---

In the Last Chapter…

The Quiz Bowl team sees the new hickeys – they all know Jason has a new girlfriend. Along the way, Jason witnesses Rose tell Ryan about her past with Sarah. After Sammy catches up with the drama, she takes Jason back to meet her parents, so he can have a taste of something normal. Sammy and Jason get close to having sex, then get called down to a proper sit-down supper. Jason tries to recount this event and how much he loved such a new feeling, and admits he feels like the Quiz Bowl are his family. When Rose affirms they are his family, Jason can’t stop himself from crying.

---

Things weren’t exactly easy for me in the hour or so that followed after that.

Chadwick sat at her desk, nodding solemnly, taking in everything I told her. “I see,” she commented after a while. “Even still, if you ever find yourself thinking that things are getting worse, or especially if they strike you again…” She went through her desk and pulled out some kind of informational pamphlet with a bunch of phone numbers and statistics on it. “…I’ll want you to make a report with the second phone number on this, right here.” She pointed to a phone number on the pamphlet. “My job requires that if we hear these things, even if you think it’s minor or doesn’t happen too often, we need to intervene. And it’s good that you spoke up, Jason. It means that we can help you.”

I just kept my head down the whole time, even while talking to her. The others had probably gone home close to an hour ago, leaving me, Chadwick, and Rose – my emotional support friend. When she asked to be here for this, Chadwick firmly told her “no,” but when I asked for her to be here too, she relented. Rose didn’t say a word, and just kept a hand on my back the whole time.

Chadwick went over a few more formalities, and agreed that the school wouldn’t do anything drastic… this time. Apparently me crying during extracurriculars and “showing clear signs of fear” when my parents were brought up were weird or something. Who knew?

No one brings this shit up, but… it was kind of humiliating. I wanted to be my own person. I wanted to rise above what my parents were like and what they did. I wanted to be the somebody they couldn’t be. That was gonna be my revenge. That was gonna be my fuckin’ revenge. I was learning to be nice and I was getting girlfriends and I was breaking the cycle and shit. And yet, here I was, “my own person,” fucking crying in front of a teacher while his strangest friend had to rub their back. It was beta shit. 

After Chadwick excused us, Rose and I grabbed our backpacks and started to walk off. We were already out of the physics hallway by the time I managed to get up the courage to say what I wanted to tell Rose for a while. 

“Thanks. I dunno if I would have been able to do half of any of the shit I do without you.”

Rose kept her gaze forward as she walked. “Enh,” she replied with a shrug. “You say that.”

“Huh?”

“I think you think you’re weak,” Rose said simply. “You’re not. You managed to stand up to your parents, even if it wasn’t to their faces. These people brought you into the world, and you still managed to tell the world that what they do is unfair. That’s not weakness, that’s strength.”

“Shit,” I admitted, and approached the front doors of the school. I held it open for her. “You’re amazing. Thanks.”

“Nah,” she flatly replied, walking through the door. “I’m just a bitch.” She stopped in place and shook her head at her own comment. She looked up at me. “I’m bad at taking compliments. Uh, ‘preciate it.”

“Want me to walk you home?” I offered.

“Hell yes,” she replied. She wasn’t smiling, but I didn’t care. The two of us began to walk off together, not at all uncomfortable with the silence between us.

Even then, I got curious about something and had to break the silence. “So what the hell are your parents like?”

Rose wasn’t fazed, and kept walking. “I’ll never know, I never met ‘em,” she replied coolly.

“Wait, what?!” I replied in surprise, stopping and turning to her.

She stopped too, but didn’t look at me. She shrugged, just looking down at the sidewalk or up at the clouds. “Yup,” she awkwardly said after a bit.

“B-but… we’ve talked about them!”

“Nope,” she said coolly, still looking away from me. “The only thing I can remember is you asking if they hit me. And they were gone well before that.”

“Who do you live with then…?” I asked in bewilderment. 

“Foster mom,” Rose simply replied. “Strictly speaking, this is round three for me. Been in two homes beforehand and, uh… didn’t quite work out.” She started walking again, and I followed. “Turns out, the standards aren’t high for this shit.”

“You couldn’t go live with an aunt and uncle or something?”

She shook her head. “I don’t even know the full story, but my parents seem to have already been estranged in the family. I don’t think I ever will know the full story. And honestly, that’s okay. For the last few years, Bev’s been my mom. Well, my ‘mom.’ I just call her Bev.”

“Woah, this is nuts,” I murmured out loud. “What happened with the other foster parents? Did they die or something? You said it was round three.”

Rose’s breathing got heavier. “Second ones fell on hard times, and couldn’t afford to keep me. They wanted me to have more opportunities, especially going into junior high. It was sweet, honestly. Still sucked.”

“…And the first foster parents?” I asked.

Rose stopped. “I’m not going to ever tell you, and you’re going to have to accept that,” she said with an angry, shaky voice. “I’m not a zoo animal. I don’t want to just be looked at like this. Out of everyone, I thought you would understand, but if you’re just going to treat me like-”

“Hey, hey, Rose, Rose, Rose,” I talked over her, grabbing her shoulders with emphasis. “I’m sorry. You’re right. You’re not a zoo animal, and I’m going to let this go.” I let go of her shoulders. “I’ll never ask again, but I do know what happened must have been- no, wait. I’m letting this go. I’m sorry.”

Rose slowly closed her eyes and nodded, then we kept walking. “Sorry,” I repeated.

