Extraits

Everyone at the table noticed, and when he instigated a mini-food fight with me, it garnered the attention of those sitting at the tables around us.

I rolled my eyes. “I feel like a zoo animal.”

Travis watched me for a moment, noted those staring, and then stood up.

“I CAN’T!” he yelled. I stared in awe as the entire room jerked their heads in his direction. Travis bobbed his head a couple of times to a beat in his head.

Shepley closed his eyes. “Oh, no.”

Travis smiled. “get no….sa…tis…faction,” he sang, “I can’t get no….sat-is-fac-tion. ‘Cuz I’ve tried…and I’ve tried…and I’ve tried…and

I’ve tried…,” he climbed onto the table as everyone stared, “I CAN’T GET

NO!”

He pointed to the football players at the end of the table and they smiled,

“I CAN’T GET NO!” they yelled in unison. The whole room clapped to the beat, then.

Travis’ sang into his fist, “When I’m drivin’ in my car, and a man comes on the…ra-di-o…he’s tellin’ me more and more…about some useless infor-ma-tion! Supposed to fire my im-agin-a-tion! I CAN’T GET NO!Uh no, no, no!” He danced past me, singing into his imaginary microphone.

The whole room chanted in harmony, “HEY, HEY, HEY!”

“That’s what I’ll say!” Travis sang.

Travis jerked his hips, and a few whistles and squeals from the girls in the room fired off. He walked by me again, singing the chorus to the other side of the room, the football players his backup singers.

“I’ll help you out!” A girl yelled from the back.

“…cuz I tried, and I tried, and I tried…,” he sang.

“I CAN’T GET NO! I CAN’T GET NO!” his backups chanted.

Travis stopped in front of me and bent down. “When I’m watchin’ my tv…and a…man comes on and tells me….how white my shirts can be! Well he can’t be a man, ‘cause he doesn’t smoke….the same cigarettes as me! I can’t…get no! Uh no, no, no!”

Everyone clapped to the beat and the football players sang, “HEY, HEY,

HEY!”

“That’s what I say!” Travis sang, pointing to his clapping audience.

Some people stood and danced with him, but most just watched with amused amazement.

He jumped to the adjacent table and America squealed and clapped, elbowing me. I shook my head; I had died and woken up in High School

Musical.

“He kissed you?”

I pressed my lips together and nodded. “He’s got really soft lips.”

Travis recoiled. “I don’t care what kind of lips he has.”

“Trust me, it’s important. I get so nervous with first kisses, too, but this one wasn’t so bad.”

“You get nervous about a kiss?” he asked, amused.

“Just first kisses. I loathe them.”

“I’d loathe them, too, if I had to kiss Parker Hayes.”

“Talk to you tomorrow, Abs.”

I waved, watching him walk down the steps to his car. “Bye.”

Once again, when I turned the knob, the door yanked away and I fell forward. Travis caught me, and I regained my footing.

“Would you stop that?” I said, closing the door behind me.

“Abs? What are you, a workout video?” he sneered.

The toilet flushed, and the faucet turned on, making the water flash cold for a moment. I cried out and the door flew open.

“Pidge?” Travis said.

America laughed. “I just flushed the toilet, Trav, calm down.”

“Oh. You all right, Pigeon?”

“I’m great. Get out.” The door shut again and I sighed. “Is it too much to ask for locks on the doors?”

He sat up on his elbow, a dubious frown on his face. “Is that why you slept on the recliner? Because you didn’t care?”

“I couldn’t fall asleep after your… friends left.”

“You slept just fine in the recliner. Why couldn’t you sleep with me?”

“You mean next to a guy who still smelled like the pair of bar flies he had just sent home? I don’t know! How selfish of me!”

Travis winced. “I said I was sorry.”

“And I said I didn’t care. Goodnight,” I said, turning over.

Several moments of silence passed. He slid his hand across the top of my pillow, resting his hand on mine. He caressed the delicate pieces of skin between my fingers, and then he pressed his lips against my hair. “As worried as I was that you’d never speak to me again…I think it’s worse that you’re indifferent.”

He opened the passenger side door, and I laughed. “You drive a

Porsche?”

“She’s not just a Porsche. She’s a Porsche nine-one-one GT-three.

There’s a difference.”

“Let me guess, it’s the love of your life?” I said, quoting Travis’

statement about his motorcycle.

“No, it’s a car. The love of my life will be a woman with my last name.”

A soft knock on the door tapped above me. “Pidge?” Travis said.

“Yeah?” I said, trying to sound normal.

“You’re staying?”

“I can go if you want me to, but a bet’s a bet.”

The door vibrated with the soft bump of Travis’’ forehead against the door. “I don’t want you leave, but I wouldn’t blame you if you did.”

“Are you saying I’m released from the bet?”

There was a long pause. “If I say yes, will you leave?”

“Well, yeah. I don’t live here, silly,” I said, forcing a small laugh.

“Then no, the bet’s still in effect.”

“Are you nervous?” I asked.

He smiled, looking down at me. “No. You look a little nervous, though.”

“Maybe,” I admitted.

“If it’ll make you feel better, I won’t let him touch me. I won’t even let him get one in for his fans.”

“How are you going to manage that?”

He shrugged. “I usually let them get one in, to make it look fair.”

“You…? You let people hit you?”

“How much fun would it be if I just massacred someone and they never got a punch in? It’s not good for business, no one would bet against me.”

“What a load of crap,” I said, crossing my arms.

Travis raised an eyebrow. “You think I’m yankin’ your chain?”“I find it hard to believe that you only get hit when you let them hit you.”

“Would you like to make a wager on that, Abby Abernathy?” he smiled, his eyes animated.

I smiled. “I’ll take that bet. I think he’ll get one in on you.”

“And if he doesn’t? What do I win?” he asked. I shrugged as the yelling on the other side of the wall grew to a roar. Adam greeted the crowd, and then went over the rules.

Travis’ mouth stretched into a wide grin. “If you win, I’ll go without sex for a month.” I raised an eyebrow and he smiled again. “But if I win, you have to stay with me for a month.”

“What? I’m staying with you, anyway! What kind of bet is that?” I shrieked over the noise.

“They fixed the boilers at Morgan today,” Travis smiled, winking.

A smug smile spread across my face as Adam called Travis’ name.

“Anything is worth watching you try abstinence for a change.”

“You just want me to hold you until you fall asleep?”

I didn’t answer.

He shifted to look straight into my eyes. “I should say no to prove a point,” he said, his eyebrows pulling together. “But I would hate myself later if I said no and you never asked me again.”

I nestled my cheek against his chest, and he tightened his arms, sighing.

“You don’t need an excuse, Pigeon. All you have to do is ask.”

“Third highest test grade in the class! Nice, Pidge!” he said, squeezing me. His eyes were bright with excitement and pride, and an awkward feeling made me to take a step back.

“Thanks, Trav. Couldn’t have done it without you,” I said, pulling on his t-shirt.

He tossed me over his shoulder, making his way through the crowd behind us. “Make way! Move it, people! Let’s make room for this poor woman’s hideously disfigured, ginormous brain! She’s a fucking genius!”