Ken picked up the object, looking it over. “A dog collar?” He stared at Tommy blankly.
“No, no, no!” Tommy laughed, his eyes rounded and his eyebrows lifted high on his forehead as he jumped around.
What a dork. Ken looked up at the ceiling, shaking his head, but when he looked down again, things had only gotten worse. The fool had put the damn dog collar-jock strap hybrid around his head and was grinning like an idiot. “What the fu…” A light shining in his face halted Ken’s last word. A fucking head lantern? He cannot be serious! Incredulous, Ken shook his head again. “Do you have any idea how stupid you look? I’m terrible at figuring out what’s cool, and even I know letting Trisha see us wearing those would be a horrible idea.”
Tommy’s gleeful smile fell. “What? You gotta be kidding me.” His lips pushed together in the beginnings of a pout, but in record recovery time, he smirked. “I can make this look work.” He pretended to strut down a runway, exaggerating his movements and facial expressions so ridiculously Ken couldn’t help but laugh.
“Dumbass.” Ken resisting the urge to smack Tommy a good one across the back of the head.
Tommy shrugged. “Whatever, no one will be able to see what I look like if the lights go out.” He pulled the headlamp off before setting it down on the coffee table while fluffing his hair.
Ken dropped his beside Tommy’s. “Don’t we have another emergency flashlight down in the laundry room?”
Tommy nodded. “Hell yeah, I don’t want to be caught without light in that creepy-ass place if the power ever goes out while I’m down there washing clothes!” The look of stricken horror on Tommy’s face could only be described as hilarious, but the idiot had a point. Ken wasn’t crazy about having to exit the house, schlep down a flight of stairs with a laundry basket and pull out a key to unlock the outside entry to the room housing their washer and dryer. Even with the overhead light on, the area was dark and dank.
Ken nodded. “We should still get the light and put it in the hallway bathroom so Trisha doesn’t trip and hurt herself in the dark.”
Tommy pursed his lips, holding back his laughter. Ken smirked in return. Trisha was beautiful, insightful and lots of fun, but she was, without a doubt, the biggest klutz in the world. “I agree but fuck going back out in the pouring rain. I’ll move the one we have in there.” Tommy knelt to remove the flashlight out of the wall socket. As soon as he pulled the plug, the light came on automatically. Tommy flipped the prongs down into the cut-out designed for them before pushing the switch into the off position. With a flick of his thumb, the bright, yellow light had dimmed down to nothing. If Trisha ever chose one of them, would the relationship they shared do the same—burn out and disappear? What if she chose Tommy? Could Ken bear it and hold onto the friendship or would he burn with envy every time he saw the couple together?
Three loud raps preceded the door swinging wide open. “Me! It’s me!” Trisha squawked, holding the doorknob as she was dragged inside by the force of the wind’s momentum. The doorjamb brought the motion to a halt in time to keep the knob from smacking into the wall. “Sheesh! This freaking sucks! I hate rain under normal circumstances but this? Ugh!”
As Tommy helped Trisha inside, Ken forced the door shut behind her. “I’ll grab a towel,” Tommy offered as Ken eyed their soggy, blonde visitor. The ponytail pulled up high on her head dripped water; her face glistened with raindrops, and her saturated T-shirt clung to her body, outlining her bra and smallish breasts. Her nipples protruded from the chill the way Farrah Fawcett’s had in the red one-piece from the posters that had graced the walls of every puberty-aged male in the late seventies.
Trisha kicked off her flip flops, shivering and rubbing her arms as she did. She brushed off her Daisy Dukes as if she could wipe the water away. The short shorts hugged her shapely rear end and showed off her long, slender legs made toned from swimming and yoga. Allowing his eyes to roam back up toward Trisha’s pert breasts, Ken squirmed. He felt as if the temperature in the room had soared since she walked in, and his gym shorts weren’t going to be able to hide a hard-on.
Chapter Three
3:10 p.m.
TRISHA pretended not to notice Ken leering at her body, secretly loving the attention. She had been completely into the biracial beauty since the first time she laid eyes on him in a psychology class. He had put off taking his social science elective requirement, and the introductory-level class had openings. A couple of girls she knew warned her away from Ken, denouncing him as weird, but Trisha had to decide for herself. After talking to him, she realized he wasn’t strange, but brilliant, and as such, his brain worked a little differently than regular folks expected. A genius was like a whole different species and could hardly be expected to think the same way other people do. No one expected a cow to walk upright because the farmer does or the farmer to haul off and start producing milk!
Ken was unique and special, someone who took time, but Trisha found him well worth the effort. Of course, she had never anticipated the “Tommy factor.” The dynamic between those two was something to behold. Just like peanut butter and jelly, they were good alone but perfect together. On his own, Ken was a quiet, bookish brainiac, but Tommy drew the handsome brunet into the conversation,
