Page 54 of Caged in Flames

She scoffs at me, rolling her eyes. "Don't lie to me."

"Fine. Gunner and I hooked up after the festival." I admit this with pride.

Of course, I’m proud. First blow job ever. Check.

She squeals. Always with the squealing. "Tell me everything."

"Absolutely not." It feels wrong to give out those details. Maybe if it were just a casual hookup, I could gossip about it. But this thing with Gunner doesn’t feel like that. Sharing intimate moments like that makes it feel cheap.

"Well if you aren’t going to tell how big his dick is, can you at least share the girly mushy feelings?" She asks.

"Gunner is amazing. He's so...solid. The way he makes me feel is different than anything I’ve ever experienced. Even the slightest touch from him can ground me. It’s like a human Xanax."

The smile on my face has to be cheesy as fuck, but she gives me one right back. I don’t care, either. It feels so fucking good to finally tell someone how I feel.

I gesture with my hand to wave off the gushiness. "Alright, enough about boys. How was your date with Jasmine?"

Jane doesn't even hesitate to give me and everyone in the nail salon a full rundown of her extracurriculars.

"We went to this sketchy bowling alley and I thought we'd both have to get tetanus shots afterwards, but it was so much fun. Maybe you and one of your harem members can join us next time." This bitch is bonkers. The most insane comments come out of her mouth. She knows my favorite book trope and she’s acting like it’s a real-life possibility.

"I don't even have a harem. I have a singular dude. Without any current label. Not sure why you keep bringing those other fuckwads into it.” Even though my tone is playful, there’s an undercurrent of seriousness to it.

Jane rolls her eyes as if I am naive. "Sure, whatever you say. It could easily be a ménage once you decide to forgive my cousin though."

The fuck? She must be joking.

"Okay first off, it's incredibly weird of you to talk about threesomes with me when one of the guys shares DNA with you. Second, I haven't forgiven him."

I have come to adore Jane, but she really doesn’t know the scope of everything that went down. Even if Jude told his side of things, I’ve never given mine. Today isn’t the day to rehash it either.

Regardless, it’s not as simple as someone saying sorry.

"It is a little weird, but I'm just thinking how fun it would be to have Jude bring you all to Christmas and the look on my conservative grandfather's face.” Her chin is perched against her hands as she leans over the arm of the nail salon’s spa chair.

We’re waiting for our pretty toe polish to dry and I’m about to risk messing up the pedicure just to escape the absurdity of this conversation.

“It'd certainly take the heat off me for choosing vagina over dick." She says this casually while slipping on her sandals. "Let's go get froyo."

This girl is so hard to keep up with. “Alright, but it’s our last stop before practice. I want to get this song down perfectly.”

“Umm yeah, me too, bitch. But if you think I’m sitting through hours of you overanalyzing everything without a full sugar high, you don’t know me at all.”

Again, she makes a great point.

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