Boys and Girls, Part I

A/N: Hey! Thanks for all your patience. My updates are a little more spaced out because I'm doing last-minute editing. I'm almost finished with my 3rd story, and it'll be posted eventually...just keep those reviews coming!

Chapter 11 - One Month Later...Kind of

Forty-seven days was a loooonnng time to be thinking about the one person you weren’t supposed to be thinking about. Ask Delaney Cameron…she knew all about it.

There had been no late-night visits from Jason after that fateful night in her bedroom. Delaney hadn’t tried calling Jason because firstly, she was afraid that he wouldn’t answer anyway, and secondly, because she was holding on to what little self-dignity she still possessed.

The fact was another gorgeous guy had spurned her. Though it hadn’t been as nasty as the Rick Welling incident, Delaney’s heart still ached. She had managed to keep her eyes dried ever since the incident with Jason, but being a girl, Delaney had come close to tears at least twice. Tonight, Delaney would not think about he-who-must-not-be-named because she was going to the annual NMU Springtime Gala on the beach. The attendees were usually comprised of girls of Delaney’s ilk – not overly hot and not very easy to score with; therefore, the male attendees usually did not include hot football players and/or jerky frat boys. Delaney was counting on that should Jason decide to show up.

“Ready?” Stephanie asked, tying her hair up into a messy ponytail.

Delaney nodded. Lani was unable to attend the Gala because of a softball tournament held at a rival school over the weekend, so Stephanie had volunteered to escort her, even though the Gala wasn’t exactly her cup of tea. However, Stephanie had agreed to escort Delaney in hopes of contributing to the Delaney Cameron Cheer-Up Project.

Stephanie, Delaney, and Jacy were all gathered at Stephanie’s apartment, which was furthest from the campus but actually closest to the beach where the Gala was being held. Stephanie looked over at Jacy, who was lying on the couch with her forearm shielding her eyes from the afternoon sun. The brat was fast asleep.

“Jacinda! Look alive!” Stephanie yelled.

One of Jacy’s eyes squinted open as she regarded Stephanie with murderous intent. She eventually turned over onto her stomach and resumed sleeping.

“Are you sure you aren’t coming?” Stephanie inquired.

Jacy waved her arm. Delaney understood that Jacy had stayed up the previous night, preparing for a job interview that morning before classes.

“How’d the interview go, Jacy?” Delaney asked.

“Don’t ask,” Jacy mumbled into the couch.

Delaney winced. Okay, maybe Jacy would need the entire weekend to recover from whatever had transpired that morning.

“Let’s leave Sleeping Beauty to wallow in her misery,” Stephanie added, grabbing her beach bag.

“Bye,” Delaney waved to Jacy, who mumbled something resembling ‘good-bye’ back.

As Stephanie closed the door behind her, an inexplicable sinking feeling developed in the pit of Delaney’s stomach, and she stopped.

“Delaney…is something wrong?”

Delaney’s cerulean blue eyes met Stephanie’s chartreuse green ones. Delaney didn’t say anything for the longest time. Finally, she snapped out of her little spell and plastered a fake smile on her face.

“N-no. I’m good…I thought I left the stove on at my apartment, but…I didn’t. It’s okay.”

“O-okay,” Stephanie hesitated, looking as if she didn’t completely believe Delaney. For once, Stephanie decided to let her suspicions die and began descending the steps of her third-floor apartment. Delaney heaved a silent sigh behind Stephanie and thought to herself.

It’s gonna be okay.


****

“So, what’s going on here again?”

Joe reached for a can of soda from the cooler as he answered Jason’s question. “It’s some kind of gathering for average girls.”

“Average?” Jason asked, confused.

“Not too hot, not too easy…at least that’s what Ryan tells me.”

Figures, Jason thought to himself.

Ryan had been unable to chill with Jason this weekend, but feeling the need to create some sort of male-bonding thing that was completely heterosexual, Ryan had employed Joe to “cheer” Jason up by taking the latter to the beach to watch the influx of weekend bunfloss bunnies.

