your knee between her legs, and when you have her complete, undivided attention, you kiss her like she’s never been kissed in her life. It’s going to be so good that all the girls are going to be jealous and all the guys are going to come in their pants. Then you tell her, not ask, you tell her she’s your girl and she’ll be putty in your hands.”