Breathless #2 (The Breathless Romance Series - Book #2) (6 page)

We finally found a place to sit with our trays; I
joked to Johnny about my self-imposed quest to taste every one of the juices
the dining hall offered and then after that to experiment with as many
combinations as were possible. I noticed as we moved through the line and then
through the dining area to find a table where we could all sit that a lot of
the girls were still looking at me with disappointed—some of them even
rampantly jealous—glances, their lips pressed together in pouts or frowns that
disappeared if they thought Johnny was looking at them. I didn’t exactly like
the fact that so many people wanted to date the guy I was seeing, but I decided
to ignore them; after all, it wasn’t their business. Johnny liked me, at least
for now, and I wasn’t going to get all insecure and let them win.

We talked about our classes, and Georgia told Johnny
about some of the clubs she was interested in checking out; I talked about
getting to class late, glancing at Johnny with a little grin. Johnny teased me
about my mosquito bites and said that I might as well just walk around in a
bikini since it was still warm enough, so that he could dab me with calamine
lotion whenever I needed it. “Oh god,” I said, laughing. “Then I’d be that
weird spotted freshman girl. No thanks.”

I started to relax, but even as we ate, I could still
remember my mom’s insistence that I ask Johnny to come down and visit for dinner.
I glanced at Georgia and she gave me a little, tiny nod. “Hey, so, Johnny,” I
said anxiously, putting my plate aside; I hoped that I would still have room
for dessert afterward. “So I talked to my mom earlier—she called me while I was
in class and I couldn’t put it off forever.” I explained about the phone call a
little bit, how I mentioned I was kind of seeing someone and wanted to not come
home so I could—hopefully—see Johnny again.

“Well yeah, I’d hope you’d rather spend the weekend
hanging out with me than with your parents,” he said with a laugh. I took a
deep breath and decided to go all in.

“So, Mom said that I should invite you to come for
dinner with us. It’s no big deal—it’s not like a serious thing—but I guess she
was trying to keep me from having an excuse not to go home.” My heart was
pounding in my chest. Johnny grinned.

“Of course I’ll go to dinner. I’d love to!” I couldn’t
believe my luck; Johnny had to be the sweetest guy I had ever met in my entire
life.

“It’s not—like—something where I’m trying to like…” I
stumbled over my words. “I didn’t even say you were my boyfriend or anything
just that we’d had a couple of dates.” Johnny laughed again and reached across
the table, ruffling my hair.

“Well, when you tell them that I’ll be coming to dinner
you can tell them that I am your boyfriend.” I grinned, and then remembered;
these were my parents. It was going to be at the country club.

“It is going to be at their stupid country club,” I
pointed out. “The food’s not bad, but the place is pretty lame, and it’s going
to be all stuffy and everyone dressed up and stuff. You really don’t have to
come if you don’t want to.” Johnny rolled his eyes.

“I’ve never been to a country club before; it could be
a lot more fun than you think. Don’t worry about it, Becky. It’ll be fine.” He
stood and reminded me about the desserts, and I felt relieved in spite of the
fact that there was no way I could get out of the weekend visit home anymore.
He pulled me close while we were both walking back towards the serving area and
wrapped his arms around me, leaning in to kiss me in front of everyone.

I was absolutely thrilled at the fact that I would get
to introduce Johnny to my
parents, that everyone in the
dining hall knew that Johnny and I were together—really
together. While
we were grabbing little bits and samples of the different desserts, Johnny
asked me if I was going to the game that night and my bubble of relief popped.

“Oh—yeah, of course I am. Can’t wait!” I hadn’t even
known there was a game going on.

“I’ll make sure you’ve got tickets waiting for you at
the box office. Can’t have you up in the stands where I can’t even see you!”
Johnny tousled my hair again as we made our way back to the table, and I
thought wryly to myself that I would definitely need to become a much better
hockey fan if I really expected the relationship to last.

