(Read this story & correctly answer the questions about the next chapter in your reply to win.)
[If you're new to this series, please read these first to catch up quick:]
To understand all the fun, start at Part 1!
Or just read the last post to refresh your memory, Part 5.
(Knowing the past is the key to guessing the future, hint hint.)
“You are by far my greatest matchmaking challenge!” Ben proclaimed, tossing up the last five outfits that Linda had just tried on in the air. “Don’t you want to look red-carpet ready for Mr. Dynamite tonight?”
“I just met him, so how do you know he’s ’Mr. Dynamite?’ And these clothes don’t make me look ‘red-carpet ready!’ If anything, you’re making me look ‘red-light-district ready,’” Linda complained.
It had been almost two hours, and Linda and Ben were about ready to kill each other. Ben couldn’t understand why Linda didn’t want to wear her wonder bra and let out her inner fox for her latest boy toy, and Linda couldn’t let Ben transform her into anything that would make Dustin think she could be a slut. After all, they’d all be seeing each other for the rest of the summer because of rehearsals — regardless of what did or didn’t happen tonight — so she wanted to play for keeps this time.
It also didn’t help matters that while their friend Janice’s biggest flaw was getting too attached to men too soon, Linda wrestled with nearly the opposite kind of problem.
“You have literally dated a different guy for every piece of clothing in your wardrobe. You do realize that, don’t you? We’ve tested out all of these combinations, and we know what works, honey!” Ben insisted.
“I can’t help it if the idea of dating is so much more appealing than the reality of it! When I first meet them, they only show their best side. But there’s always that one little thing that ruins it for me.”
“And EVERY guy has ‘irreparable damages, Linda? Every one?’”
“Not you. You’re just about perfect, as gay best friends go.”
“Now you know I love you, but I still can’t be straight for you. Sorry, babe.”
“Oh, don’t remind me. Fate has such a twisted sense of humor.”
“So how do you expect me to help you here? You want me to take you beyond being the ‘one-date wonder,’ but —”
“Stop calling me that! I went out with Fred like three times!” Linda objected.
“You’ve left me nothing to work with. I have a better idea. Why don’t you just offer him up to me instead? Then you walk in wearing your ‘I’m-a-boring-schoolteacher’ ensemble.”
“Oh, I hate clothes!!” Linda groaned, flopping down onto the dorm bed.
“Even better — Just walk in naked. You’re the one he invited to this party anyway, so he’s just going to be happy that you’re there.”
“Ben! Are you giving up on me?”
“No, but I am calling in reinforcements.” He stepped outside Linda’s dorm room and called out “Cherise! I need you!”
Within five minutes, Linda was astonished to see Ben walk in with the cutest little black dress — and it fit!
“You are a magician, Ben.”
“Thank Cherise. I just know style when I see it. Now listen to me. Tonight you’re going to just play it cool, girl! Don’t be too easy or too cold. Remember that the hotter they are, the more you need to push them away a little to keep them interested! Guys like Dustin have women tripping over themselves to get his number. But remember, you’re not that girl. He’s the one who got your number, ok? So don’t play all desperate tonight. You got this, baby!”
Yet for all of Ben’s overflowing confidence in her, the nervousness rising in Linda’s stomach wouldn’t subside as they drove out into the night full of great expectations.
Dustin’s directions led them to a huge, gated property, and not one of them in Janice’s car could even see any lights of a house beyond the gate!
After driving in what felt like circles for 15 minutes, arguing amongst themselves about where to go and whether or not to call and ask for more directions, Janice finally saw lights in the darkness.
A wave of relief washed over Linda when she saw the lighted path inside an open gate.
“Is that a — a poolhouse?” Linda gasped. “But he didn’t say we were supposed to bring swimsuits.”
“I’m sure he’d rather see you without one,” Ben winked.
“Shut up, Ben!” Linda said, slapping his shoulder, even though she was grateful that he could always make her laugh when she was wound up.
It was so dark that they couldn’t see anything surrounding the house, but the pool house shone out like a welcoming beacon that beckoned Linda and her friends to come closer.
They walked into dimly lit rooms with candles in the corners, and bursts of giggles echoed off of the walls.
Dustin jumped up from a table of about nine people they didn’t recognize as soon as he saw them.
Linda’s eyes widened at the sight of the Ouija board on the table.
“Welcome, ladies and gentle - man,” Dustin announced with his Hollywood-white smile.
“I was just telling my old friends here about you,” Dustin said, preparing to introduce them.
However, none of them did more than look up and nod at Linda, Brad, Janice and Ben. Their hands remained glued to the Ouija pointer, which was sliding slowly around while a serious girl with black-rimmed glasses scribbled down notes of the messages they were receiving.
