---

In the Last Chapter…

After helping Nicole through one of her episodes, Adam leaves the house and realizes her parents now despise him. Adam becomes intensely aware his friend group are segmenting – Zelda and Megan are flirting in secret more, and Carson and Sabrina are in a relationship. Sabrina even denies ever having feelings for Adam. Adam, luckily, enjoys a stress-free friendship with benefits with Athena. At a Council meeting, Mr. Scott is forced to hold a confidence vote on Adam staying in the Council, and he passes. Adam goes to the Valentine’s Day dance, enduring the awkwardness of Sabrina and Carson together, but realizes Nicole isn’t there. He asks her friends Sydney and Rick about her, and they call him, only to find out she’s in the hospital.

---

Hospitals scared the fuck out of me. There was something about their eerie, yellow-white glow, the sounds of quiet distress, and labyrinthine design that made me never like them. It didn’t help that my only memories of going to a hospital were because of bad memories, and this surely wasn’t going to improve them.

Rick, Sydney and I nervously walked up to the front desk, with Rick leaning in to explain we were here to see Nicole Baker. After a song-and-dance about visiting hours and our reasonings and who we were and all that, we were finally admitted in.

I didn’t care about anything that was being said around me. I didn’t care about anything else in the world. I needed to see Nicole, and I needed to see her alive. I was prepared for her to start shouting, yelling anything she needed to poison us, but I wouldn’t care. I needed to be by her side. She needed someone.

Sydney’s mascara was running down her face from crying in fear on the car ride over. Rick kept up his stern expression, and didn’t say much of anything until Sydney started to hyperventilate or something. As usual, I was their third wheel, but I was part of this. I couldn’t not be.

The nurse escorted us down a few hallways until we were taken into this wing with stiff green curtains separating hospital beds, one after the other. Some beds were empty, some had worried people crowded around them, and some just had people laying there, suffering. I could feel my fists clenching as I walked past. This place wasn’t good. Nicole didn’t need to be here.

Eventually, we approached Nicole’s bed. Thanks to the curtain, we were quite close before we saw her. My first sight of her made me worry almost more – she was dressed in one of those hospital gowns, hooked up to a machine and an IV drip of some kind. Her eyes had little red rings around them, like she hadn’t slept in days. Her hair was a mess, and she was looking up at the hospital ceiling like she was madly looking away from someone or something. As soon as we approached, her eyes turned to us. I prepared for them to show anger – they didn’t. If anything, they showed fear. “Oh my God,” she murmured, holding the blanket up. “No. Please.”

Sydney’s lip quivered. “Nicole,” she began in a low voice. “What happened?”

Nicole chewed on something invisible in her mouth, trying to find some kind of response. Her face showed an utter seriousness, almost to the point of anger. Eventually, she took a big breath in. “Tada,” she nearly whispered, never losing her serious expression.

“Are you okay?” I asked. My own breathing was difficult at this point.

Her eyes turned to me. It’s like they were lifeless. She didn’t even care. “Hey squirt,” she told me in the same tone of voice. “Don’t I look terrible?”

I didn’t know how to respond, and defaulted to sarcasm. “We should see the other guy,” I told her, weirdly imitating her serious tone. I had no clue why I did that; I just did.

It got a chuckle out of her, but she never lost that determined, serious… dead look on her face even when chuckling. She turned to Rick. “Gang’s all here, huh?”

Rick approached her and touched her arm – the one without the IV drip – sympathetically, but she brushed him off. “You shouldn’t touch me,” she told him with no emotion in her tone. “Doctors probably wouldn’t want you doing that.”

“Was this…” Sydney started, nearly choking over her own words. Her eyes squeezed shut. “A… s-sui-”

“Yes,” Nicole told her seriously, now sitting up in the bed. “Yes it was, Sydney. It was a suicide attempt. Get it out of your system, tell me I’m a bad friend, and leave.”

“We’re not going to do that, Nicole,” Rick told her supportively yet defiantly, despite Sydney now crying too hard to respond herself. “We need to be friends right now. That’s what friends do when their friends aren’t well.”

“And why am I not well?” Nicole challenged him, never once raising her voice. “When’s the last time we hung out, Rick? Hell, let’s throw a softball – when’s the last time we texted? When’s the last time you asked me how I was doing? Is today the day you’re pretending to care, dude? The day you find me in a fucking hospital? How utterly serendipitous, my friend.”

Rick’s stern expression was starting to crack, but he handled it well, exhaling calmly. “You’re right,” he told her. “I haven’t been there for you. That was unfair of me. I-”

“Good start,” Nicole told him, laser focused on him. “Wouldn’t it have been crazy if you were the reason? Can you imagine? You could have saved me, but never did? Boy, wouldn’t that be the worst feeling in the world.” She was starting to smile now, almost evilly, even though tears were pooling in her eyes. “It’s almost a shame I didn’t succeed when you think about it, huh? I’m getting closer to death every day, guys. And I’m getting better at it. I’m going to kill myself any day now.”

That broke the dam for Sydney. She couldn’t bear to be party to this conversation anymore, and with a particularly pained expression, she hid her face in her hands and ran away, bawling. Rick turned where he stood, calling, “Syd-!” after her. He turned back to Nicole and pointed at her. “We’ll be back,” he nearly growled, before chasing after her. I turned with him and ran two steps with him, before turning around.

I had zero intention of running off with them – I barely knew either of them, they were just Nicole’s friends – but I had a feeling making it look like I left was a good strategy here. Sure enough, with her thinking all three of us had run off, Nicole squeezed her eyes shut, covering her mouth with her hand, crying silently to herself. She was nearly convulsing, she was crying so hard. She looked so broken here, so lifeless, and…

…And something spoke to me. Some voice inside my head. Some voice that knew what was going on, why she did what she did. Trying to be silent, I walked back up to her, and waited her for open her eyes again. After a minute, she opened them, and was immediately startled by me. “Wh- christ!” she exclaimed, sadness affecting her voice. “Can you just go!?”

“Can I make one guess about what just happened?” I asked in a small voice. “If I’m wrong, at all, I’ll leave voluntarily. But if I’m a hundred percent right, I just want to stay with you a bit longer.” My gaze wandered to the empty chair beside her. “What do you say?”

“You’re fucking bargaining with me?” Nicole nearly laughed, despite the complete sadness of her face and tone. She stared at me for a bit. “Try me. Tell me about me.”

My jaw quivered. “You love your friends, you love those two,” I began, looking deep into her eyes. “You know…” Nicole was looking at me differently now. My voice caught in my throat. “You know it’s getting harder not to… you know… so, to make it easier for them when… you’re gone… you’re pushing them away, by any means necessary. The less they like you now, the less it’ll hurt when you’re gone. You’re saying anything to hurt these people not because you want to hurt them…” 

Nicole was breathing heavily, tears welling up in her eyes. “Adam, stop…”

“…But because you think hurting them now will make them hurt less when you die.” It was getting difficult for me to talk at this point, but I needed to say this. I knew, and Nicole knew, how awfully and selfishly her words came across to others. It was time for her to know someone else knew why she did it. “This is the only way you know how to love when you’re like this.”

A tear rolled down Nicole’s face. “I…” she managed, before breaking down, closing her eyes and crying again. I wasn’t succeeding at holding back my own tears, and extended my hand forward. Nicole eagerly took it, holding onto my hand with hers, still crying, never looking at me. Without us saying anything else, I sat down in the chair beside her, still holding her hand.

A few minutes went by. Nicole went from crying to shivering, to staring back at the ceiling again. Now I knew why her eyes were so red and puffy before. If anything, this time she looked even more drained. Sydney and Rick returned, walking slowly up to us. I got up to talk to them, but Nicole yanked me by the hand, wordlessly telling me to sit down.

“I’m going to be out of the hospital tomorrow,” she told them, almost sternly. Her voice was dry, drained and almost crackly, like dead leaves blowing down the street. “I don’t have any energy. I’m not in a good headspace. If you stay, you’re gonna keep seeing me at my worst.”

