Part 4
Finding Out about Cara O'Conor . . . and Her Perky Boobs

I woke up with Riley’s face inches from mine. She jumped back in shock, likely due the abruptness of my awakening. I couldn’t help it, one minute I was in a peaceful slumber and the next I had a terrible dream involving Ray and a tennis game. Even in a dream I would not stand for Ray serving me the ball and saying, “I’m aiming for a love!” and winking at me. I had needed to wake up pronto.

“Welcome to Earth,” Riley said.

“For the second time,” I added, feeling quite groggy.

She held out her hand and pulled me up into a sitting position. I had been lying down in my bed. Logan was sitting in the corner, smirking.

“I never pegged you falling for a guy like Ray, Kayl,” he chuckled at his lame-ass joke. Little did he know about my dream.

“How long was I asleep?” I asked.

Riley looked over at the clock. It was only 9:00. Last time I remembered looking at the clock it was only 8:30.

“Not too long, maybe ten minutes,” she leaned up against the wall and pulled her legs to her chest. “Ray ran and got me as soon as you fell. Apparently you stepped on one of your stress balls and hit the back of your head on the desk.”

“I told you those are bologna,” I muttered, sending a glare to the aforementioned object placed harmlessly back on my dresser.

Logan snorted. “It was on the floor. Obviously you weren’t using it correctly. It serves your right. Riles and I bought you that thing to manage your stress, not play hacky-sack.”

He was joking, but to be honest, that’s exactly what I did with it. Except I wouldn’t really call it playing hacky-sack so much as kicking the ball around in frustration.

“Is the party still going on?” I could hear music playing in the background but it was significantly quieter than before.

“Of course it is. Don’t forget, Kaylehn, I’m still really upset with you,” Riley said. “I’m not going to cancel my party because you hit your head. I just told them to turn the music down.”

“I could have a concussion,” I pointed out.

Riley feigned a look of remorse. “Well that’s too bad because tonight, I don’t care.”

Ouch. If Riley, Queen of Health and Responsibility, didn’t take an injury like mine into consideration, she was really angry at me. I mean, I blacked out. The sane part of me wanted to go to the hospital right then, just to make sure. The part of me that disliked hospitals kept the other at rest.

“Well then what are you doing in here? Go back to your party,” I said.

Riley shifted, looking away from me. In a very quiet voice she said, “Well, I needed to know you were okay . . .”

I laughed. There was the Riley I knew. I crawled across the bed and slung my arm around her, planting a kiss on her cheek. Logan gagged from a corner and said, “I don’t want to see two dudes getting it on.”

I flipped him off. “Someday you’ll realize we’re actually girls.”

I continued to kiss Riley on the cheek, just to piss him off. He stood up and slapped his hand to his mouth, pretending like he was going to vomit. Logan ran out of the room, leaving us to the sound of fake coughing. Riley shoved me away, irritated by my attention.

“Okay fine! Enough, enough, you’ve had one too many blows to the head. Now, I’ll forgive you,” she held up a finger and wagged it at me, “under one condition.”

I pulled my legs to my chest and rested my chin on my knees. “Tell me, I’ll do anything to have you back in my life, my darling.”

She rolled her eyes. “Go apologize to Ray.”

“Ooh . . . Yeah . . . About that . . .”

Riley punched me on the side of my arm. “Last time I saw him he was out by the food table. I’ll give you a minute to change.”

“What? Why?” I scrambled off the bed and looked in the mirror. “I see nothing wrong with my outfit.”

She patted the back of my head on her way out. The touch sent a chill of pain up my back. Riley waggled her eyebrows on the way out and said, “Told you so.”

When my finger tips grazed the same spot I felt moisture. Oh, Jesus Christ. There was blood on my fingers. I spun around and looked at my back in the reflection. There was a trail of blood running down my shirt. Great.

I pulled off my shirt and threw it in the trash. There was no way I could salvage that, nor did I want to. As I flipped through the shirts in my closest I tried to imagine which one would make apologizing easiest. Hear me out, I’m not crazy. When it comes to men, you can manipulate them through means of apparel.

A typical bro, the guys I unfortunately date the most, are always won over by tight, low cut shirts. If there’s cleavage visible, the guy won’t listen to a word you say. You know how girls complain all the time that guys never listen? Well, there you go. If they were smart they’d take advantage of it. When I need to dump a bro I wear a jacket over a slutty shirt. First I break up with him, and as soon as he opens his mouth to fight it, I take off the jacket. Makes the dumping easy.

