Chapter One

All throughout middle school, I had hated the name Adam Watson. It was a name the school bullies had become all too familiar with, and it became a name I figured was cursed, and I too for having it. They always liked to give me increasingly bizarre reasons for their bullying – “Adam can’t talk to girls, he must like men,” “Adam still wears tighty-whities,” “Adam doesn’t like looking at porn,” crap like that. I knew their true reason for picking on me – I was just another geeky, socially awkward kid who had a tendency to talk in a way considered too ‘proper’ for middle school, and an inability to talk to girls. The ‘proper’ talk was how my parents raised me. The inability to talk to girls, well, that was just a gift from God.

The bullying got so bad that eventually I stopped going outside for recess, I stopped talking to people during my classes, and eventually I stopped talking to people. As far as middle school went, it was an easy solution that was basically foolproof. But by the time I had gotten to high school, I found out that my luck had drained away.

After I plead and plead to my parents, I was transferred to a high school far away from my old middle school. There were none of my old bullies in sight, but as I had learned in the first few weeks of grade nine, socialization was a bit more key. I was talking to people, but shyly, quietly and I’m sure what could be seen as begrudgingly. However, that all changed quickly.

It was a cool-ish October morning when I was woken by my mother’s bellowing voice.

“Adam! Get up! You’re going to miss the bus!”

Shit. Had I slept through my alarm? A lazy opening of one eye and a peek at my digital clock answered that question with a jolt of panic. I bolted upwards, jumped out of my bed and pulled on the closest shirt I could see. As I found and put on a pair of pants, I inspected myself in the mirror.

Nothing special, to be expected. A lanky, almost gangly teen stared back at me, his longish dirty blond hair flopped over his head, just enough that you couldn’t see his piercing green eyes, something I was told once was my best feature. Mind you, my grandma told me that, so I wasn’t exactly going to call that the popular vote quite yet. I grimaced slightly at the state of my hair and what I saw as a skinny, unattractive body. The baggy shirt I had randomly picked helped a bit, I reasoned to myself. I shook my head, pushed my hair out of my face and raced downstairs.

The first thing I saw when I headed into the kitchen downstairs was my dad looking at his watch. “Just missed it…” he commented bitterly. “It’s a shame you don’t have a Delorean on you.”

Ignoring his dated movie joke, I sputtered out, “I missed the bus?” My heart sank. The high school was, as I mentioned, far away, and I didn’t have any other way to get there.

He raised his eyebrows. “Nope,” he replied without a trace of a smile. “I’m just kidding. Now get your stuff together, you don’t have long.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. Two things about my dad that created a sometimes unnerving mix was that he was an absolute joker who never took anything seriously, and that he never ever smiled. He wasn’t heartless, he just liked to show his jokiness and happiness in other ways. Unless he was playing a prank on me, I never really minded it. Though, today was definitely an exception.

As I gathered my stuff together, my mother started to stammer. She was an absolute worrier, and was a little hesitant by nature, as if anything she could say would drive me to depression. I turned to her expectantly, still packing away my textbooks and lunch.

She noticed my stare and cleared her throat. “Sweetie, before you go, I want to have a quick word with you.”

“Sure, but make it quick please.” I replied flatly. “Doc Brown over there says I don’t have long.”

“

Oh good, you got the reference.” Dad replied dryly as he sipped his coffee. “Hey Marcia, maybe I’m not as old as I thought.” He called out to my mother.

Mom nodded at dad with a patient smile on her face, then turned her attention back to me. “Sweetie, we’ve been talking to your teachers, and frankly, I’m just a little worried.”

What a surprise, I thought. “Worried? Why? Are my grades bad? It’s only been a month, I’m not that dumb.”

“You’re not dumb, Adam!” My mother said sharply. “It’s not your grades. Your teachers are just worried because you’re unusually quiet in class. I thought it would help once we got you to a school where you could have a fresh start, but it doesn’t seem to be helping, and frankly, it would make things a lot easier on me to get you bussing to a closer school…”

I caught on to what she was saying immediately. “Mom, I can’t go to that school. Everyone there will know me. They were happy with bullying me before. It’ll make my life a living hell.”

It’s true, mom had a hell of a time convincing the board to get me bussing from a whole town over without being in a special education program, but I was just starting to get used to a life where I wasn’t the center of attention, and I would fight like hell before I had to give that up.

Mom bit her lip in thought. “I don’t know, sweetie.” She finally said. “It just seems like the school isn’t helping you. If you were a bit more social, it would make it all worth it.” She paused for effect. “And it would mean the world to me.”

I exhaled sharply. I wanted to tell her that being social was the opposite of what I craved, but while my eyes scanned the room looking for an explanation, they found the clock. Oh, shit.

“I-I’ll think about it, mom.” I said quickly as I scooped up my backpack. “I’ll try, okay?”

She gave me a weak smile as I headed out the door. Poor mom. I was a bit too hard on her, knowing all of the things she did for me, but I couldn’t help who I was.

Or could I? The thought crept into my mind as I sat on the bus, staring out the window. Maybe, even if I considered it a living hell, I should do it for my mom, not me. I should prove myself to be a social success. Even just a little. That could keep me at this school, then once I had one or two friends, I could stop talking again, and we would all win.

I started to smile. Maybe I should just be spontaneous. Be that guy who did crazy things and met the craziest of friends. Maybe it might even make me happier. As I thought about it more, my smile turned into a grin. Okay. I’ll do it.

***

My homeroom, science class, was honestly the most fun I had all day. I had one reason for that, and the reason was Mr. Carrozza. This professor was just the right amount of friendly, and the right amount of crazy to make me both smile and be glad I wasn’t him.

“Brilliant to see you all here again today, class.” He began after the morning announcements died down. “Now, today we’ll be looking at the basic properties of light in relation to matter. Now, some of my comrades would say that this is ‘senior physics’ or something like that, but we can take it, can’t we, hmm?”

He turned to us, his bug-eyes magnified by his overly large glasses. His white hair contrasted with his weirdly-tanned face. His face quickly turned into a smile when he heard a couple of groans.

“Just a joke, class. Pardon my academic sense of humor. We’re just going to be looking at concave and convex lenses. If you ask me, the lesson is really watered down, almost as if the principal is insulting our very intelligence… Oh, wait!”

Derailed from his weekly speech about how we learn too little, he hobbled over to his desk and retrieved a paper.

“I do believe the announcements were supposed to cover this, but it seems they haven’t, so pardon the brief interruption.” He said, then pursed his lips as he squinted and read the paper. He made an audible ‘ah’ sound and turned his attention to the class.

“It’s that time again, class.” He said simply. “Student council is hiring grade 9 students to join them in governing the school.”

Student council. Only the most popular kids get into that class. And only the best. All four teachers a student had needed to vouch for a candidate if they wanted to join, and only one student from grade 9 could join. Mr. Carrozza went over the duties of student council before pressing on.

“I don’t suppose any of you brilliant young minds would like to give the old stick a whack across the tree, would you?”

Silence poured through the room. “What does that even mean?” a muscle-clad hoodie-wearer called from across the room.

Mr. Carrozza sighed. “Would any of you be interested in trying out for Student Council?” He asked. His eyes scanned the room, his tongue running over his lips in concentration as he squinted at all of us in succession. When his eyes passed over me, his eyes lit up and he donned a shocked expression.

“Why Mr. Watson, this is certainly an unexpected surprise!”

What? I looked confusedly at him, then at all of the eyes peering at me. Finally, I saw my arm. My own arm, reaching into the air as if I were painted on the Sistine Chapel. Oh, no. Oh God no. When did my arm go up like that? I willed it down. Student Council was not for me. It was not for… Actually…

What if I tried out? I would definitely lose, so there was no harm there. And it would calm mom down. Maybe this could be my spontaneous thing. With newfound confidence, I nodded. “Yes, Mr. Carrozza.” I said, as if speaking with my voice for the first time. “I would like to try out for Student Council.”

He fumbled with his words. He certainly was not expecting this. Finally, he produced a piece of paper from his desk, and put it gently on my desk. “Well, I must say, good luck.” He said, then added, “See me after class.”

I looked at him with confusion until he pointed to the lower section of the paper. The higher section required all of my personal information, and the bottom half was for my marks, comments, and signatures from teachers. I should have been nervous, but I was actually excited. I had no clue why.

“Alright, everyone, enough about tawdry school activities.” Mr. Carrozza said sternly as he walked back to his desk. “Open your books to page 147. You should see ‘The properties of a convex lens.’”

Everyone turned back to their desks immediately. I’d know, I sat at the back of the class. Well, everyone except one girl. He eyes seemed to be locked onto the paper I was holding. I glanced at her from the blackboard to see a look I couldn’t identify. It seemed like… confused intrigue. Her full lips seemed curved into something just short of a smile, as if she was wondering why someone like me would want to be in Student Council. Her brown, wavy hair covered one of her hazel eyes, and for a fellow grade nine, I had to say her body looked damn good, from what little I saw of it. Still, I didn’t want to be caught staring and apparently neither did she. Even though I’d been looking at her for a good second, she suddenly snapped to attention and turned back around. Curious, but too shy to even think about it without scolding myself, I turned back towards the class.

***

After class, I stayed behind, as Mr. Carrozza instructed me. When he looked up from his desk to find me still sitting there, he looked puzzled for a second, then his eyes lit up. “Ah, of course, master Watson.” He said, half-joking, as he got up from his desk and overlooked my paper. in a distracted voice, he added, “Yes, you’re one of my best students, you know.”

“Thank you, sir.” I replied flatly.

“Oh, no need for the ‘sir!’” He shot back playfully. “It makes me feel old.” He stopped what he was doing, shot a look straight up at nothing in particular, and added gravely, “My God, I am old.” Strangely, he just chuckled and went back to the paper. One signature later, he sighed happily and returned to the desk. I read his kinds words aloud and thanked him again, and he happily shooed me away. I left the classroom feeling a lot better than I normally did while I was in school.

***

Math class felt for difficult for me, in terms of approaching the teacher. True to his name, Mr. Graves took his job very seriously, and not only canned any and all jokes his brain ever thought up since the ’90s, but also made you feel scared just by asking him a question. When he was finished giving the lesson, with as much fake confidence as I could muster, I walked up to his desk and cleared my throat nervously.

“Uh, Mr. Graves?” I stated weakly.

He looked up from an assignment he was marking with one eyebrow cocked. “What can I do for you, Adam?” He asked very seriously.

“Um, I was wondering if you could…” I trailed off and held up the paper. “Could you please… sign this?” I managed.

He looked it over in my hand. “I suppose.” He replied. He lowered his eyebrows and his eyes met mine as if they were going to fire missiles. “But next time, please ask me after class. You may have interrupted some students’ concentration.”

I turned to the class. Many, if not most, of my fellow classmates were staring at me as I sat at Mr. Graves’ desk.

“Sorry.” I mumbled lamely. The class collectively chuckled, and I immediately felt weak in the chest. Great. I tried to say one little thing, and already people were laughing at my stupidity. I must have looked like a real ass. A low-down, stupid-

“Adam!” Mr. Graves said sternly as he held out the paper. I emitted an audible ‘oh’ and grabbed the paper. “Thanks.” I said to him.

“You’re welcome.” He said, returning to his paper. “And Adam?”

I held back. “Yes?”

“May I offer some advice?”

“Certainly, sir.” I replied.

“Student council is about popularity and ability. But ability only counts with the teachers. With students, it’s popularity. That’s going to be your main hurdle. Don’t worry about the teachers. You’re a good student. Worry about how you’re going to come across as popular.” He looked up from his paper, admitting a look of genuine concern, the first time he let any sign of emotion show in his classroom. “No offense, of course.” He said with a tone matching his uncharacteristically concerned face.

“None taken.” I said. He was speaking the truth. When I made my way back to the desk, I felt a hand on my shoulder behind me. I cringed. This was it. Someone was going to hit me for something stupid I said.

“Man, Mr. Graves is such an asshole.” I heard a voice whisper sympathetically from behind me. I turned around to see a guy with a nearly shaven head looking back at me, dressed in a black baggy sweater. “Don’t you worry about him. You can make yourself popular.” He added for support.

No one really talked to me before without due reason, so I just stammered as a response. He broke out into a grin and added, “And I loved the way you said ‘sorry.’ Classic, man.” He held out his fist. I’m not proud to say it’s only from movies that I knew I had to do a fist-bump.

I felt a strong wave of relief wash over me. He thought me saying ‘sorry’ was cool, not pathetic. But… Was Mr. Graves an asshole? I actually liked him a lot more after our conversation today. Maybe it was because he knew how to cut the bullshit and speak the truth. I didn’t know.

“I’m Carson, by the way.” The guy behind me whispered.

“Adam. Adam Watson.” I said back.

“Good to meet you, man. Good on ya going for Student Council. It’s usually only pricks and sluts that would try out anyway. I’d vote for ya.”

I was genuinely scared by this guy’s kindness, but that feeling was a shadow in comparison to the pride in knowing I had secured one vote. “Yeah?” I said, unable to hide my smile. He simply nodded. I nodded back, and turned back to my assignment.

***

My English teacher was overenthusiastic, to say the least. You could barely ever catch her without some sort of smile on her face. When I presented the paper to her, words were not needed – all she did was smile enthusiastically and take the sheet.

“I’m very impressed with you.” Mrs. Jackson said in a way so sweet that I began to doubt her sincerity. “Very impressed.” She handed me back the sheet, the comments section coated with completely overstated accounts of my success in English class. I smiled at her, probably a bit more weakly than I should have, and took a seat.

This time, it wasn’t so ceremonious. Nobody had any reason to look up from their reading at me, and I preferred it that way. I scanned my eyes over the class from my seat at the back and noticed the same girl again.

I never even knew she was in two of my classes. This time, I had more than a second to observe her, and it would be criminal of me to describe her as anything less than beautiful, even from the back. She was wearing an adorable dark green dress which hugged her curves nicely. Even from the back, I could tell that she had to be at least a B cup, if not larger. Her waist seemed to disappear into her chair, although the chair itself wasn’t that wide. I could tell, she was absolutely gorgeous, and I found myself wishing that she would do something. Turn around, stand up, anything to help me get a better look at her.

My wish was granted as her back stiffened and she stretched. She rolled her shoulders as she moved her head from side to side, moving the hair out of her face. Being diagonally across from her, I barely saw the outer details of her face.

Even as she worked, she had the beginnings of an adorable smile constantly on display. Near the corner of her mouth moving up to her nose were just the right amount of freckles to look adorable. Her hair, brown and beautiful, practically shone, and cascaded down her head down to her waist, and complimented her face amazingly. Her nose was a perfect shape, and what little I could see of her eye was perfect too. She honestly looked like a painting.

Before she had the chance to turn around and notice me, I turned back to my reading, but noticed a fluttering feeling in my heart that I couldn’t quite place. For the first time, I had a crush.

***

In hindsight, I had no clue why I had picked drama class as an elective. I enjoyed watching movies, and shows like Whose Line Is It Anyway, but I had the acting skills of a dead cat. I read s like they were an ingredients label on a Boring Sandwich, and could improv about as well as reading s. Not to mention my shyness was a huge impairment on my ability to participate.

However, I had to give the class some credit – the teacher was fantastic. His name was Mr. Salvador, a Spanish-born man who allegedly went to theater school in Paris of all places. He always had a serious expression, topped off by a small pair of glasses and little-to-no hair at all times. He first got my respect when he outlined that unlike other drama classes, he would not focus on Shakespeare and taking apart s to find their deeper meaning. In fact, the guy was unpredictable and unusual in his exercises to boot. The first thing he did with us was go on the auditorium’s stage and tell the class who we were – without using words. Needless to say, I didn’t have a hard time telling the class I was shy.

Getting him to sign my paper would prove to be the most difficult out of all the teachers, though, since he began class the same way every day – arriving later than all of his students, walking to the stage, sitting on it’s edge, facing us, and simply saying, “Hello.” Then he began the lesson immediately, without interruptions. His voice was authoritative, yet calming – almost like a fatherly figure. I imagine he was the subject of a lot of Electra complexes in the school.

Then he would dive right in to the lesson. He got us to go onstage and all divide up into pairs, firstly. Our class had an odd number of people… three guesses who managed to not find a partner.

“Adam.” Mr. Salvador called out.

“Yes?” I called back.

He made an outward gesture with his arms. “Where’s your partner?” He asked me.

Sarcasm was my first language, and as a result I’ve learned to impulsively use it with everyone, authority or not. “He left.” I replied.

He gave me a puzzled look. “Where’d he go?” He asked, then looked around. “I thought we were all accounted for.”

I made a mental note in my head that they must not teach sarcasm in Paris and clarified, “I was kidding. I don’t have a partner.”

“Got it.” he replied flatly. “Well, for now… Join a pair, make a group of three.”

I groaned internally. Not I was the subject of a group’s ruin. I must have looked like a complete ass at that point, as I putzed around nervously, looking for anybody who didn’t view me with what I saw as contempt.

“C’mon, quickly.” Mr. Salvador encouraged me impatiently. I jumped slightly and joined the closest group to me, a group of two guys who looked like they were only in this class to get the arts credit. Sports jerseys, a visible ‘fuck you’ attitude, low-riding pants… Yup, these guys were the pinnacle of ‘I don’t belong in a drama class.’ Then again, I wasn’t the one to talk.

Mr. Salvador cleared his throat and began. Label yourselves A and B.”

The class was abuzz with overenthusiastic actors and actresses of tomorrow labeling themselves ‘A’ immediately. In my group, I just looked at my shoes and one of the jock wannabes turned to the other. “Um… Okay, I’ll be A, you be B.” one of them said, a boy with blond hair and a mouth that always seemed to hang open.

“What about this guy?” The other one, a guy with brown hair just a little bit too long and the makings of a mustache (a baseball player, I bet) said while gesturing towards me.

Blondie thought to himself, his mouth still open. Then his open mouth broke into a grin. “He can be B too.” He said proudly, as if he just thought up a brilliant idea.

I nodded enthusiastically, looking up from my shoes. On the inside, I sighed.

Mr. Salvador continued. “Good! Now, A’s, your job is to get the other to guess an emotion. Once I say go, A’s will come to me in a huddle and I’ll give you your separate emotions you have to portray. A’s, you can not use your face or your voice. Your face is blank. You can only portray this emotion with your bodies. Pairs will sit down when you’ve guessed correctly.”

At least my team had double the guessing power, I thought bitterly. I actually wouldn’t have minded being paired up with anyone else. I didn’t much like jocks, they were the type of person who bullied me relentlessly only a short time ago. I closed my eyes and asked that if there was a God up there, to give me a new partner. Someone. Anyone.

All of a sudden, there was a knock on the auditorium doors, followed by the door opening and someone slowly entering. I recognized her immediately. The cutie from my English and Science classes.

“Sorry for disrupting the class.” She practically sang in a voice I kept repeating in my head. If angels could talk, her voice could make them leave in shame. It was delicate, yet sweet; strong, yet soft. As she stood, I got the chance to drink in her full image.

She was short, but not too short. Her height could only be described as perfect – just shorter than me. The green dress ended at her knees, revealing two beautiful, almost teasing legs. They seemed to slink as she walked. Her shoes were together in a pose cutely complimented by how her two hands were clasped behind her back. Her waist was tight – very tight. Hugged impressively by her dress, as if the dress was made only for her, her waist allowed her surprisingly full hips (Which I had to imagine would sway just a bit when she walked) and chest to stick out even more than they normally would.

And her chest certainly didn’t need the help. I was wrong before – she had to be at least a C cup (which was massive for grade 9 standards) which stood out proudly from her chest, slightly straining the dress she was wearing.

Her face was slightly blushing from all of the attention on her, but she was still giving that cute, innocent smile. Her pale complexion, something I normally didn’t like in a girl, outlined all of her facial features perfectly, and brought to mind the skin of an angel. The freckles brought out just the right amount of innocent cuteness, but they had nothing on her beautiful, big hazel eyes, gleaming and dancing on her face’s smile. Her eyelashes, full yet giving me the impression she wore no mascara, crowned them beautifully. Her hair framed her face in a perfect fashion, and the sight of her made me smile before I was even realizing it. My trance was broken when Mr. Salvador spoke.

“It’s okay. Can I help you?”

“I just transferred out of music…” She trailed off ,holding up a sheet of paper. “Mr. Scott directed me to this class.”

Mr. Scott was our school’s principal, and I was just about ready to kiss his feet at that moment. Mr. Salvador nodded at her, and turned back to the class.

“Well, welcome to the class. You missed a lot of introductory activities, so you’ll find that the first few weeks will be a bit overwhelming.”

“It’s fine!” she returned in a chipper way. “I work well under pressure.”

I had to turn away from any classmates in my line of sight. I know she didn’t mean it like that, but she was making me… Stir, in the lower areas. I scolded myself for being so lustful, and tried to calm myself down by reminding myself how I probably won’t ever even talk with her.

“Well, you can join in on this activity.” Mr. Salvador said, mostly to himself. “Let’s see… Adam, you said your partner left, correct?”

My heart fluttered in my chest as the class gave a little bit of a laugh. “Uh…” I began, taken off guard. “Yes sir.” I noted that it was the first time I called him sir. He raised his eyebrows in a way that made me wonder if he made the same realization.

“Well, he just got used to this group.” Blondie piped up. “New girl can go with me if you want.”

Mr. Salvador either didn’t remember his hormonal period of being a teen, or had the best poker face known to man. “I don’t see why her going with Adam is any worse.” He said with a blank expression. He turned to her. “And I imagine your name is something other than ‘new girl.’”

“Way to go, Quick Draw McGraw.” called out a voice from the class, directed at Blondie. The class chuckled, but Mr. Salvador ignored them, fixated on the girl’s response.

She smiled at him. “I’m May. May Stevens.”

“May Stevens.” He repeated to himself, nodding. A smile slowly formed on his face. “Well, we’re glad to have you aboard.”

He explained to her the activity, and she seemed excited by it. She hopped up onstage without another word and turned back towards Mr. Salvador. “Who am I partnered with again?” She asked sweetly.

Great. I was forgettable to her. My heart sank as I started beating myself up internally. So much that I didn’t even notice when Mr. Salvador pointed to me. The next think I felt was a poke in my arm. I was shocked to see May at the end of the poking finger, smiling at me. Her expression then softened. “Oh, I know you!” she exclaimed.

I smiled weakly and gave a small nod. She would have continued, but Mr. Salvador called for all A’s to meet him for their emotion.

She turned to me. “Oh, by the way, if we’re going to be partners, I’m always A.” She said, and winked playfully as she walked off towards the group huddle. Was she flirting with me? No, of course she wasn’t. She wouldn’t. I’m way out of her league. It was only a wink. Friends can wink. Right?

She walked back to me, her mind clearly at work with whatever Mr. Salvador had given her. “Alright, Go!” Mr. Salvador called, and the auditorium was instantly full of shouting.

May began to walk, but started to stumble. She then composed herself and started to look around erratically. Her face was completely blank, as Mr. Salvador instructed, but it was still a vision of beauty. It took me a second to get out of my trance and start guessing.

“Um… Nervousness?” I asked in an ironically nervous fashion. She kept up the act, so I guessed it wasn’t it. “Caution?” I asked. She thought to herself for a second, then resumed her walk-stumble thing. “…Drunk?” I asked, throwing up my arms.

She flashed me quick grin and a chuckle before composing herself. Oh my God, her full-on smile was something. I bet it could cure diseases. There was something about her eyes that made her smile what it was. You couldn’t take one single part of her face and take it out of her smile. It all worked to make her face beautiful.

I shook my head again and focused on her act. She was looking around more erratically now, like she was in a panic.

“Panic.” I stated. Her hand went flat and wobbled, giving me the universal symbol for ‘Kind of.’ She then scratched her head and throw up her arms in frustration. I wasn’t sure if she ran out of ways or was still acting, but after, she just put her finger to her lower lip and thought. She looked confused.

“Confusion,” I said lamely, as a last guess. She grinned and nodded. “You got it!” She said happily, and we sat down. We were by no means the first group to get it, but we at least weren’t the last. I looked at Blondie and his friend to see that they were still struggling. I couldn’t help the smile that formed on my face.

My smile didn’t last long, especially since Mr. Salvador told the class after everyone was sitting that it was now B’s turn to act. I sighed as he called us forward, and joined the huddle. He was already assigning students by the time I got there.

“Callum, you’ll be ‘Tired.’ Hanna, you’re ‘Longing.’ Uhh… Adam. You’re going to be ‘Shy.’”

That was totally a remark on my character, but I smiled and nodded. This would be too easy. As I was walking back, May was still sitting on the ground, and flashed me a thumbs-up with one of her trademark smiles. I gave her a thumbs-up back as she stood up.

“Go ahead!” Mr. Salvador called out, and the auditorium was once again filled with shouting.

I swear I didn’t do anything I wouldn’t have normally. I just stuck my hands in my pockets and collapsed my shoulders inward.

“Shy.” May guessed. I nodded. “Really?” she asked me, beaming. “C’mon, let’s sit then.” She added giddily.

Mr. Salvador noticed how quickly we sat down. He gave a small nod in my direction, letting the smallest of smiles form on his lips.

***

The class was over sooner than I would have expected. When the bell went, Mr. Salvador called out, “Alright, good work. See you all tomorrow.”

Most of the class cleared out immediately, though I was surprised to see that May was sort of lingering around. She approached me and said softly, “Thanks for being my partner today.”

“You’re thanking me?!” was the first thing my mind thought. Of course, my mouth went off with the same words without giving me a chance to think about it first. I cringed, thinking it was a stupid thing to say.

She gave a small, adorable laugh. “Well, yeah. To tell you the truth, I moved to this high school from a little bit away, so I don’t know anyone here. It’s just kind of overwhelming.” She paused, then noticing I wasn’t going to speak, asked, “What’s your name? All I know is ‘Mr. Watson.’” she said, imitating Mr. Carrozza’s voice.

I chuckled. “I-I’m Adam.” I said, probably more shakily than I’d like.

She nodded. “Well, it’s very nice to meet you, Adam.” She said.

“Nice to meet you too, May.” I added a bit quickly. I bet she noticed my discomfort, and was just being kind to me. That’s all it was.

“Well, see you! Good luck running for student council.” She gave me another playful wink and walked off.

The council! I had forgotten all about it. Thank goodness for her. After she walked off, I ran to my backpack and dug into it, looking for the sheet. When I did, I had enough time to see Mr. Salvador, walking out of the auditorium.

“Mr. Salvador!” I called out. He stopped in his tracks and turned around.

“Hello.” He said in his commanding voice.

I ran up to him and asked, “I’m running for student council and was wondering if you would maybe consider advocating for me. If not that’s okay too.” I cursed my mouth.

He looked at me for a second, then said, “Of course.” He started making his way towards the stage, then put the paper on the edge. He sat down and began to sign. “Next time, I expect you to use fewer words when asking. Don’t waste my time.”

The guy loved brevity. ‘Don’t waste my time’ wasn’t as harsh coming from him. “Good work today.” he added as he kept signing. “If you hadn’t shown me your ability today, you wouldn’t have gotten such a recommendation.” He got up and gave me the sheet.

I remembered his love of brevity. “Noted.” I simply said. He nodded and began to walk out again is if nothing had happened. I got my backpack from the floor and started to walk out myself.

***

I presented my paper to the office and the secretary looked me up and down. “You’re applying for student council?” she asked, with a bit more condescension in her voice than I’d like. I nodded. She shrugged and continued. “Alrighty then! The elections are next week. Other than you, three other people have applied. You have until after next week’s assembly to put up posters and do anything else you want to get your fellow students to vote for you. Then next week on Monday, you’ll have to give a speech at the assembly.”

Oh boy. Speeches. This was going to be fun… But if anything, I was a guy who saw things through. I told myself I would, and so I shall. But posters? That seemed… stupid. It seemed like a childish way to make the class listen, and certainly wouldn’t show any leadership qualities…

At once, the idea came to me. I knew what I was going to do.

***

When I got home, mom was still at the computer. She worked from home – an idea she had when I was 5 to avoid spending too much on babysitting. “Hello, sweetie!” She yelled across the house when she heard the door slam. “How was school?”

I don’t know why, but I had a newfound confidence. With all of the confidence I knew I didn’t have before, I swaggered up to mom’s desk, leaned on it, and simply stated, “I’m trying out for student council.”

Mom looked like she didn’t believe me for a second. “Really?” Was all she asked.

I shrugged. “You wanted me to be more social. Does this work?”

Mom gave me a smile that was half genuine, half ‘You smart-ass.’ “Well done, Adam. I’m proud of you for doing this. You’ll be glad you did it too!” She then put her headphones back on, wordlessly telling me it was back to work for her. I flashed her a thumbs-up. In my head, all I was think in of was May.

***

The next day, I went to school in a business casual shirt, and set up a single poster in the main hallway. ‘Adam Watson – Your Grade 9 Rep’ was what it said. I stood under it all times until classes were in session. Anyone who approached me in the hallway got a hearty handshake and a speech with more fake confidence than I knew I had.

“Hi, I’m Adam Watson, and I’m running for a Student Council position this coming week. Tell me, have there been any school issues on your mind?”

On the inside, I was terrified. On the outside, I was sparking conversations left and right.

“What do you feel like is missing from the school?”

“What do you think can make this school better?”

“What do you think the student council should be doing for this school?”

The last one was a sneaky attempt on my part to figure out what student councils actually did for high schools. The campaign, however, was a huge success. Although the school hallways were littered with posters for the other three candidates, people began to approach me in the hallway of their own free will. I started to keep a notepad with me to keep track of their requests and complaints.

Over the next couple of days, my unusual approach to school politics was working. Adam Watson, a nobody, was securing the vote of anybody who knew what the school lacked. That is to say, everyone outside of grade nine. In terms of grade nine, Mr. Graves was absolutely right, it was a popularity contest.

In class, at least for three of them, I couldn’t but help but stare at May, the girl I was smitten with. I had never felt this way about a girl before, and couldn’t stop myself from daydreaming about kissing those full, beautiful lips. Lust tainted my mind as my daydreams quickly turned into images of me grabbing her ass and pulling her into me, that beautiful smile of hers turning mischievous as my hands wander from her ass, exploring every inch of her, ending with my hands on her beautiful tits.

“Do you like them?” she would ask innocently. I would nod slowly and thoroughly. “Well then I guess it’s not fair that this old thing is blocking them, is it?”

My mouth would go dry, my dick as hard as steel. Her eyes would move down my body and sparkle when they got to its destination. “Well, what’s this?” She would ask, her innocent tone gone, replaced by a naughty, mischievous voice, slightly breathy with her panting. Her hand would shamelessly grab me through my pants, and she would press her body up right against mine.

“Looks like someone’s excited.” she would whisper right into my ear, before gently biting on it. She would take a few steps back and start to remove her dress.

“Oh, May…” I couldn’t help but tell her. “I want to see you so badly. You’re so beautiful.” I stared at her as she was getting ready to show me her beautiful body.

“Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them.” she replied in a flat tone.

Huh? No way that was what she said. I shook myself out of my imagination and heard Mrs. Jackson reading aloud To Kill a Mockingbird to the class.

God dammit. It’s not bad enough that she has to read it aloud as if grade nine students can’t read themselves, she also took me out of my fantasy.

I couldn’t help but fantasize. It was the only contact I had with her. Even though it was Friday when I was letting my imagination do its work, I barely talked to May ever since that Monday. Even in drama class, we barley crossed paths. Though I had to say I’m glad she switched in to that class. She was a fantastic actress.

At the end of Friday, I was back under the poster, waiting for people to leave before I had to pack up for my 3:30 bus. Not a lot of people talked to me, though, seeing as it was the end of Friday and they wanted to get home. Plus, I felt with a twinge of pride, most of them had already talked to me.

However, one girl upon seeing the poster stopped in her tracks. The first thing I noticed about her was her smile. The grin she put on when she saw my poster was enough to light up an opera hall. She approached me quickly after she made the discovery.

“Hey there! I dig the poster. Mind if I get a picture of you with it?”

A picture? I felt more and more like a politician. My eyes scanned over her. Jet-black hair ran all the way down to her ass (which I had to admit, was incredibly shapely). She had just the right amount of tan to look really, really attractive. Her blue eyes, which looked drop-dead amazing paired with her hair, stared right into my soul. Although the big show-stopping number were her breasts. She couldn’t have been anything smaller than a solid D-cup, and she wasn’t shy about it, given her v-neck that exposed ample cleavage.

She coughed loudly, and I realized I must have been staring too long. I blushed profusely, and she noticed. To my relief, though, she laughed. “You may not want to blush right before I take a picture, hotshot.” She looked down at her breasts then back at me coolly. “Besides, I get that a lot.” she added flatly, like she didn’t care. “So, picture? Yes or no?”

