To Claim His Girl

“It’s nice to have him back.”

“Have you seen the way he’s been looking at you?” Rachel asked. “I’d say he missed you.”

“Nah. He’s probably just surprised to see me out.”

Rachel rolled her eyes. “Please, the way he was looking at you is not about being friends. He wants to get dirty.”

Aria sighed. Her friends talked constantly about sex, and about getting dirty. She was still a virgin, and knew out of their group, she was the only virgin standing.

“Ah, she’s blushing. It’s so cute,” Mary said. “When are you going to concede?”

“When I want to. I don’t want to know what I’m missing out on.”

“She does have to be careful. My first time with Chris was a nightmare. It was painful.”

She covered her face, and then pushed her fingers inside her ears. “I don’t need to hear this.”

“You know, if you ended up pregnant, and with a guy, your dad couldn’t threaten to marry you off,” Rachel said.

“I’m not going to get knocked up. I’m not ready for kids, and he’s not going to force me to marry anyone.”

“I bet he already has an old guy lined up for you,” Mary said. “Wrinkly, too.”

“What are you girls discussing?” Branson asked, swimming toward them.

“The size of your dick,” Rachel said. “Yeah, Mary says it’s like tiny.”

“Shut up, Rachel. You know I wouldn’t do that. We all know Chris has the smallest dick.”

“Do not!” Chris said, throwing water over them.

Dunking under the water, Aria cleared the hair off her face, and felt someone come up behind her. Turning around, she found Eli there. She smiled up.

“Actually we’re discussing Aria’s asshole dad, and how we can stop him from marrying her off.”

“When she’s at the altar, we can go in, and shout we object. Hey, it could be a total scandal. All three of us could stake a claim to her.”

She was struggling to focus as Eli wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her back. There was no point in fighting him. It was like the past year hadn’t existed.

“No one is taking her from us,” Eli said.

“Whoop, whoop,” Rachel said. “Our gang is finally back together, and I bet Wayne doesn’t have a clue you’re going to be with us tomorrow.”

The start of school. Yay.

“Wayne’s still breathing? I’m surprised he hasn’t been taken out by now,” Eli said.

“You smashed his nose. I’ll never forget that. The way you just walked up to him, asked him a question, and bam, you slammed his face against the table.” Chris whacked his hand out, pretending there was a head in his palm. “Pow!”

Aria cringed, recalling the crunch of bone as he’d broken Wayne’s nose.

“He stays out of my way, and I’ll stay out of his.” Eli shrugged.

“You never said what he said to you to make you snap,” Branson said.

“It doesn’t matter.”

Aria pulled away from his hold, and headed out of the water.