“She just said that someone here is in danger. Now who is it?” the Ouija secretary called out.
The pointer froze, changed direction and kept moving.
Dustin walked over to stand next to Linda, who couldn’t help but whisper to him, “Does that really work?”
“I don’t know if anything can work unless you believe in it,” he grinned.
“You got any drinks?” Ben asked.
“Sure, just straight down the hall to the right. There’s an open bar, my man. Enjoy,” Dustin answered.
“Linda? Who in the hell is Linda?” the Ouija secretary called out.
Brad, Janice and Dustin all snapped their heads around to stare at her.
“I am, but-” Linda tried to chuckle.
“Well, the Ouija spirits say you’re doomed. Sorry. Sucks to be you!”and the Ouija mistress of fate burst into an eerie laughter. It wouldn’t have bothered Linda much, except the “proclaimer of her fate” couldn’t stop laughing.
“Guess I’ll have to keep a close eye on you then,” Dustin joked at Linda.
“Is that girl ok?” Janice wondered aloud.
“Sure. But she may have had one too many bong hits,” Dustin remarked.
“I heard that! Wait, oh my God, guys. I think I hear the dead girl’s voice in my head too,” the Ouija master exclaimed.
“Calm down, Sue,” Dustin remarked.
"You'd be surprised how many voices you can hear when you're high enough," she cackled back at him.
Janice clung to Brad nervously since she’d always been terrified of anything remotely occult and hadn’t smoked anything in her whole life. Just the smell of smoke usually made her delicate stomach nauseous, but she desperately pretended she was cool with everything. Her friends had always been grateful that she was their failsafe designated driver.
Linda loved to laugh at anything and everything, and she was glad that for once she hadn’t met a guy with boring friends. She followed Dustin as he showed them around.
They passed an adjoining balcony that was apparently the hookah/ bong smoking section. Out on the large patio in the back by the pool, music played from a speaker system next to a buffet of snacks and drinks. They were happy that the house wasn’t too full of people.
Dustin suggested that Linda find a seat to settle in while he grabbed some drinks for them, and he disappeared while Linda sank into a comfortable couch near the smoking balcony.
Her friends dispersed one by one — as planned to give her a chance with Dustin — and after waiting for what seemed like a long time, she wondered if all the smoke in the room was making her hallucinate when she saw their director Mr. Codsworth coming toward her?
“Nice party, huh?”
“What — Mr. Codsworth? What are you—” she asked.
“Oh, call me Jack. I’m not on director duty now. Didn’t old Dusty tell you? He’s coachsurfing here. But the mansion up there is my grand old bachelor pad, courtesy of the generous Mrs. Deverow.”
He cozied up next to her, and suddenly the couch felt much too small. She could smell the booze on his breath when he leaned over to her and said:
“You wanna know why I cast you as Lizzie Bennet? It was something about the way you—”
“There you are!” Dustin called out just in time.
“I was just talking to your, um, landlord here…” Linda teased.
“In a way, yes, he is. Here, Jack, you can have this one,” he said, thrusting a fresh rum and coke into his hand, “and Linda, I forgot to show you something. Come on.”
And just like that, Jack forgot Linda for his drink and moved on to hitting on another girl.
“Thank you,” Linda whispered to Dustin as he led her out of the room.
“Hey, you wanna ditch this party? Let me show you the best view in this place,” Dustin replied, grabbing Linda by the hand and pulling her up a flight of stairs on the other side of the house.
On the way up the stairs, Linda caught a glimpse of Ben chatting it up with some cute guy.
Ben winks at her and dives back into his conversation with his “new prospect” with a look that reminded her of…
Suddenly, it hit Linda. The last thing she’d wanted to look like was easy, but she was following Dustin upstairs within minutes of being at this party? The voice of reason in her head screamed, “What are you doing?”
But then the dveil’s advocate in her replied, “Would you rather go back downstairs and let the drunk director hit on you some more? Just follow the nice guy. What’s the worst thing that could happen?”
From the rooftop, she could see Brad and Janice sitting next to the swimming pool below, lost in their own adorable heart-to-heart gabfest like no one else in the world existed but them.
Linda sighed looking at them.
“Is she your best friend?” Dustin asked.
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“What’s wrong? Aren’t you happy for her? Or is there something terrible I should know about this ‘shady’ Brad character?”
“Oh God, no. Apparently, he’s too perfect.”
“And you don’t like perfect guys?” Dustin snickered.
“Well, perfect guys can be the most boring.”
“Uh oh. I hope you don’t think I’m too perfect then.”
“I don’t know what to think of you yet. Do you think you’re perfect?”
Dustin laughed. “You’re amazing. If I say yes, then that means I’m boring in your book. But if I say no, then what? How can I win?”
