The Virgin’s Bucket List Episode 10

📖 The Story Continues

Alyssa rushed to Wayne before Lindsay could speak. She pointed at the spaghetti coating her clothes and declared that Lindsay had attacked her and ruined everything. Her voice trembled with expertly manufactured outrage.

Wayne barely looked at her. “I’m pretty sure I wasn’t talking to you,” he said, then crossed the space to Lindsay. The rejection left Alyssa speechless in front of the crowd she normally controlled.

He asked Lindsay whether she was okay. Ice cream soaked the front of her clothes, her hands smelled like tomato sauce, and half the cafeteria was recording them. “Never better,” she replied, summoning the driest smile she could manage.

Wayne turned to Alyssa. He warned her not to bother Lindsay again, adding that Lindsay would never have done something like this unless she had been provoked. His certainty startled Lindsay; they barely knew each other, yet he trusted her character over Alyssa’s performance.

Alyssa insisted there was more to the story. Wayne dismissed the protest and guided Lindsay away. Humiliated for the second time in two days, Alyssa promised that the fight was not over.

Outside the cafeteria, Wayne offered Lindsay something clean to wipe away the mess. She thanked him while trying not to notice how gently he checked her face for stray ice cream. His closeness made her remember both her father’s warning and Alyssa’s claim that he was out of her league.

Those voices sounded painfully convincing. Wayne was already Maple Hill’s most sought-after athlete, with universities watching his future. Lindsay was known mainly for a humiliating dare and a complete absence of romantic experience.

He deserved someone better, she told herself. Wanting him was dangerous, and asking him to help with the bet could destroy whatever fragile friendship had begun between them. She needed a different strategy.

The party invitation offered one. If Wayne’s friends were athletes too, one of them might satisfy Alyssa’s absurd requirements. Lindsay could avoid streaking without disobeying her father or risking her heart on the boy living across the hall.

Wayne asked whether everything was all right. Lindsay dismissed the cafeteria disaster as petty girl drama, then cautiously mentioned the party he had invited her to. She asked whether he was still willing to take her.

“Of course,” he said. The speed of the answer warmed her despite everything. Then he asked what had changed her mind.

Lindsay could not admit she hoped to shop among his friends for a boyfriend. Saying it aloud would sound desperate because it was desperate. She searched for a reason that would not expose the dare.

She reminded Wayne that they lived together now and said she wanted to know him better. Surprise brightened his face before he could hide it. Lindsay immediately realized her explanation sounded far more personal than intended.

Wayne repeated the phrase in his thoughts as hope stirred. He had waited for some sign that the girl from his childhood might remember him, and her interest felt like the beginning of one. Perhaps the distance in her eyes did not matter if they could start again.

Lindsay hurried to clarify that she also wanted to meet his friends. They were probably just as attractive as he was, she added, trying to make the request playful. The warmth in Wayne’s expression cooled by a degree.

Still, he agreed. He told her he would see her after school, his voice controlled enough to conceal whatever disappointment had surfaced. Lindsay beamed, certain that her plan was finally moving forward.

She walked away imagining how easily one successful introduction could solve her problem. Behind her, Wayne watched with feelings she had completely misread. He had thought she wanted him, only to discover she might be using him as a path to someone else.

Neither noticed Alyssa observing from across the hall. Lindsay believed the party might deliver the boyfriend she needed, and Wayne wondered which friend she would choose. Alyssa, wiping dried sauce from her hair, began considering how to ensure Lindsay’s first attempt at romance ended in public humiliation.