I Dare You *On Hold*

6| The Lou

"Where have you been?!" I questioned Natalie the moment I finally found her.

"Hiding. What does it look like I'm doing?!" she whispered-shouted from behind a potted plant in the corner of a very crowded living room, considering the party her sorority was throwing was currently in full swing.

"Here of all places, Nat? Come on, you can do better than that," I playfully taunted, earning me an unamused glare.

In her defense, it was a big plant and she was a tiny person.

"Shut it, Baker, before I throw you to the wolves," she threatened, pointing to a group of very clingy girls I just managed to escape.

Crap! I didn't think she saw that!

"You wouldn't!" I challenged.

Tilting her head to the side, she raised a brow, daring me to challenge her. Mmhm, that's when I backed off. Those girls were like hyenas, and I wasn't interested in joining the pack.

"Woah! Just take it easy, man!" I impersonated, raising my hands in surrender.

All expressions left Natalie's face as she blankly stared at me...before cracking one of her stellar smiles and saying, "Did you just quote Drake & Josh to me?"

Grinning, I nodded my head and we both cracked up, laughing like it was just us. But, then I remembered my best friend was hiding behind a house plant.

"Uhhhhh, so, why are you hiding, exactly?"

Sighing, she grabbed me by my arm and pulled me outside without uttering a word until we were in a somewhat quiet section of the backyard—y'know, if you didn't pay attention to the drunken idiots trying to straddle the fence just a few feet away.

"Okay," she began, facing me now with a cute pout on her lips.

"Go ahead. Tell Mr. Baker what's bothering you," I egged on, making her roll her eyes at me, trying to hide an amused smirk.

"I love my sisters here, Riley. I swear, I do."

"But," I chimed in.

"But," she repeated, shaking her head. "For some reason, they think throwing every decent looking guy they see here my way is gonna make me feel better about the breakup. And it's not."

Nodding my head in understanding, I shrugged my shoulders. "Well, looks like instead of hiding, you should have stuck with me." Wrapping an arm around her shoulder, I started leading us back inside. "You need a buffer, and I need a wingman. The obvious solution is, I pretend to be your date if someone tries to approach you, while you help me find the person I'm looking for."

Leaning into my side, the short brunette looked up at me with an interested expression. "And who might this mystery person be?"

"That's the problem. I don't know her name. All I know is that she's got long blonde hair, blue-green eyes, and is in your sorority."

"Okay, that's not much to go off of-"

"Oh! And she's a great kisser," I added in with a smug grin that earned me a light slap on my arm.

"And how exactly would you know that, Riley?" Natalie questioned with feigned disapproval. "Are you locking lips with my sister!?"

"Shut up," I laughed, pulling her closer as we walked through the back door, making our way to the living room.

About an hour had passed and so far I managed to send five guys away, each one drunker than the last coming with some of the worst pickup lines I have ever heard in my life. At the same time, Natalie helped eliminate some of the possibilities from her long list of blonde hair, blue-eyed sorority sisters.