---

In the Last Chapter…

Adam angrily confronts Morgan before finding out the whole situation was a lie conceived by Allistair and Nicole to test Adam. It blows up in their face, and both Adam and Morgan are angry. On the awkward drive home, Nicole crashes her car. At school, Adam learns that Morgan wants to keep everything that happened at the party at the party, including their makeout session. Sabrina seems to have moved on, and is spending more time with Carson now. Adam and Athena have a conversation about Jason, which turns into her breaking up with him via text and having sex with Adam instead. The next day, Jason has clearly found out… he punches Adam in the face, and gets ready to do more.

---

It almost would have been nice to wake up an hour later or something. You know, in a hospital surrounded by people worried about me. But nope, when I groggily came to, it looked like it was just seconds later. Zelda was lightly tapping my face, freaking out, while Jason stood over me.

My face really hurt. It took a lot of seconds to process it. I moved my face around, flexing my face muscles. All of them hurt. My teeth hurt. My face felt wet and a little sticky. Was I bleeding? “Blood…” I murmured, lightheaded. My mouth wasn’t working enough to say anything more.

Zelda’s look was that of pure concern. “Yeah, I’m seeing it,” she murmured with a nod, then turned back to Jason.

“Piece of fuckin’ shit,” Jason said with energy and poison. People were gathering around us. He didn’t bother with any more words. He wasn’t here to make a speech, or bother listening to me at all. He grabbed Zelda by the shoulder and shoved her to the side, making sure no one was between me and him.

I was able to see and think somewhat clearly, but I was still laying down on the floor. Karate hadn’t prepared me for this at all, even if I kept going there every week. Jason grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and hoisted me up, making me cough. “Why the fuck did I think I could trust you?” he growled through gritted teeth.

I opened my mouth to answer but nothing came out. He had the look of death on his face, and I doubted ‘well, your paranoia kind of caused this’ would have helped me by this point. The dude was beating up another kid in the middle of the hallway of a no-violence school. He did not give a fuck what happened to him at this point.

He clearly had enough of looking at my face and I felt an impact, right at my throat. My vision and thoughts prickled with pain and a fading sensation. I was in the fetal position, clutching my throat, nearly losing consciousness again, before I faded back into reality. Zelda was screaming at him to stop. Other students were yelling things too, but no one was actually stepping forward. No one was actually helping me. I was gasping for breath, clutching my throat, realizing I had no lifelines here. It really was Jason versus me, and Jason was going to win.

The fuck was going to happen? Was I going to die there? Was I going to black out? I had no idea what was going to happen. Fuck scared, I was terrified. Jason could kill me if he wanted to, and judging by his expression, he wouldn’t have any issues going through with it.

I saw him lunge forward, and thought quick. With my back on the floor, my arms were useless, but my legs weren’t. He stupidly took a wide stance standing over me, getting ready to hit me in the face again, so I took the opportunity and kicked him right between the legs.

I felt my shoe impact with something soft. Gross. Jason shrunk back from his position immediately, screaming like a banshee, both hands on his crotch, stumbling backwards until he too fell to the floor. I wasn’t celebrating – it turns out getting hit in the throat doesn’t wear off in a few seconds. The entire time I was still gasping for breath. Fights were supposed to be awesome. We just looked pathetic. 

As if that wasn’t enough, who else but Mr. fucking Graves quickly stumbled upon us less than a minute later. He demanded an onlooker explain the situation to him, then immediately got both of us up and ordered us both to go to the principal’s office without making any other stops. I had blood on my face and could only wheeze in response. Jason blinked through his tears, a sickly expression on his face, and had a more difficult time walking than me. Nevertheless, we both eventually made our way to the main office, then the principal’s office, the both of us sitting down and ignoring each other, our faces hot with the anger of two boys that hated each others’ guts but knew they were in huge trouble.

When we were brought into Mr. Scott’s room, he was turned around, facing the outer window. When he turned to face us, it was like I didn’t know him. The cheeriness that usually occupied his face, even when he was at his most concerned, was gone. His face took on a whole new feeling – pure authority. And disappointment. 

“Boys, I won’t waste your time or mine,” he began. “Both of you were seen in the hallway. You both know what you were doing. I have it on good authority that each of you attacked the other. Now I understand you both may have your reasons, and one of you may have ‘started it,’ but at the end of the day you both were in a fight and that is not what happens in my school, do I make myself clear?”

I slowly nodded. I didn’t even want to look at Jason and whatever expression he had on his face.

“And you both can throw out any hope you have right now,” he continued, hands on his desk. “If you’re lucky, you’ll only get a suspension. Both of you. I am going to get more information about this little incident, and if I need to expel either or both of you, I will.”

This wasn’t fair. I was only defending myself. I had to speak up, even if my voice was barely anything more than a wheeze. “Mr. Scott-”

“Not… another word, Adam,” Mr. Scott warned me, concentrated power emanating from the first word of his sentence. He paused, then walked back to the window, this time still facing us. “Both of you will get your belongings and go to the main office. Sit as far away from each other as you can. You are not allowed to even speak to each other. Don’t go to your friends, don’t go to class, just grab your things from your locker and come back. Do you understand?”

I paused, but nodded meekly again.

Mr. Scott nodded back, then turned to look out the window. I slowly turned to the door, but sharply looked away when I locked eyes with Jason. What a fucking prick. He looked completely fine. I could feel my face had puffed up a little, I was bleeding, and I couldn’t speak like a normal human being. He just got retribution. And yet we were being judged as equals in this?? This wasn’t fucking fair.

Jason got up and walked out of the office, leaving me alone with Scott. I looked back at him, tempted to plead my case now that it was just us two. Mr. Scott and I always got along, after all.

“Don’t even think about it,” Scott said without even looking in my direction, having seemingly read my mind. “Just go.”

I sighed, walking out of the room and heading back towards my locker. The halls were empty. Class had begun at this point.

I froze mid-step. Fuck. The mask presentations. My group was supposed to be going today. And Salvador had a policy of “go when you agreed or get a zero.” Hell, it’s what Zelda and I were talking about before Jason decided to make his stupid fucking little entrance. His fucking moment. His two minutes of fucking Hazelwood fame. 

What the hell was I going to tell Zelda and the other two? We needed all four of us to present, they couldn’t just go, “Oh, imagine there’s a fourth guy saying his own lines and it’s really good, Salvador.” I just screwed us over. Fuck that, Jason just screwed them over. But what could I even do about it…?

I looked at my locker, then at the door to the aud. Scott’s words of warning rang in my ears, but I ignored them, pushing through the aud doors but hugging the wall. Thanks to the lighting booth setup, when you first walked into the aud, no one could see you from the stage.

I paused. I did not want the class to see me like this, puffy and bloody. I bit my lower lip. Yeah, it was time to be cowardly. “Mr. Salvador,” I called out. The murmuring of the room quieted down, but there was no response. “Mr. Salvador!” I called out again.

“Adam, just come in,” Salvador’s voice called back. “Hurry up, you’re late.”

“I can’t,” I called back. “I need you to come here please.”

“What do you mean, ‘you can’t?’ You need to tell me what that means,” the annoyed voice of Salvador called back. “Come here and get ready for your performance.”

Zelda’s voice added to the mix. “Salvador, please trust me, you should go to Adam,” she gently advised him. I heard no response, but instead, the sound of a decently heavy guy getting up from a flimsy audience chair, and footsteps coming towards me.