“Sure!” I exclaimed. She set up her camera as I shifted myself closer to the poster. She readied the shot at looked at me through the lens. “Give me one of those big ol’ politician smiles.” she suggested playfully. Sighing internally, I grinned like a tool as she snapped picture after picture. After a few too many, she stood up and smiled. “I think I got enough. Thanks!”

“Enough for what?” I asked her.

“Oh, didn’t I say?” she flashed me a mischievous grin. “Nicole Baker. I run the school paper, and the yearbook.” she outstretched a hand.

“Nice to meet you.” I said hesitantly as I shook her hand. I turned my head, still shaking her hand, and noticed my watch. 3:37. “Oh crud!” I yelped.

“You’re not the best at shaking hands either, but I wasn’t gonna say anything.” Nicole said, another smile forming.

“It’s not that. I missed my bus!” I exclaimed, still looking at my watch.

“Jeez, you’re screwed, aren’t you?” Nicole said with absolutely no concern in her voice.

“It’s not funny, I don’t have any other way of getting home!” I said, quickly packing up my poster. Not that it would help much if I was stranded.

Nicole just laughed and crossed her arms. “Relax, kiddo,” she said calmly. “I can drive ya home.”

“Really?” I asked her, my eyes lit with relief. She simply nodded, and picked up her camera bag.

“Let’s go.” was all she said as she walked towards the front doors. I followed, not knowing what I was about to get into.

***

“So, you can drive?” I asked as she unlocked her car, trying to make conversation. When I got in, she looked at me with one eyebrow cocked.

“No, I can’t. This is all illegal. I even stole this car.” With lowered eyelids, she rolled her eyes and started the car. Taking my silence as a sign, she continued. “I’m old enough, you know. Most grade 12’s and some grade 11’s are able to drive. It’s not like I’m the odd girl out.”

I noticed a problem with being around her – I could not stop staring at her breasts. As she backed out of the spot, she caught me looking and smiled slightly, lowering one eyebrow. “Something on your mind?” She challenged me, grabbing her boob and squeezing it.

My mouth hung open at her obscene gesture, but she just laughed it off. “You’re not the first, squirt.” She said, starting to drive. “And you definitely won’t be the last. Now, what’s the address?”

Nervously, I gave her my address. She nodded slowly, her smile only widening. “I think I know where that is.” She told me. “Just sit back and enjoy the ride.”

Frankly, I was still trying to catch my breath. I can’t believe she just did that in front of me. I was not used to her spontaneous nature at all. Maybe the spontaneous life wasn’t for me…

All of a sudden, the text alert on her phone went off. “Hey Adam, can you get that?” she asked me. I nodded. With her eyes still on the road, she handed me her phone. I turned it on, and it read ‘1 new text message.’ Well gee, thanks.

I unlocked the phone and gasped. Holy shit! This girl had fucking porn open on her phone! It was a picture of guy plowing a girl with long black hair, a cheesy orgasmic look on both of their faces. She chose the girl’s look intentionally, no doubt, which made me chuckle, but I was still in shock.

“So what does it say?” she asked me impatiently. I immediately exited the internet app, and looked at her messages. Some guy named Phil Love was asking her if she thought it was a success. I had no clue what ‘it’ was, but I knew not to pry.

“Phil Love asks if you think it’s a success.” I said flatly.

“Oh, okay.” she responded. “Tell him, ‘I hope so, we’ll have to wait and see.’”

As I typed, my curiosity got the better of me. “What’s the success?” I asked.

“Extracurricular thing.” Was all Nicole said. “Hey, do me a favor. I may need to contact you about the picture thing, so I assume you have a phone… Could you add yourself to my contacts?”

“Uh, sure.” I said as I tried to figure out how her phone worked. When I got to her contacts, I was surprised at how many she had. I guess being in grade 11 gave you time to become popular, especially if you’re not shy like she was… After I input myself as a contact, I looked over her other contacts and found Phil again. Phil Love? Seriously? It sounded like a porn name. I immediately got a wave of jealousy after the thought entered my mind that she and Phil were a thing. “Are you and Phil…?” I asked her hesitantly.

She turned to me for a second, and grinned. “Aw, is someone jealous?” She asked me. I simply shifted in my seat. “Nah, I’m not the type to get tied down. No strings attached, that kind of thing.”

My mouth went dry, and I caught myself staring at her tits again. “I see.” was all I could muster.

She caught my glance, and giggled to herself. She came to a red light, and rolled up the windows. “Y’know, like this.” she said simply as she lifted her shirt over her head.

Firstly, she did it with little trouble, despite wearing a seatbelt. I was impressed. Secondly, she wasn’t wearing a fucking bra. There she was, her tits on full display, sucking the seatbelt in between them. “Like ’em?” she asked me. In a word, they were amazing. They were big on her frame, but not too big, and amazingly, barely sagged. They were globe-shaped and beautiful, and it took all of my energy not to reach forth and grab them. Each of her tits was crowned by a beautiful pink nipple that was the size of a silver dollar. I had a weakness for large nipples, and her areolae were beautifully large. I started to salivate just looking at them. Either she was cold in the brisk October weather, or she was turned on by this too, because her nipples stood out a visible distance, at least half an inch. To me, there was never a more perfect set of boobs on the planet, and I got to see them up close and personal. I was as hard as rock, and my lust went into overdrive. My dick strained against my jeans, and I had to press down on my jeans to relieve the pain. All I could do was stare as she faced forward and drove. “Don’t be shy,” she added. “I saw you looking at them over and over. Well, this way you get what you want, and I honestly don’t really care. If you like ’em, go ahead.” I nodded eagerly and held my stare. The rest of the drive was a blur, since none of us said a word and my eyes were fixed on her beautiful, full breasts.

“I think we’re here.” Nicole finally said. I too my gaze off of her tits and to my dismay, she was right. We were in my driveway.

“Ah, right.” I said, trying to compose myself. “Of course. Thanks for the ride.”

She just stared at me expectantly for a few seconds before rolling her eyes. “Boy, you do not know how high school works, do you?” she asked, pulling her seat back. She motioned for me to come forward with her finger.

“Huh?” was all I could ask.

“Get over here. Sit on me if you have to.” She told me, her tone getting more and more frustrated.

Confused, I complied. I undid my seatbelt and stepped over the console, until I was right in front of her.

“Have you ever done this before?” Nicole asked me softly.

“Done what?”

“Use your imagination, genius.” she told me, grabbing my hands and moving them up to her tits. They felt absolutely amazing… Soft yet firm, beautifully smooth, and very warm. Nevertheless, I was still frozen in place. “C’mon.” she coaxed me. “I had the good nature to drive you home, and I’m horny as fuck. So do us both a favor and pay me back for the ride, okay? Just start moving your hands, I’ll tell you what to do.”

I started moving my hands, planted on her breasts, in circles. “Good,” she sighed. “Now squeeze, but not too hard.” I squeezed lightly, then caressed her breasts. She leaned back and sighed once more, which I took as a sign. Before I had any idea what I was doing, I took both of her nipples between my thumb and forefinger and rolled them around. I loved the feeling of her nipples, which clearly stood out more than a half inch, despite my previous observation. Her sighs evolved into soft gasps. “Not bad, rookie.” she said, slightly out of breath.

I couldn’t believe this was happening. One minute, I was a nobody. And just by signing up for a student club, I was already tweaking a girl’s nipples in her car. Maybe mom was right. Maybe I just need to be spontaneous.

And spontaneous I was. I looked up to Nicole’s face and saw that she had the lightest hint of a blush on her face, her eyes closed in slight ecstasy. Without knowing for sure if I should, I lowered my mouth to her left nipple and started to caress it with my tongue. I didn’t dive in immediately, I was subtle. I teased. I lightly brushed my tongue around her areola, earning an ‘ooh’ from her as my touch became more and more distant, more and more delicate. After about a solid minute of this, I used all the strength my tongue could muster and flicked her nipple.

“Ooooh…” she moaned. “You’re a fast learner, aren’t you, squirt?”

I released her nipple from my tongue’s spell. “Well, I just figured I-”

“Shut it.” she commanded as she forced my mouth back on to her nipple. She pushed my mouth too far and my whole mouth was now on her boob, but I figured I should just roll with it. With my tongue still playing with her gorgeous pink nipple, I started to suck. She sharply inhaled, and began to squirm around.

“Oooooh, baby…” she moaned. She opened her eyes and saw my mom’s car. She bolted upright and pointed to it. “Somebody’s home?!” she asked, genuine fear in her eyes. “What if someone sees us?”

Another rush of confidence filled me, just when I needed it. “Don’t worry.” I said with a tone of control in my voice. “Mom works from home, at her computer. It’s nowhere near the driveway. Trust me, we won’t get caught. Now may I continue?”

At first, she was shocked that the shy little kid she was controlling was being so authoritative. Her expression soon shifted from shock to her trademark mischievous smile as she lay back down. “Go to town.” She told me as she closed her eyes. Instead, though, I experimented. My tongue, instead of going back to her pink, large nipple, started to lick between her amazing boobs and travelled upwards, stopping to play with her collarbone.

“What are you doing?” She asked, now panting. My tongue started to drift away from her collarbone and she quickly added, “Don’t fucking answer that.” My tongue went back to work, travelled up to her neck and from there, my primal instinct took over. I tilted my head and began to kiss and suck her neck. She responded in vigor, wrapping her arm around my head and pulling me in.

“Ooooh, Adam…” she cooed. I bit her neck gently, and she yelped. I was worried that I hurt her, until I realized that her squirming got more intense. Biting her neck turned her on! I figured I’d put this information to good use as I trailed downwards, leading with my tongue of course, until it sat on her right tit, playing delicately with her other nipple. After a few seconds of delicate teasing, I dove right in and began to suck her tit for all it was worth.

“Ahh!” She gasped. I sucked harder and harder, causing her to push me further into her chest, mashing my head into her boob until I felt like I was going to suffocate. I still didn’t give up, sucking and sucking, until she let me go and I was allowed to breathe again. Once I did, I continued my oral assault on her tit, this time using my teeth. At first, my teeth grazed her nipple, but before long, I was full-on biting her tit. “Yeeeesssssss…” she hissed as I used my tongue and teeth together, torturing and pleasing her nipple.

I noticed that her hips were starting to buck, and her free hand was playing with her unoccupied tit. I took one of my hands and used it to push me further into her breast, until I decided to up the ante. My hand slid down her shirtless body and down to her left thigh, where I began to rub up and down. Nicole was moaning at this point. I decided to keep things going and moved my hand to cup her mound. Her body jolted and she opened her eyes, panting yet smiling at me.

“What’s the rush, hotshot?” she asked me. I didn’t want to stop, but I knew when someone didn’t want to continue. Blushing myself, wondering if I did something wrong, I moved back to my seat in the car.

“Was… was that…” I began.

“You were great, squirt.” Nicole said, grinning at me. “I just wanna leave something for next time. That is, if you wanna ever do this again.” She added with a wink.

“Fucking yes I do!” I said, realizing only after the language I used. She only laughed and began to put her shirt back on. I noticed that her right nipple was redder from all the attention I gave her. She caught me staring and just winked again.

As I exited the car, I added, “I’m sorry for dragging you all the way out here just to drop me off.”

She smiled at me and played with her nipple through her shirt. “Given what you did for me, I think you paid that favor back, and then some.” she said slyly. She paused from talking, but kept playing with her tit until her other hand joined in. She began to buck her hips again, and got really into it. Her hands went under her shirt and she kept playing with her nipples, and she began panting. Suddenly, she opened her eyes, and softly muttered, “Fuck.” It seemed like I really turned her on, I thought with a wave of pride.

She then looked forward for a bit, then looked back to me. “Do me a favor.” she started. “Keep watching this car until it disappears into the distance. Can you do that for me?”

It was a weird request, but I just got to suck her amazing nipples, who was I to argue? I removed my backpack from the car and said “Sure…” hesitantly. She grinned and added, “And keep your phone on. I have a feeling I’ll be texting you tonight.”

I closed the door after calling out, “Thanks again.”

Through the window, I could hear a muffled, “No, thank you.” as she cupped her mound and bucked her hips once. She slowly blinked, then composed herself and shifted gears.

I watched as Nicole backed out of my driveway, then went on to the road. Wow, what a sexual devil, I thought to myself. I wonder if she did that with everyone, or just liked me… I felt sad as I thought that she probably did it to everyone who asked, and I was nothing special. Although, that certainly wasn’t going to stop me from doing that with her again. Even though her car was still within earshot, already I wanted another go at sucking her tits dry.

Unsure why she asked me to, I watched her car as it began to speed down the road, until she slowed down. Had she forgotten something? She then did something totally unexpected – she turned into the driveway of the house two houses down from me. She was my neighbor! I could see that she got out of her car, and with an over-exaggerated motion, blew me a kiss as she walked off. I laughed to myself and started to walk back towards my house, a spring in my step and a smile on my face. I think I was going to enjoy this year after all.

Chapter Two

The first thing I felt when I got home was actually guilt. When I walked inside, all previous feelings of elation melted away to welcome yet guilty thoughts of May, and the idea that if I was so ready to jump on Nicole’s breasts and suck on them like my life depended on it, then perhaps I wasn’t so enamored with May as I had previously thought.

A small part of my mind was trying to tell me that it didn’t matter. After all, the last time May even looked in my general direction was Monday, so she obviously didn’t like me, so nothing would happen. Besides, I got to see Nicole’s boobs of all things! They were amazing in every sense of the word, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to let that be the last time I would play with them.

“Hey, sweetie.” mom called from across the house as I took off my shoes. I walked into her office, and waved cheerfully.

She had her headphones on, but took them off as I entered. “How is my special boy?” she asked warmly.

“Fine, thanks.” I answered her. “How was your day?”

“Oh, this and that.” she sighed. “You know, work.”‘

I nodded sympathetically, and she put her headphones back on. I went up stairs to my room and threw my backpack on the floor, collapsing onto my bed.

As soon as I hit the bed, my phone vibrated through my pocket. I took it out to find I had a new message.

Hey there stud. Surprised?

I had no doubt it was Nicole, but I wanted to play it safe.

Depends! Who is this?

I sent the text and lay back on my bed, continuing the battle in my mind between May and Nicole. When I checked my phone after it went off again, the battle was won and no doubt was left in my mind.

The first message I saw was a picture message, more specifically of the same boobs I was worshipping only minutes before. Her tits were unique – The way her beautiful nipples stood out so far, paired up with how large her areolae were, which was one of my turn-ons, made her breasts one of a kind. Or I guess two of a kind in this instance.

The sight of them, even after the fact, made me stand to attention immediately, in more ways than one. The curve and shape of her breasts was just indescribable. They were the pinnacle, the ideal example of what beautiful, sexy boobs should look like.

I see someone needs a reminder 😉 appeared on my phone seconds after the picture. Even through the phone, Nicole knew how to make me hard.

U are so… not shy! I replied.

Who, lil’ old me? She contested me.

If ur going to send me pictures like this, I may just want to save them. Is that ok? I texted her. She may not have been shy, but I still needed to make sure she was okay with that sort of thing.

Not yet. came the reply. I figured that was fair. After all, I only met her today. It was probably best to wait anyway. After all, she may come to regret this tomorrow. Maybe she was regretting it right now. Maybe I shouldn’t get my hopes up. I was still a nobody, after all. I couldn’t expect to-

Bzzt! My phone went off, taking me away from my world of self-pity. I looked down to see the message Nicole sent me, which made my jaw fall to the ground. It was another picture, this one a full-body mirror selfie. Her hair was done up beautifully, as if she was going to a dance, and not only framed her face perfectly, but also accentuated her full, beautiful boobs, which of course were on full display without the burden of any clothes. She had her back arched to do the impossible and make them seem even larger, also showing off her toned stomach, which was just as tanned as her face. It was something I never had the time to appreciate in the car.

My eyebrows went higher and higher and my eyes went lower and lower. The only thing she was wearing in the picture was a pair of black panties, and it certainly didn’t leave much to the imagination. Her hips were cocked in a teasing manner, and while they were more narrow than I preferred, the girl somehow managed to pull the look off. Her smooth, tanned legs had this hypnotizing way of drawing my eyes to its center, and as I started to unzip my pants, I found myself wishing she had her panties off in the picture so I could see her pussy.

Now you can. I just figured you’d want the full set 😉 came the next message from her. A small smile crept on my face. God damn, she was something else. Realizing how unfair this situation must be for her, I replied.

Do u want anything from me? I asked, realizing only after I sent the message just how uncomfortable I was with sending a picture of myself in any way. Uh oh, I thought to myself. There was no way I’d feel okay with sending a selfie, particularly a nude one, to anyone, and here I was offering it up like an idiot.

What, and spoil the surprise when I get to see it in person? Hell no! came the reply. I breathed a sigh of relief. Granted, Nicole was a bit fast-paced for me, and I think she enjoyed shocking and teasing me, but at the same time, there was something about her that made me smile. I didn’t know what it was, but I just found I was enjoying the fact that she talked to me, even though it was pretty much just sex.

You* Another message from her. Oh, great. I half-chuckled and half-groaned when I saw that she was one of those people. Well, hey, if Weird Al was one of those people, how bad could it be?

I figured the topic of sex had passed, and plus, I wanted to get to know the girl if I was going to be glued to her chest for the year. I grabbed my phone and started typing. Well, what are *you* up to? I responded. As I waited for her reply, I lay back on my bed and smiled. It may sound pitiful to say, but it’s what I was thinking – this must be what having a friend felt like, and I enjoyed it.

***

Over the weekend, I texted Nicole whenever I wasn’t doing homework. It’s not like there was much else to do, but I wasn’t complaining, especially since she always seemed all too happy to answer. In the back of my mind, I wondered if she was lonely too.

I could tell she wasn’t dainty and delicate when I met her, but over the weekend I learned that she was definitely a ‘One of the Guys’ type. She didn’t really care for stereotypical girl things – she was perfectly fine staying home playing video games, if she didn’t have homework to do. She took school very seriously, since she had two older brothers, and one was a high school dropout who never really got anywhere in life. She didn’t really want to talk about him, so I left that subject alone.

Her being serious about her education was where she got her anal tendencies about grammar, but she also loved the other side of school. She tried to get in as many clubs as possible and get involved, and she told me she was even thinking of trying out for the school play this year. Naturally, though, her one love was photography. She made no point of hiding her excitement when she told me that she wanted to be a cinematographer when she got out of high school. Seeing her all giddy like that, even over text, was cute, which kind of warmed my heart. When I met her, she was bold, kind of easy, and that’s all I knew. Now she had flaws and strengths, and had her own distinct personality, which I liked. I felt like I was more than just a fuck buddy to her. I was becoming her friend.

Did I like her though? I had no clue. I couldn’t feel it in my head, but in my heart I knew there was a clear difference between May and Nicole to me. Nicole was great to talk to, and less shy than a kitten on Ritalin. Not to mention she was the one girl whom I couldn’t actually stop staring at, chest-wise, and in response she lets me not only see them, but play with them. You don’t meet a girl like that everyday.

Compared to Nicole, I actually knew very little about May. But that’s what made her so much more… interesting to me No, more than that, captivating. Nicole literally let me see her half-naked within 30 minutes of meeting me. May seemed like this innocent, precious flower that I just wanted to admire, and possibly hold. And I wanted to make her happy, because she made me feel happy, just by standing there, or talking to me with that angelic voice. Nicole frankly just couldn’t really do that to me, at least not yet.

Only time could tell what’ll happen, I thought to myself as I locked those thoughts away. I shouldn’t get too ahead of myself. Whatever the future holds, I may not be ready for it, but it sure is better sitting inside during middle school recess wishing I was someone else.

***

When Monday morning rolled around, the thing to wake me up was not my alarm clock but the buzz of my phone. I don’t get how one week, I could sleep through a blaring alarm and the next, be woken up by a faint buzzing, but there you go.

Still half-asleep, I lazily took my phone to see why it woke me up. As if I should have expected anything else, it was Nicole. She had sent me a picture of her cheerfully waving, fully clothed (although needless to say, she looked fantastic in a button-up vest) with the caption Morning! Want a ride?

I dismissed the possibility of there being a double entendre and replied, Sure! When do you want me to be ready? Over the weekend, she managed to make me use ‘you’ instead of ‘u.’ I figured it was best not to argue with her. I couldn’t imagine it, but seeing her irritated and forceful (more so than she naturally was) was a bone-chilling thought.

7:30. Seven freaking thirty? I glanced at the clock. It was 7:00, sharp. I groaned and shifted my head on the pillow, my body fighting with the idea of getting out of bed before I absolutely needed to, when my phone buzzed again.

Don’t groan at me, mister. If you want rides, get used to the fact that I’m a morning person. Oooookay, so now she was psychic too. Come to think of it, in the picture she sent me you could clearly see it was morning by the lighting, but she seemed fully awake. Well, good for her, but I absolutely hated mornings. If it weren’t for school, I probably wouldn’t ever witness the world before noon.

Groaning all the way, I managed to pull myself out of bed and started to scavenge around my room, looking for a shirt. Good thing I took my showers at night, or my morning routine would be a nightmare.

Fully clothed, I slunk down the stairs and entered the kitchen to see my mother and father at the dinner table, sipping away at their morning coffee.

Dad looked up from the paper he was reading on the table. “He lives!” he exclaimed with fake fright. “My God, Marcia, he lives!”

Mom just smiled patiently at him, something mom generally did with dad’s jokes.

“It must be an emergency.” dad said, putting down his coffee cup. “Why’s Dracula up at this hour?”

“Oh now Timothy, stop it.” mom scolded him. “Maybe he’s just becoming more responsible for himself!” she nodded at me approvingly.

Well, now I felt bad. Thanks, mom. “Actually, a fellow student offered to give me a ride to school today. I couldn’t say no, being the social kind of guy I am.” I winked at mom with that last comment.

“Oh.” dad said, at a loss for words. That wasn’t something I got to see often, so I savored the moment and felt awkward at the same time. “Well, uh… Alrighty then!”

He looked like he was going to say something else, but no words were coming out of his mouth. Nevertheless, I kept up my expectant gaze at him. “Yeah?” I finally asked him ambiguously.

“I was trying to come up with a joke for that one, but nothing’s coming to me. Now get yourself some breakfast, when’s he going to be here?”

I figured it was best to just ignore correcting him for now. If my parents knew I was being offered rides to school from a girl, they might get the wrong impression. Or the right one.

“7:30.” I replied, getting myself some milk and an apple from the fridge. Are people even supposed to keep apples in fridges? Leave it to my dad…

As I left the kitchen to brush my teeth, I heard my dad talking to my mom behind me. “No, wait, I’ve got one. What’s the name of that car from Knight Rider? You know, the talking one.”

“The joke’s over, Tim.” mom told him.

***

By the time I was all ready and was out the door, Nicole was already there, sitting in my driveway in her Ford Focus (which was black, of course). I sheepishly waved to her as soon as she saw me, and hopped in the car.

“Sorry.” I started. “How long have you been waiting here?”

“A millennium and a half.” she said, rolling her eyes. Across the seats, she gave me an awkward hug. “I’ve been here for two minutes. Chill, alright?”

I only nodded. She gave a small smile, which faded quickly in concentration as she backed out of my driveway.

“So, ready to give your big speech today?” She asked casually as she drove, making small conversation. Oh, shit. I had completely forgotten about it. I felt a sudden twinge of ‘panic pain’ in my heart, and judging from Nicole’s shift in expression I think the color drained from my face.

“Yyyyyup, you totally forgot about it, didn’t you?” she asked, a sly smile forming on her lips. “You know, you were so busy talking to me all weekend anyways – you could have easily invited me over. I would have gladly helped you write one.” Noticing my silence, she added, “Hell, even I remembered that you needed a speech.”

I blinked twice. “You weren’t with me in the office… How do you know I needed a speech?”

“Grade 11.” she winked at me and turned back to the road. In my head, I was trying to formulate some kind of speech, some kind of introduction to a speech, some kind of SOMETHING, but absolutely nothing was coming to me.

“When are these speeches again?” I asked her.

“9:30.” she replied, eyes forward. “Then right after speech assembly is over, students vote.”

God help me.

***

Even though we got to school around 7:50, the time flew by too fast. Some of her time was spent with me talking about what students listened to and why things like articulation and brevity are important, but it turns out she had something important to get to at 8:10. I guess that was why she went to school so early.

I spent most of my time before class just walking through the hallways. I don’t do so well under pressure, and this whole situation was kind of getting to me. I think Nicole noticed; she gave me a hug and told me I’ll do well right before she left. For a girl so spontaneous and tomboyish, you’d think she was rugged and smelled like motor oil or men’s cologne or something, but her touch was actually really soft and gentle, and she smelled like lilac.

At about 8:50, I gave up wandering the halls. It was really nice to have a friend around, because when I was by myself, I felt nothing but overwhelmed. Not even nervous, just overwhelmed. And to think, it wasn’t even November yet…

Quietly, I trudged into Mr. Carrozza’s science class and sat down at my desk. I was the only one there besides him, since not a lot of students were exactly his biggest fans. As I sat down, the noise alerted him and he looked up from his desk.

“Ah, young master Watson.” He looked pleased to see me, or another living soul. “Can I help you?”

“…I’m in your class, Mr. Carrozza.” I said slowly to him. I wasn’t sure if sleep was never kind to him, or if he was just batty. Frankly, it may as well have been a combination of the two.

“Ah yes, so you are.” Mr. Carrozza said, looking back down at his paper. “Well, welcome. If you’d like to get a head start, today we’ll be looking at cameras and how light is… Wait a moment…” He slowly looked up from his desk, looking like he had just remembered something. “Adam Watson… There was something that I wanted to say to you today.”

I waited for a few seconds before filling in the blanks for him. “Was it about the election?”

“Ah, yes! The election!” His old, dim eyes light up behind his large frames, and his gaze centered on me. “All students running for elections need to be present in the gymnasium before the assembly.”

“Oh, really?” I asked him. “And when should I be there?”

“Nine o’ clock.” Mr. Carrozza said. “You might as well get down there now.”

“Good idea.” I said, defeated. I pulled myself out of the chair and began to slink to the gymnasium, leaving my backpack behind. Oh well. At least it would all be over soon.

***

Because of the school’s population, we had to hold assemblies in the gym since the auditorium might be able to fit a fourth of the school in it, tops. I didn’t much like it in there. It was big, echoey, and too bright. It made me feel small.

In a structural sense, though, it looked nice. It had fold-out bleachers as well as a big space to begin with, and even a small stage for small school events to take place during assemblies. Like, say, elections.

As I found out when I got there, it was called the ‘elections’ rather than the ‘election’ because grade 10 students were also running for a position at this time, so the stage was filled with preppy people, all looking smug and confident. Then there was me.

I took a look around, trying to see if I could adapt to this unfamiliar environment. Around the stage were people I couldn’t recognize, most of them wearing polo shirts and using words like ‘totally’ and ‘bro.’ Blondie from my drama class was there too. I guess he was one of the candidates.

After standing awkwardly through the morning announcements, it was 9:03 and we were all graced by a powerful new presence in the room, in the form of what looked like a tall grade 12. He had a bit of a goofy-looking grin on his face, ginger hair, and a striped sweater that clung to him with its life.

“What’s up, guys?” he began. “It’s great to see you all here. My name’s Phil, and I’m your student council president. I’m just gonna be going over a few things before we get going here.”

In my quietest and squeakiest of voices, I interrupted. “Phil Love?” I asked him.

He stopped his speech and turned to me, his goofy grin reappearing. “That’s me, man.” He said as he patted me on the shoulder forcefully. “You get extra points for knowing who I am. I’ve heard you’ve been doing research.” he winked at me and returned to his speech. Do people wink more now in high school than they did before?

“Alright, now I just need to go over a few basics before we begin.” he began. “Firstly, I’d like all grade 9 tryouts over here on my left side. Those in grade 10, on my right.” We all shifted to accommodate his instructions. “Great. Now, you all in grade 9, you’ll be trying out for grade 9 rep. You will be representing the school, helping out at school events, keeping news stuff organized for the school’s website and monthly newsletter, and are expected to attend every meeting on Mondays at 3, starting today if you win.”

Oh, crap. If these meetings lasted until past 3:30, I definitely couldn’t get in.

“10s, you’re going to get a bit more responsibility. You’re expected to help at events, organize school dances, help us manage our budgets, and take care of advertising so that everyone knows what’s going on when. You all will have to maintain an average of at least an average of 70 in all classes to represent the school properly. If any of you don’t want this responsibility, you’re in the wrong place. Am I clear?”

Everyone nodded their heads, and Phil enthusiastically grinned. “Great. Now it’s not all serious stuff. Student council is honestly the greatest thing I ever chose to do here. You’re going to have a blast, we’ll make sure of it. I’ve been here for all four years, so take it from me. But to get in, you must win over your people, your classmates, the school. Today, you all will be doing that with speeches that you’ve spent a good long while preparing, I’m sure.”

I swallowed hard.

“Now, I know we’re normally supposed to check these speeches of yours, but we decided not to this year, to let you guys feel this is all on you.” Phil continued. I breathed a sigh of relief. God was on my side.

“However of course, there are ground rules.” he sternly spoke. “First, no profanity, swear words, dirty talk, student council doesn’t have room for that. Second, no bashing other candidates. I don’t care if he just went up and made a shitty speech – pardon my French – you don’t say anything bad about the other folks running. Third, keep it under two minutes. You wanna tell people why they wanna vote for you quick, then stand down while you still have their attention. Don’t bore them.” He paused to make sure we get it, and was met with a sea of nods.

“Great. You guys are awesome for just trying out, remember that. You’re all winners already.” Yup, he was a president all right. Filled the cheesy quota and everything. “Feel free to hang around here until the assembly starts and do whatever, but at 9:30 sharp, you’re here, at this stage, sitting down on those chairs.” He pointed to a corner of the stage where 10 chairs sat. “Alright, are there any questions?”

Naturally, no one had a thing to say, so Phil nodded and went about his duties. Everyone else started practicing or talking to other people, but I just wanted to sit down. I grabbed the closest chair to me, and sat down, putting my head down.

I almost fell asleep, and was snapped out of my trance by the feeling of a hand on my shoulder. “Hey, you okay?” I heard a concerned male voice ask. I looked up to see that two other candidates have ambushed me, with a guy on my left and a girl on my right. Both of them had blond hair, and while hers was draped over her shoulders, his was just past his ears and sort of waved in one direction. The both of them were wearing glasses, and I could tell immediately that they were siblings.

“Oh, I’m fine!” I said with more enthusiasm than was necessary, to prove my point. “I’m just a little sleepy, that’s all. Woke up early.”

The boy removed his hand from my shoulder and nodded. “Alright, just making sure. I couldn’t sleep myself. I’m Matt.” he outstretched his hand and I shook it weakly. He gestured towards the girl. “And this here is my little sister Megan.”

I shook her hand too. “Oh, so you two know each other?” I joked. Matt smiled.

“I’m trying out for grade 10 rep this year.” Matt explained. “I was grade 9 rep last year, so it ought to be easy. Megan’s trying to follow in my footsteps.”

“So heredity is on her side.” I said. Matt shrugged.

“It’s a popularity thing, so it couldn’t hurt. Besides, with you playing the door-to-door politician, she’ll need all the edge she can get.” He playfully punched my arm. It actually kind of hurt.

“May the best candidate win.” she said softly, speaking for the first time. I guess she didn’t talk much. They were dressed like they belonged in a high school setting – he was wearing a blue polo, with sandblasted jeans and a big watch to complete the set. She was wearing a slightly loose knit sweater with what looked like no t-shirt underneath. She wore a short skirt and good-looking shoes, contrasting Matt’s worn sneakers. I suddenly felt very self-conscious of the old t-shirt and jeans I had just thrown on this morning. I guess I should have dressed for success.

Matt and I made small talk, with Megan saying barely a word in between, until we looked up and realized that the gym was full of students. Matt checked his watch. 9:32. “Showtime.” he said excitedly. Every emotion I felt at that moment contributed to my desire to throw up.

Phil took to the stage and gave the usual cheesy speech about us starting a journey and how great student council is. After he was done, Mr. Scott, our esteemed principal, took to the stage.

Mr. Scott was great if you ask me. On the outside, he was everything you expected in a stereotypical principal – a cheerful expression, grey hair, a tweed jacket, and a big, loud tie to seal the deal. When he spoke, though, he knew exactly what to say and how much. He knew how to talk to students, not talk down to them, something I respected quite a lot. His speech was more to the effect of why we deserve the students’ time and how we’ll be representing the school, something to keep in mind during the elections. He then took his seat, and Phil called Matt to the podium. I guess grade 10s were going first.

