“Hello hello! Nicole, is that you?” the voice of my mother called out as we entered the front door. 

Nicole’s left eye twitched. She turned her head and shot me a look, a look that told me, ‘I’m going to have to talk to your parents for way too long before we’re going to get any time alone.’

As best as I could, I told her right back with my expression, ‘maybe we should have done more in the car when we had the chance.’

My mom emerged from her office, giving a warm smile to Nicole. “It’s good to see you again! How are things?”

“Adam set fire to the Council room today. It took three firefighters to put it out. The good news was, we got off early today,” Nicole flatly replied before smiling at my mom and walking to the kitchen.

Mom’s smile was frozen on her face. “That’s a joke, right, sweetie?” she asked me with waning confidence.

“Yeah, mom, it’s a joke,” I confirmed. “Or, at least, whatever Nicole thinks passes as a joke these days.”

“Yeah, bring your A game, George Carlin,” Nicole’s voice snapped back from the kitchen. “Sorry that not everyone can be the genius of comedy that is you.”

“It’s so nice to see the happy couple being all sweet with each other,” my dad dryly noted as he prepared dinner. Dad loved to be sarcastic, but he never smiled, and today was no exception. An insecure girlfriend would worry that he didn’t like her, but not Nicole.

“Whatcha cooking, step-daddy?” she asked with bubbly interest. I walked in to see her looking over dad’s shoulder with interest. 

“Just some chicken provençal with rice and vegetables,” Dad answered. 

“Ooh, we’re going Julia Child tonight, huh?” When she was in a good mood, her primary language was references I didn’t quite get. “…You got any saffron? I bet that would go super well with the rice.”

“…Saffron? Uh, no, I don’t think so,” Dad replied. He was always able to deal with everyone calmly and fluently. Nicole was the first person he seemingly ever met that managed to catch him off-guard. So, naturally, she milked that as much as she could.

“…Yeah, looked like you’re right,” she mumbled, looking through our spice cupboard. “Ugh, what a shame… oh well. Looks like the stock is already boiling. Is that chicken or fish?”

“Vegetable, actually,” Dad answered.

“Wait, veggie?” She took a spoon from the counter and sampled the stock. The fact that it was boiling should have had an effect on her, but nope, Nicole was Nicole. “Huh.” Her face was entirely expressionless. 

“If you want to try making the rice…” Dad began to say.

She broke out into a smile. “Thanks,” she replied before Dad could even finish his sentence. In an instant she replaced the stock and began raiding our spice cabinet for what she wanted to put in the rice stock. “Question – the chicken. Bay leaves or no bay leaves?”

“We used bay leaves, yeah,” Dad replied, just watching her. Mom was now intently watching her too.

“Ugh, you guys are smart. I knew there was a reason I started dating Adam.” She hurried around the kitchen, making just enough time to kiss me on the cheek before resuming her complete takeover of the rice station. “You know, I told my parents to use bay leaves more in their cooking, but…”

***

“…which is funny, since on the one hand their discovery of quinine’s uses in treating malaria saved countless lives, but on the other, it basically allowed the British to go ahead colonizing and enslaving most of Africa and India without any major obstacles,” Nicole continued to think out loud while the rest of us finished eating. 

“That’s very fascinating,” Mom replied warmly.

“I’m glad you said it,” Dad commented dryly towards Nicole. “I was going to and you saved me the effort.”

“So, like, what even is progress when we look at history?” she finished the thought. “Anyway, how was the rice?”

“I’ll admit, you did really well,” Dad replied, nodding. “It went particularly well with the chicken.”

Nicole smiled triumphantly. “Thank you, thank you,” she said dramatically. 

“You’re a great cook, Nicole,” I replied. “Especially for your age. I still can’t cook… anything.”

“That can change,” Nicole pointed out. 

“You have both your father and Nicole to learn from!” Mom chimed in. “You should take advantage of that.”

“Speaking of taking advantage, can I help with the dishes?” Nicole offered with a smile.

Dad got a twinkle in his eyes, the kind that basically acted as his smile. “You’ve done enough,” he joked. “You’re our guest, not our prisoner.” He got up and started to take the dishes away.

“Okay, if you’re sure,” she replied, pushing herself away from the table. “In that case, Adam and I will be upstairs.”

“Hey, who said anything about me going up with you?” I asked.

“Fair point. I’ll be upstairs,” she corrected herself. “Rearranging all of your clothes. If you don’t want to miss the bus tomorrow, feel free to join me.” Before any of us could comment further, she was gone. I wanted to play it off like I wasn’t worried, but… Nicole was fairly unpredictable.

Mom caught my expression and tried to alleviate the tension. “She has so much energy,” Mom commented enviously. “She’s not giving you a hard time, is she?”

“Funny, I was going to ask you the same question,” I joked. “Mind if I go join her?”

“Go right ahead,” Mom replied with a smile.

Dad coughed to get my attention before I could disappear upstairs. “Door open, please,” he noted.

I acknowledged him, then continued my way upstairs, into my room. To my absolute horror, Nicole did not make any empty threats today.

“Your clothes were in a pile,” she complained when she saw my face. She was holding up a shirt of mine, folding it. “And you do not want to know how I figured out which was the clean pile and which was the dirty. You have a hamper, for God’s sake. Use it.”

“Nicole, I knew what was in those piles. I got used to those piles,” I complained. 

“Oh shit, really? I thought you hated those piles but bravely carried on anyway.” She rolled her eyes. “And close the door.”

“Dad asked me to keep the door open.”

“Yeah, I know. I heard him.” She waited, then rolled her eyes again, getting up and closing the door again. 

“Nico-!”

“What? They never come up here anyway. Just say I did it. Blame it on me. Boom, problem solved.” She finished folding a shirt and put it back in the drawer. “I put labels on these a bit ago, just use them. It’s a good system if you give it a chance.” She walked back to my bed and flopped down onto it, burying her face in my pillow.

“You okay?” I asked.

“I think your parents still hate me,” she complained.

Huh. Didn’t see that coming. “Why?”

“Your mom asking if I’m giving you problems, your dad giving me this stone face no matter what I do…”

“I told you, and you’ve, like, seen it for months. Dad never smiles.”

“He smiled once, to your mom. They were in the living room and were having a moment. I saw it.”

I lowered an eyebrow. “Yeah, it was their anniversary. He was feeling sentimental. Unless you plan on leaving me to try to seduce my dad, I don’t think that’ll ever happen.”

Nicole raised her head and pretended to think it over. “Nah, better not, I like your mom too much,” she teased. I grabbed the pillow and hit her in the face, causing her to laugh. Eventually, we settled on cuddling on the bed, me curled up into her side. It used to work better before, but…

“Fuck. You’re taller than me now, aren’t you?” Nicole realized at the same time I did.

“Wow,” I nearly breathed. It was happening. I really was becoming a man. “But you were like, much taller than me last year!”

“It was only a few inches, calm down.”