Rick looked at Sydney and smiled supportively at her, then turned back to Nicole. “We want to support you,” he told her. “We want to stay.”

“Then you’re going to be silent,” Nicole told them. “If you want me to talk, I’ll talk later.” She had no emotion at all in her voice. She was almost speaking like a robot.

Rick and Sydney walked over to each side of Nicole’s bed and, one at a time, rubbed each shoulder sympathetically. Nicole didn’t react, at all. She just stared up at the ceiling, occasionally sighing in annoyance. I never stopped holding her hand, even after our hands started to get clammy, although Nicole occasionally changed up the angles. Every so often, Sydney would say something, trying to start a conversation, and get absolutely nothing in response. After about fifteen minutes, Sydney cleared her throat.

“Okay. I hope you feel better soon. We’re gonna go.” She looked at Rick, then at me.

I slowly shook my head. “I’m gonna stay, it’s okay.”

Rick shook his head back. “C’mon, Adam. We’re already bending the rules by having more than two visitors at a time. Visiting hours are almost up.”

“I just want a few more minutes. I already texted my dad, he’s going to pick me up. I’ll be fine, guys,” I reasoned, never standing up, never letting go of her hand.

Rick stared me down. He knew as well as I did that he was going to leave. Eventually, he relented, accepting his fate. The two promised Nicole they’d hang out and talk soon, and walked somberly down the hall, their footsteps echoing in the hallway.

There was another silence for a brief period, before Nicole of all people decided to speak. “You should probably text your dad,” she nearly rasped. I looked towards her to see her looking at me blankly. “That thing about you texting your dad. It was a lie, right?”

I stared at her for a bit, before shaking my head and smiling. I took my hand out from her hold and reached into my pocket. “Stop knowing me so well.”

“Nah, never,” she replied casually. Her face was still blank, but I just knew, if this was Nicole at her best, she’d be smiling right now. I quickly texted my dad, then eventually got lost in a sea of social media on my phone. I hadn’t checked my notifications in a while.

“Hey,” Nicole said, grabbing my attention from them. She gestured with her head across the wing to some mild-mannered middle-aged man sitting in a chair, reading a James Patterson book. He looked old and wise, and yet weirdly meek at the same time. “That’s László. He’s here to watch me.” She shifted in her bed. “Turns out, when you try to off yourself, you have to get someone to watch over you to make sure you don’t escape or try to kill yourself with the IV cords or something.” She began to form one of her first smiles since I arrived. “I have a bodyguard. Isn’t that the coolest shit?”

Even though I thought I didn’t have the energy, a smile slowly formed on my face too. I even began to giggle. “Wow,” I said. “Yeah, Nicole, life in the fast lane.”

She cleared her throat. “Hey, László!” she called out. “Where’s Sarah?”

László looked up from his book at her with a puzzled face, then looked down the hallway in both directions. “I can never tell vith that girl,” he said disapprovingly in a thick Hungarian accent. 

Nicole turned to me, life back in her eyes. “Sarah’s the other guard, but she patrols the area,” she told me. “They squabble like an old married couple, but she’s, like, nineteen. It’s almost cute.”

László took out a walkie talkie from his belt. “Sarah, are you in the area?” he asked. He got no reply, but Nicole’s smile only got bigger. A few seconds later, a young woman approached. She was dressed in the same uniform as László, but had clearly trendy clothing on underneath. 

“What’s the problem, Lás?” she asked.

László pointed to Nicole. “Nikola vas vondering vhere you vere.”

Sarah turned to Nicole, who simply shrugged. “I was just bringing your name up,” Nicole pseudo-lied. “I mentioned it out loud and László just decided to call you up.”

Sarah rolled her eyes and smirked at László, who was looking confusedly back and forth between the two women. “László, when are you going to leave your wife for me?” Sarah joked.

László went “bah” and, with a dismissive wave of the hand, went back to his book.

Sarah giggled then turned back to Nicole. “But, seriously, no problems?”

“Nope,” Nicole said with a shrug. “Sorry to disturb you.”

“All good, this shift is hell anyways,” she replied, walking off. 

I turned to Nicole and smiled. She noticed me and looked back, a blank look on her face. “Even here,” I mused. “Even here, you have to cause trouble and make people talk to each other and be so… human,” I marveled.

Nicole shrugged. “Last time I checked, that was my species,” she flatly told me. “Makes sense I would act like one. The trouble, you don’t even know the half of it. I discovered…” She eyed László and, satisfied he wasn’t listening in, motioned for me to lean in. “I discovered,” she continued in a whisper, “that if the nurse is taking too long with getting me some juice or something, all I have to do is hold my breath. They come running.”

I looked around, confused. None of the nurses were nearby. “Wait, how? They can’t see it,” I replied.

Nicole’s eyes sparkled, then she winked. She drew in a deep breath, then held it. Suddenly, one of the monitors she was hooked up to started beeping, with some kind of flatline appearing on the screen. Even holding her breath, Nicole couldn’t help but smile. I smiled back in disbelief as László piped up. “Nikola, you need to be stopping vith this please,” he told her. “The staff here are very busy.”

Sure enough, a nurse approached Nicole, clearly angry with her. “Stop abusing the system,” she accosted her. 

Nicole scoffed. “I asked for a blanket an hour ago,” she reported. “How’s that going?”

The nurse pursed her lips. “We haven’t found one,” she replied tersely. “And if you keep holding your breath like that, we’re going to delay it intentionally.”

Most people would have backed down, but why did I think Nicole was most people? “Guess I’ll need to hold my breath for longer,” she replied with a smile, like it was a game. “I was brought here for a suicide attempt, sister. Do you think I’m gonna care about holding my breath so long I’ll damage myself?”

The nurse didn’t back down. “Then we’ll have to sedate you,” she replied swiftly, thinking she had the upper hand.

“Aren’t I due to transfer to psych ward at ten? If you sedate me now, that’ll really clog up the system. Hell, you told me the psychologist was already on her way, for me. I bet that would really inconvenience her. Especially since I’m kinda figuring out she’s not the patient type.”

“I’m not engaging with this,” the nurse replied dismissively, walking away. László was already back to his book, washing his hands of the situation. I probably should have been concerned too, but I looked at Nicole and saw her, smiling with her tongue between her teeth like some kind of brat, and I couldn’t help but feel… happy. Nicole was happy with something. Yeah, she was being a brat, on top of… this whole fucking situation, but there was this weird gem in the darkness. If Nicole was going to be helpless at the hands of her own despair, anything she did that she enjoyed was progress. 

And she didn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. “Hey, your mom’s Hungarian, right?” she asked me, now giddy. Her eyes had life in them again.

“Um, yeah…” I slowly replied.

“Say something in Hungarian to László,” she ordered playfully. “All I know are the greetings. Hey, László!” László slowly raised his head from his book. “Szia! Adam here is Hungarian too.”

My cheeks burned, especially as László slowly smiled in appreciation. “Beszélsz magyarul?” he asked happily. 

“Nicole,” I grumbled, almost angrily, then turned to László. “Uh, sorry, my mom is from Hungary but I don’t really speak it.”

“Oh,” László replied sadly, but then his face lit up again. “Vhat county?”

I should never have pointed out how much trouble Nicole was. She clearly took it as a challenge. I glared at her. She winked back. “Dunno,” I replied lamely.

“I see…” László slowly replied, then a silence greeted us. Slowly, he went back to his book, while I gave Nicole the stink eye. She winked back again. I chuckled and shook my head, unable to stay mad at her for too long.

Eventually, after a silence, Nicole cleared her throat. “Hey.”

“Hey hey,” I replied.

“It’s, uh, end of visiting hours. You’re gonna need to leave,” she told me, softly. When I arrived, her voice was firm and lifeless, like she had none of her humanity left. Now, it seemed, it was back.

I wanted to protest, but that nurse seemed like a serious no-nonsense person. Plus, Nicole had multiple security guards or whoever they were on her ass, and I didn’t feel like testing their patience either. “Okay,” I conceded, standing up and putting my coat back on. “When you’re out of here, do you wanna be alone, or would you enjoy hanging out?”