Chapter
Eight

Georgia and I once more got to the hockey stadium and
went straight to the box office for our tickets. “At least if I have to become
a hockey fan for the sake of my relationship, I don’t have to worry about being
interested in something I can barely see,” I joked.

“We’ll get you up to speed, don’t worry,” Georgia
said. “I’m sure we can find everything we need to find online, and in no time
at all you’ll be telling me all about Johnny’s stats and how he’s improving or
who the other team is and why I should care.” We both laughed as we took our
seats, starting to react to the atmosphere of excitement all around us. Georgia
grabbed us some snacks from the concession stand and we settled in to watch the
game.

Once more I had next to no idea whatsoever about what
was going on in front of me. I could spot Johnny, and as the two teams took the
ice, warming up and getting into the groove of the game, I felt a tingle of
excitement. That was the man I loved. I cheered for him and he looked around,
spotting me from the center of the ice, grinning as he looked up at me through
his visor.

Even though I didn’t know what was going on in front
of me, I could tell that the game was tougher than the first one I had watched.
Johnny was still playing well, but every time he looked up to catch sight of me
he got distracted. Georgia laughed and told me that if our school lost its edge
in the coming weeks, it would be all my fault; Johnny was the star player, and he
was clearly the highest-scoring member of the team.

We got into it, cheering when everyone else around us
cheered, and Georgia decided that we both needed to know exactly what was going
on—me in particular. She had her phone out and as the announcer made comments,
she looked up every term we heard, reading out the definitions to me as quietly
as she could so that no one else in the stand would know that we were clueless,
giggling at some of the sillier terms and what they meant. I finally got to
know what Johnny’s position—Left Wing—really entailed, and what the other
positions on the ice were, and stored the facts away as best as I could to be
able to make some kind of conversation with Johnny when we were together.

We barely had the convenience of reading the
information off of Georgia’s phone—the game was exciting, especially since
Johnny was so distracted by my presence. I felt a little guilty, but I couldn’t
help but feel my heart leaping every time that he glanced up to give me a
little grin.

It was obvious to me as we watched the game that all
the girls in the crowd on our team’s side of the stadium were into Johnny. He
was the star of the team apart from the goalie; Georgia made a point of
explaining why the goalie was always one of the most important and valued
players on the team. But the goalie for our team was not nearly as hot as
Johnny; no one in the entire school was, and no one combined that mixture of
hotness and confidence and charm that Johnny had.

During one of the breaks, I looked around the stands,
just people-watching, trying to get a feel for the kinds of fans hockey
attracted. I saw some guys who I was sure I’d seen at the frat house
party—though whether they were members of Phi Kappa or just people at a party,
I didn’t know for certain. I did see one of the guys who’d been in a toga—so I
assumed that he at least was a member of the fraternity. I saw way more girls
than I thought I would have seen at a game of any kind; some of them were
waving banners or homemade posters, with the school colors on them. Some of
them were wearing jerseys with different players’ names (most of them wearing
Steel jerseys, I noted with a little bit of a creepy-crawly feeling in my
stomach). I thought to myself that it might be worthwhile to get a jersey of my
own—and then show up in Johnny’s room wearing nothing but that.

As I was looking around, though, I noticed the girl
from the dining hall; she was sitting in the front row section a few yards away
from us, cheering her head off, and I thought bitterly to myself what a
hypocrite she was. She had warned me off of Johnny with a hint that he was a
player and that he had somehow driven a girl to suicide—and even though I knew
better, it was gross to think that the only reason she had done it was because
she wanted to be with him.
If he’s such a
player, why are you into him?
I thought in her direction.

The teams went back out onto the ice and the second
half of the game started. The girl was screaming almost more than I was,
calling out Johnny’s name. As he came past our section, giving me a little
glance and a wink, she somehow managed to get his attention, smacking at the Plexiglas
with her hands until he looked up. I watched in horror and revulsion as she
lifted her shirt up—and her bra with it—and pressed her breasts against the
plexi
. The crowd went wild, screaming and cheering, and I
felt my stomach turn over. I was relieved to see that Johnny didn’t look the
slightest bit interested; in fact, I saw his expression transform from curiosity
to disgust at the sight.

