Something heavy fell on me, causing me to fly awake. 

“… school today! Don’t sleep through it!”

When I groggily forced my eyes open, I saw Nicole sitting at the foot of my bed. 

“The hell, Nicole?”

“C’mon, get up!” She urged, yanking on the covers. 

“My alarm hasn’t gone off yet, asshole.” I grunted. 

“It will, in–” Nicole gave me an “I told you so” look as my alarm interrupted her. 

“Ugh.” I grunted again as I threw the covers off and shoved Nicole off of the bed. 

When I turned back around from grabbing some clothes, Nicole was still standing there. 

“Hey, my eyes are up here, Nicole.” I had seen her eyes flick back up to mine just as I turned around. “You wanna leave?” I suggested sarcastically. 

“Yeah, sorry.” She said, almost trance-like as she exited the room. 

I looked down to see what had caught her attention. When I saw what it was, I groaned. My morning wood had been poking out of my boxers, exposing about half my dick. This was becoming too common; I was really going to have to stop letting Nicole see me in various states of undress. 

The morning progressed how it usually would: I ate breakfast, drove Nicole to school, kept my brain awake enough to remember some things from class, etc. Then, at lunch, the day got interesting. My friends and I met in our usual place by the stairs in front of school. 

I told them about my date with Emily, which they each responded to differently. All of the guys gave me high-fives and wished me luck, but the girls just mainly looked disappointed that I wouldn’t be joining the group for lunch. 

“Hey, I gotta go. I’ll see you guys soon.” I left for my car, looking up at the gloomy grey sky and hoping that the rain would hold off. Unfortunately, it didn’t; as I followed Emily’s texted directions, thunder clapped and rolled and rain began to fall. 

When I got to her sorority house, which I identified by the massive Greek letters adorning its front awning, it was chilly and pouring rain. I darted up to the door and, when I didn’t see a doorbell, knocked loudly. The door opened and a couple girls looked at me confusedly. 

“Is Emily here? And can I come in?” I asked them desperately, soaked in rain. 

“Yeah.” The redhead said. They scurried out of the way to let me in. “Emily who?”

“Umm…” I paused to think of how to describe Emily in a non crassly-sexual way. “She plays basketball…” As I tried to think of something else to say, it dawned on me how little I really knew about this girl. 

“Bond. Emily Bond.” She waltzed into the room. She wasn’t dressed for a date, so clearly she had better info about the weather than me. She was wearing a tank top and sweats with fuzzy slippers. 

“Is this the guy you were telling us about?” The brunette asked Emily. 

“You told others about me? Only naughty things, I hope.” I grinned at Emily. “By the way, you girls have any towels in this place?”

“I told them lots of good things.” She assured me. “Now, take your shirt off. You’re dripping everywhere.”

She came over to me and started pulling my t-shirt over my head. The other girls watched closely as my torso was exposed. I did my best to contain a shiver as the cool air descended upon my wet skin. The girls looked at me appreciatively when they saw my full torso uncovered. That feeling never gets old. 

“Rachel, would you get him a towel?” Emily guided me to their living room, where a large fire was roaring in the fireplace. I sat down in one of the big couches and pulled Emily onto my lap, her legs perpendicular to mine. 

Rachel, the redhead, hurried back with a large green towel and handed it to Emily. She draped it around my shoulders and gave me a hug.  

“Sorry about our super-romantic date.” I kissed her on the cheek. 

“Meh, it’s fine. We can just get takeout or something.” She smiled at me. 

“Sounds good to me.” I patted my stomach. “Growing boy and all.”

“Alrighty then,” she got up from my lap and strode over to the phone, “Chinese sound good?”

“Absolutely.” I grinned. “I’ll just have twice as much of whatever you have.”

She stuck her tongue out at me and called the Chinese place. A few minutes later, the doorbell rang. 

“There’s a doorbell?” I asked Emily, surprised. 

“Duh.” She rolled her eyes. 

The rain was still coming down hard, so we tipped the poor delivery guy well. 

“Thank you so much!” Emily flashed the guy a bright smile and handed me the food so she could shut the door. “Let’s just eat in the living room, in true college fashion.”

“Fine by me.” I placed the food on the coffee table and plopped myself down on the couch. 

We ate in silence for a minute or two, focusing more on filling our empty stomachs than making conversation. After a short while, though, I decided to begin my mission to find out more about Emily. 

“So, there’s no way that Bond is actually your last name, right?”

“Unfortunately, no. It’s actually Osbourne.”

“Like Ozzy!” I exclaimed. 

“Haven’t heard that one before…” She grinned. 

I laughed. “It’s your turn to ask a question now.”

“Oh, we’re playing this game, eh?”

“Yup, truth or truth. Remind you of high school?”

“Hey, it’s my turn to ask a question!” She protested. 

“Fair enough,” I held up my hands in surrender, “hit me.”

“Ok… Favorite color?”