Nicole slowly smiled. “I dunno,” she softly said in this quiet, almost shy voice. “I wanna say something though.”

I gestured around me. “Go right ahead.”

“I, uh…” Her eyes got misty, but in a much happier way this time. “I was wrong about you.”

I paused. “Yeah, no shit. You’ve been wrong about me so many times.”

She chuckled, the mist pooling around her eyes. “Yeah, I guess I need to qualify that. I was wrong to think you couldn’t possibly understand me when I get like this. So many people just think I’m this hateful bitch. And like, I am, a lot of the time. I can be kinda insensitive. It’s like my brand.”

“At least it’s a spunky brand,” I reasoned.

“Right? Anyways, off topic. Point is, I’m sorry for thinking you could never get me. I, um, really trust you.” She sat up and reached her forwards again. “Yeah. Let’s hang out when I’m out of here. You and me.”

“Okay,” I replied, smiling. This was wonderful. It felt like Nicole and I reached some sort of new level of understanding in our relationship. “More GTA, or did you want to go somewhere or something?”

“I think I have an idea,” Nicole said. “But I’m probably going to complain a lot about it. It’s going to be…”

***

“…fucking cold,” Nicole complained. “Thank fuck winter is on its way out.” She wasn’t even looking at me. Instead, we were both sitting on the cold wooden second floor of the abandoned church, staring out the window at the sunset. Nicole gazed at her phone screen. “Christ. It’s not even 5:40. Aren’t the days supposed to be getting longer?”

I loved winter, even if Nicole didn’t. I was content to look out the big warped glass window of the church’s second story, looking over our picturesque, snow-covered neighborhood, barely lit by the last glimmers of the day’s twilight. “You have to admit, it looks really pretty.”

Nicole grumpily grabbed her mug of hot cocoa, grumpily sipped from it, and grumpily refilled it from the thermos. “I don’t have to admit shit. That’s what freedom is. This is America, you traitor. You Loyalist. Go back to England.”

“Go back to history class, you fucking nerd,” I rebutted, taking my own sip. We looked at each other and shared a giggle before resting our heads together. We let a few moments pass, content to just enjoy the sights with each other.

“Okay, so, this was a really cute idea ‘n all, but let’s fucking bail,” Nicole eventually said. “I’m cold. Let’s do anything but this.”

“Are we going back to your place?” I suggested.

She paused. “Let’s do anything but this and also that,” she added, taking her head off of me and standing up. “Mommy and daddy are home, and they’re only getting madder at you now. They’re convinced that somehow the car crash was your fault.”

“…Wait, how?!” I asked incredulously. “Do they think I was driving it?”

“No, just this idea about how we were upset at each other that night and it made me unfocused and blah blah fucking blah. Stupid parents shit. Because they’re stupid fucking parents.” She packed up the thermos angrily.

I paused. “They’re not stupid, they’re just-”

“Awful. The worst. I can’t wait to fucking leave them,” Nicole replied, the heat in her voice getting less sarcastic with every word. “I can’t wait to fucking leave them and then never fucking talk to them again.”

“Nicole…” I replied uneasily. “Calm down.”

She looked at me, her eyebrows meeting in a V, just breathing. Eventually, her face relaxed. “Whatever,” she said in a gentler voice. “I’ve just been pissed at them lately.”

I shrugged in affirmation. “I can tell!”

She breathed heavier for a bit, clearly mulling something over. “I’m gonna say this one thing but then let’s switch topics, okay?”

I paused. “You don’t have to say anything if it’ll hurt. It’s alright.”

“No. I wanna.” She paused. “Do you know the first thing my parents did when they heard I was in the hospital?”

I didn’t like this. “What?”

She breathed a bit. Her eyes got misty. “Complain about the bill.”

She just stood there, breathing uneasily. I couldn’t believe what I’d heard. The bill? Was she telling the truth? Was she exaggerating, or were her parents… that’s evil. That’s so unkind.

I wanted to say these things out loud, but all that came out of my life was, “Shit, Nicole…”

“Shit Nicole,” she repeated. “I’m lower than shit to them.”

“I’m so sorry.” I moved in for a hug, which she accepted, getting close to me and shivering, digging her face into my shoulder.

“I just… want… a mom and dad… who love me,” she admitted gently, with way less anger or even sadness than I would have expected. “That’s it. That’s all. I want a mom and dad who miss me when I’m gone. I want to feel… wanted.”

I broke off the hug, looking at her. She looked so broken, almost as broken as she did in the hospital. I didn’t want to offer her sympathies, I wanted to… fix things. I knew she didn’t like how I always jumped to that, but Nicole out of everyone deserved that. She deserved it so much. And here she was, shivering, and feeling lonely and deserted, and… it was unfair. It was unjust. It’s why I needed to do something. 

So I did.

***

“I seriously feel like they’re going to judge me for everything,” Nicole repeated as I opened the door. “I mean, I haven’t spoken to them in… how long?”

“Just act like nothing’s wrong and you’re the center of attention. You’re good at that,” I quipped back.

Nicole gave me the most ‘you motherfucker’ grin as I walked inside and removed my boots. “I’m home!” I called out. “I’ve got someone with me, if that’s okay.”

“Oh!” Mom called out unexpectedly. “Someone with you? Wh-”

“You would not believe… the week I’m having,” Nicole almost comically bellowed out, ditching her boots and marching into the kitchen. “How’s it going, Timothy? Timbo? Tim timiny, tim timiny, tim tim ter-ee?”

“Oh my God, she’s back,” the flat sarcastic tone of my father greeted me from the kitchen. “It’s good to see you, Nicole.”

“It’s good to see you too, dad! Mom! Can I call you dad and mom again please?” Nicole asked, full of her usual pep.

“Oh!” Mom exclaimed in happiness. “Are you and Adam back together?”

“Nope.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at the awkward silence that filled the house afterwards. I removed my boots in time to see Nicole sitting in a chair, cross-legged, facing my mom, reading a newspaper. “You know, I never actually bother to read these things?”

“Nico-”

“Yeah, I know, it’s obviously a lie,” she cut in dryly, tossing it aside. “Anyway, it’s good to see you two again. I’m, uh, sorry I haven’t kept in contact.”

Mom smiled warmly, sitting across the table from her. “Well, it’s nice to see you two are still so close to each other.” She smiled at Nicole, then at me.

I smiled back at her as Nicole continued. “Adam and I are alright. Not a couple, but like…” She paused, almost uncharacteristically. “I’ve, uh, never met a guy like him. He’s gonna be one of my best friends for life.” She looked at me and flashed me a shy smile, then turned back to my parents. I didn’t know where this was going, but I put my hand on her shoulder. “I kinda went through a bad period and my parents, uh… well, they don’t care. So, here goes, most pathetic request in the world coming in three, two, one… you two are parents. Good parents, if looks ain’t deceiving. Can I, uh, have a hug?”

“Oh my goodness, of course!” Mom immediately gushed, standing up off of her chair. Nicole stood up, almost shyly, like she was expecting mom to back away and say it was a joke with no notice. Dad watched the two hug with a warm yet unmoved expression on his face, then looked at Nicole once their hug was over.

“I’m not normally a very huggy person,” he began, getting up from leaning on the counter.

Nicole nodded. “You don’t have to, I’m sorr-”

He shook his head. “I’m just warning you, I’m going to be kind of rusty,” he quipped, then moved in for a hug. Nicole beamed like a kid on Christmas, then accepted the hug. While hugging her, dad looked at me. “If someone asked for more hugs around here, maybe I’d be better at it.”

I shrugged. “Learn from your mistakes and ask for more,” I quipped back. Dad’s eyes danced. 

“Ha, scorch,” Nicole replied mid-hug. The two broke off the hug and dad went back to leaning against the counter. 

“So how has school been, Nicole? How’s Student Council?”

“Appeal to my busybody nature,” Nicole observed. “Good move. It’s been alright, just work work work.”

Dad nodded. “Adam talks all the time about how hard you work and how communicative you are,” he noted. “He really appreciates everything you do.”

