The Virgin’s Bucket List – Episode 15
Lindsay followed Wayne into the cold night, calling his name as he crossed the front lawn. Music throbbed behind her, and silhouettes gathered at the windows to watch the newest chapter of her humiliation. Wayne did not stop until she caught his arm near the sidewalk.
He looked down at her hand, and Lindsay released him. The tenderness from their kiss had vanished behind a guarded expression she was beginning to recognize. Wayne did not seem angry about the wager itself; he seemed wounded that she had allowed him to believe her interest was personal.
Lindsay admitted that she had originally accepted the invitation to meet his friends. Alyssa’s dare had made her desperate, and desperation had turned every boy into a possible escape route. She had never intended to hurt Wayne, but she understood that intention did not erase what she had done.
“What about the kiss?” he asked. Lindsay told him it was real. She had agreed because she wanted him, not because he had happened to be wearing glasses. Saying it aloud frightened her more than the entire party had.
Wayne searched her face, wanting to believe her. Then Felix opened the front door and called to ask whether everything was fine. The interruption reminded Wayne that Lindsay had spent the evening evaluating his friends, and doubt returned before trust could take root.
He said she barely knew him. Lindsay almost laughed at the unfairness of it; Wayne behaved as if they shared a history while refusing to explain it. She reminded him that he had repeatedly looked at her like someone he had lost.
For a moment, his defenses slipped. He said they had met long before Maple Hill, when they were children. Lindsay waited for more, but Wayne stopped himself. If she remembered only after being told, he feared the memory would never mean to her what it meant to him.
“That isn’t fair,” Lindsay said. He could not punish her for failing a test she did not know she was taking. Wayne acknowledged the truth with a tight nod, yet the hurt between them remained.
Alyssa appeared in the doorway and announced that Wayne deserved someone who wanted him for himself. Lindsay recognized the hypocrisy but also the precision of the attack. Alyssa had found the one insecurity neither of them knew how to overcome.
Wayne told Alyssa to stay out of it. The defense offered Lindsay a sliver of hope, but he still said he needed space. He walked toward the street rather than returning to the party, leaving her without a ride home.
Felix offered to drive her. Lindsay hesitated, aware of how it would look, but her phone was nearly dead and the Johnson house was too far to walk in party clothes. She accepted after making clear that she wanted nothing romantic from him.
During the drive, Felix surprised her by dropping his flirtatious performance. He said Wayne had mentioned a girl from his childhood for years, though never by name. That girl had defended him when he was small, frightened, and new to town.
Lindsay stared through the windshield as fragments stirred at the edge of memory: a playground fence, a boy with a torn backpack, and her own mother calling her home. The images disappeared whenever she tried to hold them. She wondered why something important enough to shape Wayne had vanished so completely from her mind.
Felix stopped outside her house and advised her not to give up. Wayne was angry because he cared, not because he felt nothing. Lindsay thanked him and stepped out, unaware that Mike was watching from the living-room window.
Her father opened the door before she reached it. He looked past her toward Felix’s departing car, then asked where Wayne was. The question carried disappointment, as though Lindsay had already broken her promise by attending the party with his player.
Lindsay was too exhausted to explain. She said Wayne had left earlier and tried to pass, but Mike blocked her path. He demanded to know whether she had involved Wayne in some kind of school drama.
The accusation awakened all her anger. She told Mike that Wayne was a person rather than a scholarship, a recommendation letter, or a tool for winning games. If Wayne had been hurt tonight, it was because Lindsay had made a mistake—not because caring about someone automatically ruined athletes.
Mike’s face hardened at the admission that feelings were involved. He informed Lindsay that Wayne would be moved out of their house if their relationship threatened the season. From the shadowed staircase, Wayne’s voice answered before she could: “Then maybe I should leave tonight.”