“Whatever,” she replied.

“Thanks for telling me though,” I replied. “I’ll, um, never bring it up again.”

“Bring shit up whenever you need,” Rose replied with a lazy voice. “I just told you what I’ll never talk about. The rest is up to you.”

“If the rest was up to me, I’d wanna wipe the slate clean and ask to hang out tonight,” I scoffed as if it were a joke. 

“No you wouldn’t,” Rose replied.

“Huh? Yeah I would, what do you mean?”

“Well, you say you would, but you haven’t, despite having every ability,” Rose pointed out. 

“…Are you asking me to hang out?” I asked slowly.

“Nope. You said that’s what you want to do,” Rose replied calmly. “And taking the wind out of your sails would be mean of me, don’t you think?”

I couldn’t help but smile to myself. Rose still wasn’t even looking at me as we walked. “Hey Rose, if I wanted to hang out with you today at the library, a cafe, or fast food, which would you pick?”

Despite everything, Rose smiled, and looked at me. “Wow, you even gave me options. Nice. Uh… lemme think.” She looked at her watch and shrugged. “Library’s closed by now.”

“Oh, right,” I replied. “Why the fuck does it close like an hour after school does? Wouldn’t they want, like, kids to be at the library?”

She shrugged. “To be fair, we’re not kids.”

“I… suppose. I mean, we’re sevente-”

“We’re our own people,” she continued, interrupting me. “You’re not what your parents made you, and I’m certainly not what my parents made me. We’re our own people, Jason.”

I stared at her. “Is there something I’m not getting here?”

She just stared back. “Is the penny refusing to drop again?”

“Something like that,” I admitted, my voice soft. “What are you trying to say?”

She finally broke eye contact, staring at the sidewalk and letting some warmth show on her face. “Y’know, this time around, I don’t think even I’m sure I know what I’m saying.”

“Wow,” I chuckled. “You’re getting so good at talking in riddles you’re even fooling yourself.”

She just gave a tired half-smirk in response. “Cafe,” she answered. “Thanks for letting me pick. You’re, um, a good friend.”

“You’re my best friend,” I replied instantly in response. 

“Your best friend’s a bitchy chick?” she asked, as if we were sharing some inside joke.

“Nah. My best friend is Rose,” I replied.

The half-smirk turned into a genuine smile. “Shit,” she admitted simply.

***

The cafe was dead silent. Rose and I just stared at each other, breathing heavily, staring daggers at each other. Neither of us spoke for a while.

“Maybe we should get out of here,” I finally spoke in a low voice.

“Yeah,” Rose agreed, nodding, still clearly furious. “Maybe we should. That’s the first sensible thing you said all day.”

We slowly got up, fully aware that all eyes were on us. After all, it’s not every day you see two people full-on yelling at each other for like five minutes straight. The barista probably only didn’t ask us to leave because he was piss-scared of Rose, and hey, I couldn’t blame the guy. Breaking eye contact for the first time, we got our bags and made our way to the door. Rose went first, and the door nearly slammed into my face as I followed her out. 

“I didn’t mean what I said,” I told her as we began walking beside each other.

“Whatever,” she icily replied. “If you don’t mean what you say, consider not saying it.”

“Consider not being the world’s biggest bi- hothead,” I countered.

“Hey, look at you, still just itching to call me a bitch. Some things never change,” she grumbled with her trademark ‘I don’t actually care, promise’ voice.

“Hey, look at me, dealing with generational anger issues that you fucking helped support me through today, and still trying to improve and swap out the word at the last second because you don’t like it,” I nearly roared back. “And look at you, completely fucking oblivious to that, and still trying to see the bad in everything. As usual.”

Rose didn’t say anything back at first. We walked together for a bit, until she loudly sighed. “Think they’re gonna let us back in again?”

“Not if they recognize us.”

“I wonder if we’re going to get banned from every single place in town if we keep going like this,” she continued with a stern tone, still walking.

“That would be impressive of us,” I replied in the same tone walking beside her.

“Yeah, maybe we should aim for a different goal,” she replied, sighing. “Or just go for this one. By the end of it we could get wanted posters of us. I’ve never had a wanted poster before.”

“Can’t imagine anyone would want you, ever,” I replied.

“Yeah, in a million years I couldn’t guess what Sammy sees in you either,” she scoffed.

“What can I say, I work with what people give me. You give me shit and nothing but.”

“What does she give you?”

“Hickies. You saw ‘em.”

“Riiiight,” she commented lightly. “Hey, it’s at least nice to know you’re more than just a jackass when you’re with anyone but me. Small victories.”

“I still have yet to see any evidence of that with you.”

“Sarah liked me at the beginning of your time with us,” Rose pointed out. “Not my fault if you were too oblivious to see it.”

“And how about now?”

“Fuck yourself,” Rose scoffed. “Both of you. At least you have a valid excuse. Her parents are just weirdos. At least I can blame your parents for how fucked-up you turned out.”

“Well that’s not fair,” I said lightly.

“Why not?”

“Because if you’re gonna blame my parents for me, who the hell can I blame for how you turned out?” I asked.

Rose stopped walking and stared at me with a shocked expression. I maintained eye contact. Slowly, the corners of her mouth turned upward, and Rose stared laughing, mostly in shock. I couldn’t help but smile with her.

Eventually, she stopped laughing, but a small smile remained on her face. “We good?”

