Three days had passed since the day in the park with Jayden and he hadn't bothered me... much. Mostly he was just trying to talk to me a lot, when I started getting in trouble in class because of it I had to tell him to shut up. Honestly, I didn't think guys could talk that much. He tried talking to me about everything. Magazines, sports, movies, celebrities, music, food, the list goes on and on.

I was glad to see that he was still sucking face with several girls a day, maybe he just wanted me as a friend? That wouldn't be too bad as long as he never ever touched me. The simple move he had pulled on me at the park had been like an alarm going off in my head, making me snap to my senses. No matter if he was just trying to be friendly or not players still only had one thing in mind and that was getting lucky. I would never be alone with Jayden again, that I knew for sure.

For the first time in a while, I found myself getting excited to go to school in the mornings. I saw Jason more because he was always hanging around Cali. I really wished they would just get together already. Then there was Josh. During Home Ec we were constantly flirting with each other. He was my kind of guy; Really cute and nice, his dark hair and hazel eyes were just a perfect combination and girls weren't constantly going after him. I knew he liked me and I was trying to make it obvious that I liked him so that he would ask me out.

On Thursday afternoon, the Home Ec teacher handed us a list of different recipes we could choose from to make. Without planning it or anything, Josh and I both looked up from our papers and said 'Cinnamon Buns' then bursted out laughing. That's a quick way to my heart, a guy who knows good food. Cinnamon Buns are quick to make so we had a bit of free time after we finished cooking. We did a couple laps around the school, eating and laughing together. It was nice to feel this way about a guy again.

I was always conscious of where my hands were and what I was saying. If one of those awkward moments happened where our hands brushed and we both pulled away quickly I would just die. I didn't want to say anything stupid in front of him; I didn't know it when we first started talking but he is actually smart. It's not that I'm not smart I just tend to say things that don't make sense sometimes.

"You're cute when you're embarrassed." Josh said nudging me in the side slightly. He had just told me I had icing from my cinnamon bun smeared on my nose, that was embarrassing.

"You said I'm cute." I said in a singsong voice, trying to embarrass him, but that didn't embarrass him at all.

"Didn't you already know I think your cute?" He said raising an eyebrow at me. I knew he thought I was cute, why else would he have dared me to make out with him? But I wasn't going to just say that straight out, I may not have dated in a while but I still know how to do things right.

"Not really to be honest." He had stopped walking and turned to face me. It was a little weird standing in the middle of the very empty hallway that was usually bustling full of people, it was eerily quiet.

"Really? Cause I thought you would have caught on with that stunt I pulled at Amanda's birthday." He knew that I was playing dumb. Damn he really is smarter than I thought he was.

"You were drunk." I said nonchalantly. "It could have meant nothing to you and I would have never known." I shrugged my shoulders at him and gave a cute what-can-ya-do smile. Apparently he liked this because he grabbed one of my hands and intertwined it with his own. This small action awakened thousands of butterflies in my stomach. I felt as if I was on the ride at the carnival that brings you high into the air and drops you to the ground. What a rush.

"Just so you know," he said in a small whisper as he leaned in closer to me "it meant something to me." He was close to kissing me; His lips were literally just about to touch my own. I was excited. I had been waiting for this ever since the last time we had kissed. We had been drunk then, so it didn't mean nearly as much as it meant to me right in that moment.

He put his arms around me, his muscly, basketball playing arms and pulled me closer in to his chest. I could feel his hard chest, and rock hard abs. Damn what I would give for him not to be wearing a shirt right now. I giggled at the thought and smiled up into his hazel eyes, then we were kissing.

It wasn't like the kiss we had shared at the party; This kiss was gentle and not fumed by alcohol and out-of-control hormones. His lips were soft on mine and not forceful at all. He was treating me as something fragile and breakable. I liked it a lot. It seemed like a long time before he started kissing a little harder, opening my mouth up so he could slip his tongue inside. I was glad to find that, once again, he didn't shove his tongue down my throat. There is nothing worse than a guy trying to choke you with his tongue, ickk.

"Mr. Striker and Miss. Swift!" I heard the stern voice call our names from down the hall and regretfully ripped my lips away from Josh's. Dammit, our Home Ec teacher was standing at the end of the hall with her arms crossed around her chest. Mrs. Hummings wasn't usually a stern teacher, she was actually one of my favorites but I don't think any teacher appreciates two students leaving her class to make out. "Back to the classroom, please." She said before turning on her heel and marching around the corner. At least we didn't get in trouble.

