The Naughty List (The Naughty List #1)(5)
Author: Suzanne Young

“I know you do, baby.” He opened one eye to look at me. “Give me a kiss.”

Leaning over, I pecked his lips.

“And another,” he breathed. I giggled.

The phone rang and we paused, still connected at the mouth.

“Told you,” I mumbled into his lips.

He groaned, reaching up to rest his palm on my cheek. Aiden adored me. He absolutely worshipped me. But he still had to go home. I was pretty sure his mother couldn’t stand me. She might have been suffering from a case of cheerleader envy.

I kissed him again quickly and sat up. He rolled onto his back, grabbing his T-shirt from the side table. He slid it over his head as the phone rang its third warning call. I raised one eyebrow at him.

“Tell her I left five minutes ago?” he asked, tilting his head.

I nodded and scooted down the bed. She wouldn’t believe me; I always told her the five-minute story. Walking into the hallway, I grabbed the cordless off the wall and pressed it to my ear. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Aiden streak by, dashing to the door. Even though he pretended not to be, I knew he was terrified of his mother. I would be too.

“Hello?” I asked in my sweetest voice.

“Tessa?”

It was Kira, and she sounded awful—totally choked up.

I jetted my glance toward the direction Aiden ran, but I heard the front door close, signaling his hasty exit. He’d be away at college next year, but we’d still be strawberry smoothie. Washington State University wasn’t all that far, and with a dorm room in his immediate future, there would be sleepovers. My senior year was going to rock.

“Are you there?” Kira whimpered.

Oh, right. “What’s wrong, K? And why are you calling on my house phone?”

“Because I’m a mess! He cheated!”

My stomach flipped. “Who?”

“Darren cheated.”

“Cheated, like how? At Scrabble?”

“No!” She sniffled back some thick-sounding snot. I cringed. “Tessa, my boyfriend cheated on me! And we didn’t know about it!”

My eyes widened. Wait, that wasn’t possible. We knew about every cheater. The SOS team was constantly updating the possible cheater roster (or as I liked to call it, the Naughty List), and Darren was definitely not on it. No one got by the Society of Smitten Kittens. Especially not one of our boyfriends!

“Who’s the girl?” I asked, tapping my bare foot on the carpet.

“Charlie Meyers.”

“Whoa. His ex-girlfriend?” This was a disturbing development. It should have been obvious because guys always cheated with their exes. It was practically a given.

“That’s the one.” Her voice became little more than a high-pitched dog whistle. I closed one eye and clenched my teeth as I listened.

She tried to regain her composure. “Kara’s cousin’s girlfriend saw them in the parking lot of the Windmill hotel—”

“Ew. The one where you pay by the hour?” My mouth flooded with a familiar metallic taste: adrenaline.

“I know!” Her sounds came out in a guttural moan. “And it wasn’t even a Sheraton! I totally thought Darren had better taste than that!”

Now I was seriously PO’d. Darren was Aiden’s best friend and the power forward of the Wildcats. Next to Aiden, he was our leading scorer. Well, next to Aiden, he was our only scorer. That deserved R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

“What are we going to do?” she whined. “Every guy we’ve investigated has been guilty. Every one! And look at us. None of us even have boyfriends anymore.” She sniffled. “We’ve become a squad of widows.”

“Widows are the spouses of people who have died, K.”

She gasped. “My word! That is so sad!”

Even though I felt awful for Kira, she was wrong. One of us did still have a boyfriend. Me.

“Wait.” She sighed. “Never mind, you have Aiden. You’re the only Smitten Kitten that hasn’t been cheated on.”

Somehow that thought made me uncomfortable.

“Oh, no!” she said loud enough to make me jump. “I won’t be able to go to prom!”

Kira dissolved into hysterical sobs. As I tried to soothe her, I spun around, still clad in a slightly wrinkled cheerleading skirt. The heater kicked on, and when I felt the warm breeze on my legs, I looked down.

Smeared nail polish. Aiden. Cheaters. Fudge ripple! Something was wrong.

“I’ll call you back,” I said, clicking off the phone. Darren was a Wildcat, and my boyfriend was his captain. That made him Aiden’s responsibility. He needed to rein in this mess or I would get cheeredieval on his rear.

I set the phone back on the wall and marched to my room. Aiden’s mom would be less than thrilled to see me tonight, so I’d have to climb up the latticework to his room. Again.

I sighed. Why was everything getting so complicated? Couldn’t I just cheer, come home, hook up with my boyfriend, and go to sleep?

Searching through my closet, I looked past the rows of mission-specific attire-one-piece bodysuits, spandex running pants, utility belts with climbing gear, and tons of hats and scarves.

Aha! There, near the back, was the only clean black shirt I had that wasn’t for SOS. My mother had gotten it for me when she was in her bohemian rhapsody phase. It was seriously drab. It took most of my willpower to not pair it with the cute metallic leggings I’d just bought and instead choose dark jeans. I wouldn’t want Aiden’s mom to spot me sneaking in. That certainly wouldn’t help her negative attitude.

I glanced in my full-length mirror. Great. I looked like a ninja. What I wouldn’t do for my squad, for girls everywhere.

I tied my dark strands into a still-cute, yet casual high knot and contemplated using black eyeliner to ring my eyes. Never mind, there was no need to go overboard. I grabbed my oversized purse, tossing its strap onto my shoulder as I headed to the doorway.

Aiden would be excited to see me, at least. And I did still need him to fix my toenails, even though I had a feeling we’d just get carried away again. I glanced in my purse quickly and smiled when I spied my extra bottle of ruby red polish.

A Smitten Kitten was always prepared.

I paused under Aiden’s window, looking from the large porch in the front to his darkened pane, charting my usual course. There was latticework with interwoven vines attached to the white siding, and amazingly enough, it wouldn’t be the first lattice I’d climbed this week.

When we’d investigated Peter Corning on Tuesday, I’d had to shimmy across his cedar roof to get a picture of him cheating. He and his female accomplice were totally getting it on in his parents’ room! Gross.