“Not Sam gorgeous. Not Neevie gorgeous."

“Miss ‘Most Gorgeous Thing I've Ever Seen'," Belle muttered with a hint of bitterness.

I rubbed my forehead.

“I am NEVER going to live that one down, am I?"

“Oh, we'll all hold it against you for the rest of your life, yes,"

Belle confirmed.

I looked at Mari steadily. "It has nothing to do with your looks.”

“Then it's my personality... or lack thereof," she sighed with a shrug.

“My mom's right. Maybe if I'd been more of a flirtatious, confident guy-chaser I would've had a chance to have you.”

I frowned.

“You would -- scratch that -- you ARE an amazing girlfriend.

You are so sweet and caring and loyal, PLUS you're phenomenal in the sack. You're still the BJ Queen of the BTC, and I am a Lucky, Lucky man to be here with you right now. I absolutely LOVE snuggling with you in bed. This ass..." I spanked both cheeks lightly, “is outrageously awesome. You're the total package. I mean that."

“Then why have you never given the idea of being with me... for real... a second thought?"

“I HAVE given it a second thought, and a third thought, and more. I'm gonna be honest: for years I never gave you a first thought. You were so shy and hesitant that I never wanted to scare you off, even while all of the others were pushing boundaries. And then even once we got started, you were so gung-ho about the Team Belle thing. Neevie had always been plain about her desire to be with me, so it was easy to contemplate being with her. Belle made her love -- and her jealousy -- pretty clear as well. And even though Sam told me she didn't want a romantic relationship, she simultaneously told me how much she Loved me and wanted to give in to her emotions. But you spent so much time insisting you had no further designs on me and were happy to just be friends that... well... can you really blame me for believing you?"

"I know, I know, I'm not being fair right now. I told you for years I wasn't interested in that kind of relationship. Then again, Sam was pretty insistent she wasn't interested in that kind of relationship but you two still ended up together.”

I glanced over at the pool, where Sam and Zofi were sunning themselves face-down. They both wore sunglasses, but their heads were also turned toward us, so I had to assume they were listening. "Sam insisted she didn't want to be with me while simultaneously telling me she was totally in love and wanted to be with me. You, on the other hand? All I had was, ‘Team Belle!‘ I pumped my fist in the air for emphasis.

She sighed.

“My mom's right. I'm not aggressive enough to get a real quality guy."

“Your mom is dead wrong. You can't base your entire romantic future on an admittedly too-crazy-to-be-real situation where your five best friends are all hooking up with the same guy. At the very least, your ratio is about to dramatically improve. You're going to a tech school with a three-to-one male-female ratio. You're stunningly beautiful, you've got an awe-inspiring rack, and your body is built for sex.

You're NEVER gonna have to be a guy-chaser. All the guys at that school will be chasing You."

Mari mused on that. "That IS a pleasant thought."

“And not just any guys - Caltech guys. Intelligent guys with good prospective futures.”

“Socially-inept guys who got picked on by jocks and won't know how to string two sentences together around a girl with big tits, much less know what to do with my body built for sex if they actually managed to get my panties off."

“Well, some of them, maybe," I conceded. "But in that situation, you can afford to be picky. Find someone who will care about you for more than your hot body and big boobs. Find someone who will love you the way you deserve to be loved, someone who's the total package and truly worthy of you. Because I want you to realize that--"

“That while I may be nothing more than Girlfriend #6 in the BTC, I may very well be in the top one percentile of girls at Caltech." Mari rolled up onto her right shoulder and arched an eyebrow at me. The position also bared her big boobs as she posed prettily with her left hand on her bent left leg.