And obviously I would never wear a low cut shirt when I needed to have a decent conversation. I would never, ever bring Ping and Pong out on a first date.

Guys like Ray are a different breed, however, and should be treated as such. Nerds love boobs, don’t get me wrong, but generally they love something sci-fi more. It can be a gamble to find their favorite, (There are so many shows out these days. I used to just stick with the basic ones, you know, anything relating to stars and fighting, but then came a crap load of other shows that make me want to put a bullet through my head.) but you can usually never go wrong with Star Wars.

I pulled out my dorkiest shirt. Ahh, yes. On it was a guy with freckles and thick rimmed glasses, dressed in a make-shift Jedi costume. He’s wielding a golf club, pretending it’s a light saber. On it the shirt reads, “I’ve turned to the dork side.”

It was a gift. I swear I didn’t buy it. I don’t even like Star Wars. It totally sets you up to get into this romantic relationship and then bam! You find out it’s incest. Thanks, but no thanks.

Ray would probably like it. I imagine I’d go up and say, “Hey, look—“ and he’d interrupt and tell me how cool the shirt was. I’d make pleasant conversation for a minute or two then leave. All the while Riley will see our interactions and assume I was apologizing.

Perfect.

Before finding Ray I made a quick stop in the bathroom, figuring I’d better wash the blood off my neck before I entered society again. When I got there I was surprised to find the area completely clean. Then, finally, it dawned on me why Riley wasn’t worrying.

I sighed. So she had fixed me up while I was passed out. I wondered why she wasn’t freaking out, apparently she’d already inspected me thoroughly. I looked down at my shirt, feeling guilty. I guess I would have to actually apologize. One of Riley’s sweatshirts was hanging on the doorknob. I slipped it on.

The party was buzzing outside. The living room was packed full of sweaty, college students jamming to hip hop. Logan was in the corner talking to his band. It looked like Owen, the bass player, was missing. Jean Paul Goes to the Bibliotheque never played without the full band.

Ray wasn’t at the snack table. I walked over to the kitchen, holding my hands over my ears when I walked by the speakers. I knew the music wasn’t loud by most standards, but my head was killing me.

After ten minutes of searching I still didn’t see Ray. I was heading towards the front door, thinking Ray might be outside, when it opened abruptly. A girl poked her head around the corner.

She was dressed in a pale pink tunic, a string of pearls around her neck. Her long, blonde hair was pulled back into a tight pony-tail, the ends curled. Everything about her seemed perfect. What little make up she had on looked flawless, and there was not a single rip in her jeans.

She was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen.

According to the voice in my head, at least.

Unlike before, this time the voice was extremely strong. I heard every word he said. It continued to talk as the girl walked through the house.

God. Cara is so pretty. And perfect. And smart. And funny. God, she’s just so perfect.

I swung my head around, searching for the voice. It sounded so close, yet there were no guys around me. The closest was a guy about five feet away, but he was busy dancing with a slutty girl, not looking at our newest guest.

Oh, my God, she’s coming this way. I should try and talk to her.

I decided to follow Cara, hoping it might lead me to the mystery voice. I pushed my way through the group of people, trying to keep my eyes peeled on the bobbing, blonde hair. Finally she stopped to talk to a girl I didn’t recognize.

Crap. She’s talking to Meghan. Now I’ll never get my chance. Meghan never stops talking. Unless . . . maybe I could, maybe, um . . . oh! I’ll spill my drink on Cara and then Meghan will have to go get her a towel from the bathroom—

I laughed out loud. The guy standing next to me gave me a weird look and walked away. Whatever. More space for me.

Seriously, what a bad idea. This guy was not a pro. If he spilled his drink on Cara both her and Meghan would go to the bathroom. They were girls. Girls go everywhere together.

Almost as if the voice heard me it suddenly switched tactics. No. That’s right. They’d both go together. How am I going to do this? Who am I kidding, even if I talked to her I wouldn’t know what to say. She just looks so pretty.

At that moment Cara broke out into laughter. Her entire face lit up. Suddenly there was a crash to my left. I looked over just in time to see a bunch of cups clatter to the ground. Ray was bending over them, quickly trying to pick everything up. A couple people were snickering. Cara didn’t seem to notice.

Crap, crap, crap! How embarrassing.

As I watched Ray clean up his mess, it finally dawned on me whose voice I was hearing. I’m surprised I didn’t recognize it sooner. Ray’s whiney voice was pretty distinct.

What the hell was Ray doing in my head? Rather than help him clean up I continued to watch him from five feet away.

