Linda woke up to the smell of something burning. ‘Good,’ she thought to herself, ‘maybe we will all burn up and die.’ She smiled at the thought of Alex in flames. She noticed Howie wasn't next to her. She got up and went into the bathroom. She passed by the kitchen to see Nick, Brian and Kevin trying to make pancakes; and from the looks of it, trying was all they were doing.
When she came back from the restroom Howie met her in the hallway. "I have some clothes for you." He said and added, "They were Caroline's." He also told her they would all be in the living room when she was done.
Linda took a shower and tried to wash Alex off of her. So far she had avoided the mirror, but she had to look at herself sometime. She climbed out of the shower, and pinned her hair up. She thought to herself ‘ Howie really knows what a woman needs.’ He had every female product in a drawer with her name on it. She wiped the steam off the mirror and stared at her reflection. "Nothing a little make-up won't cover up." She muttered out loud and began to fix herself up. When she was finished she had to admit she didn't look bad…but she didn't look good either. She walked back into the living room and sat down as far away from the guys as she could.
"Kevin fuck the pancakes lets get McDonald's." Alex said. He put on some sunglasses and got up to walk out the door, all the guys followed him.
Linda thought for a moment they actually were going to leave her alone. Just the chance she needed to get the hell out of there. She sat still and held her breath hoping they would forget she was there. They all walked out the door but as soon as she stopped holding her breath, they all bounced right back in the house arguing over who would stay with her while they went. Howie said he would stay, but even Linda knew it wouldn't be that easy.
They finally agreed on Brian staying. "Hey Brian don't forget to give her, your present.” Nick said before walking out the door. Brian gave him the thumbs up sign and gave Linda an awfully evil looking grin. Linda felt her chest tighten up again; she already knew what was going to happen.
"I'm really tired, I think I will take a nap now." Linda all but ran from the living room. Brian was right behind her every step of the way. She decided that the more she ran the longer it would take for this to be over.
"Ok what do you want?" Linda said as she tried to swallow the lump in her throat.
"Well, Linda I just want to give you my present." Brian said and grabbed his crotch.
"If I said no, what are the chances of you leaving me alone?" Linda asked hopeful he wasn't like Alex.
"Hmm let me think…slim to none." Brian said as he reached out for her. Linda had a thing for kicking guys in the balls and she figured if all the guys wanted have sex with her she should at least be entitled to kick them in the balls once...or twice.
She kicked him and ran from the hallway like a bat out of hell, but for some reason they seemed to have balls of steel because they recovered too quickly. Either that or she didn't kick hard enough. He caught up to her, but he also caught her fist on his chin, which made him really mad. What she had noticed was he hadn't hit her yet. Maybe he was a little different from Alex, well not much judging from the death grip he had on her shoulder as he was dragging her to the room.
"Get undressed." Brian said as he started to undress himself. Linda just stared at him. "Well, are you going to get undressed or not?" Brian said in a tone that was more of a demand than a question.
Linda obliged, it wasn't like she really had a choice anyway. She kept hearing Alex's words in her head ‘the faster you stop stalling the faster its over.’ It was true.
She lay down on the bed, half of her brain telling her to fight. The other half telling her it would all be over soon. She was so scared, she couldn't do anything else without someone’s help, maybe Howie’s, if he had really been serious about getting her out of there. She was so deep in her thoughts about Howie that she didn't even notice Brian was already finished with her.
‘He only took 5 minutes." Linda thought to herself. She would have been offended under different circumstances. She looked at Brian and he was out like a light. She got up, ran down the hall to the door opened it and ran dead into Alex.
“Where were you going?” Alex asked her and once again he did not look too happy.
"I needed some fresh air." She said. He shrugged and walked past her.
"Well did you get his present?" Nick asked her. She only nodded. "Well I’m next." Nick said.
"No I’m next." Kevin said as they argued their way into the house. Howie gave her a sympathetic smile and began to feel sorry for her, even though he never even stopped feeling sorry for her.
"Don't worry Howie." Linda said sensing his feelings. "I got his present all right - all 5 minutes of it." She started to giggle. Before long they were both in hysterical fits of laughter. When they calmed down Howie handed her a bag from McDonald's and told her to eat. She ate and listened to Howie talk about the tour that was coming up. She just listened as he told her about her sister. She was somewhere else in her head, trying to figure out how even with all this madness going on, she found it in her to have a crush on Howie. Or was it more than a crush…?