After that, Johnny finally seemed to get his head in
the game and I sat down, feeling irritated and jealous. I knew I shouldn’t
be—but the fact that so many girls, and especially that one, were throwing
themselves at him made me feel a little insecure. Georgia rolled her eyes at me
when I whined. “Dude, Johnny is hot enough that even if he wasn’t the star
player every girl on campus would be after him. You
gotta
chill.” I grumbled.

“Yeah, but it’s disrespectful to me for other girls to
do shit like that.”

“What do you care if they respect you? They don’t have
Johnny—you do. He’s crazy about you! He’s been messing up plays all night
because he keeps looking at you. He’s going to meet your parents. So just
chill.” I nodded, realizing I was being silly; as long as Johnny was into me
and only me, what did it matter what other girls did? If anyone did anything
particularly gross in front of me while I was with him, I’d just have to handle
it then. And if I started acting all jealous and possessive, that would drive
Johnny away more surely than any pair of boobs pressed against a shield
possibly could.

I cheered myself up, remembering all the little things
Johnny had said about me in our texts back and forth, the way he grinned at me,
and the way he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off of me for more than a few
minutes at a time whenever we were together. That was enough to keep the
possessiveness at bay. I started to get into the game again, ignoring the other
girls who flashed the players and just focusing on Johnny’s playing. The team
managed to make a comeback from a few points behind, and as Johnny kept his
attention on the game instead of on me, he made more and more inroads on the
scoreboard. By the end of the game, we had managed to eke out a win, though the
other team tried to keep us from gaining a lead. Johnny was just too good, as
was our goalie.

Georgia and I waited behind at the locker rooms, and I
was relieved all over again when Johnny came straight to me after he finished
showering and changing, kissing me in front of everyone and holding me at his
side while he answered questions from the local and school newspapers. I didn’t
even glare at the girls screaming for him, but simply ignored them, happy to be
at his side, happy that I was the only girl he wanted. It was more than enough
for me, for now, and nothing that that nasty girl could possibly do could ever
make me doubt that Johnny was interested in me. I decided that I was going to
put the name Claire White out of my head forever, and never think of her again
in my life.

Chapter
Nine

I tried not to fidget in the passenger seat of
Johnny’s car as he drove us away from campus and down towards where my parents’
country club was. I had made an excuse not to be at their place for the whole
weekend, but when Johnny had been so willing to meet them and to go to dinner
with them; I hadn’t had any excuse to avoid the dinner. It wasn’t that I didn’t
want to spend time with my parents; it was that I was somehow certain that they
would both find reasons why I shouldn’t be with Johnny, and express their
disappointment in me.

Johnny wasn’t at all like the guys that my parents
were constantly trying to set me up with. I had no idea even what his family
was like, really. I didn’t know whether he’d grown up middle class or poor, or
wealthy. I didn’t know if he was disgusted by wealthy people. What I didn’t
know about him suddenly seemed much greater than what I did know about him, and
I couldn’t help feeling a little panic; differently from when he had driven us
into the woods, but nonetheless a kind of deep, thrumming dread that filled me
up from head to toe.

I had decided to wear a nice, comfortable dress—not
anything super fancy, but good enough for the club, with a gray sweater over
it, and a pair of low heels. When Johnny had come to the dorms to pick me up, I
was surprised by how cleaned up he was; he was wearing a suit, and it fit him
just perfectly, and his hair was brushed down smooth, his face was shaved, he
was every inch just what he should be. Climbing up into the truck, I thought
that at least my parents couldn’t fault him for looking good, or for dressing
appropriately. “I didn’t even know you owned a suit,” I’d said, kissing him
lightly on the lips.