First Kiss with the Quarterback

She's on his campus to score a science scholarship...so how did she win the quarterback's heart?

This shy high school senior never imagined her first kiss would come from a college quarterback. But then again, she never thought she'd get kissed at all. Not anytime in this decade, at least.

Speaking to guys is definitely not Charlotte's forte. She's more of a data and numbers kind of girl. But when her friends convince her that this weekend-long science competition is the best way to get her lab partner's attention, she's ready to step outside her comfort zone and show her old friend that she's more than just a big brain. 

Her first attempt at a flirtation? Not a success. But help comes along in the form of West, the college quarterback, a guy three seconds away from failing out...unless he can get a science geek to help him out. It's quid pro quo for the science nerd and the athlete. Until feelings get involved. 

Charlotte

This was my worst nightmare.

Sitting in the middle of a crowded living room with everyone staring at me like I was under a spotlight?

Yup. My worst nightmares had definitely come to life. 

I looked around at this living room full of peers. At least I was surrounded by friends. 

Sort of.

My gaze flicked over the people who surrounded me at my friend Max’s house. The girls gathered here I considered to be my friends, but their new significant others were basically strangers. 

Strangers I’d been going to school with for years, perhaps, but strangers nonetheless. 

Hazel’s new boyfriend Will flashed me a big grin, which I assumed was supposed to put me at ease.  

It didn’t work.

If anything, it put me even more on edge. Will Lansing was that class clown kind of guy. He was hot, and apparently really nice, but that didn’t stop this anxious pit inside of me that feared he would make a joke that was either at my expense or that I didn’t get. 

Funny guys scared me.

Actually, most people scared me.

Right now, that even included my friends. 

The silence grew deafening. They were all watching me. Waiting. For what? I didn’t know. 

All I knew was that my heart was pounding and it felt like all the blood in my body was rushing to my head. I scratched my right forearm which had grown inexplicably itchy under this agonizing scrutiny.

It was possible I was breaking out in hives. 

“Would someone please put Charlotte out of her misery and start talking already?” Max said with a huff.

Leave it to Max to cut right to the heart of the matter. I cringed, not entirely sure her comment had made things better or worse. The editor of our high school newspaper, Max was the epitome of pragmatic and straightforward—two qualities that typically appealed to me. We were similar like that. 

Avery was a different type entirely. Sweet and optimistic, the beautiful blonde lived for romance and true love and all the other fictional, whimsical things. I liked Avery—she was such a sweetheart that it was impossible not to—but we had very little in common. 

She leaned forward now, her big blue eyes wide with excitement. “We’re here to help you make Robert fall in love with you.”

I recoiled in my seat with a gasp that was admittedly dramatic. But still...

My stomach felt like it was hanging out on the floor, my guts spilled for everyone to see. Had she really just said that? Had she honestly just said those words out loud for everyone in this room to hear? 

Horror. Horror the likes of which I’d never known swept through me so fast and fierce it left me gaping.

Avery’s boyfriend Cristian took one look at my expression, winced in sympathy, and then placed a hand on her shoulder and tugged her back so she was resting against him on the couch. “Maybe we should ease up a bit, babe.”

“Yeah, babe.” Cristian’s brother, Alex, was sitting on the other side of him snickering until Cristian smacked him upside the head.

“Shut up,” Cristian muttered.

“What? I can’t help it. You two are so cute,” Alex said. He was clearly still laughing at his brother, but Avery was laughing, too, so I guessed it was all right.

I would never understand families. 

Or friends.

I glanced over at Hazel and Will who were whispering to one another on another couch. 

Or couples. 

I would definitely never understand couples.

To be fair, there were a multitude of things I did understand, many of which the people in this room did not. Like quantum entanglement, for example, or differential equations. But relationships?

Not so much.

“We just want to help you, that’s all,” Simone said from her perch next to her super hot, star-pitcher boyfriend.

I forced a smile in return and was pretty sure it looked more like a grimace judging by her answering wince.

I’d always liked Simone. She was kind and smart, and kind of a big geek, especially when it came to movies. Like me, she’d also always been a loner. More of an outskirt friend in this otherwise super tight group of gal pals. 

Speaking of... Emma and Lulu were sitting on either side of me and they shifted closer in support, like they could give me confidence by their sheer proximity.

It was sweet. They were sweet. Like I’d said, I truly liked all of the girls I had lunch with every day in the cafeteria. They were the closest thing I had to a circle of friends. The self-proclaimed Lonely Hearts Club was where I fit in best at school.

But I still didn’t fit entirely. And the sudden addition of the boys to this little group of ours...

Well, I’d never felt more like an outsider. 

“Look, Charlotte, I’ll give it to you straight,” Alex said now that he was done mocking his brother. The uber handsome basketball phenom waved a hand toward the group at large. “This is basically an intervention.”

“An intervention?” I whispered. That horror...? It was now full-on despair. This was worse than my worst nightmare. It was so much worse.

Max had been walking behind the couch where Alex sat to refill some popcorn and she reached over to smack the back of his head just like his brother Cristian had done minutes earlier. “What is wrong with you?” she hissed. “This isn’t an intervention.”

Max wasn’t normally prone to violence but she’d always had it out for Alex, probably because her BFF Avery used to have a huge crush on him and he didn’t share the same feelings. It all worked out for the best, obviously, because Avery had found the love of her life in his brother Cristian, but still...

Don’t try telling Max that. She was bound and determined to despise Alex because... Well, I wasn’t sure why, exactly. Probably because he was hot and popular, and he knew it.

Simone’s boyfriend Andrew, the most laid-back guy on earth, spoke up in that sexy drawl of his. “It sure looks like an intervention.”

Simone frowned over at him. “It’s not an intervention.”

I looked from Simone to a still-smiling Andrew, to a laughing Will, and back over to a remarkably sympathetic looking Alex. 

“If this isn’t an intervention, then what is it?” I asked.

My girl friends gaped at me. They all wore matching looks of speechlessness. This was fine by me since I’d been feeling that same way for the last hour or so. 

This whole evening started with me talking to Avery about the upcoming science competition at St. Archer’s University. That was a nearby college where Cristian attended as a sophomore and I’d thought perhaps she might have some insights into the campus and nearby restaurants. I’d also mentioned that I was going there with my lab partner Robert whom I’d had feelings for for quite a while now, and then...

Next thing I knew, she’d summoned Simone and Cristian and I was being dragged to the diner to get the others and now...

Now we were here.

At my intervention.