When Salvador saw me, he recoiled. “What the hell…?” he said in an out-of-character breathless voice.

“I, uh…” I began, struggling not to cry. Seeing him was the thing that made all of this feel real. It still felt so surreal, like it wasn’t even happening. “I can’t do my mask performance today. I’m sorry…” Tears were falling down my face. “I think, I… I think I’m going to get expelled…”

Salvador’s voice was as breathless as mine. “Adam, what did you do?” he asked, his face darker than I’d ever seen.

“I didn’t do anything!!” I yelled, not caring that the whole class quieted down. They could definitely hear me. My voice cracked thanks to the shot to the neck I took. My tears were hot with rage as they streamed down my cheeks. “I got fucking attacked and I fucking defended myself and now I’m going to get fucking expelled because I didn’t fucking lay down and just accept fucking death, I guess!!”

Salvador paused. “Is this the same person?”

As last year?? “No, new guy,” I replied, calmer now but still angry. “Long story.”

“I don’t need to hear it,” he told me. “What am I supposed to do with that, Adam?”

“Do whatever you want,” I told him hoarsely. “It’s over for me. Game over. I just wanted to tell you because the rest of my team doesn’t deserve zeroes for this. I guess I just wanted to say I’m sorry to you.”

“You haven’t yet,” Salvador replied.

My face scrunched up. Was fucking that really his priority right now?? But still, if I said that’s why I was here, and it helped my team, I guess I’d play his stupid game. “I’m sorry,” I told him solemnly. “This is so fucked up.”

“So Mr. Scott has told you to-”

“Pack my things, right,” I finished the sentence. “I might get expelled, but from the sounds of things, I’m definitely getting suspended.”

He stared at me for a bit. “For defending yourself?” he asked.

“Scott wouldn’t let me explain. You know the zero-tolerance policy or whatever,” I replied. “A guy came at me, hit me in the face, hit me in the fucking throat, so when he came at me a third time, I kicked him where it hurts. I was fucking scared, Salvador. I was scared!”

He stared at me for a bit, then looked at the door I came from. “I’m going to the office,” he told me. “I don’t care what Mr. Scott told you. Stay here.” He took a step towards the class, and cleared his throat. “You all have five minutes to rehearse and prepare. Use it well. I’ll be back quickly.” Without another word, he walked with purpose out of the door, no doubt heading straight for Scott’s office.

When the door closed, I awkwardly stood there. What the hell was I supposed to do now? Hide in the corner of the aud until he came back? Eventually the murmur and then the full-on hum of conversations between mask groups came back, and I just leaned against the wall, making sure no one could see me or my fucked-up face.

I heard someone’s footsteps approaching the door and nearly had a heart attack until I saw Zelda poke her face around the corner. “Hey,” she greeted me gingerly, a soft sad expression on her face. “How are you feeling?”

“Don’t ask,” I replied bitterly, turning away.

“The swelling is going down,” she replied with hope in her voice.

“Oh, so my face is back to normal?” I asked pessimistically.

She didn’t reply. She slowly walked up beside me and sympathetically, if awkwardly, touched my shoulder. “Did Salvador go out to talk to the principal?”

“Yeah,” I sighed, then turned back to her. “Hey, at least I bought the team a few more minutes, right?”

“I mean, we’d still be screwed without you,” she replied. “Do you think maybe you could come with me and-“

“Nope,” I interrupted, shaking my head. “And don’t ask me again. I don’t want to show my face around them when it’s like this.”

Zelda nodded. “I think I figured you would say that,” she replied, producing a piece of paper. “So, since you’re as nosy as me…”

I looked at the paper she had. The attendance. I could take it to the attendance office and snoop on the other offices in the process. It meant going out in the open with my fucked-up face, but if it meant I could overhear how they were deciding the rest of my life, it would be worth it. A smile slowly broke out on my face. “Are you sure…?” I asked. If Salvador didn’t take the attendance to the office, it was always Zelda who did. Plus, I knew she was nosy as hell too.

She shrugged, smiling. “Somehow I felt today of all days, you deserve it,” she told me kindly. She hand found my shoulder again, her touch less awkward. It was warm and friendly. “I hope you’re not hurting too badly.”

I took the attendance sheet. “Thanks, Zelda. I owe you one.”

“No, you don’t,” she told me with a smile. I smiled back and said nothing more, exiting the aud then powerwalking through the hallway. 

I didn’t even bother to go to the attendance office first, and instead crept up to the door to Mr. Scott’s office, pressing my ear against it. Silence. I frowned, looking through the window to the main office, where Mr. Scott was standing, arms folded. Nicole was in there too, and by the looks of things, she had both heard about the news and was furious with it. I crept up to the window and leaned down, being able to see in without them seeing me. Luckily, they were speaking loudly enough that I could hear them through the window.

“Don’t push me,” Nicole warned him, pacing back and forth in front of him. “I’ll walk. I’ll resign from the Council, and I’ll tell anyone who listens why I resigned, if you don’t let Adam stay.”

“Nicole,” Mr. Scott began with a patient tone. “That is a threat, and a very immature one. I have to uphold the rules of the school. If I’m going to pick between following the rules consistently and breaking my own rules just so a few students don’t get upset, I’m going to go with the first option.”

“A few students? A few students?!” Nicole fumed. “Mr. Scott, you’ve never understood what I do for this school, what I’ve given to this school. I turned Council from a dying dumb popularity club into a machine that revitalizes the school from the inside out. I’ve been involved in basically every fundraiser, event, and initiative the school has taken on in the past two years. I am this school. Hell, I’ve made so much progress with the Rietmann hypothesis that the local paper gave not me, but your school, a spot on the front page more than once! Do you remember that?!”

“Nicole, we all know you’re smart, and a hard worker. We all know that no girl your age should even be able to explain what that Rietmann hypothesis even is, mostly because you keep reminding us.” The last few words of Mr. Scott’s sentence were soaked in venom. “But just because you are more smart, in some ways, than the other students here does not mean you are above the rules. You keep using your intelligence to assume that we are even equals you can bargain with. No matter how smart or involved you are, Nicole, you are and will continue to be a student of this school, and I am your principal. It is my job to be an authority here. I have more responsibilities, whether you choose to believe it or not. The students don’t run the school, no matter how involved they are. If you want to try to use your power to get your way, I’m all too happy to remind you that you have your power because I allow you to, and I can take it away from you very easily.” He paused. “You’re graduating soon. You ought to know just as much as I do that this school is going to survive without you being a part of it, and if you keep trying to interfere with school business for your own sake, you’re going to find out what this school looks like without you ‘leading’ it much sooner than you thought.”

Scott was staring daggers into Nicole’s eyes. I’d barely ever seen him angry, and he was furious. Nicole wasn’t backing down, and was eagerly yet stone-facedly staring back.

“Adam wasn’t in the wrong. The school is making the wrong decision,” she stated as if the facts were self-evident, which was funny considering she wasn’t even there. Who had she even heard from…? “I have much more sway with the student population and even the local community than you ever wanted to believe, and I… I made a promise to serve the school, not to serve you. This is serving the school.”

