---

In the Last Chapter…

On Christmas, Adam gives Nicole a coloring book that reminds her of her childhood, and she gives him GTA V with the promise of playing it together. Over the Christmas break, Megan meets with Adam on their old hiking trail. She tells Adam, among other things, that she is not attracted to women, and she feels like her old self is dying and will be replaced with a new self. Adam tells Mr. Salvador he would like to see a school counselor. Sabrina and Adam fool around in Room 203, only to be overheard by Athena. Adam and Jason talk after, seemingly reaching a truce, and Nicole interrupts them, telling Adam she’s getting in trouble because of his sex antics and wanting him to be monogamous for her now. At a party, against his own expectations of himself, Adam ends up in a private room, making out with Athena.

---

“Wow,” Athena murmured, her hands eagerly exploring me over my pants. “The rumors did not exaggerate.”

Even in my pent-up state, I sighed. “Really? Even that has been going around the school?”

Athena laughed in a sultry way. “Adam, if someone gets around as much as you do-”

“I’ve done it with, like, four girls!”

“-then it’s going to get around. People love gossip. If you hate it, try not to be a person worth gossiping about.” Her hand migrated to the top of my pants, and slipped inside. I felt her hand gripping my bare cock. “Oh, fuck. You’re gifted.”

Her touch was like electricity. Even though I’d been here a few times before, the feeling of her hand caressing me made me shudder. We’d gone through several months of barely speaking, and for possibly all this time, she had these taboo thoughts about me.

And now, we were living those fantasies out. I eagerly went back to her neck, though I realized that if I left any marks whatsoever, there would be hell to pay. Opting to kiss and lightly bite her neck instead, I stopped my grinding so that she could have full and easy access to me.

I broke away, looking her in the eyes. There was a deep excitement in her eyes, and a little disappointment. “We probably can’t go all the way today,” she told me breathlessly. “I mean, we shouldn’t… right?”

I laughed. “We shouldn’t,” I agreed. Even still, I found myself running my hands up and down her body, my hands sneaking their way up under her shirt, enjoying the feeling of her bare midriff. Her skin felt so nice to touch that without feeling, I went back to making out with her and grinding up against her, not even caring that her hand was down my pants.

She giggled into the kiss and removed her hand, although after only a few seconds, she pushed me off of her and began fumbling at my fly. “Okay, look, if we’re doing this, then bare minimum, I want to see your cock,” she purred. She unzipped my fly and pulled my pants down, biting her lip as she had to lower my pants more than she thought to see the full thing. “Unf,” she said under her breath. 

Like she was in a trance, she got down on her knees, taking me into her hand and giving my cock a few experimental pumps. “We should have done this sooner,” she murmured. “You’re open, down, cute, and your cock looks like this? Damn.”

The room was some kind of storage space with no great place for sitting down, so I bit the bullet and just leaned against the wall, looking down at Athena, unable to stop my smile. She was transfixed, like she was waiting her whole life to see a cock like mine. She kept pumping it with her hand and then looked up at me, winked, and gave a large, slow lick, covering my shaft from base to tip in her saliva. 

“Mmm,” she moaned. “You like that?”

“Love it,” I groaned. “You have a great mouth.”

“Mhm, I’m told I’m quite talented,” she giggled sluttily. She licked me up and down a few more times before looking up at me again, then kissing the tip of my cock. It was a slow kiss, one that turned out to be more open-mouth than I’d expected. Before I knew it, Athena was bobbing her head back and forth. She was blowing me. 

I moaned, my head hitting the wall. It took all of my strength to keep my knees from buckling. My hands found the back of Athena’s head, guiding her and making sure she wasn’t the one in full control. I didn’t just want her to give me a blowjob – I also wanted to fuck her face. The last bit of action I had gotten was with Sabrina (when Athena caught us) so I knew I was pent up and ready for it. If Athena wanted to give me a blowjob – and clearly, she did – then I was giving her the full experience.

Athena mewed and gurgled and drooled all over my dick. She gave a surprisingly sloppy blowjob, and it was made clear those were the best kinds. Tears sprung to her eyes, but even if I got gentler, she just got fiercer. She loved going overboard. Sucking cock made Athena go feral. She wanted my cum.She craved my cock in her mouth.

I groaned. “Gettin’ close,” I managed to say, my hips starting to move on their own again.

She popped her mouth off of me. It made a wet sound, and several strings of her spit linked me to her mouth. She immediately started pumping me with her hand again. “On my face,” she begged.

I smiled in disbelief. “Really?” She was kinkier than I thought.

“Adam, I’ve wanted to feel your fucking cum on my face for a long time now,” she begged like a slut. “Please. Just shoot your load on me. I want you to paint my face. I want to feel your hot cum on me. Just do it!”

Wow. Maybe I wasn’t the one who was ready pent up. I was glad to help her out though, and soon my hand replaced hers, with my cock aimed squarely at her face. She moaned in anticipation, and she could tell from the sounds I was making that I was seconds away from firing.

I got closer, and closer, and then the wave hit me. I felt my cum erupt from within me. Spurt after spurt began firing from me, and hit Athena square in the face. She moaned in appreciation, feeling my hot cum making contact with her face, in spurt after spurt.

I had closed my eyes, making sure I remained standing while I shot my load, for the first two spurts, but as I opened my eyes, I was welcomed by the hottest sight of Athena, on her knees, gleefully taking a hot load to the face, enjoying the feeling of my cumshot, her right hand inside her pants, no doubt rubbing herself to this sensation. 

“Mmmmm…” She loved the feeling of me on her face. Even as my cumshots subsided, she remained there, blissful, touching herself and feeling my essence on her face. She opened her mouth and began sticking her tongue out, touching the ropes of cum with her tongue, trying to encourage a little bit of it into her mouth. I watched in disbelief, still hard despite the load I just shot. 

“Wow,” she mumbled, experimentally opening her left eye. Her left hand cleared off her eyes, her right still shamelessly masturbating in front of me. “Been a while, huh?”

“I bet it’s been a while for you too,” I laughed, looking her over.

“Mm, nope. I suck Jason’s dick all the time,” she replied flatly, like it was nothing. “But I’ve been missing out. I knew I wanted more. Thanks for helping me realize just how much I wanted it.” 

“Yeah, happy to help,” I replied, chuckling. “Thanks for helping me, too. Your, uh… yeah, your blowjobs are the best.”

She grinned. “I’ve heard that a few times,” she let me know. “Being with only one boy is just putting my talents to waste. And with a cock like yours… We’re going to do this again. I hope you know that.”