Josh tried to stifle his laughter but he couldn't seem to help himself. He had such a cute laugh; He sounded like a little kid. Everything about him made me want to smile. Thank you god, I thought to myself, finally a guy just for me! We continued to hold hands until we got back to the classroom where we unfortunately detached ourselves. I flashed an apologetic smile to Mrs. Hummings and I swear she winked at me. That's a bit weird...

As we sat around for the bell to ring Josh doodled on his notebook, so I did the same. I was digging around in my backpack for a pen and paper when a small paper airplane glided to a stop in front of me. When I looked up at Josh he was whistling innocently looking around the room, not keeping his eyes on anything for too long. Obviously it had been him. Just as I was about to toss it back to him, I saw that there was something written on it. The writing was messy, but I could make out the message.

'Go on a date with me?'

How could I say no to that? More like how was I going to say yes? He had been so creative, and I wanted to be to. That's when the idea popped into my head. I had one remaining cinnamon bun on a plastic plate set aside for Cali; She loves cinnamon buns, but I had a better use for it. With the back of my pen I etched the word 'YES' into the icing and slid it across the table to Josh. He immediately grinned at me and started laughing.

"Why does my cinnamon bun say 'YES' on it?" Cali asked me when I handed her the delicious baked treat. I quickly relayed the last twenty minutes of my life to her. Right from the time Josh and I were kissing in the hallway until I had said yes to going on a date with him.

"Awe, I'm so happy for you Delanie!" Cali yelled while giving me a huge hug.

"I'm so happy for me!" I gushed back. This was turning out to be a decent week.

Why is it that every time you say your having a good week, the next day turns out to be complete shit? Maybe I should just start saying that I'm having a shit day every day and then the next day will be perfect... if only things worked that way. Why was my Friday shit? Well, let's start from the beginning.

I woke up to find that the water was shut off so I couldn't shower. I know disgusting, right? James and I took turns washing each other's hair with bottles of water. A whole case of water later, at least we both had clean hair. Lucinda was less than impressed by the mess that we had made, but hey she gets paid to clean so she shouldn't complain! The not having any water incident had made us both late for school. James usually got a ride from one of his friends, but the guy couldn't wait for James because if he was late for school one more time, he was getting suspended.

So we both had to listen to Amanda bitch all the way to school about us both making her late. I felt bad for James; I know Amanda can be a lot to handle but I'm used to her. My brother practically ran from the car, without so much as a thank you to her. I couldn't exactly run from her, considering we were both headed in the same direction. All the way to history class I had to hear about how 'I better tell Mr. Dean why were late.' and 'if we get detention I will kill you.' God some people are so dramatic. We arrived in History class a little over ten minutes late. Luckily for us we were rarely late, so we didn't get detention from Mr. Dean.

However, I had to deal with Jayden and his big mouth all period. I mean honestly does this guy not know when to shut up? He just kept yapping on and on. I just nodded my head and pretended I was listening to him. What I was really thinking about was Josh, and the date we had planned for Saturday night. Considering I had partied hard the past two weekends, I didn't want to do anything too crazy, so he was just coming over to watch movies. At least I had something to look forward to.

"Really, Delanie?" Jayden said looking at me with a grin on his face. I looked over at him for the first time today and took in his appearance. Was it just me or did he look anxious?

"What?" I asked in a whisper. Jayden gave me a confused look before dropping his smile and giving me a cold look.

"Have you listened to a word I have said the past three minutes?" Now I was feeling guilty. Not only had I not listened the past three minutes, but I hadn't listened to him since he said hello to me.

"Sorry, my head is elsewhere." I responded lamely. "What were you saying?"

"Well... uh... actually I asked you to go to dinner with me." My jaw dropped. You have got to be kidding me. Jayden had actually just asked me to go to dinner with him? I thought back to what I had said to him last. The last five things I had just said 'mhmmm' and nodded. Oh god. So that meant that I had said yes to him!

"Shit, I'm sorry Jayden I really wasn't..." the bell rang just then and Jayden cut me off quickly before I could finish telling him that I wasn't interested in going on a date with him.

"I'll pick you up at seven tonight, where something sexy." He winked at me and took off out of the classroom like it was on fire.

I tried hunting Jayden down the rest of the day but he was nowhere to be found. There was no way in hell I was going on a date with him! When he showed up at my house, I was just going to tell him that I didn't mean to say yes. Then my mind started making up all these ridiculous scenarios where Jayden would walk away with his head hung low and I would just have to say yes because I would feel guilty. I could not let that happen, especially not when I had a date with Josh the next day, that would just be wrong.