Oh good, it looks like Cara didn’t notice. Ray stood up and placed the dirty cups at the edge of the table. Ew. He better throw those away.

She’s so pretty.

I rolled my eyes. God. How many times was he going to say – er, well, think that? I was about to walk over and slap him out of his Cara-induced stupor, but his next thought stopped me.

Her breasts look really good in that shirt. Really perky. Man, if I could only –

“What the fuck?” I couldn’t help myself. It slipped out of my mouth.

Several people quickly turned to look at me, including Ray. He looked surprised to see me, to say the least. I looked over at Cara, who looked confused at the sudden change in air at the party, and folded my arms.

“You’re a pervert,” I said.

How did she . . . Ray said nothing, but his thoughts trailed through my head. No, she couldn’t have possibly known what I was thinking. Did I say it out loud?

I was starting to get a bit embarrassed from all the attention, so I kept my words inside my head.

Yeah I heard, you dumbass. Perky? Really? I don’t know what’s worse, your perverted thoughts or your plan to get Cara alone.

It hadn’t occurred to me that, if I could hear Ray’s thoughts, he might be able to hear mine. So when he actually responded to my internal ranting, it was shocking.

Kaylehn? What’s going on? Your mouth isn’t moving but I can hear you talking. Ray brought his hands to his head, his eyes wide in worry. I didn’t think I drank all that much but apparently—

No, I’m sober. This has nothing to do with alcohol.

Sick of speaking through my mind I marched toward him. Rather than address the current, incredibly disturbing topic at hand, I first chucked the dirty cups in a nearby trash can. Once that was settled I turned my attention back to Ray.

“I’m going to ignore your little perverted thoughts for the time being, but just so you know, next time I hear something like that I’m telling Cara,” I hissed, trying to keep my voice quiet. “But right now that isn’t my main concern.”

Ray turned a bright shade of scarlet. “I swear, I don’t usually think that way—“

“Oh, you do too and we both know it. You’re a man. Boobs are on your brain 99.9% of the time, I’d bet.”

I don’t think about them all the time, he thought.

Get out of my head, ass-wipe! I spit back.

“I’m sorry!” He blurted. “It’s hard not to think. You can’t expect me not to think!”

“Just keep talking out loud and then you’ll only be thinking about what you’re saying to me,” I told him, trying to keep calm. Now was not the time to get angry with him. Riley was probably watching us from around the corner watching us, expecting me to apologize. She would kill me if I started another fight.

“Well, that’s kind of nice of you, Kaylehn. You’re here to apologize to me?” Ray asked.

I sent him the deepest glare I could muster. “I was going to, but now I’m definitely not. You don’t deserve an apology. And get out of my head!” I added the last bit when I heard his quiet mutterings about how I was being difficult.

“W-well, then you need to stay out of mine!” He said.

By now our voices had grown a few decimals louder. A very drunk guy with a beard that could rival Paul Bunyan sidled up next to us, nodding his head in agreement.

“Babe, you gotta’ let him be himself,” drunk-guy said emphatically. “He’s just being him! If you don’t like who he is, stay out of his life. It’s like . . . like . . . human feng shui. If she’s stressing you out, dude, you gotta’ move her around and get a new chick. ”

“Who the hell are you, and why are you interrupting us?” I asked, poking the new guest square in his chest. “If you don’t leave right now I will slaughter you.”

“Kaylehn,” Ray tugged at my sleeve. She’s going to get us slaughtered.

“Woah! Don’t treat me like I’m a child, bitch!” Suddenly his mood changed from laid-back, inebriated hippy to large, pissed-off hippy.

“Then stop acting like a child and mind your own business!” Even though he was at least a foot taller than me I stepped in front of him, raising my chin as high as I could. “Go smoke some pot and get the fuck out of my face.”

“You little—“

“Hey now, hey now!” Ray stepped in between us, holding his hands up in surrender. “No need to cause a fight! I’ll just take Kaylehn and we’ll leave you alone.”

Like hell! I’m not going to let a dumb hippy tell me what to do, I thought, directing it to Ray.

Well that dumb hippy is going to punch you and me if we don’t get out of here soon. Even Ray’s thoughts sounded panicked.

I’ll just get Logan and he’ll beat his ass for me.

Logan? You mean your friend who I saw go into his room with a blonde ten minutes ago? Somehow I don’t feel like he’ll be much help right now.