Jason had not anticipated the gathering of “average” girls along Santa Ana Beach. It really didn’t bother him, except that the girls at the beach reminded him of the one person he didn’t want to be reminded of…an individual who was anything but average, in his opinion.

Joe leaned back on his elbows on top of a towel as he and Jason – who sat up – soaked in the rays of the late afternoon Southern California sun. Joe wore his navy blue board shorts, along with a burgundy NMU t-shirt, while Jason was clad in only his royal blue swimming trunks. His impressive tanned pectoral and abdominal muscles were on gorgeous display, which didn’t really mean a lot for Joe but did provide plenty of eye candy for the girls who passed by. While Jason could afford to slip sleek Oakleys over his mint green eyes, Joe preferred to go without sunglasses. It didn’t matter; both guys were a presence to behold. If Ryan had been able to come too, the show would have been a Thanksgiving feast worth of tastiness for all girls within viewing radius.

Joe popped the tab on his can of soda and took a sip. As Jason sat up, his eyes subconsciously scanned for a little spot of red somewhere out in the crowd of “average” girls. Why would she be here?

“Hey man,” Joe interrupted Jason’s thoughts, “I’m hungry.”

Jason shook his head in disbelief. Joe had to constantly eat in order to maintain his linebacker’s size. The fact that Joe was one of the tautest guys on the team surprised everyone, considering the rate at which he actually ate. Jason got up.

“What do you want?”

“The usual,” Joe answered, with a smirk.

Jason laughed. “The usual” was actually a meal capable of feeding a family of ten. The nearest food stand was a little far, but Jason needed this as a distraction. Joe was one of Jason’s best friends, but he didn’t provide the one-man show that Ryan could be relied to put on. Joe mostly kept quiet around Jason, which was what Jason did not need at this time.

He hadn’t seen Delaney in nearly six weeks. As promised, he had forced himself to resist knocking on her door after a nice workout or after a long study session at the library. He had forced himself to resist talking to her and enjoying their often-random conversations.

It hadn’t been easy. At least on more than occasion, Jason had stepped foot on the block where her apartment was located. At the last moment, he forced himself to keep walking and forget what he ever saw in those beautiful cerulean blue eyes and that gorgeous head of red curls.

Red curls.

About ten yards in front of Jason stood a girl wearing a banana yellow tank top and short white shorts. Her naked feet dug into the sand in front of the food stand. The girl’s back was turned to Jason, so he couldn’t see if she had those striking blue eyes that he had missed so much. He didn’t have to…only one person he knew had hair like this girl. Dark red and curly…Delaney Cameron.


“Two bottles of water, please.”

“$3.50.”

Delaney pulled out the five that she had discovered in the pockets of one of her old sweatshirts that morning. As it turned out, Stephanie wasn’t the date that Delaney had hoped for. Ten minutes into the Gala, Stephanie had begun shooting the breeze with a twenty-five-year-old lifeguard, and Delaney knew that she had instantly become chopped liver. Since Stephanie was most likely going to go thirsty with all the yammering she was doing with the lifeguard, Delaney decided that she’d do a service for Stephanie, and thus, make her feel guilty for having abandoned a friend.

Delaney took her change, while trying to carry both water bottles in the other hand. As she made her away from the food stand, the juggling of money and water took its toll, and her buck fifty went flying into the sand. Delaney silently cursed in frustration as she bent down to retrieve the money. A large shadow blocked her sunlight and curiosity got the better of Delaney. She looked up.

The old saying ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’ could have explained the sudden excitement that Delaney felt as she looked up at Jason Kent and felt his larger than life presence. Most likely, she was in mere awe of his golden pectorals and gold standard six-pack abs, which were clearly taunting her. Jason bent down and found the quarter, which had disappeared into the sand. He handed it back to Delaney.

“That goes to your laundry fund, right?”