“This is you having a tantrum,” Mr. Scott fired back. “If I can speak bluntly, this is why we try not to praise you too much for your aptitude or test results, Ms. Baker. It feeds into, quite frankly, an ego problem. And now you’re here, telling me what to do as if the Student Council President runs the whole school and the school’s principal just happens to go along with you. It’s a fantasy.”

“Ego problem? Please,” Nicole blew him off, rolling her eyes. “You just know that it’s easier to target me than prove my own VP was the victim and did nothing wrong.”

“All I know, Nicole, is that I have to make an incredibly difficult decision, and as soon as you heard about it, you marched right into my office and threatened to make my job more difficult if I didn’t go along with what you wanted. And…” He paused, knowing the sucker punch was coming. “…You talked more about your own accomplishments than what Adam and Jason did. You took something happening between two other students and, like so many other times, all you did was make it about you.”

Nicole’s chest was rising and falling, but she clearly had no comeback for that. “No,” she eventually said with a furious face, but didn’t find any more words to say. 

“Yes,” Mr. Scott countered. “Sit down.” He turned to Mr. Salvador, who was standing near the both of them. They began to talk, but without them raising their voices, I couldn’t make out what they said. I watched Nicole run her hands through her hair and close her eyes, seemingly counting to ten in her head. She winced, then opened her eyes again, and quickly whipped out her phone, typing at lightning speed.

I felt my own phone buzz in my pocket. Three guesses who that could be. I took out my phone and saw the message from Nicole.

I heard all about this morning. It’s going to be okay. We’re going to get justice for you.

As much as I wanted to reply, seeing her in this state made me feel like replying may not have been the wisest move to make. I slipped my phone back into my pocket and watched Salvador and Scott talk for a bit. Unlike with Nicole, they clearly talked as equals, with Scott listening intently and Salvador “talking with his hands” a lot. I heard that using your hands too much when you talked in theater was the sign of an amateur. I smirked. C’mon, Salvador. Get with it.

I snuck away to the attendance office, delivering the paper while trying my best to face away from the secretary. “Attendance for dramatic arts, first period,” I reported.

The secretary took the paper and looked it over. “It’s incomplete,” she reported. “Salvador has nothing written for… oh, for you, Adam.”

I turned towards the paper she held out to me, which made her wince. “Oh my God!” she instinctively cried out. Nearby, a student raised their head to look at us. “Gosh. Oh my gosh,” she corrected herself. “Are… you okay?”

“You should see the other guy,” I quipped, then frowned. “Because he looks completely fine. He kept hitting me, he wouldn’t stop, so I hit him in self-defense, now we might both get expelled.”

“Oh my,” she replied, her voice full of concern. “That’s… quite something. I’m sorry.” She looked at me inquisitively. “Shouldn’t you be in the principal’s office then?”

“Uh…” I fumbled. “Yeah, I’m just on my way back. I had to deliver the attendance, but…”

“I see,” she said with a nod. “That’s why he has nothing for you on the attendance. Either he wasn’t ready to deliver it and you misunderstood, or he forgot to account for you. Either way, take this back, then immediately, principal’s office. Do you understand, Adam?”

“I do,” I replied with a nod. 

I turned around to leave, and saw Baseball Kid from history class sitting in a chair. He wasn’t wearing his baseball cap, and his brown hair was poofy and all over the place. He looked back at me and smiled. “I don’t think you’re in a good position to be staring at others, dude,” he told me in a chill voice.

“Oh, sorry,” I mumbled. He looked better with the dumb hat.

“All good,” he replied coolly, sitting back and closing his eyes. Maybe my face wasn’t as bad as I thought it was, if his reaction was anything to go by. Still, I kept my gaze low and my face hidden as I powerwalked back to the aud, shutting the door behind me. 

When the students heard the door close, they quieted down, but then after a few seconds, started the murmur again. Clearly, Salvador wasn’t back yet. I waited for a few more minutes until the door opened, and Salvador walked inside. He looked at me for a little bit, then closed the door behind him. “You owe me big time,” he told me. 

My heart soared. “I’m not getting expelled?”

“You’re not getting expelled, or suspended,” he confirmed. “Your parents will be getting a call, but the school is going to operate under the informed belief you acted in self-defense.”

I was elated, but couldn’t help but pause. “…And you just took my word for it? You weren’t even there,” I pointed out.

Salvador’s eyes danced. “I wasn’t… but she was.”

He pointed behind me. I looked at where he was pointing and Zelda turned the corner to face us, smiling sheepishly. 

“You…” I started. “You told him?”

“I saw the whole thing, Adam,” she pointed out, still smiling. 

“You texted Nicole too, didn’t you?” I realized.

“That one probably hurt your case more than anything,” Salvador joked, his eyes sparkling with humor.

“And what’s going to happen to Jason?” I asked, turning back to him.

He waved a hand in front of him. “None of your concern,” he told me flatly, opening a bag he was carrying and rummaging through it. “But if you happen to see him, inside the school or not, don’t talk to him. In fact, try to avoid talking about what happened at all.”

“But aren’t people going to see me, see my face, and ask me what the hell happened?” I asked, still feeling like this was all some bad dream. 

“That’s the beautiful thing…” Salvador thought out loud, pulling my half-face mask out of his bag and tossing it towards me. “…about masks, Adam.”

I barely caught the mask. “What is?” I asked, not getting it.

His eyes danced. “They cover your face,” he told me, the smallest of smiles evident on his face. “Now, put it on. Your group is the first one performing. You’d better do well.”

***

I must have looked like the biggest tryhard on the planet for keeping my mask on after our performance was done. I had to admit, it wasn’t our best work, but also, Savlador, my savior or not, gave us way too little time to make and rehearse it. It kind of hurt keeping the mask on – that’s the thing about being punched in the face – but it wasn’t like I needed to go to the hospital. I wasn’t a baby. I could take the pain.

It was clear from watching Salvador’s expression that he expected more from our performances today. His brow furrowed around halfway through the first performance, and never unfurrowed after that. He would give his classic non-response whenever any performance was finished – looking down at his papers, holding up a hand, and saying “Good,” in a disinterested, dismissing voice. I think at some point the class moved beyond a state of concern – we all just sort of were in the ‘fuck it’ phase. We all sucked. What could ya do?

Well, what Salvador could do was tell everyone calmly to get on stage and sit down in a circle because “we were going to have a chat.” All at once, we shifted from the ‘fuck it’ phase back to concerned. I was doubly concerned because there was no way in hell I was going to be able to wear the mask while that was happening.

Zelda ready my mind, with her hand going back to my shoulder sympathetically. “Maybe you can keep it on,” she reasoned.

I shook my head and sighed, deciding to rip off the bandaid in one go. Three, two, one… and the mask was off. I was hoping it would be played off, but immediately, Hannah’s voice met my ears. “Oh my God, what happened to Adam?”

I sighed and looked down, shaking my head. Zelda, luckily, covered for me. “He had a bad morning, can you leave him alone please?”

“Um, I was just asking,” Hannah replied in a defensive, drama-kid voice. 

“I didn’t ask you to get in a circle to talk about anyone’s face, thank you,” Salvador’s voice rang from behind us. I smirked – to anyone not knowing, that may have come across as insensitive, so only Zelda and I knew just how sensitive and kind he was being by saying that. After all, he basically just warned us all that we were going to get a stern talk. No one was going to disobey him now.