“I do,” I told her. It was odd; I thought guilt would set in. I just helped a girl cheat, especially after the talk Nicole gave me. Shouldn’t I have had that whole “I’m doing something wrong” complex going on? It seemed like the type of feeling I’d have. I kept waiting for the moment to hit me, but… it didn’t. I just wanted to do it again. It wasn’t even all that wrong. Honestly, maybe if Jason had been less of a dick, maybe that would have changed things, but I could have let Athena suck my cock again before leaving the party if she wanted.

Athena remained there, rocking slightly back and forth on her knees before emitting a quiet, “Ahn…” and squeezing her eyes shut. After a few seconds, they fluttered open, and she gave a long sigh.

“You got there too?” I asked with a smile.

She smiled back. “Small one. Not nearly enough.” She retrieved her hand from her pants. “I bet you could rock my world sometime. I think I want that in me. Why don’t you text me sometime?”

“Doesn’t Jason look at your phone?”

“Yeah, but he won’t anymore. I’ll make sure of it. Text me whatever you want. And I’ll do the same.”

Even despite just cumming, my heartrate rose. My dick jumped in the air. “So, like… you’ll send me…”

She laughed. “You want nudes?” She got up and rubbed her face with her hand. “I love taking nudes. Do you?”

Weirdly, the question took me off guard. I had sent, like, a few, but not many. “Um, actually… huh…”

“What?”

“I just… I don’t think I’ve sent too many before, now that I’m thinking about it.”

“Well, too bad,” she laughed. “I want to see more of that fucking cock, so you’re taking more nudes.”

I raised my hands as if to jokingly say ‘okay, you win.’ She smiled, wiping the last of my cum off her face. While we dressed, we talked about what else this changed about us, and I was delighted to find out that she was as uninterested in being complicated as I was. No referencing us fucking when we were in public, but no ignoring each other. Friends in Hazelwood, but fuck buddies in private. 

She left the room first, wanting to find a bathroom, and I remained in the room, trying to catch my breath. Luckily, when I left, the only two in the main basement room were making out, so no one must have seen us together in any capacity. We were in the clear. 

I walked up the steps, noticing that the party had progressed a little, but wasn’t quite over. It was beginning to wind down, but that was it. A few people were beginning to leave, which just left the dedicated ones behind. I was kind of surprised to see Megan was still there, in the living room, standing in the corner. After a quick wave, I walked over to her.

“Hey,” I told her warmly. The music was still present, but it was a lot quieter. I didn’t have to shout on the main floor anymore.

“Hey there,” she said back. The party had loosened her up, and she didn’t seem as stiff as before.

“Have you just been standing here all night?” I asked, then immediately felt silly. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”

She shrugged. “I’ve just been talking to people. I’m not much of a crazy partier, but it’s kind of cool to get to know people here. Make friends, catch up… you know.”

I nodded, then gestured to her with a finger then walked back to the kitchen, getting myself some kind of fruity beverage. I needed hydration, and I needed sugar. I felt like I was going to pass out. Once I got my drink, I walked back next to her, and took a big gulp. “Aaaah,” I exhaled. “God, I needed that.” I immediately went back for another drink.

Megan’s eyes trailed down to the cup in her hands. “So, you and Athena, huh…?” she asked, quietly yet knowingly.

I choked on my drink. I coughed for a little bit while she just looked calmly at me. “What do you… even mean?” I managed.

“Adam, aren’t we a little too close for the whole lying thing?” she asked.

“You lied to me all the time about Zelda weeks ago,” I pointed out.

She smiled, a rare occurrence for her these days. “Yeah, that’s a good point,” she admitted. “So…?”

“How much did you see?” I mumbled. “I thought no one saw us.”

She took a drink. My eyes followed her, and she rolled her eyes. “It’s water,” she clarified. “You smell like you just had intercourse, and she left with messy hair. You both were gone a long time, and I always felt some kind of tension between you two. I can guess. Not perfectly, but, yeah.” We stayed silent for a bit, the music filling in the spaces around us. “I’m not judging.”

“You’re not?!” I asked, very surprised.

“She shrugged. “It’s kinda what boys do. It’s not even new territory.”

“For me or for her?” I asked. As soon as she looked at me, I looked down. “I know, I know, for me it’s not.”

“I’m over it,” she nearly laughed. “I was actually going to say that I bet this isn’t the first time she’s done it.”

“She told me she hasn’t.”

“I bet she did,” Megan replied, again knowingly. She slowly moved her mouth to my ear. “And I bet you’re enjoying this bad boy phase of yours,” she whispered into my ear. She moved her head back and smiled, like we were sharing a joke.

I shivered. “Are you even a Christian anymore…?” I asked, half-joking.

She nearly laughed again. “Yeah, Adam, I am,” she replied patiently. “You don’t stop believing when things get tough. If anything, I believe more in Him, but… less in myself.”

“Ouch.” My face scrunched up. “I’m not in a bad boy phase.”

“No? Not with Athena, nor Sabrina? You tried to get with Zelda too.”

“Yeah, and a certain blondie got in my way,” I joked.

She grinned. “Sorry for being irresistible, even to girls,” she joked back. “I mean, she was nev-”

“I know, she’s a lesbian and was never gonna go for me. Just kidding around.” I shifted. “You made your mark on her though.”

Megan shrugged. “She disappeared into one of the empty rooms with some girl a bit ago. She’s over me.”

“That’s called a rebound. They’re called that because they’re not over their exes,” I pointed out.

“I know what they’re called, and Zelda and I are not exes,” Megan swiftly replied. “I’m only into men. And even then…”

“I know, celibacy,” I replied, nodding. “Did that change too, or…”

Megan slowly closed her eyes and shook her head, grinning. “You are not subtle, Adam.”

“Wha-” I didn’t even realize what it sounded like I was asking. “No! I didn’t mean th-”

“Not when you’re with Nicole.”

It was like the music itself stopped. “…I’m sorry?”

Megan stared at me, eventually shrugging. “What? I’m being honest. I dunno what the answer is, so don’t break up with her to get with me-”

“I wasn’t planning on i-”

“-but I don’t think I’d want to do anything with you while you’re with Nicole.”

I was silent for a bit. “I thought you didn’t want to do it again at all. I thought it hurt too badly.”

Megan just gave me a patient smile in response. She grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “Let’s leave it there for now, okay?” She let go of my hand, continuing her patient smile.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could feel Zelda looking at us. Instinctively, I took a step back, which Megan probably interpreted the wrong way. “Come on, Adam, our friendship has been through worse. Don’t act like me saying that was this big thing.” She took a drink. “So obsessive.”

“And speaking of judging me, doesn’t the Bible have some things to say about cheating?”

“I’m more than my religion,” she clarified. “My relationship to God is complicated. Besides, His word is divine, but the Bible was written by people trying to figure out what God wanted.”

