Patrick should pretend to be her boy

Shauna quickly switched from holding her friend by the wrist to instead throwing an arm around his shoulders, intending to come off as chummy rather than forceful. From Patrick's grumpy expression, she wasn't sure if her ploy had worked. "So we're both in agreement that if you step off the bus in your little swimmies and don't hang around anybody, you're gonna have that 'come and get me' appeal, right? Half the girls on the beach are hoping they're gonna find a yummy boy-toy out there, surfing by himself. Unclaimed, ripe for the picking. If you suck at surfing, it's gonna be that much worse; that's gonna be their in-road!" She struggled to resist the urge to noogie Patrick while she talked down to him. His fluffy red hair was just made for noogies.

Rather than trying to worm out of it, Patrick rolled his eyes and played dead fish. In his eyes, this was just his dumb best friend being pushy about a subject she didn't know anything about. As such, his protests came off even snappier and less patient than he meant for them to. "Why do you even care, Shauna?" he questioned, raising one eyebrow.

"How much I gotta tell you? You're my gal! There's a lotta hungry girls out there who wanna snap you up. I've known you for a long time and I know you're the type who's had plenty of chances to get laid, but you never do. That's part of what makes you cool! You're not like the sluts the other girls brought on the bus; you're cool."

Patrick did think that Shauna had a point, despite being frustrated with her forcefulness. Sleeping around was different for girls and boys; he'd been the one boy in this group of girls well long enough to notice that. For girls, sleeping around was like a badge of honor. The more conquests, the better! Every boy was another conquest... If the girl just so happened to settle down with one, then good on her; she's a family woman. If she keeps on banging whoever she wants, all the better; she's a playgirl on the top of her game! The girls would congratulate them on their exploits, sharing stories and high fives; every missing condom out of the packs they tended to carry was another proof of victory. In that group, the one thing the girl didn't want to be was a virgin... that'd get her laughed at by the others for her lack of game. Probability-wise, it was basically certain that someone in this sorority-minded group of girls was still inexperienced, but none of them would ever admit to that.

For boys, the situation surrounding sex was just the opposite. Too much sex and you were a loose guy. Every girl wanted to think she was her guy's first and only. They wanted to think that their pussy was the first pussy that the boy's tender penis had ever rubbed inside and that they were the first one who was going to teach the boy what it meant to be a man. They did want to think the boy had masturbated and "practiced" through image training with porn, of course. The paradox persisted: they wanted a guy who's good at sex and has given it a lot of thought, but not one who's actually been with a lot of girls.

Patrick felt pretty certain everyone on the bus knew that he'd never actually been with anybody, which only made him a more tempting prize. They were all so close, it was a safe bet a good percentage of them thought that they had a good chance at turning Patrick into a boyfriend, not by manipulation, but because they had "a real connection." Patrick, on the other hand, couldn't say he felt that way about any of them. If they'd treat him just the same as they treated the other girls in the group, he'd be much happier...

"So what I'm getting at is this: you don't have to look like you're free. Just for the trip... why don't you hang around with me? If you pretend you're my boyfriend, no girls are gonna creep on you. When it's just you around the girls, I'll just be clingy so they can't make moves. If we run into somebody we don't know, you'll be my boy! Sound good?" Shauna asked, giving her friend a wink and leaning in with the noogie this time.

"Wait... what? You're going to be my girlfriend?" Patrick asked, incredulous. The idea had a certain logic to it, but at the same time, it would basically mean leaping through the boundary of the Twilight Zone with both feet forward. Instead of running the risk of losing his current relationship with the girls, he'd basically be submitting to being a boyfriend, like those other dolled-up guys! "Shauna, I'm not-"

"Trust me! I know it sounds weird, but who do you know that's cooler than me? I'm not gonna take advantage of you or anything! We'll just hang out, have fun, be tight... And once it's all over, I go back to being your gal and you go back to being mine! It's a no-lose situation, Patty." Shauna seemed to be working awfully hard to convince her friend to try this game plan. One might wonder if she had any hidden motivations, besides just being such a gosh-darn good friend.

Patrick frowned hard, trying to decide if keeping up that ruse for a week would be worth it. Just as he was pondering that decision, Jessie reared her head, coming in to grab him from the other side and tug him half-way from Shauna's grip. Had she heard the plan already? If so, it would be quite a wonder if Jessie allowed Shauna to go through with it... Jessie's competitive streak and desire to be Patrick's number one gal-- maybe more than gal-- meant she'd never yield to Shauna's plan. As one of the self-appointed leaders of their group, she didn't want Patrick taken off the table on this trip. In her eyes, even more than usual, Shauna was just vag-blocking everybody.

"Sounds to me like Shauna doesn't want you having fun on our trip," the blond countered, with her lips curling into a wolfish smile that did nothing to set Patrick's mind at ease. "I get it. Shauna and you have always been tight, just like she said. But hanging around you like a bodyguard, like some kinda white knight... That's way lame, my gal. You don't get a lot of spring breaks in college; you should be livin' it up, in our gang, same as always! Just hang with us, we'll have some beers, things'll get wild and fun. They always do, when I'm around! I'll tell you what gals don't do: act like snobs and turn their nose up at all their other gals. You're still my gal, right, Patty?" Jessie questioned, bringing her face closer by leaning her head down towards his. His ordinary lankiness gave him at least a height advantage over the others, but right now, it was challenged as both girls slung powerful arms around his neck in an attempt to pull him to their side.

"It's not bein' a snob, Jess. I'm just tryin' to make sure Patty actually has fun. If all the girls are droolin' over him all trip, that's not fun at all, right?" Shauna retorted, grabbing the same hand that was looped around Patrick to the scruff of Jessie's shirt.

"It's so snobby! It's like you're saying you're the only fun one out of all of us!" Jessie scoffed, returning the gesture by grabbing Shauna's neck-line.

Both were being way too handsy for Patrick's like, anyway, at least as long as he was wearing this damn swimsuit, with its tight, sleeveless top. The boy took the chance to slip out from between the two of them, then fixed them both with an annoyed expression. "See, this is the exact kind of thing I didn't want to happen," he sighed, mumbling to himself as the two wrestling girls watched him from the corners of their eyes, awaiting his answer. Still... Between hanging out as Shauna's pretend boyfriend or spending time with the girls like usual-- albeit in a hornier environment-- one route had obvious merits over the other.