Senior Year Box Set

At lunch, Jill finally got brave enough to come to me. I’d waited her out because this couldn’t be good. Besides, I wasn’t in the mood to chase a girl like Jill thought I would.

“Can we talk?”

“Sure. Want to go to our regular table?” I asked, hopefully.

“Can we possibly … um … eat alone?”

I shrugged in response. I glanced over and saw Wolf and Tim were in my brother’s ear. Whatever they said caused his face to flush. Phil suddenly looked determined.

Good!

Maybe he would get off his ass and fix things with Jill now.

Jill saw me glance over at my brother and touched my hand. I was momentarily amazed at the softness of her skin. Then again, ‘stupid boy,’ I reminded myself that girls are soft; it’s not only her.

Frick! I had to be careful here, or Mr. Happy would wrench control of the body. Bad things would happen.

“I wanted to thank you again for saving me on Valentine’s Day. I think they slipped me something because … um … you know … ah … Do I have to say it?” she finally got out in a rush.

“You were jilling off as you fantasized about me?” I asked with a big grin.

It was her turn to blush.

“This was a mistake,” she mumbled and started to get up.

“Quit being a little girl about it, and I’ll tell you a secret. Every girl fantasizes about me when they’re doing that,” I said with a straight face.

She got an indignant look and huffed. I was simultaneously proud of and disgusted with myself for saying that. Jill’s mouth fell open. She wanted to say something, but she had nothing. Her comeback arsenal was empty. Game over. Chalk one up for the good guys.

“F-you! You wish!” Jill finally got out, sounding like a petulant five-year-old with a penchant for swearing.

I suddenly didn’t feel so bad about giving her a hard time. I gave her one of those ‘what can I say’ looks, which made her laugh.

Her yelling was too much for Phil. He stormed over to save her.

“I thought you said you wouldn’t try to pick up my girlfriend.”

Jill cocked her head sideways to make sure she heard him right. It dawned on my brother what he’d just announced. I felt bad for him as he got this look like a lost child waiting for his parents to claim him at the mall security office.

“Since when did I become your girlfriend again? I’ll have you know that I will go out with whoever I want. And another thing …” she said, just getting started.

I made a loud whistle to break her train of thought, which caused the whole lunchroom to go quiet and focus on us. Both Jill and Phil suddenly realized they were having their little blowout in front of half the school. Wolf and Tim had huge smiles on their faces for goading my brother into rushing over to save his girlfriend from me.

“Time out. Before you two turn into Gina and Wolf, what did you want?” I asked Jill.

“Oh,” she said as she gathered her thoughts back together. “I want to model. My mom and sister said I should talk to you about how to get started.”

“Do you have any shots of her in her underwear?” I asked my brother.

He called me a bad word and slugged my arm.

“Settle down. I need them to send to some of my modeling contacts. They’ll want to see Jill’s body. Of course, if you’d rather, I can have her come over tonight, and we can do a photo shoot.”

I may have taken it a bridge too far when I got a faraway look as though imagining the pictures I would take. Luckily, Jill caught on that I was pulling my brother’s chain.

“He’s teasing you,” she said to clue him in.

“Why don’t you two go talk about being boyfriend and girlfriend, and I’ll get back to you about the modeling? I’ll make a few calls,” I said.

“Do you really need pictures of me in my underwear?” Jill asked.

“I do—or rather, they do. I will give you their email address, and you can send the pictures to them directly. They need to see your body, not a glamor shot, so nothing fancy or provocative. I wouldn’t put any makeup on, either,” I suggested.

Adrienne had shared with me some funny stories about young girls who had sent in pictures. She’d complained that they were better off with no makeup because most of them turned out looking like hookers or clowns.

She cracked me up when she became a snob like that. It reminded me that Adrienne was in the business and knew what good makeup looked like. She wanted to see what she had to work with, not have them cover up their face with a half-inch of goop.

Jill was happy with me, so she now focused on my brother. She got up and grabbed Phil’s hand to lead him out of the cafeteria. She’d left her lunch, which wasn’t horrible today, so I took it to our table. I saw Roc had already eaten his, so I set her tray in front of him and found my regular seat.

“What did she want?” Gina asked.

“She was fantasizing about me.”

That got Gina started, with Wolf defending me. I had to agree with him. Without make-up sex, she would begin to get on my nerves, too. I swear, Gina sometimes put the bat-shit in crazy.

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