“Doesn’t that make any writing about what God wants unreliable?” I asked, scratching my head.

Megan only responded by grinning and winking at me. Even after I gave her a confused expression, she didn’t elaborate. Out of nowhere, she gave me a big hug, and stepped back, leaning against the counter.

“Your makeup looks good,” I said awkwardly, wanting to change the conversation.

“Do you like it? It’s just mascara and eyeshadow. I thought I would hate it, but I had a lot of fun putting it on. I might do it more often. I see why popular girls do it so much.” She swayed to the music. 

It struck me that Megan really did look in her element here. She always looked nervous, like she wasn’t ready to be herself. I was still concerned about her, and that wasn’t about to change for a long while, but…

“You look happy.”

“Tonight’s a good night, yeah,” she replied, looking beyond me. “Zelda’s gone.”

“Did she see us hug?” I asked instinctively. Megan simply rolled her eyes, albeit with a smile, and walked off. 

“Don’t be too much of a bad boy,” she told me jokingly, her last words to me that night. “Behave.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself as I watched her leave. I guess I was a little naive. I heard that Megan was changing and thought things would be all serious, or she’d only be sadder or something. Maybe I was wrong. I guess this was what letting go was all about. Things had a way of working themselves out. 

I checked my watch and realized I’d have a decently long walk home. A cheerful ‘farewell’ to Sydney later and I was putting on my coat, the events of the night playing out in my mind. Athena, Megan… even Zelda. Things would work out.

***

I had a lot to think about, but one of the most striking things was this: I wasn’t unhappy. I felt like I should have been, but the whole time I walked back home, I couldn’t stop thinking about the three most important girls there.

Megan was happy. Megan was actually happy. She was letting go. I mean, she was always a bit more at home at a party than I expected, but when she walked away from me, there was something in her eyes. Like she was finally being that high school girl she always wanted to be or something.

For a long time, I worried about Athena. Her relationship was clearly bad for her in some way, but now, she was breaking free. In her own way. It could be our little secret. That wasn’t the worst thing in the world, was it? Maybe this would even improve her relationship somehow, or at least make her feel more comfortable in it.

I expected to feel bad about Zelda, but… I didn’t. There was something comforting in the distant way we talked at the party. It was like Nicole was right all along, and time would heal all wounds. Zelda and I would be okay, and we could be friends. Even if Zelda was pissed at me right now – and I guess she had her reasons to be – things were okay. Nicole was right.

Nicole…

***

Throwing stones at Nicole’s window made me feel like such an immature boy, and it wasn’t easy to find them in the snow, but it wasn’t like she was above throwing stones either. Unfortunately, Nicole was a bit of a heavier sleeper than me, and I eventually ran out of stones, so I bit the bullet and called her, pacing back and forth in front of her window.

I rang her phone twice before she answered. “Mrrh,” she grumbled into the phone. “Who is it?”

“Hey Nicole, it’s Adam,” I replied, trying to smooth out my voice despite the cold making it quiver. “I was just thinking about you a lot tonight. Can I come in?”

“…Come in?” I heard rustling from the phone, then saw Nicole’s face come into view in the window. She had a mad case of the tired eyes, but even still, didn’t look impressed. “Jesus. What the hell are you doing out there?”

“Well, I just got back from the party, and I figured I’d say hi.”

“You figured you’d wake me up,” she corrected me, then sighed. “I’m on my way.”

“Thanks, love you,” I replied. She hung up. I walked over to her front door and shifted in place, staving off the cold, until Nicole opened the door, yawning.

“Sup,” she said flatly, vocal fry plaguing her voice. She looked around. “Who drove ya?”

“Oh, I walked back.”

“From Sydney’s?!” Nicole’s eyes were wide now. “You idiot, it’s like five miles away!” Without another word, she quickly ushered me inside. “We gotta be quiet, my parents are asleep,” she whispered after closing the door. “The fuck were you thinking, you absolute dolt?! You could get frostbite!” She grabbed my hand. “Jesus, you’re freezing.”

I couldn’t help but smile. Nicole had been freaking out about the cold since the North American blizzard that hit us in early January. She hated the cold. I didn’t even mind it, but it was nice seeing her care about me.

I took my boots off, then my coat, and joined her in her living room. She alternated between grabbing my hands and letting go, warming her own hands up afterwards. “Do you, like, want some cocoa, or…”

“Nicole, I’m fine,” I reassured her. “I like the cold.”

“The fuck you do, knucklehead,” she whisper-barked. “If you’re not dying of the cold why did you even call me?”

“I missed you.”

She eyed me for a few seconds, then rolled her eyes. “Yeah, okay. How was the party?”

“Oh, it was alright,” I replied nonchalantly. “Nothing, like, huge. Like the rest.”

“You don’t even seem to enjoy them,” she replied, draping her body over mine.

“This feels nice.”

“It’s to help with the cold,” she swiftly replied.

I couldn’t help but frown. “Why are you acting like being intimate with your own boyfriend is weird?”

She blinked twice at me, then removed her body off of mine. “I’m just being me, dude,” she replied flatly. “I talk like this all the time. You can’t expect me to be always cutesy. Plus, you kinda just woke me up.” Silence took us for a bit, and she sighed. “What do you want me to say? Sorry, I guess. I’ll let you know when I’m feeling like I want attention, and then we can cuddle on your terms or something.”

I wished she could just… be uncomplicated sometimes, but Nicole was Nicole. I shook my head. “Whatever. Party was okay. Megan was there.”

“Yeah, Megan likes parties more than I thought,” Nicole thought out loud.

“Hey, that’s the first time I heard you just call her Megan.”

“Yeah, get used to it,” she replied annoyedly. “‘My name is Megan.’ It’s like all of a sudden she decided to be boring, and take everyone else down with her.”

“I actually thought she seemed… happy at the party,” I admitted. “In this new, weird way. Like she wasn’t insecure anymore. What did you and her talk about on Monday anyway?”

“How much her new attitude stinks,” Nicole bluntly answered. “Turns out she’s going through some shit. I’m giving her her space, but that doesn’t have to mean I’m thrilled with how pissy she’s acting in the meantime.”

“I would have thought you’d be the first person to empathize if Megan’s going through a bad time,” I admitted.

“Not if it gets in the way of Council business. Sorry, but nothing gets in the way of that,” Nicole said diligently. “Not her, not you, not Dave, not-”

“Dave did something?”

“Enh,” she said with a shrug. “Doesn’t matter. Hey, if she’s happy at parties, maybe Megan will be bearable at Council, so that’s music to my ears.” She nestled into the couch. “Any drama with Zelda?”