“Orange.” I said immediately. “And none of that burnt-orange bullshit. I’m talking bright-muthafuckin’ orange.”

“Ok!” She laughed. “Your turn.”

“What… is your favorite movie? And if you say ‘The Notebook’ or some bullshit like that, I’m leaving. ‘Cause fuck Nicholas Sparks.”

“Hmm… ‘Mean Girls’ for sure.” She replied. 

“I’m ok with that, actually. It’s pretty funny; Tina Fey is the shit.”

“Yes! Her Sarah Palin impression is so funny!”

I laughed as I remembered that particular running joke and broke into my own Sarah Palin impression. “Your turn to ask a question, eh!”

“That’s actually pretty good!” She giggled. 

“I’m the best at impressions.” 

“Oh, really? Jerry Seinfeld.” She challenged. 

“What’s the deal with forks?!” I cried. 

“Christopher Walken!”

“Christopher Walken… is easy!” I exclaimed in Walken’s pinched, back-of-the-throat voice. He’s my favorite celebrity to imitate because even if the imitation is bad, everyone knows who it’s supposed to be. 

“Chris Rock!”

“The penguins are doin’ it! Why can’t I?”
I switched to Ben Stiller’s voice. “Because the penguins are psychotic!”

Emily applauded me enthusiastically. “How did you learn to do that?”

“I don’t know.” I answered truthfully. “I just discovered that I was good at it one day, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”

“But back to the game!” I ordered. “Whose turn is it?”

“Yours.”

“Ok, um… What is the craziest thing you’ve done in the past… three months?”

“Oh my god! You’ll never believe this, but I had sex in the gym shower with a guy I had just met!” She winked. 

“Wow, that’s crazy! I wish I had the balls to do that!”

We shared a laugh as we thought about our unusual first meeting. 

“What’s your favorite song?” She kicked off her slippers and put her legs in my lap to stretch out. 

“Nice socks.” I teased. She was wearing fuzzy blue socks that were adorned with penguins. 

“Hey, it’s a free country. A girl can wear penguin socks if she wants to.” She fired back. 

I gently took hold of her outstretched feet and started massaging them, kneading her soles with my fingertips. Emily sighed in pleasure. 

“I guess my favorite song changes a lot,” I mused, “but right now, it’s probably ‘Take it Easy’ by Eagles.”

“That’s a great song!” She gasped. “There’s a guitar somewhere around here. You should play it after you finish this excellent massage!”

“If you’re good.” I smirked. “Do you have any talents that no one knows about?”

“Good one. Hmm… I like to sing.” She shyly replied. 

“Well, now I have to play a song for you.” I declared. “And you shall sing along.”

“I guess…” She said. “My turn. Do you have any hobbies that I don’t know about?” She lifted her legs off of me and went to grab the guitar from the corner it was sitting in. 

“I like to draw, paint, write, play video games… Typical renaissance man stuff.”

“Y’know, if you weren’t such a nice guy, I’d think you were a douchebag.” Emily observed while handing me the guitar. 

“That’s kinda my thing.” I admitted. “Ostensibly, I’m a super-arrogant, yet incredibly sexy douchebag, but deep down, I’m actually a sweet and cuddly, yet sexy, teddy bear.”

“Were you always such a sexy teddy bear?” Emily put her feet back on me, wiggling her toes to indicate that I should continue my massage. 

“No, actually. I used to be normal, but then I decided to be a badass.”

“How did that happen?” She wondered. 

“A few years ago, I heard this quote from Jean-Paul Sartre: ‘Men, like bullets, go farthest when they are smoothest.’ Then I started thinking about why all the girls like James Bond or Indiana Jones or whoever. I realized that it’s because they all have this natural confidence that comes from not giving a shit what anyone else thinks and just being themselves.”

“Confidence is definitely sexy.” She agreed. “And passion: I love it when a guy has something interesting that he just lives for.”

I started strumming random chords on the guitar while I tried to think of another question. “I can’t think of anything interesting to ask.”

“You have to play a song for me anyway!” Emily reminded me. 

I began playing and singing an acoustic version of “Move Bitch”, by Ludacris. Emily cracked up at the odd mix of acoustic vocals with extremely rude lyrics. 

When she started singing along, I was astonished at her beautiful singing voice, which was apparent despite the lyrically-challenged song. I was so astonished, in fact, that I missed several chords and stopped singing altogether. 

“Wow. You really do sing.” My mouth was agape. 

“A little.” She humbly replied. 

“Seriously. If you learn the guitar, you could be the next Sarah McLachlan.”

“Shut up!” She giggled and playfully hit me on the arm. 

“C’mon. I’ll teach you some stuff.” I motioned for her to sit next to me facing the same direction. 

I slipped the strap over my head and  draped it over her shoulder as I put the guitar in her lap. 

“Here,” I said, reaching around her to place her hands in the correct position, “keep your thumb at the second fret and hold the pick between your thumb and forefinger. Like this.” I gently moved her fingers to the right place. 

