The Virgin’s Bucket List Episode 7

📖 The Story Continues

The next morning, Lindsay finally found Julie’s birthday gift inside a discreet package on her desk. After the chaos with Wayne, she approached it with far less curiosity. The object inside was compact, brightly colored, and unmistakably not a human-shaped technological miracle.

“This is the gift?” Lindsay muttered. Julie had sent her a vibrator, which explained every suggestive line of the message without explaining the naked athlete in her bed. She shoved it back into the box, embarrassed that she had transformed a simple adult toy into an entire imaginary boyfriend.

What she wanted was not a substitute that could be hidden in a drawer. She wanted someone who chose her, held her hand in public, and made Alyssa’s laughter irrelevant. More urgently, she needed a boyfriend before the semester ended, and Wayne was now forbidden territory under her own roof.

At school, news of the transfer student had already overtaken gossip about Lindsay’s dare. Students crowded around the football field to watch the newcomer practice. Wayne Adams was apparently being approached by top universities, and every successful pass increased the excitement surrounding him.

Lindsay watched from the edge of the field despite her promise to leave him alone. In uniform, Wayne looked even more intimidating than he had in a towel. He moved with an easy confidence she envied, as if he had never once wondered whether he belonged.

Alyssa arrived with her cheerleading squad and immediately claimed the attention around Wayne as her property. She announced that every attractive boy at Maple Hill belonged to her and Wayne would be no exception. No girl was permitted to pursue him, speak to him unnecessarily, or interfere with her plans.

The other cheerleaders agreed because disagreement with Alyssa always carried a price. Lindsay kept her expression neutral. She had already promised her father she would stay away, but being ordered by Alyssa made obedience feel unbearable.

On the field, Mike barked instructions for Wayne to focus. The players formed up, and the snap cut through the afternoon noise. Wayne dropped back and sent the football flying, but pressure from another player twisted the throw away from its intended path.

The ball sailed beyond the sideline. Students scattered as it approached, revealing a girl in a wheelchair directly in its path. Her hands fumbled against the wheels, but there was no time for her to move.

Someone shouted a warning. Lindsay saw the girl’s terrified face and reacted before fear could calculate the risk. She lunged across the grass and placed her own body between the wheelchair and the incoming ball.

The football struck Lindsay hard and knocked her to the ground. Pain shot through her as skin scraped against the rough edge beside the field. Cheers turned into gasps, and for several seconds the sky above her seemed to tilt.

The girl in the wheelchair was safe. That fact reached Lindsay before awareness of the blood on her own leg. She tried to sit up, refusing to become another spectacle in front of the same students who had spent the day mocking her.

Alyssa’s expression hardened instead of softening. Even an act of instinctive courage looked like competition to her. She muttered that Lindsay had obviously thrown herself into danger to attract Wayne’s attention, and several cheerleaders echoed the accusation.

Wayne had already stopped playing. The disciplined star recruit ignored the formation, his coach’s commands, and every pair of eyes on the field. He ran toward Lindsay with alarm breaking through his usually guarded expression.

The sight of him coming made her heart behave treacherously. She remembered her father’s warning and wished Wayne would turn back before Mike blamed her for interrupting practice. At the same time, the pain in her leg made his concern feel dangerously comforting.

Wayne dropped beside her and called her name as though he had known it far longer than one night. His hands hovered, careful not to worsen the injury. Lindsay looked into his face and again felt the faint pull of a memory she could not reach.

Around them, students watched Maple Hill’s new star abandon practice for the invisible girl Alyssa had ordered everyone to avoid. Mike’s whistle shrilled from the field, but Wayne did not move. He asked whether Lindsay was all right, his voice carrying a tenderness that made the question feel personal.

Lindsay could no longer pretend Wayne was merely a convenient solution to her dare. The worry in his eyes awakened something far more dangerous than attraction, and the way he looked at her suggested a history she did not understand. Before her father could reach them, Wayne slid an arm around her and prepared to carry her away from the field.