He spotted one of the men’s-shirt-wearing girls looking around.
“Looking for me?” he asked as he approached her.
She checked him out, saw his farmer-nerd persona, and relaxed. David wasn’t giving off a predatory vibe. As bad as his opening line had been, it did start a conversation. He and Nellie quickly fell into an easy conversation. He discovered that she had a quick wit, and when she smiled, it made his day. They discussed everything from what they were studying to their favorite music.
David was enjoying making a new friend when he heard a commotion. It looked like the townies had squared off with his crew.
“I have to go to play peacemaker. Save me a dance for later,” David told Nellie before going to see what was going on.
“If you want to take this outside...” Christian said as David walked up.
“This whole prank war is stupid. We need to find a way to work this out before I get irritated. What’s it going to take to end this conflict?” David asked.
“How about we play beer pong? Loser has to admit to everyone here that the winners are far superior,” Peter said.
David looked at Kirk, and they chuckled because that had to be about the dumbest thing they’d ever heard. David knew that pointing that out to Peter would probably not go well, so he tried something else.
“I have two problems with that. First is that I don’t normally drink,” he admitted.
“You will tonight,” Peter pressed.
’Does he think we’re in middle school?’ David thought.
“The other is that I’ve never played before. You would have an unfair advantage.”
“We’ll give you time to practice,” Christian said, as if that solved everything.
David could tell they were confident they would win. He pulled Kirk aside to confer.
“You any good at this?” David asked.
“I’ve played before, but I wouldn’t say I’m great.”
David nodded and went back to negotiating.
“Since you both have the advantage, if the ball bounces off the table and goes into a cup, does it count?”
“We’ll allow that,” Peter conceded.
“Okay, let’s do this,” David said.
The game started poorly for Kirk and David. Even with a bit of practice, David was having trouble with the ball because it was so light. He kept overshooting his mark. Before they’d removed even one cup from the table, they were down to their last three. David had a bad feeling that he would be hurting later after downing four beers.
A crowd had gathered, and Peter and Christian were strutting around as Lauren and Veronica trash-talked.
“We got this,” David assured Kirk.
“What makes you think that?”
“Our cups are spread out. They have to aim to hit their mark,” David explained.
He’d said it loud enough for their two opponents to hear what he’d said. He could see they took a moment to think about that.
That was when David hit his stride. He hit six straight, and Kirk managed two. During their comeback, Peter had managed to hit one, so they were tied.
All crowds love an underdog, so the room was behind David and Kirk, and it was David’s turn.
“You want to give up?” he offered.
“Bite me, Chunk,” Peter responded.
As soon as David threw it, he knew it was good. It landed in the middle of the cup. Kirk was jumping up and down. David was a little hurt because he didn’t think Kirk had any confidence in him.
Up next was Peter.
“Everyone, quiet,” Kirk said to shush the crowd. “This is a big shot, and Peter needs to concentrate.”
It had the desired effect: Peter choked and missed badly. Kirk stepped up to the table and tossed in the winner.
Before they could celebrate, Veronica and Lauren stepped up.
“You didn’t beat us,” Lauren announced.
“Here we go. Changing the rules when you don’t win,” Jamie said to defend the group’s honor.
“Why don’t we make it interesting?” Veronica said.
They came up with a game that was a blend of Beer Pong, Truth or Dare, and strip something or other. David wasn’t sure what all the rules were, but when Veronica kissed him and Lauren lost her stockings, he was on board. The downside was he was down to his underwear, glasses, and sweatshirt. The oversized sweatshirt gave him a measure of modesty.
Everyone in the dorm was circled around them. The guys were anticipating the girls getting naked. Everyone was cheering them on.
Kirk was up and made good on his throw.
“I want to see some skin,” he announced to let Veronica know he’d picked clothes.
She still had her garter belt, bra, and panties on. Everyone was shocked when she decided to remove her bra.
’Frick!’
They were spectacular. David looked around, and he thought every guy in the room became aroused at the sight. He could tell Veronica had done it to throw Kirk and David off their game. He tried to will Mr. Happy into submission. Of course, that worked about as well as dropping a rock in a lake and hoping it would float.
“You’re next, Chunk,” Lauren all but sneered.
She calmly made her toss and sank the ball. David debated what he should take off. Underwear was out of the question at that moment. Glasses was the logical pick, but he decided to fight fire with fire. He pulled his sweatshirt off.
The room went quiet. David pushed the glasses off his face and let them rest on his forehead as he made his transformation known. The looks on Veronica and Lauren’s faces were worth the weeks of dressing like a dork.
“That’s David Dawson,” someone announced.
“And he’s mine,” Lexi said as she stepped out of the crowd.
David noticed that all four of the townies flinched when they saw Lexi. She must have known them when she was queen bitch during high school.
“We need to talk,” Lexi said to them.
She grabbed David’s hand and got him moving toward his room. Veronica put her bra back on to the groans of all the guys. As the two groups left the party, the noise level went up tenfold. Allen Dawson was indeed dead, David reflected. He tossed the glasses on a table with his sweatshirt; he wouldn’t be needing them anymore.
David recognized ‘in charge’ Lexi when they got to his suite. She kicked out a couple of people he didn’t know who had been making out on his couch. Alex simply couldn’t get it through his head that they might need to lock their room.
“I understand you have been harassing David and his friends,” Lexi began.
“It’s just pranks, something to break the tension. No harm was done,” Christian said to play it off.
“If they stop, can you get your friends to do the same?” Lexi asked David.
“No problem.”
“And if it continues?” she asked.
“Then it escalates,” he confirmed. “I think it’s a waste of time, but I won’t sit back and take it much longer.”
“I agree,” Veronica said, nodding and looking apologetically toward David.
Lexi just looked at her.
“If it happens again, it absolutely will escalate. But I will be the one doing the escalating.”
Lexi said it as if she was just speaking a known fact, and her expression was calm and composed. The way she delivered that line was as though she was discussing what to order for dinner, or which shoes went with which dress. Veronica’s face, however, turned white, and she took an involuntary step backward. David was immediately reminded of the fixer, Pádraig O’Malley, the guy no one in their right mind ever even thought of crossing.
He glanced over at Lexi, and she signaled him not to say anything. Over the time they’d worked together on the movies, the two of them had worked out ways of letting each other know what they wanted so they could work as a team. Lexi didn’t believe Veronica any more than he did, but he’d suggested that they talk this out a couple of weeks ago. It was just serendipitous that Lexi had unwittingly made it happen.