Adrenaline Rush Read online

  I switched my pink converse with black ones before Dakota picked me up. We got to the tailgate party about an hour before the game started. I discovered it was the community’s life, too. The parking lot was full of trucks with their backs down and grills cooking hot dogs and hamburgers.

  “This is nuts,” I said.

  “What?”

  “All these people. I’ve never seen so many people so excited about a high school football game.”

  “I know, and if we don’t get here early, we don’t get the seats we like. Camden and Jensyn should already be inside, saving our spots.” He looked me over. “Nice,” he said. I looked down at my black converse and brushed my hands over the front of my short black pleated skirt. I’d cut the orange shirt he’d given me up all the seams. Then I’d cut some horizontal strips on each seam and tied them together so that the shirt fit more snuggly.

  He pulled on one of the ties at the shoulder of the orange shirt.

  “I hope you don’t mind me cutting it up,” I said. I didn’t want to offend him since he’d bought the shirt.

  “I’m sure you’ll start a trend with it,” he said, letting go of the tie and grabbing my hand. My first instinct was to move my hand out of his even though it felt nice, but I had to force myself to stay in character. He led me to the booth to buy tickets. “But it looks like I’m going to have to come to the rescue again.”

  “What are you talking about?” I said, looking down at my outfit as we stopped in the line.

  “Once the sun goes down, you’re going to freeze.” He chuckled.

  He talked to the girl inside the ticket booth, and I pulled out some money to give him. He pushed it away and paid for me. I bit my lip, thinking about how much I was impressed with this guy. He would make a girl very happy one day. I had to pretend to be that girl.

  People packed the stands in some areas. In others, seats were marked by stray sweatshirts, blankets, or portable stadium seats. The racetrack circling the field was teeming with bodies walking around it. Dakota pulled me over to a stand selling T-shirts and sweatshirts and bought me a school sweatshirt, again refusing the money I tried to put in his hand. “It’s my treat.” Money didn’t seem to be an issue for him. Was his family loaded? They must be, because normal teens didn’t have a lot of cash on them. It was already starting to get chilly, and I happily slipped the sweatshirt over my newly cut shirt. He pulled me to him, putting his hand on my waist. Our sides bumped together.

  That’s when I saw her, the girl I’d almost hit in the road last night. I turned to Dakota and said, “Who’s that girl?”

  “That’s Frankie,” he said. “Stay away from her. She’s bad news.”

  “Really?” I said. “I saw her last night.”

  “You did?” he said. “I thought you were with female Madness last night.”

  “I was,” I said. “But as I was driving home, I saw this light flash in the middle of the road, and I swerved out of the way. When I got out of the car, I saw that girl running away, laughing. She had a flashlight in her hand. I could have killed her.”

  “She’s constantly doing stuff like that. She doesn’t care much if she lives or dies getting her rush. Just stay away from her and you won’t get hurt.”

  I looked behind me, catching a glimpse of her before she slipped into the crowd. Did she do this stuff alone or were others there, hiding in the darkness?

  Dakota pulled me into a huge bear hug. I could feel his heat radiate through my hoodie, and I felt safe. A strange sensation under the circumstances. I pulled back slightly and smiled up at him. He grinned at me, and his eyes dilated. He liked me, for real. I tucked my head back into his chest to prevent the kiss I could see forming in his mind.

  Roseburg won without much effort. The other team seemed to lie down and die and, even though it was twenty-eight to nothing, we stayed until the bitter end. All ten of us in Madness sat together in a clump over three rows.

  “You ready for a wild ride tonight?” Dakota asked.

  “I guess,” I said, wondering what he meant by that. Were we going to ride horses in the dark? Maybe bucking broncos? He did say wild.

  “You’ll love it,” he said. “You like to get wet, right?”

  Hmm. No horses then. I assumed that meant we would be swimming. I should have known better. “I love to swim.”

  “Good.” He laughed.

  We swung by my house, and I put on my swimsuit and dressed in some sweats and a T-shirt. As I pulled the sweatshirt over my head, I noticed it smelled faintly of Dakota. In spite of myself, I took a deep whiff. I grabbed a big bag, stuffing a towel, spandex shorts, and all my bathroom stuff into it. I flung it over my shoulder before heading back to the Jeep.

