He's already been made the victim of a prank

Resting came surprisingly easy for Patrick. Sometimes, when you're bothered and anxious, you find it difficult to sleep, especially in a noisy environment like a bus full of rambunctious girls. At other times, sleep is the perfect escape. This proved to be one of the latter times; Patrick was asleep and drooling onto his the arm in no time at all.

When he woke up later and realized his sleeve was damp with his own saliva, he was positive that the girls probably took pictures and had a good laugh about it. Surprisingly, though, no one was caught in the act; the sunrise coming through the windows revealed no hint of any kind of observer. Instead, it seemed like the whole bus was spread out as though they were intentionally avoiding him. That made him feel uneasy... anything that upset the usual status quo did, actually. The young man wiped off his lips on a kerchief from his pocket... as much as he liked to try to act like the tough girls, there was certain hygiene expected of him.

One might expect the boy would go to one of his own kind to ask why everyone seemed to be giving him the cold shoulder, but truth be told, the other boys just made him feel self-conscious. They weren't the types that he usually hung around and most of them had the sort of hallmarks of traditional boys: make-up, cute clothes, gossiping attitudes. He wasn't sure what the girls saw in them, but evidently, they were the boyfriends of a few of his friends... there must be some redeeming traits to them, but they just seemed stuck-up and standoffish to him. He'd rather get the skinny from one of his gals.

Not seeing Shauna, Patrick went for one of his backups. If Shauna was his best friend, Jessie was a close second... though he could never tell her she wasn't first place. The blond had more than a little bit of a competitive streak. When she tied up her loose blond hair into a top-knot and got that look in her steely blue eyes, you couldn't stop her from accomplishing whatever she wanted to do. That kind of bullishness, when combined with her love for mischief-making and her wrestler's figure, made her one of the most fearsome girls on the bus. Today, she was dressed in a light, white tank top and blue athletic shorts, with no modesty preventing her from showing off her amazing form and tan.

When Jessie spotted Patrick, she began laughing right away. Patrick could tell he'd been pranked somehow... they'd probably drawn a vagina on his forehead or something. Adjusting his glasses groggily, he addressed his friend. "What is it this time, Jess?" The years had only made her more imposing, more buff, and more demanding in their interactions... sometimes, dealing with her was a pain. It was hard to think that she was qualified to be his second best friend...

Given their talk earlier, Shauna might have stepped in on his behalf if she was here, but annoyingly, she was nowhere to be seen. She may have already left the bus and gone down to the beach. He understood that she was excited about the beach, but what happened to staying with him for protection?!

"You gonna wear that shirt out, Patty?" Jessie retorted, raising one shockingly blond eyebrow while answering his question with another question.

The other girls laughed, while Patrick just gave the sleeve another wipe-down. "Yeah, I think I will. I was more asking why everybody's avoiding me like I stepped in something."

"Avoiding? I don't think so," the blond answered with a cryptic smirk. "But really, you probably ought to change that shirt."

"Fine, geez! You sound like my dad," Patrick complained, before stalking back towards his seat to reach beneath and get his bag. That's when he realized the prank that Jessie had gracelessly been trying to guide him into... the army-green duffel bag that he'd brought with him had been swapped out, replaced with a boyish white-and-pink travel bag with a gold clasp at the top and heart decorations on the side. This looked like something one of the other boys would carry. "Uh... Did someone mix up their luggage with mine?"

Jessie cackled, then grinned ear from ear. "Naw, dude! That's yours! I saw you come on the bus with it!"

"The fuck?" Patrick responded, growing irritated. This was just another harmless prank, but given his current worries about standing out among the girls, he wasn't happy with it at all. He understood now why everyone was standing away from him; they all wanted the perfect comedic timing to start laughing when he realized that his luggage had been swapped out for something so overtly against his character. Indeed, now that he'd made the discovery, the gals all began laughing, slapping their knees at poor Patrick's expense. "You gals are all a bunch of vages. Where's all my stuff?"

"I'm telling you, everything you need is in there!" Jessie laughed, throwing her arm around the shoulders of another nearby girl and smirking.

Patrick played along; he opened the bag. Inside were not garments he recognized as his... They weren't the kind of thing he'd ever choose to wear. His clothes for the trip had been replaced with skimpy swimwear, the kind designed for guys to flirt with girls by showing off their skin and their bulge. The volume of coverage in the bag was so little, it had all fit in what was only a little larger than a pocket-book. "Oh fuck you, Jessie!" Knowing that he stood no chance of getting comeuppance, he none-the-less ran at her, attempting to catch her in a headlock that he'd leverage into a painful twist until she disclosed the location of his stolen belongings.

Sure enough, it didn't work. As a kid, they'd been on even footing; now, her reflexes were too sharp. She simply sidestepped, then caught him in the move he'd wanted to hit her with. "Ha ha! We were thinking this trip would be a good chance for you to get in touch with your guy side! Let's see that bangin' bod of yours in a bikini bottom!" she taunted, rubbing her fist into his red-headed scalp with an annoying noogie. "Or do you just have a tiny little dick you don't want us seeing?"

Peer pressure: it was the biggest annoyance of hanging out with a bunch of rowdy girls. Doing what they wanted usually ended in a fun result, from his experience, but did they realize what they were asking for? If Patrick appeared before them in sexy swimwear, there was no going back! They were shattering their own gal-code! It wasn't that Patrick thought he was so sexy they'd beg for it... it's that he knew breaking the taboo would be too much for them to resist. These were bold, reckless girls. One of them would definitely make a move on him. In a way, Jessie had already made a move by trying to **** him to dress that way.

The only thing that would wreck his relationship with his friends harder than getting into a relationship with one of them was admitting that a prank like this upset him. "Listen, Jess; there's a reason I don't walk dress that way around you girls."

The other girl raised her eyebrows and looked down into his face, smiling eagerly. She seemed interested in the answer for reasons that transcended this little prank.

"It's cause I don't want you all distracted by how I work it," he answered, freeing one hand to push his glasses back up with a cool shine. The cocky answer was the best joke he could come up with. The girls tended to appreciate bravado; self-confidence went a long way with his tomgirl routine.

"Now this I gotta see!" Jessie laughed, releasing him and clapping her hands excitedly. The rest of the girls-- and even their boyfriends-- joined in and kept applauding, even once Jessie stopped and placed one hand on her hip. "You can change in the back, then we'll hit the beach. We'll all be waiting for your grand debut!"

"Yeah, but I'd better get the rest of my stuff back later. I'm not dressing this way for the whole trip," he responded, trying his best to seem in a good mood. The prank had probably been intended as a way of cheering him up, since they recognized he was being a sourpuss, but it had only made his anxiety worse. Dressing this way around the girls was practically begging to be hit on by them...

Patrick made his way to the back of the bus while the others cheered him on, then closed the door behind him. It was nice and private back here... He'd have a good environment to pick out his swimsuit in. Not that any of his options were much good... Each he took out from the bag looked worse than the last.