Boys and Girls, Part III: Can't Stay Away

Chapter 9 – The “L” Word

Lani hated all boys right now. She hated stupid Hunter and his cheating ways, and she hated Ryan and his stupid paranoia. Of course Lani had been pissed at Hunter, but she hadn’t been using Ryan as her rebound guy.

Had she?

Lani looked at her reflection in her bedroom mirror. She was a mess. Her hair was all disheveled. Her clothes had been put back on haphazardly. Her eyes were bloodshot and tear-stained. She pulled her hair out of its ponytail and stripped down to take a shower.

Lani groaned in miserable pleasure as the hot water shot out of the spout. Needles of warmth struck her skin and washed away all the ugly feelings that had clung to her since Ryan had rejected her advances. As the body wash slid down her torso and in towards her inner thigh, Lani remembered that she had left Ryan’s apartment still wet. She groaned in disgust. Even after he’d spurned her, she’d still wanted to have sex with him. She slipped her hand toward her cunt and began washing away the lingering lube.

An image of Ryan’s throbbing cock flashed in front of her. He had wanted her as much as she had wanted him. She shook the image away.

She squeezed more soap into her hands and began washing in between her legs again, when another mental image of Ryan flashed in her mind. This time, he was on top of her, smelling her scent and rubbing his throbbing cock against her bare thigh.

Without even realizing it, Lani began rubbing at her slippery pussy. It didn’t matter that she’d washed her juices away; soap was almost as good a lubricant, if not better. She stroked her clit with her thumb and let her fingers glide across her slick folds.

She gasped, imagining what sex with Ryan would have been like. She imagined his hard cock gliding up and down her smooth folds of pink skin. She thought about how it would feel when his large dick slipped past her opening and thrust fully into her.

Lani moaned at the thought and instinctively shoved two fingers into her pussy. She pictured Ryan’s fully erect cock then pulling out – her juices glistening atop his hard dick – and then pushing back in again.

Lani leaned back against the shower wall. She lifted one leg and rested it on a small footstep at the base of the shower stall. Her strokes quickened, matching the rhythm of Ryan’s imaginary thrusts. She gasped at each imaginary push into her aching cunt and began rubbing her clit furiously.

The thrusting in her mind grew quicker and quicker. She felt Ryan’s heavy breath hit her skin. She heard him grunt with exertion and sensed the twitching of his fully aroused cock as he was ready to shoot his load…

Within minutes, Lani came hard. She felt the pulsing of her cunt walls throughout her entire body. Her leg dropped and she had to lean back against the wall for support. She was panting heavily, unable to push away from the wall, so she just slid down as the steaming water continued to pierce her skin.

She closed her eyes and sighed deeply because she didn’t know what she truly wanted now.

****

Walking from class to class on crutches was becoming much less of a labor to Ryan. His upper body had grown stronger because of his use of crutches, but Ryan didn’t give two shits. He’d rather have the full use of his legs and be fat than walk on these crutches for much longer. It wasn’t difficult, rather, Ryan felt like he was weak or something. No virile male wanted limited use of any of his limbs.

As Ryan cut through the back lot of one of the University’s science laboratories, something - someone - caught his attention.

Jacy was seated on a park bench. It shouldn’t have been such an unusual picture, except Ryan had taken this path for a whole week to cut travel time, and he had most definitely seen Jacy sitting on the same bench around the same time everyday.

He hadn’t bothered to approach her before because he figured she was just eating lunch, but as Ryan thought about it, something didn’t feel right. He decided to investigate.

As Ryan neared the bench, he caught sight of Jacy biting into a small sandwich. A bottle of water sat next to her. Jacy looked thinner. She still wasn’t as lithe as her friends. Still, her cheekbones had hollowed slightly, and her stomach looked as if it had sucked in a little. Ryan noticed that she was looking at something…somewhere. Ryan’s eyes drifted in the direction of her gaze.

Hawk Manor. Why the hell was she staring at Hawk Manor?

Ryan moved closer, and Jacy finally turned when she felt a warm presence approaching.

“Hey,” Ryan called out. “Mind if I take a seat?”

“Sure,” she said, moving her water bottle to the other side. She tried to make it seem like she hadn’t been staring over at the University’s largest sports fraternity. Unfortunately, Jacy had a poor poker face.

“What are you eating?” he asked.

She held up her sorry excuse for a sandwich. “Dinner.”

“That’s your dinner?” Ryan asked disbelievingly.

“I had a big breakfast,” she defended.

“Jacy,” Ryan began, looking concerned, “honey, are you on a diet or something?”

“Not really,” she answered guiltily.

Ryan leaned back in his seat and regarded Jacy skeptically. When Jacy averted her eyes, Ryan sighed in exasperation. “Didn’t we go over this, Jacy? You don’t have to diet.”

She appeared flustered. “It’s not that simple, Ryan.”

“Well explain it to me then, please, because obviously, I don’t understand.”

Jacy’s eyes stayed averted, and Ryan noticed she was staring at the frat house again. She looked equally upset and hopeful, which confused Ryan. But as he continued to stare at Jacy and ponder during that long silence…things suddenly became clearer.

Until he finally put two and two together.

“I was asked to join the Hawks’ frat my freshman year, Jacy.”

She straightened and lowered her gaze. Ryan continued.

“Jason was asked too. Anyway, our freshman year, they told us that they always hosted a yearly mixer. They told us to ask girls out and bring them to the party.”

