Page 35 of Chasing Lynda

I wonder what crawled up his ass; he’s been in a foul mood all day. “This is a college town, dude! How else do you want to make money? Plus, we offered a really generous prize for the contest. And don’t act like you haven’t seen girls doing the same shit just for the glory at a fuck-ton of Greek events. Remember that ‘slip an’ slide’ party at the Zeta house last year? We must’ve seen the tits of every single sister in the house.”

Zane sighs, running a hand over his face. “Yeah, that’s true. But Lynda is different. I don’t know what made her take part in the contest but it isn’t like her to—”

“You’re talking about her like you know her, dude!”

Dodge intervenes, scooting forward in his seat and looking at Zane. He’s suddenly interested in the conversation.

“That’s because I kinda do. Or do you think you’re the only one who kissed her, huh Dodge?”

Like always, Dodge is competitive. We all are; after years of playing football, I guess it’s second nature for all of us. “Are you trying to tell me that you kissed her too? And by the way,” he adds with a smirk, enjoying pushing Zane’s buttons, “She kissed me.”

Zane is the most peaceful out of the four of us, he rarely engages in confrontation, so I’m kinda surprised when he doesn’t back down. “Well fuck, she kissed me too. We actually did way more than that last night. She was about to come up here with me to spend the night but maybe I was too aggressive and I must’ve scared her off. She just bolted on me.”

Now if you knew Zane the way I know him, you’d be just as surprised as I am. Aggressive is the last word I’d ever use to describe him.

Dodge reacts like I expected. “Aww, fuck! Really?” He seems to think about it for a second and then he smiles. “Well, she didn’t seem scared or timid with me earlier. Like I said—”

Zane scoffs, irritated. “Yeah, yeah. We were all there. She jumped you.” His eyes darken as he takes a drink, his knuckles so tight around the glass that they’ve turned white. “I really don’t understand her. I thought I’d pushed her too far. I let my dick dictate my actions when I should’ve thought about the shit she told me. She’s had a really bad break up and—”

I snort at his choice of words. “You let your dick ‘dick-tate?”

Damn, Zane is really on edge tonight, I thought my pun was hella funny but his reaction is way too intense even for him.

“Shut the fuck up, Ben!” He snaps for the second time in a matter of minutes. “You don’t understand. I took her out to dinner and we got talking and ... she told me that some really bad shit happened to her. It isn’t my story to tell, but her ex was a fucking scumbag—I should’ve gone slower. It’s all my fault if she ditched me.”

Carter, who’s been quiet until now, intervenes. “I wonder if she left when we were hanging out for the same reason? There and then I thought that she did because I was on the phone and she found it rude of me, since a second before we were kissing. But now I’m not sure. She freaked out when she saw someone that reminded her of her ex yesterday morning at the cafe; like, a full blown panic attack. Maybe we really were too aggressive?”

Zane shakes his head, looking at Carter. “Fuck! You kissed her too?But yeah. Her ex definitely messed with her. She looked scared even when she just talked about him. They were engaged and her parents got really mad at her when she broke it off. So we might’ve been too aggressive. She told me she had no freedom when she was with her fiancé and since she literally jumped Dodge, maybe you and I came across as too pushy?”

Dodge doesn’t miss a golden opportunity to push Zane’s buttons. “Well, either way, I don’t fucking blame her. I mean, when you think about it, I’m a fuck-ton better looking than you two!”

Zane flips Dodge off, while Carter barks out a laugh. “You wish! We all know I’m the best looking motherfucker in this room.”

I laugh, finishing my drink. “Ha! You two are adorable! I’ve fucked more women than the two of you combined, so that proves that I’m the best looking one.”

Dodge rolls his eyes at my provocation. “That means fuck all, Bennie-boy! The only thing that proves is that you’re the biggest whore in this room. No offense.”

I wink at him. “None taken, dude. Sex is my thing; we all know it. When we’re stressed, you drink, Zane tries to analyze everyone’s feelings in a sharing circle and shit, Carter works out and I fuck.”

They all laugh because they know I’m right.

“However,” I continue, “let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Our little Miss Wet T-shirt has all of us interested. What are we going to do about it? We don’t want her to become another Chrissie, am I right?”

Carter tilts his head interrogatively. “What do you mean, all of us? Did you kiss her too?”

I shake my head. “No, I didn’t. But before one of you assholes calls dibs, I was the first one to notice her. The morning before we first saw her on the beach, I was here to look at the resort, to scout places for the events I wanted to organize this weekend. I saw her in line outside the ice cream place at the pier. They were handing out free samples. The guy only had strawberry left when he got to her and she asked if he had anymore peanut butter. The guy was actually quite rude to her. He told her that if she wanted peanut butter, she could go inside and buy herself whatever she wanted or take a cup of strawberry gelato if she didn’t want to wait until he refilled his samples.”

Dodge immediately bristles at my words. “Who the fuck is that asshole? That isn’t how they’re supposed to treat guests.”

I nod. “Oh trust me, bro, I had a word with him after. But there and then, I went inside to get a large cup of peanut butter ice cream to give her.”

Carter chuckles. “Sucker! I would’ve thought you had way better moves with women.”

I laugh at his dig. “You’re fucking right, dude. Normally I do. But with her ... I don’t know. I stood there watching her while she was waiting and I felt as if my tongue were glued to the top of my mouth. I’ve never needed an excuse to talk to someone before but there was something in the way she was looking around. She reminded me of that feral cat we found behind the cabanas one year, remember?”

Zane understands what I mean. “Yeah, as if she needed help but at the same time, she was trying to look tough. Like a self-preservation mechanism.”

I nod, resisting the urge to rib him for psychoanalyzing everything. Zane can’t help it, it’s second nature. “That’s exactly what I thought.”

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