  I hollered out to the house that we were going swimming and left.

  “Where are we going?” I asked once back with Dakota.

  “You’ll see.” He turned the music up, and we sang along. We pulled up behind Ian’s car on the side of the road just outside of town. Dakota jumped out and ran to my side, opening the door for me. He didn’t let me out, however. Before I could jump down, he moved close, pressing his body to mine. His hands went to my hips and then he said, “Just in case we die, I want to die with your kiss on my lips.”

  It was a line, but I’d take it. I needed to strengthen my connection with this group. My job was to become his girlfriend, and I guessed I’d accomplished that. I needed to take advantage of the situation. I couldn’t back down. My lip quivered as he moved slowly in. You are not Christy, you are Misha, and Misha is starting to feel things for Dakota, so make it real. I was surprised when Jeremy’s face flashed before my eyes, and my heartbeat quickened. Dakota’s lips, warm and soft, met mine and a zing passed through me. He pulled me closer still. His breath was minty, and he smelled like guy, through and through. My heart pounded. I wanted to kick myself for having a physical reaction to Dakota’s kiss. I wanted to be professional, playing a part without having it affect me. I wanted it to feel like nothing, but it didn’t. It felt great.

  A loud smack had me pulling quickly away from him. Troy had smacked the front of the Jeep with his palm. “Time to float, man. There’ll be plenty of time for that after the run.”

  Dakota smiled a crooked smile, and then slowly opened his eyes. He had kept them shut after I’d pulled away. Wow! He was a real Casanova. He smiled really big, and then helped me out of the car.

  I tried to convince myself this was a dream, that it wasn’t really happening. But it was. He pulled me close to him again and gave me a sweet kiss. Then he stripped down to his shorts and water shoes. I didn’t move to change.

  “You’ll want to take those off so you don’t freeze when we get wet on the river—and you will get wet.”

  We were running the Umpqua River in rafts. In the dark. This seemed just as dangerous as Frankie’s stunt.

  “Abby is meeting us at the end of the run with our clothes and towels—she doesn’t like getting cold—then we’ll meet the rest of the seniors at the bonfire at Charlie’s,” Dakota said.

  “Everyone knows everyone here, don’t they?” I said.

  “Yes, we do.”

  I slipped out of my clothes and felt naked even though my suit was a one piece and all the other girls’ were bikinis. It did endear me to Dakota even more when he turned away as I started to undress. I handed him my clothes and bag, and he ran them over to a big SUV. Abby drove away. I quickly activated the tracker in my arm to let Division and my agent parents know where I was. The chill in the air gave me goose bumps, and I shivered. Right then, Dakota pulled me close and walked with his arm around me to the river and the waiting raft. It shocked me when I saw it. They had made it glow-in-the-dark. Ingenious. He picked me up, carried me through the water, and set me gently in the puffy raft. The air smelled of rubber and paint. Ian handed me a life jacket, and I quickly put it on.

  I looked at everyone. All there except Abby. They really did do everything together. It surprised me that no one but Ian had asked
me about my past. It was always about the here and now. At least so far.

  Dakota untied the rope holding the raft where it was and hurried and jumped in. Water splashed on me, making me shake. At first the boat glided gently through the water. With the dense trees covering the river it was really dark, and the first rapid hit me by surprise. The fear was gut wrenching. The trees and shadows made it even scarier. I could hear Ian calling to the others, telling them when to use their oars, and I felt like we were trying to get out of a twister. I wasn’t prepared for the huge dips and swells. The water that splashed on me made my teeth chatter.

  Ian cried out, “Whoa!” The raft seemed to be trying to climb into the sky. I grabbed a handhold and held on for dear life. The raft tossed and turned and lunged and dove until finally everyone was screaming. We took one last swell, and we all flew into the water.

  It was so cold it took my breath away and hurt my skin. Rocks banged into my legs and branches whipped at me before I came to the surface. I gasped for air, bobbing up and down in the water. All I could think about was the fact that I hadn’t held onto the boat like Dakota had told me to do. How would I find the raft, now?