“I feel more guilty than anything,” I admitted.

“Whatever, I said some shit I didn’t mean too,” she replied coolly.

“Want me to get out of here so you can be on your own?” I asked.

“Hell no. Walk me home,” she replied, starting to walk again. “It’s not far anyway.”

I started walking beside her again. God, I had to make best friends with a fucking Cadet. They walked like they were being called over somewhere. It was hard to keep up. Even so, I was kind of grateful I still got to be around Rose. I wanted her advice on something. “Can I say something vulnerable?”

“There’s a first time for everything, I suppose,” Rose dryly replied.

“Taking that as a yes,” I mumbled. “Sammy, uh, doesn’t do well with conflict. We had, like, a small argument about something and she had to leave the room. I’m kinda scared that I’m gonna act like her like I do with you, and she’s going to leave my ass.”

“If she doesn’t do well with conflict, that’s a genuine possibility, yeah,” Rose replied, then let a beat of silence pass. “Sorry. I’m just being real.”

“No, I know.”

“And clearly you worked through it, so…”

“Oh, actually, it was really nice,” I commented. “I just apologized for what I did and left it alone.”

“You?” Rose asked in slight shock. “No offense. Well – as much offense as you want. But I did not see that today. Or… ever.”

“I know. It’s weird,” I replied, somehow not offended in the slightest. Being friends with Rose was like being friends with an honest mirror. It really felt like I had no secrets, or any reason to hide the worst parts of myself. “I wonder if she brings out the best in me or something. Maybe I’m going to improve, Rose. Maybe there will come a day where we hang out all day and don’t fight once. And when that happens, it won’t be me actually growing or anything. It’ll just be because of Sammy.”

“So?”

“So… thanks. I, uh, really like her. This really does feel like your sketchbook. I feel like I owe you a million for this.” Rose didn’t say anything for a bit. “I haven’t seen any of your sketches in a while.”

“I haven’t sketched anything in a while,” Rose quickly rebutted. 

“Any particular reason?”

“Yeah. I don’t sketch when I feel like killing myself. And I’ve been hanging out with you more recently. You do the math.”

I chuckled. “Alright, alright, sorry,” I replied. 

“Don’t say sorry. I should be a better friend,” she continued, shaking her head at herself.

“Remind me where you were when I had to spill my guts to Chadwick,” I pointed out. “And remind me where everyone else in the team was.”

“Stop making this about yourself,” Rose replied, her voice getting smaller. She cleared her throat, still staring ahead. “I, um, had to tell Ryan about me and Sarah. He… didn’t take it well.”

“Wait, he didn’t?” I asked. “You two seemed fine today.”

“We’re good actors,” she replied. “He’s angry. Sarah and me are FUBAR. Jack’s whatever, and Candy’s nice, but we don’t really click. I’m the villain of the group. I can feel it.”

“Well, w-”

“No, shut up for a sec,” Rose ordered. “I should be a better friend. It’s super clear that I’m the problem here. I mean, we can’t even hang out without scaring a cafe full of people, and you just told me that as long as it’s not with me, when it’s you and Sammy-”

“Oh, Rose, that’s j-”

“No, shut up for a sec,” she nearly yelled. “It’s clearly not you. And you just told Chadwick a fucking novel that would explain why even Stalin was a bad guy. You have every reason in the book to be bad, and still, you’re – I guess – fine when you’re with Sammy. So clearly it’s me. Clearly it’s fucking me. Sometimes I… fucking… hate being me. I want to like people. I want to be liked. I want to be… normal.”

I like you, Rose. I wanted to say it, but she already told me to shut up twice, so I just kept quiet.

“And I know you want to say ‘but I like you, Rose,’” she continued, then paused long enough to allow me to feel comfortable replying.

“You already told me to shut up twice. I didn’t want to interrupt.”

She kept walking for a bit, then turned a corner. I barely kept up. We started walking down this residential street. Her place was clearly near. “Okay. Say it.”

“…I like you, Rose.”

She stopped walking and closed her eyes. “Say it again. Like you mean it.”

It was weird, but whatever. “I like you, Rose. You’re a good friend, and I’m glad you’re in my life.”

She slowly exhaled, then nodded and opened her eyes. “Cool. Thanks,” she replied, in this weirdly detached voice, then kept walking. “This is probably weird.”

“It’s whatever,” I honestly replied. “I’m not really thinking about it. You ask me to say shit, I’ll say shit.”

“Saying it like that makes it sound like you don’t actually mean it,” Rose replied quietly, then held up her hand. “I get that’s a me thing. No need to reply.” She lowered her hand and just kept walking.

She was going through some kinda shit for sure. I didn’t really have a big preachy speechy in me or anything to cheer her up, so I just kept walking. We turned a corner or two until I vaguely recognized where we were. “Oh shit, this is actually kinda close to my street,” I mumbled out loud.

“That’s a troubling development,” Rose replied with this bitter humor to her voice.

“Why?”

“Because,” she replied lazily, pointing to a modest house. “There’s Bev’s place.”

I stared at the small one-story place, which couldn’t have had more than four rooms in it. It had an itty bitty window facing us, an itty-bitty porch, and an itty-bitty little mailbox perched on top of it. “‘Bev’s place’? I questioned. “Not ‘my place’?”

