Filed to story: Brace Face Betty Drama Story
“Yeah. But I like teaching.” We’ve been through this a thousand times. It would suit Kacey down to the ground if I didn’t have to teach my lessons every night of the week. That way, I’d be able to go over to her place after school and we could hang out, ruthlessly criticizing the cast of The Bold and the Beautiful.
“Whatever. You’re ruining your hands. They look like you do manual labor for a living.”
“They’re callouses, Kacey. I can’t play without them.”
She groans. Zen takes my hand and turns it over, inspecting said callouses. “They feel worse,” she adds disapprovingly.
“Exactly. And how do you think Jacob Weaving’s gonna feel about them when you wrap that grubby little mitt around his cock and you sand his foreskin off? I’ve heard he’s uncut.” She waggles her eyebrows, using her fingers to mimic snipping a pair of scissors. Zen explodes into a fit of scandalized giggles, while I look for the nearest deep hole to go bury myself in.
“You can stop now. I don’t care about Jacob Weaving. I don’t care what he thinks of my calluses, and I’m certainly not gonna be wrapping my hand around his cock any time soon.”
“That’s a shame,” a voice says behind Kacey. The three of us whip around, and the chicken alfredo I ate for dinner suddenly tries to make a reappearance, rising up in my throat.
Jacob.
Standing two feet away.
Holding a glass filled with burned amber liquid.
Arching a blond, perfect eyebrow in my direction.
The amused twist of his mouth says it all.
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you, Branson,” he says. His head tips back, and he studies me down the bridge of his nose in an appraising fashion that makes me blush down to the roots of my hair.
“O-
Oh.”
Dear lord, please help me now. Do not let me trip over my own treacherous tongue.
I swallow thickly. “Why? Um. What about?”
Kacey tries to hide her smile in the veil of her hair. “God, Betty. How have you managed to make it this far without a scrap of game?” She makes a show of trying to whisper the words, but she makes sure Jacob can hear her.
“I like that about her,” he says, smirking. With a practiced move, he throws back the contents of his glass, savoring it in his mouth, eyes roving over my face. He swallows, and I find I can’t tear my eyes away from the muscles in his throat as they work. “Not everyone can be like you, Winters. Well-practiced and well broken in. Sometimes it’s refreshing to contend with someone a little more…
innocent.”
Kacey doesn’t like that. Not one bit. “Yes, well. I’m sure you wouldn’t be saying that when she blows instead of sucks.”
A flush of shame rockets up my spine. Even Zen’s mouth drops open. “Kay Kay!”
Kacey slides her arm through mine, petting my hair. I love my friend to the ends of the earth, but occasionally I also want to punch her in the throat. “Oh, come on. She knows I’m teasing, don’t you, Silly Betty? No one’s stupid enough to make that mistake. You people have no sense of humor.”
Jacob’s eyes drive into the side of Kacey’s head, boring into her, grey and unimpressed. “With friends like you,
Kay Kay,” he says, his voice full of mockery, “who needs enemies? Betty? I was gonna head out to the pool for a second. Get some air. You wanna join me?”
Oh, shit. I look to Zen, and then Kacey, my jaw practically on the floor. “Uhhh…sure. I just-“
“Actually, we were just about to pay a visit to the little girl’s room,” Kacey says sweetly. “You know how us women can only go in packs of three. We’ll be back soon, though, Mr. MVP. I’m sure you can spin Betty one of your cheesy pick-up lines then.” She already has me by the arm. She’s pulling me away, stalking toward the stairs in her skyscraper patent pumps before I can even blink. We’re halfway up to the first floor by the time I’m about to make my mouth form words.
“Kacey! What the hell?”
She looks back at me over her shoulder, her eyes glinting wickedly. “What? You literally just said, ‘
I don’t care about Jacob Weaving.’ I thought I was doing you a favor.”