Delaney couldn’t see his cool green eyes because they were currently hiding behind a very expensive-looking pair of Oakleys, but she was able to see his white smile. It made her heart melt. God, she had missed that golden boy smile of his. Every part of her being was so happy to see Jason again, yet she just could not find the strength to muster a smile. She didn’t scowl or frown. Instead, Delaney’s expression remained unreadable.

She slowly rose to her feet. Jason followed her and appeared to focus on her unwavering gaze from behind his sunglasses. At his full height, Jason stood more than half a foot taller than Delaney who was 5’5”. Add his golden, taut muscles to the package, and he was truly a sight to behold. Delaney might have been afraid of him…except she was more mad than scared right now. Her ambiguous expression soon turned into a scowl, as her dark eyebrows furrowed.

“Excuse me,” she said, as she tried to slip past Jason. He grabbed her bare arm and pulled her back.

“How are you doing, Delaney?” Delaney would have laughed at the sheer inanity of the question, except Jason looked so sincere when asking.

“Fine,” she answered grumpily, the scowl still there.

“And how are your friends?”

“Lani’s fine,” Delaney answered immaturely, just to add insult to injury. She knew that Jason didn’t have any interest in Lani, but she didn’t want to make nice with him just yet; the bastard had abandoned her after getting to first base, after all.

Jason sighed and pulled his Oakleys off his face. “I don’t blame you for being mad at me, Delaney.” His green eyes screamed sincerity even though Delaney didn’t want to believe it.

“I’m not mad,” Delaney lied.

“Oh, you’re definitely mad.”

“Please get out of my way,” Delaney gritted through her teeth.

“No.”

Delaney’s jaw dropped at Jason’s sudden arrogance. “What do you mean no?”

“I mean I would like to talk with you.”

“You had forty-seven days to talk with me.” The words flew out of Delaney’s mouth before she had a chance to stop herself. Her free hand flew to her mouth.

“Forty-seven days? Have you…been counting?”

Delaney wished at that moment that she could fall into an open pit of snakes. She was so mortified. If Jason Kent didn’t belief she was doormat material before…

“Whatever,” Delaney responded. “It could’ve been more or less. Who knows? The point is you walked out on me and didn’t bother to point out why. I think I deserved a proper explanation as to why you acted the way you did.”

“If you wanted to talk, why couldn’t you have called me?” Jason asked, knowing full well that it shouldn’t have been Delaney’s responsibility to do so anyway. He decided to add salt to the wound because he didn’t want the blame to shift entirely to himself. “Remember, you never gave me your number, but you had mine this whole time.”

As expected, she answered in typical Delaney fashion. “I won’t dignify that with an answer.” Jason continued to stare at Delaney intently. He had seen her angry or frustrated several times but never at him. Her blue eyes were like cool picks of ice, digging into his soul – accusing him and making him feel chilly all over.

“Look,” Delaney continued, “I have to go meet someone.”

Jason’s ears perked. Who? he wondered. Surely, none of Delaney’s girlfriends actually had the nerve to show up to an “average” girl type party with the exception of the grumpy brunette. “Who are you meeting?” he asked, silently chastising himself for sounding jealous all of a sudden.

Delaney paused. “A friend.”

“Lani?” he asked.

“No, she’s out of town.”

“Doing what?”

“I don’t know,” Delaney answered, sounding testy. “Why don’t you give her a call and ask her yourself?”

Jason frowned. “Don’t’ be immature, Delaney.”

Delaney let out a laugh of disbelief. “Me, immature? You’re the one who kissed and ran, Kent.”

Jason winced inwardly. It was definitely not good if the last name was being uttered during what was supposed to be a civil conversation. Jason’s face grew serious, as did his tone of voice.

“Delaney…I’d really like to talk to you…about everything.”

“Well, I’m sorry,” Delaney responded almost immediately, “but I think that going to be impossible.” She slipped past Jason, and he grabbed her by the arm again. She opened her mouth, and Jason knew that once she did, they would be creating a show for their NMU classmates. He let go, and Delaney walked past him without another word.

****

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