by J. Minter
David decided that she had definitely had more than just her nose done. She looked just like all the other girls at her table, except that she had brown hair, at least for now. David must have been stunned into honesty, because he said, “No, I don’t think I do like it,” out loud, and then he stumbled backward toward his table, knocking over a chair on his way.
“Hey, you okay, man?” Jonathan said. All his guys cracked up a little bit at his klutziness.
“All these girls think you’re hot; don’t fuck it up,” Arno said, slapping David on the back.
But David was feeling all quiet and exhausted with disappointment, so he excused himself to go to the bathroom. He was trying to figure out which way the bathroom was when he heard someone calling his name. He turned and saw Sandra Anderson. She was sitting with a bunch of her friends at a table. And he discovered that he was disappointed that she was still wearing all her clothes.
“Did you have a good time at the party last weekend?” he said idiotically. Then he saw the look on Sandra’s face, and remembered what Rob had said about her being “super uncool and a little ugly” and realized just how idiotic it was. “Hey, I’m sorry about Rob. He didn’t act in a way I’d ever want a friend of mine to act.”
“Yeah, that really sucked. Rob, I mean,” she said.
“I know,” David said.
“Well, it’s good to see you, anyway.”
“Yeah, um… can I get your number before we leave?” David said. He made a little gesture and said, “I don’t have a pen on me, as you can see.”
“Of course you can have my number,” she said, smiling happily.
“Okay, don’t forget, though.”
“David, that’s really not going to happen.” Sandra winked at him, and David smiled to himself as he walked away.
When he made his way back to his table, he felt like he’d let go of something really heavy and self-destructive.
Mickey was still acting like a cheerleader at the front of the room, and Jonathan and Arno still seemed to be getting along fine. Jonathan hadn’t said a single mean thing to him tonight.
“Is he going to be able to do it?” David asked as he sat down. Jonathan still had his suit on, and Arno was wearing jeans but no shirt.
“I don’t know, man, this seems like a tough crowd,” Arno said.
Just then, the door opened and a gust of warm night air blew over the nervous, giggling crowd.
the naked crowd and me
I was starting to get worried for Mickey—he had been up there trying to get everyone to take their clothes off for almost an hour now. But then the front door of the restaurant opened, and in came Patch with that girl Greta right behind him.
Everyone got very quiet, and I heard Mimi Rathbone and her crew whispering about how he was the real Hottest Private School Boy. I also heard one of them saying, a little louder than was strictly speaking necessary, “But who’s he with? She doesn’t look like anybody, does she?”
Patch was still talking to Mickey. “Hey, I’m not late, am I?” he said.
“Naw, man, just getting started,” Mickey said back. I wondered if Mickey would be weird about Greta, since after all, he had pursued her hardcore last winter. But then she gave him a very sisterly kiss on either cheek, and everything seemed okay. Mickey pointed them in our direction, and the whole restaurant watched as we loudly greeted our long-lost friend. Greta gave us each a kiss on the cheek, too.
Then Patch and Greta astounded us all by pulling their shirts over their heads, and pulling their jeans over their ankles. Neither of them had been wearing underwear, and they both looked tan and freckled naked.
They sat on the chairs in front of our table like it was the most natural thing in the world, and then Greta poured us each a glass of champagne, and said, “Cheers, guys. It’s really good to see you.”
And then we all clinked.
That did it, I guess, because to my utter amazement, everyone in the room started taking their clothes off right then. Patch and Greta just made being naked look so cool that everyone else became instantly comfortable with it. Arno stripped down to nothing, and then when David pulled his boxers down, he set off another whole round of whistles and appreciative murmuring.
Pretty soon, the whole room was a sea of bare skin and naked thighs and bellies. Mickey started taking pictures, and everyone posed for him and moved as he said. There was a lot of teasing and laughing, but everyone managed to hold still, more or less, when Mickey told them to.
I couldn’t do it, though.
I just couldn’t take my clothes off in front of all those people. I stayed right where I was, with my suit jacket on and my shirt buttoned up to the collar.
In my own defense, I’d like to say that the events of Saturday night had been enough public nakedness for me for one week. And somehow the idea of being totally bare in front of your best people is a little frightening. But after some teasing and cajoling, everyone sort of forgot that I was wearing a suit. Maybe it was because it was beige, and I almost blended in.
Otherwise, everyone was extremely naked. There were so many exposed breasts that I didn’t even really care about looking at them anymore. The whole thing had kind of turned into a party—even the waitstaff was drinking, and I’m pretty sure they started turning away people at the door, even the ones with dinner reservations. A blue-grass band had appeared out of nowhere and set up in the corner, and were now playing energetically. In the buff.
Me and my guys were all getting along, too. It was almost like we hadn’t just spent a lot of time alienated from and resenting each other. I’d apologized to Arno for being a dick, and he’d blown it off like it didn’t matter at all. And then we’d actually hugged. Before he was naked, obviously. Then, when Mickey had taken enough pictures of the room, he came over to the table, and we all toasted to his success.
“Mickey, I think you might be a genius,” Patch said.
“Nah,” Mickey said. “I’m just crazier than all y’all put together.”
“Can I take a picture of you?” Greta said. We all said yeah, and she took a digital camera out of her bag, and stepped away from us so that she could get the best shot. Then the flash went off several times. She laughed happily at the results. “They weren’t lying. You guys really are pretty damn hot.” Then she passed the camera around so we could see what we looked like.
There we were, four naked guys and me in my Duncan Quinn suit. And we did look cool. Not overly posed or hyped cool, just like a bunch of guys who knew who they were, whether they were totally revealing it or not. I had the feeling that we were all going to be okay with each other after tonight.
They kept Fresh closed to the usual dinner crowd, and most of the naked people stayed really late. It seemed like we had to talk to all of them, but as much as we could, we just talked to each other, filling each other in on where we had been and where we were headed next.
Don’t miss Hold On Tight, the next Insiders book!
The guys have gotten way too notorious for the city. Did someone say road trip?
Jonathan visits his brother at college… will Ted out-cool him?
Mickey is taking his naked pictures on tour… what will he photograph next?!
Arno finds his first love… now he needs to figure out where she went.
Patch searches for the perfect college to reunite with Greta… but are they destined to be together?
David has an amazing new girlfriend… until she moves in with his family!
While you wait, check out the boys’ latest on www.insidersbook.com.
Also in this series:
the insiders
pass it on
take it off
Copyright © 2005 by J. Minter and Alloy Entertainment
All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce, or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printi
ng, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
Published by Bloomsbury Publishing, New York, London, and Berlin
Distributed to the trade by Holtzbrinck Publishers
Electronic edition published in June 2012
www.bloomsburyteens.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Minter, J.
Break every rule : an insiders novel / J. Minter.—1st U.S. ed.
p. cm.
Summary: The friendship of five wealthy Manhattan teens is threatened by a contest to choose the Hottest Private School Boy.
[1. Friendship—Fiction. 2. Dating (Social customs)—Fiction. 3. New York
(N.Y.)—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.S3872Br 2005 [Fic]—dc22 2005012233
Produced by Alloy Entertainment
151 West 26th Street
New York, NY 10001
First U.S. Edition 2005
Bloomsbury Publishing, Children’s Books, U.S.A.
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
ISBN: 978-1-61963-014-7 (e-book)