I shook my head. “Zelda was there though. It was awkward.”

“For Megan or you?”

“Both, I guess. Megan wants to pretend she doesn’t exist. Zelda doesn’t believe in treating me like a friend yet, but I’m gonna take a page out of your book and just let time pass and see.”

“That’s not ‘taking a page out of my book’ so much as just listening to me, dumbass,” Nicole replied with a humorous grin. “All for the best though. I mean, we are monogamous now.”

I froze, then my face scrunched up. “We are?” I asked with some alarm. “I thought at the end of it you told me to just do whatever I wanted, and I’d reap what I sow or something.”

Nicole studied the alarm on my face, then raised an eyebrow, the humorous smile still on her face. “Okay, who did you fuck at the party?”

“No one!” I didn’t lie. Athena only sucked my dick. It wasn’t fucking. “I just thought that we were… still open.”

“I guess I did kinda give mixed messages there,” Nicole admitted. “Okay. We’re monogamous starting now. So, who’d ya fuck at the party?”

A beat of silence passed. Nope, even with Nicole’s blessing this would be too much of a can of worms. I shook my head. “I said no one,” I reiterated, staring straight forward. “I’ll have to break the news to Sabrina.”

“I can if you want,” Nicole replied. “I get this is a weird unique situation. I thought about what you said. She was already in the car with us, so maybe hearing it from me will make things easier. I don’t wanna complicate things too much for ya.” She reached forward and ruffled my hair.

“Hey,” I complained, shooing her hand away and fixing my hair. “Maybe. I’ll think about it.” I’d need to break the news to Athena too. This was going to get messy. But… “I guess this is best for us, huh?”

“I mean, I already broke it off with everyone else. Should be a piece of cake for the guy that wanted us to be monogamous in the first place,” Nicole replied. “And who knows? Maybe we should shake it up every once in a while. Let’s be honest, things have been kinda tense.”

I avoided eye contact. I could hear Nicole scoff, then I felt her grab my shoulder. I looked back to see her face closer to mine. She moved her head forward and slowly kissed me on the lips. “I care, y’know,” she said slowly. “I care.”

“I wish you liked yourself more.” I had no idea where that came from, and evidently, so did she. She returned back to her place on the couch, and moved her head a few times, clearly in thought.

“Yeah, I guess that made things a lil’ tense too,” she admitted. 

“Me saying it or…”

“My suicide attempts, yeah,” she admitted.

“Don’t… call them that.”

“Fine, what do you want me to call them? Steve and Larry? You were so supportive in the beginning and now you wanna act like I don’t make stupid mistakes.”

I moved closer to her and cuddled up next to her. “Things are different when they’re real and in front of you,” I said slowly, nestling into her. 

“When you say it like that, it just sounds like I’m too much to handle,” she said, her voice getting quieter. “Why do you think I never told you what was going on? If it’s too much, just break up with me. I can handle myself.”

“Please, Nicole,” I nearly begged. “Stop telling me to break up with you. Tell me how much you’d miss me if you broke up with me.”

“How many boys do you think I would have answered the door for?” she asked. I looked up at her, and she kissed my forehead. “Two, and one isn’t ever coming through that door again. So don’t even with the ‘I’m not special’ thing. I’m just not always going to say it in words.” 

I grabbed her hand and kissed it, nuzzling into her a bit more. We lay like that, together on her couch, before sleep took the both of us, right there.

***

Thanks to the nuclear blast our friend group took in December, the lunch table had disbanded. I didn’t know where Carson went for lunch anymore, nor Jason, nor Zelda. Megan spent her lunchtimes in that little hallway near the caf now, and I occasionally joined her, though on Monday, it was very apparent I’d have to talk to someone else.

Nicole took the key to Room 203 away from me, so much to Sabrina’s dismay, she and I had to meet up in a hallway. We eventually found a relatively large area leading up to one of the tech classrooms. I swear I could recognize it from somewhere, but I couldn’t remember where. It looked relatively “over there” compared to the rest of the school, so it was ideal for a private discussion.

“So what’s up?” Sabrina asked as we sat down together against the wall.

I looked at her. She had this cute, hopeful smile on her face. This kind of, ‘hey Adam, did you bring me to this secluded area to have sex with me?’ smile. A part of me hated doing this. “Can I be blunt?”

“Um…” Tension began thickening in the air. “Sure?”

“Nicole wants me and her to be monogamous now.”

Sabrina looked at me for a few seconds, then looked away. “…And what do you want?”

“Whatever makes her happy.”

Even in her tense state, I saw her roll her eyes. “So that’s it, we’re just stopping? Just like that?”

“Yeah. I’m, uh, really sorry.”

“Did I do something wrong?”

“No, it’s just… complicated. Stuff hit the fan, and Nicole kinda got in trouble because of what we did in Room 203 last time, and-”

“What?!” she asked, turning pink. “Adam! You said no one was going to catch us!”

I gestured guiltily at nothing. “I didn’t think about… apparently, we were loud.” I was blushing too, but that was nothing compared to the three parts fuschia and one part purple on Sabrina’s face. “So I guess it’s good we’re stopping.”

“Who knows?” she practically squeaked.

“I do,” came Nicole’s voice from the top of the nearby stairs.

That really helped jog my memory of how I remembered this place. I groaned. “Nicole, save the speech,” I called out to the hallway.

“No speech,” she clarified, descending down the steps. She emerged into our view (we were sitting behind the stairs) and flipped her hair dramatically as she approached. “Don’t be embarrassed, Sabrina. What we had was fun, hopefully, and no one involved knows it was you.”

I coughed in discomfort, and Nicole turned to me unexpectedly. “Go on.”

“I, uh… Athena might know. Knows. She knows.”

“Who’s Athena?!” Sabrina demanded.

“Some manic pixie dream girl,” Nicole answered. “Older than her boyfriend. He gets off to it. It’s weird.”

“Aren’t you kinda manic pixie dream girl?” I asked Nicole.

“Minus the pixie and dream parts,” Nicole answered with a wink.

I shook my head and turned back to Sabrina. “Jason’s girlfriend. Jason’s the guy who caught us in the hallway, so I think she already knew about us. No harm.”

Sabrina was still very pink. Cranberry cocktail. She turned away from me, towards the wall, and didn’t say anything, so I turned back to Nicole and mouthed, “I don’t think you helped.”

Nicole mouthed something I couldn’t decipher back. I just shrugged. Nicole overemphasized the words and mimed to help her just the sentence across: “You were the one who said Athena saw her.”

I mouthed back, “What should I have done, lied?!”

“I’m emotional support here!” Nicole argued silently.

“Then emotionally support!” I mouthed.