“Y’know, a few inches makes a big-”

“Shut up.” We both laughed. “Congrats, squirt. You’re growing up.” She squeezed me tighter. “It sucks.”

“What?” I sat up. “Why?”

“I dunno. I’m proud of you for growing, but… I will kinda miss having itty bitty Adam around. It’s kinda nice having things stay the same. But now you’re getting taller and actually studying and…”

“I started hitting the gym last year,” I countered. “That was change.”

“Yeah, but we weren’t dating yet,” she whined, pushing me back onto the bed and getting on top of me. 

“Oh, so it’s only change while we’re dating?” I challenged her, pulling her into me and beginning to kiss her neck.

“It’s just a big change! Muscle builds over time, and you still kinda look like the same person. With a growth spurt, you look… ahh…” Her tone got weaker as she felt my kisses turn more violent and passionate on her neck. My hardness began pushing through my pants, to the point where she could no doubt feel it too. “It changes you.”

“They could be good changes, couldn’t they?” I asked between neck kisses as I began to grind up against her.

She worked her shirt over her head. “They could be. Obviously, I’m a fan of the new you and I don’t want you to look like a kid forever.” She held up her boobs in front of my face and I eagerly started playing with them with my tongue. “Just… hah… just also miss the old you.” She leaned into my face, sighing contentedly, loving the feeling of my tongue on her skin. 

I loved holding Nicole. Every moment we got to be around each other was still so electric. Even months after we became a couple, which was months after we started fooling around, it never felt tired. I caressed her back and brought her closer to me. “God, I love you,” I moaned, going back to sucking and biting her beautiful nipples immediately after.

Nicole moaned eagerly in response, arching her back and grabbing the back of my head, grinding on me the whole time. 

I took my mouth off of her and sighed, half in contentment, half in frustration. “We both know that we can’t do anything here, right?” I asked.

Her look of desire instantly melted into annoyance. “Yeah,” she huffed. 

“I mean, I would, but…”

“I know, I know. I get loud, we get in trouble, the door has to be closed,” she replied robotically, as if this had happened over and over. “You’re fifteen, not ten. This is America, not the USSR.” She collapsed next to me. 

“What’s that again?”

“Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Soviet Russia. Stalin shit,” she replied.

“Right…” I trailed off, not wanting to take anything more away from the mood we created. 

“You know, for all they say about Stalin, they don’t really recognize how he kinda did the opposite of what communists wanted to do. Dude was basically an uber-capitalist, but admitting that means challenging a lot of what we think we know about world history. I mean, the way his regime privatized everything from vodka to-”

“Nicoooole,” I sang impatiently.

She looked at me and cracked a smug smile. “Oh, I’m sorry, is my lesson about how Stalin wasn’t actually a communist killing your boner?”

“Don’t get me wrong, normally I’d be throbbing listening to this,” I joked, with my reward being a pillow to the face.

“Well, if you’re not interested in a history lesson, I suppose we could always put to the test how quiet you are…” She purred, putting a hand on my crotch and rubbing it slowly.

I looked at the door, then back to her. “I think I’d be alright with that…” I replied with a smirk. “As long as I owe you later.”

“Always a gentleman,” she snickered, then tightened her grip on my crotch to the point of slight pain. “But first, lesson review. Since you like studying and shit. Who was Stalin again?”

“Ow…” I winced as her grip slowly got tighter with time. “Leader of Russia during the Soviet Union, right? The guy before Lenin?”

“After Lenin, but, good enough.” She released her grip on my dick, then began rubbing again. “Just keeping you on your toes.”

“You’re on a real ‘did you know’ thing lately, aren’t you?” I asked.

Despite the obscenity of rubbing my crotch and starting to undo my button, she actually blushed. “Ha, sorry,” she admitted, a rare occurrence for her. “I guess I’m learning a lot about history lately and just wanted to share it. Is it too much?” She pulled out my dick and began stroking it, biting her lip as she looked at it.

“Well, you’re giving me a handjob, who the fuck am I to argue?” I laughed.

“No, actually,” she insisted, still jacking me off. “Is it too much?”

“It’s not,” I soothed. “Just something I noticed.”

“Mrrh,” she murmured. “Maybe I should tone it down.” She started to kiss up and down my shaft and give it the occasional lick.

“Don’t worry,” I told her. “I like you for who you are.”

“Corny,” she replied, switching back to her hand. “I’m amazed you’re still hard if your jokes are gonna flop this much.”

“What can I say, you’re doing a good job,” I chuckled.

“Damn right,” she said with a wink. Not a word later, she effortlessly engulfed the head of my cock with her mouth and began to suck and play with the head using her tongue, making sure that no sensitive spot remained untouched. 

I couldn’t think to do much more than just hang my head back and moan softly as Nicole did her thing. A lot of girls in high school loved to claim that they gave the best blowjobs, but Nicole never had to say anything. Her actions spoke for themselves. Her mouth felt like a warm wet velvet heaven on my cock; her mouth was blessed by the angels to just feel the best. 

And it loved to be on my cock.

Despite the fact that I was the one without an occupied mouth, Nicole was still somehow the louder of us too. It could have been that she loved to moan with a dick in her mouth, or it could have been that she found a good position to pop open her fly and start fingering herself out of sheer need as she blew me.

“Hey,” I groaned. “I thought the whole reason I wasn’t giving you attention down there was because we couldn’t today. You’d make too much noise.”

Slowly, she stopped rubbing herself and popped her mouth off of my manhood. “Yeah, well, your dick makes a good pacifier, so I’m quieter,” she innocently explained.

“Ew, never say ‘pacifier’ during a blowjob again,” I laughed.

“Don’t interrupt your sexy slut girlfriend while she’s giving you a blowjob then,” came her sultry reply, along with a wink. At once, Nicole was back to bobbing her head up and down, doing what she seemed to love most. My hand guided her along, knowing she loved the feeling of her boyfriend’s hand pushing her head down. 

I could feel her eyes gleaming and looking at me when she sensed that I was about to blow. She was such a pro at this, she seemed to know when I was close a microsecond before I did. As soon as her eyes were on me, I felt a tightening sensation and my eyes fluttered closed. Her deep blue eyes remained fixated on me nonetheless, taking in the sight and the panting sounds I made while I felt the pressure building, and building… then releasing.

Stars broke out across my vision and I audibly gasped as I took in the sensations. My load shot into Nicole’s mouth, then again, then again. Her cheeks puffed up with my load, and eventually, spilled out, dribbling onto my thighs. Her own eyes fluttered, her horniness clearly only amplified by the feeling of my seed in her mouth.

“Fuck,” she drooled, eventually finding a used towel and cleaning us both off. “That was a bigger load than usual. Maybe you should stress yourself out and study more.”

“You’re such a slut for big loads,” I chuckle-panted.

“I’m such a slut for you,” she corrected.

