Kissing Is the Easy Part

Chapter 30 The revenge plan

Sean

"You should've come with us yesterday," Jake said to Dylan after practice on Tuesday, while we were all getting dressed in the locker room. "You missed a really great show."

Dylan slammed his locker shut. "You mean Thai horror? I don't think so."

"No...I thought I was going to be spared some PDA when you and Syd couldn't make it, but instead I got to watch Flora feeding Sean and lying on him in the movie theater."

Dylan turned to me and whistled. "This is new. What's going on between you two?"

"Nothing's going on," I denied out of reflex. Which was also partly true.

"Flora is a man eater," Jake said.

"She isn't," I said, ignoring the fact that she had chewed and spat me out last time we dated. "And even if she is, it doesn't concern me."

"Right." Jake laughed. "I'm not blind, you know."

"What's the point of getting back together again? You've been there and done that," Dylan said. For some reason he made everything he said sound obscene.

"Yeah, you already know all there is to know about her," Jake agreed.

"Flora is a ten, but dating three new sevens is always better than going after the old ten," Dylan continued. He had lots of relationship guidelines and was always eager to pass on the knowledge. "It's the surprise factor that counts."

"I'm not getting back with Flora, but I find it unconvincing to hear from you of all people," I said. I couldn't count how many times Dylan had gone after Sydney after swearing they were over for good. 

Dylan smirked. "That's because you don't know the things Syd's capable of. With her tongue."

Jake laughed. He had a few things to add about tongues as well, and the rest of the conversation wasn't suitable to repeat. As we headed outside, he started commenting on Flora again. "She's pretty hot, but after looking at her for the fourth year it gets dull. You can do better." He patted me on the shoulder. "Inspire us."

Flora was never just hot to me, and I didn't ever find it dull to look at her. She was cheery but not dumb, fiery and seductive without being sleazy, but of course I didn't need to tell them that. "Flora is really exciting," I settled on saying.

"In bed?" Jake grinned. "Now I get it."

That didn't even deserve an answer. I looked up and saw Linda waiting for me outside. Now that she had a boyfriend, she only talked to me when she needed a favor. I waved goodbye to my friends, fully expecting her to ask for a ride to a date somewhere.

Once I got a little closer, I noticed she had been crying. Oh no. "What's wrong?"

"Can you give me a lift home?" she asked in a small voice. Linda being quiet was always a bad sign. The last time she was quiet was when our dog fell ill, but ever since he died no news was serious enough to shut her up again.

After she was seated in the car, she started to tell me what happened. "But first you have to promise not to say anything to mom and dad."

"Linda, please tell me you're not pregnant." I switched to full-on alarm mode. I thought it was my parents' responsibility to bring up The Talk, but perhaps I should've said something. I never made any comments about her boyfriend because she never asked. The way they were all over each other—

She shook her head. "No, it's worse. He dumped me."

"Oh."

"Because I refused to have sex with him."