Nicole rolled her eyes and cleared her throat, moving towards Sabrina and sympathetically rubbing her shoulder. “C’mon Sab,” she coaxed. “You know how I’m kind of known for sleeping around the school?”

Sabrina’s face emerged, facing Nicole. She nodded.

“I’ve been here before. People saw me, people heard me, people made rumors. And yeah, they can suck, but only one person knows it was you, and Adam here is going to talk to her and make her reach an understanding.”

I lowered an eyebrow at Nicole briefly, but turned to Sabrina and emphatically nodded.

Nicole continued. “And even if there are rumors, keep being you. Own it if you want, or even deny it. No one saw ya. No one will care about it in a week. If nothing else, Adam will make another scandal somehow, just give him like three days.”

“Are you mad at me?” Sabrina asked.

Nicole’s face reflected confusion. “No, why?” Before Sabrina could respond, she figured it out. “Oh, because-? Nah. Adam and I just need to focus on each other for now. I’ll only be mad at you if you go behind my back and do stuff anyway, but I know you. I trust you. Believe me, we’re bueno. You’re still my fav sophomore yearbook worker.” She stood up and began to walk away. “And don’t just stop talking to him. Adam gets real emotional if his former fuck buddies forget about him after the sex goes away.” Somehow, she managed to walk away, calmly, before I even had a chance to reply.

Sabrina and I looked at each other, and despite everything, I shot her a smile of reassurance. “We’re still friends, right?”

“Y-yeah, of course!” she practically breathed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make it seem like I only wanted- I still like you as a f-friend.”

I closed my eyes and nodded. “I know,” I reassured her. “Maybe we should start heading to Spanish.”

“Oh, no,” she replied, laughing and closing her eyes. “I totally didn’t do the homework.”

I smiled at her, taking my backpack out. “I did,” I told her, pulling out my Spanish book. “C’mon, I’ll go over the answers with you real quick.”

Sabrina’s smile was blinding. She may have been pushy sometimes, but I didn’t doubt that she genuinely wanted to be my friend, despite all this.

***

Nicole and I struck a deal. I’d keep Athena behind after school to talk to her, and Nicole would drive me back after. Nicole didn’t know just how much I needed to talk to Athena about, but luckily, Nicole didn’t seem to want to be party to this conversation. I left it up to Athena to make sure Jason was the same way. After all, he went psycho after falsely assuming I hit on Athena – I couldn’t imagine how psycho he’d go at this point.

I tried to avoid eye contact with Jason while I was at my locker. Jason and I were “fine” now, but I didn’t want to push anything, especially knowing that if he knew I was meeting with his girlfriend after school and he wasn’t, he’d at least like to tag along. Luckily, that seemed to suit Jason just fine.

Athena recommended we meet outside the physics lab in the basement, since they never held any extracurriculars there. I could have sworn they held Quiz Bowl there, but maybe that was another day or during lunch or something. I got there first, and sat there, nervously playing with my thumbs until I saw Athena walk up.

I gave her a friendly wave and she shyly waved back. “Hey Adam,” she warmly greeted me as she walked up. “Sorry I was late. I wanted to see Jason off.”

I chuckled. “Definitely a good idea,” I told her. I expected her to sit down next to me, but she kept walking. “…Where are you going?”

“I’ve never seen this part of the school before,” she replied, head in the clouds. I got up and followed her. “Is there a staircase here?”

I internally smirked. Behind the physics lab was one of the school’s stairwells – in fact, the one Sabrina and I fooled around in. It was the least popular stairwell in the school. “Seems like it,” I remarked as we both walked up to it. It was in its own little hallway, so even if someone was in front of the physics labs, they couldn’t see us. 

“Huh, neat,” she replied, looking around it, though as soon as I stepped into the little hallway, she grabbed me by the shoulders and slammed me into the wall, her hands all over me, her lips on mine.

My mind was immediately sent into overdrive. This was not the plan. I had preoccupied my mind with how to begin the “just friends” speech, and now all that was out the window. I had thought that such an action would cause me to immediately throw her off and passionately talk about how dedicated I was to Nicole, and I was kind of surprised at myself when I found my tongue going into her mouth and my hands going behind her to squeeze her ass cheeks.

Athena responded in kind, moaning into the kiss and pressing her body against mine. God, she smelled good. Whatever her perfume was, it made me go crazy for her. I groaned into her mouth and started grinding against her, my cock instantly hard and wanting release. After a few minutes, we broke off the kiss, with Athena opening her eyes and giving me a knowing smirk.

“I heard that this staircase was a good place to do it,” she teased. “If you can’t get caught even during class, I bet we could get away with a lot after school.”

I breathed a few times, and put my hands on her shoulders. “Athena-”

“Don’t worry, I’m pretty good at keeping quiet.” 

“No, it’s not that. I… so, this kills me to say it, but… Nicole and I had a talk the other day, and I think she wants this relationship to close back up again.”

Athena donned a look of confusion. “Huh?”

“Like, we’re monogamous again. Doing it with another girl would be cheating.”

Athena looked at me like I hadn’t made my full point yet. “Okay?” she asked with a shrug. “So?”

“Soooo we shouldn’t be doing this,” I clarified.

“Um, no shit,” Athena said with a laugh. “I already know we need to be careful. We’ll be quiet and I won’t tell anyone.”

“Well, no,” I replied awkwardly. “Like, maybe we should stop.”

Athena chuckled cutely with a confused face. “Um, so why did you kiss me back and put your hands on my butt?”

I opened my mouth to make words, but all that came out were little noises as I shrugged. 

“I mean,  we already knew what this would mean for Jason,” she continued, sauntering closer to me. I backed up against the wall, and she leaned into me. I felt my hard cock press against her. “Which is why this will never get out. So, like, we’re not doing this no matter what, right?” She nuzzled into my neck and began lightly kissing me.

I exhaled deeply, feeling her kisses on my neck. “Well, yes, but… I’ve just been thinking… that…”

“You were fine when I was the one cheating?” she asked humorously. “Or when I was the one blowing you? C’mon, Adam.” She lifted her head and kissed me deeply on the lips. I tried not to move, but I know I ended up kissing her back. “Live a little.”

I stared at her for a bit. I knew I loved Nicole, but… Nicole was the one who was so adamant about how having sex with another guy didn’t mean she had any less feelings for me. I could love Nicole as much as I did and still want to kiss Athena. “Okay, look, let’s at least talk first,” I said with a sigh, walking over to the steps and sitting down.

“What do we even need to say?” Athena asked, exasperated but humor still in her tone.

“Actually, the first thing is, you know how you heard me and Sabrina – Sabrina and I – doing stuff that one time?”

