Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 95019 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95019 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 475(@200wpm)___ 380(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
I’ve seen the way this frathole is with girls. Of course, I’m sure his appeal is in no small part due to being a hot jock, but I’d be curious to see if he really has some tricks up his sleeve that could help me at least be bold enough to let a girl know I’m interested in her.
I approach Ryan, who’s hanging with Dax, which makes me feel less threatened since Dax and I get along. Really, Dax gets along with everyone. He’s the kind of guy who’s never met a stranger…which is an odd thing to say about a guy who apparently hooks up with plenty of strangers.
Dax runs his hands through his wet bangs, which must’ve happened when he tackled me in the pool. “Sorry again about earlier,” he says.
“Eh, all’s fair in love and TaskFrat, right?”
“Guess so,” he says as we fist-bump.
“I see you showered off too.”
“Yeah. Found Jell-O in some surprising places.”
I laugh. “I’m not even sure I got it out of all the surprising places.”
“You think you’d be that nice to me if I tackled you during TaskFrat?” Ryan asks me.
“Shut it,” I say.
Dax laughs. “Okay, you two duke it out. I’ve got a Zeta Tau I’ve had my eye on all night.”
“Of course you have,” I say in a knowing tone.
“I’m surprised you haven’t torn through all the frats yet,” Ryan says.
“Is that a challenge?” Dax asks, which gets us laughing. “It’s not the kind of thing you want to rush,” he adds. “Take your time, enjoy every fucking drop.”
A part of me thinks drop might not be what he meant to say, but I’ve known him long enough to know better.
“Go get ’em, champ,” Ryan tells him, and Dax heads off.
I search around, making sure no one’s in earshot. “Okay, this is the part where you make me regret agreeing to this?”
Ryan grins. “Nah. You’re gonna be great. And even if you suck, I’m a great teacher, so…”
He says that in that arrogant-ass way he has, the sort that has me rolling my eyes.
“Now…” He signals to someone, and before I know it, there’s a Phi Lambda blonde at his side, as indicated by the Greek-letter charms on her necklace. Her hair falls just past her shoulders, her blue eyes bright in the outdoor lighting.
She sports a bright smile as she says, “Hey, Marty, I’m Gisele.”
“Um…hi? Ryan, what is happening?”
“This is why we’re doing it at a party. You need practice chatting up girls, so I figured, what better way to do it than to have a real live girl to work with.”
My face heats up. “Can you excuse us for a moment?” I grab Ryan’s shoulder and usher him away from my new Phi Lambda friend. “I knew you’d do something like this,” I say through my teeth.
Ryan’s expression twists up. “What’s wrong?”
“You didn’t say anything about telling other people about our agreement.”
“Gisele promised to be discreet, and doesn’t she look trustworthy?” He waves to her, and she waves back with those bright eyes on Ryan.
“Okay, it’s pretty apparent why she’s offering to help, and it has nothing to do with me.”
“She’s in the drama department. I said it might be good practice for her with character work.”
I feel a migraine coming on. “I never should have said yes to this. I had this gut feeling you’d find a way to turn this into the perfect opportunity to humiliate me, and congratulations if that was your goal.”
“Whoa, whoa. You can ask Keeg and Jaxon, I did the same with them. How did you think this was gonna go down?”
“I was expecting pointers. Like tips. I showed you moves in private. I didn’t bring in a hot girl to judge.”
“You need practice talking to a girl, and given how red your face is, Gisele is gonna be perfect for you because she makes you nervous. And the more you sit with that, the less uncomfortable you’ll be during the real thing because you’ll be used to having that feeling and knowing what to do when it comes up.”
Wait a fucking second… “Exposure therapy?”
“Huh?”
“You’re talking about exposure therapy, essentially.”
“I’m lost.”
“You get me to do the thing that makes me uncomfortable until I’m familiar enough with the discomfort that it doesn’t intimidate me.”
He shrugs. “I guess.”
It’s stunning that an idiot like Ryan has inadvertently stumbled upon his own version of exposure therapy, which when he pitches it like that, I must admit might work.
But I’m probably gonna hate every second of it, which is kind of the point.
“I’m listening,” I say, “but just know, I’ve still got some Jell-O up my ass from earlier. I’m on edge, and I’m more than a little annoyed that you didn’t give me a heads-up.”
“If I’d told you, would you have said yes?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Exactly. So why don’t we get back to Gisele and get to work.”