  I heard a voice call me, and I whipped around to see the glowing raft with what looked like the shadows of two bodies in it. I tried to call out, but I got dragged under for twenty seconds or so. Coming back up out of the water, I coughed and sputtered. I was finally able to call out. “I’m here.” Then I went under again, bobbing up and down, up and down. The next time I came up, a light shone right in my eyes, and hands grabbed me and dragged me to the raft. As I was being lifted in, I heard shouts of excitement and fun. I thought I would die, I was so waterlogged, but I couldn’t show it. Once I hit the floor of the raft, I forced myself to squeal. Then I felt lips on mine.

  “That was awesome, wasn’t it!” Dakota said.

  “Definitely,” I said, sitting up and letting him help me back onto the puffy side of the raft. Once I had it straddled, I looked out ahead into the darkness and prayed for all I was worth that the raft wouldn’t tip over again. It did, one more time, but right before the nice calm section of river where Abby waited for us. I think I only went under once that time.

  Conversations swirled around me as I slogged my way to shore. “That rocked.” “That was the best spill ever.” “Good thing we made the raft glow. In this darkness, I never would have found it.” “I love that feeling that you just might not make it.” “I wish we could run it one more time.”

  Just as I climbed out, Dakota barreled into me, sending the both of us back into the freezing cold river. When I came up, I tried to gasp and sputter as lady-like as I could. At least the water wasn’t too deep, and I could stand. My teeth clacked together as I came up out of the water.

  “I’m so glad you came!” he said, kissing my forehead and then my cheeks and my nose.

  “Me, too,” I lied. He pressed his forehead on mine and then kissed me soundly. I shivered violently.

  The sound of the car’s horn had him picking me up, still kissing me, and carrying me to the shore. After setting me down, he grabbed my cozy towel and wrapped me up in it. He wrapped himself up in his own, too, and we climbed into the SUV.

  “Get a room,” Jensyn said, laughing.

  “Seriously,” Abby said with humor. Abby peeled out and drove us to our cars up the road. It wasn’t that far. I thought we’d been in forever, but it’d only been an hour. Crazy. I shivered and Dakota pulled me close. I stopped shivering immediately.

  Once back at the Jeep, I shimmied out of my swimsuit on the far side of the Jeep when Dakota’s and everyone’s backs were turned. I pulled out the spandex shorts from my bag and slid them on. I pulled the sweats and T-shirt on, then yanked the sweatshirt back on. I ran the brush through my hair a few times, trying to create tousled look before the car started to move. I used his mirror to fix my face.

  The bonfire was raging when we arrived, and I gave my tracker a quick pulse. Charlie, the star quarterback, lived in Glide, about twenty minutes from Roseburg, out in a remote part of the town. I think every star was visible that night, there was almost no black in the sky. Big logs and rocks surrounded the fire, and there appeared to be a lake to the far right of us, though I couldn’t see it well in the dark. It looked like at least one hundred kids had shown up. Most had a beer in their hands. When we walked by the cooler, everyone in my group grabbed one out, so I did too. I just wouldn’t drink it. I’d abracadabra it away.

  I wondered if adrenaline junkies used alcohol to wind down. I hoped they didn’t do drugs to heighten their experiences.

  I quickly discovered they did use alcohol to wind down. I let the fire warm me as I sat next to Dakota on a huge log. I pretended to drink the beer while we roasted hot dogs. Dakota disappeared for a few minutes and then returned with s’mores fixings. He made the best s’mores. Somehow he got the chocolate to melt. My chocolate never melted. Slowly but surely, the group divided into pairs.

  Dakota rubbed my nose with his, and we laughed and talked about our families, friends, and past. It was comfortable being with him. He pulled me close and kissed me. It didn’t taste like he’d been drinking the beer that sat on the ground next to him. Was he doing what I was doing: faking it? At the same time I had the thought, he asked, “Don’t you like the beer?” I stared at him in shock. I’d been discovered. My kiss had given me away just as his had. Then he whispered in my ear, “Me neither.” I felt a gush of relief until he continued and said, “I prefer something else.”

