AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah, but…” Daria bites her lip and looks at me with something close to pity on her face.
“Whatever,” Elaine breaks in. “You’ll never do it. I bet you a hundred bucks I’ll sleep with Todd again before you do.”
eight
Now Playing:
“40oz. to Freedom”—Sublime
Chase and Lindsey emerge from the bathroom, saving me from the rest of that conversation.
“So,” Lindsey says, as if she’s never been gone. “Let’s eat.”
While Lindsey hands out glasses of tea, Chase brings the tray of food to the middle of the floor, and we all sit down around it.
“Did we miss anything juicy?” Chase asks.
“Nope,” I say quickly, shooting Daria a warning look. I shouldn’t have bothered.
“Sky and I were just taking bets on which one of us would sleep with Todd first,” Elaine says, smirking at me and tossing her hair over her shoulder.
A pained look flits over Chase’s expression, but it’s gone so fast I’m not sure if I imagined it.
“You can take bets on me,” he says, smiling in a way that doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “I won’t even be offended that you’re objectifying me like a piece of meat.”
I wonder briefly if he’s upset that our attention strayed from him for a moment when he wasn’t in the room, or if he’s jealous that both of us want Todd and not him.
“Man meat,” Daria says, interrupting my thoughts. “My fave.”
Lindsey sinks onto the carpet beside me and rubs my shoulder. “Sky, are you sure about this?” she asks in a voice that cuts right through all my anger. Without that, I suddenly feel like I might cry.
“I don’t know,” I mumble.
“You told me that thing about kissing him, and… Well, I don’t really know about these things, since I’ve only been with Chase,” she says, giving Chase the sweetest smile. “And he’s just amazing.”
“Barf,” Daria says, grabbing a Christmas cookie from the tray.
Lindsey frowns at her before turning back to me. “Maybe Todd’s not the right one for you. I mean, for your first time and everything, it should be perfect. Don’t you want it to be with someone you love?”
I curse Chase with all the fury I possess for insisting on joining us. I don’t know how much more humiliation I can handle before I literally expire from shame.
I stare down at the six inches of ankle exposed below Lindsey’s pajama pants until I feel a shock as a warm hand closes around mine, squeezing gently. Chase leans back and meets my eyes behind Lindsey. “She’s right. You know that, don’t you?”
He holds my gaze until I nod and look down again. Between Lindsey’s sweetness and his, it’s all I can do not to burst into tears. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, that someone being sweet to me makes me want to cry. Chase presses his thumb into the back of my hand and catches my gaze again briefly, then pulls away. The moment his hand leaves mine, my hand feels cold, missing the warmth of his reassuring touch.
I hate myself.
“Whatever,” Elaine says, peeling a slice of meat from one of the tiny sandwiches and delicately putting it in her mouth. “You’re missing out. Todd is great in bed.”
“I always thought he would be,” Daria says through a mouthful of food. “He’d probably be a good guy for your first time.”
“My first time was perfect,” Lindsey says, smiling adoringly up at Chase.
Kill me now.
He kisses the tip of her nose. “Thanks, babe. I aim to please.”
“So,” Daria says, a sly look in her eye. “If you could do your first time over, who would it be with?”
