Blindsided

18

A/N: Don't forget to comment and vote! Next update out Tuesday (12).

...

"Would you stop it?" I laughed, my side cramping at the lack of oxygen. "I did not do that!"

Aiden had found me about half an hour after I got to the party, saving me from a boring conversation with one of the girls on the team. I admired her dedication, but she was focused on hockey even when she was at a party. As much as I wanted to spend time getting to know the team, I had hoped it would be less talk about their season and more actual conversation.

Ever since, I haven't stopped laughing. We were sitting at the bar in a study, the room dark and semi-secluded from the rest of the party. We had tried to find a quiet place to talk, and when we saw a couple of people passed out on the couches in here, we decided it was good enough.

"You did too!" he hissed, keeping his voice down so that he didn't wake up the people knocked out behind us. "You came to my game with Moira and Ashlee, remember? It was before Moira was dating Drake and she literally made a poster with her number on it. I cannot believe you don't remember."

"Kind of hard to remember something that didn't happen," I say under my breath, but he smirks when he hears the words.

"So you're still friends with them? I don't think I've ever seen you without them," he points out, taking a sip of beer from his cup. I was still on my first drink, trying to stay sober until I touched base with Simon. I was already nervous that he was upstairs with Aliza in one of the bedrooms, but I tried not to think about that too hard. I had considered dodging Aiden when he had approached me, but Simon had already broken his promise to stay with me tonight. I saw no reason to keep my promise to stay away from Aiden either.

"Yeah, I can't get rid of them," I joke, and he once again smirks at me. "What's with all these observations? You been stalkin me or somethin?"

He lets out a chuckle and shakes his head. He's wearing a Boston hat, but the hair that peeks out is a beautiful shade of blonde. "Not stalking. Like you said, just observing. I tend to do that when I'm in the presence of a woman like you."

That was his flirting. And yes, I definitely felt a blush spread across my cheeks. His brown eyes seemed to sparkle a little more, his smirk seemed to grow a little cuter, and his well-built body started to inch closer in my direction. The way he said woman like you, it made me want to let out a frustrated groan. If there was ever such a thing as sexual tension, it was this, and the temperature in the room suddenly felt like it rose a hundred degrees.

I had to stop looking into eyes, otherwise I was afraid I'd lose myself in them. I stood abruptly from my chair, turning in the opposite direction to study some random books on a shelf. I felt him follow me, but the tension fell away when he took a stand a couple of feet away. He too studied a a paperback, but he continued to smirk as though he knew that I couldn't tear my eyes away from him.

He was so easy to talk to, and unless I compared him to Simon, I had never laughed with someone so much in my life. Every time he complimented me, I felt my skin heat up and I would get the sudden urge to run my hand up the length of his arm.

This wasn't me. I didn't catch feelings for someone after being in a room with them for less than an hour. We had known each other for a long time, so why was it only now that I noticed the incredible way his arms filled out his shirt, or the way his lips moved when he talked?

And I couldn't even blame my inappropriate appetite on the alcohol; I barely had enough in my system to justify a breathalyzer test.

"You okay? You look kind of hot," he smirked, obviously implying the double meaning. I shook my head at him like he was a child and smiled back, trying to keep my cool demeanor. I couldn't let this guy know the effect he had on me.