Press Your Luck 48 (Patreon)

Lucy smiled as she hummed a tune to herself and pretended to read the Sallie mae agreement in her hand. The document used a lot of words like party of the first part and parties of the second and third part and other legalese she had never understood. But it never slowed Harlow down before and things had worked out. From what Val told her, signing up for beauty school qualified her for a loan that she could use to pay her bills while she saved her own money. Val was a ditz, but she figured the blonde should know something about this. She was in college after all. And unlike high school this was going to be a cakewalk since she already knew everything there was to know about makeup and nails after spending hundreds of hours watching videos on the internet and practicing on herself and Valerie.

“This all looks good.” She giggled happily and signed, ‘Lucy Hole’ on the marked lines.

Of course, if all went to plan she would have saved up enough money by working as a waitress and would never have to finish school and better still, she would never have to pay a dime back on the loans she was getting today. Lucy could then find another surgeon to undo what that quack did to him! He could finally go back to being a man. ‘That reminds me, I should, like, think of guy names!’ He thought happily, imagining himself far away on some tropical beach. ‘Last names too.’ He thought as the man behind the desk read Lucy Hole’ with a smirk. Staring down at his chest he couldn’t help but pout. He would definitely miss having breasts though. After the initial pain and recovery…they were at least fun to play with whenever he wanted. But, it was a small price to pay if it meant he’d finally be out of heels!

The man behind the desk explained more about the loans again and the expectations. Which made no sense to Lucy even after they’d gone over it like three times now at this point. Try as she might Lucy was not listening to any of it, not like the small details mattered at this point. She knew she had so many years to pay back the loans, it more than anything else had been what convinced her to sign up for beauty school and take out the loan and by the time Lucy had to pay the loans back Lucy would be gone and she would be…'Drake?' She thought to herself, twirling her hair around one finger as she nodded, pretending to listen to the man drone on. "Maybe Axel?' Without a thought she smiled back with a sensual grin at the man in reflex when he caught the well-dressed man across from her smiling in her direction. In Lucy’s line of work she learned how to maximize her tips to the point she no longer actively thought about it as the flirty look came out instinctually, while she was lost in her own mind. 'I wonder if I can, like, pull off going by Denzel?'

The man took in Ms. Holé with hungry eyes as she twirled her hair while looking at him like she wanted to jump his bones. He felt his heart quicken as he looked into her beautiful green eyes, her long lashes seeming as though she was winking at him as she lightly touched his arm from time to time as he spoke. It seemed like she did it as often as she could, at this point he just wished she would crawl into his lap. It was obvious she didn't want the meeting to end as she pretended to not understand something they had already gone over, forcing him to repeat himself in an obvious attempt to extend their time together. Having to repeat himself was always a pet peeve, people should listen when spoken to. Or at least that is what he thought when any student half as sexy as Ms. Hole. When the loan agreement was signed he found it easy to work up the courage to ask a question of his own. "Lucy, may I call you Lucy?"

“Like, what else would you call me?” She giggled, twirling her hair.

The man smiled confidently as he placed the agreement in a folder inside his desk, “Of course. I was wondering, now that our business has been concluded, if you would like to accompany me for lunch?”

Lucy blinked momentarily as she bit her lip in thought. “I am so totally starving.” She answered “But I’m not gonna, like, blow you in your car. Okay?” She added with a giggle nervously, remembering the last time she did and how close she came to being arrested.

The loan officer chuckled back as he stood, “I wouldn’t dream of it.” He lied.

“Good.” Lucy smiled, proud of herself for finding a way to save money as she followed the man out to his car. After all, she had planned on eating lunch after the meeting anyway. Glancing at the decent sized bulge in the man’s crotch her stomach growled its hunger. ‘I’m a fricken super genius.’

Later, Lucy hummed happily to herself as she brushed her teeth when the doorbell chimed melodically. Lucy froze stone still, the toothpaste dripping out of her mouth and onto her cleavage just above the towel she had wrapped around her chest after her shower. The bell rang a few moments later and Lucy spat the toothpaste into the sink and quickly rinsed her mouth.

Quietly Lucy walked on the balls of her feet to the bay window in the living room. Carefully moving the drapes aside to see she spied the man in a brown dress shirt and matching brown shorts holding a box and a clipboard. The man waited with obvious tension as he looked around the area. ‘What’s he looking for?’ Lucy slowly opened the door just enough to expose half of her unmade-up face to the man. “Yes?”

The man looked at the half of a face and then his clipboard, “I have a package for Lucy…hole?” he asked with an arched eyebrow.

“What is it?” She asked.

“I don’t know ma’am. I just need a signature.” The woman eyed him up and down nervously, “Uh, it says it’s from the Paul Mitchelle school?”

“I, like, wasn’t expecting anything.” She opened the door fully and twisted a loose strand of hair around her finger and giggled nervously. “Where’s Ned? He, like, usually does the deliveries here.”