Nicole whipped her head around to look at me. Looking at her face, it was like that was the most inconceivable thing in the world. “You… do?” she managed, fully caught off guard. Nicole was rarely ever caught off guard like this. I tried to savor the moment.

“Of course I do,” I replied. “You’re a good friend, a hard worker, and the best Student Council President I’ve ever seen.”

“You’ve only ever seen one other President you doofus, and he was a tool,” Nicole mumbled feebly, now looking at the floor. “That’s really… uh… you’re really… yeah, you know what, I think I need to go to the bathroom, BRB.” Without letting any of the three of us see her face, she rushed out of the kitchen.

Dad paused, eyes shifting from myself to mom. “I hope I didn’t offend her,” he remarked. “It was meant to be a compliment.”

“Oh, Timothy,” mom nearly scoffed. “She loved it. She just wasn’t expecting something like that, and it affected her, so she needs a moment., that’s all.” She shook her head at him. “Nicole seems to be… would it be fair to say she’s ‘emotionally guarded,’ sweetie?” She looked at me.

I smiled, looking off to the bathroom. “She has her moments.”

***

I told Nicole through the bathroom door that I would be in my room when she was out, unless she wanted to hang out with my parents some more. She accepted it and I went up to my room to wait for her. As soon as I got to my room, I huffed, looking at all of the clothes on the floor. Knowing what Nicole would do to such a room, I began to pick up my clothes, putting the dirty stuff in the hamper and sorting the clean clothes on my bed into the labeled drawers.

After a few minutes of this, I heard a dry voice interrupt me. “That’s what we call personal growth,” Nicole quipped, looking at me putting my clothes away.

I chuckled, looking up at her. She was leaning against my door frame, arms folded. “Look at what you’ve turned me into, I’m a monster,” I replied.

“Cute monster,” Nicole replied. “Anyway, do me a solid. Stand over here.” She pointed right in front of her.

“Why?” I asked, putting the last of my jeans away.

“Just do it, dummy,” she replied with a completely gentle voice. Slowly, I walked over to where she was standing. She smiled, putting both of her hands on my shoulders, and before I knew it, I was against the wall, with Nicole passionately kissing me for all I was worth. Her entire body was against mine, and I felt physical force keeping me against the wall, but… no aggression. She wasn’t a hungry animal or anything, she was just… emotionally overwhelmed. 

When she broke off the kiss, she was nearly panting, her eyes looking everywhere but in mine. “Okay, now do me another solid,” she murmured. 

“Is it anything like the first one? Because I’m in,” I joked.

She chuckled but still didn’t look at me. “You know that word? That word I never use. The four-letter one.”

“Oh, ‘fuck?’ You say it all the time,” I joked again. 

“C’mon, let’s be serious for one sec,” she replied gently. “The l-word. You know.”

I paused. “Yeah, I know it,” I replied slowly.

“I wanna say it, so badly. Just please, for what it’s worth, just… pretend I said it or something. Okay? You deserve it.”

“All I did was tell my parents you worked hard, Nicole, it’s not that much,” I replied softly.

Finally, she looked at me, although the look was closer to a death glare than anything. “I told my parents everything about you that made me angry. Even when I was a cunt to you, you told them everything you liked. You went to the hospital and didn’t… treat me like an animal. You just knew what it was like. You chose to forgive the stupidest thing I did all year all because I was hurting.”

“The wha?” I interrupted.

“The Morgan thing, at the party.”

“Enh,” I replied, waving a hand. “You’ve done stupider.”

She laughed, and I joined in, and the two of us kissed again, though I wasn’t up against the wall this time. “Adam, hearing you told your parents that… fuck, I can’t even describe what it feels like.”

“It’s nice to know you’re appreciated,” I guessed. “Like, it’s one thing for someone to tell them you should be appreciated more, or even to be told they appreciate you, but when you get hard evidence…”

Nicole nodded. “Something like that, yeah.” She bit her lip and looked down. “It’s dumb to keep score and stuff, but if you’re trying to impress me lately, you’ve been batting a thousand.”

“I make mistakes a lot,” I nervously chuckled. “I’m gonna make more, just give me time.”

“So will I,” she replied, slipping her arms around me and hugging me. 

“Are you less worried that my parents hate you now?” I asked teasingly.

She loosened the huge to look me in the face and stuck her tongue out at me childishly. “A lil’,” she admitted. She looked away, blushing, and I took the opportunity to grab her by the midsection and haul her over to my bed. The look on her face was priceless – two moments of pure Nicole shock in one day.

I landed on top of her and kissed her shocked cheek. She swiftly recovered, looking over at the door. “It’s still open,” she pointed out.

“Who said we were going to do anything sexual?” I teased.

“My brain, as soon as you picked me up and threw me on the bed, you hunk,” she teased back. “Now shut the fuckin’ door.”

I laughed, getting up to shut the door and turning back around to see Nicole with her shirt off, taking off her bra. When she saw me, she read my mind and rolled her eyes. “Yes, it was a bra day. I’m allowed to be inconsistent, dweeb.”

“I wasn’t thinking about the bra at all!” I defended myself, swaggering over.

“Liar,” Nicole said smugly, before sighing in pleasure at the feeling of my mouth on her breasts. She lay her head back on the bed and let me do everything I could to pleasure her, using my mouth to find every sensitive spot while we both ground up against each other. Even with our pants on, it was abundantly clear that I was hard and she was wet. 

Everything about Nicole looked perfect. Even over a year later, I never got tired of seeing her topless. It made the butterflies flutter through me all over again. Her nipples stood, stiff and erect, clearly announcing her arousal and need for me. Even lying down, her boobs took on a perfect shape, highlighting her curves in the best way possible. Nicole was more than just sexy – she was otherworldly.

I looked up into her eyes while never stopping my tongue’s movements on her nipples, and coincidentally, she looked at me at the same moment. It was almost weird, looking into her eyes, enjoying the coincidence of us looking at each other, before I flicked her nipple in a particular way that made her close her eyes slowly and sigh. 

“Adam…” she cooed happily, enjoying the feeling of my tongue on one nipple, then the other. “God, how does it feel so different with you?”

I had my theories. After all, there was no mistaking that look in her eyes. That said, there was only one way I knew to get her to say it, and I was definitely planning on making it happen. I kissed my way up from her chest to her cheeks, then to her mouth. She accepted and returned the kiss readily, wrapping her arms around my back and moaning with appreciation.

I slowly retracted my head, smiling down at her. “All the way?” I proposed.

Her eyes sparkled. “Fuck yeah,” she murmured, biting her lip in anticipation. There was no mistaking the look she was giving me. It was a pair of feelings you’d not often see on a lover’s face, but a rhyming pair that sang to your heart every time you did see it – lust and trust.

I retreated far enough to allow both of us to take off our pants, but as soon as we were naked, we didn’t rush into anything. We just went back to kissing each other with me on top of each other. There was something so wonderful about kissing her, no clothes between us, feeling her skin on mine. It felt so right. I I could have spent every day doing this, and I was so fucking lucky that I got to spend as many days as I did doing it.

We got lost in our kisses with my rock-hard dick throbbing and pulsing, and her pussy only getting wetter. As if a sign from fate itself, we never even had to consciously angle me inside her. While we kissed and ground against each other, it slipped inside, with Nicole violently breaking away from the kiss to arch her back and grunt in surprise.

“Are you okay??” I asked concernedly. 

She nodded, her eyes still squeezed shut, although she was biting her lip. “Never better, hotshot,” she murmured. “Go slow though.”

I nodded, making sure to compensate for my slowness with full thrusts. Nicole rewarded my efforts with little moans, keeping her eyes closed and making it fully apparent that her body was entirely under my control. 

Well… not my control. Whatever controlled her controlled me too. The same thing that made her submit so easily made me unable to stop, and it made my thrusts quicker and quicker until I was full-on fucking Nicole with every ounce of strength my body had. A cynical person might have called it “animalistic lust” but after spending so long with her, I knew it had a different name.

