The First

Chapter Sixteen

"So?" Ali smirks as Becky sits on the couch, her legs crossed facing both girls.

They sat in a circle waiting for Becky to give them the details of everything that had happened with Joel. Becky was turning red at the memories of Joel's hands on her body. She jokingly fanned herself off.

"Oh my gosh. She did it!" Clara squeals.

"No she didn't. I can tell."

"I didn't. We didn't go all the way but we went pretty far!" she squeals laughing.

"How was it?" Clara winks, her smile so wide, excited for her friend.

"Really good. Like mind blowingly good. His hands and mouth. Oh my gosh, his mouth." Becky's eyes roll to the back of her head at the memory.

"Ew." Ali gags. "I forgot we were talking about Joel for a second and now I'm grossed out. He's like my little brother." she recoils.

"Yeah well your little brother was all over me." she jokes back.

The girls spend the night laughing and joking about Becky's experience as she discusses the entire night with them. Clara and Ali talk about the new assistant they hired and the three girls updated each other on their lives. They had missed each other so much but now that Becky was busy with Joel she didn't spend as much time with the girls. Meanwhile the boys were also spending the night together at Joel's house.

"I think it's safe to say I've won the bet." Joel boasts falling onto the couch.

"You slept with her?" Chris asks, surprised.

"Not yet."

Joel's mind travels to the fantasies and daydreams that he has had in the last 24 hours since first touching Beckys body. He had imagined being able to slide himself into her, connecting in a way with her that she had never connected with a man before. He thought of her soft skin as her gentle lips parted in ecstasy each time he moved his fingers in deeper, or his tongue touched. Joel was unaware why he wanted to win this bet so badly. At first he hated the idea. Recoiled at the thought. The night he went home after the bet had been organised, Joel had sat down and layed out an entire plan. Working out when to visit Becky, when to ask her on a date, when to kiss her for the first time. He knew that Becky was not the kind to just have sex with a friend. He had to make it a real relationship. He even planned how they would end it.

He had seen Zabdiel on the first day trying to kiss Becky. He saw the way her breathing fastened when he had her against the wall and he furrowed his brows in anger and thought. He had made his way back to the beach with the boys and sneakily convinced Erick to go interrupt them. He had noticed Erick fidgeting and anxiously checking his phone for a text from either Zabdiel or Becky.

"You know if you want to know what they are doing you should just go check." Joel had commented laying on his back with his sunglasses on.

He was anxiously watching Erick, hoping he would go after them. Joel thought that if we went and interrupted them it would ruin his first move for the bet. Lucky for him, Erick took the bait and almost ran back to the studio. The studio wasn't far from the beach, a few minutes to walk there so with Erick's pace he made it just before anything could happen. Joel was still able to visit Becky and Ali that night. He had made it seem casual. Like he just wanted to hang out, it wasn't until he was sitting there on the couch, the side of his body pressed against Becky's that he realised his in depth plan for the bet was maybe because of feelings he held much deeper.

He was sitting on the couch watching her as she drunkenly sprawled herself out, he looked and so desperately wanted to lean over. So he did. But as he hovered over her, almost ready to kiss her, he realised that he was rushing his plan and if he wanted to do this properly he had to wait. Embarrassed, he stood up and rushed out. He had arrived home ashamed that he was going to kiss Becky and play with their feelings for this bet. So he had decided to throw the ideas away. He went to sleep and tried his best to ignore the excitement he felt when she entered a room.

While he had decided to step down from the bet without telling anyone, as soon as he heard Chris and Erick were spending the day with Becky, he was angry. He had thrown himself back in the running as soon as he had heard all about it. His skin crawled as they spoke about touching her or flirting with her, so the next day while he had waited for Richard to make the first move he had made his second step in the plan.

It had gone better than he thought, they made their pillowfort and he couldn't help but want to wrap his arms around her and hold her for the rest of the night. He didn't expect her to offer him to stay the night but as Becky laid in his arms, his feelings had hit him once again. He had always felt like this. The moments of him embarrassing himself in front of Becky or being desperate for her attention made a lot more sense now.

The most important night for his whole plan was when they went clubbing in a group. He knew that Richard and Becky would dance all night. He knew that the fort was still up because Ali had texted him about it. He knew that the second he offered her a ride home, she would take it. Even if he didn't admit it, he knew that she had feelings for him. He didn't mean for his plan to crumble to pieces when he saw Amanda. He wandered over to her without a second thought for Becky. Then when he saw her dancing with Chris, his heart tightened, his fists balled and his eyes narrowed in on them together. Amanda was quickly forgotten and he stormed over throwing his entire plan out the window. Originally he had wanted to casually spend a few more nights with Becky, but it had moved a lot faster. He couldn't help but confess his feelings the next day after Chris had taken Becky home.

When he arrived home that day, he couldn't sleep. He paced around his house thinking about Chris and his hands around Becky's body. He spent the first few hours of the morning thinking of an excuse to see Becky, but he realised that after last night's events and his deep anger for Chris he could storm over and demand to see her. Chris and him argued in the hallway, Chris admitted to kissing her.

Then he turned to Joel and sighed and said, "Bro, you're going to win. She likes you. She really likes you. Just go home and you two can make up later."

That wasn't good enough for Joel. So he stormed in anyway. When they were finally able to talk later in the day, Joel couldn't help but scream at her and confess that he wants to be with her. Now that all of this had happened, here he was, boasting with the boys about how his hands had felt holding her thighs.

"We didn't go all the way." he confesses.

"Then you don't win." Erick spits out.

"We know he's going to win though." Zabdiel laughs at Erick's reaction.

"I don't feel good about this anymore," Chris shakes his head.

"Huh? Why?" Joel asks.

"I just, I don't know. I'm closer to her now and I don't think this is right to keep the bet going. Especially if you're with her. Dude," he slaps Joel's chest, "the other day you almost killed me and we were just hanging out."

Joel looks down embarrassed, "I-I wasn't-"

"You were. It's fine but I'm backing out. You can take my money."

"I'm out too." Richard nods, "Chris is right."

"I'm out." Zabdiel acknowledges.

"I'm not." Erick laughs.

Joel looks surprised and shakes Erick's hand, "Game on." he laughs.

The three boys watch on, distributed by their bandmates. How could they be doing this? They all loved Becky, cared for her and had been close friends for years. Now here they were closer than ever to the girl and somehow acting so distant from their natural emotions of wrong and right.