“…You’re just such a slut,” I corrected again, and we both shared a small laugh. Her cheeks were still flushed with her horniness, and a clear slight glaze of lust was evident over her eyes. “It really feels like I should…”

“Outdo yourself the next time you eat me out? I agree, hotshot,” she cut me off. She held up her hand and smiled sympathetically. “It’s probably not a good idea, but you’re sweet for always thinking of me. I’m just loud, and today I’d be loud as fuck. There’s a reason I stopped fingering myself halfway through the blowjob.”

I paused to think as she put her shirt back on. “Yeah, see? Not just a pretty face. I think of this shit.” She glanced to the door. “I guess I have to, seeing as your Amish-ass parents wanna pretend we can’t do anything until we’re married.”

“I mean, they’re my parents. Most parents are like that,” I protested.

“Believe me, they’re not,” she argued. “I really think there’s something there. They don’t like me.”

“Didn’t you make them think you got me into smoking weed?” I asked. 

“Yeah, to cover up for the whole us-having-sex thing, which sure seemed like a worse thing to them,” she replied, then scrunched up her face in thought. “Wait. No. I’m wrong. It was because they got pissy because you were acting out. Something like that. Point is, ol’ Nicole got the short end of the stick.”

I gripped the base of my cock, which was already starting to re-harden. “Yeah well, if you ever want the long end of the stick…”

“Oh my God, put that thing away before I break up with you,” she laughed, then a pause filled the room. “I wish I could at least sleep over one of these days. I offered to even sleep on the couch. The flippin’ couch. Clearly, I got honorable intentions if I’m offering to sleep on the damn couch. They have it out for me.”

“This is something that’s been bothering you for a while, hasn’t it?” I asked.

“I just wish someone’s parents just fuckin’ liked me for once,” she admitted in a surprisingly small voice given we just had passionate oral sex. 

“When you leave, I can ask them,” I offered.

Nicole peered out the window at her own house. She wasn’t quite my neighbor, but lived only two doors away, so it was easy to see her house from my window. “Yeah, I should probably get going soon.”

“Lots to do?” I asked.

“More like, as long as they have a closed door policy, I’ll feel guilty being here for too long,” she admitted. “But yeah, lots to do. Yearbook stuff is starting to ramp up, and if we don’t get on top of shit now, end-of-semester is gonna be a nightmare.” She got up, watching me put my cock away and zip up my pants. “And we have the Student Council elections coming up. I need Megészségedre back.”

“You need what back?”

She rolled her eyes. “Megan, dummy.”

“Yeah, but what was the-?”

“Isn’t your mom Hungarian? I thought you’d appreciate the – whatever. Egészségedre. It means ‘cheers.’ Oh look, Nicole is going on a ‘did you know’ tangent again.”

I smiled. “Nicole is being sensitive again,” I said meaningfully.

She stopped and frowned, but eventually nodded. “Yeah,” she eventually admitted.

The tone clearly shifted. “Are you okay?”

“I dunno,” she honestly admitted. “I feel weird lately. Like… not right.”

“Is it because I got to cum and you didn’t?” I asked, my tone still meaningful.

Nicole’s look turned baffled, then to laughter. She laughed for a few seconds solid before admitting, “No, squirt, it isn’t that.”

“I just thought… well, whatever. Is it my parents?”

“No, but, uh… you are right. Something is kinda eating at me. I’m gonna be honest, I don’t know what it is, I didn’t feel it until now, and now that’s gonna bother me.”

“Oh, sorry,” I replied, getting up.

“No! Don’t be. Believe me, don’t be.” She gave me a quick hug and smiled. “I want to know if something is bothering me. I think I just need to go home and think it over or something. I don’t think I’m usually… you’re right, I’m being extra sensitive.”

“Well, if it’s something bad… call me, okay?”

She grinned. “Call you? Why don’t we just open our windows and shout back and forth?”

“Hey, that works too,” I replied with a chuckle. 

“Just be on top of shit. Who knows, maybe I’ll have a full mental breakdown on Sunday night and then you’ll have to handle the election all by yourself.” She laughed to herself.

“Don’t even joke,” I said with an uneasy chuckle.

“Relax, you’re on the other end this year,” she told me, waving my concerns away. “You can’t possibly have a panic attack during the election from the other end.”

***

“Such a baby,” Nicole repeated as she hugged me. “There’s like four grade niners in this room and you’re the most nervous one.” Nicole’s touch was as soft as ever, contrasting her boyish demeanor. She smelled like flowers and happiness.

“Mr. Scott said that he wanted me to give a speech!” I protested as we broke off the hug.

“He told you to say a few words,” she corrected me, then shrugged. “Y’know. You were the grade nine rep last year. Just mention that you know how they feel and that to this day you’re nervous giving speeches, then tell them good luck. Bam.” She started to walk away before turning back to me, smiling mischievously. “And no crying this year.”

I huffed, watching Nicole walk away. The gymnasium already felt huge, but it felt like it was growing before my very eyes. The stage area was getting set up for the election, with the finishing touches being put on it by a few Council members. That’s why they were here. Nicole knew exactly what she had to do, as always, and kept her entire to-do list in her head, running around with this adorably serious expression. Annoyingly, I had no idea what I was even expected to do. I shook my head and walked in a direction, any direction, to distract myself.

I ended up walking into the grade tens, who were now all looking expectantly at me. Shit, they thought I walked over to tell them something. I glanced over at Nicole who was talking to the grade nines, and figured that if the VP had to be in the gymnasium before the election, I may as well make myself useful. 

“Hey guys!” I began strongly. “Uh, how’s it going? My name’s Adam Watson, and I’m your Student Council VP this year. Has Nicole already talked to you guys?”

“Nope, she hasn’t,” the voice of Nicole responded from right behind me, making me jump. “You got these guys, eh Adam? I guess I’ll be backstage.” She gave me a small smile and sauntered off.

“She just wants Megan to win,” one of the grade tens grumbled.

“Yeah, maybe she has a crush on her,” another piped up.

“Nicole is with Adam, guys,” Megan scoffed. She was the only girl there, with the other three being preppy-looking boys.

One boy ran his hand through his trendy-looking hair. “Isn’t that a conflict of interest or something?” he asked me.

“Um, I don’t know,” I replied, rapidly losing steam. “Anyways, uh, welcome to the election! So, for those of you who didn’t-”

“You’re in our grade, right?” one of them asked me.

“Yeah, I am.”

“How’d you do that? Like, I thought grade tens couldn’t even apply to be VP. Was it because you were Nicole’s boyfriend?”

“I became her boyfriend after I became VP,” I replied annoyedly.

The boy was silent for a bit, then turned to the one with the trendy hair. “Yeah, definitely a conflict of interest,” he mumbled to him.

“I’m listening, Adam,” Megan said gently. 

“Thanks,” I grumbled. “Okay, so, you basically just sit up on those chairs on the gym’s stage over there and once your name is called, you give your speech. Going slightly off-script is okay, but you do have a time limit, probably around two minutes. No swearing, no attacking the other students.”

“Attacking?” trendy boy asked.

“Like, with your words,” another boy clarified.

“Oh.”

