Chapter 1

Marie was perplexed. Her dating life had suddenly dried out. Until last month every Friday and Saturday nights were dating nights, she was always asked out by one or other boy.

Comparing notes with her friends, they found out that it was not an isolated case. None of the girls in her group of friends, Marie, Jenny, Claire, and Zoey, had been on a date in the last four weeks.

It was a problem, because prom was only a few weeks ahead and none of them had been asked. Claire, the blonde of the group, had asked Paul, a nice boy who had a crush on her and dated from time to time, and he had just looked at her and said: “Not only no, but hell, no!”, leaving her almost in tears.

Marie then called John, her “steady” -meaning, the boy she called when nobody else asked her out- to ask him if he would take her to the prom. John laughed and said no. Marie was astounded, looking at the phone screen.

Jenny dialed Mark -her oldest, reliable friend who was always happy to help her with math and whose advances she courteously but invariably rejected after every date (and who hadn’t asked her out in several weeks)- but the call went unanswered.

Zoey’s suitor was Peter, Marie’s big brother. He used to follow Zoe like a puppy, taking her to dinner or places like the museum or helping her to study, to the amusement of the girls. With nothing to lose, Zoe called him to ask him to the prom. He was courteous and kind, but also said no.

The meeting broke up and Marie went home. Once there, she went directly to her brother’s room and knocked.

“Peter, are you there?” called Marie.

“Yes” answered Peter. She opened the door decided to unravel the mistery.

“What’s wrong with you?” she shouted. “You were infatuated with Zoey for years, and now that she asks you to prom you say no!” Marie thought the direct attack was the best strategy to know the truth. But Peter just looked at her, shook his head and returned to his book.

“What the...?” she thought, astounded. Peter used to be a nice boy, but now he had looked at her as if she were just something he had stomped on with his shoe.

“Peter, sorry about that,” she said. “Please, talk to me. Zoey was very upset. Why did you reject her?

Peter sighed and asked: “Do you really want to know?”

“Of course I want to know!” she said.

“Ok, but it’s not a nice answer.” She kept silent, waiting.

“Tell me, how many dates did Zoey and I have?”

Marie tried to remember. “I don’t know, six, seven?”

He laughed a grim laugh. “Twelve. Twelve dates in the last year. And, how many of those dates ended with more than a peck in the cheek?”

Again, Marie thought before answering. “I don’t know. Half of them?”

Another grim laugh. “None. Zero, nada, zilch. Twelve dates, not even a kiss in the lips and hours of attention and care and helping her with her studies and hundreds of dollars spent for nothing.”

She was outraged. “How you dare to think that spending money on a girl gives you any rights to her body? What kind of jerk are you?”

He looked at her eyes and said only one word. “Ross”.

Her tirade abruptly stopped. “What?” she asked.

“Ross,” he repeated. “You know, the guy who doesn’t need to ask you out, doesn’t need to hold you when you’re sad, doesn’t need to spend a red cent on any of you, the guy that doesn’t need to treat you like queens. The guy that Claire, Jenny, you and Zoey fuck at least once a week. The guy who gets everything from you unlike the bunch of idiots that take you on dates, spend money on you, care about you and don’t get shit. That Ross.”