Seduction

25

Ike held off on his gushing, but with his best friends, it was obvious something had changed with him.

"I'm gonna say something about it."

"Don't," Karen replies taking one of Tricia's fries, "If he wanted us to know, he would have told us."

"I don't care," Tricia replied, "We're best friends. We're supposed to-"

"Hey guys," Ike said as he sat down at the table.

Tricia and Karen exchanged looks.

"Hi Ike," Karen greeted immediately sipping the sweet tea Tricia bought for her.

"Up to anything... dark, dreary, and sexy?" Tricia asks flatly, twirling her straw in her chocolate milk.

Ike flushed pink, "uh no?" He laughed slightly rubbing the back of his neck. "What a weird choice of adjectives. I haven't been up to any-"

"Ike, sweetheart," Karen interrupted, "You have a little something," Karen motioned to Ike's neck. "There." Karen pulled out her handheld mirror, passing it to Ike.

He picked it up and looked at his neck and saw an embarrassingly low hickey. If he had his shirt readjusted ever so slightly, no one would be able to see it.

Ike passed the mirror back to Karen who looked at Ike with a waiting look while Tricia looked unimpressed and interrogative.

"What?"

"'What'!" Tricia shouts, "'What' is all you have to say? Dude-"

"What Tricia is trying to say is," Karen interrupted, placing her hand on Tricia's arm, "what is on you neck?"

Ike put his hand over the spot, purposely shifting his shirt to cover it more while doing so. "I don't know. I didn't even notice it until you guys pointed it out."

"Uh huh," Tricia said monotonously.

"I'm serious!" Ike said, "It must be a bruise or something."

"It's not a hickey?" Tricia asked, "From a certain small goth child?"

"No!" Ike sputtered, "I wish it was-"

"Ew. Gross. No," Tricia interrupted leaning away, "I don't need to hear about your sexually charged fantasies."

"Are you sure? C'mon," Ike says, knowing he's deterred her, "I have this one where he's only wearing my le-"

"No, no, no, no!" Tricia shouts, covering Karen's ears, "Keep it to yourself. No one wants to know. We're all sorry we asked."

Tricia sits back down calmly when Ike simply laughs and begins eating.

"Avoiding that, shithead told me you were looking for me on Friday," Tricia says.

"Don't call your brother that," Karen scolds.

"I was," Ike confirms, "It's a little late now considering I wanted the answers to the Chemistry homework."

Tricia laughs. Karen looks pityingly at Ike, "I'm sorry. We were at my house. Did you get it done?"

"Yeah, it wasn't a big deal. I just wanted to hang out under the guise of homework I didn't want to do."

"Amen," Tricia agrees with a smile.