Dreaming Of You

2 (strong language and sexual themes not suitable for kids)

"YOU'RE WITH DECLAN 'The Bull' Rinaldo?" Arthur, my best friend, squealed on the other line. 

"Shh! Pipe down!" I threw a nervous glance at the locked bathroom door. "I swear to God, if anybody hears you, I'm going to shave off your eyebrows in your sleep."

"Gahd, Ver! This is just awesome! You know what? You should totally fuck him!"

I slapped my palm on my forehead.

Why did I call Arthur again?

"Arthur, shut up."

It had been thirty minutes since I got into the cabin and asked Declan for help. My phone battery had two bars now. So of course, my first order of business was to call Arthur and provide proof of life.

Truly, hindsight was 20/20.

"Why not?" Arthur fired back. "The universe is giving you your wet dream! Don't lie to me, you so manifested this! And the universe answered! And if you're going to lose your cherry, you might as well lose it to someone famous. I bet he's an animal in bed, baby girl! Rawr!"

What the actual fuck?

Arthur cackled. "And he's definitely clean, too! He's a regular blood donor, yes, yes? It'll be awesome, Vera! Bad boy awesomeness! Every girl in town would hate you! You should do it. Go bareback! You're on the pill, so it's totally good!"

Lord Almighty.

I should kill the call. When Arthur's on a roll like this, there's no point arguing at all. He wouldn't hear a thing. Why bother?

But bareback, really? Really?

I couldn't hold back. "Really, Arthur? Bareback? And yeah, you are so right. Losing my cherry to some famous big bad boy is a dream come true, so I can brag all about it to my friends. Yeah, I really can't wait to fuck him. And don't worry, I'll tell you how good he is later. You want me to give details about his length, width, and texture, too?"

"You're so pissed now! You said fuck!"

What the hell? I glared at the phone. Did he just roundaboutly call me a stuck-up prude who couldn't even say fuck unless I was pissed? It's probably true, but that's just rude.

"And what exactly do you mean by that?" I bit out.

"You only say fuck when you're really pissed or shocked."

"I do not–"

"Yes, you do. Anyway, Vera, let's get serious. Not that I'm not serious about you getting it on with Mr. Sex on a Hot Stick, but yeah. Spend the night there. It's still raining like crazy."

Now he's acting all concerned?

I should tell him to shove it, but the howling wind outside proved his point.

When would this rain let up?

This was my fault. I shouldn't have walked off too far from the beach house. I should have kept track of time. It was selfish to ask Arthur to get me here in the cabin in this downpour.

"Stay the night," saad ng kaibigan. "I'll come get you tomorrow. I don't know Declan personally, but Guillermo's friends with him. We both know he's pretty chill. And everyone in town thinks so, too. We should just be glad it's him in the cabin. And now that I think about it, things could have been abso-fucking-lutely worse, Vera! Like, fuck, girl! What if it had been some crazy ass serial killer–"

"And we're stopping the conversation right there."

I rubbed my palm on my arm.

Again, Arthur had a point. Things could have been real bad. Yes, the biggest trouble the town had witnessed in recent memory had just been some rowdy high school kids spray painting some cars parked outside Mang Tonio's grocery store. Still, with how crazy the world was right now, you'd never know.