Then lightning struck me. Shit. I remembered I had no speech prepared. Everything started to fade out. I could hear laughter from Matt’s speech, but it became more and more faint. Dark thoughts started to swirl around my head. I had absolutely nothing, I was a failure. I was about to go in front of the entire school, perhaps the most shy guy in school, and I had absolutely nothing prepared. How idiotic could I be? The whole school was going to laugh at me. I would disappoint everyone – Nicole, Phil, Mr. Salvador, mom…

I felt a soft touch on my hand that brought me back to reality. I looked to my hand and found Megan’s on top of it, her thumb caressing the skin of my hand. “Are you okay?” she whispered, nothing but concern on her face. “You were breathing really hard there…”

Was I? It sure sounded like me. I was nervous as all hell, and just wanted to leave. Or cry. Or both. God, I was a wreck. I smiled at her. “Yeah, I’ll be okay. Just nervous.”

She took my hand in hers. Her touch was absolutely electric. Her hands were delicate, yet deliberate, and suddenly my smile felt genuine. “I’m nervous too. It’s okay.” She held my hand and paused before adding, “It’ll be over with soon. Might as well go through with it now we’re here, hm?”

My smile didn’t fade, and I nodded. I let go of her hand reluctantly and turned my attention back to the podium, where Phil was there again thanking all of the grade 10 candidates. How much time had passed?! He then turned his attention to us and introduced us to the crowd. The crowd, mostly the grade nine section, cheered.

“Great.” he said enthusiastically. “Now, you may recognize this next girl by her brother, who made that great speech about the tornado and the science lab.”

Matt leaned in to me, a smug expression on his face. “I made that part up myself.”

“Let’s give a warm welcome to our first candidate, Megan Schneider!” Phil lead the clapping as Megan timidly took to the stage. She cleared her throat and began her speech, which wasn’t half bad. I couldn’t concentrate, however, due to my own nervousness. I think I started breathing heavily again as I debated in my head what I was going to do. I think Matt heard me, and empathy must run in his family or something. Next thing I knew, a hand I guessed was his was rubbing my back reassuringly. “Relax, man.” Matt said soothingly. “It’s all good.” After a bit, the rubbing stopped, but his hand remained on my shoulder. It felt nice to have people in my life who actually cared when I was feeling down. I know I’m sounding like a broken record, but this was the first time in my life someone outside of family was helping me when I was down, and it meant the world to me.

When I looked up, Megan was back in her seat and Phil was at the podium. “I think you’re up next, man.” Matt said, now both of his hands on my shoulders to support me in getting up.

Sure enough, at that moment I heard Phil say, “…And when it comes to the issues this guy has done his homework. Here he is, Adam Watson!”

Matt had no shame in standing up and helping me get on my own two feet until he was confident I could walk to the podium myself. My heart was pounding in my chest. My legs felt like they were made of solid lead. I managed to make my way over to the podium and clear my throat as the cheering died down.

But just as it did, one guy declared, more loudly than he should have, “Hey! That’s the guy who asked what we want in the school!” I looked down and could only smile in disbelief. It was Carson, the guy from my math class. He definitely already knew who I was, but I guess he thought this could give me a boost.

The result was instantaneous. As if the cheering had never died down, it erupted for a second time, this time louder than the last. I had absolutely no words for the moment. These students, people I had only met a few days ago, were being so selfless and helping me. I was overwhelmed. So much so, that my throat was closing up. I cleared my throat again, in what the audience took as a sign of me beginning my speech.

“Um…” I began. Stellar beginning. I think I really sold it with the ‘m’ sound. My heart began pounding even harder than others. My nervousness, surprise at everyone’s kindness, past stress and lack of preparation were welling up from within me. I could tell, I was going to cry. How lame would that be? Yes sir, vote for the crying dolt. I had to take some edge off. I needed some sort of release, a joke or something.

I breathed once, and again. “My fellow Americans…” I started, earning a chuckle from the crowd. Well, that was it, filled my joke quota. I needed to follow that up with something serious. I passed the mic to my brain as I began to freestyle, not knowing the words coming out of my own mouth.

“The people of this school… are something special.” I began, not knowing why I said that or where it came from. “During my campaign over the last week, I’ve been asking you what needs fixing, what’s wrong with the school. But I’d like to take some time and tell you what’s right with it. About a minute ago, I was in that chair, on the verge of a panic attack.”

My arms were visibly shaking, and Phil’s eyes were going back and forth, not knowing where this was going. Matt got up from his chair and practically ran to my side. “Hey man, you don’t have to do this. If you’re not okay, you can skip the speech.” he whispered, concerned.

I used him coming up to my side to my advantage and pointed to him. “But thanks to this guy, Thanks to Matt and Megan Schneider, I’m okay. They saw I was not okay, and without even really knowing me, without giving it a second thought, they made sure I was okay.” I was still shaking. I wasn’t sure, but I think a single tear was falling from my eye. What a wimp, I scolded myself. I was crying in front of the whole school. I felt lame beyond the limits of lame.

“A school where people do that is a school I want to represent.” I heard coming out of my mouth. “In the past, I’ve been at schools where people will just as gladly take your lunch money or leave you with a bruise as say hi. I signed up for student council, because thanks to you all, this is a school worth representing.”

There was a large pause. It was clear I wasn’t done, but I felt the pause was necessary. A second tear was now rolling down from my second eye, despite me telling my inner self to get a grip. Unlike other speeches, no one was saying a word in the crowd. My speech had silenced them. “If you vote for me as your grade 9 rep, I can’t promise that I will fix every single thing you’ve told me. But I remember them, every single thing you’ve told me. And I can promise that I will fight like hell to make this school worthy of its students. If you guys can show me this strongly why you deserve the best, then you bet I will do anything I can to make sure this school becomes like its students – the best in the world.”

It took Phil what felt like two whole minutes to stop half the crowd from continuously applauding as Matt helped me back to my seat. My hands were buried in my face now, and I wasn’t happy or confident to admit it, but I was now bawling my eyes out. Was it relief that it was over? Guilt that I was so lame as to cry during a speech? The past stress? I didn’t know. All I knew was that was I now had both Matt and Megan supporting me as I produced enough tears to irrigate a rice field, and that Blondie was up. I didn’t pay much attention to him – I only learned later that he had bombed. Apparently he forgot his speech. I guess he should have made it up.

***

Since candidates aren’t allowed to elect anyways, with Mr. Carrozza’s blessing, I spent the rest of the period in the washroom freshening up as everyone else in the school voted. I showed up to his room around the same time as everyone else left.

Some people were congratulating me as they left. Others actually seemed ticked off. Apparently some students saw me crying and thought it was an act to get more votes, that I was faking it. At this point, though, I honestly didn’t care anymore. The voting was done, my speech was done, I never had to do anything like that again.

As I picked up my backpack, Mr. Carrozza stopped me. “How did you know in your speech that those two were going to help you?” he asked. “Your experiment was a delightful success, but either you were lying or you were taking a great risk in knowing they would step to your aid if you wrote that on the weekend.”

“Between us?” I asked Mr. Carrozza. He nodded. I looked around left and right, before leaning in and whispering, “I never wrote a speech.”

“Oh, my my my my.” Mr. Carrozza said to himself, collecting his thoughts. “Well I say, on the one hand, very well done!”

“…On the other?” I asked him.

“I mean no offense by saying this, young master Watson, but I expect more responsibility in someone from Student Council.”

I couldn’t contest that. He was right. I was supposed to write a speech, it was the rule. I’ll have to look out for my responsibilities in the future, whether I got in to the council or not.

“Point taken, sir.” I said.

He nodded seriously, before adding, “Now run along. And don’t call me sir, it makes me feel old.”

As I left the classroom, I heard him mumble to himself, “My god, I am old.” I chuckled to myself. Some things never change.

I walked down the hallway at a leisurely pace, enjoying my sudden feeling of inner freedom, when I heard a kind of shy “Hey.” next to me.

I turned my head to see May. My gaze immediately went to the floor out of instinct, then back to her. “Hey!” I replied, not sure how confident it sounded.

“It was quite something you said today.” she said, flashing me a smile.

I scoffed. “Yeah, if you count fake crying as ‘quite something.’”

“It didn’t seem fake to me. It seemed very real.” she replied, softly yet strongly.

“It was, yeah.” I said quietly.

“If you ask me, that was really brave.” she told me, looking me straight in the eyes and flashing me a smile.

I smiled back. “Thanks.” I said, not sure what else to say. I felt like if I talked to her, I might say something out of turn and… I mean, she clearly is okay with me now, I couldn’t jeopardize that by talking to her! What if I say something and she doesn’t talk to me for a week again? Maybe that’s what happened last time. Maybe I offended her. Um, quick, look down at your shoes, I thought.

“What class do you have next?” she asked me, making me look up from my shoes.

“Um, math.” I said dumbly.

She nodded. “I have geography.”

“Ah, I see.” I said quickly, ever-wishing I was more confident. “Well, uh… I hope you enjoy it.”

“Yeah, you too.” She smiled sweetly. “I’ll see you in English?”

I laughed and said the first thing that came to mind. “God, I hope so.” I immediately cringed after, and looked at her, seeing a look of disgust on her face.

Oh, never mind, that was my imagination working against me. She was actually just maintaining her smile. “Me too!” she said in a chipper manner. “See you!” She took off down another hallway.

I sighed, then inhaled sharply, catching a whiff of what I could guess was her perfume. I had no clue what it was, I just knew that it smelled absolutely lovely. Even after she was gone, the conversation replayed over and over in my mind, and I was fantasizing about talking some more. About her favorite color, or her grade 8 year, anything…

Wham. Right into the wall. I was lost in thought, I thought as I gingerly rubbed my nose. God dammit, I did have a crush on May.

***

Math class went by uneventfully until the announcement. Mr. Graves gave me a small nod as I entered the classroom, his form of a smile, clearly related to the Student Council incident. Mostly I just thanked Carson over and over for the first five minutes of class. I don’t think I could have gotten through the speech without his kindness. He brushed it off and said I’d do the same. God, I hoped I was the kind who would.

The PA system crackled halfway through the lesson, signaling that someone had an announcement.

“Good morning, staff and students. This is Mr. Scott speaking.” came the voice. Mr. Scott always began his announcements like that. “I’d just like to tell you that we’ve counted all of the votes and the results are in!”

“This is it, man, this is it.” Carson told me.

“You’re so excited about my possible achievement. What about you?” I asked him.

“Well, when I do something noteworthy, you’ll be the first to know.” He said. He added threateningly, “And you’d better be the first to congratulate me.”

We both laughed it off as Mr. Scott continued. “Winning by a landslide, your grade 10 rep for next year is Matthew Schneider…”

Carson blew a raspberry. “Big shock. That guy’s been a popular prep ever since he came here.”

“Hey, he’s a nice guy too.” I came to his aid.

“I’ll believe that when I see it.” Carson fired back.

“And your grade rep for grade 9… Megan Schneider…”

My heart sank. I didn’t particularly want the job, but it was something nice to work towards, and after pouring my heart out to the students, it was kind of sad to know that it was all in vain. Still I suppose this was an opportunity for me to see what I’ve gained from the experience and keep going from there.

“…And Adam Watson tied in the polls, so in an unusual circumstance, we’ve allowed them to both assume the role.”

Well, fuck me. I won. Carson was the first to cheer in an unexpectedly loud fashion, and the other students chipped in to a lesser extent. Mr. Graves sat at his desk, without a smile yet clapping for me. It was the biggest gesture I’ve seen him give anybody.

***

At lunch time, Nicole texted me to meet her in the main hallway. As soon as I showed up, she burst out of the crowd and gave me a huge hug.

“There’s my little crybaby!” she said as she pulled me against her, pushing her tits against me in the process.

I chuckled. “Thanks.”

“I’m so proud of you, ya little sap.” she continued as she broke the hug, only to kiss me on the cheek. Several passerby raised their eyebrows at that.

“I still can’t believe that I did it. I’m in.” I said almost breathily.

“You did it, you’re in, you’re one of the council.” She repeated giddily. “Now you know that this means you’ll be staying after school for one of their meetings, right?”

Crap. I forgot clean about that. I guess this meant texting my mom when she was done work… at 5. Hopefully these meetings go on for long, because I had the feeling I was going to be very bored after the meeting was over.

“How is it that you could remember when council has meetings and not me?” I asked aloud, damning my own memory.

“Grade 11, freshman.” she winked.

“Is ‘grade 11’ code for ‘psychic’?” I winked back.

“I do what I can.” She grinned and hugged me again. “Anyway, I’ve got to get going but I just really wanted to congratulate you. Just don’t cry on me.”

“Thanks. That means a lot.” I said genuinely. She waved to me as she skipped down the hallways, leaving me behind, staring at her ass. Great, I thought to myself. A great ass too. As if I didn’t have enough of a problem with staring at her.

***

Despite May’s earlier cheerful point, English class went by uneventfully and the only encounter I had with her was a cheerful wave when she sat down at her desk. Otherwise, it was back to To Kill a Mockingbird.

It was drama class which excited me. After the speech, I actually felt a little bit more comfortable in the classroom, even with such a presence as Mr. Salvador looming over us. Today, of course, was no exception to that looming power.

“Hello.” he said simply, yet powerfully. “We have a lot to do today, or more specifically, you have a lot to go over today.” he snickered. It wasn’t uncommon for him to do that at his own jokes. “I have with me ten very different s. I want you all to find a partner. This will be a long-term project, so find a partner you think you’ll work well with.” He let us go about our business. Being… well, being me, I remained completely still, afraid to make the first step as other people claimed partners.

I heard a familiar “Hey.” beside me and turned to face May.

“Hey!” I said cheerfully, and she took a seat next to me.

“Mr. Salvador told us to find someone we work well with, and I haven’t worked with many people.”

“Oh yeah?” I asked. I was too scared to ask her if she would be my partner.

“Yeah.” she softly replied and looked down. “Well, anyways…” she said as she got up and started to walk off.

God dammit, this was about finding drama partners, why was there this tension? I felt like the moment was romantic. I bet she didn’t, though. I bet that’s why she was walking away. I needed to make it clear to her that I didn’t mean any offense.

“Hey, May.” I called out, she stopped where she was and pivoted to look at me, nothing but innocence on her face.

“Yes, Adam?” She asked me sweetly.

“Will you be my partner?” Were the words that exited my mouth before I thought about them.

“Sure!” She said, as if the whole scene before hadn’t happened.

“Aaaaaand time.” Mr. Salvador called out, clearly not amused. “Hanna, how long did that take us?”

“Four minutes, thirty-two seconds.” Hanna, clearly an over-enthused drama student, piped up.

“Four minutes, thirty-two seconds.” Mr. Salvador repeated. “That took way too long. In this class, I expect you to take initiative, and I expect you to act quickly, on impulse.” Rub it in, why don’t you. “Next time you’ll have your partners by two minutes. Understood?”

A chorus of ‘yes’ filled the auditorium. “Good.” Mr. Salvador said. “Now, label yourselves A and B.”

May was A. We went through this before. No words even had to be said.

“B’s, come up and collect your .” He reached beside him, and retrieved an upside-down bowler hat.

“Uh, Salvador… that’s a hat.” A boy with very short brown hair and a goatee piped up.

“Thank you, Callum.” Mr. Salvador thanked him. “Your s are in the hat. Come and get them.”

I, like everyone else, shrugged and went forward to collect our . I reached into the hat and pulled out a piece of paper that said, “A tree gets chopped down.”

Everyone else questioned whether these were s, but I knew Mr. Salvador’s game by now.

“All of you have a basic action as your . By this time next Monday, you will have a full, 5-minute piece that shows this action. You’re going to be performing as non-human objects, and I want you to make sure you’re not a character, you’re not living, and you don’t look human. It’s a challenge, so don’t take this task lightly. I want you to make the entire piece interesting. I want the piece to have its own plot. You can talk to me if you want lighting or music preferences, other than that, it’s all up to you. If you want me to view what you have so far, I’ll be in the room. Come and find me. Go.”

Everyone flew onstage to claim their own piece of the aud to work with. May, however, had a different idea. “Follow me.” she instructed me. She was really cute when she gave orders.

“Mr. Salvador!” She called out to him.

“You can’t show me anything yet. It’s too early. Keep working.” He told her.

“No, it’s not that.” she responded. “Could we maybe go outside to look at trees? If we’re going to be acting as them, I want to make sure we make it as accurate as possible.”

A smile formed on Mr. Salvador’s lips. “Absolutely. I’m guessing you got ‘a tree gets chopped down’? Just make sure you don’t go anywhere other than in front of the school. There are some trees there.”

She and I enthusiastically nodded. What a great idea! I marveled at her imagination. I’m glad I was working with May, and not just for the obvious reason.

***

By the end of drama class, May and I actually got a lot done. We looked at the trees from every angle, and tried to mimic them with our bodies. Then we discussed who would be the axe, and planned how that would span five minutes. We figured that was good enough for one day, and sat down on the front steps of the school.

“Are you liking grade nine so far?” she asked me.

I snickered. “If you had asked me a week ago you’d be getting a very different answer.” I thought of Nicole, and what we had done in her car only days before.

She grinned. “I don’t suppose that had anything to do with me transferring to this class, does it?” she asked with a wink.

I turned pink and looked at my shoes. “Hey.” she said after a bit. “It was just a joke! You don’t have to answer that.”

Feeling the tension, she broke it with “Besides, I’m sure that answer was definitely ‘yes.’”

“And what makes you so sure?” I asked her with a smirk.

“Well, what else happened in the last week that made high school so much better?” she challenged me.

For a second, I opened my mouth to give her the answer on my mind, but luckily I remembered that perhaps it would be too crass to mention it like that. I was crushing on May, for goodness sakes. Telling her about my sexual adventures wasn’t going to do me any favors.

She took my silence as a victory. “Thought so.” She said triumphantly.

“Well, are you?” I asked her.

“Huh?”

“Are you liking grade nine so far?”

“Well…” she started hesitantly. “I’ve been getting less shy lately, and I actually feel comfortable here now. So I guess that’s good.”

“Yeah? Have you been making friends?” I asked her.

“A few.” she replied, suddenly losing energy. “I guess. I haven’t really been connecting with anyone that much since I got here. And we both know how much I suck at showing emotions.” she added, referencing last Monday.

“Hey, you were great. I just suck at guessing.” I defended her, standing up. “And if you need a friend, I’m right here. If… If you want a friend, that is.”

She giggled, which was adorable and brought out her beautiful smile again. She hopped off the steps and hugged me. “Thanks, Adam.” she told me. My hands hovered for a second, before embracing her back. Suddenly, I became aware that her breasts were pushing into my chest, and before an awkward situation could pop up, gently pushed her away. Luckily, she just took it as the hug being over.

“Do you have a cell phone?” she asked me. “I might take you up on that offer.”

Too happy for words, my heart in my throat, I whipped out my cell phone and we exchanged numbers.

“Great.” she said happily. She fell silent, then added with a sly face, “Hopefully your girlfriend won’t mind if I text you.”

“Girlfriend?” I was genuinely puzzled, until I put the pieces together. “Who, Nicole?”

“The camera girl? Yeah, I’ve seen her around school a lot. She takes that camera everywhere, it’s weird. Anyway, I saw you two during lunch. I thought I saw her kiss you! On the cheek, but still.”

Now, I didn’t want to lie to her, but this was also my first crush. I didn’t want to blow it so soon. “Nah, she’s just my neighbor.” I said to her with a confident voice. “We’ve known each other since… I was still using a car seat.” It was not technically a lie, since I did sit on her. “But we would never be… No, not like that. She’s like a sister to me.”

Bleh. Well, I just disgusted myself, but from the look on her face, she bought it. “Oh, okay!” she said in her normal cheerful voice. She played with a lock of her hair, something I never really saw her do before, and slowly started to speak. “So does that mean… Are you…”

“Bell rang!” came the voice of Mr. Salvador through the open school doors. “I hope you two got up to more than just chatting out here.”

Despite his powerful persona, May didn’t ever seem fazed by him. “We did, as a matter of fact. A lot more.” She flashed me a quick smile and headed inside.

I followed, while Mr. Salvador was still holding open the door. By this time, she was already out of sight. “Are you two together?” Mr. Salvador asked me.

Oh, the irony. “Nope.” I simply answered as we started walking.

“Oh, good.” Mr. Salvador replied.

“Good?” I asked him.

“In drama, two types of groups don’t work well together. People who hate each other, and people who love each other. Both types let personal feelings guide their choices instead of what should come normally in a drama piece.”

“Hmm.” Was all I could think to say. “Does that affect normal lives too?”

He flashed me a quick smile. “Drama is just an extension of normal life.”

“Fair enough!” I replied.

“Good work earlier, by the way. You had true emotion behind your words.” he told me as we neared the classroom.

“I guess.” I simply responded. “People here inspired me. Although a lot of people thought my crying was fake.”

“It wasn’t.” was all he said, like it was an order. Of course, he was a drama teacher. He would be able to tell.

By the time I got to the classroom, May was gone. She must have left in a hurry. I slung my backpack over my shoulder and noted Mr. Salvador on the stage, inspecting the lighting. “Take care!” I called to him.

He didn’t say goodbye. I don’t think he ever did.

***

Thank goodness for the talk he and I had about student council, otherwise knowing me I would have forgotten about the meeting. Luckily, in the hallways after leaving the aud, I met up with Phil who was more than happy to show me to where the meetings were held.

“You were a bit… uneasy there.” He said as we were walking. “You okay now?”

“Yeah.” I said. “I just get nervous in front of crowds. But now I’m ready to work.”

“Great!” he responded as he opened a door. Room 203. The room was filled with students of every kind. Hipsters, jocks, I think there was even a geek. Mostly from grade 11 up though. I guess that’s when all of the good positions opened up. I took a seat near the back and Phil walked to the center of the room.

“Alright everybody, listen up! I’d like to welcome you all to the introductory council of this year!” There was mild cheering. “First, I’d like to welcome back Matt Schneider, he knows how much we’ve missed him.”

“We didn’t miss you at all, he’s just being kind.” Chirped the geek from behind Phil. Everyone snickered.

“And now to welcome our grade nines to the party, we have our own lovely own Ms. Baker!”

Baker! That was…

On cue, Nicole burst through the doors, wearing the same button-up vest from this morning, but visibly nothing else from the waist up. “Today we have the rare treat of welcoming two new grade nines to Student Council.” she started.

Well, of course she wouldn’t tell me she was on student council… Though a lot more made sense now. How she knew so much, why she was texting Phil, why she got really excited when she saw me the first time, the thing she had to do this morning…

“First off, we have the handsome and charming Adam Watson.” she said. Before I knew how to react to that, she took my face and her hands and planted a kiss on my lips. Time stopped, and I stayed as still as possible. My first kiss… I certainly didn’t know it was going to happen like this. As she broke away, I felt almost disappointed. I didn’t know she wanted to reveal what she was doing with me so publicly, but it definitely aroused me. I guess it was out in the open now, Nicole and I have been fooling around. Hell, it’s kind of funny that I’ve sucked on her nipples before and only now I just had my first kiss.

“Secondly,” she said, moving away from me. Oh well. I guess the council would discuss the new developments later, though to my shock they didn’t seem shocked at all, except for Megan. And speaking of… “We have the beautiful, gorgeous Megan Schneider.” Then, to my complete and utter shock, she took Megan’s face in her hands and gave her a full kiss on the lips. Because this was girl-on-girl, the guys cheered for this one, but I was still left in shock.

I guess I wasn’t the only one… I guess she kissed every newcomer or something. It never really crossed my mind before, but yeah… I must have been the hundredth guy to kiss her. Was that also true for the sex? Was I just another number in her book of reference? The next sucker, standing in line? I would have given her my virginity if I asked. And she would have taken it so carelessly. What an idiot I’ve been…

Megan didn’t look too happy with her kiss either, actually. From when Nicole’s lips departed hers, she just sat there, an uneasy expression on her lips.

As Phil went on, she looked in my eyes and smiled, but I let my gaze wander. Phil droned on. “This meeting, for the newly elected, will just be so you can see how things are run here. You won’t get any jobs today. The rest of us can-” blah blah blah. I’d heard enough. As long as I didn’t need to do anything, I saw no further need to focus. Besides, I couldn’t focus on anything.

***

After the meeting ended, everybody started to clear out. Nicole hopped out of her seat and walked up to Phil. “Great council today, Mr. President, as usual.” She flashed him a flirty smile.

“Where’s my kiss, huh?” Phil asked boldly. I think I was going to be sick.

Nicole smirked. “Maybe when you’re older.” she told him. She turned her back on him and walked over to me. “Let me guess – you need a ride, right, squirt?”

“Sure, I guess.” I replied disinterestedly as I walked out of the room. I could see she gave me a confused glance.

“How much older?” I could hear Phil call as Nicole herself walked out of the hallway to join me.

“Oh, five… six years.” She called back to the room. I just started walking. I didn’t care. Today was a mix of emotions for me – it was probably inevitable that I was going to get angry at someone. Truth be told, I was probably more angry at myself for falling for her wiles so quickly.

“Hey.” She called after me. I didn’t respond, so she ran up next to me, started walking alongside me towards the exit and repeated herself. “Hey!”

“What?” I asked her.

“What’s wrong, hotshot?” She asked me. She had genuine concern in her voice.

“How many guys have you kissed? And girls. How many people have you kissed?” I asked her.

“Ah.” she said, figuring me out. Amazingly, she cracked a grin. “Well, this was gonna come up sooner or later. Is someone jealous?” She asked in a baby voice. I turned away from her and kept walking.

“Aw, c’mon, don’t be like that.” she pouted. “You didn’t really think that you were the first, did you?”

“No, but you sure as hell could have told me, or something before just flashing me your tits. What if my first kiss meant something big to me? Now it just means another brick in the wall for you. I’m just the next of many.”

“It doesn’t work like that.” She told me sternly. “Look, that’s just what happens in high school. I’m sorry, but it is. It’s not like you were telling me to stop.” By now, we were at her car. She unlocked it and got in. I followed suit.

“Well, it’s just made things clear. I thought I was a friend to you. I thought I finally meant something to someone. But nope, I’m just another booty call for Nicole Baker.” My tone was ice-cold by now.

Amazingly, while she was stern, she still held her jokey tone with me. “Right, and you’re telling me the guy who only needed a green flag to suck on my tits within, hmm, half an hour of knowing me isn’t guilty of being shallow?”

Damn. She had a good point. I didn’t say anything, and turned my head away.

“Look, for the record, I’m sorry.” she continued. “If you had told me how much that meant to you, I wouldn’t have done it. And for the record, I do consider you a friend. Hell, you’re actually a lot sweeter than… like, 9 out of 10 guys I’ve been with, if we’re talking statistics. But if we’re talking numbers…” She started counting on her fingers. I don’t know if it was for comedic effect, but the number surpassed 30.

“How many guys have you had?!” I asked with shock. Although, as she could tell, I was no longer upset.

She laughed. “You’d be surprised. And hey, you didn’t think this was the first year that we stopped checking the speeches by coincidence, did you?” she winked. “I pulled a few strings during my morning meeting with Phil. You’re welcome.” She started the car and stretched. Then, as if I should have expected anything else, she started undoing the buttons on her vest top, revealing, surprise, nothing underneath.

“Is this a requirement for you driving or something?” I asked her, a smile returning to my face.

“I don’t see you complaining.” She winked, tweaking a nipple.

“You do that any more, and I may just be tempted to do that myself.” I told her. I felt my lust coming back to me, and suddenly I had a craving for the taste of her tits once again in my mouth.

“Promises promises.” she said slyly, letting go of her boobs and backing out of the school parking lot. Once again, I could tell she was aroused herself, just by looking at how far her nipples were sticking out. God, her boobs looked amazing. The way her large, pink areolae crowned each boob, it just made me want to take one and start sucking. The way her breasts rose and fell with her breathing… It was almost serene, actually. The way they jutted out, and stuck out a little to the side, almost squishing together, they were perfect in every way.

She caught me looking. “Well well.” She said. “Looks like we won’t even need the promises.” She arched her back, pushing her boobs out further.

“Look who’s talking.” I said, taking my finger and flicking her obviously hard nipple. She shivered at my touch.

“What can I say?” She said sheepishly. “It would be a shame if I took you home and left it at that.”

I smiled at her, but looked out straight at the road. After a bit, so did she, and before long, we were on the road. Once I was confident that she was looking straight ahead, I silently undid my seatbelt and mapped my actions. Then, once we were at a stop sign, with computer accuracy I got out of my seat and latched my mouth right on to her right nipple. I started sucking immediately.

“Oh, shit.” she moaned. “Adam, this is not exactly safe.”

“What did you say?” I asked, letting go of her nipple only to tweak it with my hand.

“I said, ‘fuck you.’ Now keep sucking.” She said with a laugh. And so I did, for no one knows how long. I began to roll her nipple around with my tongue, and she started panting. I actually came to love the rhythm of her breathing. There was a certain melody to it, and I was playing it’s melody with my own breath. This is for helping a loser out, I thought as I sucked harder on her tit, making her moan again. This is the rides home, I thought as I brought my hand up to her other nipple. I was trying not to interfere with her driving, so the angle was a little awkward, but it worked.

And this, I thought deviously, is for not telling me about the kiss, I thought as I bit down, hard, on her nipple.

“Aiie!” She yelped. I soothed the bitten nipple with my tongue, gently tracing it along the bitten area then playing with it, teasing it. Her hips started to buck and on cue, I stopped right there and got back in my seat.

“Why the fuck did you stop?” She asked me in the closest tone to upset I’ve ever heard her use.

“Oh, right, like you’ve never teased me before.” I retaliated. There was fire in her eyes, and she started driving 10mph faster. I laughed to myself. Victory, I thought.

My victory was short-lived as I saw her drive right past my house. “Um… Nicole…” I said. She ignored me and pulled into her driveway, still breathily heavily.

“Seriously? As punishment, you’re going to make me walk home from here?” I asked her, an eyebrow cocked.

She rolled her eyes. “You really need to know when to notice things, dumbass.” She threw at me. “How many other cars do you see in this driveway?”

“Um… None.” I replied hesitantly, then quickly understood. “You mean…”

She didn’t give me enough time to finish that sentence. With her top still undone, she bolted out of the car, ran to the other side, and practically dragged me out, towards the house. In hindsight, I probably should have put my seatbelt back on.

I didn’t get to see much of it once we got inside since Nicole was dragging me with the force of Louis Cyr, but from what I could see she had a nice place. Everything was very clean, proper, shining and frankly fancy. Her room was a bit of a different story, with neon-green walls and stuff strewn about everywhere, but my attention was admittedly a bit distracted.

She practically threw me down on and the bed and threw off her vest like it was on fire. Then she pounced on me so that my chest was right in her face. I got right to work, grabbing her left tit and playing with it with my tongue.

“Oooooh, Adam…” She moaned. She was getting really turned on, and her hips went to bucking right away, which quickly turned into grinding once she realized she had a fully erect dick right in front of her.

Instinctively, her mouth went right to my neck, wasting no time in biting it immediately. I opened my mouth in pain, but no sound came out. She used the opportunity and pushed herself forward so that her boob was entirely in my mouth. Working with her, I started sucking and sucking. There was something about the moment where, without thinking, I wrapped my arms around her in an embrace, still sucking. This wasn’t out of lust, it was definitely something else, something sweeter. It’s like I was grateful for all of the things she’d done for me, and giving her this pleasure was my way of thanking her.

Meanwhile, her grinding was getting more and more desperate. “Fuck.” She said, at first softly. After my mouth switched to her other boob and began to suck again, she repeated it. “Fuck!” Each time getting more and more lustful. “FUCK!”

Finally, she got off of me and started fumbling with my shirt. I had no clue what was about to happen but I could guess that it would be awesome. I helped her take it off, and only then realized she was seeing me shirtless. My shoulders collapsed inwards, showing my insecurity. She just leaned back and took in what she saw.

After a few seconds she bit her lower lip in approval. “Not bad, hotshot.” She said, as she made a move for my pants. She grabbed my dick through my jeans and moaned. “Mmm… Not bad at all.”

As she tried to fumble with the button of my jeans, my phone fell out of my pocket. “Oopsie!” she sang innocently. She looked at the screen as she passed it back to me. “You have a message.”

Really? Mom barely ever texted me, and dad frankly never knew how to text. Who could it… Ah. Right. May.

As I unlocked my phone, I saw the message. hey this is adam rite? Oh, Nicole would hate her. At least she was using punctuation properly.

“So who is it?” Nicole asked impatiently, still slowly tearing away at the button of my jeans.

“Um… mom. Wants to know where I am.” I answered.

