Free Her Kiss (Griffin) by Melanie Marks

yeah. Hailey knew my calling
Ally into the closet wasn’t a joke. She knew Ally was my Heaven.
    Just to change the subject, I
jutted my chin. “So, what’s my type?” I quirked my eyebrows with a grin, “You?”
    Hailey turned red and looked away.
I’d never seen her blush before. Ever.
    I just wanted her off the Ally
subject—that was the only reason I said that. But she had to admit, the way she
was getting so riled up was like a jealous chick. Still, I felt bad. I didn’t
mean to call her out.
    “I was just messing with you Hailey.”
I don’t normally apologize. Or have moments of seriousness. And I don’t usually
call her Hailey. I call her Pop-fly , because in fifth
grade she caught my pop-fly and won that year’s baseball tournament. But the
word “Hailey” came out of my mouth, and that seemed to make her just as red as
the call-out.
    This wasn’t my night. I mean, it was —with my Heaven. Definitely. But not with my grouchy friend.
    “Don’t worry about it, Pop-fly ,” I soothed with a grin. “She seems to know she’s
not my type—though just for the record, I don’t have a type.” Then I
added, “But if I had one—it would be her.”
    I don’t normally talk so straight,
but I guess I was still flying from my three minutes in heaven. So, curiously,
I put the truth out there—to someone. It was to Hailey because she was
the only person at the party that suspected the truth. The only person. Ally sure
didn’t. She had no clue she was my Heaven.
    I knew that (for a fact) because I
heard her whisper to her friends when Poser stomped off to the bathroom and she
had a moment alone with her friends, she whispered to them adamantly, “Griffin
only called me into the closet to make Aiden mad—but at that moment, I’d wanted to make Aiden mad too.
But now I know it was a mistake, of course. That kiss …”
    She made a groaning half-dreamy,
half-tortured sighing sound.
    I totally understood the feeling.
    Only I didn’t see it as a mistake.

 
    ***

 
    “Did you have fun in the closet?” Aiden hissed to Ally.
    It was the first thing he’d said to
her since she came out of the closet. I don’t think he went to the “bathroom”
when he said that’s where he was going. I think he downed a couple of beers,
feeling sorry for himself.
    “Dang yeah, I had fun,” Ally
chirped, obviously trying to sound like she was on top of the world—and
like she didn’t have a loser boyfriend willing to go into the closet with a
skanky cheerleader that was making it painfully clear she was after Ally’s guy.
    Ally flung her hair back and
squared her shoulders. “Probably as much fun as you had with Fauna.”
    Poser narrowed his eyes at her.
“That wasn’t my fault.”
    “Neither was mine , Aiden.”
    Poser shook his head, looking like
he was disgusted with her. That made me clench my
fists, ready for action. If he said one mean word to her, I was going to throw.
    Poser’s expression was totally take that as he snipped to Ally, “Fauna
texted me a second ago. I’m giving her a ride to her friend’s house to get her
car. She needs a ride—come on.”
    Poser got to his feet, acting like
Ally would go along with his morbidly insane, highly inappropriate
arrangement—I mean, the guy had just finished making-out with the skank in a closet. Now he expected Ally to give
the girl a ride? That was beyond messed up.
    It was like he was trying to force
a perverse punishment on Ally for going into the closet with me.
    The guy was a dirt-bag. He needed
to go down. I was itching to do it. The only thing stopping me was Ally. I
didn’t want her to think that’s all I do—beat up little punks. Still,
that’s what I wanted to do—beat up the little punk.
    Ally stayed where she was on the
floor, glaring witheringly up at her immature boyfriend like he was insane.
Which he was. She said tersely, “No thanks. I’ll
stay.”
    “I’m not coming back,” Aiden
growled through gritted teeth.
    Ally gave a