“Bev owns it,” Rose simply replied, then started to walk up to it. She got to the porch and turned around. “I guess this is goodbye. I, uh, didn’t show it, but I had a good ti-”

“Nah, c’mon,” I coaxed. “I wanna meet Bev.”

Rose stared at me for a bit. “Haven’t I introduced you to enough women?”

“Is Bev single?” I joked with a shrug.

Rose slowly closed her eyes and gave a single chuckle without forming a smile. “Down, tiger,” she dryly replied. She looked back at the door, then at me. “C’mon,” she relented, gesturing me up the porch.

I smiled in acknowledgement as Rose opened the door, revealing this one big room sectioned off by a few walls. “Partitions” or something. To my left was a small living room with nasty-looking shag carpeting, and to my right was a small dining room table next to the itty-bitty window, connected to a little kitchen just out of eyesight. “It’s me, Bev,” Rose called out. “I, uh, brought someone in for a sec. Hope that’s cool.”

“Brought someone?” An older gentle voice asked in slight surprise, and a middle-aged woman emerged from the kitchen. She had thick glasses, an older-woman haircut, and older-woman clothes. She saw me, then immediately looked at Rose.

Rose was looking squarely at the floor. “This is Jason,” she explained. “A friend of mine.”

I couldn’t help but smile for a sec. Rose was embarrassed about Bev thinking we were dating or something. I guess Rose wasn’t out as a lesbian to her or something. “Uh, hey,” I said to Bev. “I’m Jason. A friend of Rose’s.”

Rose looked up from the floor at me, and her look could have killed – although it didn’t kill my humorous expression. Bev didn’t seem to get the joke, but she probably didn’t get much. “Uh, hello, Jason,” she said quietly. “Is he staying long?”

“No,” Rose flatly replied. 

I felt kind of awkward, so I opened my mouth. “Rose is a good friend,” I told Bev.

“That’s nice,” Bev said with a polite smile, then went back into the kitchen. “It was nice to meet you.”

Oookay, so, standoffishness clearly ran in the adoptive family. At least Bev was nice about it. I turned to Rose and shrugged. She shrugged back. “Guess I should go,” I replied.

“Guess so,” Rose replied. “See ya. Th- you know, thanks for, uh, walking me home.”

“Wow, saying thanks,” I joked. “Are you going to explode now or something?”

“Jason, it’s been a long da-”

“Got it, got it, I’m going,” I replied with a sigh, opening the door again and starting to head out. I stopped and looked at Rose, who was still standing there. “Thanks for… everything today,” I added. “I meant it when I said you were my best friend. You did so much for me today.”

“Got it,” Rose replied with an even tone.

Jeez.

***

“Every time,” my dad sighed in exasperation, pacing back and forth across the kitchen, “It’s just another excuse. Another reason why it’s anyone’s fault but yours.”

“It’s just so clear that he’s trying to paint us as the villains,” my mom joined in, clearly talking directly to him and refusing to acknowledge me directly. “Have you noticed that? It’s always this blame game. Are you noticing that, Hailey?”

Hailey, who was getting a glass of juice, froze with the fridge door open. “I, uh, don’t really want to get involved,” she admitted feebly, resuming getting her juice with renewed speed. 

“It’s a simple yes or no,” my mom rebutted with this insistent voice. “I’m actually asking. Have you noticed or not?”

Hailey’s eyes met mine with this apologetic look for a fraction of a second. “Yes, I’ve noticed,” she conceded, telling mom what she wanted to hear.

“Well then,” my mom said, turning back to acknowledge me now that she had the support of the whole whole household. “Are you going to tell us everybody but you is wrong?”

I wanted to say something sarcastic in reply, but I just continued to stare at the wall, not engaging. I knew that replying would just make it worse.

“Christ, he doesn’t even respect us enough to look at us when we talk to him,” my mother continued. 

“Um, mom,” Hailey gently interjected, “maybe he’s just trying not to say anything that might make things wor-”

“Did we ask you?!” My dad shouted. “Did we need you to step in for us? Here’s a – tell you what, why don’t – why don’t we just shut up and let you take over, huh? I mean, clearly, you know everything here, don’t you? Right? Right?!”

Hailey’s shoulders hunched in. “No, I’m sorry, I just-”

“She’s trying to help,” I told the wall with no emotion. 

“Ohhh, so you can speak, can you?” Dad roared. “Just not when we ask you a direct question, or when we ask you to talk about what you did! I’m no expert here, but it seems like you’re making it personal, aren’t you?”

My fucking parents were the absolute masters of this shit. Once you got them going, anything you could possibly do, they just saw as tailor-made to piss them off. Why the fuck was I even walking on so many eggshells when they’d still act like you pissed in their face no matter what you did? “Yeah, guess so,” I grumbled, still low energy, still not looking at them. “Sorry for being the worst son ever, and sorry for not doing anything right.” I got up, starting to walk out of the kitchen.

“Oh, that’s it, walk aw- walk away, instead of solving your problems, that’s all you ever do,” dad shouted after me. “Talk to us when you’re mature enough to-”

“Why can’t he ever just accept the things we say when we-”

“-actually speak to us like a human being, instead of-”

“-sit him down? He might genuinely have a problem. Maybe we should-”

“-disrespecting your fucking own father. Your own father, Jas-”

“-take him in for testing, because nobody actually acts like this. No-”

“-on! I should throw out our fucking computer! It ruined you!”

“-body would want to punish their own parents for taking responsibility!”

“IT RUINED YOU, JASON! YOU’RE A DAMAGED BOY!”