Sure enough, as soon as all of us were in the circle, Salvador opened with how the performances across the board were a disappointment. “I was really hoping at least one performance would stand out, and the bar was really low, so one group should have. But, to be honest, no. Not a single one did,” he told us bluntly. He looked around the circle. Some people met his gaze, and some people avoided it. 

Nonetheless, he continued. “I was thinking about having the ninth grade students watch these performances to show something they can aspire to. Thank goodness I decided not to! I’d have to speak with them privately afterwards. The props were hastily added, the movements had no finesse, and every single action was like some ironic joke, as if doing them earnestly would be too dumb to consider. This is drama. You need to throw that kind of ego away when you enter the room. You all knew the expectations, you all knew the rubric, you all have the ability, so why did you think you could give it half of your effort and think I wouldn’t notice?”

Zelda, who of course was one of the few to meet Salvador’s gaze, cleared her throat. “Is that a rhetorical question or would you like us to try to answer?” she asked.

“I do want an answer, yes,” he replied, motioning to her. “Go.”

“Well, if you truly want my opinion, as in, unfiltered, I don’t think we were given enough time to properly prepare a show up to your standards. You can call it ego, but I think a lot of us were insecure on stage because we weren’t sure what we were doing. It wasn’t us all going, ‘ew, drama, gross,’ because if that’s how each and every one of us felt, it would be kind of silly of us to take a drama class, wouldn’t it?”

One of two mouths fell open at Zelda’s boldness. 

“I think it’s normal for people to act like that when they’re not sure of themselves. And, I hope you’ll take this the right way, but if this is a problem we all have, it seems a little silly to conclude that all of us individually came to the conclusion that we don’t want to do drama well. There seems to be another reason for it.”

All eyes turned to Salvador, whose brow was furrowed, even though he was nodding along. “So you’re suggesting this is a communication problem?” he asked.

“Maybe,” she said with a shrug. “I know I wanted to ask for an extension. My whole team did.”

“I never heard about this,” Salvador replied. “Who else wanted to ask for an extension?”

Slowly, the whole circle raised their hands. Salvador looked around the circle. “Is that everybody?” he asked, his head moving back and forth. “So why didn’t I hear from anyone about this? You all seem to be comfortable communicating with me, so why was this an issue?”

No one said anything for a while. Eventually, I found myself speaking, even without opening my mouth. “I don’t think communication is a one-way street,” I began. “Like, there’s different kinds of communicating, you know? I might be able to talk to a new friend for an hour but never talk about my deepest secrets, but I might be able to talk to a psychiatrist about my deepest secrets but not want to talk for an hour.”

“Woah,” Hannah murmured. She looked impressed with my point. Was it deep or something? It didn’t feel deep. Maybe it was drama kid deep. 

Salvador looked at me as I spoke, then looked around at the group. “I see. Unfortunately, if you need help and don’t tell me, I can’t just read your minds. In the future, if something is going wrong, you need to tell me. I don’t want to give all of you bad marks, so here’s what I’m going to do. This was your halfway point. I’m going to give you one and a half more weeks, but, I want you all to do two things in return.”

Students were already excitedly murmuring and breathing sighs of relief when Salvador revealed he was giving us more time and not giving us bad marks, so we were all eagerly listening for his stipulations.

“Number one, from now on, you need to communicate with me openly and honestly about how your projects are going. I can tell one or two of you won’t have a problem with this…” He not only shot me a look, but Zelda as well. “…But some of you might. You’ll need to work through it. Communicate with me as openly as you can. I won’t judge you or give you a poorer mark for being honest. I might point out when something is your fault, but that’s what growing up is. You have responsibilities. Number two, you’re going to put way more effort into everything in this presentation. Costumes, props, sound design, lighting if you feel it’s appropriate, but more than anything, believe in what you’re doing. I want to see the passion for what you’re making onstage. If I don’t believe what you’re doing, I will give you a worse mark the second time around. Do we understand each other?”

Everyone eagerly agreed. I looked around, glad that Salvador cutting a deal with us was such a huge event that everyone in the class wasn’t thinking about my face at all.

***

I sighed, shutting my locker. What a fucking first period class that was. Second period was probably going to be just as much, or as little, fun as the first. It didn’t help that I was going through my school day clouded by this weird uncertainty. This shit never just goes away, so… how did Scott see me now? Was Nicole okay? What did Salvador say?

“Yo, Adam!” a voice I didn’t recognize called out. My first instinct was to cover my face. Not even to block them from seeing, but just to defend myself in case they hit me too. God, how pathetic.

I turned to see some guy from my business class. I didn’t know his name. “Oh, hey,” I clumsily greeted him.

“I heard you beat the shit out of someone before class,” he began, before gawking at my face. “Woah, he got you too, huh?”

I wish I hadn’t shut my locker already, because if I hadn’t, I would have shut it extra loudly in response to this fucking guy. “Thanks. Go away,” I told him sourly as I turned away. “All I did was defend myself.”

“No no, it was… it was cool!” the guy protested, jogging to catch up with me.

I stopped and turned around. “No, dude,” I replied. “No it wasn’t.” I didn’t bother to stay and entertain him any longer; I clutched my books close to my chest and walked away quickly enough to let him know I didn’t want to talk any more. Luckily, he didn’t follow me.

I realized to my own disappointment that I needed to get used to moments like that. This incident was probably going to be the school’s highest-profile gossip story for at least the day. Maybe I should have felt lucky that only one guy came up to me and gawked at my face so far. Instead of going right to health and wellness class, I went to Mr. Scott’s office.

He greeted me at the door and sat me down in a manner way nicer than this morning, then told me that he would have called me to his office at lunch, but he was glad to meet with me one-on-one instead. A lot of what he said afterwards was the standard “at this school, we have rules” shtick, but he pointed out that much like Nicole’s case in the first semester, it was clear who threw the first punch and that I only acted to defend myself. 

“I was going to tell you that,” I noted bitterly.

“We can’t trust your testimony in that regard, Adam. I’m sorry,” he replied. “Otherwise, everyone could claim self-defense and we’d either punish everyone or no one that gets into fights at Hazelwood. I had to hear it, unprompted, from someone else.”

“What a stupid rule.”

Mr. Scott was silent for a bit. “We know the rules are imperfect,” he slowly said. “And we’re constantly trying to improve them. Be careful. I like you, Adam, so I’ll tell you this right now: you can easily get trapped into thinking the rules themselves are dumb, and therefore, the people who enforce the rules are dumb. That’s a bad habit, and it can make someone kind of insensitive.”

“You’re talking about Nicole,” I inferred.

He raised his hands. “I’m not talking abo-”

“I don’t disagree.”

Scott was silent again. He sighed. “I’m not talking about anyone in particular,” he reaffirmed, and in my opinion, lied. “I just wanted to give you a warning. It’s my job to look out for the students here, and I’m… well, Adam, I’m never not worried that anyone who has seen as much as you have might go down the wrong path.”

“Sounds very ‘off the record,’ Mr. Scott,” I noted.

He shrugged and gave a small chuckle. “I may have a few years left in me, but I’m close to retirement. I’d rather tell it like it is, wouldn’t you?”

I chuckled in turn, then paused. “Honestly, if you mean that… tell me the best thing to do with Nicole. Because she’s assertive, pushy, and yes, selfish…”

Mr. Scott rolled his eyes. “Of course you were listening to our fight,” he murmured to himself.