“Uh…who?” The man asked as he took in the sudden shock of beauty in the doorway. The man was doubly surprised by the fact that from the look of the neighborhood and the quiet paranoia in the woman’s voice he was expecting a cougar, not a coed, and then surprised again by the fact the coed wore only a towel around an ample chest. His immediate thought was how insane and cliche’ the scenario in which he found himself was as he stared at the nearly naked woman. Not one to let a golden opportunity slip through his fingers, the man smiled and spoke in a deep voice, “Ned’s on a different route today. I just need a signature and I can give you my package.”

“Okay” Lucy giggled nervously and took the clipboard from the delivery man. Noting the lack of a delivery van in front of the house and an odd bulge under the man’s shirt.

The two traded items and the delivery man put his arm on the door frame, scanning inside to see what he could, “So, it’s just you Ms…hole? All alone? In this big house?”

“No.” She said, pressing the box to her chest and putting her cleavage on even more of a display than before, “I, like, live with my friends, Danny and Val.”

“Oh really?” The man smirked, was it possible he was lucky enough to have landed himself in some sort of sexy sorority?! The man wipes his brow of sweat, “You know, it is crazy hot today…especially in these trucks. I don’t suppose I could come in and have a glass of water to cool off?” Lucy was incredibly beautiful even without an ounce of make up. If he was lucky enough he could possibly have more than just the blonde bombshell in front of him. Even if these other girls…Danni and Val, were only half as hot as Lucy it would definitely be worth rolling the dice.

Lucy swallowed hard as the man eyed her hungrily. “I have to go!” She slammed the door quickly. The man had been scanning the interior of the house as soon as she opened the door. He wasn’t even hiding the fact he was looking for possible entry points! What kind of delivery man asks to come inside for ‘a drink’?! ‘He just didn’t want witnesses!’ Lucy’s mind reeled and quickly took out her phone and dialed Danny. ‘What did I do wrong?!’ She shivered as she triple checked that the front door was locked in the living room and heard the familiar sound of Danny’s voicemail before calling him again and checking the door in the garage was locked. ‘I’m so totally stupid. I, like, spent too much time with my with Harlow’s mom at his memorial.’ She heard Danny’s voicemail again. After securing the garage door Lucy rushed to the back door to ensure it too was locked, “Let myself, like, relax too much,” She said to herself as she dialed Danny again. ‘Is it cause Danny’s gone?’ She thought as she picked up a dining chair and wedged it between the handle and the floor. Returning to the living room window Lucy’s heart raced as she watched the driver only now walking down the driveway towards a black suv. ‘Why’s he still here?’ She panted. ‘I knew it, no truck!’ She, letting the drape fall back into place. ‘Is that, like, why he hasn’t called?!’ Lucy bit her lip anxiously, ‘‘Did they do something to Daniel?!’ Forcing her breath to slow down she made sure she pressed each number correctly before calling Danny again.

Unseen by Lucy during her mad dash was the disappointed and flummoxed delivery man staring at the front door after she nearly slammed his fingers in the door. Stranger still was hearing the sound of the door locking and unlocking multiple times afterwards. ‘Dad always said don’t stick your dick in crazy.’ He comforted himself as he absentmindedly checked that all of his fingers were still there before turning down the drive. As if his day wasn’t already frustrating enough with having to take a new shift, some asshole parking in front of the crazy coed’s house where he’d normally park, now he’d have to spend the rest of his day walking around with blue balls!

The seconds ticked away like hours as Lucy jumped at the sound of every car that passed by or distant siren while she waited for Valerie. Three trucks, five sirens and nine cars later Lucy heard the familiar sound of keys sliding into the front door followed by the sound of the door slamming hard into something heavy and solid. “Wha–” Valerie grunted as she ran into the door. “What the hell?!” Valerie shouted. “Lucy?!”

“Val?!” Lucy yelled back from the kitchen.

“What? Yes it’s me! Are you okay?”

“Hold on!” Lucy shouted as she ran to the front door. A couple of seconds later Valerie could hear Lucy grunting and straining. “...Just, like, come in through the garage.”

Val sighed and turned down the walk as the garage door rose and Lucy eyed the street from the door. “Okay, what’s going on?” She asked as she ducked under the half raised garage door, pausing as she saw Lucy still wore only the towel around her chest.  “Please tell me you didn’t text me ‘911’ just because the washer is broken?” the garage door lowered back into place.

“Please, I’m not some drama queen!” Lucy huffed as she placed one end of a jump rope tied around a wooden serving spoon into the washing machine.

“What are you…” Val paused when she noticed the other end of the rope was tied to the knob of the door that opened out into the garage, “What’s going on?”

Lucy bit her lip and closed the lid to the washing machine. “There was, like, this guy, he was, like, totally casing the place and trying to force his way inside!”

“Really?!” Val gasped, “Are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

Lucy shook her head, “No. I mean, like, I’m fine. I didn’t let him in, obvi. But then he just kept watching the house and then these–did you see the vans sitting across the street?!”

“What vans?”

“The vans!” Lucy stamped her barefoot, “Come here.” She grabbed Val’s hand and drug her to the living room window where Valerie saw for the first time the couch that was jammed against the door that barred her entrance. “See?” Lucy said and pulled the drape aside just enough to show Valerie white windowless van with a green tornado logo sitting in the driveway across the street and two houses down.