“Ah ha! Now we’re getting warmer. So what exactly do you want to win, Mr. Darcy?”
“Whatever you shall deem to give me, my dearest Lizzie.”
His charming side was a bit overwhelming when combined with the romantic rooftop setting and the glass of wine he put in her hand, and it made Linda pause. She took a few sips from the glass, not knowing what to say. He was good.
“Do you hear that playing? Let me turn it up,” he said as he pulled out his phone and adjusted the volume on his phone’s screen.
“God, I love a good Brazilian samba. Come on; dance with me. You look like you’d be a good dancer,” he beckoned to her.
“You mean I look easy.”
“It’s just a dance,” he chuckled.
And yet, she knew well it would be anything but “just a dance” before she could reply:
“But I don’t know how to samba.”
“Then I’ll show you,” he answered, pulling one of her hands around his muscular waist while holding the other in his hand.
After she began following his lead and relaxed into the rhythm with him, she realized that he’d tranquilized her with his touch. They spent several songs lost in a whirling world of samba, wine and cool breezes, and Linda never wanted it to end.
“As to your question of whether or not I’m supposedly ‘perfect,’ I’d have to confess that no matter what good I’ve ever done, Dan never thought I was. But then again, you don’t seem to like him either, do you? Have you known him long?” he asked.
“No. But long enough to know how much of an ass he is. What more do I need to know?”
“Actually, the truth is that if it wasn’t for him, I could’ve had a full scholarship to Yale by now.”
“What?” Linda asked, wondering if she heard him right.
“Dan’s dad was my adopted father after my parents died when I was 15. Dan’s dad loved me just as much as he did Dan, and he left me a huge inheritance in his own will. We never expected he would die so soon too. That was just six months ago.”
“I’m sorry.”
“But the worst part is that I never saw a penny of my inheritance. Dan convinced his Aunt that I didn’t deserve the money, and they kicked me out of the house! I’ve been coach-surfing ever since.”
“How could he do that to you?!” Linda called out, shocked. She was so stunned that she stopped dancing. She gazed into the pool lights reflecting off of his gray eyes and longed to melt into his arms when —
Her phone dinged. It was a text from Ben:
“It’s been an hour. No prospects for me. Janice feels sick. Don’t spend the night yet - it’s just your first date!! Let’s go, girl. Cinderella time. 👠”
[To Be Continued…]
Alright, now this contest is a poker/lottery. Here's what you do:
*First, resteem this post on your feed and upvote it to "buy in" to the pot.
*Next, reply to this post by including your answers to the 3 questions about what will happen in the next chapter, which I will post in 7 days.
*You must answer all 3 questions in your reply to this post.
*Whoever gets all 3 questions right wins! This week's "pot" is 6 Steem Tokens transferred directly to your Steemit account.
*If no one guesses all of the questions right on this round, then the pot will grow for the next one next week. And whoever was the closest to getting them all right will receive:
A recommendation of one of your Steemit posts for a curation reward from Streemian.
A resteem and upvote from me of whichever blog post I love on your feed.
May the odds be ever in your favor!
This week's questions are:
In Chapter 7-
Why did the guy flirting with Ben at the party not want to hook up?
Who wears sunglasses -- because of their hangover -- to rehearsal tomorrow?
T or F: Dan plots out which is the best way to kill Dustin in the next chapter.
********************** UPDATE Wed. March 7, 2018 ************************
Thank you to everyone who upvoted this chapter! I appreciate it, & I'm following you all.
Since no one tried to answer any of the questions in a reply, no one wins this time.
For now, I'm going to have to suspend the contest and the following chapters indefinitely. They will come back sometime though. It takes several days to write each chapter, and I don't have that kind of time to keep doing this at $6 per post right now, as much as I love writing.
If anyone misses this series and is eager to read more, please reply to this post and let me know.
https://steemit.com/@rahmanmdriad
Congratulations @joylovestowrite! You have received a personal award!
Click on the badge to view your Board of Honor.
Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard!
Participate in the SteemitBoard World Cup Contest!
Collect World Cup badges and win free SBD
Support the Gold Sponsors of the contest: @good-karma and @lukestokes
Congratulations @joylovestowrite! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on the badge to view your Board of Honor.
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPDo not miss the last post from @steemitboard!
Participate in the SteemitBoard World Cup Contest!
Collect World Cup badges and win free SBD
Support the Gold Sponsors of the contest: @good-karma and @lukestokes
Congratulations @joylovestowrite! You received a personal award!
You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:
Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!
Thank you for collaborating with me to promote this post as explained at https://steemit.com/steemit/@jerrybanfield/10-ways-to-fund-a-steem-growth-project.