“Wanna learn ‘When September Ends’?” I asked her. “It’s really easy.”

“Sure.”

I continued guiding her fingers and helping her until she could play the first few notes by herself. When she played them successfully, she let out a cute “Yay!”, gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, and continued playing. 

I leaned back to watch her practicing. She seemed to really enjoy it, even when she made a mistake. I, too, enjoyed the fruits of my labor; Emily was adorable when she focused on something: all distractions were shut out, her eyes were narrowed in concentration, her face was set in a determined frown.

After a couple successful runs through the beginning of the song, she put down the guitar. 

“You think you might be interested in learning more sometime?” I asked her. 

 “That depends. Are you gonna teach me?” She shot back. 

“Only if you agree to teach me some stuff about basketball.”

“Only if you agree to be as shirtless then as you are now.” Emily turned to face me and straddled my lap. 

“I think I can handle that.” I quipped. 

We made eye contact and sat there for a little while, looking into each other’s eyes as if to discover what was going on behind them. Emily slowly leaned down toward me, but stopped with her face a few inches away from mine. 

Her hair had fallen in front of her face, so I pushed it out of her eyes with a finger and softly grabbed the back of her head to pull her closer. She smiled and closed her eyes as our lips met. 

From the beginning, I could tell that this kiss wasn’t going to lead anywhere dirty. It was more of an expression of affection than of lust: slow, with no hurry to advance to the next “base”, to use the clichéd baseball analogy. 

Emily wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me tighter up against her. I responded by running my hands up and down her back and neck. Under my hands, I felt her soft, smooth, warm-to-the-touch skin. She had a muscular body, but in an uniquely feminine way: it contributed to her slender figure by adding some curviness. 

The rain continued falling heavily, creating a soothing, quiet rumble as it pounded the roof of the house. While we made out, I tried to figure out Emily’s taste; it was exotic, like a mix of citrus and spice, something I’d never experienced before. 

While I was pondering this, I sort of fell sideways onto the couch. Emily fell on top of me with a laugh and we paused our make-out session for a few moments. Soon, though, Emily had sexily crawled on top of me and firmly pressed her mouth against mine once again. 

Our movements were synchronized perfectly: if I tilted my head to the right, Emily would do the same, allowing our heads to be even closer; if Emily leaned more into the kiss, I would pull her head closer so I could reply in kind. 

When we finally broke the kiss off, Emily sat on my lap like she had before we kissed. I looked into her eyes and realized something that I hadn’t before. 

“Heterochromia iridum…” I murmured. 

Her eyes were gorgeously mismatched: one was bluish green, clear like a tropical sea; the other was an electric blue flecked with coffee-brown. The combination of the two made her even more intoxicatingly, exotically beautiful. 

“You just realized now?” She giggled. “Shows where your eyes have been spending most of their time.” She squeezed her boobs with one hand. 

I laughed. “Yeah… It’s pretty beautiful, for a genetic mutation.”

“Gee, thanks. Way to ruin the moment.” She complained, but the sparkle in her eyes belied her disappointed overtone. 

“Speaking of ruining the moment, the rain is letting up, so I should probably get out of here.” I started to get up. 

“But don’t you want to stay here? With me?” Emily softly raked my bare pecs and abs with her painted nails. 

Now was the time to tell her what I had been thinking. I tried to ignore my uncharacteristic nervousness and spoke. 

“Emily, I like you a lot, so I don’t want this thing we have to be based solely on sex, no matter how awesome our sex is. If we have sex every time we hang out, it won’t be as… special, for lack of a better word.” Though she looked slightly crestfallen, I blundered on. “That said, we don’t have to stop having sex: I just don’t want it to be the only reason that we spend time together. Relationships built on sex never last, and I’m interested in seeing where things go with you.”

Emily pondered this for a moment. 
“You think this’ll last?”

“I always give everything a try.” I said seriously. “Except receiving anal. That, I won’t do.” I added, trying to lighten the mood. 

Emily’s giggle turned into an glowing smile. “You’re different, Aaron. I like that a lot.”

With that, she moved in for another kiss. I smiled back and accepted her advance, but after a minute or two, I had to let her go. 

“We’re gonna hang out again soon. I’ll text you sometime.” I declared as I made my way to the door. 

“For sure.” She agreed. 

I opened the door and walked a few steps before I realized that I had forgotten something. 

“Hey, Emily, can I have my shirt?”

“Yeeess,” she groaned, “but I like you better without it. Come get it.”

When I walked back up to the door to retrieve my shirt, Emily stood on her tippy-toes to give me another quick peck on the lips. 

“Bye.” She waved shyly from halfway behind the door. 

I smiled down at her and walked over to my car with my shirt hanging on my shoulder. By the time I reached my car, I heard catcalls from behind me. Emily and a bunch of her sorority sisters were leaning out the windows, shouting obscenities in my direction. 

