The Virgin’s Bucket List – Episode 18
The hallway went silent after Mike suspended Wayne. Friday’s game was the scout’s only scheduled visit, and missing it could destroy Wayne’s best opportunity for a scholarship. Lindsay felt every stare turn toward her as if her existence had caused the punishment.
Wayne followed Mike to the office without protest. Lindsay started after them, but a teacher blocked the doorway. She spent the next twenty minutes imagining her father delivering the same accusation he had made since Wayne arrived: Lindsay was a distraction, and distractions had consequences.
When Wayne emerged, his face revealed nothing. Mike had suspended him for publicly escalating school drama and ignoring instructions to protect the team’s reputation. Wayne said he would accept the decision, though accepting it did not mean believing it was right.
Lindsay apologized. Wayne stopped her before she could take responsibility for another person’s choice. He had defended her because he wanted to, just as she had once defended him on the playground.
The reminder unlocked another memory. Lindsay saw a younger Wayne sitting behind the equipment shed with a split lip while three older boys tossed his glasses between them. She remembered stepping into their circle, terrified but furious, and announcing that they would have to fight her too.
She had not won through strength. She had shouted loudly enough to summon her mother, then stayed beside Wayne until he stopped shaking. Her mother later told them that courage was not the absence of fear; it was deciding someone mattered more than the fear.
Lindsay repeated those words now. Wayne smiled with recognition and reached into his bag. From an inner pocket he removed a creased sheet of paper covered in childish handwriting.
It was their old list. They had promised to attend school together, go to a dance, watch Wayne score a winning touchdown, and kiss someone they truly loved. Beside the last item, young Lindsay had drawn an enormous question mark.
“You kept this?” she asked. Wayne admitted he had carried it through every move, even after the paper began falling apart. It reminded him that someone had seen value in him before trophies and recruiters did.
Lindsay’s own bucket list took on a different meaning. She had written it because everyone else’s life seemed fuller than hers, then allowed Alyssa to turn it into a measure of her worth. Wayne’s childhood list was not about proving anything; it was about sharing a future with someone who believed in him.
She told Wayne she remembered him now—not every detail, but enough to know the feeling had never disappeared. The safety she felt around him, the strange familiarity of his voice, and her instinctive trust all belonged to that forgotten summer.
Wayne confessed that he had recognized her immediately. He had agreed to live with Coach Johnson partly because the address confirmed she was the same Lindsay. He had imagined a joyful reunion, not being mistaken for a sex robot.
Lindsay laughed through tears, and the tension between them softened. She apologized for that disaster again. Wayne teased that she still owed him an explanation of how she reached second base before remembering his name.
Their laughter faded when Wayne touched her cheek. He asked what she wanted now that no dare was deciding for her. Lindsay answered honestly: she wanted to know him again, not as a solution or a childhood memory, but as the person standing before her.
Wayne leaned toward her, then stopped. They had already allowed an audience to define their first kiss. He did not want their second to happen in a hallway full of phones, especially while Mike’s punishment hung over them.
Lindsay promised they would wait until the moment belonged only to them. First, she intended to convince Mike to reverse the suspension. Wayne warned that her father rarely changed a coaching decision once it was public.
She replied that Mike rarely had to face both his daughter and the truth at the same time. Wayne could not help smiling, though concern followed. Lindsay’s courage had protected him once, but challenging her father could reopen wounds neither of them had healed.
When Lindsay entered Mike’s office, she found Mr. Russell sitting across from him. The scout had returned after seeing her video. He wanted to know whether Wayne’s suspension reflected a discipline problem—or whether Coach Johnson was punishing his best player for defending his daughter.