“What the fuck? What do you mean unless?”

“Unless you earn back your golden status. What Aiden said last night when you were touching my top. You been acting like that a lot lately?”

“We just got back to school!”

“This summer maybe? Last spring?”

He lets out a frustrated sigh. “Yeah, maybe. So what am I supposed to do? Go without girls to try and prove something to her?”

“I think maybe that’s exactly what you need to do.”

“No. I can’t freaking win.”

“What if you could?”

“What do you mean?”

“I think your image needs a makeover.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

Dallas creeps up and whispers, “Hey, y’all.” He sits down next to me and wraps me in a big hug. “I love you already, you know that?”

“Hey, I need love too,” Dawson says, so Dallas and I jump on him, knock him to the ground, and hug him exaggeratedly.

Dallas says, “So tonight was good, then went to shit. What happened with Aiden?”

“Yeah, what happened with Aiden?” Dawson asks.

“Well, he took me to his dorm room, opened the door, and he had put lights up on the ceiling and had rose petals on the floor, and seriously, I was pissed. Here he had been telling me he wanted to dance with me, made it sound all romantic, and I walk into this huge seduction scene.”

“So you don’t want to do it with Aiden?” Dallas asks.

“Well, not yet! Not until I know if he likes me, and we go out, and fall in love or something. Like it’d be a while, for sure! Especially since I’m not falling in love with anyone here. I am so done with love. And, after last night, I thought we were done, but then he scored the points for me. So we danced, and he kissed his amazing kisses. But still, no making out. No tongues. No hands. Nothing. Then he decides to pop the champagne, and then he does this really sweet toast. By fucking Keats.”

“What’s wrong with Keats? I thought girls love that poetry shit,” Dawson says.

And Dallas is like, “Does that have something to do with the surfer?”

“Yeah. He used to call me his Keats, and he always quoted Keats poetry to me. And he did one about nothing becoming real until you experience it and that was right before we first had sex. Not that long ago.”

Dawson lowers his voice. “Oh, dude, bad move, huh? Like, mood killer?”

“Ya think? I froze. Then I slammed two glasses of champagne. He didn’t know. And his quote was sweet, like about bliss and kisses.”

Dallas laughs and nudges me with his elbow. “So, then did he try to get down and dirty?”

“No! We kissed. But his hands stayed put.”

“You can kiss me. I promise my hands won’t stay put,” Dallas shoots back.

“That goes for me too.” Dawson grins.

“You,” I say, pointing to Dawson, “are done with the random hookups. No kissing. No sex. You are a good boy from now on.”

Dallas rolls out a blanket for us. “So, that sounded okay. Why don’t you think he likes you?”

“Because then he asked why my face went white when he said the quote and I told him. He asked me if I had sex with the guy and if I loved him. I told him he was my first love, and he’d always be special. Then he looked pissed at me. Then he patted my shoulder and said, See ya later, Boots. What does that mean? Does he like me or hate me?”

“I vote for hate you.” Dallas grins.

“Yeah, me too,” Dawson adds.

“You guys suck.”

Dallas says with a naughty voice, “Well, we don’t, but, hey, you feel like sucking something, we certainly won’t stop you.”

I punch him.

“Okay, here, we need this.”

Dallas lights up his party favor, and we get a little baked.

The night air gets cold and pretty soon we’re all wrapped up in the blanket.

And I’ve smoked enough that I start gabbing philosophically.

“So back to making over your image, Dawson. I mean, think about it. You know how, like, in Hollywood if someone gets caught cheating on their wife, or gets a DUI, or goes to rehab, they look bad? People think they are doing bad things, their movies maybe don’t sell, they can’t get corporate sponsors, advertising dollars, that kind of thing. There are publicists who specialize in making over your image. Maybe hook you up with a charity event, get you photographed doing good, raising money, happy pics of your happy family. I can help you with that, but you have to do what I say.”

“I don’t wanna look lame,” Dawson says.

“What do you think your reputation is at school? How do people view you?”

“I don’t know. I guess I’m pretty popular. A good athlete. A nice guy.”

“Maybe that’s what you used to be. I mean, I know I’ve only been here a few days, but I see you as a guy who is a dick to his brother, is a player, a partier, and a quarterback who doesn’t give a shit.”

“Dallas, what do you think?”

“I’d have to agree with her. Sorry.”

“Well, shit.”

“Are you a good quarterback?”

“Yeah. I guess.”

“Okay, so here’s what you’ve got going for you. You’re hot. Like, besides the God of all Hotties, you’re the most gorgeous guy here. Amazing body. That’s the first thing I noticed about you. Course, you had your shirt off. Maybe you should walk around school with no shirt on. Then no one would care about your reputation.”

“But if I can’t be with other girls, what good will it do me?”

“Dude, I don’t think she said you couldn’t be with any girls. You just can’t be with every girl. He could have a girlfriend, right? Just not a bunch of hookups?”

“Right, Dallas! Oh, that would make her so jealous. Hookups. Kissing fresh meat. Ogling bras. That just makes her know she was right.”

“And you need to be nicer to Riley.”

“Damn, Dallas, you’re good. He’s right. You’re a jerk to your brother.”

“Yeah, I suppose I have been kind of a douche to him.”

“What about that Social Committee that Peyton is on? Are you on it? Is Whitney on it?”

“Of course, she’s on it. She thinks she runs it. Although I’m pretty sure this guy, Brad, and Peyton do all the work. I could get on it if I wanted to.”

“Do it. You need to get back to your confident self. I see you moping around her. Embrace your new friendship.”

“I want to go homecoming with her.”