“Mhm?”

“So Sabrina knows Nicole and I are monogamous now, and she’s really embarrassed about how you heard us. She-”

“Wait, how does she know that I did?”

“Well, I told her. So-”

“Why’d you do that?” she laughed.

“It slipped out, I dunno,” I replied impatiently. “So I need you not to bring it up to her, or judge her, because she’s really shy and really embarrassed we got caught like that. Apparently Nicole heard too, and she had to lie to Mr. Scott about it.”

“Wait wait wait, slow down. If Nicole heard about you two, and she had to talk to Mr. Scott, did she, like, tell on you?”

I thought about it for a second. Actually, yeah, what did Mr. Scott think was going on? How did he hear about it? “I… don’t know,” I admitted. “Huh.” I paused for a bit, realizing I’d think myself to death right here if I allowed myself to. “Whatever. Just don’t talk to Sabrina about what you heard.”

Athena laughed. “That’ll be easy. I don’t even know Sabrina.” She smiled. “Easy peasy.”

“Okay, but… I mean it.” I shifted nervously. “I’m feeling really nervous about a lot of this stuff.”

“That’s because you’re overthinking,” Athena laughed again. “I told you at the party, people do this stuff all the time. You’re living your life.”

I scoffed. “Yeah, Megan called it being the bad boy.”

“Wait, hold up, you told Megan about us?” she asked with surprise.

“No, don’t worry. She just guessed.”

“…And you didn’t deny it?” she asked, continuing her surprised look.

“I did but that didn’t work. Megan and I know each other too well for that.”

“Umm, who else knows you too well for that?” Athena asked with concern. “Are you a bad liar?”

The cogs started turning in my head. I could use this. “Uh, kinda,” I lied, ironically well. “That was actually going to be another reason why we shouldn’t continue this. If Megan knows, and maybe other people know, they could talk, right? But if we don’t do anything again, we can just deny it and they won’t have any evidence.”

Athena looked away and, to my surprise, started shaking their head. “No,” she simply said.

“No…?”

“If people think we’re doing anything, whether they’re right or wrong isn’t the point. I’ll just talk to Megan and smooth things over. We’re either through the Lookie glass or we’re safe, but whether we actually do something or not isn’t going to change anything.”

Looking glass. I chuckled. “You really want to continue doing this, huh?”

Athena actually looked hurt by what I said. “Don’t you?”

I shrugged. “Yeah, I do, but I also don’t. Like, Nicole told me no, and… I just like her a lot.”

“Do you love her?” Athena asked, her hand on my thigh.

“Yeah,” I admitted. “But she was the one to tell me that just because she fucked other guys, it didn’t mean she liked me any less.”

Athena perked up at that. “And she did it for a long while before you started doing it with any other girls, right?” she asked me.

Bullseye. Athena may have not called herself smart, but she sure was cunning. I smiled, letting her know I was way ahead of her. “I know,” I admitted out loud. “And yeah, it’s definitely a big reason to do stuff with you. I like doing stuff with you, and to be honest, I’m kinda glad you’re doing it with more people than just Jason.”

She laughed, her hand sliding up my thigh, fondling my hardening cock over my pants. “Hey, be nice,” she told me in a teasing voice. “He is still my boyfriend.” As she spoke, she undid the button on my pants. As I sat there, she shamelessly fished out my cock and began to stroke it, biting her bottom lip. 

“You really have such an amazing cock,” she told me, still stroking.

I grinned in appreciation, but realized we were only heading into familiar territory. “Yeah, but you’ve already seen my cock,” I told her. “I want to see some of you.”

As her hand played with my dick, Athena adopted an ‘Oh, really?’ expression on her face. “And what do you want to see, Adam?”

My hand traveled up her side. “Show me your pussy,” I all but commanded.

“Only if you treat it nicely,” she purred, getting up and starting to take her pants off. Athena made a show of unbuttoning her jeans, then turned around as she arched her back, taking off her pants, and showing me her ass.

Even with my pants partway down, I got up and wrapped my arms around her, grinding my cock against her now-exposed panties. Athena moaned, grabbing the back of my head from behind her, and ground her ass back into my dick. “You’re a bad liar,” she cooed. “You’ve been wanting me for a long time. If I didn’t say anything, you would have.”

I kissed her neck, grinding up against her, the two of us moving up against the wall. Both of us knew what she was saying was true; I wanted her. And I was going to have her. “I don’t have protection,” I breathed.

“I don’t give a fuck,” she moaned back. “I want to feel you inside me.” She placed her hands on the wall in front of her and arched her back again. I snaked my hands down her body, feeling every curve of her, realizing I couldn’t remember the last time I had been so excited to fuck someone. Maybe I wanted Athena for a long time and I was just denying it to myself or something. I wasn’t sure, but I was ready to make up for lost time now.

She was so wet that when my hands trailed down low enough to take off her panties, they nearly clung to her skin. Athena moaned, feeling her panties being taken off, her bare pussy exposed to me. Her puffy lips, the sheen of her wetness, matting her pussy hair… she was ready for me. She needed me.

“Fuck yes…” she moaned, letting her head hang. “Adam, I’ve… I’ve wanted you for so long. I’m so glad we’re finally doing this.” She felt the head of my dick up against her pussy lips and practically started quivering in place. “Goddd…”

I savored the moment, running my hands up and down her body, feeling her a little bit more before grabbing her by the hips and slowly inserting myself inside her. The sound of it was unmistakable. Athena emitted a low, quiet, guttural moan, punctuated by a pretty loud sharp sound. It almost sounded like a pained cry. I heard it echoing into the upper floors of the stairwell.

“Easy,” I warned her. She said she could be quiet. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she replied, almost weirded out I would ask. She moved her hips slightly. “Mm, you feel even better inside me than I thought.”

Being inside Athena felt fucking fantastic too. There was something about being inside her that felt so different to all the other girls I had fucked so far. Maybe it was the fact that this time, we were being naughty and we “shouldn’t” have been doing this. Either way, I was all too happy to continue.

I started to pump slowly, but Athena didn’t want slow. As soon as she started to figure out my rhythm, she matched me with her own, coaxing me to go twice as fast as I was going. After even just a minute, I was plowing her at full force, my hands gripping her hips for dear life, my hips slamming into hers. I was going balls deep in Athena’s pussy, and loving every second. 

By the sounds Athena was making, she was loving every second too. “Mm… nnf… fuck yes, Adam…” she moaned quietly. “”Why the fuck weren’t we doing this sooner? I’m yours. Let’s fuck whenever you want. My body is yours… I’ll do anything you want me to do… anything… no matter how bad, I want to do it with you…”

She was down bad. It just made me throb with excitement inside her pussy. I wasn’t the type to turn down an offer to do anything with someone as sexy as her. I slammed into her, the sounds of skin slapping against skin filling the hallway, still quiet enough to not worry anyone. Athena was chattering, but she had the good grace to do it below her speaking voice. I could only imagine the ecstasy on her face if this was the way I was making her talk.