“Be sure to sit all together so we can tell you apart from the grade nines. If you get in, we’ll need you to keep up an average of 70, so like, C or better. We all good?” I asked, giving the boys the thumbs-up. Megan eagerly returned the thumbs-up, but at most the other boys gave me a polite nod. I rejoined Nicole back on stage, who was talking to Mr. Scott.

“…And we do want the professionalism of our Council to be upheld and appreciated,” Mr. Scott finished. He was a good principal, and really patient with most of the students, but whether it was for a good reason or not, Nicole was not one of those students.

“…So, I can’t go off-script? At all?” she asked.

“Yeah, I think that would be for the best, if that’s okay,” Mr. Scott agreed.

“Okay, but what if it’s just like a small thing? Like someone gives a huge ‘woo’ in the middle of my opening? Can I say ‘thanks’ or something?”

Mr. Scott stared at Nicole for a long time. “Nicole…”

“I’m just asking!” she protested.

Mr. Scott sighed. “Please, all I’m asking is for you not to find a loophole in my words. Just… no surprises. You’re here to serve the school.”

“Here to serve the school,” Nicole repeated, an honest smile forming on her face. “That makes sense. Thanks.”

He stared at her again for a bit. “You’re welcome,” he replied with a small smile of his own. The smile got bigger and more enthusiastic when he saw me. “Good morning, Adam! Are you ready to inspire our candidates today?”

“I am, yeah, but…” The cogs turned in my brain. “You asked me to say a few words. I didn’t bring a speech today, so there’s nothing for me to follow.”

He chuckled merrily. “Oh, that’s okay, you don’t need a-…” His sentence caught in his throat. “I…”

“Don’t need a speech?” Nicole offered, a small smile on her face, her tone ominously calm. “Only some of us need a written speech at all, huh?”

“Nicole, you have to understand, we do this on a basis of… some students are more spontaneous. Spontaneous and… well, rambunctious. This is great for a lot of things. Representing the school? Not really one of them.” Scott was putting on his best politician voice for her.

Nicole was not returning the fake voice. She shook her head, a look of sadness clouding her face. “I just don’t get it. What did I even do? Most of the school fuckin’ loves me, but you guys keep feeling like you have to put this… this leash on me! What did I even do to deserve that?”

“Hey, Nicole,” I cut in. “Sometimes these things mean a lot to some people. It’s not even about what you did, some people just want some things to go perfectly according to plan. If the election needs to go another way, let’s focus on that, but otherwise…” I trailed off, hoping she’d see reason.

She closed her eyes and seemingly counted to three, opening them again. “Okay,” she conceded, looking at Scott. “If the school wants it, I’ll follow the script. Adam doesn’t need a script. It’s because I’m unpredictable, and I gotta accept it. Alright?”

Mr. Scott clearly didn’t take any pleasure in cutting Nicole down to size like this. He only looked sad, not unlike how she did. “Okay. And…” He paused. “You are making the school proud. You’re a good student. It’s just… complicated.”

“Yeah, it really is,” Nicole agreed, then turned away, going to the podium. I looked at Mr. Scott, who offered nothing more than a shrug my way, before walking off himself. I guess I didn’t need a script. I actually would have preferred one, but whatever.

The students were starting to fill the gymnasium, and Nicole and I stood in front of the podium, being mindful that the microphone could be turned on at any point.

“Fuck this fucking school up the fucking ass with a fucking pitchfork,” Nicole growled, shuffling some papers.

Well, I was being mindful. “Is having to give a scripted speech that bad?”

“Being told what to do when I do my best work unrestrained is that bad,” she answered tersely. “We’re being cut off at the knees all because, ‘Oh, what if Nicole says something weird?’ Get real.”

“Well, if the office people keep making your job hell, why do you still do it?” I asked.

Nicole’s scowl broke into a smile. “Because these students are the best, and deserve the world,” she told me. The echo of her words filled the gymnasium. The microphone was turned on with perfect timing, and a few students started cheering Nicole’s name as they heard her honest words.

“You might be the only politician I know who could have a mic gaffe of them saying the most good-for-PR thing,” I joked.

“My life is a sitcom,” she snickered back. She caught Mr. Scott staring at her, pointed to the mic and shrugged, breaking into a smile. I could see Mr. Scott shake his head, albeit with a small smile.

As I stood awkwardly on stage, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I took it out, reading the message, which was from Sabrina.

I can see u up there : )

I smiled to myself. Much like Nicole and myself in first year, Sabrina and I were getting used to communicating mostly via text message, with, at most, a few smiles exchanged during classes. It was almost weird – it felt too weird to actually talk to her in person, but texting her felt like the most natural thing in the world. Unlike with Nicole, our texts were never sexual or even flirty, and there were certainly no nudes swapped, and yet…

I looked at Nicole, and thought about the blessing she gave me.

And yet it felt like both Sabrina and I wanted to flirt somehow. I mean, she explicitly asked if I was allowed to date someone in our first conversation, that had to mean something. Plus, she was a girl who gave me a lot of attention over the phone, and I was… well, I was a teenage boy. For some reason, I just defaulted to hoping she had an interest in me and that I could do something about it. I was happy with Nicole, but… if Nicole was happy with it, what was the harm? Was this what being in an open relationship was like?

I shook my head. I didn’t know if Sabrina was into me. I couldn’t just presume that. Sure, she was texting me a lot, and I mean a lot, over the past week, and sure she was friendly, but…

I saw her in the crowd, and gave a small wave. She smiled and waved back, and embarrassingly, my heart jumped. Fuck. Why was I like this? What was I even like?

Once everyone was settled, Mr. Scott took to the stage and cleared his throat. I checked my watch. 9:32. It was time.

“Good morning, staff and students,” Mr. Scott began warmly. “I hope you’re all getting used to your new classes and making some new friends. Every year, we ask our esteemed Student Council to…” He kept on cheerfully with his words.

Nicole shifted in place. “Maybe,” she mumbled to herself. “Nah.”

“Huh?” I asked, thinking she was trying to get our attention.

“Adam. Number between one and two,” she ordered.

“What?”

“Number between on-”

“One.”

“Great, thanks.”

After Mr. Scott finished, he waved over Nicole, who made a big show of uncrinkling her paper speech prepared for her. Mr. Scott himself stepped back next to me.

“Hello to our staff and stu- woah, that’s spelled wrong. Students,” she opened, enjoying the slight laugh she got from the crowd. She beamed at them and paused, taking in the spectacle.

“So, it’s my job to represent the school,” she began. “So I want to put it to a vote, since you all are the school. Who wants me to read a prepared script made for me?”

A chorus of mock boos filled the gym. I could hear Mr. Scott’s loud sigh from next to me. Nicole just smiled. “And who wants me to speak from my heart?”

The boos turned to cheers in an instant. It was clear right then, even the grade nines who never met her loved Nicole. Her ability to be charming was almost supernatural. 

“Wow! The school has spoken. The ayes have it. Does anyone even say that anymore? Ah, whatever.” She cleared her throat. “The student council election is one of the most important votes you’ll take part in as a student. This year, you’re choosing…”

I felt a hand on my shoulder, and turned to see Mr. Scott gesture with his head to a place backstage where we couldn’t be seen. I followed him and once we were alone, he took his hand off me and sighed.