I solemnly raised my middle finger at them, but then began swinging my shirt around like a male stripper. Their peals of laughter caused me to grin; Emily’s face was contorted in mirth as she laughed hysterically, still throwing raucously sexual suggestions at me. 

I got into my car and decided to continue the show for a little while. I put the car into neutral and revved its massive V8 engine. The girls all made grossly exaggerated “impressed” faces. I laughed to myself as I drove off, racing against the clock to avoid being late for school. 

School started again at around 1:15, and I had about ten minutes to make it there. Luckily, The U’s campus is right next to my school’s, so I arrived at around 1:10. I hastily dragged my shirt over my head and jogged to PE. All the guys were still getting dressed, so I joined them. 

“Hey dude, how was your date?” Jake asked me, making air quotes with his fingers as he said ‘date’. 

“It was great. She’s really cool.”

“Yeah, whatever.” David said dismissively. “What we really want to know is, did you smash, mon?” David’s Jamaican accent (he and his parents came here from Jamaica a couple years ago) made it sound more like ‘didja smosh, mon?’.

I laughed. “Not this time, mon.”

“But other times?” He queried. 

“Yup.”

“My boy Aaron’s growing up.” He told Jake as he high-fived me. David likes to think of himself as my mentor, even though I have way more luck with women than he does. 

(I’m going to stop 

“Is she hot?” Jake asked me, ignoring David. 

“Cutting straight to the point, as usual…”

Jake merely winked in response. 

“Gorgeous,” I replied, “she looks like a model and plays basketball for The U, so she’s in really good shape. Also, she has an amazing singing voice.”

“You didn’t say she was in college, homeboy!” David cried. 

“Yeah, she’s just a freshman, though.” I grinned at their awestruck faces. 

“Damn!” They exclaimed in unison. 

Coach K was getting impatient. “Let’s go, ladies! Finish putting on your makeup and get out here!” He’s a cool guy, but not the biggest feminist. 

We sprinted out to the court and formed a half-assed circle around him. 

“Stretches! Touch your toes.” He barked. 

From all of my years of karate, I was pretty flexible; I bent at my waist and let my palms hit the ground, my fingers splaying outward. The stretching continued in this vein until it was time to do whatever Coach had planned.

“Today, we’re playing dodgeball.” He declared. He then divided us into two teams. 

I took a look at my team; David and Jake were both on my team and the rest of the people looked somewhat athletic, so I was happy. 

Coach K lined up a bunch of foam-ish balls in the middle of the court. “When I blow my whistle, all of you run to grab the balls from the middle.”

He blew his whistle and the game began. David, Jake and I made it to the middle before anyone else and picked up all of the balls but one. We passed them out to our team members and started picking off players from the other team. 

Soon, just Jake and I were left on our team with one guy on the other team. We coordinated our throws to give him nowhere to go and won the game. In the midst of our post-win celebratory dancing, I noticed something strange. In the corner of the gym was a slightly built guy, maybe a few inches shorter than me, wearing a brace on his presumably broken nose. 

Could it be? I didn’t think so, but how many people could fit that description? Our town isn’t exactly small, but there couldn’t be many broken noses at any given time. I decided to go talk to him, ignoring my instincts to leave it alone. 

“Excuse me, is your nose broken?”

“Obviously.” He shot back without even looking up. 

“How did that happen?” I asked him innocently. 

“Fell off my bike.” He replied tersely. “Can you leave?” This time, he looked up. There was no hint of recognition in his eyes; I knew he wasn’t the guy. 

“Right. Sorry to bother you, dude.” I walked back to the locker room to get changed into my normal clothes. 

I was deep in thought, wondering who the mystery attacker was, so I didn’t hear Jake talking to me. 

“… Aaron? Aaron.” He waved his hand in front of my face. 

“What?”

“I was talking to you, dude.”

“Sorry. Thinking.” I apologized only somewhat sincerely. 

“I was asking you if you thought I should  ask Lana out. You seem to be pretty good with these things.”

“Umm…” I paused to make up a lie. “Lana’s actually not dating right now: she’s kind of trying to focus on school and stuff.” I silently congratulated myself on what I thought was an excellent story. 

“Yeah…” Jake said, not entirely convinced. “She’s so hot though, right?”

“Totally, dude.” I had stopped listening again. Who was this crazy guy that Nicole had been dating and why did he react so badly to her dumping him? Did he go to our school, or was he older? I resolved to interrogate Nicole about him later. 

“Seeya, guys.” I said as the bell rang and I strolled off to art. 

I sat down in the same spot as the previous days and waited for Lana to come in. When she did, I waved her over. 

“Hey, Lana, I have something to tell you.”

“Ok?” She said somewhat nervously. 

“Jake wants to go out with you. I told him that you weren’t dating right now because I wasn’t sure if you wanted him to know the truth or not.”

“Oh. Thanks.” She seemed relieved. “I guess I’ll have to tell everyone else the truth eventually.”

