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I can tell Lindsey wants him to leave, and I’m not sure how comfortable it will be with him around. It definitely changes the dynamic of our girl group to have a gorgeous guy hanging out with us. And not just a regular gorgeous guy, but Chase London. If he’s not a full god, he’s at least a minor deity.
“Alright, fine, you win,” he says, flopping down on the bed. “Let the torture begin.”
“You don’t have to stay. You can leave if it’s torture,” Lindsey says.
“Yeah, yeah. So what’s first? I’m sacrificing myself to the girlier good.” He sprawls out on the bed dramatically. “Descend upon your sacrifice!”
Lindsey goes to get her foot soaks, and Chase kicks off his shoes. The smell of feet starts to waft around the room.
“Gross!” Elaine huffs, moving off the bed. “Do you ever actually wash your feet?”
“You know you love it,” he says, grabbing her arm and pulling her onto the bed. She shrieks and tries to push him away as he shoves his shoe over her nose and mouth. I’m thoroughly disgusted—guys feet are about the grossest things on the planet. And I’m glad it’s not me, but…
While Elaine laughs and shrieks and tries to fight him off, they wrestle around on the bed, and a funny feeling starts in my belly. Maybe I could imagine them hooking up. Elaine’s always a stone-cold bitch at school, but suddenly she’s all giggly and girlie when he messes with her. Chase is always like that to me, teasing and grabbing me and touching my hair. If he used to do those things to Elaine, and only stopped because things got awkward after hooking up, I can see it.
“Y’all are making me gag,” Daria says, voicing my thoughts exactly. “Seriously, I just threw up in my mouth a little.”
“Don’t worry, you’re next,” Chase says, grinning at her. He leaps off the bed and knocks Daria into Lindsey’s pink puffy chair as she tries to get away. She shrieks and tries to fight him as he straddles her lap and shoves his shoe into her face.
Lindsey comes in and sets a foot bath of steaming water on the floor and goes back into her bathroom without so much as batting an eyelash at Daria’s howls and Chase’s laughter. It’s even weirder to see Daria and Chase flirting, although they’re so much alike it’s not hard to imagine them as a great couple.
Daria struggles to push backwards away from Chase, and as he leans towards her, the chair is off balance and tips over backwards. They tumble out of the chair and lie on the floor, both laughing uproariously.
A surge of jealousy rises in me before I can push it away. I know I shouldn’t flirt with Chase, and I feel bad whenever I do, but seeing him being so playful with the other girls makes me more jealous than when I see him with Lindsey. I know he’s with Lindsey, and he’s supposed to be that way with her.
But I let myself think I was the only one he jokes around with and teases. I let myself think that I was different to him than any of her other friends, when clearly I’m not. I’m not special. I’m just stupid.
It’s eye-opening to see the proof right in front of me that I’m just like any of her other friends, that he’s just the same to all of us.As he should be, I remind myself severely. But I feel like I might cry.
Lindsey returns from her second trip to set up her spa and scowls at the pair on the floor. Chase hops up, looking a tad guilty, and rights her chair, fluffing the pillows with exaggerated care and a look on his face like he’s stifling more laughter.
“Shoes are off, I’m ready to soak,” he says, blinding Lindsey with his killer smile. “Who’s going to soak with me? Sky?”
Damn him. Just when I think I mean nothing, he picks me first. I loathe myself for the flush of joy that rises like a tidal wave inside me, threatening to wash away all sense again.
“Why don’t you go first?” I say to Lindsey. “It’s your house, and you’re a couple so…”
“I still have to get all the pedicure stuff,” she says. “It’s on the counter.”
“We can bring it out,” I assure her. “Go relax. You deserve it.”
She relents and sits next to Chase, dipping her feet in the steaming bath. The rest of us raid Lindsey’s pedicure supplies.
“God, he’s such a manwhore,” Daria says, grabbing up handfuls of nail polish bottles and setting them in a caddy Lindsey set out.
“Lindsey told him to participate,” Elaine points out.
“We don’t have to fulfill his porn fantasy of a sleepover,” Daria says, rolling her eyes. “Having tickle fights is not on the usual agenda. What’s next, one of us gets stuck under the bed trying to find a loose cotton ball?”
They both burst into laughter, and once again, I’m lost. “He’s definitely enjoying being the only guy here,” I say, trying to join in. “He’s just basking in the attention.”
“And that’s just it,” Daria says, wrinkling her nose. “Suddenly, this isn’t a girl’s night. It’s a Chase night.”
“Can y’all talk a little louder?” he calls from the other room. “I can hear my name, but I can’t hear what y’all are saying.”
“Shut up,” Lindsey snaps.
We bring back polish and pumice stones and foot creams and all the necessary tools for a pedicure.
