“You must have bet Zack that I’d kick his ass in football yesterday,” Keller grabs a Coke from the fridge.

“No, we had a bet as to whether you were actually human. I bet you were, because I was dying to take Nikki to dinner.”

Keller comes at me from behind, grabbing me into a headlock. Lifting his feet, his weight easily brings me to the ground. He hops on top of me like a cat pouncing on a bird. His goofy grin is full the entire time.

“See, he’s not human,” I shove him off of me and climb to my feet to rejoin Nikki.

“Well it’s about time you got here, now get your asses in the den and do some work. You think it’s a coincidence I joined your group?” Keller hoots as we move into the den. “I don’t actually like you. I just know you’ll do the damn work and I can ride on your A.”

“An A? Well if you average that with 4 Ds and 2 Fs, you’re looking at a solid D this semester. I bet that report card makes the refrigerator!” Keller and I have been busting each other’s balls since we met in peewee football. It’s pretty much a requirement to torture a guy when you spend a few hours a day leaning over his ass waiting for the ball to snap.

“Keller is a lot smarter than he wants us all to know,” Allie says climbing off the couch to greet us.

“How dare you, Allie. We’re supposed to be friends and now you’re trying to ruin my reputation,” Keller teases. “I’m going to slip a hunk of beef jerky into your vegan smegan bean salad.”

Allie laughs. “Have you ever tried black bean burgers, Nikki?” She knows she’s not getting anywhere with the rest of us in her quest to convert us all to vegans.

“Uhm, Nikki just ate steak fajitas, Allie. I tried to get her to eat bean curd fajitas but she insisted on the juicy, tender steak. I had no choice but to join her.” I drop onto the couch, pulling Nikki with me.

“To be honest, Allie, until you, I’d never even met a vegan— or a vegetarian, for that matter. The only thing bigger than a Texas hat is a Texas steak. The bigger the better, is the motto.”

“Oh, Nikki, Nikki, Nikki…” Keller jumps to attention. “The bigger the better is a California motto too.” He wiggles his eyebrows suggestively. Nobody laughs louder than Keller laughing at himself.

Nikki’s blush reminds me what a contradiction she is. She can tease with the best of them, but there isn’t a crude bone in her body. And I look over to remind myself what a beautiful body it is.

Busted. Nikki catches my eye and raises a brow. But she clearly isn’t disturbed that I was looking. She’s smiling and…she seems happy. Something changed on that hill tonight. There’s an unspoken bond between us. It’s always been there, we just hadn’t acknowledged it existed.

Oblivious to the way Nikki and I are consumed with each other, Allie continues her rant. “I hope they have vegetarian dishes at the homecoming dance this year. Last year I nearly fainted from hunger. I don’t know how in 2014 there can be a school menu without vegetarian entrees. It’s barbaric”

“Speaking of dances,” Keller jumps to his feet. For a guy who must weigh 250, he hopped to attention pretty damn fast.

“No, Keller, no. We aren’t speaking of dances. We are working on an English Project.” I draw out the words. “Remember?”

Keller, to my surprise, actually gets the hint. But I should have known better than to challenge him with Nikki nearby.

“Looks like somebody changed his mind since yesterday. Decide you’re taking someone to the dance?” he taunts, just as the doorbell pings. From the corner of my eye, I catch Allie’s head flying up. Her gaze bounces between me and Nikki. “Saved By The Bell, Zack. Get it, Zack? Get it?” Keller flounders through his own fit of desperate laughter as he opens the door for Cory, the last member of our group.

***

I’m not sure if she was doing it on purpose, but Nikki kept me distracted most of the night. Sitting next to me on the couch while we argued over what to include in our project, her bare knee brushed up against mine more than once. Each time I looked up at her, she smiled innocently.

It’s after eleven when we finally wrap it up. “Can you give me a ride, Zack?” Allie asks, hesitating slightly. “My car is still in the shop.”

“Sure. Cory?”

“I’m good. Took my brother’s car. Hopefully he didn’t wake up.” Cory smiles.

We say goodnight and Keller walks us to the door.

I open the front door to the Charger and Allie and Nikki look at each other. Allie seems to make a decision, giving me her unspoken blessing. “Go ahead, I get out first anyway,” she says to Nikki, then gives me a wink, both of us certain Nikki has no idea that dropping off Allie first is actually completely out of the way.

***

We pull up in front of Nikki’s and I turn off the engine.

“You coming in with me?” Nikki teases.

“If you invite me.” I nudge closer to her.

“I…I…” I know she’s turning pink, even though it’s dark out and I can’t see her color.

“I was just teasing.”

“Oh.”

“Listen, about the dance.”

“Yes?” she asks, her voice perking up a bit.

“I don’t want to go.”

“Oh.” Deflated, she responds.

“But I don’t want you to go either,” I say as a means of clarifying my earlier statement. But it only confuses things more.