Misty Reigenborn Romance Boxed Set (166 page)

Molli accepted the mug of cocoa that Seneca handed her.  “Thank you.  I thought you said that Grant had already had ice cream?”

Seneca laughed.  “He did.  He already ate the last of the pizza and another sandwich too.  But if you tell him he eats a lot he’ll remind you that he’s a growing boy.”

“He’s gonna grow right out of his pants if he doesn’t watch it.”

“Nah, he’s got a good metabolism and I’m more than willing to help him burn those extra calories if you know what I mean.”  She winked at Grant as he came into the kitchen.

“You are a closet pervert Sen.”

“Nope, I’m just a horny teenager and I’m not afraid to admit it.  Don’t try to pretend that you’re not one too, Mol because I would know that you were lying.  It’s not nice to lie to your best friend.”

Molli laughed.  “Okay, I admit it.  I’m a horny teenager too.  We’re all a bunch of horny teenagers.  Don’t you dare start to think that Grant because we’ll both kick your ass.”

Grant gave her a puzzled look.  Then awareness dawned on his face.  “Damn Molli, you’re the pervert.  I’d never think something like that.  Well, yeah maybe I’d think something like that for a while because I’m a guy, but I know that you and Sen aren’t like that.  I think you’ve been hanging out with Jude too much.  That sounds like something he’d think about a lot.”

Molli almost choked on the bite she’d just taken of her ice cream.  “We don’t need to talk about the kind of things Jude came up with while we were in that nasty motel room.”

Seneca sat down at the kitchen table.  “Which motel did you guys stay at?”

Molli sat across from Seneca.  “The Sundown I think or something like that.”  Grant gave Seneca a look when he sat down next to her.  “What?  Do you guys know something that I don’t about that place?”

“It might not be true, but they’re supposed to rent rooms by the hour.  And Jude would have heard that too, since he grew up here.  I forget sometimes that you didn’t grow up here.  I feel like I’ve known you forever.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me that they rent rooms by the hour.  I can’t believe that Jude took me somewhere where prostitutes take their ‘dates’.”  Then she remembered what she’d told Jude about not judging people.  “I mean, I know everyone’s got to make a living but come on.  It’s not like there aren’t other motels in town.”

“That’s the only one I know of that advertises that they have the adult channels.  He probably wasn’t thinking about the hookers when he took you there Mol.  He was probably already planning on talking you out of the money to pay for the porn.  Hey, you want to dress up like a hooker with me for Halloween?  Grant said he’d be my pimp.”  Seneca giggled and Grant gave her a dirty look.  She rolled her eyes at him.  “You know what I mean Grant.  I never want to do it with another guy.  You’re too good at sex.  Even if we don’t get married, you’ve spoiled me too much for me to like doing it with another guy.”

“Thanks,” Grant said.  “I think.”

Molli laughed.  “Why do you want to dress up like a hooker?”

“I want to make a statement.  That it doesn’t matter how a woman dresses, she’ll always be a lady.”

“Hmm.  That’s an interesting way to see it.  Sure, it’s not like I have anything else planned for Halloween.  And you might be stuck hanging out with me on weekends for a while too, when I’m not stuck in my room studying at least.  Jude got another job.”

“I know he was nice to you tonight, but are you sure he didn’t find himself another girlfriend?  I don’t think he really meant it when he told me he was sorry for grabbing my ass, even if he was drunk.”

“I think he’s being honest.  He told me some stuff about his family tonight that I don’t think he really likes to talk about.  And you were the one that was trying to convince me earlier that he was sorry for groping you.”

Seneca shrugged.  “Maybe he was, maybe he wasn’t, but I wouldn’t put it past him to have another girlfriend.  Well, maybe not a steady one like you, but you know what I mean.  I’m just glad that you’re not so into him like you used to be.”

“I was never SO into him.”

“You were too.  It took you forever to get over Ricky after he asked Mellenda out.  Then you turned around and started flirting with Jude after school got out to keep your mind off of Ricky.  I
know how disappointed you were when he asked her out instead of you.  I really thought he liked you too.”