“Yeah, I don’t know how long you’ll be able to keep this a secret, so it’s probably best to tell people before they find out some other way.”

At that moment, Ashton walked into class. “Hey Aaron, Lana, are you guys going to Mitch’s party on Friday?”

“Yup. Are you?” I answered. 

“I think so.”

She sat down and we went through class, learning about the principles and elements of design. I already knew most of the material, so I just doodled for the entire period. 

The bell rang and the class filed out.  Ashton and I were the last ones in the room, held up by a stuck zipper on my backpack. When I looked over at Ms. Archer, I saw that she was also packing stuff up to leave. 

“Can I trust y’all to turn off the lights?” She smiled at us. 

“Sure,” I smiled back, “have a good evening, Ms. Archer.”

She left the room, leaving Ashton and I alone. Ashton had dressed a little differently today: she was wearing a minidress that only came down about halfway down her thighs and exposed a definitely-against-dress-code amount of cleavage. Her cross-legged position on top of the desk next to me showed off her silky-smooth, lightly tanned legs. 

When I finally got my backpack unstuck, Ashton put her hand on it to keep me from picking it up. 

“Y’know, Aaron, we’ve never done it in the art room.” She said seductively. 

“Ashton, Nicole is waiting for me.”

“She can wait a few minutes more.” She declared. She got up off of her desk and walked over to mine, putting her hands around my waist as she pressed her mouth to mine. 

“Mmm!” I exclaimed into her mouth. She smelled nice, like lavender or something girly like that. In the midst of thinking this, my brain was urging me to tell her that we would get in trouble, but my body was slowly shutting down that impulse.  

I pushed her away, perhaps a little harder than necessary. “Ashton, we’re going to get in trouble.”

“C’mon, no one’s going to catch us. Besides, I’m so horny.” She moaned while she fumbled to pull my cock out through the hole in my boxers. 

“We should stop having sex in such hurried situations.” I told her. 

“I agree” She finally got my cock out and admired it in its half-erect state. “You have a very nice cock, Aaron. Have I ever told you that?”

“I’ll never get tired of hearing it.” I quipped with a grin. 

Ashton grabbed my cock and started stroking up and down its length. I sighed in pleasure when she took the head into her warm, wet mouth. 

Just then, I got a text from Nicole. 

Nicole: Hey, Aaron. Brittany’s giving me a ride home from cheer practice. See u at home.

I slid my phone back into my pocket and focused on the situation at hand. Ashton was sucking my dick as if her life depended on it, but suddenly, she stopped. 

“Actually, my parents aren’t home, so let’s go to my house; I want to try something new.” She suggested. 

“I’m down.” I said, wondering what she had in mind. 

We rushed to our cars and drove to her house; we had to drive seperately because it would be suspicious if Ashton had to go back to school to pick up her car. As she had promised, her parents were not home. Still, I decided to park sort of far away, just in case. She led me into her room and pushed me onto the bed. 

“Stay right there.” She ordered while she went to her closet. When she came back, I saw what she had grabbed and my eyes bugged out. 

“Why do you have lube in your closet?” I asked her, my heart racing. 

“For situations like these,” she explained, “now, help me lube up.” She knelt on the bed and lifted up her dress to reveal her round, firm ass. 

“You were planning this for a while, weren’t you?” I noted when I saw that she was without panties. 

“Guilty,” she giggled, “now c’mon, we don’t have all day.” 

I undid the top of the lube bottle and squeezed some out, right onto her completely shaven asshole and pussy. I rubbed it in a little with my thumb, and then slowly forced my index finger into her ass, one digit at a time. 

“Aahhh…” she moaned, “add a second finger.”

I obliged, pulling my index finger out and sliding it back in with my middle finger. I kept sliding them in and out until her sphincter relaxed substantially. 

“Ok, put it in now.”

I lined up the head of my cock with her asshole and pushed it in, a little more slowly than I had done with my fingers. 

She gasped and moaned as I inserted my cock inch-by-inch. Her ass was so tight that it’s really indescribable. When I got my cock all the way in, I flexed it a little and started thrusting. 

Ashton was making more noise in the form of moans and gasps in just these first few minutes of anal sex than she had any other time we had sex. While I thrusted away from the back, Ashton had snaked her arm down to play with her pussy. 

Within just a few minutes, both of us were about to cum. I could feel her pussy contracting through the thin membrane that separated it from her ass. 

“Mmm! Fuck me in the ass, Aaron! Aaahhh!!!” She screamed in pleasure, bucking wildly in the throes of her climax. 

“I’m gonna cum…” I warned her.

I pulled out quickly and jerked my dick until I came all over her back. 

“Aaahhh… We definitely have to do that again.” I grinned. 

“Mm.” Ashton mumbled through a faceful of sheets. 

