The Player Next Door ✓

06 | Black Market Milkshakes

I am so grateful to every one of you who took the time to comment and vote. Because you did, I made this chapter super long (long for me anyway). 

Chapter 6: Black Market Milkshakes

Luke Dawson said I owed him a favor. But the way this was shaping up, it looked like he was doing me the favor. I mean, come on: I'm at The Surfside Shack with the two hottest boys. We're talking milkshakes and man-candy.

People were drooling over them, eyeing them as if they were on the menu. Austin grabbed a towel and dried himself down. He put a shirt on and I saw a girl creep up from behind to steal his towel.

These boys had fans. I never really realized it since I'm not very social. All I see of Luke Dawson's life is from my bedroom window. I'd see the cars pick him up for parties and the girls line up at his front door.

But for the first time, I was out with him.

We sat in a booth at the corner of the restaurant, trying to avoid all the attention. People kept crowding the booth to talk to Luke and Austin. Everyone either knew them or seemed to know of them. And the boys weren't thrilled about it.

I, on the other hand, was having a great time.

"Can I have the chocolate coconut milkshake with the toasted marshmallow whipped cream and extra cherries please?" I smiled up at our waiter.

I scanned the menu in my hands to see if anything else was calling my name. When visiting the beach, seas the day. That's how I sea it.

"Ooh, the watermelon wave looks fun. Can I have one of those too?"

Luke grabbed the menu out of my hands, "Ok, that's enough. We'll have two coronas."

"You didn't need the menu for that," I sulked at his boring order.

"Chill out on the girl, Dawson," Austin defended me, "She's doing you a favor."

I'm liking him more and more.

"It's the other way round," Luke answered, slipping his ID back into his pocket.

"But we don't need to go into the details!" I chimed in.

Partly because I wanted to seem like a nice girl to Austin who was a nice guy. And mostly because the truth would involve admitting that I'm a bad driver, which is JUST NOT TRUE. Remember the raccoon story. Never forget the raccoon story.

"Just know that I saved a raccoon's life once," I said.

"Why does that story keep coming up?" Luke exclaimed.

"Because," I calmly stated in a very professional and matter-of-fact way, "it's always relevant. More importantly, why do you get so frustrated about it?"

"You have an unhealthy obsession with raccoons."

"Do you hate animals?"

"Guys," Austin tried to intervene. He failed.

"Do you have a life?"

"Do you have a soul?"

"Guys!" Austin banged his hand against the table to stop our death glares, "We have a job to do here so let's try to focus. Tell her the story Luke. She needs to know what's going on before she gets involved."

The waiter interrupted us, setting two coronas and a giant milkshake on the table. The whipped cream formed a tower on top, with four red cherries poking out of the white surface. Heaven in a soda glass.

I stuck a green straw into it and slurped the creamy deliciousness.

Like I said, I don't go out much - mostly because I have no one to go out with. I don't have many friends, apart from Julie, but she's vegetarian and vegan and allergic to dairy/my favorite foods so this wouldn't be a location we'd hit up.