Her psychic powers must have kicked in, because she blinked twice and said, “Your mom barely texts you, now who is it?” With split-second timing, she grabbed the phone out of my hand. “Ooh la la, who’s this?” she asked me, showing me the screen.

Now with May, I was insecure, but Nicole I just trusted. Maybe because I’ve explored her more than anyone else I never met, but I just felt comfortable telling her the truth. Besides, after today, I think the truth was the best policy.

“Her name is May Stevens.” I admitted.

“Oh my! Little Adam has a girlfriend!” she said, teasing me, but still rubbing her own pussy through her pants.

“She’s not a girlfriend, I just have a crush on her.” I admitted. Then for good measure, I added, “Aww, is someone jealous?” in an imitating tone.

“Don’t you remember?” She asked, slipping off my pants. “I’m not the jealous type. No strings attached. Do you need a reminder?”

I let my actions speak for themselves as she worked my pants off and got to my boxers.

“So, uh… May Stevens. I think I know her. Cute little brunette, right? Your grade?” she said slowly.

“Uh, yeah. Why?” I asked.

“And do you ever fantasize about things you could do with her?” she asked, her slow tone turning into one of seduction. I saw where she was going.

“All the time.” I partially lied.

She slowly dropped my boxers to my ankles, revealing my hard dick right in front of her face. “Damn! I guess I can’t call you Little Adam.”

“Oh, come on. You’ve been with how many guys?”

“Believe me, for a grade nine, this is impressive.” She retaliated. “So Adam, tell me. What kind of things did you picture doing with May? Did you ever think May would do this?”

With that, she took my dick right into her mouth. It slipped past her lips, and entered her warm, wet mouth. She slowly started moving her mouth back and forth, caressing my cock with her tongue. For a second, I was in heaven.

She let go of my dick long enough to say, “I’m waiting for an answer!” then placing the tip of her tongue at the bottom of my dick. With agonizing slowness, she licked her way to the top.

“I think she would go farther than that.” I smiled slyly.

“Oooh, bold move, hotshot!” She grinned at me. “Well, we’ll see what I can do. For now, close your eyes.”

I wasn’t sure what she had planned, but I sure as hell was not going to refuse. My head leaning back, I closed my eyes as her tongue played with my dick some more.

“Do you like this, Adam?” Came the distinct voice of May. “Does this make you happy?”

My eyes bolted open to see Nicole grinning again. “Imitation. It’s my hobby. Now sit back and enjoy it.”

“Wait, how the hell did you manage to exactly memorize May’s voice after meeting her in the hallway a couple of times?”

“Details, details.” Nicole smirked. “Now why are your eyes open?”

Was there anything this amazing girl couldn’t do?! I closed my eyes again and put my left hand on the back of her head, coaxing her to put her mouth back on my dick.

“Wow, Adam. It’s so big.” May’s voice rang through the room. “I think I’m in love with it.” She stressed the word ‘love’ and immediately slipped my cock back between her lips. Her tongue was working on my head as she tried to push my dick farther and farther down.

“Oh my God, May. That’s incredible.” I moaned without thinking. Nicole moaned on my dick, and I was 90% sure that moan was involuntary. Me thinking about fucking someone else was turning her on, was it? That in turn turned me on and before long I was moving my hips to slide my cock further and further down her throat, which, of course, she took without difficulty.

“Do you like it, Adam?” May’s voice asked me as she came up for air. “Do I please you?”

“You really please me, May.” I said, while realizing how close I was. I was actually amazed I lasted as long as I did.

“What else can I do for you, baby?” She asked me. In answer, I grabbed her hair and forced her mouth back on my dick. She got the message immediately, and started using every trick in the book. Her hand started to play with my balls as she worked back and forth, faster than ever and her tongue ran circles over the head. After a bit, I noticed that her moaning had returned and that her arm was moving with her body, like she was bucking her hips. Even without rubbing herself, this scene was turning her on!

It wasn’t long before I felt a churning sensation. I had a few seconds, max. “May!” I gasped! “It’s- I-” I got that out before I started spurting in her beautiful mouth. Nicole never missed a beat, swallowing like a pro (which I’m sure she was), all the while still bucking her hips. I couldn’t see straight, I felt like I was going to pass out. “I…” came out of my mouth involuntarily, but I never got to finish that thought. Nicole still sucked away, but went from frantic to soothing as my spurts of cum subsided, getting slower and slower until her lips popped off my dick. I felt nothing but pure euphoria, and before I could even see straight, went in for an embrace as soon as Nicole stood up. She gladly returned the hug, then broke it off, searching for something. She found a water bottle on the floor and started chugging away, occasionally swishing in her mouth.

“No offense.” She said casually. Using her regular voice almost caught me off guard.

“None taken.” I responded. I eyed her up and down. Despite her casual tone, she was definitely still turned on, and sucking me off didn’t help her one bit. Well, I decided as I slowly kneeled in front of her, I think I owed her one.

“Woah there, Casa Nova, what are you up to?” She asked. I didn’t answer. All I did was kiss her stomach, gently tracing letters on it with my tongue. She moaned, still very turned on, and I swear I felt heat radiating from her pussy.

As I started to undo her pants, she stopped me with her hands. “Easy there, squirt.” She said, although huskily. “What you doin’ that for?”

“You did all this for me, now I want to give you a little reward, that’s all.” I said back gently, still a little ‘Cloud-Nine’y from cumming.

“No, it’s okay, you don’t have to do that.” She reassured me, trying to bring me up to her face.

“Nicole…” I said, looking her dead in the eye. “I want to.”

She bit her lip in frustration. I caught on that something was afoot. “The truth, Nicole.” I told her. It was my turn to read her mind for a change.

She inhaled and exhaled a few times, clearly nervous. I’d never seen her like this before. “I’veneverhadaguydothattome.” She finally said quickly, and winced.

“Really?” I asked. I found it a bit hard to believe. The girl was confident, bold, definitely flirty, and definitely beautiful, and a guy had never eaten her out.

“Mhm.” she hummed, and bit her lip.

I stood straight up and looked her right in the eye. With my fact close to hers, I told her, “I still want to.”

Without warning, she leaned forward. There was no drive, no lust, just subtlety, when she kissed me on the lips. It was gentle, her lips were soft – I had more time to appreciate them now. Before anything else happened, she leaned back and blushed slightly.

She regained her normal attitude and told me, “Y’know, it’s not common for me to kiss the same guy twice.”

“I guess I should be thankful.” I replied as I sank down to her knees. We shuffled over to the bed and she fell back on it, while I slipped off her pants. There she was, dressed only in the black panties I saw that morning. She was still breathing heavily when I looked back into her blue eyes.

“Are you okay with this?” I asked. She nodded and bit her lip.

“Do you want this?” Her breathing got heavier and she nodded again. I slowly removed her panties from her legs and took a gaze at the first pussy I’d ever seen that wasn’t from porn (yes, the schoolyard bullies were incorrect).

The first thing I noticed was that she didn’t shave, but I didn’t mind that one bit. It was very clear now that her black hair was all natural. As she kicked her panties off, I could see what I believed to be an erect clitoris. It was larger than average.

“I know, I know.” Nicole, ever the psychic, jumped in. “Don’t stare at it.” I looked up to see that her face was red, and it wasn’t because she was turned on. I recognized the look on her face, and the way her shoulders were scrunched in. She was insecure. She felt like she wasn’t good enough, or in this case she felt like she had what she thought was a glaring flaw. Well, it was time to show her how I felt, how beautiful I thought she looked.

I didn’t dive in immediately. first, I liked tenderly around her folds. I will confess, since I was a first-timer I had no clue what I was doing. I was only doing what felt right. As I licked, she started up her moaning, although she kept it soft at first.

Navigating around the hairs wasn’t an easy task, but I was absolutely going to go through with it if it meant pleasuring Nicole. She was worth it and then some.

My licking became more and more deliberate, and more and more focussed. As my tongue neared Nicole’s pussy, her moans become louder and longer.

“Oh my god.” she breathed. “This is fucking amazing. Don’t stop.”

I wasn’t planning on it. The moment of anticipation was over, the main show was about to begin. Throwing caution to the wind, I thrust inside of her with my tongue, causing her to gasp. Leaving it in for just a split second too short, I began to move my tongue around, listening for her reactions.

I soon found that she moaned the loudest when my tongue found her clit, so I decided to play it delicate again. I subtly danced around her clit with my tongue, every so often flicking it.

“Adam…” she was panting. “You are amazing.”

I licked up and down her slit a few times more before returning to exploring her deeply with my tongue, as deep as I could go.She grabbed my head and was pushing me into her at this point, moaning and bucking her hips.

I started to run my hands up and down her thighs as my exploring continued. The taste wasn’t phenomenal, but it wasn’t strictly bad either. Actually, in a strange way it felt kind of nice to be returning the favor to Nicole. Plus, despite her pussy not being shaven, the rest of her skin felt like hot silk and I couldn’t resist rubbing up and down her thighs once I had started. I stopped temporarily to kiss the outside of her pussy, which made her giggle amongst her moaning, and continued.

Her giggling stopped and her eyes squeezed shut when I extended my tongue past what I thought I could inside her pussy. She went right back to moaning. After a few minutes of darting and moving my tongue back and forth through her love tunnel, her body began to squirm and her moaning became constant.

“Adam… I think I’m getting close.” she squeaked. I doubled my efforts, moving quicker and going even deeper, lapping up every drop of fluid she could produce. Her hold on my head got stronger, shoving me so far between her legs I thought I was going to suffocate. “Adam…” she moaned. “I… I…” she cut herself off with a high-pitched noise, signaling her orgasm. I kept up my efforts, still going strong, waiting to be rewarded with her pleasure. She writhed around for what seemed like a full minute, then a grin the likes of which I never have seen on Nicole spread across her beautiful lips.

“Stay right there.” she commanded me, yet with pure bliss in her voice. “Don’t move.” She ground her hips against my tongue, slowly exhaling all the while. After a while of this, she stopped and opened her eyes lazily. I took my tongue out of her and slowly stood up. She followed suit, with something in her eyes. It wasn’t quite lust, but I couldn’t tell what exactly it was.

“How was that?” I asked her, a small smile forming on my lips. Nicole was breathing hard, and seemed almost nervous. She didn’t respond with words, instead she just pulled me onto the bed in a passionate embrace, as she frantically kissed my lips over and over. I was shocked, but responded in vigor, pushing my lips against hers as we never left the embrace.

As we kissed, her tongue ran over my lips, and my mouth opened, allowing her access. She explored my mouth with her own tongue then darted away from my mouth, hinting that I should do the same. My tongue followed suit, and as it entered her mouth she moaned softly. Our tongues re-enacted the Battle of Waterloo, and apparently I was Napoleon. As she expertly played with and teased my tongue I slowly retreated, and our mouths parted. She stared into my eyes for a few seconds before nuzzling into my shoulder, both of us still naked.

She took her head away from my shoulder after a few seconds, a look of disgust on her face.

“What’s that thing I taste?” she asked me.

I laughed. “Look down.” I told her. She looked down between her legs and her expression softened. “Huh.” she remarked. She retrieved the water bottle from beside her bed and swished around some more. After, she offered me the bottle.

“No thanks.” I softly declined. “I didn’t mind it at all.”

She gave me a shy kind of smile as she put the bottle back. It was weird, before she was all gutsy and confident. Here, she seemed nervous, vulnerable and a little shy. After she placed the bottle beside the bed again, she resumed the nuzzling of her head into my shoulder.

“Hey Adam?” She softly asked after a few minutes of precious silence. She had a tone to her voice that I couldn’t quite detect.

“Yes, Nicole?” I answered her.

“Do you…” she trailed off, but laughed to herself as she seemingly dismissed the thought. Her tone changed when she asked, “Do you have to get home immediately? It would be cool if we could hang out.”

“Uh, yeah, sure!” I answered lamely. “I’d need to text my mom, plus I have a bit of homework…”

“Don’t worry, I can help you with that.” She said, looking up from my shoulder.

“And what makes you so sure I need help?” I asked, smirking at her.

“Oh, go put some pants on.” she retaliated, laughing at me.

“Look who’s talking.” I joked as I got off the bed at retrieved my boxers. I slowly slid them on, then did the same with my pants. When I looked back, Nicole was in the same position on the bed, fully clothed like nothing happened.

“Now look who’s talking.” she giggled.

“How’d you do that?!” I asked. At this point, I almost had no right to be shocked at anything Nicole did.

“Grade 11, squirt.” She winked.

“Okay, that one doesn’t even apply to this situation.”

“You’d be surprised!” she replied with a smile. I smiled back. Nicole was a really special girl, I had to admit. I was really glad I met her. And it seemed like with the way her smile looked after tonight, something changed. I think she was really glad to have met me too.

Chapter Three

In hindsight, my life had to be a really boring thing. One month into high school I get to second base and get voted into student council because I acted like a spineless wimp onstage, and it feels like it’s been the most important week of my entire life. Not that I was complaining. Even though I had a crush on May, this past week brought me Nicole, who was more than an easy tomboy as someone would see her on the outside – she was a friend.”So, what do ya wanna do?” Nicole asked as she stretched once I had pants on.

“I dunno, you pick.” I said absent-mindedly as I texted my mom. Hey! Hope you don’t mind, I’m spending the afternoon at a friend’s house. When do you want me home?

“Well, what do you normally like doing after school when there’s nothing to do?” she asked me, though her tone made it sound more like a test than a serious question.

“…Um…” I responded, not sure how to proceed.

“C’mon, dude. You’re a guy. You should know the answer is video games.” she said, almost annoyed with me. She hopped up from her position and walked over to her computer, booting it up. I turned my attention back to my phone, and remembered I hadn’t texted May back.

I checked the message. Hey, this is adam rite?

I typed back, Yup! This is May, I bet.

I looked back up to see Nicole, arms akimbo, facing me. “I get that you got a thing for her and all, but last time I checked you were hanging out with me.”

“I thought you said you weren’t the jealous type.” I replied, winking at her.

She smiled menacingly. “Ooh, watch it you. I’m not jealous of another girl, but don’t be rude. I could be texting someone right now too.”

“Alright, sorry.” I said, putting my phone back into my pocket.

“Great.” she beamed, as if nothing happened. “So, what should we play?” she asked, turning towards the computer and firing up some program.

“Um, I dunno.” I replied. “I don’t really play video games.”

“You what?” She turned back and stared at me. “Wow, someone here is totally missing out.” she clicked a few times, evidently browsing her library of games, and added, “Well, let’s start with a few favorites of mine.”

“What do you like?” I asked, trying to keep up conversation. “Call of Duty, or…”

“I said I play games, squirt. Not shit.” she retaliated.

“I’m sure an opinion like that doesn’t score many points with the guys.”

“Well, I don’t wanna play with those guys anyway.” she said, using ‘play’ as a double entendre, I’m sure.

“So what if I started playing it?” I challenged her, smiling. She smiled back.

“I guess I’d just have to keep you too occupied to play it, wouldn’t I?” she asked playfully. She reached forward and expertly rubbed at my jeans with her palm, right between the legs.

“I’d rather play with you any day.” I said without thinking.I’m not sure what my tone sounded like, but her eyebrows quickly shot up a little, then went back down as quickly as they came up.

“Mhm.” she agreed flatly. “Here, let’s try this one. Battleblock Theater. Mitch said it’s really good.”

“Who’s Mitch?” I asked.

“Brother.” she replied. I noticed her mood visibly shifted. She was sadder. I put my hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged it off.

She turned and smiled at me. “What, am I thirteen?” Her smile seemed fake.

After a few rounds of the game spent in complete silence apart from slight laughter and explanations as to how the game worked, with a few choice expletives from Nicole whenever I screwed up, she suddenly pulled a bomb on me. “What would you do if I had sex with another guy?”

My eyes went straight from the game to her, my mouth slightly open in shock. “Wow, that came completely out of nowhere.”

“What, can I say, I’m unpredictable.” she replied. “So, what would you do if I had sex with another guy? After all, if you’re going to get your panties in a knot if I kiss another person, we need to lay down some ground rules.”

“Oh, shut up.” I laughed, and attempted to playfully shove her. She saw me coming and hooked my arm in hers. She pulled my arm behind my back, immobilizing me, and, being Nicole, kissed me on my neck. I think I let out an involuntary moan.

“Nice try, squirt. You’re gonna have to be quicker than that.” she replied triumphantly, going back to her seat.

“Alright, I’ll bite. How did you know that one?” I asked, rubbing my arm.

“Nuh-uh. I asked a question too. You first.” she replied with a wink.

“I guess I wouldn’t mind… It would be kinda unfair if I did.”

She nodded. “Since you want in May’s pants.”

“Thank you, Nicole.” I replied bitterly. “Your turn.”

“Karate. Been doing it for about ten years now.” she gave me a small smile.

“Wow, that’s really cool.” I said, legitimately impressed.

She seemed happy that I was. “Oh yeah?” she asked.

“Yeah!” I replied enthusiastically. “I would love to do something like that someday.”

“Why don’t you join then?” she asked me. “The club has room for more. Plus it would be kinda cool to see you doing more stuff. Let me guess, you wanted to impress your parents with this whole student council thing?”

Yup, bingo. “I shouldn’t even be surprised, but how did you know that?” I asked.

She scoffed. “Do you honestly think you look like student council material? You look like the womb spat you out yesterday. No offense.”

Amazingly, I didn’t take any. I guess I was just used to it from middle school.

She stood up. “C’mon.” she started. “If you wanna learn stuff, why not now?” She walked to the center of the room. I followed.

“Learn what?” I asked.

“Well, karate.” She answered. She assumed a position where her knees were bent and she was leaning slightly forward. “See this position I’m making? Try to re-create it.”

I smiled slightly, and shrugged. Why not? I did want to learn, after all.

After we tried a few stances, she moved on to the hands and where they should be. I had to admit, she was a really good teacher. She spoke slowly and made sure I could understand everything she was teaching, rather than assume I knew what she was talking about. But she also pushed me, and knew I could do better than what I was doing. She really knew how to empower me.

About an hour in, we moved on to choke holds, which was the most difficult for me. For one, I was lousy under pressure and even though I knew what to do, piecing it together was difficult with an arm around my throat. For another, having a gorgeous girl’s tits pressed right up against your back could be a really distracting thing, especially since you knew for a fact there was nothing on underneath that button-up vest.

“Oh, come on, Adam.” she said after the fourth time while I clutched my throat. “You know how to do it. You’re thinking too much. Don’t think, just do.”

“It’s freaking easy for you to say.” I retaliated. “This is my first time doing any of this.”

“I suppose I have shown you a lot of first times.” she winked at me, and grabbed her boobs in her hands. As soon as she caught me staring, she let go and added, “Now concentrate this time. Power stance, distraction, free the head, pin me down.”

I got back in position and she wrapped her arm around my throat. I bent by knees into the power stance she described, and used my free arm to hit her lightly in the stomach. I tried to position my arms around hers so that my head would be freed, but no dice.

“You were close.” she said as she released me. “You’re definitely improving.”

“Yippee.” I said, in a slightly raspy voice.

“You wanna call it quits for today?” She asked, with a hint of concern in her voice.

“Are you kidding?” I asked her. “I wanna keep doing this until I do it right.”

She broke out into a huge smile, and leaned forward to kiss me on the cheek. “That’s the attitude I wanna see, hotshot.” she told me. “You’d fit right in at our dojo. Now, your goal here is to free yourself, and you can only do that by catching me off guard. You’re defeating your enemy up here-” she pointed to her head, “more than anywhere else. Catch me off guard, surprise me.”

I shrugged, and she motioned for me to get into position. Once I was, she effortlessly put me into a headlock. Okay, focus, I thought to myself. Bend your knees and get into a powerful stance – check. Hit her in the stomach, not too hard. I always felt guilty doing that. I was raised to never hit anyone. But her instructions were clear, so check. Now came the difficult part. I had to free my head from her arms while she was recovering from the hit. But my arms were just too weak…

Suddenly, an idea hit me. I pivoted around where I was, which didn’t feel too good on the hold she had on my neck, but it did the job. I was now facing her. In the split second before I acted, she gave me a confused look, yet also trying to bring her other arm up so she could retaliate. Before she could, I grabbed on to both sides of her button-up sweater vest and force it open. A button flew off as both sides gave way, releasing her beautiful breasts.

She opened her mouth in protest, just as I pushed her forcefully onto the bed and jumped on top of her. My mouth found her nipple and angrily began to suck.

“Ooooh my god…” She moaned. “What the hell kind of karate move do you call that?”

I released my mouth from her nipple. “Were you caught off guard?” I asked her.

She laughed, then picked up her vest. “Man, I really liked this thing…” She said with a hint of poutiness to her voice. It quickly went back to moaning as I resumed my sucking, my other hand reaching over and grabbing her other boob.

“Mmmmm…” she moaned, then sighed in bliss as my tongue began its gentle dance of love across her areola. Her hands became occupied with unbuttoning her pants, then shoving them down as she played with her noticeably oversized clit.

“I have to give you credit.” She said, still using her hands to pleasure herself. “You learn fast… And I’m not just talking about the karate.”

I could feel myself internally smile as I kept licking gently at her one boob, then suddenly took it into my mouth and began to forcefully suck. She gave a soft gasp.

At this point, my dick was aching in my pants, and noticing the beautiful teen pussy only a few inches away from it, moved on autopilot. Keeping my pants on, it moved right over Nicole’s pussy, and I used my free hand to shoo her hand out of the way. She moaned in a disappointed fashion, but that moan was cut short when I began grinding on her, my pants making direct contact with her pussy.

“Oh yessssss…” She hissed as she ground back. “What can… I do for you?” she asked me. “I want… to make you feel good too…”

I released her nipple from my mouth. “Making you feel good makes me feel good.” I replied. My mouth went to her other nipple, teasing and sucking away.

“Adam… You’re not like other guys.” Nicole said, breathing heavily. I’m not even sure if she knew what she was saying, or if her brain was trying without thinking to compliment me since I was pleasuring her. “You’re different. And I love it.”

Nicole certainly was a character. Before, she was all bold and manipulative. Be selfless in bed and suddenly she lost all control, like she was indebted to you. Not that I was complaining, I thought as I continued to grind against her.

I could feel the front of my pants getting wet with Nicole’s love juice and her moaning got more frequent, not to mention louder. I could tell from past experience that she was getting close.

“Adam, I…” she started, but I put a finger to her lips.

“I know, baby.” I said, releasing her nipple as I spoke. I never called her, or anyone, baby before. In the moment, it just felt right. “It’s okay. I want you to cum.” Cheesy, but enh.

She nodded enthusiastically and lustfully, lost in the moment. “Oh Adam…” she moaned, as her grinding became more desperate. “Adam… Adam… Aaaah!”

Her pussy noticeably ejected more fluid as she came, and her face was frozen in an ‘o’ shape. I held my position from grinding, which I could tell she appreciated. It seemed like right when she orgasmed, she preferred to move only to enhance the feeling, and it wasn’t like I could predict those movements, so I held still. She ground up against me for a little until she stopped, her eyes opening slowly. She smiled at me, a smile which was filled with a lot of emotion, and move her hand forward to touch my face. She never quite got to it, though, since her eyes wandered to my pants first.

“Did I do that?” She asked me, looking at the wet spot.

“It’ll dry in a bit, don’t worry.” I tried to reassure her.

“Damn…” She said, seemingly shocked. She then broke out into a grin and added, “I’m impressive, aren’t I?”

I leaned by head forward and slowly, sensuously kissed her on the lips. “In every sense of the word.”

She made a small smile before that smile turned sarcastic. “Suckup.” she teased me.

I laughed and flopped down on the bed next to her. “Do you need me to do anything for you?” She asked me, still slightly trying to catch her breath.

“Nah, it’s all good. I’m happy with just pleasuring you.” I answered, surprising myself to learn that I was being honest.

“Okay…” she said slowly, before adding, “I should have at least did the May voice thing again. Man, did that ever get you excited.”

“Yeah, about that.” I said, turning my body towards her. “Seriously, how’d you manage that? It’s not like you memorized every grade 9 girl’s voice just in case I had a crush on them, even if you are that good at imitating. Which I doubt.”

“Even if you are that good at imitating. Which I doubt.” She fired back at me, in a voice eerily similar to my own. It wasn’t at all perfect (after all, she was a girl and I, well, wasn’t) but the resemblance was amazing. “Nah, but the fact that you two were talking in the hallway after your homeroom and that you were acting like Dork of the Year around her really helped.” she added, grinning.

“Ah, so you’re a voyeur.” I retaliated.

“I do what I can.” she replied, giggling. “But yeah. I listened carefully to her while I walked behind you, seeing if I could do her voice. Figured it would come in handy.”

I chuckled softly. “Well, it certainly did…”

“By the by, how’s your nose?” She asked, grinning, referring to how I walked straight into a locker.

“Oh, shut up.” I laughed, punching her gently in the arm. Normally, I wouldn’t hit her, but she seemed like she could take it. We sat in silence for a bit after, until, without my brain’s consent, my arms went forward and pulled Nicole into a tight embrace. She responded with a non-sexual moan, a lazy yet happy moan. Her hands snaked down my sides, something I could appreciate until I realized she was fishing through my pockets.

“Hey, what are you doing?” I asked her.

She snatched my phone out of my pocket and broke away from the hug, giggling as she lay there on the bed, topless, her pants undone, and with my phone. “Speaking of May…” she added deviously, taunting me with the phone in her hand.

“It’s got a number code.” I told her, confident she couldn’t break in to my phone.

She looked me dead in the eyes. “What do you take me for?” She asked me. She turned her attention back to the phone, and started hitting buttons. Seconds later, she dryly added, “You got a text from your mom. She wants you home by supper time.” Oh my God, seriously?! She got in that quickly? “Oh, and what’s this? Something from May!” she hit the screen once, then grimaced. She passed the phone back to me. “I dunno about you, but I wouldn’t wanna fuck someone with grammar like that.” She made a motion like she was about to puke.

I looked at the screen. lol yeah! r u excited 4 drama??? After Nicole’s, shall we say, ‘conditioning,’ I couldn’t look at the phone without wincing myself. Oh, well.

Yeah, you? 🙂 I replied, then turned my focus to my mom’s text. Thank goodness she said supper time, as I checked my watch and realized it was after six. My dad came from Hungary, and for some reason in Western Europe people just like to eat around the obscene hour of nine. I grew up used to that, and never really discovered how handy it could be.

“Are you gonna ask her out to the dance?” Nicole asked me, breaking me away from my phone.

“Huh?” I asked, turning back to her. She was now sitting on the bed, with all of her clothes on, wearing a black t-shirt that hugged her curves nicely now that her vest was ruined. How does she keep doing that…?

“It’s late October, dude. The Halloween dance. It’s a week from tomorrow. Are you gonna ask her out to it?”

Dances? Are you kidding? Back in middle school, I stayed away from those like the plague. The one time I was forced to go since the rest of the school did, I ended up hugging the wall where I could see every pre-teen I wanted try to awkwardly dance with any girl they clapped eyes on, hoping to get some some kind of kiss or more as a reward. It was a breeding ground for pre-teen hormones, and it was awful.

Nicole narrowed her eyes, seemingly reading my mind once again. “Oh, you don’t get to make a choice, squirt. You’re Student Council now. You have to go. Plus, Phil usually has jobs for the lower grades during dances, so you’re going.”

I sighed. “But I hate dances…”

“Then go with the right girl.” Nicole said plainly.

“Can I go with you?” I asked shamelessly.

Nicole’s first reaction was to give a small, confused smile and cock her head slightly. “I meant May…” she said slowly, a look of… something in her eyes. She recomposed herself and continued. “I’d love to, squirt, but our horny president himself asked me already, and I said yes. He’s still waiting on that kiss.” she laughed, then continued. “Look, just get a good date, and you’ll have fun. I promise you. Just do it.”

“But I suck at asking people out.” I whined. “Wait, have you blown Phil?”

“That was abrupt too.” She winked, but couldn’t hold back the disgust from the suggestion. “God no. Phil just has the hots for me. I haven’t done anything with him, and that poor bastard has been trying for two years. How’s that for an ego boost, eh squirt?”

She carried out the word ‘Squirt,’ then noticed my blushing. Laughing, she continued. “I’ll sweeten the deal. Get a date for the dance, and I’ll blow you after. Deal?”

I laughed. “If I got a date, what makes you think I’d need you for that?”

She laughed back. “Yeah, get May to blow you, then call me. She totally seems like the girl to get down on her knees on the first date.”

“Point taken.” I said chuckling. “Okay, deal!”

“Great.” She grinned.

“‘Great’? Maybe you should get with Phil. You’re starting to sound like him.” I winked at her. She looked at me in sarcastic disbelief before diving at me, pinning me easily beneath her.

“You are so getting punished for that, squirt.” she said menacingly. I knew she was kidding, but damn, she knew how to intimidate. I guess ‘getting with Phil’ wasn’t on the top of her bucket list.

Still pinning me, her expression softened and she leaned in, kissing my neck. The rest of her body deflated from its original position of power and eventually she just ended up spooning with me.

“What’s that for?” I asked her.

She lifted her head from my neck. “You didn’t ask for a reason the first time I showed you my tits, or blew you. Just roll with it.” Her head returned to my neck, nuzzling it.

“You’re very cuddly today.” I observed.

“Yeah, well. I like cuddling. Suck it up.” She retorted. I smiled, and my hand started absent-mindedly stroking her hair. She nuzzled up closer to me in response.

After a while of doing this, I realized I was almost falling asleep and had to get home. “What time is it?” I asked her.

“About 7:03.” she answered without pulling her head up from my neck, no hint of tire to her voice. I pulled my phone out of my pocket, and sure enough, 7:03pm.

“How are you always doing things like that?” I asked her.

“Things like what?” her muffled voice answered me.

“Imitating May’s voice, reading my mind, knowing everything…” I trailed off.

“I’m magic, squirt.” she replied sarcastically.

“So you’re not gonna tell me?”

“Oh, I told you. Grade 11. I’ll give you two years, then you’ll understand.”

“I wonder where I’ll be in two years…” I wondered aloud.

“Me too, kid.” She answered me disinterestedly.

“I wonder if we’ll still be friends then…” My mouth spoke before my mind could filter it.

Silence poured into the air. Then I felt another kiss on my neck. “I hope so.” Nicole said softly. “But I dunno. But you gotta realize things. We’ve known each other three days.”

“It feels like a lot longer.” I told her.

“I know.” she answered softly.

I smiled to myself, then realized I would have to get home soon. I started to get up, and Nicole groaned into my shoulder, wordlessly understanding my intent. She clung to me as I got up, and used me to get on her own two feet.

“Thanks again, Nicole. For pretty much everything you did in the last three days for me.” I said to her.

“Hey, what else are friends for?” she asked me, smiling genuinely. She teasingly added, like an afterthought, “Oh, by the by, my parents are always home by seven.”

Oh shit. Oh my god. “Why didn’t you tell me?!” I asked her frantically as I turned white.

“Because knowing you, you would have clammed up and I wouldn’t have gotten to cum twice, that’s why.” She added, grinning deviously. I groaned and laughed at the same time. Nicole had a way with being honest, I’ll give her that.

After realizing that my backpack was still in her car, I made sure I had my phone and checked my pants. All dry. “Take care.” I said cheerfully to Nicole as I opened the door to her room, nervous as hell to brave her parents. As I took the first step down the stairs, I felt her hand in mine.

“Don’t worry, hotshot. I wasn’t gonna make you do this alone.” She said warmly. With unexpected enthusiasm, she then led me down the stairs, her hand still in mine. I nearly tripped.

Her kitchen and dining room were merged, so of course that’s where her parents would be this time of night, given the time when normal people have their supper. Nicole’s mom, identifiable by her long black hair, had her back to me, cooking something on the stove, and her dad was at the table, his head buried in a book. I could make out ‘Charles Dickens’ on the spine.

Once we were fully down the stairs and ready, Nicole looked at me and gave a small nod. I shrugged in response. Her hand in mine still, she coughed loudly. Her mom and dad, strangely, didn’t move.

“Hi mommy, hi daddy.” She enthusiastically chirped. “I thought I’d be polite and introduce you to my new friend, Adam Watson.”

Nicole’s mom turned around to face me, smiling slightly. It was interesting – in her face, she didn’t look all that much like Nicole, though it was obvious she got her hair from her mother. She approached me slowly and nodded. “Hello, Adam. It’s nice to meet you.”

“N-nice to meet you too.” I nervously sputtered.

“You seem rather shy.” She noted. “I wonder what happened to your earlier boldness, since you’re like a deer in headlights now. Did I mention that the walls in this house are paper-thin?” I heard Nicole give a frustrated sigh next to me, and a huge knot built up in my stomach. How long were her parents home?! I examined her eyes for answers. She was smiling at me, but the look her eyes was giving me could kill a man.

