Page 55 of Foolish Games

“You should have heard your scream,” he says, laughing his ass off.

“Fall in and drown,” I say, shoving him before turning to stomp away. He jogs after me, still laughing.

“Aw, don’t be sore,” he says. “I’m just playing.”

“I’m going home before I get hypothermia,” I say. “And Lexi should probably get somewhere warm too.”

“Tony,” Lexi yells behind us as we start up the path away from the swimming hole. “Get your ass back here and get my boot!”

“I better help her, or we’ll be here all night,” Billy says, sounding annoyed.

“I got it,” Maddox says, tossing Billy a set of keys. “Warm up my car too.”

Tommy and Maddox go back to help Lexi, and the rest of us continue back toward the cars.

“You hit that yet?” Tony asks behind me, his voice low enough that I know he thinks I won’t overhear.

“Nah,” Sebastian says. “She thinks her pussy’s too good for me.”

“Dude, why are you dating her if she won’t give it up?”

“I’m beginning to wonder that myself,” Sebastian says. “What do y’all think? Think I’m good enough for princess pussy?”

“No way,” Tony says. “But me and my boy here, we’d tap that. Wouldn’t we, Theo?”

“Like hell,” Sebastian says. “If anyone’s getting in, it’s me.”

“We haven’t slept together because we’re waiting,” I say, making my voice heard over the noise of the others laughing.

“For what?” Billy asks.

Everyone seems to be waiting for my answer, and I try to remember why it was so important that they not think I’m a slut. That’s probably all Sebastian ever dates, and by pretending I’m doing the same, they assume I’m like the other girls he dates. Now I feel like an asshole for wanting to prove I’m different. They don’t care. They don’t judge those girls. That’s normal for them.

The guys all start ragging on Sebastian pretty hard, and I feel a little bad about bringing that up. Like he said, it needs to be believable. It doesn’t matter if they think we slept together. I probably should have told them we had. It’s not like I have to actually do it.

Tempting as it is, I’m not going to sleep with a guy who’s never said a nice word to me in the four years we’ve been in high school together. Even when he became friends with Rob, he never stopped bullying my friends. I have to remember that none of this is real. It’s all acting, just part of the plan to get Chaz back.

Or get back at Chaz.

I’m not sure I want him back. Even if he cut Krissy out of his life entirely, I could never trust him again. But it’s still nice to see his face every day when I walk into school holding hands with his sworn enemy. That’s worth more than a little embarrassment.

And it’s not like Sebastian’s friends are being cruel. The teasing is good-natured now that they think I’m one of them. It makes me feel bad for lying to them, but at the same time, it reminds me of all the times they made fun of my group of friends and called us nerds. They weren’t so easygoing then.

Sebastian has had enough after a while though. When we get to the dirt road where my car is parked, he catches my wrist and spins me around, pulling me in and sliding his other hand around the back of my neck. “You’re my girlfriend, aren’t you?” he reminds me, a challenge in his eyes.

“Yes,” I say cautiously.

“And a girlfriend takes care of her man’s needs,” he says. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of yours too.”

“Let me go,” I warn, trying to wrest my hand from his grasp.

“I just want to know if the pussy’s good enough to keep you around,” he says. “I won’t fuck you until you’re ready. But I need to know it’s worth waiting for.”

“It is,” I grit out. “But you’re right. It is too good for you.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” he says. “Now spread your legs and let’s see what you’ve got between them.”

“What do you think I have?” I demand. “I’m a girl.”

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