“L-love…” Nicole managed to say. “F-fuck… oh God… fuck… adam, I-I love youuuu…” she moaned, almost in pain, but a very sweet pain. Her hips met mine until we got into a rhythm, and when we did, her eyes finally opened, opening a window to her soul. It was so clear how whenever she said “I love you” when we fucked, she meant it. Her eyes were swimming not in lust, but pure unbridled love. It was unmistakable.

I kept pushing into her, enjoying the feeling of her wetness, the way her muscles gripped me, the way we fit oh-so-perfectly together. Everything felt so right. Nicole didn’t close her eyes again until she pulled me by the head back into kissing her. Both our eyes were closed and I slowed down just enough for both of us to enjoy kissing each other without our movements messing it up too much. Being inside her felt great, and drilling her felt amazing, but kissing her while having sex with Nicole slowly… that was the best feeling in the world. There wasn’t another feeling like it.

As our lips parted, Nicole smiled devilishly at me, playfully pushing me off of her and taking a moment to feel me slide out of her. She winced then broke out into a satisfied smile, then blinked twice and stretched, getting up with record speed. I couldn’t help but smile in confusion as my cock throbbed. “I’ve seen that look before,” I teased.

She smiled back, backing up against the wall. “I pushed you up against the wall,” she teased, beckoning me over with her hand. “Wanna give me some payback?”

“Such a sub,” I chuckled. “But, uh, won’t my parents hear the banging against the wall?”

Nicole gave me an innocent smile. “Then you’d better be quiet about it,” she countered.

I rolled my eyes but we both knew I was going to go for it. There was no point in pretending, not with her. I walked over and placed my hands on her shoulders, looking right into her eyes while angling myself to enter her. Nicole helped with her hand, positioning me just right before I slowly slid back inside her. She was as wet as ever, just as eager to take me. Once she felt me entering, she lost her composure, her smile vanishing, replaced with this needy pout. “Fuck…” she breathed.

“Fuck,” I imitated her, then kissed her. Mid-kiss, she opened her eyes and raised her eyebrows twice at me, then closed them again, giggling into the kiss. It was, as I predicted, difficult to get a good rhythm going and be silent, but we found a way. In no time, I was pounding Nicole against the wall, with her raising one of her legs and wrapping it around me. Taking the hint, I grabbed her exposed butt cheek, holding her close, continuing to give her the ride of her life.

We kissed a while longer, and even after we stopped kissing each other on the mouth, we traded kissing each other on the neck, with the other getting the chance to whisper and pant about how good this all felt. I was sparing with the hickeys and marks the first time around, but of course, the brat wasn’t.

“Ah~!” I sharply inhaled, feeling Nicole’s teeth as well as heavy suction from her mouth.

“Oops,” she replied in a sing-song voice. “You aren’t seeing anyone right now, right? Because the damage is already done. I guess I may as well keep going, huh?”

I chuckled, thrusting extra deeply in response. Nicole yipped, then chuckled back evilly, going back to suck on my neck harder than ever. I clearly was going to need to wear a turtleneck when escorting her out, just to make sure my parents didn’t get the wrong idea. Thank fuck it was winter. Even so… there was nothing that made me regret this, or even anything less than proud. This wasn’t us fucking, it felt like so much more than that. It was like a consummation of our understanding. I said it before, but I felt it now: who cares if Nicole and I were ‘boyfriend and girlfriend,’ or ‘just friends’? What we were couldn’t be explained by words. And I would have rather had what we had than anything else in the world.

***

“If you were a head in a jar, I would take you on vacations with me and show you the world,” Nicole continued as we sat together on the bus.

“Ooh, that’s a nice one,” I replied. “If you were a head in a jar, I woulddddd… I would take you on roller coasters with me and make sure to strap you in tight, so you could, I dunno, keep doing fun things like that.”

“Oh God, I am definitely flying out of the roller coaster,” she laughed. “I think I’d fail the height requirement thingy too.”

“Okay then, smartass, go again, wow me,” I replied grumpily.

She flicked my forehead brattily, winking at me. “If you were a head in a jar, I would get custom lights and put them on the bottom of your jar… ooh! And then, every morning, I could ask you what color lights you wanted, and swap out whichever color you were feeling like that day. So if you wanted the jar to glow red, I’d swap out the red lights. It would be like dressing up every day.”

My pouting continued. “Okay, that was a good one,” I grumpily conceded, and waved her hand out of my face before she could flick my forehead again. “Quit it. Did you want me to hang around your locker before class?”

“Nah, I’m not even going to my locker first,” she told me flatly.

I looked at her in confusion. “Don’t you normally do that?”

“Sure do, squirt, sure do,” she replied with a dry voice, the one with the happy veneer that hid a darker theme. It was almost her signature tone at this point. “Unfortunately, I need to go to Mr. Scott’s office first.”

I didn’t like the sound of that. “Um… why?”

“It turns out,” she replied, her wording pace getting slower, “that the Student Council Pres abandoning a school event is ‘reckless and irresponsible.’ He wants to talk to me about it.” I opened my mouth to fight for her and she just held up a hand and shook her head with an ‘enh, whatever’ expression on her face. “He’s not wrong, dude.”

“B-but… he can’t blame you for… for, y’know…”

She ran her tongue over her teeth, never losing her ironic smile. “Squirt, I’m not about to tell Scott the real reason I missed the dance. I’d honestly rather tell him that I was feeling unwell but I was totally irresponsible, and apologize.” She paused, lowering her hand and looking out the window. “Just think about it. If it gets out to him that I’m getting so… yeah, fuck it, so bad that I’m missing school events because of it…” She looked back at me. “Me losing my title of President ain’t exactly the craziest possibility at that point. Being professional just means lying here.”

I gave her a sorrowful expression and extended my hand forward to touch hers sympathetically. She quickly retracted her hand. “Too couple-y,” she reminded me.

“Okay, sorry,” I replied. “But… will you be okay?”

“Hundo,” she replied with a nod. “It won’t even be lying. I will tell him I wasn’t feeling okay and that was the reason. I just don’t want anyone raising the alarm. I’d rather be painted as lazy in that situation. And hey…” She touched my cheek delicately, seemingly already forgetting her ‘too couple-y’ rule mere moments before. “I wouldn’t be feeling nearly this okay about it, or in general, without you. You know that, right?”

I blushed. “Y-yeah…” I told her softly.

She beamed, letting go of my face. “Then there ya go. Bam,” she told me triumphantly. “And, like I promised, I will try to text you next time I’m feeling real low. Just know that if I feel real real low…”

I nodded. “Give you space,” I promised. It was a nice compromise – I’d respect her need for space, but as long as she didn’t need to be alone, Nicole promised me she would contact me and I would do my best to be there for her. It was a really sweet gesture, especially knowing how little she trusted people when she got in her moods. It was progress. Real progress.

Even though I wanted to be more in the loop, thanks to her compromise I could let her go a lot more. When she walked off towards Scott’s office, I didn’t feel any pangs of guilt or doubt or feelings that I should follow her like I normally did. I felt… it felt weird to admit this to myself like it was a new thing, but it felt like I could trust her.

Zelda wasn’t by her locker when I got to mine. I checked my watch and rolled my eyes – Zelda was rarely ever late, so I could guess what was going on. I pulled out my phone and texted her.

Tick tock. Class is starting soon. Don’t make Megan late.

I waited by our lockers for a few more minutes, and sure enough, Zelda showed up eventually, still breathing a little heavily.

“You’re disheveled,” I observed. 

“You’re jealous,” she fired back smugly. “What’s ‘second base’ in American lingo again? I forget.”

“It’s a baseball term, maybe something you’d know if you took baseball, along with art club or chess club or literally any school activity aside from kissing cute girls before class.” The two of us stopped poking around in our lockers for a few seconds to stare at each other before we slowly broke out into small smiles. “Congrats,” I told her softly. “Just treat her right, she’s not an object.”

“And I’m not a man,” she countered. “I know how to treat girls. How’re you and Nicole, making any progress?”

My smile got bigger. “Lots,” I admitted, looking into my locker to blush. “It keeps feeling like we just ‘get’ each other more and more now. I shouldn’t go into too much detail, but we managed to turn what should have been a really sad situation into a really meaningful sweet one.”