“…but she’s also hurt, depressed, and very vulnerable right now. I want to know. You’ve probably seen a few kids like her. You would know. What should I do?”

Mr. Scott paused, then leaned forward on his desk. “Do you really want to know?”

“It’s why I asked,” I offered.

“Okay, but if I tell you, it can’t leave us. You can use my advice, but you can’t ever tell her I gave it.”

I nodded. “Deal.”

He nodded back, and began to speak.

***

Sure enough, the gawking and obsessing continued at lunch. Megan, clearly not comfortable enough to text Zelda yet, wasn’t aware of what happened and rushed out of her seat as soon as she saw me approaching, asking repeatedly if I was okay and “what the heck happened.” 

I could trust Carson to have a different response, and of course, he didn’t disappoint. “So how bad’s the other guy, buddy?” he asked supportively. “I bet he’s barely walking.”

I smiled but shook my head. “He looks fine. I only got him once, and I was only defending myself.”

“Agh, you pussy,” he joked, shaking his head. 

“I’m surprised you hit him at all,” Megan added, her knowing look communicating the events of last year.

“I can see that look,” I replied. “This guy didn’t really stop. He was furious with me. The only time I got him was when I kicked him in the… well, you know. And that was just to get him to stop.”

“Fuck yeah,” Carson enthusiastically replied, nodding.

“And did it work?” Sabrina asked, holding onto one of Carson’s arms.

I lowered my eyebrow in annoyance. The duo really were getting comfy with each other. I quickly resumed with my plain face. “I mean, I’m here, and I’m only as fucked up as I am,” I replied.

“It’s classic fight logic. If you’re on the ground, kick ‘em in the balls,” Carson agreed. He saw Megan’s disapproving look and leaned in towards her. “Balls. Nuts. Testes. Baby factories.”

“Okay so wait, who was it?” Megan asked, turning away from Carson and clearly wanting to forget he existed. “What did you… no offense, obviously it wasn’t your fault, but what did you do to piss him off?”

I shot a look at Athena, who, true to her usual self at the lunch table these days, was pretty quiet. “Um, I shouldn’t say,” I replied.

Carson rolled his eyes. “Holy shit. Can you even see us from on top of that ivory tower, buddy?” He cupped his hands around his mouth. “He beat you up. It’s okay to talk shit about him.”

His voice rang in my ears. “Yeah, I know it is,” I replied, wincing. “I just… shouldn’t.”

That was enough to clue Athena in. Her eyes widened, and her jaw dropped. “No…” she slowly said.

I could only clamp my teeth together and shrug in response. 

Athena was staring at me in disbelief. “…No!” she repeated.

“Oh, shit, wait, I get it,” Carson replied, his mouth full of food and Sabrina leaning in next to him. “It’s Jason, right?”

Megan looked back and forth between Athena and me. “…And was there a reason for this fight?” she asked me. 

I looked at Megan with a hurt expression. She may have known about Athena and me, but the rest of the table didn’t… until now. Sabrina was looking at me with her jaw lowered, although Carson was still eating his lunch.

“You and…?” Sabrina’s voice trailed off as she looked at Athena.

Athena’s cheeks burned crimson. “I should go,” she quickly said, gathering her things and running out of the cafeteria at lightning speed. We all watched her leave, and I eventually turned to Megan with an annoyed expression.

“Thank you, Megan,” I told her angrily.

“What? All I did was ask if there was a reason for the fight,” she replied.

I had enough of the bullshit playing dumb. I slammed my hand down onto the table. “No, you asked a very suggestive question and made Sabrina clue into one of the worst things I ever did.” I sat back. “Yes, Sabrina. Jason beat the shit out of me, because I had sex with Athena. We fucked while she was in a relationship and I was supposed to be monogamous with Nicole, and she even broke up with Jason for me so that we could have sex again. He clued in and messed up my face. Happy?!”

Megan shook her head disapprovingly. “You could have left out the cheating part and Sabrina would have still had all the context she needed,” she chided me, completely unfazed by my angry episode. 

I hated how condescending she could get. “Nah, I like this,” I replied in an intentionally obnoxious, dramatic voice. “What should I say next? Maybe how you, Zelda and I-”

“Hey!!” Megan’s voice pierced through the whole cafeteria. A wave of silence followed. “Boundaries,” she added in a normal voice, fully calm out of nowhere, then shrugged at Sabrina. “The three of us… got in a fight recently,” she added hastily. I could clearly tell it was a lie, although it was possible Sabrina swallowed it. 

I stared at Megan and saw her whip out her phone. I exhaled, feeling my phone vibrate with several messages. I counted to three in my head. The fuck was I doing? “You’re right,” I admitted softly. “I lost control and just wanted to say anything to just be mean. It wasn’t cool. I’m sorry.”

“Kind of reminds me of someone,” Megan replied, staring at me. “Don’t you think?”

Nicole. God, I hated how she wasn’t wrong. I stared back, while Carson cleared his throat. “Honestly man, I get it. You were in a fight, you went through hell, so you’re defensive. And, like, honestly? It’s the reasonable kind of defensive. Nah, you ask me, I get ya.” He motioned towards Megan. “Give him a break. It’s a miracle the school didn’t catch him and try to expel him or some shit.”

“Oh, they did,” I admitted. “I only managed to stay because Zelda vouched for me to Salvador.”

At the mention of Zelda’s name, Megan rolled her eyes and returned to her sandwich. Carson’s response didn’t fare much better. “Oh good. Zelda.” He took a bite of his food. “Queen bitch herself.”

“She would have to fight you for the title,” Megan shot back. Even though she wasn’t a fan of talking about Zelda, she still defended her. It was… sweet, in a weird way.

“I’m surprised you’d cheat on Nicole, Adam,” Sabrina cut through the conversation. I looked up at her. Ever since my angry episode, I kinda just forgot she existed. She huffed, her hands off of Carson (finally). 

I nodded. “It was me at my worst, yeah,” I admitted. “It’s why we broke up, and obviously, I deserved it.”

“Wait, I wasn’t aware of this,” Carson pointed out. “You told me you broke up with her.”

I didn’t have the mental energy to deal with this on top of everything else. I gave him a faux confused expression. “Really? I don’t remember that.”

“Huh,” Carson replied, thinking to himself. “I figured I’d remember that. Like, I would have joked about you being whipped or something… enh, whatever. I’m probably not remembering right.”

“Either way, I had a lot of time to think about it,” I kept on talking to Sabrina. “And so did Nicole. We had a lot of chats about it since, and… well, you know.”

Sabrina looked conflicted. “I suppose this gives a lot of backstory to those texts you showed me,” she admitted.

“You showed her private texts that Nicole sent you?” Megan asked me in shock.

I exhaled through gritted teeth. “Is it just fucking Judge Adam Day? Is it?!” I demanded, Burying my face in my hands then banging on the table with my fist. “I got fucking beat up today. Leave me alone. No, wait, better yet, tell me if you’re disappointed in me and I’ll fucking leave, right now. I can go, and you won’t see me for however long you fucking want to.”