“Aaaaaanyway, thanks mom.” Nicole sarcastically said, pulling me away from her. Despite me falling out of her line of sight, her mom’s eyes stayed exactly where they were. “Dad, meet Adam Watson. He’s my new friend.”

“Take a number.” came the bitter, low, gravelly voice of her father. He didn’t even look up from his book, his greying, brownish hair as monotone as his reaction. This was doing nothing to help my nervousness. I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. I knew Nicole was, how shall I say, ‘experienced,’ but I never really thought about her parents and how I would seem to them. Before Nicole and I had our little talk this afternoon, I might have actually been a bit upset myself at this. However, all I could do at this point was awkwardly stumble out the door, Nicole in tow.

Once we were outside, I breathed in the cool night air a few times as Nicole plopped a hand on my shoulder. “Um, yeah…” she began. “Sorry about that. My parents kinda know I sleep around.”

“You don’t say?!” I practically yelled as I tried breathing steadily again, avoiding another panic attack. I used to get them really often.

“They’re like this with every guy, but every other guy has given them a reason to dislike them. They may like you, give them a chance.”

My stomach was doing backflips. Bring caught like that was like no fear I’ve ever experienced before. I wanted to apologize, I wanted to go back in history and leave earlier, I wanted everything but for what just happened to be real.

Nicole chuckled softly. “You’re a real mess, hotshot.” she said sympathetically, taking her hand off my shoulder. She went into her car and retrieved my backpack, and slung it over her shoulder. She then walked back to me and scooped my arm over her other shoulder, beginning to walk me back to my place.

“No, it’s okay.” I managed to say after we were about halfway there and I could calmly speak again. I hoisted myself off of her and took my backpack from her.

“You sure?” she asked me as she handed me my backpack. I quickly nodded. “Okay then. I’m proud of you, squirt.” She then kissed me on the cheek, and cheerfully waved as she set out back towards her house. I waved back as I headed home, still exhaling sharply.

When I got home, I dropped my backpack down on the floor, made my way to the living room, and plopped down on the couch, face first, groaning. Dad was in the room, watching the news.

“You’re an hour and a half early.” he said, looking at me. “If you had wanted, you could have stayed with your friend longer.”

“No, that’s okay.” came my voice, muffled by the couch. “I was really tired, so I decided to come home early.”

“I can see that.” He said, turning back to the TV. “So who’s the friend?”

Aw crap, here it came. The ‘Ooh, it’s a giiiirl’ moment. Unless…

“The name’s Nick.” I answered flatly. “Grade 11. Photographer. Really cool.”

“Guy or girl?” dad asked me.

Crap. I pulled my face out from the couch and looked up at dad. I sighed. “Girl.” I said, defeated.

Dad started waving his arms around in the air. “Danger Will Robinson, danger!” He chanted robotically.

“Dad, no offense, but could you start using references after the ’80s?” I asked him dryly.

“So, a girl in grade 11, huh? Hey, shoot for the moon.” he said. His eyes gleamed. They always did that when he made a particularly good joke. I think it was his version of smiling.

“It’s not like that. We’re never going to be a couple, dad.” I said, sitting up on the couch. “Just friends.”

Dad nodded. “Cool. Didn’t mean to intrude.”

“No worries!” I told him as my phone buzzed. It was Nicole. You made it home safe?

Nope, I died. I replied.

Oh well. I’ll give you a beautiful funeral. 😉

As I texted her, I realized I’d been neglecting May, and checked my messages from her. There was one, sent from her about an hour ago. Oops. yeah totally, were gonna rock 🙂

I shuddered at her grammar. Thanks, Nicole.

***

Actually, much like Nicole, I got to know May better through text. She was nowhere near as bold as Nicole was, but she made up for it with her bubbliness. She loved watching TV, and wanted to become a TV star when she grew up, which was why she wanted to take drama class. Unlike me, though, she didn’t particularly like Mr. Salvador. She didn’t dislike him, she just felt neutral. Nevertheless, she felt determined to really do well with this project, and I was behind her 100%.

Like me, she was an only child, and seemed to sympathize with my loneliness growing up, since she apparently was overweight when she was younger and got teased for it a lot. Now she was tired of the people who teased her only years ago asking her out and ‘drooling over her,’ her words not mine. In the back of my mind, I felt really guilty for liking her. I could see that if I truly wanted to win her heart, which I really did, I needed to prove to her that I wasn’t just objectifying her and liking her for her looks. Although I would have to prove that to myself first.

She was impressed with my grammar though. u talk really proper, i like it lol

Ugh. I think maybe teaching her wouldn’t go amiss. I chuckled to myself as I read that message. Nicole made a monster out of me. My laugh faded as I realized that wasn’t the only way she made me a monster. I wasn’t able to stop more fantasies of May brewing in my mind now that I knew what she would have sounded like giving me a blowjob. I imagined her kneeling before me, my cock right in her face as the took it in her hands with hungry eyes. Her impressive C cups jiggling slightly as she worked my cock back and forth in her hand, her eyes locked on mine for approval, before slowly taking me into her mouth. The warm sensation of her mouth, the way her eyes seemed to beg for it. How she would actually get turned on herself from sucking me off, until she could take no more and her hand would snake under her green dress she wore the first day I noticed her.

I shook the image from my mind. I felt terrible. I was totally objectifying her. I need to get to know her better before I have desires like that, I scolded myself in my head.

***

The following week flew by without anything of real significance happening. Mr. Carrozza’s class, to my surprise, was boringly easy. I was normally a bad student in the sciences growing up, and everyone else was still confused to some degree, so I guess I worked well with his teaching style.

Mr. Graves’ class was just about the same, though at this point most of the time in that class was spent chatting with Carson, who I found to be interesting in his own right. The guy had confidence some people could only dream about. I’m not talking the ‘swagger down the hallway thinking you’re the king of everything’ kind of confidence, that’s just sort of being a douchebag. I’m talking the type of confidence where you were absolutely sure of every action you did, every word you said, and you were never afraid to tell people you don’t care about what they were doing or saying. You were never afraid to have people judge you. I had to say, I admired him for that, and I envied him more than a little.

Mrs. Jackson’s class was the only one I really disliked. There was never really anything interesting to report from that class, and I found her cheerful outwards personality to be really two-dimensional, like she couldn’t be a teacher and a human being at the same time. I found out quickly that this would be a pet peeve with teachers. Not that I’d ever say anything of that to her face. I wouldn’t be able to.

Easily, my favorite class was drama. Mr. Salvador wasn’t teaching us anything this week since we had to practice for our pieces, but he still was around, looming over us, inspecting our work. Every so often, he’d stop a group practicing and give them his input, but aside from that, he made us rely on our own initiative to work. I was on to his tactics.

Despite seeing Nicole’s obvious softer side on Monday, on Tuesday she reverted back to her normal, sassy self. Luckily for me though, she was being true on Monday night and we still texted and hung out. Because of her busy schedule we could ‘only’ hang out on Wednesday and Friday that week, but I certainly wasn’t complaining. I guess for a social creature like her it wasn’t much, but I hung out more with her that week then I ever have with any friends in my whole life. On Wednesday, of course, things eventually and inevitably led to her taking her top off (with her excuse this time being how she spilled water on her top between rounds of Team Fortress 2 while I watched her play), me sucking on her nipples, and both of us on the bed, me grinding into her while she ground back and moaned my name. On Friday, though, curiously enough, we did absolutely nothing sexually the whole time I was there. I realize out of context it wasn’t that impressive or strange, but ever since I met her when we were alone we ended up having sex, and frankly… It felt really right that we could just enjoy an afternoon together as friends, without feeling an obligatory need to feed off of each other’s horniness. For our whole time together, we just watched a movie in her room, she taught me a few more karate moves, and we lay together in her bed, making small talk. It felt really right.

As the week passed, May grew her enthusiasm for our drama piece. It was really coming together, I had to say. She knew what she was doing, which really put me at ease. We had worked up a way that her knees could bend in such a way that it looked like something was making a dent in her, which meant I ended up playing the axe. I wasn’t complaining, it seemed like an easy thing to do. The hardest part was drawing out the motions and making the whole thing last five minutes, but May’s ideas about raising tensions with slow movements proved to be a good idea. On Thursday, we spoke with Mr. Salvador about using the lights, and he nodded with approval after we told him how we were thinking of using it. He then paged the office and asked them to bring in Zac.

Zac was a grade 12 drama veteran. A bit short, a tad on the pudgy side, but really friendly, or so Mr. Salvador said. From the moment he walked in to the aud, without needing an explanation, he climbed the ladder leading up to the lighting booth and told us to follow.

“So, what kind of lighting do you guys want for your performance?” Zac asked us once everything was booted up.

“Well…” May and I began together. We stopped, looked at each other, and she giggled.

“You can say it.” I said sheepishly.

“No, it’s okay, you go.” she offered.

“It was your idea, you say it.” I said back.

“No really, it’s fine, go ahead.” She replied.

“Someone just tell me, please. I’m missing bio for this.” Zac interjected.

“Okay.” May, always the one to pipe up first, replied. “Basically we are doing a play- well, a short piece I guess, about a tree getting chopped down.

Zac smiled a warm kind of smile. “Ah. I did that in my first year too.”

“So we were thinking that every time our bodies collided onstage, there’d be a quick flash of red, then it would fade back to normal lighting.”

“Hmmm…” Zac hummed, hitting a few buttons. I looked out the booth windows to see other groups working on the stage.

“Like this?” Zac asked, as he lit up the stage in pure red. Many of the groups onstage audibly groaned and covered their eyes as the bright red lights flooded the stage. The lights only seconds after faded back into the original stage lighting.

“That would be perfect.” May beamed.

“Cool! When’s your performance?” Zac asked her.

“Monday, period four.” she answered.

“Alright, I’ll ask Mr. Carrozza if I can miss bio for a few minutes to help you guys.” Zac said, standing up. “And that’s every time you guys collide, yeah?”

“Yup!” I answered, nodding. Zac looked at me as if he forgot I was in the room. I didn’t blame him.

“Alright, cool.” he said, moving to leave.

“Thanks, Zac.” May said happily, giving him a squeezing hug. A knot formed in my stomach as I watched the two, and I could feel my knuckles clench as my heart deflated and fell downwards in my body. It was just a hug, but still. I could tell he was not used to hugs and just sort of stayed there as she hugged him, then started to move down the ladder.

“No offense, dude.” he added towards me as he moved down the ladder. “But one hug is enough.”

It was meant to be humorous, which I understand, but I still felt some sort of anger towards him. I don’t get why, he seemed like a perfectly nice guy, it was just… the hug, dammit. I wanted that to be me. I wanted May to hug me, I wanted to be special to her, I… I don’t know. It was hard to explain.

After he left, still in her bubble of giddiness, May danced over to me and gave me a big squeezing hug too. “And thanks, partner.” she told me as she hugged me. “This is going to be the best piece ever. He’s really going to like it.”

Trying to swallow my nervousness down, I added, “We make a great team.”

She let go of me and looked me in the eyes. “We do, don’t we?” she agreed with a smile on her face. We stood there in silence, not taking our eyes off of each other’s, before she added, “I guess we should get down the ladder. Not much to do up here, plus I bet Mr. Salvador doesn’t want us up here alone, huh?”

I’m sure that comment was innocent. Or joking. Or both, I bet it was both. She could never mean it like that, we were just friends.

She turned around and started to go down the ladder. I’m 90% sure it was my imagination, but I could swear I saw her bite her lip as she went down the ladder. I wasn’t even sure what I was seeing anymore. I peered down the ladder and there sat a naked May, looking up at me with that adorable smile, sitting Indian-style, playing with her pussy.

I shook my head to see May at the bottom of the ladder, smiling up patiently at me. Fully clothed. Yup, my imagination was definitely working against me.

As I descended the ladder, May’s smile was gone and her brow was furrowed in concentration. She looked absolutely adorable. There was no expression of hers that didn’t accent her adorable cuteness, and it was enough to make me want to grab her by the waist and kiss her right there.

“You okay?” I asked instead of doing just that.

“Yeah, I’m just thinking.” She replied. “I don’t think Friday alone is enough time to perfect what we have, we may need to spend some time out of school to get this just right.”

Oh god please, don’t say the morning. Please don’t say the morning. It’s true, I really liked May and would have done almost anything for her, plus I understand her desire for perfection, but I just couldn’t do mornings.

“How does Saturday sound?” she asked me. The first thing I felt at that suggestion was joy. I was getting a chance to hang out with May, of all people! My first crush! I was absolutely elated, and with my heart attempting to rise through my chest, I enthusiastically nodded.

Then it hit me. My parents don’t like driving, plus I was way too shy to ask them for rides, especially in this situation. They’d ask me where I was going, who I’d be visiting, then when they’d learn it was a girl, they’d just judge me, then remember that I was hanging with Nicole, twice by this point, and just judge me even more… Oh God.

Then it hit me… Again. Nicole. She was supportive enough of my crush on May to imitate her voice when she was blowing me, I bet she was supportive enough to drive me to her place too!

I pulled out my phone and asked May, as casually as I could, “What’s the address?”

Naturally, she gave me the address of somewhere close to school. It was a decent distance out of the way for Nicole on a Saturday, but it was about as far away as the school, so I texted her asking, with the address.

Banking on her saying yes, I tried to keep up my cool demeanor and said, “Cool. See you then.”

“…And tomorrow, silly.” she said, smiling.

“And tomorrow.’ I blushed. She giggled and bounced towards the stage, motioning me to join her. Just then, I felt a buzz in my pocket.

Sorry squirt, busy. Sucks to be you! read the message. My heart sank, and internally, I went into panic mode.

Oh my God, Nicole, I already told her I would!!! What am I going to do?! Now she’s going to be all disappointed in me!! I texted back, my fingers working up a flurry.

By this time, May walked back to me, slight concern on her face. “You okay, Adam? You look worried.”

I swallowed hard and looked up at her. “Yeah, it’s just… I can’t…” My phone buzzed in my hand again. I looked down to see another message from Nicole. Jeez, I can’t ever joke around with you, can I? I can totally drive you, ya dweeb.

I breathed a sigh of relief. God dammit, Nicole. I laughed internally, until May took me out of my trance.

“Can’t what, Adam?”

“I can’t…” I began, looking for a smooth way out. “I can’t wait to show this to Mr. Salvador. It’s going to knock his socks off.”

Booyeah. Hello, Doctor Smooth. As I came to realize, it wasn’t as smooth as I thought. The smile May gave me afterwards told me that she ‘knew’ it wasn’t that, and that I was hiding something from her, something which was distressing me. Well, she was half right, I suppose.

As I got ready to join her on stage and resume practice, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I brought it up to read another message from Nicole. Hey, you free on Friday? Oh boy, I thought to myself. More sex.

It’s actually kind of nice being wrong once in a while.

***

When Saturday rolled around, I got out of bed early, absolutely teeming with energy. I found out later she only wanted me there at 2pm, but still, I wanted to be ready. I wasn’t going to blow my chance with her. This was it. This was totally it. We were going to kiss today. We were going to have sex today. I was going to take her outside into the picturesque woods and declare my love for her.

…Okay, so I knew I wasn’t going to go that far, but my mind was still reeling excitedly with possibilities. May Stevens, alone together with me! I was as happy as a clam, and didn’t bother hiding it from Nicole when she came to pick me up.

“Holy crap, squirt, calm down.” She said, half-laughing when I jumped in the car.

“Let’s go let’s go let’s go!” I chanted, bouncing in my seat.

She gave me a look. “You’re cute when you’re pathetically smitten, you know that?” she asked me as we pulled out of my driveway and started driving to her place.

“Sorry I asked you to do this, I realize it’s out of your way.” I said sheepishly once I had calmed down. By that point, we were already on the road.

“Don’t worry about it. It would be kind of cute to see you two together.” she said, eyes forward.

“Have you ever had a boyfriend?” I asked her. She kept her gaze on the road.

“I told you. I’m a no strings-”

“-attached, I know, but in the past. Have you ever had a boyfriend?”

She bit her lip. “Well, if you want me to be honest about it, yeah. Back when I was in grade 10. It was with this grade 12. He was an absolute asshole, but like I knew any better.”

“Are you okay now?” I asked, concerned.

She turned towards me with a sarcastic look before turning back to the road. “No, squirt. I’m dying. Don’t worry, it’s not as bad as you think. Most people’s first romantic experiences end kinda ugly.”

I stayed silent, and she noticed. “Oh yeah. Spoiler alert.” She added. “Just don’t be the one to be an asshole to this kid. Alright?”

“I would never!” I fired back, insulted.

She smiled. “I know, but I feel like I gotta say it anyway.”

There was more silence before we spoke up again. “I’m guessing you lost your virginity to him?”

“Mm.” she answered, feigning disinterest. I realized I stepped into unwelcome territory.

“Sorry.” I said sheepishly.

“If you were sorry you wouldn’t pry.” she said sternly, yet with no anger on her face. She did well with concealing her more negative emotions, or so it seemed. Nevertheless, I felt really bad, and decided not to say anything until we got there.

“This the place?” She asked as we pulled up.

“I think so.” I answered as I undid my seatbelt. “Thanks, Nicole. I really appreciate it.”

She bent over to my seat and kissed my cheek. “My pleasure, squirt. Now don’t get sappy on me. Save it for her.” she winked and I smiled as I stepped out of the car.

As she drove away, Nicole rolled down her window and shouted, “And don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” I chuckled as I watched her speed away.

I rung the doorbell and almost instantly, May answered. “Hey there!” she said, smiling.

“Hey yourself!” I replied. “Ready to get to work?”

“Definitely!” she beamed, and headed downstairs. I assumed it was an indicator and followed her.

“So where are your parents?” I asked. After the incident with Nicole, I wanted to make sure I knew where the parents were at all times.

“They work weekends.” she answered. “They work a lot, and after I became a teenager they started working more. I don’t really see them that often, except around suppertime.” At the mention of suppertime, she adopted an embarrassed look and looked down at the floor. “Speaking of… I hate to be that girl, but is it possible you could leave by then? My parents are really strict, especially about boys. They don’t know you’re here, and they would never believe me if I said it was just for drama.”

From hanging out with Nicole so much, I didn’t have much of a filter left, and asked, “Why, do you have a history with boys?” in a playful manner.

She gave me a disappointed look. “No. I don’t.” she said simply.

All of the confidence in my voice melted away instantly. “Sorry.” was all I could say. I felt like an idiot. Two minutes in and I had already blown it. What else was I expecting?

“No worries.” she said, trying to shake off the negative emotion. “Anyways, let’s begin, huh?”

“Yeah, sure!” I said, glad to be off that topic. “Okay, so if I position my hands like this… There. Does that look like a better axe than the one we had on Friday?”

***

We worked for a solid 3 hours, before we decided to call it quits. By then, we had the whole piece committed to muscle memory, and trained our bodies to look like objects instead of characters. Mr. Salvador was definitely going to be impressed with us.

After we decided to call it quits, May exhaled and flopped down on the nearest couch. Too timid to do anything more bold, I just sat down on the floor. “I’m hungry.” she said after a few seconds. “Are you hungry?”

“Isn’t it suppertime soon?” I asked her, then realizing it meant I needed to go sooner.

“Not for an hour! C’mon. Want nachos?” She asked with a sweet smile. Damn, nachos?

“You bet!” I roared as I got up. She giggled and made an effort to get up, but then just crashed on the couch again.

“Aw, but this couch is so comfy.” she mock-complained, daring me to drag her off.

I called her bluff. “Comfiness can wait, you just offered Adam Watson nachos.” I told her, pulling her off the couch by her arm. She giggled as she was brought up, only to abruptly stop when I accidentally pulled her closer than I thought and we were suddenly intimately face-to-face. I could hear her breathing, and swore that she was breathing a bit heavier than normal.

“So, uh… nachos, huh?” she all but whispered. I nodded slightly. We lingered there for a few seconds after, then she broke away and walked upstairs. I followed, not daring to say a word.

I followed her into the kitchen, where she was putting some kind of cheese into the microwave. She then reached into a cabinet and pulled out a bag of nachos, popping the bag open.

“Want one?” she asked before diving into the bag herself and pulling out a few. I pulled out a few in turn. We sat down at the table and waited for the microwave to finish.

“Mind if I ask you a personal question?” I asked, not even knowing myself where I was going with this.

“I guess!” she shrugged.

“If you used to be overweight, how’d you end up looking like… that?!” I gestured towards her. “That’s a heck of a change.”

“I guess so.” She half-smiled. “When I was younger, I was a really bad eater. I only drank chocolate milk, ate a lot of sweets, didn’t really have a good diet. Mom and dad liked to baby me, so they didn’t stop it. Then around grade 3, people began teasing me, and… they really didn’t stop.”

She paused for effect, then continued. “Around grade 7, I decided I had enough. I stopped eating anything with sugar altogether, for a year. Even fruits. I drank water constantly, and started exercising, which was really difficult, but… It sounds weird, but I would have done anything to just get away from everyone being mean to me. I’ve said it over text before, but I didn’t have any friends, and you’re damn right I would have changed my body to stop that.”

That was the first time I heard her really swear, I thought as she continued. “Heck, I would have even moved to a different school to get away from it all.”

“Yeah, I know how you feel.” I said, not thinking.

“No, you really don’t.” May said defensively.

“Yes, I really do.” I shot back, a hint of anger in my voice. “I live in the next town over, and had to plead with my parents to go to our school instead. The reason I’m lonely, the reason I never had friends, is because I always got teased for being the shy, geeky, stupid socially awkward kid in class. I got bullied so much I stayed inside during recess. At least you could change your image. I got stuck never knowing what to say or how to say it, and I couldn’t get better. I just had to deal with it, that being me meant being a loser.”

May said nothing for the longest time, the hum of the microwave being the only sound in the room. After what seemed like forever, she slunk off her chair, walked over to me quietly, and embraced me in a meaningful hug. “I’m sorry.” she said, a sentiment that sounded like it took a great effort to say.

“It’s okay. I’m sorry too.” I replied, hugging her back. The hug felt tighter than our last one, with our bodies more pressed together. I could feel her heart beating through her chest, complimented by the sound and feel of her breathing. Slowly, the two of us turned our faces so that we were looking at each other, no words in our mouths but a million in our eyes. Still embracing, her eyes turned innocent yet determined as her face slowly got closer to me. I was nervous as hell, but swallowed down any chance of a panic attack as I followed suit, my face becoming closer to hers. I could feel the heat of her lips on mine as I realized how little space was between us.

DIIIIING! The timer on the microwave suddenly went off like an atomic bomb, and May and I pushed each other back instinctively. With a nervous cough breaking the silence, we became a mess of sounds.

“I.. uh…”

“The… you…”

“With the…”

“And… eugh..”

“Guh… ehrm… Microwave.”

“Right, the microwave.”

She slowly moved towards the microwave and retrieved the cheese. She put it on the kitchen table and we sat down and ate, making painfully awkward small talk all the way through. After we polished off the chips, the awkwardness was mostly gone, but we didn’t dare bring up what just happened for fear of recreating the awkward moment.

“Well, I think we’re all set for Monday. What about you?” May asked, stretching.

“I’m going to be nervous performing. Sometimes I get panic attacks.” I confessed.

“Don’t worry.” she said, giving me a reassuring smile. “We’ve practiced. It’s polished. It’ll all work out really good.”

“Really well.” I corrected her. She rolled her eyes and laughed.

A few seconds later, she looked at the clock and began to look down, the cogs turning in her head. I think Nicole was passing her mind-reading on to me.

“You want me to leave now, don’t you?” I asked her humorously.

“Oh Adam, it’s not like that.” she protested. “If it were up to me I’d want you to stay all night.”

“All night?” I repeated. She turned pink.

“You know what I mean.” she answered quietly. “But yeah, I’m sorry, but yeah. Thanks for making the trip, I think this practice was really worth it. I just don’t want to get in trouble. Sorry!” She dragged out the ‘sorry’ to make it sound like it had seven extra ‘y’s.

“I understand, it’s okay.” I said, moving in for a hug yet doubting myself. She seemed hesitant too, and we shared the most awkward goodbye hug in existence.

“See you on Monday!” She called out after me as I opened the door.

“Unless I text you first.” I smiled and held up my phone.

“Yeah, do that.” she smiled. I exited and shut the door behind me. Oh, right, text. I probably should have texted Nicole. Now I had to wait because she had no idea I was fini- Oh.

There she was. Leaning on her car, waiting for me, eating a green apple for goodness sakes. When she saw me, she barely acknowledged me. “Yo.”

I sputtered. I stammered. I stumbled. “Were you here the whole time?!” I asked her.

“Nope, I got here about five minutes ago, squirt.” She replied, calm as the ocean on a sunny windless Tuesday.

“Then how did you know that I would be leaving her house and you’d need to pick me up at this time?!” I asked her, before quickly adding, “Wait, let me guess. Grade eleven.”

“God, you take all the fun out of it.” she complained as she chucked the apple core into May’s family’s garden. “C’mon, let’s make like a stoner and blow this joint.”

I chuckled. “Was that one original?” I asked as I stepped into the car.

“I wish.” she replied as she started the car.

“Hey, I never really asked – do you smoke?”

“Me?” she asked. “Nah – my mind is fucked up enough as it is. You can smoke all you want but I’m not about that kind of thing.”

“That’s fair.” I answered. “I don’t.”

“I didn’t ask.” she told me.

“But you were thinking about it.” I replied.

She smiled slightly. “So how was the da-”

“Oh my God. I came so close, so close to kissing her.” I started to rant.

She laughed out loud. “So she blueballed ya.”

“Not quite. Her microwave did.”

She thought about my answer. “Huh. Never heard that one before. Is there a story to that?”

There definitely was, and the more of it I told her, the wider her smile got.

“Ooh, so close, hotshot!” She said, half mocking me, half sympathizing. “Well hey, if she blueballed you like that and you’re pent up, I don’t have plans…” she trailed off.

“Are you just constantly horny?” I asked her.

“That’s for me to know and you to find out. Again and again and again.” she laughed at herself. “Now text your folks. It’s about 5:30. What do you say we spend some quality friend-to-friend time ’til about… eight?”

“Will your parents be home?” I asked her.

“Absolutely.” She said with confidence.

I sighed and chuckled at once. “Fine.” I told her. She cheered, and started rubbing my thigh as she drove. But my mind wasn’t on her, frankly. My mind was fixated on May.

Chapter Four

The rest of the car ride on Saturday was a blur. It always is, when I’m promised sex at the end of it. Though unlike Monday, Nicole was a lot calmer stepping out of the car, probably because there was no foreplay in her vehicle.

“You didn’t even suck on my nipples this time.” Nicole laughed as she stepped out of the car. “You’re starting to lose your edge, Watson.”

“You didn’t take off your shirt.” I protested. “Mixed signals. Wasn’t my fault.”

She laughed again and grabbed my hand, walking inside. I noticed that around her, my confidence was building. Hell, thanks to her, my confidence was building in other situations too. I felt like the last couple of years were just the same year over and over, with nothing changing and nothing happening, nothing really happy in life. This year was a nice shift.

“Hi mommy, hi daddy.” Nicole sang as she entered the house, her hand still in mine. “I’m back! I’m gonna be hanging out with Adam in my room, okay?”

Her dad grumbled, but didn’t say anything. He was sitting in the same spot, wearing what looked like the same clothes, reading the same book. I wasn’t even confident if he moved since the last time I saw him.

“Feel lucky!” Her mom’s sickly sweet voice rang from the living room as she walked into the kitchen to greet me. “Normally she doesn’t bring the same guy home twice.” She again gave me her death stare, hidden underneath a warm smile.

As best as I could, I decided to counter her. “I do feel lucky, very lucky in fact. Nicole’s a great friend, and if it weren’t for her, I’d still be the same shy nobody that I’ve kept being for the last… too many years. She really knows how to make someone feel like people care about them.”

I thought that would do it, but Mrs. Baker didn’t even flinch. “What will you two be doing, video games? Be sure to keep the volume extra loud. That way we’ll be able to hear all of the explosions and gunfire. Like we always do.” That one was aimed at Nicole, and hints were rolling off of her words in waves.

Nicole just smiled cheekily at her. “Nope, we’re just gonna full-on fuck. In your room. I might not even use protection. You know, why not? You’re only young once in your life.” With that, she started forcibly dragging me up the stairs, my mouth open the whole time.

My head was still reeling with what she said to her own mother when the door to her bedroom shut behind us. “Call me old-fashioned…” I started. Nicole shrugged.

I felt obliged to continue. “I’ve never spoken to either of my parents that way.”

She shrugged again. “They’re actually kinda sweet when I come home alone for, like, a week in a row. I mean, they’re stern, but they’re kind and let me use the car, so… Yeah. But when I bring boys home, they’ve got this idea that I’m doing it to punish them or something. Even girls, just when I’m hanging out. I think they’re really lonely, ’cause they get upset when I’m social and not with them. Y’know, after everything they’ve done for me, that sort of thing.” She was speaking really quickly, her face still showed the slightest hint of red, and I could tell she was embarrassed by their attitude.

It was sound logic. I nodded in agreement, as she strolled up to me, swinging her hips sexily. “Now, where were we?” She purred, grinding her pelvis against mine, putting her hands around my neck and pushing her chest into mine.

“Isn’t this just going to piss your parents off?” I said to her, our faces close.

“We’d better not be too loud then.” She whispered back seductively.

“No promises.” I said back, smiling, as I pushed her back on to the bed. She grinned as I pounced on her and started to remove her shirt. It was a basic black t-shirt, but she could still totally pull it off, and when I indeed did pull it off, I found that she had no bra on underneath.

“You knew we’d be coming back to your place, didn’t you?” I asked, before placing my tongue on her lower stomach and tracing upwards.

“I could only hope.” she sighed as my tongue found its target: her nipple, already erect. I played with it, moving my tongue around the nipple before flicking it a few times. She shivered and pulled me in closer.

I kept my other hand occupied by bringing it up to her other breast and caressing it, making sure to keep my touch delicate and not squeeze too hard. She moaned in appreciation, and I kept my eyes up as I went from tonguing to sucking in the blink of an eye. Her eyes were squeezed shut, her mouth contorted somewhere between a huge grin and an ‘o’ shape. Her hair, even amidst an act like this, managed to frame her face perfectly, and in that moment she looked like a painting – too vivid and beautifully alive to have been left up to genetics.

Her anticipation had clearly built up too far as she began fumbling with her black jeans, popping them open with a frustrated sigh before she attempted to dive right in with her hand and pleasure herself. Right as she was about to, though, I stopped her with my other hand. Her moaning didn’t stop, but a whine was thrown into the mix.

Keeping perfect eye contact with her, I let my tongue trace down her stomach again as I used both hands to pull her pants and underwear all the way down. She gasped in realization of what was about to happen, as my tongue traced lower and lower expecting to hit her pubic hair any second now. Although, it didn’t. My head rose up and I realized it upon sight immediately.

“You shaved!” I exclaimed.

Nicole laughed seductively and squished her beautiful boobs together. “I thought I’d see what would happen if I did.” she answered. “So far, I’m definitely not complaining.”

Her shaven pussy was, believe it or not, not particularly more appealing to me than her unshaven one, but it certainly would be easier to navigate, so I didn’t want all of her efforts to go to waste. Lowering my head again, I returned to my earlier work. Outstretching my tongue, I started to trace letters right above her clit, just outside her lips, anywhere that could make her crazy with anticipation. A good five minutes of this passed, and by the end she was breathing furiously, squirming and pleading for me to dive in.

“You’re such a fucking tease, Adam” she panted. “Please. I want it so bad.”

“Do you really want it?” I asked her teasingly.

“Yessss, god dammit.” she angrily hissed.

“You reeeally want it, May?” I asked her. That was a hell of a bold risk.

She swallowed hard, but made no effort to clear her throat or even think before responding. “Yes, Adam. I want you to eat me out. Please, Adam.” came May’s distinct voice. I loved this power I had over Nicole in the bedroom. It sure as hell inspired confidence.

“Good girl.” I told her, and took her erect clit into my mouth. I started by flicking it with my tongue, then gently sucking on it.

She responded with a “Yes, Adam, yessss, right there,” in May’s voice perfectly, despite being in her own little world of pleasure. Her breathing was erratic, her movements jagged and sudden. She was particularly horny this time around. I decided to honor that, and experimented a little. As I started sucking on her clit harder, I took one finger and slowly worked it up into her waiting pussy.

“Oh God, oh fuck, oh my God Adam, yes!” she panted as I started working the finger in and out while sucking harder on her big beautiful clit. It was noticeable and large, maybe even as big as a full inch when she was completely horny, but I liked it. It was a part of her. And I liked her.