“I don’t really know what to do with her,” he confessed. “She’s a bit of a loose cannon, and I feel like if I punished her by removing her as President, well…” A chorus of laughs and cheers filled the gym. “Well, you can probably guess, a lot of students would be upset.”

“Can I be blunt?” I asked.

“Of course.”

“Why is it bad that she’s unpredictable?” I asked. “Sure, she goes off-script, but she clearly cares about the students. She’s doing this to rally the students. She told me herself that she does this because she thinks it helps the students more. She even follows the rules as they’re needed, she filed a report last week against Rodney for-”

He held up a hand. “No need to discuss reports, I already discussed that with her,” he told me. “Yes, those things are good, but-” The ring of the word fuck filled the gymnasium, interwoven into Nicole’s sentence. “She doesn’t set the best example by being so reckless. She encourages students who know even less about professionalism to follow in her footsteps, that the worst of her behavior is okay to emulate. Do you know what I mean by ‘emulate?’”

“Imitate? Copy?” I offered.

“Sort of. We’re not just worried for Nicole, we’re worried for the attitude she’s growing in others, and the atmosphere of screwing the rules. She likes the school but thinks it’s okay to occasionally do the wrong thing because of her position. Not only does that teach future Council members to ignore the rules, it might make students who have less charitable views of their fellow students think they can break the rules too. We all have to follow the rules. Even I do. I have superiors too.”

“Yeah, I understand that,” I admitted. “What do you want me to do?”

“Just… be aware. Maybe keep that in mind if you see her being so reckless on school property,” he answered. “You’re clearly trustworthy, Adam. If you say you’ll keep an eye on her, I trust you. Because if she doesn’t at least improve, I may need to resort to more drastic measures.”

“I’ll… do what I can,” I feebly offered, and we quickly made our way back onto the main stage area, just as Nicole finished up her speech. 

She saw us come back on, and quickly added, “And once again, sorry for dropping the f-bomb. It’s a bad habit and it wasn’t cool of me to do that in a speech. But I’m not sorry for why I said it: you all are just that damn worth it. Ductus exemplo!”

The students cheered as Nicole turned around and bit her lip at us sheepishly. “I’m in trouble, aren’t I?” she asked Scott. 

Mr. Scott sighed. “We’ll talk later. Just announce the first candidate please.”

She whipped back around and addressed the crowd. “Alright, alright. So let’s bring out our first candidate. If you know her, you know she did a great job last year as our grade nine rep. Put your hands together for the one and only Megan Schneider!”

Megan closed her eyes as she walked to the stage, clearing her mind. As I feared, amongst the cheers, there were a few things boys shouted, mostly catcalls. Luckily for her, they were drowned out in the claps. 

My stomach churned as Nicole and I shot each other looks. While most of them were drowned out, there was no mistaking one boy’s shout as Megan took to the stage.

“Fuckin’ slut!”

I felt lightheaded. I felt like I was going to have a panic attack and I wasn’t even the one giving the speech – mine was after all of the candidates went up. I looked at Megan, expecting her to be running back to her seat or even at the very least crying and yet, she kept walking, eyes closed, right up to the podium. Once she was nearly there she opened her eyes.

She breathed in and out once or twice, surveying the crowd. “Hi,” she simply began. “My name’s Megan Schneider. There are some people that don’t know me yet, and clearly, some people who sure think they do.” She paused. “I’m not that Megan anymore. I can’t promise that Megan returning to the Council this year. I even thought about not applying because…” Her voice caught in her throat. “…Because I knew some people would shout things at me before my speech.” She pushed. This was clearly off-script too, but with a totally different mood. “But that’s okay. Everyone here has a right to their opinion.”

That was a stretch. No student had the fucking right to yell ‘slut’ at Megan before her speech just to intimidate her. 

“The most important thing here is that I know how the Council works, and I want to help them, because… I really like this school. I’ve seen clubs not get enough funding, I’ve seen students not know about events and miss out. The grade ten rep gets to have a say in a lot of those things. Those… yeah. I…” Her voice was quivering. One or two boys near the front were laughing. “If you vote for me, you’ll get an experienced rep who believes in you all. Thank you.” She quickly turned around and tried to find her seat, clearly already crying.

Before I knew what I was doing, I ran up to her and gave her a hug, which she seemed to both accept and refuse at the same time.

“I want to do this by myself,” she sobbed stubbornly.

“You did do it by yourself, you dummy, the whole school saw you,” I soothed with a strong voice. Luckily, we weren’t on mic. 

“You don’t have to do this for me,” she protested, hugging me back.

“You did this for me last year,” I told her assertively. “It’s my turn to do this for you.”

She looked up at me and gave me the most genuine, thankful smile I’d seen from anyone in a long time, but still, pushed me away from the hug. I spared a look at the few boys in the front row, who didn’t even care anymore. They’d just moved on to talking amongst themselves about something unrelated. It didn’t have to be real to them after they finished yelling the word ‘slut.’ For Megan, it had to be real every second of her speech.

It was clear by the look on Nicole’s face that she had even stronger opinions on the boys who jeered Megan. When Megan sat down, Nicole walked up to the podium and bluntly said, “Next up, Kyle O’Donovan.” She walked back to my side and looked towards Mr. Scott. “We need to make an example of what just happened there.”

Mr. Scott understood how serious her face was, and nodded. “I’ll make a mention of it in the announcement,” he offered.

“That’s a start,” she huffed to herself. She wouldn’t be fully composed until the end of the next speech. 

Kyle looked like most of the guys here; slightly popular but with a slight hint of insecurity. He wore a striped shirt and weirdly big shoes. He was followed by Trendy Hair Guy, then some boy whose eyes clearly got him his last few girlfriends.

The grade nines weren’t much different, although they looked a lot more clueless. While three of them looked like grade nine versions of the three boys trying out for the grade ten rep, there was one kid that looked particularly baffled, with curly brown hair, what looked like hand-me-down clothing, and a fairly intense gaze. He kind of reminded me of me a bit. He’d need a miracle if he wanted to get in – Council was a popularity contest, and I got insanely lucky. Still, I couldn’t help but wish the kid luck in my own head. At least I could pick him out in a crowd.

***

“Ancient Roman Gods… were a lot like… Ancient Greek Gods…” Mr. Kovacs droned on, occasionally pointing limply to something he wrote on the blackboard. Unlike Zeus’ legs, my eyes were struggling to stay open. 

Suddenly, the PA system crackled. “Good morning, staff and students, this is Mr. Scott speaking,” the voice of Mr. Scott met our ears.

“Oh, thank God,” I heard a student near me breathe, no doubt relieved that something, anything was interrupting Kovacs. 

“This is it,” I told Megan, who was sitting beside me again. She gave me a polite albeit nervous smile.