“I was really disappointed when Ricky asked her out.  He’s so hot.  But I didn’t start flirting with Jude until he started coming on to me.  I thought he was still with Tory so I tried not to flirt back with him until I heard they broke up.”

“Jude spread that rumor himself because he knew you wouldn’t do anything with him while he was still with her.  Then he was all sweet and nice to you until you had sex with him.  Then he let it slip that he was still going with Tory and promised you he’d break up with her as soon as she came back here for school.”

“How do you know all that?  It sounds pretty much like what happened.  And if you knew all this before, why didn’t you tell me then so that I wouldn’t be dumb enough to sleep with him?”

“I didn’t know all of it right away.  My shithead little brother did, but he didn’t bother to tell me right away.  He heard it from Jacob, and Jude convinced Jacob that you knew he was still with Tory until a few days before she came back.  Then Jude opened his mouth and said something without thinking like he seems to still have a bad habit of doing, and Jacob knew he’d been slinging a load of bull all summer and told Rain.”

Molli sighed.  “He’s definitely got a bad habit of talking before thinking.  I don’t even care anymore.  Tory still hates and me she probably always will, but I don’t think there’s anything that I can say to her to make her stop so what can I do?  I’ll hang out with Jude until I graduate and then move on.  No big deal.  We seem to be on the same page there.  You should have seen how relieved he looked when I told him he didn’t have to buy me anything for Christmas.”

“I wish Ricky would have asked you out too Mol.  I know how much you liked him.  He’s a really good guy, not like Jude.  He’d give you flowers just ‘cause he wanted to, not because he wanted to get down your pants.”  Seneca gave Grant a look.

“What?  I always bring you flowers and I just got down your pants.”

“Yeah, but you always wanted to get down my pants.  It’s okay because I know you’ll always love me for more than just my body baby, or you’d better at least.”

Grant said “Of course I will.  It was going around town that Ricky liked you Molli.  I think that everyone was surprised when he asked Mellenda out.”

“I thought you didn’t listen to rumors Grant?”  Molli laughed.  “I’m teasing.  He never really talked to me but I caught him looking at me a couple times and it gave me the shivers.  Not because it was like, you know, there’s this creepy guy looking at me, but because he looked at me differently than other guys look at me.  You look at Sen that way Grant.  Like you appreciate her body, but you want to be with her for other reasons too.  You don’t see that very often in teenage guys, even if they are older.”

Grant looked offended.  “I am still a teenage guy remember?”

“I think you grew up faster in some ways because of the whole having to take a DNA test at fifteen thing.  Nobody thought you’d want to go out with another girl until you were out of high school.”

“You know about that huh?  Or did Sen tell you after we started going out so you wouldn’t freak out if you heard it somewhere else?”

“No, it was all around town.”

“Of course it was, because everything always is.  You’d think there were 2,000 people here instead of over 20,000.  I liked Sen since we were in grade school.  She never looked twice at me until the end of last year.  She was going out with Kirk back then.”

“Now he was a jerk,” Molli said.

Seneca said “Hey.”

Molli laughed.  “They didn’t call him Kirk the jerk for no reason did they?”

“No, they didn’t.  Now, he was only going out with me because he wanted down my pants.  Everyone said I’d already done it with that creepy guy that lived here for a while freshman year.  I wouldn’t even let him french me more than once because he slobbered.  It was so gross.  I don’t want to imagine what doing it with him would have been like.  You didn’t like me since we were
in grade school Grant.  You were so mean to mean in Jr. High.  You’re lucky I said yes to you when you asked me out after what you did to me in eighth grade.”

“I did it because I liked you.  That’s why I pulled your hair and looked up your skirt in grade school too.”

“You said all that mean stuff to me in front of your friends because you liked me?  Guys are so weird.  He called me fat Mol, and said that I never brushed my hair.”

“You were bigger Sen, but it was cute and you weren’t the greatest at brushing your hair back then.  I said it because my friends made fun of me when I told them that I liked you.”