Both of us wiped ourselves off with the tissues by her bed and Ashton put away the lube. I laid down on the bed and she snuggled up to me, resting her head on my chest. I didn’t fall asleep, but went into a sort of meditative state for an uncertain amount of time. Ashton, on the other hand, conked out almost right away. After a while, I got up. 

“Ash, we should get cleaned up before your parents come.”

“Yeah.” She rubbed her eyes sleepily. 

I picked up our clothes, led her to the shower, and turned on the water. We cleaned each other off and then soaked in the warm spray for a while. Ashton kissed me softly, and we made out right there in her shower until we heard her parents come in. 

“Shit!” She whispered. “They’re home early! I’ll get out first and distract them while you climb out the window.”

“Uhh… Sure…” I said, knowing that it would be difficult to get down from a second-story window without hurting myself. 

Ashton got out of the shower and turned it off. While she was drying off, her mom knocked on the door. 

“Ash, honey, are you ok?”

“Yeah, I was just tired, so I took a nap and a shower.”

“Okay. Dinner will be ready pretty soon.”

“Thanks, mom!” Ashton waited until her mom had left, then pulled aside the shower door and helped me out.

I scrambled to put on my clothes and then opened the window. 

“Ok, go distract them now.” I ordered with one foot on the window sill. I had forgotten that there was a tree right next to that side of their house, so my escape would be easier. 

Ashton gave me a quick hug and then ran downstairs to talk to her parents. Once I heard them engaging her in conversation, I climbed out the window and did my best to close it before jumping to the tree. I caught a thick branch and paused to see if I had been heard. The coast seemed to be clear, so I scampered down the tree and sprinted through the neighbors’ yard to my car. 

When I sat down in the car, I remembered that Nicole had sent me a text, so I sent her one back. 

Me: Ok. Remember: hugs, not drugs. 

She replied almost immediately. 

Nicole: OMG you’re annoying. I’m home with mom already. 

Me: She’s not giving you drugs, is she? That woman is a bad influence on you, young lady. 

Nicole: She says ‘shut the hell up and get your ass home. Love you.’

I grinned; only my mom could combine swearing, rudeness, and love into one short quote. 

Friday afternoon came far too slowly; for most of the day, I bravely fought off boredom as I watched the clock inch closer to freedom-time. When the time finally came, I probably set a record-breaking time for men’s “100 meter dash-to-car”. 

I grabbed Nicole, bodily stuffed her into the passenger seat, and sped home. Once we got there, I dumped my backpack on the floor in my room and switched on the Xbox. Mitch’s party didn’t start until around eight, so I had plenty of time to veg out. 

Eventually, dinner came and went and it was time for me to go. I was almost in the car when I heard something surprising from my mom. 

“Aaron, can you give Nicole a ride to this party? She’s ungrounded now.”

“What?”

“Can. You. Give. Her. A. Ride?” My mom all but spelled it out for me. 

“But– she’s just a baby! And how the hell did she get ungrounded so quickly?!” I cried. 

“I was invited to the party, so I’m coming, whether you like it or not.” Nicole flipped me off while our mom wasn’t looking. 

“Fine, damn it.” I grumbled. 

“Make sure she doesn’t get into any trouble. And behave yourselves; you know the drill.”

“Yes, mother.” We dutifully droned. 

Our house is pretty close to the beach,  so it was only a short drive. As we looked for a spot to park, I pointed out various instances of irresponsible teen behavior. 

“None of that.” I gestured to a couple who looked like they were trying to perform tonsillectomies on each other with their tongues. How scandalous. 

“Definitely none of that! Good heavens!” I exclaimed in fake shock as I saw what looked like a poorly-hidden blowjob behind some trees. 

“I get it! No ‘irresponsible teen behavior’, as you always say!” Nicole had her face in her hands. 

“You know me so well, Nicky!” I smiled sweetly at her. 

Unfortunately for me, moments after we got out of the car, we were both handed beers. 

“Hey, Nicole, is that Brittany?” I pointed off in the distance. 

“Where?” She craned her neck to look. 

I grabbed her beer and handed it to someone who had clearly already had too much to drink, but he took it anyway. Nicole glared at me. 

“Thanks, man.” The drunk guy said with a goofy smile. 

“No problem, dude!” I clapped him on the shoulder. He promptly fell face-first into the sand, to the enjoyment of everyone around him. 

“I don’t need you to watch over me, Aaron.” Nicole was fuming. 

“Au contraire, madamoiselle,” I affected a French accent, “zat is precisely what you need. Now, act responsibly or I shall have you drawn-and-quartered. Or grounded. You can pick.”

Nicole stormed off to find her friends. I began wandering aimlessly, greeting people as I went. I took a sip of my beer; it was some crappy cheap stuff, but at least it was cold. My upper lip curled in mild disgust as I continued wandering until I found the makings of a bonfire. 

“Aaron! Glad you could make it, dude!” Mitche looked up at me from his spot near the pile of sticks that would become the fire. 

