Chapter 27

Darryl Nelson

Stevie and Rhea finally reappear, and my eyes can’t help but stay focused on Stevie in her bikini. It’s fairly modest for a two-piece, covering pretty much all of her chest, and the bottoms are high waisted, sitting just in line with her belly button.

The cut accents her small waist and her curvy hips, and the deep forest green stands out beautifully against her ivory skin.

They walk around the pool, and I am mesmerized by the way her ass cheeks wobble a little with each step she takes until Smit nudges me to get my attention.

“Little game of chicken?”

“Sure…Vinnie’s with me.” It was nice to see Vinnie let go and act like a carefree kid for a change, and I help my laughing brother up onto my broad shoulders.

Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Stevie stretch herself out on one of the loungers, crossing her delicate ankles and clearing her throat.

“So, do you think I should say yes to him, then?” My head turns at her words and luckily, she’s not looking my way. Smit and Angelo take advantage of my distraction and Vinnie topples from my shoulders, dunking me under the water too.

I quickly pop back up, wiping the water from my face hoping not to miss any of the girls’ conversation. Rhea smirks a little, looking straight at me and I help Smit onto my shoulders for the next round. “Yeah, why not? You’ve liked him, like, forever. And he’s super cute, too.”

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right…I mean, I can’t keep hanging on to my v-card forever, right?” I scowl, my body turning towards them subconsciously.

“Dude! What the fuck are you doing?!” Smit tries to make me turn using the sheer strength of his thighs around my neck.

There was no fucking way she was going out with some fuckwit and giving it up on the first date. Evan and Angelo push into us, and I let Smit topple backwards before striding as quickly as I can through the water and pull myself out of the pool.

“Especially not when you’ve got hunks throwing themselves at your feet, begging for you to worship their bodies for hours and hours and hou…”

“What are you guys talking about?” I stand over them dripping wet, interrupting Rhea, and Stevie turns her enchanting face to me.

“Oh, nothing that concerns you, just ruminating on Stevie’s love life,” Rhea gives me a sickly-sweet smile over the top of her tacky red heart-shaped sunglasses.

I scowl as they both gaze up at me, grumbling as I walk back to my friends, knowing that they weren’t going to say any more in front of me. Behind my back, the two girls exchange excited whispers. Looks like I was too late in trying to win Stevie back.

***

It was a long week at school trying to figure out what to do about Stevie’s upcoming date. I couldn’t seem to drag my eyes away from her, and Smit had relished in making fun of me at every second he could.

Now it was Saturday night, and I had to use all of my self-control to not sit in my window and watch Stevie get ready to go out with some other dude.

My dad had asked for a night in with mom, just the two of them, so Vinnie and I had walked over to our grandads to hang out with the oldies for a night.

I try to settle down and get into the film Vinnie had chosen for us to watch, but my skin literally felt like it was crawling with the need to know who Stevie had gone out with and where she’d gone.

“If you’ve got some party you’d rather be at, you can go if you want,” my grandad says, leaning towards me. “Vinnie and I are cool hanging out without you.”

“Yeah,” Vinnie gives me a shy smile. “You could always go and hang out with Stevie, if you wanted.”

I push myself out of my seat and ruffle his hair. “Thanks, kid. I’ll catch up with you later.”

Stepping out into the cool evening air, I pull up Smit’s number and press dial. “Hey, dude…do you know where Stevie’s gone on her date?”

***

Sitting in Rhea’s car, surrounded by the aroma of Greek food, listening to Prince, was not how I pictured my Saturday night going.

It turned out Smit didn’t know anything about Stevie’s date but was thrilled to have the excuse to contact Rhea.

Things—in his opinion—only got better when it transpired that I wasn’t allowed to drive due to the drug use, and he didn’t have a license, so we’d had to beg Rhea to drive us to gatecrash Stevie’s date.

“I can’t believe it took you a whole fucking week to get interested in this shit,” she smirks as she shoves yet another sour candy into her mouth. “You guys are so fucking oblivious to everything.”

“Does she really like this guy?” I ask, suddenly not feeling so confident with my plan the closer we get to the restaurant where Stevie was currently on her date.

Rhea scoffs. “Fuck no! She thought he was cute before someone moved into the neighborhood. And if that someone had pulled his head out of his ass earlier, she wouldn’t be pretending to enjoy Calvin’s boring conversation and the cheap-ass food they serve at this dump.”

She pulls up outside, and through the wall of windows, I can see Stevie and she looks bored out of her mind. “Now, go in there and be some kind of hero and shit.”

“Go get her, dude!” Smit slaps my shoulder as I move to get out of the car, and I toss a smile back his way.

My ripped black jeans and vintage Ashes Within t-shirt garner a disgusted frown from the suited maître d’, but I ignore him and make my way through the other diners to Stevie’s table, my battered Army boots scraping on the wooden floor.

Flashing a grin at the shocked look on Stevie’s face and the confused double take of the guy who’d unfortunately become my newest target, I grab a chair from an empty table and settle myself down next to him.

“How’s it going?” I ask cockily, leaning over and grabbing a couple of fries off the guy’s plate.

“Wh-who…what are you doing?!” he splutters.

“Darryl, what are you doing here?” Stevie hisses, leaning forward and grabbing my forearm.

My grin widens and I stretch my arm so it’s sitting over the back of her poor date’s chair.

“I thought we could play a little game of who knows who better.”