As I pumped in and out of her pussy, she began to moan harder and harder, until she unexpectedly sat up. “I can’t take it anymore.” she said, out of breath. I raised my head slightly, and would have questioned her, but before I could, my shirt came flying off of my head, presumably thanks to her. Then I felt my pants come loose and saw her, bending over towards me, hastily taking them off. She hopped off the bed, her clit proving her arousal, and ordered, “Lie down on the bed right now.”

All I was wearing were my socks, and I was hard as steel, so I wasn’t about to complain. I sat down as she ordered, and before I knew it, Nicole was lowering herself on to my face.

This was definitely a new experience, so at first I didn’t know what to do. Right when I made a move to start, she leaned over and took my full dick into her mouth in one go. Almost instantly she began sucking and milking my cock for all of its worth. I audibly moaned and dove right in to her waiting pussy in turn, sticking my tongue in as far as it would go. I waved it about, I stuck it in and out, and every time my dick vibrated with her moaning, I knew I was doing something right. Before long, as awkward as the angle was, I was back to inserting a finger and letting it work harmoniously with my tongue.

Judging by the increased vibrations and faster speed of her mouth on my cock, I could tell Nicole was getting close. I swear she was starting to move her hips to accommodate my mouth, and I just responded by bringing her even more pleasure, sticking a second finger inside. As I did that, she released my dick and emitted a small shriek, one that her parents could no doubt hear. It was a weird feeling, but I didn’t care anymore.

I could only care about the extra love juice now flowing from Nicole’s stimulated pussy, which I eagerly accepted.

“Oh my God Adam Watson… You’re the best.” I heard her moan. “This is amazing. You’re amazing.”

We remained there for about ten more seconds before she engulfed my cock again with a new determination, her hand reaching lower to play with my balls. I didn’t have the will to push her off and get some air, so I just began inhaling and exhaling, catching the intoxicating smell of my best friend’s pussy. She kept at it, her tongue teasing my head, her lips pleasuring the shaft, her mouth pleasuring me like it was the most important thing, her hand rubbing my balls and occasionally going just a bit lower and pressing. It wasn’t my asshole, it was above it, and while it should have felt weird, it just felt amazing when she was doing it.

With all of this combined, I couldn’t hold back anymore. After a few more seconds, I groaned and let loose stream after stream of cum into her mouth, which she graciously accepted without pause.

I think I saw the gates of heaven for a second as I lay there, catching my breath as Nicole waited patiently for me. As reality began to reappear in my eyes, Nicole sensed the end of my orgasm and flopped down beside me on the bed. She reached down beside the bed and pulled up a water bottle.

“The offer is always open.” She told me after a giant gulp.

“Honestly, I’m fine.” I refused.

“…Okay, let me put it this way. I may end up kissing you tonight, and don’t wanna taste that.” She chuckled at her comment, and so did I as I gave in and took the bottle. As I drank, I wasn’t expecting the water to be minty, but I guess it was an effective strategy.

“Also, here.” she added, handing me a towel. “You’ve got me on your face everywhere.”

I laughed at her wording and cleaned myself up. After, we lay in the bed, completely naked, completely wordless, connected by our hips, shoulder and hands, which were held in a clasp as we both looked up at the ceiling.

“Why do you live here if you go to school in the next town?” I asked out of the blue.

“Why do you?” She asked, not missing a beat.

“Bullies. Wanted a fresh start.” I said simply.

She nodded. “Well, I guess you got one.” She said matter-of-factly. “I’ve always gone to that school, but recently my parents moved back here, so we could be closer to family. I didn’t want to leave all of my friends behind, so I decided to drive myself.”

“Okay.” I replied, then spoke again after an awkward silence. “Thanks again for the voice thing.” I said sheepishly. “I know it must be kind of weird.”

“I’ve had weirder.” she shrugged. “Besides, whatever makes you happy.” She squeezed my hand. I couldn’t see it, but I felt that she was smiling.

“Though if I’m speaking freely, I don’t really get what you see in her.” she added. Well, this was going to be quite the can of worms.

“What do you mean?” I asked her.

“I mean, she’s not exactly well spoken.” She began. “No grammar skills, nothing really interesting about her personality, nothing that turns the head besides the way she looks. She honestly seems like a ditz, who has little-to-no unique personality.”

I wanted to retaliate, to tell her she was wrong, but I honestly didn’t know how to. Don’t get me wrong, May was NOT a ditz to me, and she had a unique personality, it just wasn’t as in-your-face as Nicole’s was. Nicole was great, but she could never make me walk on sunshine just by talking. She could never make me quite so excited about possibly kissing her. In the end, I did enjoy the time with Nicole more, but just the idea of May made me excited. When it came down to it, I liked Nicole, but was crushing on May.

For the first time ever, Nicole misinterpreted me, taking my silence as being offended. “Sorry, I guess that was kind of rude, huh?” The only thing more uncommon than saying sorry for her was being incorrect, but I shrugged it off. She just didn’t understand what I felt for May. She just couldn’t.

***

Monday, fourth period hit me like a ton of bricks. I was beginning to control it better, but my inner sense of panic made me want to throw up. For goodness sakes, it was a small project, maybe worth 5-10% of my overall grade, maximum, but that wasn’t it. It was the possibility of disappointment. I couldn’t handle anyone being disappointed with me, and the more doubt kept telling me I would definitely screw up, the more evident the possibility of disappointment became.

Zac arrived to the classroom before I did. I was an absolute jerk to him before, even though he didn’t know it. He wasn’t after May, and was doing this out of the goodness of his heart. He was truly a good guy.

Mr. Salvador entered the way he always does – by walking up to the stage, sitting down on its edge, and facing us with a calm, powerful “Hello.” However, this time, he immediately added, “Alright, everyone take seats at the back of the auditorium. I should be able to hear any actors from there. If I can’t, you’re not being loud enough. Dylan and Jack, you’re up first. Make any preparations you need. Go!”

Everyone started moving to the back seats. Zac came from the crowd up to Mr. Salvador and I could make out him saying something to Mr. Salvador amongst the kerfuffle. He nodded and spoke out, “After Dylan and Jack will be Adam and May!”

Oh my God. Second. We were going second. As I made my way to the back of the aud, I had to stop to breathe. My hands on my knees and I inhaled and exhaled a few times, until I felt a soft, delicate hand on my back. “Are you going to be okay?” May asked, a little bit of concern in her voice. Though I could tell her voice was mostly just patience.

“Yeah, I’ll be good.” I told her breathily as I took my seat. Blondie and the long brown haired guy were up first, evidently. Zac ran past the audience so that he could get into the booth. A few seconds later, Mr. Salvador called out, “House lights off. Standard stage lights kept on.”

On cue, the lights around the audience, and the class, faded, as the stage was left as the only illuminated thing left in the room, with Blondie and the Baseball Kid standing on it dumbly.

“Feel free to start whenever you’re in position.” Mr. Salvador commanded from the back row. The two guys got into a position. Baseball Kid sat Indian-style on the floor, and held his arms out in a bowl shape. Blondie tried to make a box with his arms. After a few seconds of stillness, Blondie tilted to one side and shook his form up and down.

“Shikka shikka shikka,” were the noises that came out of his mouth, slightly muffled by his attempts not to laugh at himself, as if he was doing something hilarious. As Blondie waddled back to his original position and tilted back, Baseball Kid made his body expand, still making the circular shape.

They stayed there for a few seconds, before going out of position. “That’s what we got.” Blondie declared. I tried recalling what I saw, but I couldn’t tell what they were trying to show. As they came down off the stage, here were a few stray claps from the audience. That couldn’t have been longer than 30 seconds, I thought to myself. Seemingly, I wasn’t the only one doubting them.

“Good.” Mr. Salvador said, which got their hopes up. I could tell that ‘good’ was just a word he used, and held no connotation. “Was everyone paying attention to that?”

He was met with a sea of nods and a chorus of ‘yes’s from the group. “That’s an excellent example of what I don’t want to see from you.” He stated. There was no hint of malice to his voice, but the fact that his tone was gentle, calm and steady made the comment sting that much more. Blondie’s eyes flickered with disbelief, then anger, before settling with acceptance as he took a seat.

“Next up, Adam and May. Go.” Mr. Salvador continued. If I was nervous before, I was catatonic now. Our teacher was a serious hardass when it came to performances, and he just served the team that went before us, then asked us to go up as if nothing happened. I had to admit, the two seemed really underprepared, and that put me at ease knowing how much May and I worked on our piece.

As I got up on stage, I looked into the glass windows of the booth and saw Zac give me a thumbs-up. I gave him my own thumbs-up as Mr. Salvador noticed and looked behind him. When he looked back, there was nothing clearly visible on his face, though the guy had a good poker face.

As I inhaled and exhaled a few times, I felt a warm breath in my ear. “Don’t worry.” came the sweet, gentle voice of May. “We’re going to be awesome.” This display caused a few “Ooh”s to come from the audience, but we ignored them. I smiled at her and nodded, my nervousness dying just a little. With that, I lay on the ground, feet together, my left arm bending around my head to meet at the fingertips with my right. It was meant to be an axe, and I had little to work with, so that’s what we settled on.

“Go ahead when you’re ready.” I heard Mr. Salvador call. I could only see the ceiling of the auditorium, and trusted that May took her position as a tree. After breathing for a few seconds, I hoisted myself up by only my legs (not an easy feat when you’re a scrawny freshman) and stood up, defining myself as the axe. I avoided eye contact with the audience, my eyes fixated only on May. Originally we thought to do the arms up thing, but creatively, May decided to make her arms all jagged and spread out instead, using every finger to look like a different branch. It looked a lot less cheesy and from my angle, and it paid off. Although maybe I was biased – with the position she took, it was a lot easier to catch a quick glimpse of her fantastic breasts.

Scolding myself internally, I focussed on the piece and moved towards her, using only my heel and the ball of my feet to move towards her so I wouldn’t have to walk. After landing where I was supposed to, I wound my body up and went forward, bashing her in the stomach with my connected hands.

On cue, a red pulse filled the auditorium, only to die a few seconds later. When no red light was left, I wound back and hit her again. The red bathed the stage, and May contorted her waist to look like a dent had been made.

Whack, whack, whack. With each time I hit her, the lighting changes came perfectly on time and she contorted her body more until she finally tipped over, changing her footing position so that she could fall but still keep her legs from the knees down on the ground. I was amazed she didn’t hurt herself when she fell to the floor with a bang. It wasn’t quite five minutes, but honestly, how could you make something like that last five whole minutes?

Remembering Blondie’s piece, I decided to stay as the object until we were addressed. Thankfully, May thought the same thing. After about ten seconds of stillness, Mr. Salvador called out, “Are you done?”

“Yes.” May’s confident voice responded.

“Good.” Mr. Salvador said flatly, writing down a few things on his clipboard. “Thank you. A much stronger performance. Next, let’s have Hanna and Jarrod.”

I breathed a sigh of relief as we walked off stage. It was over, it was done with, thank goodness. Drama was a lot harder than I assumed it would be, though apparently that was Mr. Salvador’s fault, not the curriculum’s. According to the rumors around school, he’s a lot harder on kids than most drama teachers are, but they also come out learning a lot more and being more successful theatrically.

“We did it!” May said gleefully before we took our seats, hugging me again. I returned the hug in vigor this time, glad to see her so overjoyed. I was happy too – this project was a lot more stressful than I thought it would be, especially during the performance. It was nice to be done with it.

I couldn’t focus on the other performances, frankly – I was too busy trying to return my breath to normal. My anxiety was becoming a huge problem for me, I noted.

***

When the bell rang, I was slightly surprised. It felt like barely ten minutes had gone by since I sat down again. Apparently, after everyone had done their performances, Mr. Salvador was just talking to us, giving us tips on playing non-humans and stage presence.

“Good! Everyone come to the front to see your marks on this assignment. Other than that, class is over.” Mr. Salvador called. As I was about to go up to the front, I heard Zac call behind me, “Did it work the way you wanted?”

I turned around to see him exiting the booth via the ladder. “Yeah!” I exclaimed. “Thanks for taking the time to do this.”

He shrugged. “It was cool to watch. Reminded me of my first year.”

“Was it any good?” I asked, knowing the answer. Compared to Blondie, May and I totally killed it, and I was confident that we were the best ones there. I mean, we worked really hard, and it showed.

Zac simply shrugged. “A little underdeveloped. I mean you only really did one action. But in terms of how you executed it, it was great, yeah. Well done.”

In my mind, I sputtered. One action? Underdeveloped?! That’s what we were supposed to do! Zac clearly didn’t realize what Mr. Salvador was looking for, that was all. Smiling superficially, I thanked him. He nodded as he walked out of the auditorium, just as May bounced up to me.

“C’mon,” she coaxed with a sweet smile. “I think we should get our marks together.” She started to walk towards the stage then turned around. “Since we earned them together.”

I couldn’t help but smile. I think anything May said sent my head high into the sky and my heart flying with the birds, but this made fireworks go off inside me. She made me happier than I’ve ever been with just the way she looked right into my eyes, let alone the things like that she said. That’s what Nicole didn’t understand.

I followed May to the front, pushing past several people who were leaving, to face Mr. Salvador, who had his face buried in his clipboard. May cleared her throat loudly, a bold move in front of a teacher, and faced Mr. Salvador as he looked up.

“Could we please have our marks?” she asked him sweetly.

“Of course.” he replied flatly, searching on his clipboard until he found two cue card-sized pieces of paper, and handed them to us. May took them both, and handed one to me. Giddy, I looked at the paper to find a surprise.

73%. We got 73%. I looked to May to find the same disappointment on her face as mine. “Mr. Salvador, this must be a mistake.” I told him. “These can’t be our marks. Is this another group? We did the one with the tree.”

“Yes, I know.” he replied.

“Well then… What did we do wrong?” I asked him.

“You didn’t really do anything wrong, you just didn’t go beyond.” He answered me. “73% is average, which was what your performance was. It was a basic action, with no clear plot. There was only one basic movement for each actor, and you went a little under the expected time.”

We did the lights and everything, and got this. I was frankly hurt. “But…” I protested.

Mr. Salvador looked at me expectantly. When I added nothing, he shrugged. “Make your next performance really wow me.”He gave me a smile, not of kindness, but of challenge. I was still hurt though. I said nothing and walked away.

May hastily added, “Thanks, Mr. Salvador.” before turning and following me out of the aud.

“That’s just bullshit.” I complained as I looked at my sheet again. Mr. Salvador’s criticisms, mostly pertaining to how we limited our piece to one action, were written in barely legible handwriting all across the sheet. The only clearly legible part was the 73%, which just pissed me off more. People were passing us left and right, since it was the end of the day and we were standing in the middle of the hallway.

May shrugged. “I thought we did a great job, but I guess we’ll need to try harder if we want daddy’s approval.”

I smirked. “You’re not his biggest fan, are you?”

“I just don’t like how he thinks he’s top shit, and we need to all give 110% all the time.” She answered, annoyed. “For what it’s worth, you’re a great partner.”

“Thanks.” I replied, smiling warmly.

“Hey, mind if I ask you something? If you’re in no rush.” She asked me after awkwardly sticking in the same spot in the hallway with me. Right at that moment, I realized I was in a rush. It was Monday! Student Council would be starting their meeting any second now.

“Uh, sure, but can you make it quick? I have a student council meeting to go to.”

“Oh…” She started, thinking. “Well, it’s not that important, plus I want your full attention when I do ask it. I have choir right now anyways, can we meet up in the main hall after your meeting? Around 3:30?”

“Sure, I’ll do that.” I said absent-mindedly. “See you then, bye!” I rushed off towards the meeting, wondering what would happen if I were late.

“Bye!” she shyly, yet loudly, called out behind me, fading into the crowd.

***

Luckily for me, I arrived at the meeting just a few seconds before Phil called the whole thing to order. No one seemed to notice, except Nicole of course, who simply cocked one eyebrow at me. Knowing she had a freaky tendency to read my thoughts, I tried my hardest to give her a look which said ‘I’ll explain later.’ She nodded.

“Great, everyone’s here.” Phil interjected into the buzz of many council members mumbling to each other. “Alright, first item on the agenda is tomorrow’s dance. Great job to our advertising team for making everyone know it’s tomorrow. How’s our dance team for the co-ordination?”

A skinny tall redhead stood up from her seat. “Um, the DJ is booked, he says it’s, like, all good on his end. The gym is mostly set up, we just need a couple of volunteers for tomorrow morning to finish.”

Phil pointed to a few members of the council in the crowd. “Eli, Nicole, can you spare the time?”

Eli, an uptight British-looking kid in glasses, shrugged and nodded. Nicole chipperly replied, “No problem, Mr. President!”

Phil’s gaze lingered on her for just longer than it needed to with a small smile on his lips. “Great, thanks you two. How about admission? Let’s get our two newbies on that. Adam, Megan, can you stand at the door and accept the dance tickets?”

I had no clue how to do that, but nodded in blind obedience, then turned to Megan. She had a nervous look on her face, and shrugged.

“Great.” Phil nodded. “It’s really easy. You just stand at the gates of the school, and students walk up to you and present their ticket. You take it, put it in the bin, and let them in. If they don’t have a ticket, you don’t let them in. No exceptions, no re-entries.”

“Okay.” Megan slowly replied. “Could I please go over it with Adam in the hallway? Just to make sure we’re all on the same page.”

Phil shrugged. “Sure, if that’s what you guys need.” He pointed out to the hallway. “Feel free to barge back in whenever you’re done, don’t feel bad about disturbing us. You shouldn’t need to be out there long though, right? I don’t want you to miss anything important.”

“Right.” Megan confirmed, and started to walk out. I got up and started to walk out myself, noting that Nicole was giving me a serious look. In her hand, poised just high enough that I could see, she held up her phone. I nodded at her as I followed Megan outside.

Phil’s talking was reduced to a faint murmur through the walls as Megan shut the door behind me. I noticed that she was fiddling with her knit sweater, and after, began to readjust her glasses in a frankly adorable way as she tried to find words. I saw how nervous she was, and being able to understand that myself, decided to step in.

“So what did you need to ask?” I asked, trying to sound as kind as possible. “The whole thing is straightforward, right?”

“Um… yeah.” She began. “I was just… I was wondering if…” She stammered. She sighed and squeezed her eyes shut. “I was wondering if you’d want to go to the dance with me. You know, since we’re going to be working together anyways, it just makes sense, right…?”

My eyebrows shot up. I certainly was not expecting this. For a second, I wondered why Nicole, May and Megan, basically the only three girls I knew, had at least a minor interest in me. I wasn’t good looking or confident, nor very interesting…

Taking myself out of the world of my thoughts, I focussed on Megan. Should I go with her? The question repeated in my head. I wanted to go with May, but that looked to be a bleak possibility at this point. In indecisiveness, I looked down to the floor. Megan could see I wasn’t answering immediately, and decided to step in.

Boldly grabbing my hand (and being so unsure of her action she actually grabbed a bit too forcefully), she pulled my eyes up from the ground into her own. “You don’t have to answer me right away.” she said innocently. I only noticed at this point how seductive her big, innocent, brown eyes were. Her face clearly showed a little fright and nervousness, but her eyes were screaming ‘kiss me.’

Or maybe they weren’t. God, what’s wrong with me?

“You can think about it if you want to.” She quickly added. “I just thought it would make sense, that’s all. It would be cool to know each other better and stuff. Don’t you think?”

“It would, yeah.” I replied hesitantly. It was now my turn to be nervous. I wanted to go with May, but I could never get the courage to ask her, especially after that incident at her house. But I knew I had to ask Nicole first before choosing anything I would soon regret.

“Just let me know after the meeting, okay?” She asked, and I confidently nodded. She smiled widely, bringing out her gorgeous eyes even more, lightly squeezing my hand. Her touch was just as electric as it was during the speeches, and it made me smile just a bit. She hurried back in to the council room with myself in tow. As I walked back in, Phil kept going, not acknowledging us whatsoever, but as I turned to Matt, he had a knowing look on his face. I then turned to Nicole, who rolled her eyes and held up her phone again.

Oh, right. I took out my phone, making sure Phil couldn’t see, and texted her. Megan just asked me out to the dance. I don’t think I’m confident enough to ask May. Should I go for it?

A few seconds later, I saw her looking at her phone. She looked up at me, mulling over the idea, then finally gave a slow, unsure nod, followed by a sultry wink. I chuckled to myself as I turned to Matt, who was still looking in my direction, and nodded at him too. He grinned.

***

Phil was a master of talking for too long, but the meeting still ended as expected at the normal time. As everyone started to file out, I caught Megan in the hallway, and lightly touched her shoulder. She whirled around to face me, and noticeably became more shy.

“So I, uh, I think I’ll take you up on that offer.” I told her, mustering as much courage as I could to do one petty thing.

Her eyes sparkled. “Really?” She asked me. I nodded, and she immediately went in for a hug. She didn’t say anything further, but I guess she didn’t need to. Getting gradually better at these situations, I hugged her back. She pulled back so our eyes could meet, her arms still wrapped around me, and smiled. “See you tomorrow then.” She said happily as she pulled away and walked off, waving at me. I waved back, too focussed on her to notice Matt approach me from behind. He clapped an arm down on my shoulder.

“Good choice, man. My sister’s a great girl.” He said warmly.

“I bet.” I replied.

“Normally I have to give the ‘don’t be a jerk to her’ speech, but I don’t think I need to with you.” He added. “And I don’t make that exception with everyone.”

I smiled at him. “I’ll be sure to remember that.” I said. He nodded and walked off in the same direction as Megan. I was actually feeling pretty good about myself. I got a date to the Halloween dance. Granted, I had no clue what I would wear as a costume, not to mention I couldn’t dance to save my life, but otherwise I felt pretty damn good about life.

“Way to go, Squirt, you got a date!” came the voice of Nicole from behind me. She sounded legitimately impressed.

I smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, I guess.” were the only words that could come out of my mouth.

She stifled a laugh. “And here I was thinking that you couldn’t get up the courage to ask anyone. You could move mountains with your word choice, hotshot.” she winked at me and started walking down the hallway. “Don’t you need a ride?” she tossed over her shoulder.

“Actually, would you mind hanging around for a few minutes?” I asked her. “I was supposed to meet up with someone for something.”

She shrugged. “As long as you make it quick.” She told me. “Managing the yearbook and school paper takes up more time than you think.”

Feeling bolder after she mocked me, I shot back, “Maybe if you spent less time screwing you wouldn’t have that problem.”

She grinned. “More comments like that and I’ll just find other guys to fuck.” She threatened humorously. “Now git! Go have your little meeting before I leave without you.”

I smiled at her and took off for the main hallway. By the time I was out of Nicole’s sight, May was in mine. I waved hello and she cheerfully waved back.

“Hey! Hope you weren’t waiting too long.” I piped up, glad that Nicole’s chat with me gave me an adrenaline boost needed to have a normal conversation with a girl.

“Nope, you’re okay.” May cheerfully responded.

“So what do you need?” I asked her.

“Well, I was thinking.” She began, making it seem like she made a business decision more than anything else. “I’ve told you before that I’m not really making as many friends as I’d like to, but you’ve been kind to me. So I figure why not get to know you outside of drama class too?”

“…Are you asking me to be an official friend or something?” I asked.

She chuckled. “No, but I was thinking it would be really cool if we went to the dance tomorrow together! What do you think?”

My heart sank. No it didn’t, it got wired up to some C4 and the detonator was placed in my hands. Son of a bitch, there was nothing I wanted more than to break into a grin and say yes right then and there, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t do that. I already made the commitment to go with Megan.

Still, at first I couldn’t find the place in my heart to say no. My crush, the girl who could make me smile by existing alone, the one girl I truly wanted to be with, to kiss, to dance with, and I had to turn her down. God dammit, I wouldn’t get a chance like this again. I blew it. Again.

“Gee, um… May, that’s the best offer I’ve had in a long while, and I truly, truly mean that. But I’m afraid I’ve already promised Megan Schneider.”

“Oh.” Her cheerful aura dwindled, something I didn’t see often. She still smiled, but it was more for show than anything else. “I didn’t know you and her were together.”

‘She and you,’ my inner Nicole piped up. “Oh, we’re not.” I quickly replied. “We’re just both on the council and figured since we’re working together it makes sense.”

“Ah, I see.” she replied with her continued fake cheerfulness, smiling yet looking to the floor every so often.

“Otherwise, I would say yes in a heartbeat. I hate to think that you’ll be all alone for the dance tomorrow.” I continued.

She smiled at me, and I could tell this one was genuine. “I’ll manage.” she said softly. “So, um… See you in class tomorrow!”

“Yeah.” I replied, clearing my throat. The tension hung thick in the air, but this time it didn’t feel nice in any way. “See you then.”

We looked at each other for the next ten seconds, everywhere but in the eyes, before May made the first move and slowly started to walk towards her locker. Feeling guilty as all hell, but not responsible, I trudged back to wherever Nicole was standing.

“Ready to go.” I mumbled.

She noted my lack of cheerfulness. “Who was your conversation with, a proctologist? What’s with the long face?” She asked as we began to walk to her car.

For some reason, I didn’t feel like telling her. “Nothing.” I simply said.

“Oh, come on, squirt. I know you a little better than that.” She said sternly as the car came into view.

“Well, since you’re so psychic, why don’t you figure it out for yourself?” I asked, half bitterly, half humorously.

“I ain’t that good, hotshot. I can’t work with what little you’ve given me. What do I look like, a grade 12?” she winked as she walked around the car and got in.

A few minutes into the car ride, she sighed loudly and spoke. “I suppose I could hang with you for a few hours, but that’s it. If you feel like you need to let off a little steam…”

I wasn’t sure if she meant just hanging out, or what I thought she really meant, but I didn’t care. “Nah, I’m good.” I replied.

“You sure?”

“Mhm.”

She nodded slowly, taking her eyes to mine for just a few seconds before returning to the road. A few seconds, I felt her hand rubbing my shoulder sympathetically. “I hope whatever it is, it doesn’t last. Your face looks more stupid with a frown on it.”

I had to give a bit of a chuckle at that comment. Unless she was on the brink of an orgasm, that was Nicole’s way of being kind, of showing she cared. And I appreciated it, but it sure didn’t fix anything.

***

The Halloween dance was the next night, so I didn’t exactly go all out on the costume. One long black sheet and a pair of fake fangs, and poof. Adam Watson was no more, there was only Dracula.

“How does it look?” My dad asked as he popped his head in my room, where I was readying myself in front of the mirror.

“It’s not amazing, but I think it looks like Dracula.” I answered, looking to make sure the jelled-back hair, which was a challenge (since it was closer to dirty blonde than black, plus longer than average), looked alright.

He looked into the mirror, popping up behind me. “How can you tell?” He asked, pretending to scan the mirror, looking for my reflection.

I rolled my eyes, which dad took as a victory. “Alright, let’s go mobile.” He told me. “If you’re going to be working at the doors, we’d better make sure you go early.”

“Fair.” I replied, scanning the mirror one last time to look for anything wrong with how I looked before following him.

“Jeez, with the amount of time you spent in front of the mirror, you’d think you were spending the night dancing with Nicole instead of just collecting tickets.” Dad piped up as we left the house.

Would if I could. “Nope.” I answered. “Just working. Student council. You wouldn’t understand.”

He gave a small shrug as we entered the car. “Does this mean I get to mock you for not being in the AV club and choir?”

“You were in choir?” I asked him.

He nodded. “Bass. Only one, actually. There was a lot of stigma involved with being in choir in those days.”

Interesting. I never knew my dad was involved in extracurriculars. “I didn’t even know they had AV clubs back then. Did schools even have video equipment?”

“It was the 80s, Adam, not the 50s.” He replied. “Why else would I keep quoting 80s movies? It’s been wired, almost literally, in my head at this point.”

“Why’d you take it?” I asked him. “It doesn’t sound like it pays well.”

“It was practically cultural expectation.” he answered me as we left the driveway. “I was a shy nerd when we entered high school. But by the time I left… There wasn’t a student in my grade that didn’t share my love of the cinema.”

“I thought it was genetic.” I spoke softly, referring to my shy awkwardness. Dad nodded sympathetically.

“When you enter high school, you don’t really know who you are. If you do, you’re doing something wrong. Above all, you’re going to be finding yourself and coming out of your shell over the next four years.” He told me. “If you’re anything like I was, you’re going to have a hard time talking to people at first, but stick with the right people, and you’ll become a social butterfly in no time.”

“Thanks, dad.” I smiled at him while he kept driving. He kept his eyes on the road.

“Also if you’re anything like I was, you’re going to find yourself occasionally involved in some serious shit, pardon the language. Never lose your head, and please always do the right thing, if anything like that should happen.” He continued. “Not that I think you’re the type. I just know how high school is. I lived through it, you know, and still remember it. ‘Old man’ is a purely figurative title.”

“I’ll take your words to heart.” I said seriously, as he stopped the car at a red light. He turned to me and gave me what he never gave anyone, a small smile. I never really saw this side of dad before, given how years of being alone at school made me content with being alone at home, holed up in my room. Even so far, I was glad I went to the dance. It made me really grateful to have my dad.

***

When I got there, after waving dad goodbye as he drove off, I walked up the school steps to find Megan already waiting there. She waved slightly as she saw me, nervously tapping her one foot on the ground. She wore a one-piece lime green suit, with matching flats and a bit of glitter strewn across her face. Behind her, attached to her back, were a pair of fairy wings and in her hand she held a wand with a green star on the end.

I walked up to her. “You look beautiful.” I said, eyeing her costume up and down.

“Thanks.” she replied softly. “You don’t look so bad yourself.”

I smiled, but didn’t reply as I just looked at the floor for a few seconds. Looking back up, I looked behind her to see the halls of the school. Phil was inside, dressed (really intricately, may I add) as The Incredible Hulk. He flashed me a thumbs-up when he saw me.

While flashing a thumbs-up back at Phil, I asked Megan, “Has anyone showed up yet?”

“No one who’s not on Council.” She answered me. I started to wonder if May would show up. I turned her down, but would she still show up? Would it be awkward if she showed up and I had to deal with her ticket? Would she be mad at me?

“I guess it’s just the two of us, huh?” Megan asked me softly, taking a step towards me.

Lost in my own world of thoughts of May, I absent-mindedly replied, “Yeah, I guess.” I didn’t notice her look down again and take a step back. As my mind became clear again, people were starting to show up.

Once people started to show up, for about fifteen minutes straight people were steadily arriving, and Megan and I didn’t really have an opportunity to talk or take nay kind of break. After those fifteen minutes though, barely anybody new was showing up and after we were at the doors for a total of twenty-two minutes, a grade 12 poked his head through the doors. I recognized him as Eli from yesterday. He was dressed as the Matt Smith rendition of Doctor Who.

“Hey! Phil wanted me to tell you guys that you’re free to join the dance now. I’ll be hanging around the doors at the coat rack anyway, so I can make sure the doors are guarded.” he said. I was really expecting his voice to be British, and it almost frustrated me to hear that it wasn’t.

“Okay, thanks.” Megan smiled at him. He nodded and went back inside. She turned to me. “Do you wanna dance, Adam?”

“Uh, sure!” I answered her. I wish May had asked me that, I thought to myself as we entered the school. She grabbed my hand and led me through the halls, right up to the gymnasium doors. Right as we stepped inside, I was instantly overwhelmed.

People were everywhere. Most of them were in costumes, all of them were moving in one way or another, and you barely had any room to breathe. Everyone was touching someone or other in some way or another, and I’m sure some people were taking advantage of this fact. There was grinding and vaguely sexual activity everywhere. I guess not a lot has changed since grade 8.

Megan led me through the sea of people and once we found a place that wasn’t packed like a sardine can, we began dancing. Well, I use the term ‘dancing’ loosely – I have no sense of rhythm, and the social awkwardness I lugged around with me like a ball and chain wasn’t doing me any favors. Still, I tried to dance with her, and eventually we settled on what teenagers usually constitute as ‘dancing’ – bopping up and down.

This continued for a good few minutes until I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I didn’t recognize it immediately, but it begged for me to take a closer look. I looked over to my left and immediately felt a sharp pain.

It was May, dressed like what looked to be some kind of cat. I guess when I wasn’t paying attention, she gave her ticket to Megan. It angered me slightly that she didn’t even bother to say hi, but that didn’t anger me nearly as much as how she was dancing with another guy. His face was hidden and I couldn’t make out who it was, but I didn’t care. I felt betrayed, as absurd as that sounds. She just went to the dance with someone else, like I didn’t matter.

I couldn’t bear to look at them, but my eyes lingered. Their bodies were pressed too closely together, and her beautiful hazel eyes were clearly locked on him, someone so undeserving of those beautiful eyes.

