Chapter 40: Breaking Two Virginities In One Night. “Pause.”
He got in the car without a plan. Again. Sitting in the apartment had only given his thoughts more room to run in circles, so driving seemed like the better option.
He decided to check where Jenna was before he left was better. He pulled out his phone and texted her.
Adrian: Where are you?
Jenna: Drew’s, why?
Adrian: On my way
He slipped the phone into his pocket.
He already knew the building, but opened Maps anyway and followed the blue line toward Hawthorne Road. Twenty minutes, give or take. Fine. Atleast he wouldn’t have to sit in his apartment thinking about tonight.
I slept with my ex’s stepsister.
There it was. It sounded less like a fact and more like the setup to a joke he hadn’t heard the punchline to yet.
He hadn’t planned it. He hadn’t even known who Rose was to Maya until it was already too late to change anything. That had to count for something. It didn’t make the last hour any less complicated.
Douche, maybe. Not premeditated douche. He would give himself that much. The light ahead turned red.
Bzzzt.
He pulled out his phone.
Rose Investment Potential: 56% → 57%
Adrian blinked. It went up.
That didn’t make sense. If anything, after tonight, he expected the number to drop. So why had it gone up?
He barely had time to think about it before the system answered.
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◆ REGRET INVESTMENT MODULE ◆
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PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: Make Maya regret her decision.
[OBJECTIVE REWARD]
Base Reward: $10,000
Progression Multiplier: ×2.0
Current Reward: $20,000
Maximum Reward: UNLIMITED
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Twenty thousand dollars.
Adrian glanced at the dashboard.
A little over six thousand sat in his account. Twenty thousand waiting on a mission. His virginity lost to his ex’s stepsister an hour ago. And now Rose’s investment potential was going up.
Yeah. His life had officially stopped making sense.
The money part, he could work with. The rest was just too much. He put the car into gear and kept driving.
Two exits later, he pulled into Drew’s.
Hawthorne Road. A terrible street name.
He texted Jenna and leaned back to wait, his eyes momentarily searching through the entrance for her.
Nothing.
He leaned back, then checked again. Still nothing. What was taking so long.
A moment later, he remembered the unclaimed A-Rank pull.
His thumb was already opening the system before he realized what he was doing. A few taps left, he found the Gacha ticket.
Finally.
The whole thing had been upgraded.
Gold framed the entire thing, with deep-red detailing running around the rim. Even the lights looked more expensive than the C-Rank version.
The rewards were ridiculous.
Some rewards were marked with multipliers as high as ×10,000. The lowest cash prize he could see was $50,000.
His mouth twitched. Jackpot. At least the system knew how to improve his mood.
If he was going to obsess over something, money was at least productive. He clicked it.
The wheel exploded into motion with a sharp metallic chime, red light chasing gold around the frame as the rewards blurred together.
His fingers tightened around the phone. The wheel slowed. Adrian stared at the slot beneath the pointer. A golden panel appeared.
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Congratulations, Host.
A-Rank Skill Acquired: Mind’s Echo.
Below are the details of the skill.
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His thumb scrolled lower.
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Skill: Mind Echo
• Rank: A
• Level: 1
• Description: Enter the active conscious thoughts of one target for 10 seconds.
• Cooldown: 24 hours.
• Requirement: Host must maintain three minutes of direct conversation with the target.
• Restriction: Memories, suppressed thoughts, and subconscious information are inaccessible. Only currently active conscious thoughts can be detected.
• Activation Cost: $5,000.
Would you like to activate Mind’s Echo?
[YES / NO]
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Damn. The system had been holding out on him.
Ten seconds wasn’t much. Ten seconds of knowing exactly what someone was thinking, though? That was dangerous.
His first thought was surprisingly Rose. He filed it away and scanned through the notification again.
Activation Cost: $5,000.
Would you like to activate Mind’s Echo?
[YES / NO]
The fuck? No.
Five thousand dollars for curiosity was five thousand dollars too much. He dismissed the notification.
The door swung open, and Jenna stepped in with a smile. He put his phone away immediately. Jenna noticed.
"Relax." she said, dropping into the passenger seat. "You holstered that like it was doing something illegal,"
"I was just texting you."
"Is that so?" She looked at him a beat longer than the joke earned. "So, what happened to your face."
"Nothing. My face is doing great."
"Adrian."
"I’m serious. I’ve never been better." He said as he turned on the engine.
"Mm. Okay." She studied him for another second. Then she looked away. That was close.
He glanced at the asphalt ahead. Then, she asked, "Where are we going?"
He turned to her. "I assumed you’d figured that part out."
She slowly turned to him, the look reserved for genuinely unbelievable statements. "You called me. I assumed there was a plan attached."
"Calling you and having a plan are separate skills. I only had enough energy for one."
"That’s not an excuse, dumbass."
"Works either way."
She laughed, short and surprised, which took some of the pressure out of the car.
He admitted he hadn’t had anywhere in mind. He’d just wanted to spend some time with her. Not entirely true. Close enough.
Jenna went quiet again, looking ahead for a moment before answering.
"If you don’t have anywhere to go, I know somewhere."
"Where?"
"A bar." she said, a hint of amusement in her voice. "You. Me. Alcohol. What could possibly go wrong?"
He hesitated. Jenna’s eyebrow lifted.
"You’re doing a lot of thinking for a yes-or-no question." She said.
"You’ve never gone drinking before, have you?"
"Of course I have." He said.
He turned it over instead of answering fast. The getting drunk part sounded tempting, losing control... not so much.
"I’ve just... never let myself get drunk." He added.
That was before. Now, he just wanted to do anything as long as he was somewhere that wasn’t his apartment, where he wouldn’t have to look at the same four walls and think about tonight.
"How about we change that tonight?" She said with a despicable smile. "Let’s break your sober virginity tonight."
He looked a her for a moment too long, then his hands tightened on the steering wheel. Losing two virginities in one night. That could work.
"Honestly..." The corner of his mouth pulled. "That doesn’t sound like a terrible idea."
Neither of them talked much on the way there. Adrian didn’t mind. Jenna sat with one leg tucked beneath her, occasionally glancing through the windshield while he kept driving.
When he pulled into the lot beside the bar, he parked and turned off the engine. He looked at the building; modest looking, dead Leon lights and a hobo sitted at the pavement. Lovely.
Jenna glanced at him.
"Last chance to back out." She asked. "You sure you wanna do this..."
"Jenna." He forced a smile. "Can we ask the questions after the first drink?"
She studied him, then let it go. "Okay."
Adrian opened the door and stepped onto the asphalt. He walked around the car to her window. She opened the door and he offered her hand.
She looked at it, then at him. "You’re a gentleman now?"
He smiled.
"Come on." He said. "Told you I’m a changed man, didn’t I?"
Jenna looked at his hand once more, then took it.
Adrian expected it to feel awkward. It didn’t. Jenna didn’t make a thing out of it. She just started walking. He found himself appreciating that.
They crossed the lot together, still holding hands like this was a perfectly normal thing for two friends to do on a Saturday night.
Adrian decided not to think too hard about that.
The bar door opened. Noise, music, and heat spilled into the night.