“What the ac repair guy?”

“The ‘delivery guy’–” Lucy said with a heavy roll of her eyes–“was in a black suv, then, like, as soon as he leaves that–this guy’s totally just been sitting out there all day.”

“An AC repairman.” Val corrected.

“He hasn’t gotten out of his truck–van, whatever, at all!”

“Wait, how long was he there? Because you texted me, like, twenty minutes ago.”

“I…all day.” Lucy said, twisting a strand of red hair around her finger.

Valeri paused, taking in a deep breath before asking, “You saw the van out there…all day?”

“Yeah, like,...yeah totally.” Lucy said weakly, twisting the strand of hair tighter and tighter.

“Even while you were bathing?”

“...yes.” tighter and tighter the hair wrapped around her thin finger.

“It wasn’t out there when I left for school three hours ago.”

“They probably, like, had a different van then!” The thin strand of hair finally snapped causing Lucy’s eyes to immediately water. She had worn extensions for so long now she forgot where her hair ended and the extensions began. Until now.

Valerie sighed and put her arm around her distraught friend, pulling her into a sideways hug. “It’s okay now. I’m here now so why don’t you finish your bath and…I’ll keep an eye out, okay?”

Lucy’s eyes narrowed and she cocked her head to the side like a confused puppy for a second before she remembered she was still only wearing a towel around her chest. “Oh–” She giggled, feeling the thumping in her chest finally slow–“I forgot about that. I, um, like, actually, was just getting out of the shower…but after all this a bath sounds like a totally awesome idea."

Valerie started to say something about how ridiculous Lucy was acting but thought better of it. She knew better than to directly argue against someone’s paranoia while they were still actively in a paranoid state of mind. At present it was better to get her to calm down and feel safe. “Come on.” Valerie took Lucy’s hand and gave the scared girl a warm smile. “I’ve got some scented candles in my bathroom that are supposedly totally great for destressing.”

Lucy twisted the torn hair strand in her fingers “You’ll, like, tell me if you see anyone, right?”

Valerie nodded. “Of course.”

“Yeah…okay.” Lucy’s shoulders went slack as she allowed Valerie to lead her to the tub.

After helping Lucy set up the bathtub with scented candles and a swirling pink and purple bath bomb; Valerie removed the chair from the sliding back door and untied the jump rope from the garage door with a muted clang when the wooden serving spoon fell into the empty dryer. Saving the worst for last Valerie walked back into the living room and stared at the couch wedged side-long between the door and the fireplace. A couple of cursory pulls on the couch told her it would take more than simply turning it to free the cumbersome couch.

After several minutes struggling to unstick the jammed couch Val panted with exhaustion and wiped her brow. ‘She may be dumber than a bag of hair about most things but she’s got a PHD in being a paranoid loon.’ Val thought with a giggle. Almost immediately feeling remorse for her internal meanness and looked towards the hallway to check that Lucy hadn’t just suddenly appeared and somehow developed telepathy to boot. The old habits were so easy to fall back into if you weren’t careful. ‘Even something as simple as being mean to Lucy again might cause me to be that old high school bitch.’ She thought unhappily, ‘Harlow may have deserved it but not Lucy. Lucy and I are much better friends than that.’ Valerie reminded herself as fresh memories of pulling coed after coed flitted into her mind. “No.” She chided, even as the hazy memory of Lucy’s fingers tormenting Valerie while they danced in the club not so long ago caused her face to flush bright red, “Bad girl.” She huffed, bunching her skirt in her fists before walking into the kitchen and taking an ice cube out of the tray to rub along her neck.

Taking a break from unbarricading the house Valerie got a glass of ice water to cool herself down while she wrote in her diary. ‘L’s always been paranoid,’ She wrote ‘but I saw no sign of it being this bad when she L lived on her own, not on this level. What changed?’ Suddenly the phone rang, distracting the blonde from further theorization.

After about twenty minutes into the bath Lucy was starting to feel herself calm down from today's activities when she heard Val’s phone ringing from her bedroom causing Lucy to jump sending a torrent of pink water over the edge of the tub. Calming herself down, Lucy focused and listened until she could just barely hear Valerie speaking through the thin wall that separated the master bedroom from the master bath.

“-ything's fine. We just had a minor scare, that's all.” There was a pause before Valerie responded, “You know how she can be better than most.”

‘Is she talking about me?’ Lucy thought and slowly crept out of the bathtub. Quietly wrapping a towel around her chest, Lucy opened the door just a crack so she could hear more clearly.

“She’s in the tub having a nice soak.”

Another pause and Lucy thought she could just about make out a familiar voice, “Why call me?” the small voice asked.

“I told you it wasn’t anything major. Lucy’s a strong girl. She probably just got worried about you being all by yourself is all. –” she paused briefly–“Yeah you got a bunch of meatheads protecting you.” Valerie giggled. ‘My Danny!’ Lucy covered her mouth, silencing the giggle with her hand and her chest tightened even as her shoulders relaxed. “Who’s Tyra?” Val asked as Lucy grabbed the doorknob again.