When I managed to tear my gaze away from them, my thoughts returned to myself. Whoever this guy was, he had beaten me. He had won. Hell, who was I kidding? He was probably easily better looking and more confident. It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to assume that. May probably deserved someone like that anyways. Definitely not someone like me. I was dirt. No, I was lower than dirt. I was Adam god damn Watson.

Anger, disappointment, pity and every other emotion found in the dictionary of angst filled me. Not even able to communicate further with Megan, I sprang for the exit to the gym, looking for a bit of time to myself. Megan, of course, followed me with every step, no doubt confused as hell.

Even exiting the gym wasn’t enough. There were still people in the school, and I wanted to completely be alone with my thoughts. I marched straight towards the exit, before Eli stopped me.

“Once you leave, you can’t come back in. No exceptions, even if you’re council.” he told me. I gave him my most convincing smile of understanding, and barged past him out the doors. Megan still diligently followed. After a while, I spotted a patch of grass near the school’s entrance and plopped down on it, sighing angrily. Megan sat down hesitantly next to me.

“What’s wrong?” I heard her ask timidly, but I couldn’t find the energy to answer. I noticed I was still wearing my stupid fangs and cape, and without hesitation, took them off and stuffed them in my pockets.

“Did I do something wrong?” There was something new in her voice: Fear. I didn’t want her to be upset, so I answered.

“No, you didn’t.” I said, with a little less empathy than I would have liked. “Just overwhelmed. Dances and crowds and stuff.”

“Oh, okay.” She answered, before continuing in a more quiet voice. “I actually kinda prefer it out here. You know, no dancing, no other people… Just the two of us.”

“Yeah.” I answered absent-mindedly. I don’t get it. What went wrong? Why would May just go with someone else like that if she already asked me? Was she that non-committed?

“You know, I was going to tell you something, but I think it’s actually better to tell you here than at the dance.” Megan continued to speak, her voice getting even softer than it was, as impossible as I thought that was.

“Oh yeah?” I asked her, not paying attention, wishing she’d stop talking. It wasn’t that I didn’t like her company, I just wanted to be alone. Why couldn’t she see that? Maybe I shouldn’t have said yes. No, scratch that. I definitely should not have said yes.

“So I know we don’t know each other that well, and we’ve barely said anything to each other, but you’re really cute.” she said timidly. “And I like how you’re reserved and proper… Most guys are too confident and talk-y… It kind of overwhelms me.”

“Mhm.” I replied, not paying attention. God dammit, I wish I had the confidence most guys have. I wish I could talk more easily. Then I could have asked May out to the dance earlier… And everything would be better. Being shy and reserved was just a complete curse. It did me no favors.

“I… I like you, Adam. Like… like like.” Megan continued.

Aaaaaand my brain went click. Shit, how long was Megan talking? How the hell did we get to this topic?! Oh, god damn it, I was not ready to deal with this, especially right now.

Okay, don’t panic. What do I say?? I’ve never had to turn anyone down before. It honestly felt kind of weird, yet kind of… nice, as awful as that sounds. At least someone liked me for myself, even though they weren’t the right one… I breathed in and out a few times before beginning.

“Gee, Megan… That’s really sweet, and I appreciate that. Really, I do. But I’m just starting grade 9, and so are you. I don’t know if I’m really ready for a committed relationship like that right now. You know, with emotions and stuff. I don’t want to end up hurting you. You’re a great girl though, and you’ll make a guy really happy someday.”

Was a word I said genuine? I had no freaking clue. I just needed some time alone to my thoughts, and figured this was enough to let her down easily. I mean, girls like it when you respect their feelings, right? I couldn’t imagine that NOT being true, and when I looked at Megan, she wasn’t crying or anything. She wasn’t happy either, but she still smiled.

“I understand, Adam. Thanks for being so honest with me.” She said, continuing her smile. “And I hope you feel ready soon. I… I wanna make you happy. Not some guy, you.”

I couldn’t even hear her anymore, but could tell she was finished her sentence, so I turned and smiled at her, still fuming at May on the inside. Shit. How could she do this to me? I needed to turn to a trusted friend, someone who’s helped me through this kind of stuff. I took my phone out of my pocket and texted Nicole immediately.

Hey, you leaving soon? I could use a ride. I got used to being more bold with her. Normally, I could never ask someone for a ride, let alone ask like that, let alone in the middle of a dance. But I was more comfortable around her than anyone else, and that’s exactly what I needed right now.

Almost instantly she replied. Thought you’d never ask. Meet me in the car, at the back entrance.

I smiled internally. Thanks, Nicole. Feigning shock at my phone, I blurted out, “Oh crap!” I looked at Megan. “Um, sorry, my dad’s here. Mind if we cut this a bit short?”

Megan smiled weakly. “It’s fine. It’s not like I can go back inside anyway, so we might as well.”

Oh, right. We couldn’t go back inside. I looked again at Megan, who continued her weak smile. I felt legitimately bad for her, and decided to do something about it. “Well, hey… I enjoyed our time together tonight. Do you have a cell phone?”

Instantly, her smile turned genuine. “Yeah, I do.” she replied, suddenly really happy. We exchanged numbers, and I gave her a smile.

“Text me! You seem like a really sweet girl, and I would like to get to know you better.” The smile she gave me was so genuine that it made me feel slightly better, even though what I said was basically a sweet nothing.

***

As I arrived at Nicole’s car, she was already in the driver’s seat, wearing a surprisingly well-made Medusa costume. “How was your first high school dance, squirt?” She asked me.

“It was okay, but… I got overwhelmed easily. You know, the crowds and all.”

She nodded. “That’s why I was ready to go at the drop of a hat.”

“Phil didn’t mind?” I asked her.

“Phil? Are you kidding? I’ve got him wrapped around my finger. He’s putty in my hands.” She turned to me and winked. “So no, he didn’t mind. Now, should we get going or do you have other plans?”

“Actually, could we hang out for a bit? I kinda wanna let off some steam.” I told her.

She grinned, taking my comment more sexually than I meant it. “Knew it. Even on Halloween? Damn, hotshot, you’re quite the horndog. Maybe I should get you into one of those Sex Addict Anonymous meetings.”

Of course she would take it that way. But it didn’t matter. Before we did anything like that, I’d get a chance to talk to her, and she would make it better. Like she always did.

***

“Hi mommy, hi daddy!” Nicole cheerfully called as she came through the door. “How was the neighborhood?”

“Oh, just a few showed up this year!” Nicole’s mom called, her voice getting nearer. “I think all the neighborhood kids are getting too old for Hallowe- Oh.” Her cheerful tone dropped immediately when she saw me. She glanced towards upstairs, then back at me, folding her arms. “Don’t tell me, let me guess.”

“You guessed right.” Nicole all-too-cheerfully answered.

“It’s nice to see you, Mrs. Baker.” I said, trying to make my image as welcome as possible in this household.

“Adam.” She flatly answered, her smile painted on her face only as a warning.

I turned to Mr. Baker, who was, as usual, at the kitchen table reading his Dickens book. “Mr. Baker, good to see you, sir.”

“Adam.” He answered gruffly.

“Well, now that we’ve gotten the formalities out of the way…” Nicole trailed off as she dragged me upstairs. It must have looked odd, since I was no longer in any real costume, fangs and cape in my pocket, but with my hair slicked back, being led up the stairs by Medusa past her disapproving parents, but hey, that’s high school for you.

She shut the door behind her and began to take off her snake headdress, seeing no problem with breaking it as it came off. Frankly, it was a shame – it looked like she spent a lot of time making it.

“So, you need to let off some steam, huh, hotshot?” she asked me seductively, not stopping at taking off her effects. Her bare chest was already greeting me by the time I opened my mouth.

I was about to protest, but as soon as I saw her big, beautiful breasts, I was instantly hypnotized. I flew forward and connected my mouth to her left nipple, wasting no time on foreplay as I hungrily sucked away.

“Ooh… That’s more steam than I thought.” Nicole sighed, falling back onto the bed with me on top of her. She reached down and undid her pants as I continued my sucking. My other hand reached down and pulled her pants down so my fingers could have easier access to her engorged clit.

“Mmmm, that’s the spot.” she moaned. “You’re getting really good at this, squirt.” Keeping my thumb on her clit, the rest of my hand dipped down so my fingers could have access to her love tunnel. With my thumb still rubbing in circles, my middle finger slowly travelled into her hole – slowly at first, but as I got to the first knuckle, the rest of the finger went in with determination and power.

“Ooooh…” Nicole moaned. “Another… one… Add another one.”

Not one to disappoint, I added my index finger to my already soaked middle finger. Was she ever not wet? I wondered to myself. I tossed the thought aside as I began plunging both fingers into her again and again, keeping up my thumb’s rotations.

“Yesssss…” she hissed, clearly pleased. While I kept up this action with my hand, I moved my mouth from her one tit to the other, wanting to give them equal attention. I played with her nipple with my tongue, whilst sucking away at the same time, something I came to find she really enjoyed. Before long, her hips were involuntarily moving and her breaths became shorter and shorter.

“That’s good, Adam… Reeeeall good… Keep going…” she panted, really into it at this point. I never saw her this quick to get close before, but I saw the telltale signs and as I always do, doubled my efforts. Before long her hands were cradling my head as I sucked away, then mashing my head right into her chest as she emitted a high-pitched shriek.

After her shriek was over, she remained in the same position for a few seconds, still with my head mashed into her boob. I couldn’t breathe, but I didn’t dare move, in fear of making her any less satisfied with my performance. Before long, luckily just before I would have begun to black out, she released my head.

“Aaaaaah.” She moaned in satisfaction. “That was fantastic.” she told me, her eyes sparkling. I flopped off of her and breathed heavily she she started to speak again, more softly this time. “I…”

I waited for a few seconds. “You… what?” I finally asked her.

“I need to return the favor.” She answered me, putting emphasis on the ‘I.’ She hopped up on the bed, kicking off her pants from their drooped position in the process. She crawled over to me on her hands and knees as sexily as she could, and lowered her face to my pants. Expertly, she used only her teeth and tongue to unbutton and unzip my pants. I would have asked her how in the hell she did that, but of course the response would only be ‘grade 11.’

She pulled my pants down to reveal my erect cock, which she hungrily took into her mouth without so much as a pause. She spoke not a word as she got down to business, swirling her tongue around the head of my dick as she sucked her way down the shaft, using one hand to stroke the base. I went from zero to eighty in a single second, as I found myself gasping to deal with the new sensation.

She noticed and giggled, the vibration of her giggle only adding to the sensations I was feeling. I opened my eyes to look down my stomach to see her, eyes locked on mine, sucking down my dick like there was no tomorrow. Judging by the way her right shoulder was moving, she was fingering herself too, which would explain the moaning that came a little after. Despite this, she wouldn’t take her beautiful blue eyes off of mine, and taking it as a challenge, I stared back deeply into her. I saw lust in her eyes, but also some kind of content feeling as well. She looked sexy as hell sucking me off, but also managed to pull off looking beautiful at the same time.

She took her mouth off of my dick for a few seconds, jacking it off as if she wanted to start a fire as she breathed heavily. She looked back into my eyes and smiled naughtily. “Do you like this, Adam?” she asked in May’s voice. “I just love your huge cock.”

That killed it for me. “Don’t use that fucking voice.” I told her harshly as I rolled over, away from her.

She had a look of pure shock on her face for only a millisecond before she managed to suppress it by grinning. “Whoa, new development!” She said to no one in particular. “What’s the scoop, squirt?”

“Nothing.” I snapped. “I just don’t want you using her voice. Just use your own.”

“Adam, face me.” She ordered. I complied, but only because I wouldn’t dare face her angry. “What’ up?” She asked me gravely.

I exhaled, realizing there was no way out of this without telling all, and let loose the whole story. May’s meeting with me on Monday, how Megan confessed she liked me, and how I saw May dancing close to someone else at the dance. Not once did Nicole interrupt me, or view me with condescension in her eyes. She just listened, and even just by telling her the story, I felt better.

“Okay…” she said slowly once I told her the whole story. “Well, first off, it’s good that you let Megan know how you feel. Even if that whole speech just sounded like a bunch of kind bullshit.” She winked at me and I blushed. I swear, this girl could read minds. “I also hope she had a ride home too. Next time, check. She still could be waiting out there for her mom and dad now.” Shit, I hadn’t even thought about that…

“Secondly, you should have told me right when May asked you. I thought you trusted me more than that.”

“I trust you. I just didn’t want to talk about it with anyone.” I protested.

“Alright, whatever. Just… Know that I’m here to help you, you tool.” She smiled slightly, and I returned the smile.

“Thirdly… You don’t own May. You turned her down, remember, and she still wanted to go. If you really like her and want to make her happy, then you’ll accept that not everything she do will be with you, and you’re going to end up jealous. If you can’t accept that, then you don’t really love her. You just want to have her.”

She was right. Despite me trying to convince myself I wasn’t, I was completely objectifying May. I valued our time together over her happiness.

Noting my silence, she continued. “You may have feelings for the ditz, but if you can’t handle that especially when you turn her down, she may want to go for someone else, then try to spend as little time with her as possible. At least until you can get your feelings under control and enjoy her for her, not for your potential girlfriend. Or fuck buddy. She may not even like you as more than a friend in the future, even when she’s single. And if you truly care for her, then you’ll accept that. If you can’t accept it, maybe it’s for the best that you’re not with her.”

It was blow after blow to my ego, but when I looked up at her sheepishly, she still had no condescension on her face. All she was doing was looking deeply into my eyes, smiling slightly. With her completely naked and me half-naked, I went in to hug her. “Thanks, Nicole.” I told her.

She chuckled softly. “You’re welcome, Adam.” she said quietly, still hugging me back. We loosened our tight embrace just enough to look each other straight in the eyes, as we went in at the same time for a kiss. She melted into my arms as our lips parted and our tongues wrestled. Our eyes closed as we pulled each other in tighter, enjoying the taste of each other’s mouths, but also feeling the warmth of each other, the beating of our hearts together in unison, the bond we shared.

We broke away and just stared into each others’ eyes for a bit, before reluctantly letting go fully. “Want me to finish you off?” Nicole asked.

I shook my head. “Nah.” I answered. I looked for more to add, but I couldn’t find the words.

Nicole laughed softly. “Yeah, I find it difficult to fuck after I get all sentimental too.” She winked at me, and feeling a hell of a lot better, I winked back. I bent over to pull my pants back up and button them back up, and of course by the time I looked back at Nicole, she was fully clothed, laying down, casually checking her phone. It was even more impressive this time, considering it wasn’t even the same outfit she changed out of.

“Seriously, how do you get changed so fast?” I asked her, still doing up the zipper on my pants.

“Seriously, grade 11.” She shot back, looking up at me with a determined small smile. She got up and hugged me again. “So are you gonna stay?”

“Nah, I just want some time to think to myself if that’s okay.” I answered, hugging her back.

She sunk into my arms, clearly in disappointment. “I understand.” she said nonetheless. “I’ll see you tomorrow then?” she asked, looking up into my eyes.

I smiled. “Definitely.” she smiled back and let go off me, waving me off as I exited her room and went down the stairs.

“Glass of water?” Mrs. Baker asked with just a hint of malice to her voice as I entered the kitchen.

I sighed. “Yes, I’m having sex with your daughter.” Where the hell did that come from?! Clearly I could be more bold than I thought.

Mrs. Baker just gave me a bit of a scowl. “You’re not anything special, you know. I’ve met a dozen young boys just like you. She’s just being a rebellious teenager. I don’t know what we did to deserve it, but she just enjoys causing us pain.” She turned away from me and walked back to the table, mumbling to herself, “I just did something wrong when I raised her.”

“Even if I’m not special, I’m just glad to know her. I was upset when I came over, and even without the sex, just by listening to my problems and comforting me, she made me feel better. She’s a good listener.”

Mrs. Baker let a small smile slip. “She gets it from me.” She informed me.

Bingo. That’s what I was waiting for. All of the anger at May didn’t die out inside me, but it was about to switch targets. I was angry at hell for how Nicole’s parents treated her, and whether I even wanted to or not, tonight I would let them have it. Plus, with the way I bonded with my dad earlier, there was no way I was going to allow Nicole not to have the same thing. With a sudden surge of adrenaline, I began my bold retaliation.

“Yeah, she seems to get a curious amount from you. How old are you, Mrs. Baker? Because may I say, you look awfully young. How old were you when you had Nicole? You couldn’t have been older than 20. It’s very interesting that you condemn Nicole for doing what teens crave, when you yourself were undeniably indulgent of the same forbidden fruit.”

Mrs. Baker’s eyebrows shot up to meet her hairline. For the first time, I saw Mr. Baker putting down his book.

Nevertheless, I continued. “If she’s sleeping around, there’s very few ways a parent could consider that ‘punishment,’ and I think we both know the kind that applies here. If you’re worried for her, how about you tell her that, instead of antagonizing her?”

Mr. Baker got up from his seat to stand by his wife, who was now struggling to hold back a single tear. She still didn’t give up her tight-lipped expression, though.

“Boy, you’re not in your place to say anything about this family.” Mr. Baker started. “And you’re going to apologize right now.”

Standing my ground, I replied, “Let me know anything of what I just is false and I will apologize. I’ll take it all back. Just give me the word.”

“No, that’s not how this works.” Mr. Baker commanded with a low voice, taking another step towards me. “We’re not going to do anything. You’re just going to apologize. Right. Now.”

On the inside, I was on the verge of another panic attack, but I couldn’t give up now. “I’m sorry, Mr. Baker. But I won’t stand back and let you continue to treat Nicole this way, just because you misunderstand her.”

Mr. Baker’s eyes flickered with a hint of rage, before he took another menacing step towards me. “I warned you.” he growled.

“Duncan.” came Mrs. Baker’s commanding voice. Mr. Baker hesitantly took a few steps back and rejoined his wife, still looking me dead in the eye. They both were.

“Adam, remember that you’ve known her for a few weeks. We’re her parents. This is more complicated than you think it is.” Mrs. Baker told me. She was still upset, but I was glad the conversation was going somewhere.

“Just speaking as a friend of hers, I don’t think she has the capacity to punish you as you two describe. I just think you misunderstand each other. And if you approached her with the topic with a friendly disposition, you might make better progress than to label yourself the victim immediately. I’m sure if you told her this, she’ll offer the same courtesy.” I replied coolly.

“And what makes you so sure?” Mrs. Baker asked me, her face noticeably softening.

“Because while you might not see eye to eye, I’ve seen the immense amount of compassion Nicole has, and that’s not something you can find in everyone.” I replied. “And if you’re fair to her, she is wonderful person to talk to about your problems, even if they’re with her.” I paused before adding, “I imagine she had to get that from somewhere too.” And smiled knowingly at both of her parents.

Without giving any hint of a smile, I saw a small nod from Mrs. Baker. “Very well. I’ll try to talk to her, but this does not let her off the hook in any way. This doesn’t excuse you from those comments you made earlier either.”

Realizing my place, I nodded. “You’re right. I’m sorry for how I spoke to you after the hospitality you both have shown me. It was uncalled for and disrespectful.”

Mrs. Baker sighed. “I will give you this, it wasn’t untrue.” She said nothing more though, and both parents had their gaze fixed on me. I took this as my time to leave.

As I nearly exited the kitchen, Mrs. Baker added, “I don’t regret having her, or either of my other two kids, in any way. It’s just that it was difficult to raise them. I just want them to be the best kids they can be, to not make the same mistakes. I love them, but love has to be tough sometimes.”

I nodded respectfully, and noted the book on the table. “I guess parenthood is the best of times and the worst of times, huh?”

Internally, I laughed at my own cheesiness, but it got a solemn nod from Mr. Baker. I took that as a victory and exited the house.

As soon as I was outside, I was reduced to a mess of coughing, wheezing, and trying to breathe normally again. That was, as stupid as this sounds, the bravest thing I had ever done, and being as spineless as I was, it took a real toll on me. But still, once I recovered and started to walk towards my own house, I had a spring in my step. I sincerely hope this meant that Nicole and her parents would have a more understanding, caring relationship as a result of this conversation. God knows that given how sweet and empathetic Nicole was, she definitely deserved the same love from her parents. Or someone.

Chapter Five

Eventfulness, as my father had predicted, usually just ended up meaning trouble for me, so I was glad to find out that after a very event-filled October, November went by as eventlessly as it could. Thanks to Nicole’s talk with me, there was no bad tension whenever I was around May, which was good since drama class necessitated that you need to be ready to act with anyone at the drop of a hat without any tension being present.

Megan and I began texting, more frequently than with Nicole or with May. Then again, that was mostly her doing, with her usually starting the conversation and keeping it going. She made no effort to hide her crush on me, and I needed to be careful not to be rude, but also to not lead her on.

As for Nicole and I, we did what we did best, and most often. Telling each other secrets, screwing, and playing video games, with her naturally beating me every time we tried anything remotely close to competitive. If ever I needed a reason for why I didn’t play video games, she was gracious enough to give me that reason. She never talked to me about any talks her parents had with her, though, which made me wonder if all of my courage on Halloween night was in vain. Her parents seemed sincere when they said they would talk to her.

As December rolled around, I got to be better friends with Carson, which was cool. While he was really confident, he wasn’t above being friendly, you just had to know him well enough. In early December, on the first weekend, I got to hang out with him for the first time at his place. Dad drove me, and he didn’t say anything to the effect, but I got the impression that we was glad to find out I was hanging out with more than just girls.

“Hey, buddy! C’mon in.” Carson welcomed me as I entered the house. It wasn’t late enough into December that the snow was sticking, but I still had to wear clunky boots that I was all too glad to be rid of.

“What’s up?” He asked me as he led me into the living room, then plopped down on one of the couches. I joined him, falling down on the adjacent couch.

“Not a lot.” I answered him. “Just finished that y-intercept thing we were given on Thursday.”

He buried his face in his hands. “Aw, shit.” he said aloud. “That was a thing.”

I laughed as his dad rounded the corner. “Oh, hi!” he remarked to Carson. “I didn’t know you’d be having company.”

“Oh yeah, sorry.” Carson said as he stood up. “Dad, this is Adam Watson. He’s in my math class. Adam, George Carter, my dad.”

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Carter.” I said as I stood up and shook his hand. Well, I say ‘shook his hand,’ but the exchange was more like him just grabbing my hand and crushing it.

“Mr. Carter is my father.” He said cheerfully. “Call me George.”

I nodded and sat back down as his dad began to putz around the kitchen. “Is your mom home?” I asked Carson.

Carson shifted in his seat. “Uh, my parents are kinda…” He began, and trailed off, mashing his index fingers together, expecting me to finish for myself.

“Oh, sorry.” I said. He waved it off like it was no big deal, but obviously didn’t want to talk about it any longer. “So what do you wanna do?” I asked, trying to shift the topic.

He shrugged, and eyed something on the couch, reaching to hold it up. It was an Xbox controller.

Son of a bitch, I was the only one who didn’t play video games in the whole county, wasn’t I? I sighed, shaking my head, but gave in.

“What, don’t like gaming?” Carson asked me.

“I dunno. I only play with one person, and she beats me every time.” I said. As soon as it registered that I said ‘she’, Carson broke into a grin.

“You get beat by a girl? Oh buddy, that’s rough. I need to teach you how to play, so you can kick her ass.”

I grinned back. “I’m cool with learning.” Carson tossed me a controller and booted up his console.

“Still,” he added, “It’s pretty sweet that you could find a girlfriend that’ll play video games with you.”

“Oh, she’s not my girlfriend.” I protested. He shot me a sly smile.

“Oh, so you two just fuck, huh? I hear that. That’s my go-to option with girls too.”

I wanted to protest, but realized I couldn’t. That’s what Nicole and I do, I reasoned with myself. I didn’t want to straight-up lie to a new friend, so I kept my mouth shut as Carson continued.

“I mean, as long as you’re not hurting anyone, and the girl knows it’s just sex, it can’t do any harm. Just don’t go too far, you’ll end up like my cousin.”

“What does your cousin do?” I asked, basically just to kill time, as Carson booted up a shooter game.

“He likes to take girls out and use them. He’s not above cheating or anything like that either. Like, I’m cool with just having sex with girls, but there’s a line, and you need to respect them too.”

I nodded. “Does he go to our school?”

“Who, Craig? Oh, hell no. He’d get ground to a pulp by the goody two-shoes students of our school. They wouldn’t stand what he does for a second. Nah, he lives a few states over, like most of my family. He’s actually kind of a sad story. Like, he’s a jerk and all, but no one ever shows him any sympathy or tries to know his good side or anything. I haven’t heard from him in a while, but I feel like once he gets a solid friend, he’ll clean up his act. He could totally be a good guy, but doesn’t know how, you get me?”

I nodded again as Carson continued. “Point is, don’t be a jerk. It’s the rules I live by. I mean, if you get offended by something I do that isn’t mean, sucks to be you for being oversensitive, but, like, my definition of a jerk.”

If Carson was anything, it was self-defined. He appeared to never get affected by the world around him. That was probably the source of his confidence.

“Well, do you have any flings right now?” I asked, half curiosity, half keeping the conversation going. He paused the game and looked at me for a second, apparently in thought.

“Nah… Actually, I was thinking that maybe it’s time to buckle down. Y’know, make the commitment. See if relationships are all they’re cracked up to be.”

“Oh yeah?” I asked him.

He nodded. “But I can’t just go looking for relationships. You do that, and you end up a sap. Between flings, I started hanging out with this one girl, and she seems pretty cool. we haven’t fucked or anything, but… I dunno. It’s kinda different with her. It’s cool to just hang around her, rather than just meet and fuck. So I asked her out.”

“Dude, way to go!” I said, congratulating him. “Who is it, do I know her?”

“I dunno. I mean, she’s not in any of my classes, so I dunno if you know her. May Stevens.”

Oh, fuck. You have got to be kidding me. A knot the size of Texas began to form in my stomach. May? Really? When did he even get the chance to meet her?

“Yeah, I know May.” I said, trying as hard as I could to have my voice not reflect my jealousy. “I didn’t know you knew her.”

“Yeah, it’s the weirdest thing.” Carson answered with enthusiasm. “I didn’t even know she existed before the Halloween dance. But there she was, all alone in the hallway yet gorgeous as fuck. So I asked her to dance, and boom! Suddenly we’re hanging out, and we find out we have a lot in common. So I asked her out, and she said yes. You ask me, it’s in the bag.”

If I thought the knot in my stomach was big before, it was huge now. Carson was the one who danced with May at the dance. Carson was the one who she was hanging out with now, not me. It’s true, I wasn’t as good-looking as Carson, not nearly as confident, but… But my feelings were so much truer. It wasn’t fair, dammit! It just wasn’t fair! She was about to kiss me, for God’s sake. How could she drop me so easily, like I was nothing, and start hanging out with another guy like that?

He noted my silence and asked, “What about you? You still just boning the girl or have you got your eye on someone?”

I really didn’t want to hear his voice right about now. “I’m not boning anyone.” I said firmly.

“Aw, buddy.” He said, with genuine sympathy. I suddenly hated how he called me buddy. I suddenly hated the sound of his voice. I wanted to go home. This was ten times worse than the Halloween dance. True, I didn’t own May, but at the same time I also wasn’t aware I meant just that little to her. I wanted to throw up.

Turning my anger towards the game, I resolved to annihilate Carson, which is just what I did. Despite barely knowing the controls for the game, I managed to kill his character in a duel match over and over. At first he was taking it easy on me, since I was a beginner, but before long he realized how badly he was losing and stepped up his game. Nevertheless, by the time the timed duel game was over, I had won by a ludicrous amount, something like 11-4.

“Dude…” he began, genuinely shocked. “Where the hell did that come from?” I shrugged. “I think you got something here, buddy! Maybe you can kick that girl’s ass, you’ll just have to play this game with her.” He laughed, and despite not really wanting to, I joined in laughing with him.

“Well, that was fun. Hey, you like Marvel movies?” he asked, standing up with a lot of energy, moving upstairs. He added, “I swear, I have the biggest collection on the planet.”

Ugh. I hated to admit this to myself. I genuinely hated to. Carson was a nice guy. He won fair and square, and try as I might to find traits to make him an asshole in my mind, he was a good friend. The only thing that changed was he had a date with May. I could just try to make him seem like a jerk, make May try to break up with him, but then I’d be no better than that Craig guy he was talking about.

I needed to follow Nicole’s advice, and shake it off. So May liked him. Maybe she won’t like him forever, and if she does, I just need to be happy for her. Carson was a good catch, and I had to respect her decisions. For now, though, I had to get her out of my mind, and focus on my time hanging out with Carson.

Regaining my thought, I yelled up the stairs, “You could even say the biggest Marvel movie collection in the… universe.”

His head popped up from behind the staircase banister. “Heyo!” He called with a smile on his face, then quickly disappeared again. I followed him up the stairs. I didn’t even really like Marvel movies, but hey, I thought I didn’t like video games either.

***

The first sticking snowfall happened the very next day, a Sunday. Now I was an indoors kind of guy, if my shyness and awkwardness wasn’t enough of an indicator, but I loved the winter. It was the one time of year where I would go outside and just enjoy nature, often for hours at a time, much to the displeasure of my worrying mother.

On that Sunday morning, you couldn’t even tell what time of day it was by looking at the sky. The sky was painted various shades of grey and light grey, peppered with little perfectly-fluffy snowflakes dancing their way down from the heavens. There was a light breeze – not too cold, not too breezy, just right. I inhaled and exhaled. God, I loved winter.

The ground was just the right amount of white. It was covered, but not too covered. I could walk easily, making little footprints as I did so, without it feeling like a chore. The brisk air had its own kind of smell which I just loved. As I walked down my driveway, I threw up my arms and took in the feeling. Winter was here.

As I neared the end of my driveway, a spot of black amidst the grey and white caught my eye, lingering in the foggy grey of the horizon. I turned to face the black and squinted. It was exiting from the second house from mine, had long black hair, and was very underdressed for the weather. It was Nicole.

Odd, I thought, as I took out my phone. I didn’t recall Nicole saying anything about going for a walk, and we’ve been texting all morning. She seemed her normal chipper self, just talking about how much she hated winter (something we frequently debated) and how she was content with staying indoors all weekend. I wonder, what changed?

It was probably because she was dressed only in a sweater at most, but Nicole looked different than she normally does. Maybe that’s why she hated winter… Instead of her normal swagger, she had her shoulders caved in, her head down, her arms folded, and carried what looked like a single flower in her arms. She began to walk down the street, in the opposite direction of my house. She hadn’t seen me.

It was easier to talk myself down from jealousy with her than with May, but I wondered if she was on some kind of date. Phil, maybe? A real flower certainly wasn’t an easy thing to get a hold of in summer, especially where I lived.

I looked back to my phone, wondering if I should text her, but then remembered she told me everything. Whatever this was, I guess she thought it wasn’t important that I know. I briefly considered just going back inside, leaving my curiosity to fester, but it was too late as I started walking to her.

It wasn’t easy. As I mentioned, there was a slight breeze, and I was downwind of her. However, she looked uncomfortable. Cold. I mean, go figure, she should have at least worn a coat, especially in a snowfall like this. I tried to catch up to her so I could give her my coat. She sure needed it more than I did. However, for someone who appeared to be uncomfortable in the cold, she sure walked quickly, and seemed to match my pace no matter how fast I walked. Did she know I was behind her?

If she did, she wasn’t letting anything on. As she kept walking further and further, it dawned on me how far we were from our houses. We were at least a good ten minutes away, and I just took it on blind faith that I would catch up. A part of my mind wanted me to turn back, to leave her be, and maybe just ask her later. However, I was nothing if not the curious type, and pressed on.

Nothing in this situation makes sense, I thought to myself. She could have taken the car, she should have worn a coat, it’s the middle of a snowfall, she didn’t tell me anything, and she had a flower. A multitude of possibilities brewed in my mind. I wondered if perhaps she was in a relationship, but her boyfriend didn’t condone cheating, but she couldn’t help herself…

No, that was absurd. Nicole didn’t like to be tied down, she said that. Of course, that is what she would say if she was hiding something, isn’t it… ? But she didn’t seem like the type. Nor the type to go behind someone’s back. Maybe there was more to her than what met the eye? Well, of course there was, but still.

Nicole kept up her pace until she was practically on the ass end of town, then suddenly stopped. When she did, so did my heart. I don’t know why, since I normally felt really comfortable around Nicole, but I suddenly felt really nervous. I don’t know what came over me, but I hid behind a bush, just in time to see her whirl around.

She scanned the area for a few seconds, before she seemingly deuced no one was around and turned back, then turning sharply left, more determination in her walk. I slowly got up and followed her, just to see her enter a gated area. I didn’t recognize this part of town, and the sudden fog forming around this part of town was preventing me from identifying the gated area. I kept my distance from her. Whatever this was, my nervousness now turned to worry, for her. If she was meeting a guy, a gated area this sketchy was not the proper way to do it. She was going to end up hurt. I could just feel it.