Jacy didn’t say anything. Instead, she continued staring at the ground.

“But we weren’t supposed to ask out just any girl,” Ryan continued. He sighed before starting again. “In other words, we weren’t supposed to invite beauty queens and supermodels to the party…am I getting warmer, Jacy?”

It happened so quickly, but Ryan saw a single teardrop fall to the sidewalk where Jacy was hunched over. Ryan wasn’t an inherent arsonist, but he was deeply tempted to torch down that manor at that very moment.

The annual “fat/ugly” girl mixer was a tradition among the Hawk frat. The freshman and new recruits would ask out the fattest and/or ugliest date they could find and the upper classmen would hold a silent contest over whose date turned out to be the biggest dog. Most of the girls were freshman, but apparently, Jacy had slipped through the cracks. When Jason and Ryan had learned about this annual tradition, they had refused to participate and had consequently been kicked out of the frat. Neither one could fathom the idea of victimizing an innocent girl.

“Sometimes I look in the mirror…” Jacy began quietly as she began to choke up, “…a-and I hate what I see so much.”

As Ryan watched Jacy cry, he tried to suppress his anger. Who would invite Jacy? She was one of the cutest girls he had ever met.

Ryan leaned over and urged Jacy to face him. She pushed him away, but he grabbed her wrists and pulled her into a tight embrace. She eventually reciprocated, crying on Ryan’s shoulder. He ran his hands through her long, brown hair and kissed her innocently on her tear-stained cheek.

“Tell me his name,” Ryan whispered into her ear.

“I-it does-n’t ma-matter,” she uttered through sniffles. “I just don’t want to th-think ab-bout it anym-more.”

They remained hugging for several minutes until Ryan was certain that Jacy’s tears had subsided. He pulled back and regarded her hazel, tear-stained eyes lovingly.

“You don’t mind if I find out on my own do you?”

Despite having just cried, Jacy couldn’t help but laugh. “I guess I can’t do anything about that!”

He chuckled too.

Afterwards, Ryan took Jacy to Toby’s and treated her to a big, greasy double cheeseburger, which she ate every last bite of.

****

Lani hadn’t meant to eavesdrop on the conversation between Ryan and Jacy. She had spotted Jacy just seconds after Ryan had apparently seen her. Lani had hesitated because she hadn’t been quite ready to talk to Ryan yet. She was still upset about what had happened, or rather, what hadn’t happened.

As Ryan spelled out the reasons for Jacy’s current behavior, Lani had to suppress her anger. How could someone do that to a person as cool as Jacy? If Lani had had any suspicions about the date with the baseball player, she would have immediately put a stop to Jacy’s plans. But it was too late now.

Lani had never pegged Jacy to actually do something about being taunted over her weight. As long as she had known Jacinda Hewitt, the latter had always shown particularly thick skin when it came to the alleged shortcomings of her physical appearance. Apparently, the events of that party had pushed Jacy over the edge, and Lani wondered why such a horrible institution existed at all.

She’d always assumed that Ryan and Jason had been members of the fraternity in their early years, considering how popular they were as athletes in North Mission. She never would have guessed that they’d been kicked out because of their principles. It gave her new respect for both of them.

Even though she was still mad at Ryan.

She sighed as she walked back toward her apartment. Why couldn’t she get that idiot out of her mind? Hunter had messed with her emotions badly, and now she was growing more and more obsessed with thoughts of Ryan than of her ex-boyfriend.

Lani was mortified to realize that she didn’t miss Hunter as much as she thought she would. That was three years of a close relationship down the drain. She was sure she had loved him…once, but maybe Ryan was right. Hunter’s infidelity only confirmed how wrong he was for her; it had confirmed why dating a guy her father clearly loved more than she did was wrong.

As Lani entered her apartment, she noticed that her answering machine was blinking the number one. She walked over to push it and strode mindlessly over to the window that oversaw the living room.

Beep. You have one new message. First message…

Hunter got along famously with her friends, but Ryan was already good friends with all of her friends anyway. Lani thought back to the way Ryan had comforted Jacy, and her heart ached. She had never known how compassionate Ryan could be underneath that cocky, seemingly selfish exterior.

Lani, the message began. It was Hunter. Babe…if you’re home, please pick up the phone.

Ryan came from a broken home, so Lani knew that he had family issues as well. Except Ryan never wore any of that on his sleeve. He talked about his family like his mom had never run out on them and was still at home. He talked about his stepsisters like they were his true blood relatives.

I miss you so much sweetheart…please…please just call me back. Beep.

He had suffered the biggest setback of his entire life this year, and Lani couldn’t help but wonder why Ryan wasn’t taking this much harder than he appeared to be doing. Then again, she didn’t see him all the time. He could be throwing tantrums when she wasn’t around. When he was around her, at least, he always put on a brave face. That was how she always regarded Ryan…as a brave soul in the face of adversity. It’s what made him a great football player and what would make him a lifelong fighter.

As flashes of Ryan drifted across Lani’s memory – from the first time she had met him at Thai Palace, to the time she had punched him, to the time they had shared their first kiss, to…the time they had almost made love – a realization dawned. It was only frightening because it was so unlike any feeling Lani had ever experienced before. It hadn’t happened with Hunter, she knew that for certain. But what she was feeling for Ryan was genuine and irrevocable.

Lani was in love with Ryan Mackey.

****