“Then that’s your goal. You’ll be a good brother, a good quarterback, a nice guy, and a leader. New and improved and, most importantly, desirable. If every girl here wants you, she’ll want you back. I like this new you already,” I tell Dawson. “You seem much nicer than the dick I first met.”

“Maybe you should help me make her jealous.”

“I think I have enough complications as it is. I could flirt with you, but I couldn’t kiss you. My experience was awful. Sorry, but it was.”

“Maybe I need to fix that.”

“Fix what?”

He leans in and kisses me. A slow, sweet kiss.

And I can’t help it. I kiss him back a little.

Just, like, to verify my opinion of his kissing.

“So what do you think? I can’t have you going around telling everyone how awful I am. That will not be good for my image.”

“True.” I giggle. “And it wasn’t awful.”

Sunday, August 28th

I think you forgot love.

1pm

Dallas, Riley, Katie, Tyrese, Dawson, Ace, me, and a bunch of other people are hanging out on the big green Commons between the dorms. Some people are kicking a soccer ball around. Others are throwing a frisbee back and forth. It’s a gorgeous warm afternoon.

We have a little football game going.

Riley passes me the ball and I take off running with it. Dawson chases me and tackles me to the ground.

Then he rolls me over and sits on top of me. I grip the ball with all my might, so he can’t pull it away from me. This game isn’t following very many rules, and I know if I let go he will call fumble even though I’m clearly down.

He tickles my sides in attempt to loosen my grip.

I’m screaming, laughing, and clutching the football when I see Peyton and Whitney walk up.

Whitney crosses her arms and marches away.

We weren’t trying to at all, but I kinda hope for Dawson’s sake that it made her jealous.

Not that there’s anything to be jealous of.

Dawson is still sitting on me, trying to grab the football. I drop my arms to my side, letting go.

“What? You just gave in?” Dawson says with a sexy smirk.

“I think you mean gave up.”

He chuckles. He knows exactly what he said.

I see Riley walk off the field to talk to Audrey, the girl he hooked up with last night. He reminds me so much of Cush.

“Can I ask you a serious question?”

Dawson rolls over to lie in the grass beside me. He bends his arm to hold up his head and says, “Shoot.”

“What do you think is better in a relationship? Friendship or hot sex?”

He reaches out and touches the tip of my nose. “I think you forgot love, silly.”

“Oh, yeah.” I frown.

“Why is that cute little face frowning?”

I let out a sigh. “I’m not sure I know what love is. What it’s supposed to be. It confuses me.”

“It confuses me too. I kept thinking if it was real love with Whitney that we’d get back together. That it would just happen.”

“That’s exactly what I’m wondering. Is real love easy or hard?”

“You make me hard.” He grins and raises his eyebrows at me.

I smack him gently on his buff arm.

“What? I’m serious. You do. So, um, what exactly did you and my brother do? Like, what really happened between you?”

“Like, sexually?”

“Yeah.”

“Nothing. Well, he did see a bit of my bra the other night.

“He got to see your bra?”

“I was getting dressed for carnival and well, yeah, sorta. I’m talking like just the straps because I was holding a dress in front of me asking if it was appropriate before I put it on.”

“Was it the same sexy leopard bra you had on the other night? I don’t remember much of the party, but I do remember that.”

“It’s not really that sexy. It covers up more than a bikini.”

“I think pretty much anything would look sexy on you. But you’re right, it would probably look better off.” He grins at me and his eyes glisten.

Charm and sexiness definitely run in the Johnson family.

I bite the corner of my lip, trying to stop myself from smiling.

He says quietly, “And I probably shouldn’t do this, but I am.”

Then he leans over and kisses me.

Now, he’s dragging me across campus. Says he wants to show me all his favorite places.

Stop number one is a parking lot.

We walk up to a fully modified BMW 1M V-8 Hurricane RS. It’s got a custom paint job in carbon fiber gray, has blacked out windows, extra body moldings, and all sorts of engine modifications. It’s a hot car. Tommy would love it.

I watch him gently wipe a speck of dust off the hood.

“Your car is your baby, isn’t it?”

He laughs. “Pretty obvious, huh?”

“I got a really sweet car for my birthday,” I say wistfully.

“Really? What kind?”

I tell him about my beautiful Mercedes. The car I have never even driven.

He lets out a whistle. “Your parents have good taste.”

“I’m the one who saw a picture of it and told Tom, uh, my stepdad that I loved it. I never imagined they’d buy it for me.”

“Why didn’t you bring it?”

Because I didn’t want a stalker to use it to track me down.

But, shit. Why didn’t I? Why wouldn’t I? I try not to panic. I think about how Tommy named all his cars. How you’d find him sitting in the garage staring at them and wiping them with a diaper. I come up with an answer.

“I didn’t want it to have to sit outside. Especially in the winter. So I need to buy a car here. How well do you know the area around school?”

His eyes light up. “I know it quite well. I was going to ask if you wanted to go off campus for some killer pizza tonight. Thought we could discuss my image. We could go early and swing by a couple dealerships. So what do you want? Do you know?”

“I was thinking a Range Rover.”

He nods his head. “A tight one, though, right?” He looks me up and down.

“What’s that for?”

“I’m trying to figure out what you’d look best in.”

“I already know what I’d look best in. The black V-8 with the supercharged motor. Deep chestnut interior. Probably have to do some cool wheels later.”

“You have good taste.”

“Well, thank you. So I need to change and grab my purse. What time do you want to leave?”

“Just text me when you’re ready.”

You should hate yourself.

3pm

I’m redoing my makeup when I get a text from Riley.

Sex God: You were kissing my brother in front of me. Break my heart. </3

Me: It was one kiss and you hooked up with Audrey last night.

Sex God: Because you were with Aiden. Having a million dances.