The table was silent. “Yo, I’ll stand up for ya,” Carson eventually piped up. “Nicole was a bitch. She deserved to get cheated on. I’ve shown tons of people texts, that’s what the screenshot button is for. Athena? Smoking hot. Who wouldn’t? I would. Jason? Fuckin’ creep. If he got expelled for throwing the first punch, awesome. Adios, dude. And one final thing, I’m proud of you for airing all those secrets, dude. We’re all fucking humans, but only you had the balls to say it today. None of us are saying you always did the right thing, but none of us can say we aren’t guilty of the exact same stuff either.” He looked around the table. “Enh? Enh?”

Sabrina slowly nodded. “I’ve cheated before,” she confessed. “I can’t say I don’t understand how you feel.”

“I’m at peace with it too,” Megan added. “I wouldn’t share private conversations, but I also think Nicole was… manipulative.”

Sabrina perked up. “Oh my God, she-”

“‘Gosh’ or ‘goodness,’ please.”

Sabrina looked at Megan weirdly. “Okay, sure, whatever. Anyway, she was so manipulative. You should have seen half the shit she said. It was like she would say anything just to make Adam hurt or something. Some of it, like… I fucking cried, Megan, and it wasn’t even meant for me.”

Megan turned to me and gave me a sad expression, rubbing my shoulder sympathetically. Honestly, I was kind of just impressed with Carson. He managed to turn the table from against me to fully supporting me in one dumb speech. I’d be really happy for him, if I didn’t notice what his and Sabrina’s hands were definitely up to underneath the lunch table. First of all, not as subtle as they could be. Number two, in as public a place as this? I was me and I thought it was too far.

But thirdly… it felt like recently when Sabrina and I had something special. We said as much to each other. And now it kind of just felt like she dropped me for another guy. It was weird. I get we weren’t a couple or anything, and she knew I was having sex with other girls, but… she felt special to me. Didn’t I feel special to her? In some way? Why did it feel like as soon as she found another guy, she was all too happy to leave me behind? Didn’t the things she said to me matter…?

***

I sat next to Nicole on the bus home and it was clear today wasn’t a good day for her. “Hey, you okay? Wanna talk about it?” I offered after a minute or so of silence.

She was staring straight ahead, but when she heard my words, she huffed and stared out the window, into the unforgiving gray winter sky. “I used to be the pharaoh,” she mumbled. “Y’know? I used to be the fucking pharaoh.”

I remained silent. Nicole had such a way with words. I found her hand and squeezed it. “Was yearbook difficult or something?”

“Always, but…” she chuckled. “Nah. Um, when you got your ass hauled in for that whole fight thing, I didn’t tell you the whole story earlier. I actually went to the office. Scott and I got into a shouting match.”

I thought about feigning ignorance and going, ‘no way!’ but knowing her, that would have given me away. “And it didn’t go how you planned?” I asked.

“Bingo,” she growled. “I remember when my hard work got me somewhere. Nowadays, it feels like I’m putting in all this work, and… and, for what? What’s the point of everything I do if it just makes people trust and like me less?”

I thought about what Scott said. His advice, but also what he said to her, about how she could be selfish. But… Nicole made things she said about her, but at the end of the day… she was in that office for me. She dedicated her time to being the Council president. Everything she did, she did for others. She was allowed to talk about herself. “I’m sorry,” I said in a tender voice. “That must be really hard.”

She squeezed her eyes shut. “No,” she replied swiftly. “You got beat up today, then you almost got expelled for it. I can’t make this about me. That’s unfair to you. I’m just swept up in it, that’s all. I’m glad you’re okay, squirt. And you’re safe, and you’re still at Hazelwood. That’s all that matters. I’m really glad you’re okay.” She squeezed my hand.

I looked down at it, then back to her face. “You know…” I slowly said. “I’ll always look up to you. I know you work hard and I know you always want to help other people. I don’t care what other people say, or what you do when you’re angry. Nicole Baker cares. You care, and it’s so clear. You’re the pharaoh to me.”

I thought Nicole was going to chuckle at that statement, but instead she bit her lip and her eyes began to water. “I don’t want to make this about me,” she said quietly. Jeez, what Scott said really did a number on her insecurity.

“Go ahead,” I whispered, encouraging her.

She turned to me, her eyes getting mistier. “Okay, but fair warning, you gave me permission,” she half-laughed. “What you said just now… it was exactly what I needed to hear. You’re so fucking special, squirt.” She moved forward and kissed me on the lips, then quickly retracted. “Is kissing weird?”

I smiled. “I’ll deal with it.”

She smiled back, a singular tear trailing down her cheek. “Fuck, why am I crying…” she scoffed at herself.

“You’re hurting, you’re exhausted, you’re overwhelmed,” I told her.

She closed her eyes. “Yeah,” she admitted. “Um, hey… do you have anything you’re doing after school?” I opened my mouth to speak, but she continued nonetheless. “Can you come over? Please? We can do whatever you want. Whatever you want.”

I chuckled. “Nicole, I was already going to say yes,” I told her.

She exhaled, as if she was holding in a breath since when she asked me. “Thank you,” she told me.

“Don’t thank me, I like spending time with you,” I told her. I meant what I told her. Nicole cared. She had flawed ways of showing it, but I really didn’t care right now. Nicole, in her own way, took care of the whole school. It wasn’t unreasonable that she wanted to be cared for from time to time.

The two of us rode back to the next town over, occasionally holding the other’s shoulder or something, mostly in silence. It was kind of sweet. Eventually, the bus dropped us off at our stop, and we walked for a few minutes in the snow until we were nearing our houses. As they drew near, Nicole, despite freezing her ass off (she couldn’t handle any temperature below freezing) looked determined about something.

“When I open the door, don’t walk in,” she told me sternly. “Wait for a sec, okay?”

“Um, okay… why?” I asked.

She gave me a muted smile in response, and we walked up to her front door. She kicked her snow-covered boots on the doorframe before opening the door and walking inside. It must have been nice, getting to go inside the warm house, while I was still cold outside.

“Hi mommy!” she called, leaving the door ajar. I walked right up to the door so I could hear the conversation. Nicole clearly paused, then cleared her throat. “Um, so I brought someone over today, hope that’s okay. Where’s daddy?”

“He’s out,” I could barely hear Mrs. Baker reply. “Who’s your friend?”

“So, uh…” Nicole sounded nervous. I guess she told her parents about our breakup. “It’s… look, it’s Adam. Just trust me-”

“Salope!” Mrs. Baker’s angry voice rang through the house! “Je ne peux pas te faire confiance pour prendre soin de toi! Sale gosse!”

“Maman, s’il te plaît, écoute-moi!” Nicole pleaded. The two yelled at each other for a little longer, around a minute, until I heard Mrs. Baker’s tone settle down.

“Va te faire voir,” she simply told Nicole, and I heard footsteps approaching the door again. It swung open and Nicole’s ‘wasn’t that something’ expression greeted me. 

“That went better than I expected,” she told me.

“Hon hon hon,” I replied in a French accent.

She rolled her eyes. “Hilarious,” she mumbled, dragging me in by my arm. She didn’t stop dragging me, and I barely had time to kick my boots off before we were out of her foyer and into her kitchen.

“Hello, Mrs. Baker,” I said in my most friendly voice, all while Nicole dragged me across the room and up the stairs. Mrs. Baker didn’t reply with words, and simply looked at me while I ascended the staircase with her. Eventually, I was out of her eyeshot, and I finally walked along with Nicole before she opened her door, threw me onto the bed, and collapsed beside me. 