Zelda’s smile turned mischievous. “And would she agree that it was really sweet and meaningful, or was it just sweet for you?” She dodged a paper ball I lobbed at her. “Ooh, someone is touchy.” She dodged another. “Maybe you should play baseball. Your aim isn’t that good.”

I looked annoyedly at her. “It was a really serious sad situation, Zelda,” I told her. “It means a lot that it was turned around like that. She opened up a lot to me, and I think it was in a way where she hasn’t opened up before. I don’t think we need to worry if it’s actually bad or something, you’ll make me overthink it.”

“Alright, alright, ingen ko på isen, I get it,” she soothed me, putting her hand on my shoulder. “Congrats to you too.” She paused. “It’s short for ‘congratulations,’ right?”

I chuckled. “Yeah, you got it,” I told her. “Will you and Megan be at the lunch table today?”

She took her hand off of my shoulder. “Megan will be,” she admitted bitterly. “I don’t want to deal with Carson today.”

“If he’s mean to you, you know I’ll take your side,” I offered.

“If he’s being too blunt you will,” she corrected me. Harsh. “I just don’t want to see his face. Besides, Megan is still a little weird about being seen with me in public, even though in public, we’re friends.” She rolled her eyes. “The dark side of American drama.”

“You make being Danish your whole personality,” I accused playfully, closing my locker.

“It’s better than making being dramatic your whole personality,” she countered with a downright evil grin. 

I could only shake my head and smile. She had a point.

***

I took a bite out of my sandwich, almost wanting to enjoy the irony. Carson wasn’t even at the lunch table. 

“Did he tell you he wouldn’t be here today?” I asked Megan, one of the only two people there. The other one was Athena.

She shook her head. “He didn’t say anything about it,” she replied, then looked around. “He didn’t say anything about it in English,” she remarked to herself. She pulled out her phone, clearly texting him.

I almost wished Zelda had just come at that point. Megan had to get over not being seen with Zelda in public if the two were going to sneak off and make out before school nearly every day anyway. I decided to pull out my phone and text her that Carson wasn’t at the table in case she changed her mind.

While my head was down to text, I saw a shoe enter my vision, subtly playing between my legs. My eyes slowly rose mid-text to stare playfully yet seriously at Athena, who just shrugged and continued to eat her apple. My eyes moved towards Megan then back to Athena, but Athena shrugged again in response, still playing with me underneath the table. What a fucking life I lived.

I got hard pretty quickly ,and even with pants and a shoe between us, it was clear Athena noticed, with her shoe going from playing around with no goal to stroking the outline of my cock through my pants as best as a shoe could. I shifted in partial pleasure and discomfort, but largely I just let it happen, until an annoyed sigh took me out of my mood. Seemingly, Athena felt it too, retracting her foot, anticipating Megan would go on.

“Sabrina wanted private time with him,” she grumbled, tossing her phone onto the table and resuming eating her food. “It’s not enough to do obscene things with him underneath the lunch table – they have to spend time away from us to be around each other too.”

Athena just blushed and looked down, realizing the same criticism could apply to her for what she just did. I decided to press on the other point. “Megan, um, isn’t criticizing Carson for spending time away from the lunch group kind of… hypocritical of you?”

Megan gave me a ‘watch it’ glare, so I raised my hands. “Hey, I get it,” I added. “Helping a friend by studying with them is way different than spending time with a lover, but still.” I had hoped my lie would inject some good will back into my points.

It looked like I was correct. Megan sighed. “Well, if you didn’t enjoy that, then you should get where I’m coming from,” she countered sadly, going back to her food. She scoffed after a few bites. “‘Lovers.’”

“I mean, we know Carson,” Athena added. “They’re probably somewhere kissing or something. This whole table seems to get around a lot.”

“I don’t,” Megan replied instinctively.

“I do,” I readily admitted with a chuckle, partially to get the spotlight off Megan. I glanced back at her, only to see her eyebrow still furrowed. Him not being there seemed to really affect her. Sure, the hypocrisy was there, but also… Megan clearly didn’t like Carson. Not only was she clearly satisfied with Zelda, but also, even when she wasn’t with Zelda in any way, she didn’t really act on the knowledge he had feelings for her. So what was this…?

***

“So, with all that being said, once again, all I can do is apologize,” Nicole concluded, doing an over-the-top bow with her arms out for the Council. Still mid-bow, she pulled her head up to look at us. “But hey! You all pulled off an amazing dance without me! That’s actually a really cool thing.” She moved up from her bow. “It really makes me feel good to know I don’t have to manage every single thing and it still goes off without a hitch.”

Dave scoffed, arms folded. “Is that how you see us?”

“It’s how I see you,” Nicole responded, and the two shared a laugh of rivalry. “No, Dave, I know you’re all capable, but there’s a difference between knowing it and seeing evidence. Anyways, this concludes Council Fuckups for the day.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she snapped her fingers. “Oh, wait, nope, one more thing. Uh, Megan…”

Megan raised her head and looked with a stern yet unexpecting gaze at Nicole. “Huh?”

“So, uh, we all like our before-school activities but tryyy to put a cap on stuff of that nature. You’re not the first in this Council and you won’t be the last, but, y’know.”

Megan’s look went from stern to horrified. The color drained from her face. I started to get concerned for her, looking back from Nicole to Megan. Eventually, Megan found the strength to speak again. “I don’t know what-”

“I’m talking about? Sure you do. Saw it firsthand,” Nicole replied coolly. “It’s no biggie. God knows it’s gonna keep happening in the Council. But, given I’m kind of on a short leash with Scott as it is, my hands are kinda tied here. I gotta follow every rule I’m given and be a hardass. Don’t do any of that stuff.”

“What stuff was it?” Jarrod piped up.

Still looking at Megan, Nicole pointed a finger squarely at Jarrod. “None of your concern,” she replied firmly yet disinterestedly. “Do we understand each other?” she asked Megan.

“I’d l-like to talk to you after the Council please,” Megan replied.

Nicole looked at her weirdly, and then did this combination of shaking her head and rolling her eyes. “Sure, okay,” she replied, slightly annoyed, then went back to announcing the ‘any other business’ part of the meeting.

Partially thanks to my own complaining after the key incident, it wasn’t like Nicole didn’t know about Megan’s bi-curiosity, but it was clear this was something Megan wanted under wraps. I stole a glance at Megan to see her breathing heavily and looking downright fearful. This wasn’t going to end well, and knowing these two, I wasn’t going to get to see nor hear of whatever fallout this was going to have.

***

“Looking forward to spring?” I asked Zelda casually at the lockers. “Nicole won’t stop talking about how happy she is that February is over. I actually love the winter, but-”

“Hey,” Zelda interrupted me somberly. “Did you… say something to Megan?”

“Yeah, sure, fuck what I was talking about anyways,” I snapped, closing my locker and facing Zelda. “Did I say something to Megan?” I repeated.

“Yes, about seeing us or something,” Zelda continued. “She hasn’t wanted to do anything for over a week.”

I looked at her. Even though it had been a long time ago, I could easily guess what happened, but I also knew that admitting I did know could stir up a lot of drama. “Uh, no,” I told her. “Maybe someone else did, but I sure didn’t say anything.”

“Do you promise?” Zelda asked me, her voice in equal parts full of worry and distrust.

“Zelda, after everything else we’ve been through, are you saying now that your secret girlfriend or whatever won’t kiss you before school, suddenly I’m not worthy of being trusted anymore or something?” I asked her angrily. 

Zelda stared at me for a bit. “You’re right, I’m sorry,” she admitted. “It’s just… this is not like her.”

“Well, did you ask her why she didn’t want to?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Not until after a few days,” she admitted, then sadly chuckled. “I didn’t want to seem desperate.”

I coughed loudly into my hand.

She let a smirk grow on her face. “I didn’t want to seem that desperate,” she admitted, giving me a side-eye. Her smile vanished. “She told me it was nothing and she just wasn’t feeling it, but that seems like a lie.”

“Wouldn’t you be able to tell? Megan’s not exactly a convincing liar,” I rebutted, heading towards the aud. 