“Hey, Mitch. Need some help with that?” I waved at the people gathered around Mitch, trying to help him get the fire going. 

“Well, the wood won’t light.” He explained. 

“I got this.” I assured him. I siezed a half-full vodka bottle from an intoxicated passerby, tore a strip from a tattered shirt that was laying on the sand, and soaked the strip in vodka. 

“Might wanna stand back.” I mentioned as I grabbed the lighter. 

Mitch’s eyes widened. “Everyone, back!” He yelled, scrambling to distance himself from me. 

People slowly turned to see what the commotion was all about, and when they saw what I was holding, they, too backed away quickly. I took a quick swig from the bottle; it wasn’t bad, but, like the beer, not the best stuff. Then, I stuffed the strip of shirt halfway into the bottle and lit the end of it. 

“Fire in the hole!” I yelled with a maniacal grin as I threw the bottle into the middle of the pile of sticks. 

There was a huge “WHOOMPH!” as the dry wood lit up, soaked in flaming alcohol. 

“And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you start a fire.” I took a grand bow, grinning at the shocked faces looking back at me. 

“Woohoo!” Mitch was the first to realize what had happened, running up to me and slapping me on the back enthusiastically. Soon he was joined in cheering by everyone else at the party, applauding my pyromania. 

“Thank you, you’re far too kind. I’ll be here all year! Remember to tip your waitresses!” I bowed again, to much laughter and applause. 

“That was badass, dude!” Mitch grinned wildly. “I mean, you did waste a shit-ton of vodka, but whatever!”

Once people started gathering around the fire, we all sat down on logs or in the sand, told stories, laughed, complained about our teachers, and just had a good time in general. Someone had brought a giant speaker, so music filled the night air. I was talking to a group of close friends when I heard my name. 

“… no, Aaron can do it. Isn’t that right, Aaron?”

“I can do what?” I asked, searching for the speaker. 

“A backflip.” Dre said as he came to the front of the crowd. 

“Yeah, I can do a backflip. Why?”

“This dude didn’t believe me.” He pointed at some guy I didn’t recognize. 

I spread my feet to about shoulder-width apart, bent my knees, and jumped into the air, rotating backward and tucking my knees before I extended my legs again and landed on my feet. 

“Tada!” I took yet another bow. 

Looking around while I walked back to my seat, I didn’t notice Nicole. She had been sitting sort of across the fire from me, but now I had no idea where she was. I got up again and looked over the heads of the crowd. 

“I’ll be right back.” I told my friends. 

They nodded and went back to their conversation. 

“Nicooo-ole!” I shouted, searching for her in the dim light provided by the crescent moon. “Yo, Nicole!”

Lana appeared from out of the woods, her hair slightly disheveled and the button on her shorts undone. 

“Lana, have you seen Nicole?”

“I haven’t, sorry.” She frowned apologetically. 

“That’s fine. What were you doing back there?” I smirked. 

“Well, I — um…” She stuttered hastily. 

“Hey, Lana, where’d you go?” Ashton appeared behind her, buttoning up her own shorts. “Oh… There you are… Hi, Aaron!” She noticed my shocked face and tried to act normal. 

“Were you two…?” I started, but trailed off. 

“Yep!” Ashton replied unapologetically. 

“And you’re both sober?”

“Hmm… Let me check.” Ashton sarcastically pretended to blow into her finger as if it were a breathalyzer. “100% sober!” 

“Hmm.” I said, trying to process this turn of events. 

“Do you have a problem with this?” She prompted, looking pointedly at me while she put an arm around Lana. 

“Only that I didn’t get to watch.” I shot back in an attempt to recover my composure. 

“Hah!” She scoffed at my raunchy comment. 

“So how did this happen, anyway, Lana?” I asked her. 

“I came up to her at the party and told her that I had a crush on her. Then, she led me over here and kissed me. And I guess you know what happened after that.”

“You bet I do.” I grinned. “By the way, Lana, your button is still undone.”

“Oops!” She reached down to button it. “I’ll go first so people don’t see us coming together.” She told Ashton. 

Once she had left, I started speaking. “So, does this mean you’re a lezzie now, Ash?”

“Obviously not,” she rolled her eyes, “I did just let you stick your cock in my ass a couple days ago, so I guess I’m bisexual.”

“And that was wonderful.” I asserted. “But what does this mean for our little arrangement?”

“I don’t know,” she confessed, “I think it would hurt Lana if she found out about you and me. I don’t think this thing I have with her is all that serious, but who knows?”

“About that,” I winced, “she kinda already knows…”

“What?!” Ashton glared at me in cold fury. I didn’t expect her to react this harshly. 

“When she told me that she had a crush on you, I may have let it slip that I think you’re gorgeous. Then she asked if I have a crush on you too, so I kinda had to explain the situation. I told her to go for you, though, so you sort of owe me in one way.”

“Why did you tell her? You were willing to throw away having sex with me that easily?”