I spun around, trying to get a good look at Logan’s door. Sure enough it was shut tightly, a red hair tie fastened around the doorknob. It was his way of saying “Stay out. Having Sex.” I know from experience that there is no getting him out once he starts doing his thing. (It was an unfortunate incident that involved my shirt getting stuck on the shower curtain. I yelled for help over half an hour before Riley finally came home and cut me free.)

I was about to argue with Ray further but I was interrupted.

“What the heck are you two doing?”

It suddenly occurred to me how peculiar the situation must look. Ray and I were just staring at each other, each of us changing facial expression depending on what we thought. To the drunk guy we probably looked crazy.

“Sorry to have bothered you!” Ray grabbed my hand and pulled me away before I could argue.

“I can’t believe you just did that!” I said.

“What?”

We were near the speakers and the music had been turned up considerably since my accident. I inhaled sharply. I can’t believe I was going to voluntarily communicate through my head rather than out loud.

I said, I can’t believe you just did that. I would have handled the situation fine on my own. I don’t need a nerd to pretend to be a prince in shining armor.

Would you please stop calling me a nerd? I’m really not.

We had reached the door. I opened it and quickly shoved him out. Once the door was shut securely behind me I turned to face my offended acquaintance. There was no way in hell I’d call him a friend.

Thanks, he thought dryly.

“I won’t respond to thoughts,” I said quickly. “And I’ll call you whatever I want to.”

Fine, then I’ll just call you . . . call you . . . a grumpy, Mc. Grumpers!

I hit him several times on the shoulder, partly because he ignored my orders, but mostly because of the ridiculous name he decided to give me. Ray yelped and back away, defending himself by holding up his hands.

“Alright, alright! Sorry. I’m not sure why you don’t like it. I mean, at first I was a bit alarmed, but the more I think about it, this is awesome. Kaylehn, we are communicating through our brains. This is totally advanced science!” His face was lit up in glee. It disgusted me.

“And you get mad at me for calling you a nerd,” I said.

Ray frowned. “I just don’t . . . really like the term. It sounds so negative. Like there’s something wrong with it.”

I just looked at him with an eyebrow raised and arms folded. Ray sucked in his lips, obviously uncomfortable with my blunt behavior.

“I would just appreciate it if you wouldn’t refer to me that way . . . ?” It came out more as a question than a command.

I smacked my lips. “How about this: I will call you whatever I want to and you’ll deal with it. Sound like a plan?”

He vocalized no complaints, but he made it more than clear in his head that he was unhappy with me. Unfortunately for Ray his opinion of me meant nothing.

“How are we going to fix this?” I asked.

Ray shrugged. “I don’t know. Just because I like science doesn’t mean I’m a genius. This is a completely new subject to me.”

“Well you’d know more about it than me,” I said.

We stood in silence for a moment. Finally, Ray said, “I could ask a couple of my friends, I guess.”

“No. No way. No one finds out about this except you and me.” I lowered my voice as a couple of girls walked past us. “People will think we’re crazy. I think we’re crazy.”

“Well I don’t know what else you expect me to do!” It almost came out as a yell. The sudden outburst surprised me. I didn’t think Ray would get upset. Either he picked up on my surprise through my scattered thoughts or he genuinely felt bad, because his voice returned to normal. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t get upset.”

“I honestly don’t care what you do. Just solve this problem. Now.”

I don’t understand this girl. It’s like she assumes I can fix this by solving an equation. I don’t know anything about this telepathy. Is it just us? How far does it go? Is there a way to turn it off or on? I’d rather play around a bit more before we try and make it go away.

I pressed my fingers to my temple. “You’re right.”

Ray jumped. I motioned from his head to mine with my hand, waving it back and forth. “Telepathy, less you forget.”

“Oh, right.” He blushed again. “It’s weird. Sometimes I can hear all your thoughts clearly, but sometimes it’s just mumblings. I figured it was the same for you. That my thoughts were mine, unless I directed them to you.”

“Obviously not,” I snorted. “Let us not forget the Cara O’Conor situation moments earlier.”

He ignored my taunts. “If you’re willing, I have a plan. Sort of.”

“Spit it out,” I said.

“Well, I’m willing to keep this a secret for now. But, you’re going to have to let me test this out a bit. I mean, you heard my thoughts a minute ago, right? There are a lot of unanswered questions I want to figure out. Maybe, if I figure those out, it’ll give me a better idea as to how to handle this.”

I pulled my hand through my pony-tail. Hanging out with Ray was not my idea of a good time. But having him in my head, reading my thoughts? Fifteen minutes into this ridiculous situation I already want to shove a pencil through his ear. If I had to hang out with him, then so be it.