“To start, I’d like to say thank you to everyone for voting in our Student Council junior elections earlier,” he began, then paused. “Now, unfortunately, it wasn’t all good, not like we hoped. Some students had said some very rude things when one of our candidates took to the podium, and in our school, that just isn’t acceptable.”

“Ugh,” Megan complained, turning pink and putting her head in her hands. “I didn’t mean to cause this.”

I gave her a weird look. “Cause this? It happened to you.”

She gave me a small shrug. “I just don’t want all this fuss caused for me. I can handle it.”

“It made you cry,” I pointed out.

Her blush deepened and she looked away. Sensing I only caused more tension, I turned my attention back to the PA system.

“…so in the future, please watch your wording. We won’t hesitate to talk one-on-one with repeat offenders. So, uh, with that out of the way, I’d like to announce your new Student Council representatives.”

Despite making her blush earlier, my hand found its way into Megan’s. She looked at me as soon as my hand made contact, and I offered her a smile. I wanted her to win before the election, but especially with how she was treated, I really wanted her to win now. 

“This year’s race was a tight one, on both fronts, but I’m happy to report that, for this year, your grade ten representative will be Megan Schneider…” 

Megan exhaled slowly and let go of my hand. A good few of the kids in our class clapped politely for her.

“…And your grade nine representative will be Jarrod Fabula! Congratulations to everyone who ran this year, this school is proud of all of you.”

“Told you you could do it,” I told Megan with a smile. 

She smiled back.

***

“So I guess the first meeting is after school today?” Megan asked me as we made our way into the halls.

“Yeah. Nicole’s probably over the moon. She really wanted you to win,” I replied.

“She’s so kind to me,” Megan replied quietly, adjusting her glasses. “I don’t know what I did to make her like me.”

“You were likable,” I shrugged with a laugh.

“I’m actually kind of surprised Jarrod won,” Megan thought out loud. “Like, good for him, but I thought he seemed kind of in over his head.”

Right, I forgot – I had no clue which one even was Jarrod. It wasn’t like I had to learn all of their names anyway. “Which one was Jarrod?” I asked sheepishly.

“Really?” Megan asked with disappointment in her tone. “I thought you were the VP. Did you even care about the elections?”

“I had a lot on my mind, gimme a break,” I replied.

She sighed. “Curly hair, theater kid style delivery, kinda short…”

“Hand-me-down clothes?”

She shrugged. “Probably.”

“Maybe try to care about your own students next time,” she pressed on.

“Jeez, you’re taking this personally,” I replied uneasily, then smiled. “If I forget again, I can always task you to remember their names for me. I mean, I outrank you now.”

She shook her head. “You can be such a jerk,” she replied, albeit with a humorous lilt to her voice.

I was going to reply, but at that moment, Mr. Salvador was walking by. He was the school’s drama teacher, and he also helped me out a lot last year, so he was a welcome sight for me. Plus, he was taller than most and bald, so it’s not like he was easy to miss in a crowd.

“Mr. Salvador!” I exclaimed with a wave.

His bespectacled black eyes met mine, and without making any other acknowledgement, he winked at me as he walked past. My eyes followed him, then whipped back to Megan. “Can I catch up with you? I really want to say hi to him,” I told her.

“Sure. Will I see you at lunch?” she asked.

“Oh, you’ll see me in a few minutes, I just want to say hi,” I said in a rush, then hurried after him. “Mr. Salvador!” I called out. “Mr. Salvador!”

Mr. Salvador stopped right where he was mid-step, and turned around to face me. “Adam, if you need to talk to me, come by my office, don’t stop me in the halls,” he told me with his trademark seriousness. Without missing a beat, he turned back around and kept walking. 

Well, if nothing else, he was the Salvador I remembered. “Are you walking to your office?” I asked him jokingly.

He turned back around. “No,” he simply said, then turned around. Before walking, he turned back to face me. “It’s good to see you again. I hope you had a good summer.”

I nodded, a smile forming on my face. Just as he did, I too turned away and started hurrying back after Megan. Some things didn’t change.

***

Room 203. Student Council. It didn’t seem fully complete without Megan Schneider present. When she arrived, we exchanged smiles. Weirdly, when Jarrod entered, I just sort of looked away. I felt bad for not remembering his name, even though he didn’t know that. The rest of the council just hummed away, especially since all of the people here this year were new and hadn’t worked with Megan before.

All except for me, and for…

“What’s up, bitches?” Nicole greeted us after swinging the door open. “Welcome to the first official Student Council meeting of the year.”

“We’ve had meetings before,” Rick, one of the council members, heckled. He looked like the biggest theater kid on the planet, with the flamboyant voice to top it off and everything. And he was skinny and tall. Why did all of the theater kids have to be skinny and tall?

“Yeah, but they weren’t official,” Nicole replied swiftly. “You could have skipped them with zero downsides. Don’t you feel like an idiot?” She grinned at him. “Anyway, welcome welcome welcome to our two newest members! It is good to see Megan Schneider back again as our grade ten rep.”

The council clapped and cheered for Megan, who only awkwardly smiled.

Nicole started sauntering over towards Jarrod. “And our newest grade nine representative is the no-doubt intense and passionate Jarrod Fabula,” she added with a playful smirk. Once she reached him, she grabbed his face in her hands and gave him a big kiss.

The other kids laughed as they witnessed what apparently was a long-standing tradition of Student Council. The one face I was looking at, though, was Jarrod’s. After the kiss ended, Jarrod didn’t grin like an idiot or something. He looked… dumbstruck, Almost fearful.

I couldn’t help but think of the time Nicole kissed me, a year ago, and how confused and conflicted I felt. The poor guy was like me, in a lot of ways, in that moment. 

Nicole caught my expression and smiled knowingly, probably mistaking my sympathy for jealousy. She turned on her heels and walked towards me, still looking at Jarrod. “Don’t get too many ideas, Jarrod,” she added, flipping her hair dramatically. “This girl’s taken.” Without warning, she planted a big kiss on my lips, earning another laugh from the Council. 

Even her joke kisses to me were full of passion. She never hesitated to pull her face close to mine, or hold back on any of her emotions. It felt like I was getting kissed by a lover, even if both of our mouths remained closed the whole time. Slowly, she pulled away. “You okay, hotshot?” she asked.

I rolled my eyes. “Go be the President,” I told her with a chuckle. 

“If you insist,” she cattily said back, and sauntered back to the front. I could see Jarrod was still looking at me, though when I tried to catch his gaze, he quickly looked away.

***

“First meeting went well, doncha think?” Nicole asked me, stuffing some papers into her backpack. 

“Yeah,” I said simply, absentmindedly kicking my feet along the floor. The business side of the Council meeting went in one ear and out the other – I didn’t like how quiet Jarrod was the entire meeting. I get that he was a grade nine and he wasn’t expected to do or say much, but I couldn’t help but feel like the kiss was one tradition that needed to die. It didn’t help matters that my girlfriend was the one doing it.

“So, are you gonna talk about what’s on your mind here, or during the ride back?” she asked nonchalantly.