Slam.

I sighed, flopping down face-first on my bed. My head became fully empty as soon as it hit the pillow. No thoughts whatsoever. It was bliss. I have no clue how long I stayed there; all I know is that my phone vibrating took me away from my world of nothing. I flipped it open to see Sammy’s name. I cleared my throat and hit the button.

“Hey.”

“So, are you aware what you did wrong?” Sammy’s well-intentioned playful voice met my ears.

I swallowed and paused. “Uh, tell me,” I replied, trying to keep my voice humorous.

“You went without answering poor Sammy’s text for a full hour! And I was sooo lonely~!” she giggled into the phone. “So, hi. It’s nice to hear your voice.”

“It’s so fucking nice to hear yours too,” I admitted.

“What’s going on?” she asked urgently, her tone changing on the spot. 

I sat up and, on instinct, opened my backpack with my free hand. “Same old shit,” I replied, keeping my voice low. I started pulling my homework and shit out of my backpack. “Um, parents and I had a lil’ disagreement.”

“Oh no,” she replied, her voice full of concern. “How bad was it?”

I pulled out the next thing from my backpack – the pamphlet. The pamphlet with the second number on it. The one Chadwick gave me… oh my god, today. What a fucking day it was.

“…Jason?”

“Hey, sorry. Um, it was… really bad. I, uh, don’t wanna talk about it right now.” I threw the pamphlet onto my desk.

“Okay. Yeah. Yeah, okay,” Sammy clumsily replied. “So, uh, tell you what. Let’s do something, tomorrow after school. You and me. Okay?”

“Sammy, you told me this week was-”

“I already know you would drop your plans to see me too,” she told me seriously.

I had to chuckle. “What plans? When do I ever have plans?”

She chuckled back. “Tell you what – when you get your computer back and you get to hang out with Campy and Klutz and the lads, and I have a bad day, that’ll be the true test,” she giggled. “Deal?”

“You – you remembered their names…?” I asked, a little baffled.

“I mean, yeah? It means a lot to you,” Sammy replied, as if it were obvious.

I sat back on the bed and just took that in, doing nothing but blinking for a sec. “Uh, yeah, then let’s hang out tomorrow,” I told her with a renewed vigor to my voice. “And, uh… when we hang out tomorrow, I wanna know more about your life. Tell me about the things you like. In fact! In fact, why don’t you show me your favorite spot? Like, in town or wherever. That, uh, sounds like a good time to – I-I wanna do that.”

Sammy chuckled again through the phone. “Sounds like a good time.”

***

Sammy originally wanted to be a vet when she was young, and then thought maybe she’d follow in her dad’s footsteps and be a teacher. Now, she was “less sure than ever” what she wanted to be, but somehow that unsureness felt more freeing to her. Her favorite color was a deep, rich blue. Her favorite food, quite literally, changed with the weather. She wasn’t sure if she had a favorite movie yet, and that was all the more reason for us to go on cute movie dates in the future.

She felt a little out of place in her friendgroup, like they didn’t always fully get her. But still, it would be weird to leave them and find a new one. Rita was her last true friend in the group, and the two liked to go out for teas after big accomplishments like finals or big life milestones. Peach apricot black tea, with a shot of vanilla. 

She was scared of people getting the wrong impression of her. Her version of hell was everyone being convinced she did something terrible that she didn’t. Her old friend group in junior high abandoned her when she had her first high-profile disagreement with a boy. She’s happy she stood up for herself, but teared up when she described how it felt having her friends just drop her like that over some boy’s opinion. Rita liked boys a lot. Sammy was kind of scared Rita would somehow someday choose a boy over her. Sammy’s dad was incredibly supportive whenever she talked about it, even though she “definitely talked about it a little too much.” Sammy’s dad worried a little bit about her for that reason, and that’s another reason why he was so glad to have met me and “saw I was normal,” if I even believe that.

Her favorite spot was this modest little place – this section of a local park with a boulder and a really thick, tall tree. The locals called it Big Tree. Sammy had a lot of memories of just sitting on this rock and shooting the shit with her friends under the shade of Big Tree. The branches didn’t reach low enough to climb it, but that was okay, because Sammy had zero actual strength anyway and probably couldn’t climb to save her life.

…Jeez, this was a lot to memorize. Dating is hard.

Sammy smirked watching me take it all in. “So, why’re you so curious now?”

I looked up at her. “Huh?”

“I know when something’s up with you,” she replied in a sing-song voice. “Why the game of twenty questions?”

“Um, because you’re my girlfriend, and what you care about matters?” I asked as if it was obvious.

Her sarcastic look melted away. “Aww,” she murmured out loud, blushing a little. “That was actually so sweet. Okay, I give.” She got up off the boulder and stretched. “How’s Big Tree treatin’ ya?”

I looked up and behind me at the tree, still sitting down at its base. “It, uh, certainly lives up to its name.”

“Yeah, what’s crazy is that it was actually, like, smaller than you when it was first named Big Tree. It just coincidentally got way bigger after the name stuck.”

“Woah, really?”

“No,” she laughed. “Of course we named it because it was big, you silly goose.” She sauntered over to me. “Stand up for a sec?”

I knew that look, and wanted to beat her to it. I stood up and immediately wrapped my arms around her, giving her a kiss.

