That Thing You Do (Crystal Lake 2)

“Yeah?” Nate glanced his way. “Was that the summer you got poison oak all over your junk and ended up in the hospital?”

Mike chuckled. “I was actually relieved it was poison oak. For a minute there, I thought I’d caught some horrible disease and my dick was going to fall off.”

“Didn’t you use a condom?” Brad asked.

“Damn right I did. My father put the fear of God into me. After my brother got his girlfriend pregnant, he walked into my bedroom and plunked down a case of condoms.”

“I remember that.” Nate laughed. “They were some knockoff brand called Big Guy.”

“He told me that if I got a girl pregnant like my brother, he’d cut off my balls. I’ve never had sex without a condom. Ever.”

“Then why the hell would you think that you’d contracted some weird disease?” Zach asked, popping open a b

eer.

“Because that’s what Molly told me.”

“You let her look at your junk?” Zach was incredulous.

“Hell no. She asked me to describe the general area, and when I did, she told me there was a ninety percent chance my dick was going to fall off and I better get my ass to the hospital.”

“And the look on your face was priceless.” She laughed, sitting down beside Nathan, a big red-green-and-white wool blanket around her shoulders.

They settled around the fire, and the six of them reminisced and told stories from their youth, laughing until their sides hurt.

There was the time Zach got caught egging Coach Marner’s house after he’d been benched for fighting. Coach had run all the way down the street in nothing but his tighty-whities, and the sheriff had nearly arrested him for indecent exposure.

Or when Stu got caught using his father’s ID to get into the Coach House. First off, his dad was bald in the picture. Secondly, it was his dad. And third? The first person they spied when they sauntered into the Coach House like they owned the place was Stu’s father.

“Hey, do you remember prom?” Zach asked as he slouched low in his chair.

“That was one crazy night,” Mike said, raising his beer high in the air. “Man, we ruled as seniors, and the after-party was something else. Doreen McGilvey was my date. Whatever happened to her?”

“I think she went to the West Coast for college and never came back,” Molly replied.

“I took Bernadette Olsen. Remember her?” Zach said with glee.

“Who doesn’t?” Stu piped in. “She had the biggest boobs in our class and was with every single guy on the hockey team.”

“She was?” Zach looked surprised.

“Hell yeah. God, she was good at that thing she did. You know, the one with her—”

“Okay, boys. It’s 2019. We don’t need a play-by-play of prom-night conquests.” Molly shook her head at them all.

“What about you, Moll?” Brad asked, slurring his words because he’d had more than a few.

“What about me?”

“Nathan took her to prom. Don’t you remember?” Mike said, poking Brad in the arm.

“That’s right.” Brad grinned widely at them, and Nathan knew what was coming out of his mouth before he spoke. The man had never known when to quit.

“So did you two do the deed or what?”

Mike punched Brad in the shoulder. “What?” Brad looked at them all. “Everyone has sex on prom night. It’s like tradition.”

“No,” Molly said without skipping a beat. “Not everyone. Nate screwed some girl who crashed our prom party, and I went home.”