“It’s almost nostalgic going to your house and having your mom hate me,” I remarked humorously.

Nicole’s face was in her sheets. “I may or may not have said some really horrible shit about you while I was mad,” her muffled voice reported. “I, uh, doubt I can take any of it back.”

I shrugged. “I don’t care about any of that,” I replied.

Her face emerged. “What’s with you? Why can’t you ever go, ‘hey Nicole, you were out of line and your behavior is only getting worse, I’m gonna leave you and find someone better’?”

“Well, I mean, I think I do do the first part,” I started to reply.

“You said doo doo,” Nicole interrupted. 

“Shut up,” I laughed. “We both fuck up. We fucked up a lot this year. We saw more than our fair share of drama. But like… I dunno, I feel like drama can only go so far. If you’re willing to stay with me despite… everything… why shouldn’t I do the same with you?”

“Because I’m worse?” she asked like it was obvious. 

“So you make parties more interesting and talk shit about me to your mom.” I shrugged. “I still don’t really care about any of that. I’d go through all of it to have a friend like you.” I closed the difference between us and kissed her on the lips. 

She eagerly kissed back, and the both of us fell on the bed together. Without detaching our lips, we rolled over with her on top of me. She moved her lips away from mine and smiled down at me. “I still cause your worst moments, dummy. Your face still looks… y’know, it’s going back to normal, but…”

I half-smiled. “I mean, both times I actually got into fights, they were about girls, but you never caused either of them. Think about that.”

“I’ll get you into one someday,” she promised. “Maybe I’ll be the one to fight you.”

“I mean, you’re the one with more karate experience,” I pointed out.

“About that,” Nicole replied, nuzzling into my neck. “Fucking come back.” She began to kiss my neck, barely pretending to start lightly before sucking on my neck enough to leave hickeys.

“I dunno, I’m still figuring out if – ah – I feel it’s still right for me,” I moaned, appreciating her mouth on my neck. “Not even gonna ask if I’m okay with hickeys, huh?”

“Well, think about it,” Nicole said between kisses, starting to move her hips back and forth. She was grinding against me. “Sensei Sparrow misses you.”

“I was there for less than a year. You miss me,” I told her assertively, grabbing her hips.

She kissed my neck a few more times. “Yeah,” she eventually admitted quietly, then kissed me on the lips. Very quickly, our tongues began to play with each other, all while she was grinding on my leg. She came up for air and added, “Sue me.” We both giggled, and continued to kiss.

While we kissed, various articles of clothing came flying off. A shirt here, a sock there, a pair of pants over there… until all that was left were two eager teens, just in their underwear, making out. Her hands were on the mattress for support as she ground against my raging hard cock, and my hands were roaming all over her body, eventually going around her back to undo her bra strap.

Nicole moaned ever so slightly into the kiss when the bra came off. She shifted her body, letting it slide off, then arched her back, letting our lips feel air again. My eyes went down to her amazing full breasts, with nipples so stiff with arousal that they were inaudibly begging for some attention. I bit my lip and looked into Nicole’s eyes.

Nicole smiled. “My boobs are down here, hotshot,” she joked.

I chuckled, but still dove in and pulled her in towards me. Nicole responded eagerly, moving herself closer to me so that my tongue could find her most sensitive areas again. She sighed in pleasure and slowly closed her eyes when she felt my tongue, then my teeth, then my whole mouth on her nipples. I could already feel her heat radiating out of her needy pussy, but I could feel it growing as my mouth closed over her nipple. I just pulled her closer in response.

The feeling of Nicole’s body on top of mine was still the best feeling in the world. The feeling of her soft skin, her smell, the way she would give little moans with every movement of my tongue across her sensitive hard nipple… it was perfect. I moved from breast to breast as Nicole lightly giggled in pleasure, jutting her chest out and letting me have my way with her chest. I responded eagerly, holding the left one in both hands, kneading it as I alternated from eagerly sucking, lightly biting, teasing her areola with my tongue and flicking my tongue across her erect nubs.

“Mmh… okay, I said I’d let you do anything you wanted…” Nicole moaned after a bit, “…but did that include actually fucking me, or just playing with my tits?”

I smiled as I pulled my mouth off of her nipple. “Am I taking too long?” I teasingly asked.

She grinned back at me. “Maybe I’m just impatient, I dunno.”

“I’m just admiring the human body in its most artful form,” I replied, knowing how cheesy I sounded.

From the way nicole rolled her eyes, she knew too. “C’mon Adam, I know they are perfect, but still…”

She moved forward and kissed me deeply again, then retracted from the kiss, pulling off my underwear shamelessly. My dick sprang up straight into the air, and she watched it slap my stomach then go back straight up with a smug smirk on her face. “What’s with the look?” I asked.

“I’m just admiring the human body in its most artful-” Nicole dodged the pillow I threw at her with a laugh, then dove in, hungrily giving my cock a lick from base to tip. “Mmm,” she moaned. “It’s been way too long since I gave a guy a good blowjob.”

“Uh-huh, has it?” I teased.

“Well, since I actually wanted to,” she replied with a laugh. “All my blowjobs are good ones.”

“Duh!”

“But the last few guys… enh,” she shrugged, then took me into her mouth. She used her tongue to coat my whole shaft in her saliva, then didn’t even bother to tease me or pretend she was going to go slow. Before I knew it, I was grunting and grabbing the bedsheets as my cock slipped into Nicole’s expert throat.

She was almost frustratingly good at everything. Every part of her knew just what to do. As my cock disappeared into her throat, her hand teased the base of my shaft in a way I couldn’t even describe. I could have opened my eyes and lifted my head to see it, but I was too lost in the emotions I was feeling. I could only moan and encourage Nicole to keep going, all the while she kept going back and forth between taking my cock as far down as she could go and coming up, swirling her tongue around the head of my dick, her free hand going back to working my shaft.

I did my best to hold back from cumming, partially because I knew it wasn’t Nicole’s favorite flavor, but also because I wanted to save myself for the main event. Part of me wanted to eat her out, but I knew that she was sucking me off to prepare me for going inside her, and she would have killed me if I delayed it one moment longer. I tapped her head and lifted her mouth off of my cock, a few lines of spit still connecting her to my manhood.

“Let’s do it,” I told her.

“Fuckin’A,” she replied with an eager tone, ditching her underwear like she’d been waiting years for me to say those words. She then moved her mouth around and grimaced. “Nope, one sec.”

I chuckled, watching Nicole move to her bedside table and chug some of her usual mint water from her water bottle. “Okay, all set,” she replied swiftly, rolling back over to me and grabbing my cock in her hand. “Mm, fuck, it’s jumping. Someone’s excited.”

“You just make me so excited,” I said in a strained voice, feeling her slowly move her hand up and down, feeling every vein on my rock-hard cock. 

She grinned at me determinedly and nodded. “The feeling is definitely mutual, squirt,” she said in a quiet yet powerful voice. She lined up my cock with her pussy, the copious fluids between us making the friction slippery. Already the feeling was the best. I had missed it so much. “Oh wow,” she murmured, her own feelings hitting her too. “You ready?”

“Do it.”

She slowly sank herself down on me and sighed as I disappeared inside her, inch by inch. She winced but kept going until I managed to fully slip inside her. Our pelvises met. She’d taken me balls deep.