“It was over text,” Zelda replied. “We, uh, haven’t seen each other in nearly a week too.”

“Okay, so, confront her in person,” I reasoned.

“Adam, I don’t want to confront her,” she replied, holding the aud door open for me. “I want things to just work.”

“Okay, then, give her time. Maybe she’s working through some stuff,” I told her as we walked into the aud, seeing the other students waiting in the seats.

“It’s Me- it’s Mark,” she reasoned. Mark was our name for Megan when Zelda was around other people who could easily hear us. She wasn’t embarrassed to be a lesbian, but she knew Megan was. “I know that if I leave him alone for too long, he’s going to get cold feet about the whole thing and not want to do it anymore. Suddenly he’s not into it and never was or something.” She sat down, and I sat down next to her.

I frowned, seeing myself in this situation. “Zelda…” I began tenderly. “…if all it takes is a little time away from you for Mark to not want to do anything at all… sorry, but what even is your relationship with him?”

Zelda looked downright hurt, looking at me with near pleading eyes. “But… it’s not like that…” she reasoned. “…It’s because I’m a girl.”

“Yes, and no offense, but you haven’t exactly been respecting that boundary,” I pointed out. “Like, yeah, it’s clear that if you push her enough, she’ll do it anyways – shit, sorry, he will do it anyways…”

“Don’t apologize and then change it,” Zelda hissed in a whisper. “That’s just going to make it obvious!!”

I shook my head in silent apology. “Whatever. If you need to push for it to happen, like, yeah it means something that it happens anyways, but it also means something that you need to push, and push constantly, for him to want to continue doing it. What’s the plan, kiss him every week like it’s a quota? Sorry, that plan sucks.”

“I kiss him every week until he realizes he truly wants it, deep inside!” she argued, pointing to her heart.

“Then try to see this as an opportunity!” I argued back. “Embrace the week-long break, see if he comes back to you!”

Zelda stared at me, then eventually started shaking her head. “You just don’t get it,” she eventually told me.

“I think I do, Zelda. I think I really do. I think I did the exact same thing earlier this year. And hey, look at that, you’re not immune to American romance drama, isn’t that neat?”

Before Zelda could rebut me, the doors opened and Salvador walked down the aisle of the auditorium. He sat down on the end of the stage. “Hello,” he told us. “Today, we’re going to be continuing on our improv unit. Today, we’re going through shortform scenes as opposed to games. You’ll be looking at the structure of a scene – character, setting, problem, raising the stakes, resolution, and conclusion – not necessarily in that order.” His eyes sparkled. “Callum, lead exercises. Go.”

We all scrambled to get our shoes off and get on stage, with Callum diligently barking orders at us to stretch our legs first. A few exercises went by before Mr. Salvador’s voice boomed from the audience seats. “Zelda!” Most of us paused, though we quickly resumed our exercises – we knew that Salvador got mad if we all stopped working if he singled out one of us. “Something big is on your mind, and it’s affecting your performance,” he told her. “Whatever it is, drop it. You need to leave your problems at the door.”

Zelda wasn’t the first person he told this to, but judging from the fire in her eyes, she wanted to make herself the last. She stood up, abandoning her exercise completely. “What happens when the problem is so big that it can’t help but affect us for the whole day?” she asked defiantly.

Salvador wasn’t taken aback by her defiance at all. Hell, the students were more shocked than him. “The best actors can push past it,” he replied with a strong voice. “You need to-”

“I’m fifteen years old and I’m in a fucking class, Mr. Salvador, I’m not a theater thespian,” Zelda replied in a rage. “It’s normal for me to get sad and not always perform at a hundred percent. It is very abnormal for a teacher to expect-”

“Stop,” Salvador said, getting up. “You and I need to-”

“No, I’m not going to stop!!” Zelda yelled. “You-”

Salvador raised his leg and in a pronounced acute motion, released it onto the floor in a deafening stomp. It was like a sonic boom emanated throughout the room. It wasn’t in a tantrum, and it wasn’t sudden or angry. It was calculated and pronounced, like the rest of him. Any students left half-heartedly doing the exercises stopped pretending to pay attention to class, and froze in place looking at the pair. Zelda didn’t say another word – it was as if the oxygen in the room had vanished, not allowing her to speak any longer.

“We’re going to talk privately,” Salvador told her, firmly yet calmly, then turned to the rest of us. “Finish the exercises then run through a few games. Hanna, Kieran, you’re adjudicating. Pick your favorites.” He motioned to Zelda then to the aud doors. Zelda still had her angry expression, but followed him nonetheless.

When the aud doors closed after their departure, some of the students collapsed into giggles, with murmurs of “Yo!” and “What was that?!” emanating throughout the crowd, until the two teacher’s pets rallied the group together and had us playing a few improv games. Halfway through the third game, the door opened and the two came back. Zelda walked in, followed by Salvador. It was clear from her face that Zelda had been crying. The two sat in the very back seats behind everyone, and when Salvador saw the rubbernecking, he said, “Face the front.” The two clearly sat next to each other, but I obeyed his order. I couldn’t concentrate on the scene anymore. It was a miracle the people onstage could.

***

I didn’t want to be hypocritical for telling Zelda to just confront Megan. After all, I hadn’t seen my friend at lunch for over a week. Once my independent work in business class was done, I walked over to Carson’s desk and found a nearby chair, clearing my throat. “Yo.”

“Hey, buddy,” Carson replied. “What’s going on?”

“I mean, what’s ‘going on’ is that I haven’t seen you at the lunch table in a dog’s age. What gives, bro?”

“Ah, jeez,” he replied, shifting his chair back and scrunching his face up to show remorse. “Yeah, I’m sorry buddy. I’ve been meaning to. Honestly, Sabrina keeps asking me to spend lunchtime with her, because it’s the only time during school we get to see each other, and… I mean, you and Nicole, right? You know how it can be in a relationship like that.”

“But didn’t you… hate that?” I asked weirdly. “You know, didn-”

“Yeah, and didn’t you hate when I breathed down your fuckin’ neck about it?” Carson demanded, looking at me icily. “Shoe’s on the other foot, buddy, and we’re both wearin’ shoes here.”

“Okay, okay, sorry,” I replied, throwing my hands up. “Well… do you think we’ll get to see you soon? People miss you. Megan misses you.”

Carson looked at me, and weirdly, gave me a smile, a smile like we were sharing some kind of in-joke. He slowly shook his head. “Nah,” he told me. “Megan doesn’t miss me, man.” He turned back to his desk. “I’m not gonna say any more. You may as well go back to your desk.”

When Carson said stuff like that, he was serious. I sighed and walked back to my desk, the one beside Zelda. I looked over at her, and saw what I saw when I left – a blank face. So blank you could draw on it. She looked as unapproachable as she did after drama class, but now that enough time had passed, I figured I could break the ice again.

“You okay?”

She didn’t look away from her work and just shrugged, her face as blank as ever. The ice was thoroughly unbroken. I sighed, looking back between Carson and Zelda. I didn’t want to make this about me, but… man, did I ever feel alone.

***

“Nah, I don’t think it’s silly,” Athena replied, taking her mouth off of my dick. “It’s a little silly to bring it up during a blowjob, but like… if you feel alone, you feel alone.” She went back to hungrily sucking my dick.

It was sweet of her to notice I was feeling down and offer for me to come back to her house, and even more sweet of her to offer the blowjob. Admittedly, it did take my mind off of a lot of things, but it didn’t help me feeling like somehow, the whole Sabrina-Carson-Megan-Zelda thing was somehow my fault.

“And lemme guess…” Athena began. She was going to guess that I was feeling like it’s all my fault. She was going to completely get me. “…You’re upset because it’s kind of their own fault, right?” She jacked me off while looking me in the eye, awaiting my answer.

Oh. “I, uh…” I replied, looking around the room. “Okay, you’re right, it’s weird to talk about this and do sex at the same time, let’s focus on one thing at a time.”

