No Skateboarding Allowed

Chapter 4: Just One of the Guys

Flaunting it was not as easy as Katie made it sound. 

She told me to act confident and sexy. Me. Sexy.

I just did a lot of laughing and fake smiling and winking and apparently that was satisfactory but I sure as hell didn't feel sexy.

Katie was brave enough to go up to a group of guys and ask their names. Of course, I was supposed to be taking charge but wasn't doing a very good job.

A group of about 5 or 6 guys turned around and looked taken aback by Katie's perfect figure.

"Uh," one of then said, "I'm Stan."

They all introduced themselves to us, and I was surprised to find out that none of them recognized me. Not like I asked or anything, but usually when I'm anywhere in Cali I get bombarded.

It was kinda nice.

"How about some volleyball, Stan?" Daphne asked, "Bring your friends."

I smiled at one of them. His name was Brad, I was pretty sure. He had long, dirty blonde hair and was  super ripped.

"Sounds fun," Brad had said, and leaning toward me, "be on my team?"

Of course, I awkwardly responded with, "Um, okay."

I was forever in the friend zone.

But I smiled and tucked hair behind my ear anyway, and was completely aware of the fact that he up-and-downed me, like, four times.

Our game was going quite well; Brad and I were winning. He was a total douche and the complete opposite of someone I would hang out with, but at least he seemed to like me.

We took a quick break after that and Brad and his friends took us to a smoothie cart set up in the parking lot. It was charming, really.

I hoped the Strawberry Splash could pass as red lipstick because I definitely didn't remember to put any on.

"What did you say your name was?" Brad asked.

I looked up and smiled, trying not to seem offended.

"Joey," I told him.

He looked at me for a second, and then it hit him.

"Holy crap," he said, "Joey Rippler?"

I smiled and nodded. "That's me."

He freaked out. 

"Man!" he said, "That's awesome!"

He called over all of his friends and they immediately wanted pictures and autographs. Brad was then very interested in me.

"You got hot," he said.

I raised my eyebrows.

"I mean... not like, you weren't, but..."

I kept them raised and started laughing.

He seemed uncomfortable. "You know what I mean."

"Yeah," I said, "my hair's fixed."

Brad thought that was insanely funny. Like everything else I said after he realized I was rich and famous.

I exchanged numbers due to a signal given to me by Katie. She did the little hand shape that looked like a phone and wiggled it next to her ear. I smiled and nodded.

"Definitely call me sometime, Ripper," he said, "or Joey, sorry."

I attempted to smile seductively. "Oh, Ripper's great."