  Drugs flew across my mind. My hand went immediately to my hoodie pocket, where I kept the pill Division 57 had given me to counteract the effects of drugs. I felt for the anti-drug pill. It was there. Was I about to take my first drug? Maybe I could magic it away instead. He grabbed a few blankets from the Jeep and led me away from the crowd. What I had thought was a lake was actually a river. He spread the blanket out under the stars and near the river. I noticed several other couples wrapped up along the bank, also. They definitely weren’t star-gazing. I hoped that wasn’t the thing he preferred, either. I wouldn’t go there. I had to come up with a plan to get out of it, if it went there. Fear sent a shock wave through me.

  It scared me that a part of me wanted to make out with him, to see what it was like, but part of me was holding back. I wasn’t sure I was ready to get close to someone again, even if it was just pretend.

  I knew part of my mission was to get Dakota to be my boyfriend, but was it necessary to be so intimate with him? My heart pounded in anticipation and dread. He sat down on the blanket, inviting me with his smile to sit next to him. He took something out of his pocket, I figured it was some type of drug, and stuck it in his mouth. He handed me some, too. It felt like a candy-coated piece of gum. It was gum, wasn’t it? I had to ask to be sure.

  “Of course it’s gum. What did you think it was?”

  I wanted to recover quickly, so I said, “Do I have bad breath, or what?”

  He chuckled. “No, I just like to have a strong piece of peppermint gum when I’m outside. It helps keep the bugs away.”

  “It does not,” I said.

  “Does too,” he said. “Try it.”

  I listened to that inner voice that told me to believe him. This was gum, not a drug. He chewed for a minute, and he lay back. I did, too. He pulled the other blanket over us, tucked his hands behind his head and looked up at the stars, quietly chewing his gum. Was this what he preferred? Within minutes, his chewing slowed, and he fell asleep. This was how he relaxed? I loved him for it. The chill from the river made me slide closer to him. I rested my head on his arms. Soon, my breathing matched his, and I was fast asleep.

  Dakota woke me at about three o’clock and said he’d take me home. Other kids were fast asleep in mounds all about the property. I wondered if their parents knew what they were doing and where they were or if they even cared. Did kids still lie to their parents or did parents just let them do what they wanted here? My real parents would have freaked if I’d s
tayed out past curfew, which was ten, and they never let me have sleepovers. Never. I’m sure that much hadn’t changed.

  He seemed nervous, fidgety, on the way home. Our conversation was forced, so unlike how it had been the past four days: natural, spontaneous, and fun. Once we pulled up to my house, I was a bit anxious to get out and leave the awkwardness behind. Tomorrow would be back to normal, I told myself. As I pulled on the lever to open the door, his hand fell on my arm and he squeezed.

  “Hold on. I want to tell you something.”

  I let my hand drop from the door handle and turned to him. What was he about to say? Was he already breaking up with me? Had I done something wrong?

  “I don’t want you to freak out on me when I tell you what I’m about to say, but I have to say it, so I guess I’ll live with the consequences.” He took a deep breath, then continued. “I’ve never fallen so fast,” he said, taking my hand, “for a girl, I mean, ever.”

  I smiled at him, feeling pressure to say the same thing back to him. I would have thought his profession of love for me after so short of a time would have made me conclude he was needy, but I cared deeply for him already, too. Luckily he started to talk again.

  “I know we’ve only known each other for less than a week, but I feel this connection with you.”

  He felt that connection because I had engineered everything to make it so. I dressed in a way to attract him. I went along with his group’s crazy stunts. I said all the things an adrenaline junkie would want to hear. I lied. And I made it obvious I wasn’t going anywhere, no matter how wild he was. Guilt hit me hard. Crap. But—he was my mark. I couldn’t let feelings of guilt rule me. I pushed the guilt away. This is a job.

  “I hope you don’t think I’m weird that I chew peppermint gum under the stars to wind down. I’ve never shared that with anyone. Come to think of it, I’ve never wanted to share that with anyone. I’m just so comfortable with you. I feel like I could tell you anything, show you anything, and you wouldn’t judge me or turn on me.”