Page 22 of Ruck Me

Chapter7

AOIFE

It’d beenthree days since I’d climbed in my car and drove away from Eoin. Three days since he’d said, so calmly, that maybe I should be his girlfriend.

I shook my head. What the hell was he thinking?

He was thinking he likes you and wants to spend time together, you eejit.

She—I—had a point. I liked Eoin too, but I had no idea how this whole dating thing worked. I didn’t want to do something that would destroy our friendship. And besides, how would dating Eoin even work? He’d said it himself—we were both super busy with school, and on top of that he had rugby. Coordinating our disastrous hookup had taken at least 10 phone calls and over a hundred text messages. I couldn’t imagine either of us trying to plan a romantic night out. I was pretty sure it’d go something like: You want to go out? Sure, when? How does next month sound?

And then there was my brother. There was no question we’d have to keep our relationship a secret from Declan. Everyone on the team knew you didn’t mess with siblings or exes. Which made Eoin’s desire to date me all the harder to grasp. He knew Declan would have a shit fit but it was almost like he didn’t care, which was just stupid and reckless. There were some irrefutable facts in the world and one of them was you didn’t fuck the captain’s baby sister and get away withit.

Who said anything about fucking?my snarky subconscious asked.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because the reality was while I might be apprehensive about dating Eoin, I really, really, really liked kissing him. And I wasn’t an idiot. Kissing Eoin would eventually lead to getting naked with Eoin, which would, of course, lead to sexy times withEoin.

And that was my big concern.

But isn’t that how this whole thing started in the first place?Don’t you want to lose your virginity?

Gah! Make the voicesstop!

When I’d come up with my harebrained scheme to lose my virginity to Kevin, I’d chosen him specifically because there wasn’t any danger of him wanting relationship. He was an asshole and I knew the second the deed was done, he’d walk out the door and that would be that. A no-strings-attached hookup was what I’d wanted … or so I thought. Now though I didn’t know what I wanted.

I pulled out my phone and thumbed through my contacts. As I waited for the call to connect, I closed my bedroom door. This was not a conversation I needed my mam overhearing.

“Hey Fi, what’s up?” Tanya asked.

“I need your help. Do you have a minute?”

“Sure. What do youneed?”

“This is kind of awkward, but do you remember Operation Get AoifeLaid?”

“Of course I remember,” she responded, her voice agitated. “Losing your virginity to Kevin Dempsey was the stupidest fucking thing I’d ever heard, and I’ve heard some doozies.”

“Yeah,” I breathed out. “I’m getting that. You’re not the only one who tried to talk me out ofit.”

“Eoin?”

“How’d youknow?”

Tanya laughed. “God, I love how naïve you can be. It’s so adorable.”

“Fuck you,” I responded hotly. Then, more curiously, “Am I really that stupid?”

“You’re not stupid Aoife, just … I don’t know. Headstrong and not very cautious about some things maybe you shouldbe.”

“Like losing my virginity.”

“Yeah, like losing your virginity.”

“Can you blame me though? I’m 21 years old and I’m tired of missing out. When my girlfriends talk about it, all I can do is smile and nod along like an first class idiot. Do you know how many times I’ve had to steer a conversation in a different direction when someone asked who I was hooking upwith?”

“Why can’t you just be honest?”

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