Seneca sighed.  “Okay.  I was kinda fat and I hated brushing my hair.  But you were a dork in Jr. High, an even bigger dork than I was, so I have no idea why your smelly friends made fun of you for liking me.  And I’m not being a bitch when I say his smelly friends Molli.  He hung out with this guy that always had pit stains and could never seem to stop sweating no matter what time of the year it was.”

Molli laughed.  “That is pretty gross. I hope he got his overactive armpit problem taken care of.”

Seneca giggled.  “No.  I won’t let Grant hang out with him anymore because he’s a jerk.  I think that he still thinks he can get away with pulling Jr. high school crap so that a girl will know he likes them instead of asking her out like a normal guy.”

“Phil’s not that bad Sen.  He can be nice.”

“He must be very talented at always doing it when I’m not looking.  I’ve never seen him be nice to anyone, not even you.  Why are you friends with that guy? He treats you just as badly as he treats everyone else.”

“We used to live next door to each other.  There were no other kids in the neighborhood to hang out with, so we always played together.”

“Good excuse.  You wanna watch a movie before we go to bed Mol?”

“Where are we all sleeping since Grant’s staying too?”

“You can sleep in my brother’s room.  It kinda smells funny in there though, so maybe I’ll make Grant sleep in there and you can sleep with me like you usually do.”

“Hey,” Grant said.  “Your brother’s room does smell funny.  I left the window open all day and I could still smell it.  I don’t want to sleep in there.  I don’t want to know what he does in there to make it smell like that.”

Seneca laughed.  “You can sleep in my room on the floor.”

“I don’t wanna sleep on your floor Sen.  Just let me sleep on the bed with you and Molli and no Molli, I don’t mean it like that you pervert.  Sen, your best friend is a total pervert.”

Seneca laughed.  “I know.  But there’s not room for all three of us.  Even though I trust both of you, I am not letting my best friend sleep alone in my bed with my boyfriend.”

“I’ll sleep on the floor Sen.  I just better not hear you two doing it, or I will throw something at you.”

Seneca laughed.  “Isn’t that what headphones are for?  Only kidding Mol.  We already did it three times today.  I think we can wait to do it again until after Grant takes you back to school.”

“Are you taking me back early tomorrow?  I’m halfway caught up on my homework and I thought we could hang out during the day too.”

“Of course we can.  We can do it tomorrow when you’re in the shower or something.  We gotta do it again before my parents get back.  They’re going to be home with Rain tomorrow afternoon.”

Molli rolled her eyes.  “I should have known that I was in for it when you told me you had sex with Grant.  Now I’m always going to be thinking that you guys want me to leave you alone because you want to have sex.”

“We love having you around, don’t we Grant?”  Grant gave Molli a vigorous nod.  Molli hid a smile.  Though she liked Grant and knew that Grant liked her, she was pretty sure that he wouldn’t mind if she wasn’t around a little less often now that they’d had sex.  “If you had a better boyfriend we could double date.  Find yourself a better boyfriend Mol, and quick.”

Molli sighed.  “I don’t know if I want to bother.  What’s the point of finding one now, when I’m going to be leaving in a few months?  I’m gonna miss you so much Sen.”

“Don’t remind me that you’re leaving me.  Grant promised me that he’d get a better car or fix the one that he has up so that he could take me to visit you, didn’t you baby?”  Seneca gave Grant a sugary sweet smile.  Molli thought that if he hadn’t agreed before, he was certainly going to agree now.

“Yes honey.”

“I thought your parents were buying you a car Sen.”

“They had to spend the money that they had saved on Rain like they have every year they’ve tried to buy me something special since he got sick.  I want Rain to get better because he’s my brother and I love him, but it’s such a drag to have a sick brother sometimes.”

“Do they have any idea what’s wrong with him?”

Seneca shook her head.  “This bitch actually suggested that my mom was doing something to him to make him sick on purpose.  My mom said that she wanted to cry because anyone would believe that about her, and punch the bitch in the face at the same time.  That woman is lucky my dad wasn’t around to hear it.  He would have punched her in the face.”