Page 27 of Inside the Penalty Box

Lorelai stopped what she was doing and made her way over to where I lay on my bed. She plopped down beside me and studied me. “What is it?”

I rolled over and stared up at the ceiling, not sure what to tell my best friend. I’d kept the events of the Saturday-night bedroom encounter all to myself.

“If something is bothering you, you know you can tell me.” she said, waiting for me to break down and share with her. “You have been weird since the party, so I’m going to guess something happened between the time I went to the washroom and then helped your mom in the kitchen. Didn’t it?”

Lorelai was like a mind reader. It was something I found so fascinating about her. She could always tell when someone was having trouble. She always said she was more in tune with other people than with herself, and that was why she always got hurt so badly.

I nodded. “You’re right.”

“Well, why don’t you tell me what happened? Maybe I can help you sort through the issue.”

I literally wanted to die. I was so ridiculously attracted to Dylan that I did not know how to navigate the things I was feeling. He was my new stepbrother. There shouldn’t be any type of attraction to him now that our families had joined. He should have been just as annoying to me as Walker could be. Instead, every time he looked my way or was near me, my heart instantly sped up and I got a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach. His actions on Saturday night had blown my mind, and I hated my body for responding the way it had.

“You like him, don’t you?” she questioned.

I ran my hand over my face and nodded. “Yes.”

“Then why are fighting it so hard? I mean, it’s not like you are cousins or something.”

I shrugged. “What will people think?”

“People don’t have to know,” Lorelai whispered.

“I know, but I know.”

Lorelai let out a sigh. “Okay, but you told your mother what happened in Mexico. She wasn’t upset.”

“No, on the contrary, she found it rather hilarious,” I said, looking at my best friend. “I’m not sure why I had expected anything less.”

“Then what is the issue?”

“We slept together the other night,” I blurted out.

“When?” She frowned. “You’ve been here all week.”

The second I looked at her, her mouth dropped open in shock. “At the party????”

I nodded.

"With all those people?”

Again, I nodded. “Then he gave me his number and is expecting me to message him. In fact, it was almost like he challenged me.”

“Why didn’t you message him?”

“Have you ever known me to do anything when I’m challenged to do it?”

Lorelai smirked. “Oh boy. He really likes you too, then.”

“Yeah. I mean, I think he does.”

“I say just get with him, or tonight, maybe pick up a guy. Whatever you do, you need to get him out of your system. There is only one of two ways to do that. Either you succumb to your desire and go for him, or you go for someone else.”

For the first time I could remember, Lorelai was actually zero help to me. I’d no idea what the answer was, but since Saturday, I couldn’t remember how many times I’d picked up my cell phone to message him, stopping myself each time. It had gotten so bad that I’d turned my phone off and left it in my purse or my car, anywhere that it was out of reach. I was pathetic.

“Come on. Snap out of it and come out with us. You’ll feel much better.”

“Where are you going?” I muttered, desperately trying to decide what I was going to do. Go out and have fun or stay home and sulk.

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