“Gladly,” she giggled, putting her mouth back on me. Athena sucked my cock like a pro, using the muscles in her mouth to practically create a rippling effect on my cock. In terms of pure physical sensations, it was the best. Unmistakably the best. She clearly had practice upon practice, and urges upon urges. I couldn’t stop my hands from gripping her head as I closed my eyes and my mind went blank. I used her mouth and throat like it was my own personal blowjob machine, fucking her mouth and filling her throat with my cock until I couldn’t stop myself, blowing my load into her mouth. Tingles prickled across my brain and a blank sensation clouded my vision. For a second, I truly forgot my troubles. It was just bliss. Horny hormone-fueled bliss.

I groaned, letting go of her face, feeling her mouth open. She coughed once, then I heard a distinct swallowing noise.

“You okay?” I asked in a near-dreamy voice, my eyes fluttering open.

“Oh yeah, for sure,” Athena replied, even though it was clear she had tears in her eyes.

I scowled at myself. “Shit, I’m sorry,” I quickly told her, scrambling to help.

“No no, really, it’s fine,” she replied cheerily, wiping the tears from her eyes. “It’s fine,” she repeated. “I just want to help you feel better. I’m just glad I could do that.” She gave me an unconvincing laugh, then just smiled at me.

“Okay…” I uneasily replied, not satisfied with her answer. 

“So anyway, is it, like, all your friends?” she asked. “We seem to be alright. And you said you and Nicole were-”

“Yeah, we’re fine,” I finished her thought. “We had another call the other night, and that was its own kind of bittersweet.”

Athena nodded solemnly. I told her Nicole called me when she was feeling down so she’d have a friend, but I didn’t tell her what kind of down Nicole was feeling. Still, I got to be there for her, so, true to my words, it was bittersweet. Hell, mostly sweet. “You’re a good friend to her,” she told me supportively.

I chuckled. “And a shit friend to everyone else, I guess,” I replied.

“Hey, no,” she replied supportively, noticing my cock was deflating and starting to pull my pants up.

It was a little weird. “No, don’t worry, I can… do that myself,” I told her, taking my pants from her and doing them up. She took the opportunity to clean the rest of her face. “Anyway, some part of me feels like this is… my fault. Like, I kinda helped Megan along, and I got Sabrina into the friend group, along with Zelda I guess. Zelda and me is a lot like Megan and Zelda, actually. It feels like whenever Zelda finds any reason to be distant from me, she just runs with it and I have to start our friendship over from scratch. You know?”

Athena nodded. “No,” she replied obediently. She was still on her knees.

“Never mind then,” I told her, grabbing her hand and urging her silently to join me lying on the bed. “Anyways, Carson won’t tell me about what’s happening with Sabrina, and Sabrina and I haven’t talked in… maybe a month? Nicole won’t tell me about what she said to Megan. Salvador won’t tell me about what he said to Zelda.” I paused. I phrased it like Zelda and Megan were going through a bad moment in their friendship. Luckily, Athena seemingly didn’t bother to clue in that more was going on below the surface. Still, I couldn’t help but worry that I was giving too much away.

“Do you… need to know everything, though?” Athena asked, looking up at the ceiling.

I chuckled. “Yeah, you’re right,” I admitted. “I just hate how much of this is blowing up. And, like, blowing up over nothing. Like, I’ve never seen anyone yell at Salvador like Zelda did.”

“Well, she can be a really intense person,” Athena replied with a shrug. “She’s really core to the friend group, you know?”

I paused. Athena was right. Even though Zelda was the newest one to the group, barring maybe Sabrina, she really was at the heart of it now. It was kind of nice, but also, kind of unfortunate given… well, given everything.

“Not gonna lie, sometimes it makes me sad,” Athena admitted in a quiet voice. 

“Sad? Why?” I asked, taken away from my thoughts.

“It’s just that… I joined the group before her, but I was kinda just known as Jason’s quiet girlfriend. Now, I just hang around you guys because I’ve got no other group. I still don’t say much, and you guys… don’t notice.”

“Oh. I’m, uh, sorry,” I uneasily admitted. I guess I missed that.

“No, don’t be,” she replied. “You still hang out with me here, and I enjoy that. I’m actually really grateful for-” She stopped mid-sentence.

I turned to her. “Grateful?” I repeated. “Why?”

“Because… I dunno, because you could have not talked to me like the others? You know.” 

She was definitely a better liar than the others in my group (particularly Megan) but it didn’t feel quite true. I sat in silence for a bit and let the thoughts circulate around my head, before a theory hit me.

“Do you… feel guilty?”

Athena paused. “For what?”

“For being a part of the reason Nicole and me broke up.”

She paused again. “Yes.” She sighed. “I wasn’t a part of the reason. You two were perfect and I fucked it all up.”

I sat up on the bed, getting on my side to face Athena. She was looking up at the ceiling, a sorrowful expression on her face. “Hey, look at me,” I softly ordered. She complied, none of the sadness waning. “You didn’t break us up,” I told her. “Nicole and I were actually really shaky before that part even happened. We would have broken up sooner or later. Trust me. I promise you.”

Athena scoffed. “Still,” she replied, looking away. “I didn’t help.”

“Yeah, but I could have said no, and I didn’t,” I reminded her. “And Nicole has forgiven me. We’re, in some ways, closer than ever. Why don’t you forgive yourself?”

“Honestly, because… fuck, I dunno,” Athena sighed. “I just don’t. There’s a reason, but I dunno the words. But there is a reason.”

I moved my mouth to the side in sad contemplation. “Is that why you offer me blowjobs and do every little thing I ask?” I pressed.

“No!” she insisted, now sitting up on the bed. “I just do that stuff because I like you and like doing sex with you! I promise!”

“Yeah, but… it’s gotten a lot more… like, ‘I’ll do anything for you, Adam’ lately. It feels like you’re proving something to me. You don’t have to do that. Hell, I’d like to do oral on you after you do oral on me. I want to make you feel good too. That’s… what sex is, right?”

Athena smiled sadly, nodding. “Yeah, I guess,” she murmured. “I just don’t want you to feel obligated. Or feel like it’s too annoying, so you’ll stop talking to me too or something.”

“Do you feel like you’d do the same thing if you stopped blowing me? Like, you’ll stop talking to me?” I asked.

“Hell no!” She instinctively replied.

I turned my hand around and let my palm face the sky, to wordlessly tell her, ‘therefore…?’ Her eyes slowly lit up in realization, and she nodded. “Okay, point taken,” she admitted. “And hey, I guess we’re kind of in the same boat, right? We gotta watch out for each other.”

“Nah, we’re not,” I replied, shaking my head. “I got Nicole. You got a shitty ex you don’t even talk to anymore. My friend group is going through shit, but they’ll still talk to me. You’re right, it’s unfair what they’re doing to you.”

Athena turned pink. “Hey, I didn’t say they were being unfair,” she replied meekly.

“Okay, then I will,” I replied strongly. “Because they were. You’re an equal friend in our group. I’m going to tell them-”

“Adam, no!”

“I’m going to tell them… that I’m noticing they’re being quiet towards you,” I told her in a strong but reassuring voice. “And that I’m concerned with you. It won’t come back to you. And who knows? Maybe if I tell all four of them, it might just fix the cracks in our friend group all around. If we all get told to do that thing and all come together to fix it… who knows? Maybe we’ll all bond over that. Win-win. Okay?”

Athena smiled. “Hey Adam?”

“Yeah?”

“I told you you were a good friend,” she replied warmly. “Can I have a hug?”

“Of course,” I told her, and we shared a warm, friendly hug on the bed. I doubted that telling my friends to be nicer to Athena would actually fix all of the cracks in our friend group, but hey, our friend group had been through much worse, and stranger things had happened. Once the hug was over, while making small talk, I looked at my phone and saw one unread message from Nicole, warning me that she might need another call tonight. My smile faded. It was getting more frequent. Maybe she was trusting me more, but maybe… maybe things were getting worse. They sure weren’t getting better. Everything – Nicole, Megan, Zelda, Carson, Sabrina, even Athena – needed to have a solution, and I needed to find one or two solutions, and I needed to find them quickly. 

---

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