As I entered the gated area myself, I looked around for clues. Unfortunately, the snowfall hit this place first and all I saw was snow and more snow. I kept my distance, following her, still searching for something that could identify this place when I found it. In the snow, sticking straight up, was a grey block. I reached forward and dusted it off, making sure not to make too much noise. As I dusted it off, it dawned on me where I was. The grey block was stone, cold, and very grave. As a matter of fact, it WAS a grave.

We were in a graveyard. I didn’t know what to think. A boy was meeting her in a graveyard? That couldn’t be it… As I saw that she was leaving my vision, I made sure to keep up, not willing to let her out of my sight at this point.

Okay, so she wasn’t seeing a boy. But the only other reason she would come to a graveyard with a flower was… Oh no. Oh God, no. That wasn’t it. That couldn’t be it. Right? Couldn’t be.

On cue, Nicole stopped dead in her tracks in front of one particular grave, and reached forward. With her bare hand, she dusted the epitaph, wiping the snow away from her hand right after, and got on her knees.

“Hey.” she managed, in a quiet voice. I swear, I couldn’t recognize her voice. It was shaky and lacked all of her confidence, all of her boldness, any bit of Nicole I could find. She reached up and petted the tombstone a few more times, before she burst out crying.

This wasn’t a bunch of little sobs. Nicole was full-out bawling, her voice almost yelling as she cried. I wanted to go forward, land a hand on her shoulder, tell her everything was going to be okay, but I couldn’t bring myself to it. This was too much for me to register, too sudden. Nicole was crying. Shit, she was more than crying, she went from fine to inconsolable.

Amongst her tears, I could hear her try to make words, but they all collapsed into whines, whimpers, and sad yelling. Her arms landed on her knees to control her, but after a while they gave out and her head hit her knees. She couldn’t lift herself up, she was crying too hard.

She began murmuring again, this time making more of an effort to speak. Muffled by how she was speaking into her jeans, I just barely heard “I miss you,” before she collapsed into another fit of crying. She began pawing at the tombstone with her hands, as if it might magically bring the mystery person back, before she lifted her head up and embraced the stone with her full body. Her cries became even louder, even more pained.

In a sense, I was right. I was expecting to see Nicole end up getting hurt, and here she was, more hurt than I’d ever seen her. I wanted to go forward, to say something, but what could I have possibly said? I had no idea how to deal with this, how to deal with her. She had always helped me when I was feeling down, but this was something else. Something I don’t think anybody could have fixed.

Who was it, though? She apparently talked to her brother about video games, and both of her parents were alive. Was it a grandparent? A friend? I dared to take a few steps closer, as I glanced at the epitaph she had brushed off. ‘Mitchell Baker’ was what it said.

Her brother? But she just talked to him recently! Nicole told me that herself!

My curiosity was my undoing. Noticing that someone was close, Nicole whirled her head around to face me. Her beautiful blue eyes were red, puffy, and squinted, filled with tears. Many lines were streamed down from her eyes, and in the time it took me to register the fact that she was looking at me, another made its way down her face. Her normal sassy smile was twisted into a scowl I never thought I’d see on her face.

I thought she’d begin slowly, gently. I thought she’d understand. I thought she’d do anything but what she did next. “What the fuck are you doing here?” she barked, her voice raspy and thick.

“I…” I began, not knowing how to proceed. “I’m… sorry.”

“You’re fucking sorry?!” She spat. “You fucking followed me out here, didn’t you? I thought I would have a little time to my fucking self, but no, your needy ass just follows me! Well, guess what? I don’t fucking care this time. Get away from me. I don’t want to see you. I don’t want to see you for a long fucking while. Just go the fuck away!”

The shock of her sudden meanness paralyzed me for a second. As she finished, she burst into a fresh batch of tears. My brain didn’t know how to react to those words, but instead became numb. Not knowing what to do, I put my hand on her shoulder sympathetically, remembering that I wanted to help. She quickly brushed it off.

“I said go away!!” she yelled in my face, the tears still flowing. She didn’t care about her volume at this point, letting every word sting as hard as it could. “Don’t fucking touch me! You’re such a little shit! You wouldn’t even be anyone without me! I help you, even though you’re a complete dick to every girl you meet, and this is how you fucking repay me?! You just follow me around town, without even texting me first, just to catch the poor little fucking girl crying? Well I don’t fucking need you. I don’t ever need you. I don’t want to see you again. I fucking HATE you Adam, you hear me?”

I had to take a step back to compose myself. Hate. Nicole said she hates me. The words before stung, but this one was a switchblade to the heart. Trying to make sure she didn’t mean that, I cleared my throat and spoke. “You don-”

“No. Not a word.” she threatened me. “Not a fucking word. Don’t you dare. Just turn around and fuck off. Fuck off for good. I don’t ever wanna see your ugly fucking ass again in my life. Just stay away. Now go.”

I stayed in place, mostly because my body wasn’t listening to my brain.

“GO!” she yelled with the force of a hydrogen bomb. Scared at this point, I found my legs turning me away as I walked away, every sound in my life muted except that of Nicole hysterically crying behind me. I turned around to face her. She was lying on the ground, almost in the fetal position, looking like she couldn’t even work her own muscles anymore. I thought about turning around and helping her, but as her gaze met me, most likely checking to see if I was leaving, she noted I was looking at her. “GO!!” she half-yelled, half-pleaded as she began bawling again. I sighed internally and made for home.

***

My mom and dad were actually worried that I had tripped or caught a chill outside. They could tell my mood was severely dampened, but I did not want to talk about it whatsoever. I didn’t want to talk to anyone.

The least of which, Megan, as my phone buzzed and I checked my screen to discover she had texted me for the third time that day. I also had an unchecked message from Carson, but I didn’t care. I didn’t want to communicate with other human beings. I wanted to rewind time, to make everything better. Yet, part of me just wanted to die. I wouldn’t dare go through with it, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized just how much I wanted everything to just end. The thought turned into a daydream of me dying, and how everyone in my life would react, until it got to Nicole. At that point, the daydream faded and I was knocked back into reality.

I hadn’t shed a single tear. I was sadder than I normally was when I cried, but I had no tears. Was I angry at Nicole? I had no answer. I was mad at hell at what happened, and it quickly turned into being mad at myself. I was such an idiot. I should have called out to her, or not followed her. Or something. I was just shitty, that was the only explanation I could muster. I was just a shitty person. Nicole all but said it herself.

I had no clue how long I laid in my room. Seconds, minutes, hours. I just sat there, eyes wide open yet in some kind of sleep, as a yell up the stairs woke me.

“Adam!” It was my mom.

“I don’t want any lunch, mom.” I called back, knowing that was her excuse to get me to come downstairs.

There was a brief pause. “Lunch was three hours ago, sweetie.” Oh, shit. Seriously? “I called up but I got no answer.”

God damn, I was a mess. By the time I had returned from the walk, it was barely 11:30, and my family was in the habit of eating lunch late. I looked at my alarm clock. 4:23. Jesus Christ. But wait, if it wasn’t lunch…

“Then what do you need?” I called down to mom.

“There’s a knock at the door. I think it’s for you.” Mom called back up. Nicole, I presume. Half of me, I guess the selfish half, didn’t even want to answer the door. I just wanted her to freeze her ass off in the cold. It was what she deserved after what she said. But the other half, apparently the half that controls my actions as opposed to my thoughts, stood me up and had me walking down the stairs before I realized I was doing so.

“You okay, sweetie?” mom’s concerned voice asked me as I came slowly, almost in a robot-like manner down the stairs.

“Yeah.” I answered with no emotion, not even realizing I was speaking. She frowned, concerned for me, and went off towards the kitchen.

I neared the front door of the house and opened it to see just who I was expecting. She still had nothing more than her sweatshirt on, and her teeth were chattering. Her eyes had fully recovered and there was no evidence of crying on her face, but her mouth still held the same devastated expression that I thought didn’t exist just yesterday.

We stared at each other for a few seconds, her teeth making the only audible sound before she piped up. “I-it’s n-not getting any w-warmer out here.” She chuckled, even though it was a nervous, sad chuckle, to herself.

My expression had not changed. I wasn’t happy to see her. I was half-tempted to just close the door on her right there, but finally I gave in and stepped to the side, inviting her in. She all-too-eagerly stepped in, breathing into her hands to warm them as she did so.

“Thanks.” she said softly as I closed the door. I said nothing, and just looked at her. She looked back at me, her eyes containing more sadness and even a little more fear than I remember her normal eyes holding.

“I’m sor-” she began, before a voice from the living room cut her off.

“Who is it?” dad asked, his voice ringing across the house.

I sighed internally. This was not the time I wanted to do this. “It’s Nicole.” I replied, trying my best to sound cheerful about it, rather than annoyed. Nicole, of course, noticed my hidden tone, and her expression turned even more sad.

Mom popped out of the living room, and it was only then that I realized I never even mentioned Nicole to her.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Nicole.” she piped up, smiling. “I’m afraid we’re not the spontaneous type, but… Make yourself at home!”

Nicole gave mom a half-smile. “Adam hasn’t mentioned me once, has he?”

“Not a word.” Mom replied instantly, as if it was shameful.

“Good. You had me worried for a second.” Nicole winked at mom, kicked off her boots with one solid swing, then entered the house like nothing was wrong. When she left earshot, mom whispered, “How do you know her?”

“Student council.” Nicole answered her from the next room over, making mom jump. I was glad to see Nicole’s psychic ability wasn’t just limited to me – mom’s whisper was so quiet I could barely hear it, let alone Nicole.

Despite seeing her in her normal cheery mood, I barely wanted to follow her. I still wanted to be alone in my room with the door slammed shut. I felt sorry for her, and it was clear I caught her at a bad moment, but she hurt me.

I still followed her, of course, worried what kind of bold introduction she would make to my father. As I caught up to her, she was already in the living room, and had already made eye contact with my dad.

“Ah, you must be Timothy Watson.” she smiled at him.

Dad gave me a glance. “I’m Adam’s father, if that’s what you mean.” he answered her, outstretching a hand. “You’re Nicole, right?”

Nicole nodded enthusiastically. After sinking back into the sofa, dad eyed me and exclaimed, “She’s heeeeeeere!” It was probably another dated reference.

And of course, it was stupid of me to assume Nicole wouldn’t catch on to it. “Ah, I loved Poltergeist.Perhaps one of my favorite Spielberg movies. It’s interesting how light in his movies always signifies evil, don’t you think? It was a real transition from movie conventions. Maybe that’s why they consider the ’80s the second Golden Age of cinema.”

Dad said nothing for the longest time. He just stared at her with an incredulous look on his face. Finally, he turned back to me and ordered, “Keep her.”

Nicole just giggled at the comment. I hated to admit, she was cute as hell when she giggled. Despite this, even when she turned back to me and gave me a smile, I just stared at her.

“So did Adam really give you my name?” Dad asked, not aware of the tension between us. “He doesn’t talk about us much.”

“Nope.” Nicole answered simply, her eyes still fixed on mine, before she turned around to face him again. “You just look like a Timothy.”

Dad was at a loss for words, for the second time in a few months. It was a record for him. “Right…” he finally managed. “Okay then, what’s Adam’s mom’s name?”

Nicole blinked twice. “She looks like a Marcia.” she said in a thoughtful voice.

Dad’s eyes widened. “Adam, ask her how I die.”

Even when freaked out, dad’s sense of humor never dwindled. Nicole just laughed at him and looked around eventually seeing the staircase in the hallway leading upstairs. She emitted an audible ‘ah’ and made for the staircase.

Dad pulled me by the arm to him as I was about to follow her. “Vampire or siren?” he asked me in a whisper, with no humorous undertone to his voice.

“Don’t whisper around her!” mom hissed, running up to us. “She’ll hear you!

My parents were nuts. As easily as I could, I slipped from dad’s grasp and followed Nicole upstairs, to my room.

“I think I freaked your dad out.” Nicole remarked as she threw a shirt of mine into the hamper. I looked around the room. The floor was clean, the bed was made, and all of my laundry was in the hamper.

“So how’d you get his name? And mom’s.” I asked, before hastily adding, “And don’t just say grade 11.”

“Your family leaves their bills on the kitchen table. I saw it on my way to greet him.” She answered me, smiling slightly. As soon as she saw that I wasn’t smiling back, her smile faded and she sighed.

“I’m sorry.” she said slowly as she advanced towards me. “I didn’t mean what I said. Any of it.”

I didn’t smile, I didn’t react, I didn’t do anything besides stand and give her a death stare that would make Luigi jealous.

“I was upset.” she protested. “Really upset. I’m not good to talk to when I’m… there.”

I remained unmoved, as Nicole sighed loudly. “I was a gigantic jerk. I get it.”

I nodded. “Want the full story?” She asked me.

“Sure.” I said, sitting down on the edge of my bed and inviting her to do the same.

She breathed in and out a few times before beginning. “My brother died in August. Like, this August. He was between jobs, like he always was. ‘High-school drop-out’ never looks good on a résumé, y’know…” She emitted a single chuckle, and smiled while looking at the floor. “He sometimes stayed at our place. It’s the room across from mine. It’s now pretty much a study… Anyways, he was between jobs, and he figured the best thing was to get out of the house and live on his own for a while. With strangers, on the streets, just something to get him motivated, or something like that.”

Her smile was gone at this point, and she was beginning to lean over the bed. I caught her with my one arm, and her arms grabbed at it, pawing their way up my arm until her hands were clutching at my sweater in some kind of embrace. I hugged her back.

“After about four days, we wondered if he got the job or made it to the outside world or something, because, y’know, he wasn’t back. We were actually kinda happy for him in the beginning. But after two weeks, we weren’t happy… It wasn’t like him to just… walk out of our lives.”

Her voice was just above a whisper at this point. “He was so damn chatty.” she remarked, although what should have been humor in her voice was just sadness. “Sometimes he’d come back home every two days just to talk about all of the stuff he did, all of the people he met, all of the parties he went to, all of the sunrises he saw… Then just leave, like that. Always off on another adventure. So after twenty-one days passed, we called out to the neighborhood, his friends, then even the police. No one even heard from him, until we heard from one distant friend that he was traveling, but would be home soon. There was even going to be a party for him when he came back by his friends. Mommy, daddy and I were so happy…”

Her clutch on my chest got tighter. “A few days later, we heard he was back. Mommy wanted to go see him immediately, but we wanted him to have his party first. So we waited for one more day, but in the morning…” Her voice was beginning to get clouded up from the onset of tears. “In the morning, we received a phone call. It was for my parents… They needed to identify someone at the park where Mitchell had his party. Our tone had shifted from happy to worried, but it never crossed our minds that it could be him. We thought it was someone we knew at the party… They only needed dad, but we all went. I stayed in the car, hoping that Mitch would be there, that he was helping them. That would have been so like him.”

She paused for a second to catch her breath before continuing. “Even in the car, I could hear mom screaming by the sight. I looked out the window to see her crying like crazy into dad’s shoulder, with dad just standing there, holding a hand over his mouth. I’d never seen dad crying before, and… and I…”

She couldn’t finish her sentence amidst her new tears, but she tried anyway. “I ran over to see what the commotion was, trying to push the idea aside, and when I got there… It was fucking Mitch, but it didn’t look anything like him. His skin was just white, his lips were blue, he looked like shit, and I…” She got that far before bursting into tears, crying right into my sweater.

She looked up at me, as if I was there with her. “We later found out it was a heroin overdose. Fucking heroin. I didn’t even know Mitch DID heroin. That wasn’t Mitch. It couldn’t have been.” She looked at me for a few more seconds before the tears came back.

“I refused to admit it for the first bit. Like Mitch was still out there, and would walk in the door any second…” she trailed off, only to start a more violent series of crying. “It’s not fair, god dammit! Mitch didn’t deserve it! He was the sweetest fucking guy I knew! I just want him back, God fucking dammit. I just want him back!!”

She pounded the bed with her fist. Not knowing any words for her, I just pulled her in close. She responded by pulling me as tight against her and crying for as long as she could.

All of the anger I felt for Nicole was gone now. I knew only that i had to hold her, and make sure she was okay. It was no longer about me, and silently, I forgave her. I had no clue how long we were there, with me holding her, and her bawling away, occasionally coming up for air. Eventually, her sobs died down, and before long, we were just hugging, with her remaining still in my arms, clinging to me as if her life depended on it. Me, I didn’t dare move, in case it might affect Nicole. So we just lay there, for an eternity in of itself, with her unmoving and with a giant wet spot on my sweater.

Eventually, she lifted her head. Her eyes were red, but she was smiling. “Thanks.” she said, slipping off of me. Now lying on the bed, she turned to me and added, “And I really didn’t mean all of those things I said. I was just… I just…” Her eyes began to tear up again as she finished. “I miss him so much.”

“I understand.” I said, no longer mad at her in any way. Even if I was mad, I understood how vulnerable Nicole was at this point. I wasn’t about to upset her in this state.

Her eyes travelled down to my sweater as she frowned a little. “Oh fuck, did I cause that?” She asked as she gestured towards my sweater.

“What, this?” I asked, pointing to the wet spot. “It’s nothing, don’t worry.” I turned my body so I was looking up at the ceiling instead of her.

“Oh, come on.” She said, getting up off of the bed. “On your feet, squirt.” I got up, and she took my shirt by its hem, lifting it over my head. My t-shirt peeled off with it. Now shirtless, I smiled at Nicole.

“Feel better about it now?” I sarcastically asked her.

She laughed slightly and pushed me down onto the bed, immediately snuggling up to me after doing so. We remained there for a little bit of time before she broke the silence.

“Adam?” she all but whispered.

“Yeah?” I answered.

“Thank you for being my friend.” Nicole said, getting even quieter. I didn’t reply, so she nuzzled back into me and lay there.

At first I thought I was imagining it, but before long I was sure I felt her kissing at my neck. I shifted to allow her access, and her hands roamed my naked chest in turn, eventually landing between my legs before my hand came up and stopped her.

“Nicole, are you sure you want to? Like this?” I asked her. It would have been stupid of me to ask her in any other situation, but right now she was vulnerable, and emotional. I wanted to make sure that she had a clear head doing this.

She lifted her eyes (which were rapidly losing their redness) to meet mine, bit her lip, and nodded. I could see in her eyes that she was being truthful, not rash, and nodded myself, going in for a kiss. Our mouths didn’t open immediately – for a bit, we just enjoyed the feeling of having each other on our lips, savoring the moment, before Nicole slowly opened her mouth when the time felt right. After a bit, our tongues were exploring each other in the most intimate way. This went on for a bit until Nicole made the next move and got up on top of me, taking her top off.

It was stupid of me to assume she would wear a bra, but at the same time, I wondered how she survived in this weather. Here she was, with more of a shy expression than anything else this time, her erect nipples (probably this time from the cold) staring me in the face. I warmly smiled at her and she smiled back, as I took one in each hand and began to lightly caress them.

I gave in to my lust after a few minutes of this as I grabbed her back and pulled her down to me, wrapping my mouth around her left nipple and giving a good hard suck. Nicole moaned in appreciation as she began to grind her crotch on mine. I was already hard from her efforts and began to push back into her.

I used every trick in the book, sucking and licking her nipples as Nicole pushed back into me, driven by lust yet sensuously moaning my name repeatedly. Before long, Nicole couldn’t take it anymore.

Smiling, she reached for my pants as she began to undo my button. Even so, her eyes were fixed on mine and I could only smile in response as I felt my pants lower past my ankles and my fully erect cock spring forth. Nicole grinned and immediately began to stoke it, occasionally looking into my eyes for approval as her hands sent waves of pleasure rippling through my body.

Before long, my hips got into it without my knowing, bucking to meet her motions. She smiled at me, lowering her mouth to the base of my dick. She outstretched her tongue and licked her way up the base of my dick, lowering her mouth onto it as her tongue reached the head. With determined effort, her lips wrapped around my shaft and she began pumping me into her mouth, before she stopped with her lips still wrapped around me, breathed deeply through her nose a few times, then went deeper than she had ever gotten.

The sensations overwhelmed me as I felt my cock sliding into her throat. She began slowly and I could tell she had a little bit of difficulty, but before long she got into the groove of it and my cock was sliding effortlessly down her throat over and over. She was no longer able to use her tongue, but it felt amazing nonetheless.

She eventually gingerly removed my cock from her throat but kept it in her mouth as her tongue got involved, swirling around the head. Her left hand came up from her side and started stroking me, adding to the pleasure I was feeling. I was panting hard now – her actions made me ready to blow my load any second now, and she knew it. Her tongue moved in circular motions around the head and her lips gently yet sensuously messaged my shaft as my panting got louder and louder, eventually becoming replaced by soft moans. I could feel her smile as I managed to choke out, “Nicole… I’m…”

I never got to finish my sentence. Immediately, I began to spurt, and this time, I noted that my load was nearly double what I had given her the first time she blew me. Nicole noticed too, no doubt, as she struggled to keep up with what I was giving her. Nevertheless, she kept up her pace, and eventually, after puffing up her cheeks with my delivery, was able to swallow the whole load. Even so, she slowly, sensitively kept her lips on my shaft until she sensed that my bliss was starting to fade. Then, with a soft noise, she took her lips off of my and looked me right in the eye.

Still panting slightly, I managed to choke out, “I didn’t know you could deepthroat!”

She raised her hands and waved them about in a ‘jazzhands’ motion. “Tada!” She remarked sarcastically, before smacking her lips a few times and grimacing. “You got any water?”

I laughed to myself. “Water’s on the dresser, mint gum is in the drawer.”

She smiled. “You know me too well, Squirt.” She got up and opened the dresser.

“I wish.” I said without thinking, then grimaced as I wondered how she would take that. However, as she turned around, she just gave me a slight smile as she popped the gum in her mouth.

After she was satisfied, she put the bottle down and spat the gum out in my garbage, and seductively crawled back up to me.

“It’s time to return the favor.” I told her in the deepest and most seductive voice I could muster.

She smiled devilishly at me. “I think I like the sound of that, hotshot.” she said as I took her by the shoulders and put her down on the bed so she was lying down, facing me. Like her, I started to undo her pants, although I wasn’t quite as experienced as her, so I had to keep my eyes on her pants as she undid them. She assisted me in taking them off, then I took off her socks one by one as she took off her own panties, leaving herself open, exposed, for my viewing pleasure.

I grinned at what I saw, before positioning my mouth at her love tunnel. I gave her a slow, sensual lick up her slit right up to her oversized clit before she moaned and stopped me, taking my face in her hands.

“Mmm-mmm.” she shook her head no as she brought my face up, forcing me to travel up the bed. Finally, when my face was just about level with hers, she let go of me, only to grab my dick, which was hard despite having just cum, with both hands and aimed it at her pussy, opening her eyes fully to look into mine.

I was shocked. “Nicole… are you sure?” I asked her seriously. “You’re really vulnerable right now. I don’t want to hurt you.”

She slowly smiled. “That’s why I want you to do it, Adam.” she whispered at me, taking one hand off my cock and caressing my cheek with it.

“You promise you want this? Right here? With me?” I don’t know if it was nervousness, self-doubt or just wanting to make sure she wasn’t hurt, but I had to ask again. Nicole only nodded as she pulled my dick towards her.

Believing her, I didn’t dare look anywhere other than into her eyes as I pushed myself into her. I felt a velvety tight sensation on my dick as I entered her. Nicole’s eyes scrunched up for only a second in a brief flash of pain before her mouth made an all-too-familiar ‘o’ shape and she moaned.

“Oooooh my God Adam…”

I gave her a few seconds to adjust before slowly beginning to pump myself into her. I went in slow, small strokes at first, but quickly evolved into slow, long strokes, eventually picking up the pace.

“Adam… Adam… Adam Watson, you’re fucking awesome.” Nicole panted, trying to keep it quiet (presumably for my parents) as I picked up the pace and began drilling her as opposed to pushing myself into her. The sounds my my skin hitting Nicole’s filled the room as my lust commanded me to take one of her beautiful tits into my mouth. I slowed myself down enough to be able to take her into my mouth without any mishap, and she moaned deeply in appreciation.

“Fuck, god damn it Adam, yes, fuuuuck…” Nicole kept up her moaning as I kept going. She grabbed my side to support herself as I continued to slam into her repeatedly. Thanks to Nicole’s earlier efforts, I was able to last a lot longer, and as a result, before I was even close, I heard and saw the telltale signs of Nicole’s orgasm approaching. I briefly wondered to myself if I was supposed to double the efforts like my oral attempts on her when she was close, before throwing caution to the wind and going faster.

Nicole wrapped her legs around me and moaned rhythmically, her moans getting cut off by her own gasps every time I re-entered into her. I tried to make my thrusts as deep as possible, pulling myself out as much as I could before re-entering into her amazing pussy. Nicole’s moans became more high-pitched and she was a mess of words and sounds, seemingly not even able to make a coherent sentence as her orgasm got closer and closer.

Finally, her legs clamped down hard against my back, signaling her orgasm. Her face was seemingly frozen in orgasmic bliss as I made one final thrust into her and stayed there, knowing how she liked it. Even so, slowly and sensuously, I got the courage to take her nipple into my mouth again and trace lines over her areola with my tongue.

Nicole sighed deeply, presumably a sign that I was doing the right thing. Right in the middle of her orgasm, she regained the power to speak, and what she said next shocked me.

“Adam… I love you.”

Wait, what? My tongue temporarily stopped as I registered what she said. She loved me? Nicole loved me? I wasn’t expecting her to say that whatsoever. I thought she said she was no-strings-attached. Not knowing what to make of the situation, I just figured for now I would focus on her orgasm, and so, continued to service her nipple.

Before long, her legs softened, easing their hold on me, and Nicole basically became a limp pile of flesh on the bed. Slowly, I loosened and stopped my tongue’s dance on her areola and looked into her eyes, smiling.

Her eyes had a sparkle to them. It was frankly a magical sight to see. She wasn’t full-out grinning, but I could tell that Nicole was happy, happier than I had seen her in a long time. I pulled myself forward and kissed her on the lips, which she returned with gentle passion. Our mouths never parted, but we didn’t feel like there was any need to. I felt like I was in sync with Nicole, like we were one instead of two people lying on my bed.

Eventually, our lips parted and we just lay there, with me still in her, in top of her, softening inside her. I gently pulled myself out and placed myself next to her, laying on my side so I could still take in her beautiful face, still framed by her impossibly non-messed hair.

“Even my hair’s a mess.” I remarked. “I didn’t know being in grade 11 protects your hair.”

She chuckled. “There’s a lot of perks to being a junior, Junior. You’ll see in two years.”

“I guess I will.” I replied, not knowing anything else to say. I gave a few seconds pause before I figured, what the hell, it was bound to come up sooner of later.

“So you love me, huh?”

“What? She asked me, turning on to her side so she could face me. There was genuine confusion in her face.

“When I was inside you. You said you loved me.” I explained, not knowing what to make of her reaction.

“Did I?” she asked me, more in a curious way than a challenging way. Her brow was fully furrowed.

“Yeah…” I replied, as if it were obvious. “You said it, clear as day. ‘I love you.’”

“Nope, I don’t think I did.” She replied, half in refusal, half in disinterest.

She definitely did, I heard it. Is it possible she herself didn’t know she had said it? Her tone didn’t really sell the point that she didn’t hear it, it was more like she was giving me a subtle hint that she wanted me to just drop the subject. I mulled it over before deciding that I would, though I was confused why she would want me to.

“Okay, I guess I was mistaken. Sorry about that!”

“No worries, squirt.” she replied, stretching. “We all hear crazy things sometimes.”

I kept wondering to myself before I reached a conclusion. She was emotionally vulnerable right now. Of course she would tell me she loved me, she was still in an emotional state after telling me about her dead brother. She would reach out to anyone if she could after revealing something like that. She just needed someone TO love, and I was happy being that someone if it meant making her happy. It was at that point that I realized just how much the girl meant to me. I had always appreciated her, but this was more. I truly wanted to make her happy. I still had that crush on May, but friends can love friends. I knew that love was a strong word, too strong for teens to understand, some say, but I wondered if I loved Nicole. I was starting to suspect I did.

I stole one last look at Nicole, who was still stretching right next to me (there wasn’t much room for the two of us on my single bed) before rolling over onto my other side so I could check the time. 6:47pm.

“What time is it?” I heard Nicole ask from behind me. I rolled back over to discover that once again she was fully dressed, checking her phone.

“Oh come on!” I said, almost frustrated at this point. “That was literally a few seconds! You can’t be that fast at doing that!!”

“C’mon, step it up!” she replied in a cartoonish voice. “You’re too sloo-ooow~!” She grinned at me for a few seconds before that grin disappeared.

“That’s reference to something, isn’t it?” I asked her, getting up off the bed to get my own clothes on.

“God damn, I have a lot to teach you.” she replied, sighing to herself.

“It’s 6:47.” I told her, getting my shirt over my head.

“Mmm.” she grunted, annoyed. “I probably have to get home.” She got up from the bed lazily and walked over to me, joining me just as I was fully clothed.

She gave me a peck on the cheek. “Thanks for putting up with me, Adam.” she said genuinely. “I was a real asshole today.”

I smiled at her. “It’s perfectly fine, Nicole.” I took her hand in mine. “May I walk you to the door?”

“I thought you’d never ask, Sir Watson.” she replied in a well-executed British accent. She led the way, opening the door and walking down the stairs, her hand in mine. Before leaving, she decided to find my parents and bid them goodbye.

She found my dad in the living room in front of the TV, which was no surprise. “Hey, dad.” I waved to him as we entered, Nicole’s hand now out of mine. “Nicole here just wanted to say goodbye.”

“Alrighty!” Dad responded, then looked at Nicole. “Goodbye, Nicole. It was nice to finally meet you.”

Nicole looked dad in the eye, then put one hand to her forehead, pointing another at Dad. “You just finished watching Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” she told him. “I sense that you really enjoy Bueller’s character.”

Dad’s expression fell. “Adam, how’s she doing that?!” He asked me desperately.

Nicole stumbled around, feigning dizziness (I could tell it was fake, but I don’t think dad could) and faced dad again. She smiled sweetly. “Hey there, Mr. Watson! I just wanted to say goodbye. It was nice knowing you!”

Dad sputtered for a second, before managing to say, “Y-yes. Nice to meet you too. Goodbye.”

Nicole’s goodbye to mom was a lot more normal, just consisting of a wave and a “Goodbye, Mrs. Watson!” as we approached the exit via the kitchen.

Once we were in the back room, Nicole started laughing and I joined in. “You’re going to give my poor dad a heart attack.” I told her.

Nicole shrugged. “I was just messin’ with him.” she said flatly.

“So, how’d you do that one?” I asked her.

“Jeez, you just wanna know all my secrets, don’t you, hotshot?” She asked me, grinning. “I could see the TV with my peripherals. The VHS case was on top of the TV. I didn’t know people used used VHS tapes anymore. Your dad is old.”

“Don’t tell him that.” I said. We shared another laugh, and then went silent, just staring each other in the eyes.

“So, um…” Nicole awkwardly stated. “Bye, I guess. Text me later?”

“You can count on that.” I said, and smiled warmly. Nicole nodded and smiled, before her smile turned sassy.

“Let’s hope you remember.” She told me. It was a little weak, but I guess Nicole’s sassiness needed to recharge after sex. Nevertheless, I gave her a little wink as she got on her boots and left, with me waving goodbye to her until she was out of view.

I sighed to myself. Someday, we were going to have to deal with what she had said to me while I was inside of her. Especially since I wasn’t exactly done with the other two girls who had suddenly come into my life.

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Author’s Note: So this story isn’t exactly new. I wrote this back in 2014 when I first came to this site, and it got a decent reception at the time, so I figured it was time to reupload it. There’s no mention of age – for all we know even the freshmen just flunked over and over, so ha. Logic loop. Genuinely, I hope this story and its characters brought you joy and that you liked what you read. I wouldn’t be anything without my readers, so if you got this far, I want to say thank you very much.

You probably saw this part coming, but I have a Patreon, and I’d really like to financially secure myself to the extent where I can write full-time. If you like these stories and want to get some cool perks (such as voting on what I write next and even getting a personalized character) , hop over to patreon dot com slash BashfulScribe and check out if it’s for you, I charge every written piece as opposed to month so if I can’t write for a while, you don’t have to pay. If you’re not interested, no worries. My writing isn’t behind a paywall and I will always be happy to post my work to this site for free. I just wanna make sure I can afford rent and all that.

Once again, thank you so much for being a great community. I’ll be sure to read all comments below, I hope you enjoyed the story, and I’ll be sure to post the next few chapters soon!

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