I dunno how I knew to do that. I wouldn’t have before Sammy – I knew I could be… awkward with girls. Somehow, right in that moment – and not a second before – it felt like it would be okay for me to just spontaneously do it with a girl. Sammy clearly wasn’t expecting the initiative either, or at least it seemed like that given the little squeak she made when we first kissed.

We broke our kiss shortly after, and even then it seemed like Sammy was still in shock. “Woah,” she murmured. “Hello, Jason. Now where on Earth did that come from?”

I shrugged. “It felt right.”

“I hope it feels right more often, I liked that,” she purred. “But you’re the one that could have your back pressed against the tree, so I regret to inform you it’s my turn.” She coupled her sarcastic remark with a little smile and gently pushed my back against the tree, kissing me over and over. I kissed her back vigorously, though it was clear that few human beings could keep up with Sammy’s pep.

In what was clearly becoming a pattern for us, our once-innocent kisses turned more and more hungry with time. Pretty soon, Sammy’s kisses had moved from my mouth to my neck, and I could do nothing but lean against the tree, with one hand on the trunk bracing myself and the other grabbing Sammy’s ass. Her lips were downright magical, and I couldn’t help but just pant while she worked her magic.

“N-no hick-ummhh…” I moaned, blushing at how sensitive my neck was. “E-easy with the hickies, Sammy…”

I felt Sammy’s lips lift from my neck with a slight suction sound. I was still panting up at the sky as I heard her giggle. “Um… it’s kinda too late for that,” she admitted bashfully. She looked to her left and her right. “Is it still PDA if nobody sees it?”

“If a Big Tree hides PDA in the forest and no one is around to-”

“Shut up,” she laughed and shoved me playfully, and then we went back to kissing. My hands were emboldened and both went down to squeeze Sammy’s ass. It was small but firm, and I really loved squeezing it. The feeling of having so much of her ass in my hands was like I was holding her, owning her. And she owned me right back, bringing both of her hands to my neck and stroking it on both sides affectionately. I never would have thought to do that while kissing someone, but my sensitive neck practically tingled with feeling. Especially when she brought her tongue out to play, I was throbbing in my pants, kissing her against the tree. My hands moved on autopilot and I pulled Sammy by the ass into me, and began to grind my rock-hard cock against her through her clothes. Sammy didn’t flinch and ground her pussy on me right back.

We were unstoppable. Two teens, making out against the Big Tree, madly in…

huh. 

Eventually she broke away and practically pushed herself away from me, chuckling breathlessly as she almost stumbled around to regain her footing.

“Holy shit,” she panted. “Like… are you magic or something? Why does kissing you feel better than sex with-”

“I feel the exact same way, I was just thinking-”

“Like, if we were not in public right now… I mean, it’s maybe a good thing we are in public, because I might do something that maybe I should-”

“Same, like, I know exactly what I want right now, and-”

“Say it. Tell me out loud, Jason.”

“I… want you, Sammy. I really want to just… I mean, whatever you want-”

“I want the full thing. I want to fuck you, Jason. I want you inside me so badly.”

“Fuck, I want you too,” I moaned. I felt almost goofy being so needy, but it also just felt so good to be almost stupid levels of horny with her. We grabbed each other and resumed making out hungrily, not able to stop our bodies from needily humping each other if we tried. 

If this didn’t stop I was going to make a mess in my pants or something, but it felt too good to stop. Our hands were frantically all over each other, our bodies were more and more frantically smashing together, our-

“Hey! You two!”

We broke off to see some middle-aged guy walking his dog. He was looking at us with this look of pure disgust.

“What do you think you’re doing? Children come to this park!”

I looked at Sammy, whose face was beet-red. She was looking down at the ground, not saying or doing anything except hunching her shoulders in.

“Hello…?” the man pressed. “I’m talking to you two freaks!”

“Dude, we fucking get it,” I angrily retorted, then looked around. “There are no kids around anyway.”

“Oh, so that just means you two can do whatever you want in a public park? That’s fucking disgusting,” the man continued. 

“If you wanna talk shit, why don’t you get closer so you can say it directly to my face?” I challenged him. 

“Wow, big man, huh?” the guy called back. “Do you feel tough now, kid? Wanna look strong in front of your girlfriend? Or maybe she’s someone else’s girlfriend, I wouldn’t even be surprised.”

“Hey!! You do not get to fucking talk about her like that!” I roared, taking a few steps towards him. From the corner of my eye, I saw Sammy run off with a hand covering her face. “Shit…” I murmured to myself, then on instinct, immediately ran to follow her.

“Yeah, that’s it, run away and don’t come back, you two…” the man’s voice echoed away, getting more and more quiet as I ran after Sammy. She didn’t stop, and ran straight to her car, getting into the driver’s seat and adjusting a button on the door before burying her head in her hands.

I jogged up to the car and opened the passenger side door… or at least, tried to. It was locked. She locked herself in the car. I stood there for a second, then knocked gently on the window.

Sammy didn’t move.

I sat my arm on the car and just waited. It wasn’t like Sammy was going to drive away without me, and I guess she meant to lock me out. She just wanted some alone time. It was cool. She was going to be fine in a sec.

…

…

I thought ten seconds was a long time. It was nothing like this. I didn’t know how long it was before I heard the door click, but eventually, I was allowed in. It was almost a twist – given the state of my neck, it was like the vampire was allowing me in.

I got in, closing the door behind me. “What a fuckin’ dick, huh?”