And this was just from fucking her from behind with little foreplay. God, I was a stud.

Athena squealed and moaned, pushing back against me, and I could feel her wetness trailing down the shaft of my dick several times. If I had to bet, I’d say I made her cum at least once. By the time I was ready to shoot, I had the foresight to know, as good as this felt, shooting it inside her would have been a disastrous move.

I stayed inside her for as long as I could before slowing down and taking my cock out from inside her. Athena moaned in satisfaction, feeling inch by inch of me slowly being taken out. Once it was fully out, she remained and recovered for a few seconds before turning around to see me jacking off.

“So you would do anything for this cock, huh?” I asked, a little choked up by how close I was.

There was still a glassy finish to her eyes. She was under my spell. “Anything,” she confirmed.

“On your knees,” I commanded. “Suck me clean. I’m gonna blow a huge load in your mouth.”

“Mm, fuck yes,” she agreed with a lusty voice, before eagerly taking me into her mouth. The fact her own juices were slathered all over my cock didn’t faze her one bit. She eagerly took me in, using her tongue and a perfect amount of suction to encourage me to shoot a hot load right down her throat. 

After getting to fuck her, I didn’t last long at all, but that was okay. All I wanted to do was shoot into Athena’s mouth. All Athena wanted was my spunk. It was win-win. With a groan, I let loose, my vision almost going dark. I left the loads individually leave my cock, and Athena diligently kept swallowing, eagerly taking my load with a slutty moan. Her eyes were closed in giddy concentration, and of course, her hand was busy playing with herself, except this time I could see the whole process. She was a complete whore. I loved it.

We quickly collapsed back onto the steps afterwards, doing nothing but… giggling. She needed to catch her breath, and I needed mine, and I knew there was a lot of talking we had to do after, but I was of course going to let Athena have the first word.

Our clothes were fully back on by the time Athena spoke. “That was amazing,” she murmured, grinning at me.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “You’re really fun.”

“So are you,” she agreed peppily, standing up. “So… I’ll see you later?”

I paused, then emitted a single chuckle. “That quick?” I asked. “You don’t need to talk, or debrief, or…”

She gave me a simple smile. “…Nope!” she replied cheerfully. “Unless you need to bring up something. I should probably get going, but this was a lot of fun and we’re definitely doing more stuff at least this week.”

I took my eyes off of her ,smiling at the absurdity of the situation. “Yeah, that would be fun,” I admitted. It was alien to not at least talk to her after sex, but I guess she had her own preferences. “I’ll text you?”

“Sounds good,” she replied. “Bye, Adam!” She happily sauntered away, with the slightest hint of a weirdness to her walk, one final compliment to my sexual prowess as she left.

The talk didn’t exactly go fully according to plan, but at least Athena accepted that she wouldn’t talk to Sabrina about what she heard. Even though she wasn’t going to anyway, because she didn’t know Sabrina. Ugh. What a shitshow this whole thing was.

I sat on that stairwell for a little bit longer. Never mind, this was when the guilt set in. Before I at least had some kind of plausible deniability or whatever, but now, it was clear. Nicole made us monogamous. I flagrantly disobeyed her. I guess I also fucked within the school’s walls again too. But hey, it was just to get it out of my system. From this point on, I’d be a good boyfriend to her. I was getting what I wanted, and now I was giving Nicole what she wanted. That was what good couples do. They compromise. 

I began walking, out of the stairwell, past the physics room, and out of the basement. I headed back to Room 203, and knocked on the door.

The door opened and Nicole popped her head out. “Ugh, finally,” she piped up, rolling her eyes. “What did she want, to sign a damn contract?” 

“There was more ground to clear than I thought,” I replied. “You were doing work anyways.”

“Yeah, but still,” she grumbled, going back into the room and gathering her things. “My time is valuable. I got folders full of work.”

“Binders full of women!” I chanted.

“Binders full of women!” she chanted at nearly the same time. Nicole and I loved that bit ever since we found dumb videos of Mitt Romney out of context a few months ago. It was like one of our in-jokes. We laughed for a bit, then quickly exited the room.

“So, do we have any plans tonight?” I asked as we walked towards the back entrance.

Nicole adopted a puzzled face. “Wait, do we?”

“No, like, I’m asking, do you want to hang out tonight?”

“Oh. Uh, nah,” she replied casually. “I’m not kidding about the work thing. And if my psychic powers are up to date, you’re not exactly on top of your work either.”

“Another bingo,” I admitted. “You see everything.”

“Absolutely everything,” she replied chipperly, giving me a wink. We walked together for a bit, until I felt the desire to grab her hand and hold it as we walked.

“Ow!” she instinctually replied, holding her hand away from me at the touch. “Sorry, squirt. I hurt my hand today. Best not to.”

“Oh, are you okay?” I asked, holding the door open for her.

She scoffed at the winter breeze hitting her face. “Yeah, I’m good,” she replied, steeling herself and walking outside.

The two of us didn’t say much as we got in her car, opting to make small talk about Council at our most chatty. I couldn’t help but notice that Nicole was getting less chatty as we drove, and for a bit, I was worried she was going to get into one of her moods again, but luckily, I was wrong. She was fine for the whole drive.

Still, something was clearly going through her mind. As she entered my driveway, I heard her exhale nervously, but she recovered well. “Righto,” she said casually. “Here we are. Home sweet home.”

“Did you want to come in, even for a minute?” I offered, taking off my seatbelt. It was weird. After being with Athena, it was like I wanted to spend the whole evening with Nicole. I just wanted to be near her again.

“Nope,” she replied. Maybe she felt the same way or something. Her mood was precipitously dropping, but I knew she would bring it up to me when the time was right. I shrugged and reached for the door, and that was when she quickly but calmly added, “Just one more thing.”

I hesitated, then leaned back in the car seat. I guess that was now. “What’s up?”

I turned to Nicole to see her with this weird muted smile. A very serious smile. “I’ll give you one chance to be completely honest with me.”

“What?”

“Okay then, chance over,” she replied calmly. “I’m breaking up with you, Adam.”

I couldn’t imagine the horror that struck my face. I wanted to speak, but no air would come out of my lungs for several seconds. Nicole remained, content to not speak, so I finally found the energy to breathe out, “Why?”

She never scowled. The weird smile never even left her face. It was a sad smile. A smile of inevitability. “Because when your girlfriend tells you that you’re monogamous, having sex with another girl is, crazily enough, cheating.”