“Booyah,” she said triumphantly. “Reigning champion over here.”

“Hope you enjoy your prize,” I taunted her, giving an experimental thrust. The effect was immediate, and her eyes nearly rolled into her head. I took that as a good sign to continue and began to thrust over and over, savoring the feeling but giving Nicole absolutely zero mercy. There were times to gently and sweetly fuck, and this wasn’t one of them.

Interestingly, Nicole seemed to feel this way too. As soon as she got into my rhythm, she gripped the bed and began to hump back, battling me for control over the tempo. Eventually, her eyes opened and she locked them on mine, giving me a challenging smile as she thrust back into me, pinning me and fucking me in one move. She’d gone from being at my mercy to having complete control over this.

I cocked my head and gave her a curious look, even as neither of us stopped. “What are you doing…?” I had to ask.

“Just fucking you, dude, why?” Nicole said with fake nonchalance. “Something bothering you?”

I chuckled in disbelief and began to double my efforts to thrust against her. Nicole may have had the karate experience but I’d been going to the gym for the past year, solid. I was not going to give up this easily. As we fucked, we battled for dominance, even as we switched positions. We went from cowgirl to missionary to doggystyle, and the entire time, there was this playfulness present. It was like we were both fucking and challenging the other, or at least, I was. Maybe after today, Nicole just genuinely wanted to be in control. Either way, she wouldn’t give up.

I quickly realized that Nicole had a secret weapon. We were fucking in our third position, doggystyle, and I could hear her moans escalating in tone and frequency, and knew she was reaching her climax. “Oh, fuck, yes,” she moaned, losing control, throwing herself back against me. I had regained control of our tempo.

“Giving up so easily?” I tauntingly asked, keeping up my thrusts perfectly with no issues, and heard Nicole grunt and ride out her orgasm, then give an ominous chuckle. 

“I’m good,” she told me, a little out of breath. “How about you?” I was confused at first, but then realized after only thirty seconds, Nicole was back in the game, and was ready to start pushing her hips back against me. And shortly after, I made a second startling realization.

I was close. I could be ready for round two in a few minutes, but I sure as hell couldn’t keep going like she had once I came. Grappling with this, I began to pace myself, slowing down my thrusts… and so Nicole pushed back harder, keeping up the pace we had before.

“Fuck!” I moaned, both in pleasure and in the realization that Nicole had me right where she wanted. I clumsily moved around, hoping to give my dick a break, but my orgasm was approaching and there was nothing I could do about it.

“Giving up so easily?” Nicole taunted back in a faux high voice of hers. I shut my eyes and tried to ride it out, and realized I couldn’t. The building feeling inside me was coming. My balls were tightening. Nicole was going to get her pussy filled today. My load was coming. Resigning myself to my fate, I grabbed her hips and went along with her rhythm, earning a triumphant “ha-ha!” from her, although her smugness didn’t last so long once she began to fill my cum inside her.

It felt like I was shooting an infinite load. Rope after rope shot out of me, straight into Nicole. I grunted with each rope, and Nicole gleefully accepted each one, moaning right alongside me, feeling me complete her in that most intimate way. The huge load and the workout of trying to beat her had taken a lot out of me, so as soon as my load subsided, I collapsed on top of her.

“Holy shit,” I breathed. “That was a lot.”

“I win,” she pointed out, looking back at me. “Say it, Adam.”

“You’re such a brat,” I wheezed, pulling out of her and collapsing beside her. “You win, Nicole.”

She smiled and nuzzled into me, pulling me into her and kissing my nose. “Fuckin’A,” she whispered. “Thanks, Adam. I needed that.”

“Yeah, so did I,” I admitted.

“The challenge or the sex?” she asked.

“I meant the sex, but sure, both,” I answered. “Why, which one did you mean?”

“I just needed to win,” she answered playfully. Like a brat. Which she was. Always.

“Oh my god,” I scoffed with a chuckle, kissing her forehead. I looked down at our bodies and watched as my cum oozed out of her. “You’re gonna need to change your sheets.”

“Ugh, boys,” Nicole complained out loud. “News flash, genius, I change my sheets after every time I fuck. You just don’t see it because I don’t do it immediately.”

“Yeah, I’m probably home by the time you do it,” I defended myself. “I was just saying it. Calm down, you baby.”

“I’m pretty sure you’re the baby for losing,” Nicole replied.

“Oh, is that how it works?” I asked with a challenging smile.

“Mhm!” Nicole agreed. We both looked at each other, then kissed deeply. We pulled our lips back from each other at the same time and then just… looked in each other’s eyes. Smiling. Feeling comfortable. Feeling right.

She sighed and nuzzled her head into my chest again. What a fucking day. It was absolutely wild that this all happened in one day. It felt more important than so many weeks of fucking school. 

“Whatcha thinking about?” she asked quietly.

“How this all happened on one day,” I answered honestly. “There was a fight, the whole office thing, the – you didn’t see it, but there was a big dramafest at the lunch table today…”

“You, Carson, Sabrina, Athena, Megan… Zelda?” she ran over the people at our lunch table, thinking it over. “Oh, wait. Duh. Jason was the guy, right? Athena.”

“Believe it or not, nope,” I answered. “We just aired a lot of dirty laundry today.”

“In a bad way, or…?”

“Good way,” I reaffirmed. “Carson out of all of them was the one to make sure it was all okay.”

“Hmm. Good guy Carson,” Nicole lightly commented. I could tell from her tone that she wasn’t the hugest fan of the guy, but was willing to let it slide. “Well, it’s over. Congrats. You survived another bullshit pointless fight.”

“Nah, it had a point,” I admitted, holding her tighter. “It, uh… was a mistake.”

Nicole was silent for a bit. “You know it wasn’t just the one thing,” she told me softly. “It’s not like one event causes a breakup. We were… y’know, not on the same page. And I was unstable.”

“Hey, no blaming yourself,” I told her, holding her closer. “I did the stupid thing. And yeah, we weren’t on the same page. I get it. We… we feel on the same page now.”

Nicole chuckled. “Crazy how things are better for us the moment we’re not official,” she murmured, then looked at me. We shared another kiss. “Do you have to get home soon?”

“Nah, I can stay a bit longer,” I told her.

She looked away in thought and grimaced. “I dunno how thrilled my ‘rents would be if you stayed for dinner, but I can maybe try asking,” she offered. “If not, we can just hang out until then.”

An idea hit me. “Hey,” I said with excitement, tapping her on the shoulder over and over. “Hey hey hey hey hey.”

“What what what what what?” Nicole asked in confusion.

“Let’s play GTA!”

Nicole’s face lit up in excitement. “Oh my God!” she said in excitement. “Yes, let’s fucking play GTA!” she bounced off of the bed, leaving me and a mess on it. Without even bothering to put her clothes on, she rushed to the Playstation and began to set it up. I watched her, a smile permanently on my face. IT felt like I had a million stressors and all the reasons in the world not to smile right now, but I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed and happy looking at Nicole. I could have the world’s shittiest day and feel better knowing it ended with her.

Maybe I didn’t need to be in a relationship with her. Maybe I didn’t need to be her boyfriend. Maybe I was just in love with Nicole Baker, the problematic unstable sometimes-toxic yet somehow perfect queen of popularity, and maybe that was enough. 

---

>>Next Chapter

<<Previous Chapter

<<Back