Read Inside the Mind of Gideon Rayburn for Free Online Page B

"Workin' overtime!" he shouts.
    Gideon wonders what this carnal outburst is regarding. I know it's really just that. A carnal outburst.
    "I have to say I am impressed that the girl offered to have sex with you without your asking for it," Nicholas says. "Lack of desperation bodes well for your long-term success."
    "Thanks," says Gideon, thinking, that's not the right thing to say to someone who thinks that even in an environment teeming with luscious girls, it's going to take you a whole ten months to get laid.
    Now Nicholas does something really cold. He turns to Gideon and sizes him up. "The white Chuck Taylor low-tops are trying too hard to be old-school; the jeans are too neat. The shirt is the same color as the jeans, so you kind of look like a blueberry."
    Cullen nods slowly, impressed. "Great call. But I still believe in October."
    Okay, I feel bad that they said Gid looks like a blueberry. But I'm not going to say it's not true.
    "You're just not doable yet," says Nicholas. "And that's not, like, me, that's just the truth of the universe filtering through me."
    Oh God. Now, that is too mean. Girls have nothing on boys when it comes to outright cruelty. Behind-the-back stuff, we're better with that, sure. But saying it right to your face? Boys rule on that one.
    "You've made your point; I've made mine. I say Gideon gets laid by the end of October," says Cullen.
    "I say no way," Nicholas says. "But he definitely gets laid by June."
    "I think you're making a mistake there," Cullen says. He backs up, and they regard Gid once again. "If he doesn't get laid by the end of October, I say there's no way he gets laid by June. I think you either have it or you don't."
    "And I think that you definitely don't have it yet, but you could have it," Nicholas says. "So, to reiterate, you say by October or never. I say not by October, but definitely by June."
    "I believe we have clearly defined our terms," Cullen says.
    They shake hands.
    "Wait a minute," Gid says. "You guys are making a bet about me?" He's still holding the underwear in his hand. God, that trip to the bathroom. That was his first mistake. The underwear would have been safe in his drawer, and they'd be talking about...Forget it, Gideon, the truth is, something equally awful probably would have happened. "I don't know. I mean, obviously, I'm going to try to have sex with girls, right. But I'd prefer to not have anything riding on it. I think it might...mess me up."
    Cullen and Nicholas eye each other nervously. I can see that partly they don't want to hurt Gid's feelings. But also that they really want this bet. Bets are fun. Nicholas said he hoped they could find some way to entertain themselves this year, and this is it. "If you're going to be doing it anyway," Nicholas says, "what does it matter if we have an interest in it?" That was a pretty smart way of presenting it to Gid. Making him the star of the show.
    "Last year, we bet our friend Liam Wu that he couldn't have sex with both Marcy Proctor and Erica Dewey, who were roommates, in the same week, in their room. We gave him a month to do it," Cullen said.
    Marcy Proctor! That's the girl from this afternoon! She's pretty. And she was the only one who was vaguely nice to him during his father's asinine little episode. "Well, did he pull it off?" Gideon asks, hoping for a no. Poor sweet little Marcy Proctor.
    "It took him three weeks," Nicholas says, smiling at the memory. "But he did them both...on the same day."
    Gideon sits down on his bed. Liam Wu. "What does Liam Wu look like?"
    Nicholas, as Gideon suspected he would, describes the Asian guy who honked at him this afternoon.
    "He did that? You guys bet him that he couldn't do it, and he did, just for fun?"
    Cullen looks at Nicholas, who shrugs. "Well," Cullen says, "we did give him Nicholas's mom's car. But look, what he was doing was really, really something to pull off. I mean, it was truly magical. Stunning entertainment. What you're going to do is what you're