I was sort of confused by her reaction; we weren’t a couple, so it wasn’t like we were breaking up or anything. “Well, yeah, to make you happy, I’d do pretty much anything; you know that.”

Ashton’s rage melted away and her face brightened into the sweetest, most genuine smile I had ever seen her give anyone. “That’s really sweet, Aaron. I’m sorry for blowing up at you. I was just scared that you had told everyone our secret.”

“What can I say? I’m just a big, sexy teddy bear who likes looking out for his friends.” I smiled back at her. 

“Very true.” She pulled my head down to her for a soft kiss, but I noticed that this one was more softly passionate than hungrily lusty, unlike our usual kisses. 

“By the way, Ash, have you seen Nicole?” I queried once we broke apart. 

“Yeah, she went off that way just a few minutes ago.” She waved her hand in the direction of the part of the beach that was basically uninhabited at the time. 

“Thanks. And if you ever need any lessons on eating pussy, call me.” I winked and resumed my search for Nicole. 

She was lying on the sand next to some random guy, alternating between kissing him and drinking from the bottle of what looked like rum that she was holding. 

“Nicole!” I growled. “Get over here, now. And you,” I turned my gaze to the stranger, “fuck off.”

“Hey, man, we were just having fun.” He got up, stumbled a little, and held up his hands as a peace offering. 

I grabbed his collar, twisted it in my hand, and lifted him up off of the ground so I could see eye-to-eye with him. 

“Go. Now.” I commanded, savoring the fear in his eyes as I threw him backward onto the sand. He scrambled to his feet and ran away. 

“Nicole, what did I tell you?” I lifted her onto my shoulder as I had done many times before. 

“You’re not my dad.” She burped. 

Once again, I took away a bottle of liquor from her and tossed it away. 

“We’re going home. Let’s see how long it takes you to get ungrounded this time.” I snarled. 

I carried her past the campfire to tell everyone that I had to go. “Sorry, guys, but this one’s been acting like an idiot.” I shook Nicole’s limp-ish body and waved goodbye. 

We arrived at the car; I dumped Nicole into the passenger seat and buckled her in. 

“Mom is not going to be happy with you, dumbass.” I told her sternly. 

“Fuck you!” She mumbled. “I’m not the one that made a fuckin’… Mozart cocktail…”

“Molotov cocktail,” I corrected her, “and you had one damn rule to follow: be responsible. How simple is that? But no, you had to drink yourself into a stupor and make out with a random dude.”

“You’ve done way more bad stuff than me!” She protested. “You’ve had sex with half the girls on the cheer, soccer, and volleyball teams! You’ve…” She burped loudly. “…gotten naked pictures from more girls than that–!”

I cut her off. “I stopped doing that; I was hurting people and I realized that it needed to end. I was being immature and selfish, like you are right now.” Actually, it was Ashton that made me realize the error of my ways, but I saw no reason to tell Nicole that at the time. 

“Hmmph!” She crossed her arms and legs in an obvious display of defiance. 

It was only around 11:00 when we got home, so our mom was still awake. I had to pick up Nicole again and drop her onto the couch. 

“This one couldn’t control herself.” I said angrily to mom, who was checking to see if Nicole was alright. “I caught her making out with some stranger on the quiet part of the beach, drinking rum or something.”

“Thank you for bringing her straight here.” She hugged me. “And you, young lady, are in a heap of trouble. No parties or friends’ houses for a month. For a start.”

“Mom!” She gasped. 

“You’re lucky I’m going this easy on you.” She growled with the intensity that only a mother can muster. 

“I’m going to bed, mom.” I sighed. 

“Take Nicky up there with you, would you? And make sure she stays in the house this time.”

I nodded and hoisted Nicole like I used to when she was just a little kid: with my arm around her waist, balancing her on my hip. She rested her head on my shoulder and was almost asleep by the time I got her upstairs. 

“Nicky, you have to get out of those clothes.” I said softly; her clothes were covered in sand and alcohol. 

“Mmm.” She mumbled, presumably in mild protest. 

“It’s okay, I’ve seen you without clothes before.” I assured her. 

She dutifully raised her arms above her head so I could pull her lacy tank top off of her. I did the same for her miniskirt, doing my best to ignore her underwear-clad body. She was compact and had very little body fat, like most cheerleaders. 

I helped her put on an old t-shirt of mine and kissed her on the forehead. 

“Night.” I whispered as she pulled the covers up around herself and shut her eyes. 

My easel was calling to me; I flipped on some lights in my room and examined my drawing of Ashton. I looked at her features: the curve of her jaw; the way her hair floated, feather-like, in the wind; the subtle contours of her face; and wondered if I had made a mistake in letting her go so easily. I mean, I know we weren’t together, but I still felt like my life was missing something. 

After a few minutes of staring at the pencil drawing, I turned out the lights and got into bed; I didn’t really feel like working on my painting of Ashton that night. 

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