Sammy didn’t immediately reply. “I hated that,” she mumbled.

“Yeah, totally. He had no right to talk about y-”

“Jason.”

I was kinda getting annoyed with how many times I was getting interrupted lately. “Yeah?” I asked, my annoyance bleeding through.

“I hated all of that,” she simply replied. I looked at her and saw something new in her eyes – fear.

“Wh- I was defending you, Sammy!” I protested. “The guy was tearing into you for no reas-”

“It was not no reason,” she argued. “We were doing something we weren’t supposed to-”

“That’s not an excuse for him to-”

“Jason, I really would like not to be interrupted right now,” she gently added.

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” I nearly laughed angrily. “I haven’t gotten to say a full sentence since I sat down in this car without you interrupting me. Do you hate being interrupted, Sammy? Because me fucking too.”

Sammy didn’t reply, and after a few seconds, I side-eyed her to see that she was silently holding her head in her hands while her shoulders bobbed. I looked back forward and sighed through my nose angrily. 

She interrupted me. I defended her. Yeah, maybe she didn’t like how I was willing to get angry back at that old guy – back at him – but that was a her problem. I didn’t care if all you could hear in the car was Sammy trying not to cry – I wasn’t at fault, so I wasn’t fucking apologizing.

I don’t know how many minutes went by. Possibly like ten. Neither of us spoke, and even after the ten minutes, the only thing I heard was the car turning on.

“Where-” My throat closed as I spoke. I cleared my throat. Why the fuck did voices have to do that if you didn’t speak for a bit when you’re mad? “Where are we going?”

“I’m going to take you back to your place,” Sammy said simply.

I sighed. “Yeah, okay.”

She started driving, and stopped at a red light. She let go of the wheel and turned to look at me. “I told you that I don’t like fights and those kinds of things, and then you go and pull that? That made me so fucking uncomfortable, Jason. We should have just walked away from that, but instead you had to go and cuss at him, and that made him say those things about me. I don’t want to be in situations where we might have to-”

A car honked behind us, prompting Sammy, mid-sentence, to just turn her head back behind us and immediately scream angrily and incoherently at the car honking. I looked from her to the car behind us to the green light ahead of us, and reached forward to turn on the all-way signal. Pretty soon, the car skirted around us.

“Maybe we should pull over,” I quietly told Sammy.

“No, I am taking you straight home, and we… and we…” Sammy gripped the wheel with force, still not moving forward despite the light being green.

“Sammy, please, could you pull over?” I asked her gently. “I’m not sure how comfortable I feel with us driving like this. We can talk, and I will listen, okay? Just, please, pull over.”

Sammy said nothing, but eventually, we ended up on some residential street and she pulled into the curb, shifted into park, and started rubbing her hands on her face. 

I took initiative. “When one of us is talking, they’ll show they’ve finished talking by hitting the dashboard, like this.” I lightly tapped the dashboard with my palm. “Once they do that, the other person gets to speak, and they can speak until they hit the dashboard back. You can start if you want. Okay?” I hit the dashboard with my palm.

Sammy breathed in and out a few times. “I told you, and I’m pretty sure I showed you, how scared I am of fights. I don’t like how easily and readily you just yelled back at that guy. It makes me… scared, because… what if that’s me? What if that happens to me? I’m not ready for that, Jason. I don’t like how angry you get, and I don’t like how once you get going you clearly don’t stop.” She raised her hand to hit the dashboard and hesitated. “Oh, and another thing, we were clearly doing something wrong. I like kissing you, but I don’t exactly like being, like, called out for breaking rules. I do not want you to open your mouth and just be defensive when we just need to get out of there.” She started to lower her hand and raised it again. “Like, this is going to affect how I feel about doing anything with you in the future. Kissing, or even like, holding hands.” She lowered her hand and raised it again, and I folded my arms. “Like, this has done a lot of damage to our relationship, and… and…”

She paused for a bit, and stayed silent for more than a few seconds. “…Tap the dashboard…” I reminded her.

“No, hang on, I’m not done,” she told me, then stayed silent for a few more seconds. 

…

…

“…Sammy-”

“I haven’t tapped the-”

I took my seatbelt off and got out of the car, doing my best to shut the door quietly behind me. I leaned against the car, facing away from Sammy.

Selfish. Purely fucking selfish. I set up a system where she could feel heard and she used it to hog control. I defend her and she gets pissy and acts like it ruined our relationship. I may not have been a big thinky thinker, but I still took English class. I got subtext or whatever it’s called. The implication was clear. It was not ‘this is doing damage to our relationship.’ It was ‘you, and you alone, are doing damage to our relationship.’ Fuck that. She wanted to own me. She didn’t want to be with me. It was all about control… just like with Sarah.

I heard the car door open and Sammy step onto the pavement. I didn’t move. “Hey,” Sammy told me.

I turned my head and just enough of my body to look at her. She reached into the car and tapped the dashboard.

I stared at her for a bit and huffed. I turned around and opened the car door, getting back in. She followed.

“I have to deal with my parents,” I began, closing the car door behind me. “Living with that shit makes you learn you have to fight back. I kinda don’t care if it’s not true for you – it’s true for me,” I told her honestly. “You seem to have nice parents that care. That’s great for you. If you wanna be with me, you’re gonna have to accept that when people fight, I fight back. And I only do it when I think it’s needed. I hope you keep in mind that when you yelled at me just now for doing what I thought was right to defend you, I didn’t say shit.” I slapped the dashboard, then put my seatbelt back on.