At this point, her mind-reading barely fazed me. “Either or,” I answered with a shrug. 

She zipped up her backpack and put it on her back. “Lez’ go,” she slurred with determination, and we started walking. “May as well make it now.”

“I think Jarrod was really bothered by the whole kiss thing,” I admitted.

Nicole stopped walking abruptly, then turned to face me with a half-smirk. “Y’know, I could have expected complaints about the kiss two years in a row, but I wasn’t expecting both of them to come from the same guy,” she mused. 

“Just saying,” I replied. “I think it just leads to the boys-”

“Or girls, I kissed Megan in freshman year too,” she butted in. 

“Sure, or girls, becoming, like, confused. It doesn’t help that you’re attractive and passionate. I dunno, what if it leads to something? What if it’s a bad idea?”

She laughed. “Squirt, it’s a Student Council tradition. Of course it’s a bad idea.”

“Jarrod just seemed upset. He barely talked all meeting.”

“Tell you what. If it bothers you that much, I’ll ask Jarrod about it later, okay?” she asked me.

“You don’t have to do that.” We both reached her car and got in. “I just think maybe in the future it shouldn’t be a thing at all.”

“Well, next year I’ll be out of the school entirely,” she noted, turning on the car and pulling out of the school parking lot. “Maybe you’ll be President then. So at that point, you can choose not to continue it. It would probably be Megan continuing the tradition anyway.”

I shuddered remembering the reputation she already had. “She’d hate that,” I remarked. “How did you manage to overcome the slut rumors anyway? Megan has been clean for a while but people still are jerks about it.”

“To be blunt, I reveled in it and Meganator runs away from it,” Nicole said flatly. “She goes, ‘nooo, I’m not a slut.’ I go, ‘yeah, I’m a slut, but I’m still a cool slut.’”

“I feel like there’s more to it than that,” I replied slowly.

“Then hire a fucking psychologist to look at it, I got no more answers for you,” she snapped. “Oh hey, would you be able to stay behind tomorrow?”

“Tuesday?”

“Yeah, I have a yearbook meeting after school,” she continued. 

“I could just take the bus,” I noted.

She was silent for a bit. “Oh yeah, true,” she remarked. “We hang out so much that I forgot there’s a bus that reaches our neck of the woods. Okay, never ind, but hey, offer’s open. Yearbook can be kinda fun.”

“I’ll keep it in mind,” I laughed.

“Do you think I upset Jarrod?”

I chuckled. “That got to you, huh?”

Her tone reached humorlessness. “Answer the damn question, knucklehead.”

“Um…” I shifted in my seat. “It’s possible. I didn’t mean to imply it was you or your actions, just…”

“Fuckin’A,” she breathed with annoyance to her tone. “Fine, I’ll talk to him.”

“I didn’t even say anything,” I argued. 

“I just don’t want to scare him off. Maybe the kiss thing is too much,” she admitted. “He is cute though. Not in a you, attractive way. Like in a puppy dog kinda way. He’s itty bitty.”

“I think he’s a lot like me,” I admitted. “I see a lot of myself in him.”

“Um, no,” she replied immediately, stopping at a red light. “Number one, he’s nowhere near as good-looking. Number two, you had balls. I remember you wanted it so bad that you like dressed up in a suit and took people’s opinions on Student Council before even knowing what it was.”

“I never dressed up in a suit, it was just a button-up shirt, and I was asking about school issues,” I grumbled.

“My version’s funnier. Anyway, he doesn’t seem a thing like you, unless you just mean that he’s shy, and like, grade nines come in two flavors: dweeby and shy, or thinks they’re hot shit because they were popular in grade eight. You both were probably just bullied in middle school, that’s all.”

“Yeah, stay optimistic,” I chuckled. I wondered if he was bullied. He certainly could have been. I wondered if maybe he thought he was getting punked when Nicole kissed him and that was why he had that shocked expression. I didn’t know, but maybe it was worth it to get to know the guy. “Maybe I should just ask him.”

“Well, if he comes to Sydney’s party on the weekend you can,” she offered.

“That’s this weekend?”

“Yeah, just don’t invite anyone else. Council only,” she ordered.

We quickly reached Nicole’s place and dropped our stuff off. I couldn’t help but note how my mom rushed to greet Nicole when she came by but even Nicole herself didn’t exchange a word with either parents when we briefly entered, then left, her place. 

“You good?” she asked as we left her place.

“Yeah,” I simply replied. 

We took off in a familiar direction and walked for a bit, talking and holding hands. To any other observer it would have looked like we were on a date, until we turned towards the local cemetery. Nicole came here often enough, and I knew why, so it seemed only natural to come together. Besides, she seemed to appreciate it when she was experiencing her worst days, so I was happy to help her through her grief. It was routine by this point – I’d leave Nicole at her older brother’s grave and give her her peace, and go check out the nearby abandoned church or the nearby trees or something.

After spending enough time bumming around, I quietly re-approached Nicole, who was kneeling by the grave, and put a hand on her shoulder. She put her own hand on top of mine and squeezed.

“How is it today?” I asked tenderly. I stroked her shoulder as I asked. 

She sighed, and didn’t speak for a while. “It’s harder,” she admitted and turned to me, tears streaking down her face. Nevertheless, she gave a small smile. “He would have loved you, you know.”

“You keep saying that,” I replied quietly. I had… mixed feelings on Mitch, her brother, but then again, I never really knew the guy. 

“No, really. You’ve stayed by my side through how much bullshit? You care. You care like he cared… no. More. You’re…” She got to her feet and kissed me on the lips.

Nicole could get like this. When she was happy, she was horny, but when she was sad, she was needy. The first time, it seemed almost inappropriate, having Nicole desperately kissing me and making out with me in a cemetery, in front of her brother’s grave, but as time went on, I just sort of learned to go with the flow. 

We broke off the kiss, with Nicole breathing heavily. “Y’know,” I started, “It must be so weird for Mitch to have to see his sister kissing some guy in front of his grave over and over.”

She snickered despite her tears. “I’m sure if it gets too much, he’ll tell me,” she joked. “Do you wanna go back or keep going?”

“This is probably the last day this year we’ll be seeing the temperature hit the fifties,” I noted. “Maybe we should enjoy what we’ve got.” I didn’t actually care about the temperature, and actually loved winter. I was just always nervous about leaving Nicole alone whenever she had a harder day at the cemetery.

Something tells me she always knew that, but never let on. She nodded, and gestured off towards a path through the trees. “Wanna try that way again?”

Without another word, we were off, and began walking through the little forest, sometimes hand in hand, sometimes not. It still felt tense around us, but not awkward. Thankfully, we were through that part. 

“It’s crazy how this is a whole-ass hiking trail and yet we never see anyone else out here,” she remarked out loud. “Like, anyone else. Someone had to at least create this path.”

“I bet people know about it,” I replied. “The church has a bit more graffiti on it than it did before the summer.”

“Yeah, summer’s graffiti season,” she replied, then shivered. “I hate the cold.”