“A pencil? Really?”

This time I ignored him. “Fine. We’ll do it Monday afternoon. I doubt you have plans, and if you do, cancel them.”

Ray looked displeased. “Can’t you meet tomorrow? This is really interesting. I want to figure this out!”

I waved my finger. “Absolutely not. Weekends will be nerd free, thank you very much. I want to salvage as much of my free time as possible.”

He heaved a deep sigh. “Fine. I’m getting the feeling that I’ll never win an argument with you.”

“Nope.” I spun around and headed back for the apartment. “We’ll discuss where to meet in class on Monday.”

“Oh. Okay, then.”

I didn’t say goodbye. When I got back inside I was pleasantly surprised to find Ray’s voice completely out of my head. Good riddance. Must be some sort of distance thing.

Riley suddenly appeared at my side, “I saw you go outside with Ray. Did you apologize?”

Hm. Not even remotely. However, Riley didn’t know this, and Ray would probably never admit to my behavior outside. I was probably safe to lie.

“Yeah,” I masked my face with a frown. “It sucked, but I did it. Happy?”

She linked her arm through mine. “Incredibly. Now, are you going to join the party finally? I’ve been talking you up to this cute guy named Ryan. He’s your type. Kind of preppy, outgoing, flirty, and best of all—“

I interrupted her. “Totally casual?”

“Well, I was going to say funny, but I don’t know about casual. His friends were mentioning another girl, Devon something, sounds like he used to have a girlfriend. I don’t know! Maybe he could be the one?”

I laughed. “Oh, Riley. You and your romanticism, it’s so charming. As if I would want to seriously date a guy I met in college. Anyway, guy in the red shirt?”

She nodded. “Good luck!”

I patted her cheek. “As if I need such a thing.”

I left as she rolled her eyes dramatically. Then I fixed my eyes on my conquest. He was standing in the corner with a couple guys, all with a beer in their hands. I walked slowly up to him. Riley always says I “saunter” but I can’t help it. I think my hips are too wide but apparently the men folk think they’re just fine. I literally cannot walk without them rising up and down like a cartoon character.

“Ryan?” I shoved away the guy next to him. “Riley told me to talk to you.”

“You must be Kaylehn.” He looked me up and down. He didn’t look too pleased with me. Probably the baggy shirt I was wearing. If I wanted a date for tomorrow evening I’d have to work a little harder.

I trailed my hand down his arm, “I’m feeling a bit under the weather tonight. As you can see, I had to call it a grunge night. However, tomorrow I think I’ll be feeling up for a short skirt. Want to buy me dinner?”

He seemed hardly taken aback. Some guys are intimidated by my forward flirtation, others like it, and some guys, like Ryan, don’t think twice about it. These type of guys are my favorite.

“I couldn’t do dinner, I’ve got – uh – some plans around six. How does dessert at nine sound?”

I tried to keep the charming smile on my face. In reality, I was less than pleased. Dessert ? That’s it? He could have at least thrown in a late night movie.

I took a quick peak around the room. Ryan was, by far, the cutest guy there. It would have to do.

“Sounds great.” I slipped my hand into his back pocket, pulling out his phone. Once again, Ryan didn’t react. His friends did, however, with several whistles.

I plugged my number into his phone. “Call me when you’re heading over.”

What is she doing? God, someone’s forward.

I looked over my shoulder. Ray was staring at me, a disapproving look on his shoulder. I walked past him, sending him a smirk.

You’re just jealous that I’ve got a date and you only get to stare at a girl’s boobs.

I left before he had a chance to think, or say, anything more.

AN: I’m posting this chapter before I could get it officially edited so I apologize if there are so mistakes. I’ll update it when it’s edited.

A lot of people commented that the Engineering majors in their school are actually quite popular, and I just wanted to say, the schools I have gone to, generally it is the same thing. However, keep in mind that this is Kaylehn we’re talking about. She knows of two Engineering majors, Riley and Ray, both of which contain quite nerd-ish qualities, and thus assumes that all are.

Thank you for those who review. I really, really appreciate it. This is the most nervous I’ve been about writing a story and so any feedback is really encouraging.

Also, I’m writing this for NaNoWriMo, so updates should be fairly fast. So far I’m ahead of the game (I’m not counting the chapters I did pre-November) so I hope to keep it up. We’ll see, we’ll see. Hopefully I’m not the only one attempting it this year, so good luck to everyone who is writing too!