“I…” I guess she saw Athena and I fooling around somehow. “But I…”

“Bottom of the stairwell. You think you invented it, squirt?” The name was somehow intimidating now. “The sound travels up that stairwell, and you two had a lot to say. Who knew, Jason was totally right. Crazy how life works out.” She broke her gaze away from me to look out the window. “Or maybe it was self-fulfilling. If he wasn’t so crazy, maybe she wouldn’t have been so tempted. Who’s to say? But I can definitely say that we both knew we were on borrowed time.” She turned back to me. “Did you feel anything when you were next to me on that couch?”

I wasn’t crying. The tears weren’t coming. The shock was too much. “Nicole… of course I did…” I breathed in a stupor. I had to really focus to even get words out. My heart wasn’t breaking; it was self-destructing, and it felt like the rest of my body was going with it. 

She stared at me for a bit, then slowly shook her head. “Maybe you been with me too long, kid. I don’t think you’ve felt anything with me for a while. I know I felt nothing. Like laying next to your cousin or something. There’s a body next to you, but not only is it not a loving boyfriend, it’s like, anti-love. Like you know you don’t love ‘em. I bet you felt that.”

The tears were now coming. “Nicole,” I cut in, finding my voice. “I wanted you to come in because I just wanted to be near you again.”

“Yeeeeah,” she snidely agreed, her smile growing. “That shit happens right after you cheat. Every time. It’s like a fact of nature.”

“But, I just want to… Nicole, I’m sorry. Is there any way-”

“Nope,” she factually said. “Lemme save you some time. There is nothing you could say that will change my decision, but there’s a lot you could say that will make this worse. Get the picture?”

“W-why are you smiling?”

She moved her mouth around. “I don’t think I could give you the answer without really hurting your feelings, dude.”

“Please, Nicole, just tell me.”

She sighed in slight annoyance and adjusted herself in her seat. “Fine, but you literally asked me for this.” She closed her eyes and took in a breath. “Because this is finally over.”

I was sobbing. I couldn’t help it. Over the sounds of my sobs, I heard a dry chuckle from Nicole. “Yup, saw that coming a million miles away.”

It felt like I was a million miles away. It felt like just an hour ago, or even half an hour ago, if I was crying, Nicole would hug me, help me, support me. Here I was, crying in her car, and not only did she not care… she was chuckling. “D-don’t you care?!” I asked.

“About wha?”

“About me!”

“Adam, you fuckin’ douche, you cheated on me,” Nicole replied swiftly, her tone never changing from humorous. I opened my eyes and saw she was even still smiling. “You’ve been spiraling down into disrespecting me more and more, and now you wanna complain that I’m not dropping everything to make you feel loved when you’re feeling bad about me bein’ upset because of what you did?” She shook her head. “Jesus, dude. Be happy I’m even doing this in person. I was planning to dump your ass over text. Now I gotta sit here and play melodrama with you.”

I didn’t know what to say. I just sat in the seat, not knowing where to look, sobbing for a few more minutes. This wasn’t happening. This shouldn’t have happened. I needed to rewind time. I needed to say the perfect thing. I needed to do something. There was some magical solution to all this, or some plan. I just needed to know it.

“Welp,” Nicole broke the silence. “As long as we’re here, lemme make something clear. We’re still Pres and VP, and nothing can change that. So help me God, if you make Council difficult in any way over this, I will make you regret it every day for the rest of your life. You like to pretend we like and respect each other, so I’ll tell ya what: I don’t like the idea of the drama and fallout, so in front of the Council, we can pretend nothing has changed, and we’ll act like nothing is wrong. But as soon as the Council leaves, the facade is over. I won’t talk to you, and you won’t talk to me.”

That last part set off even more alarm bells. I looked through the tears into Nicole’s serious blue eyes. “W-we’re not even gonna be friends?!”

“Not now we ain’t, the fuck do we have to bond over?” she laughed to the floor. 

“We never even got to play GTA…” I don’t know why I said that, but it was the first thing that came out of my mouth.

Strangely, it was the first thing that caught Nicole off-guard. “…Huh,” she eventually mumbled. “Okay. That’s… huh. Hm. Maybe someday, we will. And I’ll give you this much: I’ll never play it on my own.”

I gave Nicole a look, and judging by her reaction, it was not any kind of look she wanted. “Hey. It means nothing. Do you hear me? Fucking nothing, you worm. It’s just one hypothetical in an endless sea of hypotheticals. Don’t go fucking thinking ‘there’s a chance’ or some shit. I just know I bought it for you, and I’m a girl of my word. If I was richer, I’d buy you a PS3, give it to you, and tell you to fuck off forever. We’re sure as hell not friends anytime soon.” Her smile had completely faded, and I heard the unlocking sound of the car doors. She had pressed the button. “As a matter of fact, get the fuck out of my car. I don’t need to have you in here any longer than I want. I already gave you way more time than you deserve. Go cry to your parents or some shit. Your parents are good at that. They actually care about… about when your heart is broken.”

I looked over at her. Nicole’s composure was fading at a rapid rate. Tears began to form in the corners of her eyes. I knew she felt something. “I love you,” I told her, with as much honesty and emotion as I could muster. 

“You fucking never loved me,” Nicole screamed, her own tears flowing. “You never cared, you never listened, you never wanted to do anything I asked if it meant giving up what you wanted. The fuck is your kind of love?”

“Your parents love you too,” I added. I didn’t know what I was doing with this. It just felt like Nicole needed to hear it.

It was like I shot Nicole with a gun from the way she reacted to that. “Di- I-!” she stuttered, having such a visceral reaction to that statement that she squirmed in place, eventually settling on angrily banging her fist against the car door. “I swear to fucking God, if you don’t leave this car right now, I will cut myself in front of you, just to hurt you, just to traumatize you. I’ll do anything to hurt you. Don’t fucking test me. Get the fuck out of my car now!!”

Anything. She’d say anything to affect me. That’s who Nicole was. I squeezed my eyes shut, opening the car door and grabbing my backpack in a haze. Nicole didn’t even wait for me to close the car door, and I barely got in time to close it before she hastily backed out of my driveway, speeding off past her house, going God-knows-where.

It felt like a dream. A really bad nightmare. I’d just need to wake up, or say the right thing, or walk something back. Everything could be back to normal again. I just needed to… to…

No. She was gone. Nicole was gone. I had gone too far and now Nicole was out of my life. Forever. It was my fault, my dumbass fault, for not listening to her feelings. And now, the best thing that ever happened to me was driving away. And I’d have to live with the fact that I drove her away, forever.

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