As I drove to Delanie's house, I couldn't help but feel excited. I hadn't felt excited about taking a girl out in ages. Maybe even never. Perhaps it was because I was finally making some progress with her. I bet she would almost consider me a friend by this point. It wouldn't be long until I could get away with kissing her. Once I kissed her, she would know what she had been missing and she would give in to me. That's how it always happened.

Since I had been trying so hard with Delanie, a lot of the girls I had been seeing don't really talk to me anymore. That's okay with me though, I had gotten what I wanted from them so it's on to the next one. It's not like there wasn't several other girls at school that would kill to go out with me. I have girls coming up to me with their phone numbers at least five times a day. Yet, I still haven't gotten Delaine's number, that would have to be my goal for the night.

I pulled into her driveway and looked in the mirror one more time before getting out of the car. My hair was perfect as always and my teeth were clean and sparkling white. I glanced at my reflection in the car and smoothed out my white dress shirt. Finally satisfied that my shirt was straight enough, I walked up the three small steps to her door and rang the doorbell. I glanced at my Rolex quickly and realized that it was exactly seven o'clock. I heard footsteps approaching the door, and I leaned against one pillar by the door, hoping I looked sexy and irresistible.

"Hey Delanie you lo... why are you in pajamas?" is this what she considered sexy? Okay well I can't lie the short shorts are pretty damn sexy but the over sized gray t-shirt, wasn't really doing it for me.

"I feel like shit." she said in a scratchy voice. "I can't go." She made to close the door, but I held my hand out stopping her. I was not giving up this easily.

"Then we can hang out here. I'll make you soup." I pushed past her and kicked off my shoes. "Trust me soup fixes everything, by the sound of your voice, I think you just have a cold."

Okay so I wasn't actually sick but the soup Jayden made me was amazing. He was a pro in the kitchen. The way he chopped up the vegetables into perfect proportions and made the broth with just enough pepper in it, I knew he was an amazing cook. Still, he was an amazing cook that I was supposed to be trying to blow off. Although I found it kind of hard to kick him out of my house when he was being so nice to me. Not only had he made me an amazing soup, but he also offered to give me a back massage which I couldn't turn down.

Somehow he ended up convincing me to watch a movie with him. In all honesty it wasn't so bad having him around, when he wasn't being so chatty. Outside of school he was so different, like a real person. It was nice to see him act like himself, it also wasn't bad seeing him in that white dress shirt. He looked so unbelievably hot; I was sure he caught me staring at him at least three times.

As we watched the movie I sat on one end of the couch while he sat on the other hugging a couch pillow. I was surprised by how engrossed he was in the movie considering I had picked a chick flick. Halfway through 'Valentines Day' I threw a pillow at him to get his attention.

"What was that for?" He said finally breaking his trance and looking away from the television.

"You just look like you're too into this movie."

"There are a lot of fantastic actors in this movie thank you very much. Ashton Kutcher is one of my favorite actors if you must know."

"I know that actually. You mentioned it a couple days ago... when you wouldn't shut up in history class!" I yelled playfully. Wait, was I wasn't supposed to be playful with Jayden! He wasn't even supposed to be here! I was supposed to blow him off. Yet there I was having a good time with him.

"Surprise surprise, you remembered." he smiled at the fact that I had remembered something about him. Great, now he probably thought that I was in love with him or something.

I hate to admit it but Jayden was showing me a good side of him. If I didn't think about all the girls that he had probably slept with in the past week, I might even say that he was a good guy. I had learned that Jayden was caring, a good cook, a wonderful masseuse, and liked chick flicks. So maybe my bad day hadn't ended as bad as I thought it was going to. Still when ten o'clock rolled around and Jayden was still at my house, I couldn't help but feel like it was time for him to go.

So of courseI did what any girl would do, I pretended to fall asleep right before the movie ended. It took about five minutes for Jayden to notice that I was asleep then I felt his arms slowly slide under my body. I had no idea what he was doing, but I was supposed to be asleep so I didn't do anything. I felt myself get lifted off of the couch and he started carrying me bridal style upstairs. He didn't know where my room was but apparently he had found it easily enough because I was soon being lowered onto my soft familiar bed.

I could still feel the weight of his body next to me so I didn't dare open my eyes. For a few minutes he just sat there stroking my hair and whispering things under his breath. Finally, I felt his weight leave the bed, but then I felt something coming close to my face. I was about to freak out until I felt a light kiss on my forehead.

"Goodnight beautiful girl." He whispered to me. Even after I knew he was gone I didn't open my eyes, instead I let myself fall asleep knowing the last thing I had seen was Jayden Breeze hugging my couch pillow like a child hugging a teddy bear.