“I remember,” I laughed. “Can I ask how you’re feeling?”

“I’m probably gonna get a wave of numbness soon,” she said slowly.

“Soon,” I acknowledged.

She nodded. “Yeah, alright,” she added, her tone gaining her signature Nicole smugness. “I’m a clingy bitch right now. Happy?”

It was my turn to smile smugly, while of course rewarded me with a clear eye-roll from Nicole. Still, when I stopped walking and pulled her in by the waist for a kiss, she was all too happy to comply.

“I miss angling my head down when I kiss you,” she pouted as we broke it off. 

This, of course, did nothing to stop my smug smile, which Nicole decided to block with another kiss instead of an eye-roll. This one wasn’t a polite closed-mouth kiss – almost immediately she opened her mouth and slid her hands around my neck, bringing our bodies together. I was lucky that I was able to see her when she didn’t have that camera around her neck, otherwise the angles would be difficult. 

Before long, Nicole was grinding her body up against me while kissing me. In the early days, I got nervous of ‘taking advantage’ of her state like this, but after a few talks, we established our boundaries and were able to take mutual advantage of the clingier moods she’d find herself in. 

Nicole was making little muffled whimpers and moans into my mouth, kissing me with more and more fervor. “I need you,” she moaned, breaking off the kiss and hugging me close. “Please.”

I looked around. “Did you want to go back, or-”

“No, here,” she practically begged. “Something. Anything. Please?”

“We’re outdoors,” I said uneasily.

“We just talked about how no one ever comes here,” she pointed out breathlessly. “I can even blow you out here. I just wanna feel close to you, Adam. I just want it, really badly. I want you.” She gave me a few more kisses, each one more passionate than the last, then looked into my eyes with the most pleading expression I had ever seen. It almost made me laugh. 

“Okay, okay,” I conceded. “But! I said I’d owe you one. If we’re doing this, I’m doing it to you.”

It was her turn to look around and chuckle. “That’s gonna be a bit more difficult, blowjobs are kinda more straightforward…”

I had already worked it out in my head. “Lean up against that tree,” I told her. “I’ll get on my knees. You can put one leg on my shoulder if you have to.”

She bit her lip and nodded, getting into position. “I might keep both legs on the ground,” she told me. “I have a feeling I’ll need the support.”

I smiled, watching her take off her track pants she wore that day, then her panties. Even though we’d seen each other naked a billion times, she blushed, knowing I was staring at her, and knowing her pussy was on public display, even if no one could see it.

I loved the look of her pussy, even though she could feel insecure about it. Nicole had a noticeably large clit that I loved to play with, and it helped that she loved it too. I was expecting to see a fair amount of hair, given she said Council left her too busy lately to shave, but…

“Clean shaven,” I observed.

Her blush deepened. “It makes eating me out a little easier, right?” she asked. “Besides, I kind of like shaving it now. It feels nicer to feel just skin down there.”

“Were you planning this?”

She laughed. “Yeah, I used my dead brother and crocodile tears just to get my pussy eaten when just asking you would get it eaten anyways,” she joked. “Do you really think I’m that much of a psycho?”

“Not for those reasons,” I said with a wink, getting down on my knees in front of her. Nicole leaned back against the tree and sighed, spreading her legs apart a little further. The angle was a bit difficult at first but it was clear that Nicole really needed it. If not from how wet her pussy was before my tongue even made contact with it, from the way she immediately moaned at first contact.

I loved running my tongue up her slit to begin. Nicole was sensitive to oral and really loved the way my tongue played off of her sensitivity. I slowly, gently, almost teasingly ran my tongue up and down her entrance a few times before tracing a line up to her clit, lightly dancing my tongue on top of it before giving it my first non-gentle lick. Nicole clearly shuddered in response. 

“Fuck, how are you so good at this?” she moaned.

I took my tongue off of her. “I’m barely doing anythi-”

“Shut up,” she moaned, pulling me by the head back towards her. I took the message and kept up my efforts, alternating between playing with her clit, teasingly licking around her folds, and diving in with different patterns into her pussy.

Pussy didn’t taste like the greatest thing in the world, but I learned to love the taste because I associated it with Nicole’s pleasure: a fact that, if I told her, would be rewarded with a punch to the arm and her telling me I’m a ‘sap.’ But it was true. I loved pleasing her, and I also loved having this power over her that Nicole rarely gave up outside of sex and, at least when it came to me, she was all too happy to give up during it. 

“Oh my fucking God,” she moaned, feeling the latest efforts of my tongue. Her eyes were closed, her face was flushed, and her hips were moving on their own. She was in heaven. “Fuck, I love this, I love you…”

It was bittersweet hearing that. On the one hand, she only ever told me she loved me during sex, but on the other, I really enjoyed hearing that. Plus, whenever she said it, it meant that her orgasm was approaching.

On cue, I could feel a shaking sensation in her legs, and felt her hands on the back of my head begin to grab at my hair in desperation. “Adam, ah, ah, anh…” she moaned, before starting to make incoherent noises. I knew the rule – don’t go deeper or faster if her orgasm is approaching, just keep doing what you’re doing. I kept it up, doing my best to match her hips’ movements to make sure she was getting the full effect of my mouth. 

Finally, she exploded in my mouth, rewarding my efforts with an onslaught of her juices. I didn’t stop my efforts, and kept licking through her orgasm, as I felt the electricity of her climax flow throughout her whole body.

She squeaked with pleasure as it hit her, with one hand grabbing the tree for support, her chest rising and falling with her breaths. After a few seconds of this stage, she began to fall back down to earth, panting and almost cross-eyes. It was adorable and sexy, all at once.

We remained there for a bit until she tapped the back of my head and I slowly removed myself from between her thighs. I wiped my chin with my wrist and, seeing her panting face, mimed jazz hands to cut the beautiful tension. She laughed and attempted to slap me, but thanks to her out-of-breath state, missed handily.

“So, if I ever want to beat you at karate, all I have to do is give you an orgasm,” I laughed.

“That was one of the best ones you’ve ever given,” she replied dreamily, ignoring me. “Maybe we need to come out here more often.”

“In winter?” I challenged her.

“…Fuck.” She put her underwear and pants back on, stretching her legs a little bit to get back to the sensation of walking. “Well, if you get much better at that, get me a wheelchair because I’m gonna lose the ability to walk.”

“You really like to butter me up, don’t you?”

“Well, I already know how good my blowjobs are,” she replied with a mischievous smirk. “It’s only fair to let you know you’re about a quarter as good at oral as I am.”

“Hey!” I instinctively objected.

“Yes?” she asked with an innocent face.

I slowly broke out into a smile. “Nope, nothing, you’re right,” I laughed. “So, do I have to gargle water if I wanna kiss you again?”

“Yup. Mint water. You know the rules,” Nicole replied with a smile. She hated tasting herself.

“Well in that case, can we hurry back to your home already?” I asked with fake annoyance. We joined hands again and began the long walk home, both knowing the bitter cold of the night wasn’t too far away.

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