Sammy scratched her forehead. “I… get that you have to deal with a little more,” she began uneasily. “But I can’t deal with this kind of thing. Maybe… maybe if we can’t deal with this kind of thing together, maybe we’re not right for each other.” She tapped the dashboard. “Oh, and also-”

“You hit the dashboard,” I pointed out.

“No, but – I had more to say,” she began. “I-”

“The rule was we hit the dashboard when we’re okay with the other talking,” I told her. “You just gave me permission to speak to you. Is this you taking that permission back?”

“No, that’s not what I’m doing, I just wanna say something more,” she told me, in an ‘I’m just clarifying’ voice. “So, I don’t really like that you’re saying that ‘you have to deal with your parents’ as if, like, I don’t have to deal with people too. I literally just told you about what happened in eighth grade when I stood up to Dave. I would really appreciate if you didn’t, like, just set yourself up as this little victim – okay, not ‘little victim,’ maybe that’s – I didn’t mean that. I mean, like, you set yourself up as having this perfect explanation for why you pop off, and, like… no, y’know?” She hit the dashboard, then waited a few seconds. “Your turn. Go ahead.” She waited a few more. “Hey. Jason. You can speak.”

“I don’t want to,” I replied, staring straight forward.

“But… this was your rule. Why are you backing out of your own idea like this?”

…

“Jason. I thought you wanted to communicate.”

…

“Okay, fine. We don’t have to talk. We can just sit here, and not tell anyone anything.”

…

“Juuuust sit here. Until, I guess, I just give up and drive you home. Is that the plan?”

…

“Look, Jason. I was upset about how you were so quick to anger. That’s all. We just need to address that together, like human beings.”

…

“Jason?”

…

…

…

“Jason, please.”

…

…

…

“We can still fix this.”

I turned to look at her, and moved my mouth around a little. Adrenaline surged within me. “You’re selfish,” I told her, looking her dead in the eye. “I gave you a system where we could speak one after another, and make sure you were heard. Even though you interrupted me I think three times and I interrupted you once. But the once was what actually mattered, wasn’t it Sammy? That’s when it actually felt disrespectful. Not when you were doing it. And then after I gave you that system, you just used it to talk and talk and talk, and you refuse to actually give me a turn until you’ve said absolutely everything, and even if you give me a turn but want to go again, you just… go ahead anyways. Honestly, I think that’s what you see this argument as. You see it like you just need to say enough things and eventually I’ll just give up arguing or whatever. I see it as trying to get you to understand what I’m thinking. That’s the difference here. It feels like I’m trying to get us to understand each other, and you’re waiting for me to just shut up.” I brought my pointer finger up and then down, tapping the dashboard with a barely audible doink to punctuate my point, and my calmness.

Sammy sat back in her chair, and didn’t speak for a while. “Welp,” she finally said. “I did ask you to always be honest with me, didn’t I?” 

Wordlessly, I nodded. 

“Hmm.” She looked at me, then breathed in. “Keep going,” she told me, then hit the dashboard. I looked at her, and saw a relatively blank face. I couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

Still… she asked me to keep going. “It’s a new side of you,” I found myself saying. “It makes me feel weird. I told you how Sarah wanted to control me, and you’ve normally been so good at not doing that, but now… it feels like that. And like, yeah, I am sorry that shit made you so uncomfortable. And yeah, it’s how I respond to people being dicks, and I’m gonna be real with you, that probably won’t change anytime soon. Can you handle that?” I hit the dashboard.

Sammy hit the dashboard immediately. I looked at her, and she looked at me.

“I don’t want this to be it for us,” I told her. I hit the dashboard. 

“This isn’t it for us.” She hit the dashboard.

“Thank fuck.” I hit the dashboard. 

“I told you I don’t do good with fights,” she replied. “I’m sorry for – yeah, you’re right, I interrupted a lot and just kept talking at you. That’s, um, my bad.” She hit the dashboard.

“You’re already better than Sarah for just apologizing like that.” I hit the dashboard.

“Let’s… not compare people right now,” she replied uneasily. “It’s not doing what you want it to do. And I still need us to talk about how we’re going to resolve this whole fights thing.” She hit the dashboard.

“You tell me, it’s your boundary.” I hit the dashboard.

“Even now, you saying that means a lot,” she admitted. “Umm, so, if someone is going to yell at us like that again, if you… ugh, if you have to say something, can you at least… I dunno, just try not to, please. It didn’t help us here. It’s not like we got to continue making out afterwards.”

“Shame,” I quipped. “Oops-”

Sammy smiled and hit the dashboard.

“Shame,” I repeated then hit the dashboard, smiling back.

She lightly chuckled. “I’m sorry for being selfish too. I’m gonna try not to do that again.” She hit the dashboard.

“And I’ll try not to immediately take the bait if people yell at us,” I conceded. “I really try hard not to actually fight with you, I promise.” I hit the dashboard.

“No, yeah, that was me today,” she admitted. “Part of being bad with fights is that I… well, I do a lot of what you already saw, I guess. I don’t like being like that, and I wanna just avoid it where I can.” She hit the dashboard.

“I don’t think that’ll work out for too long,” I admitted. “I don’t think people get better with conflict by avoiding conflict. I think they get better by learning to respond to it better. For my part, I’ll work on it. I won’t be perfect, but I’ll work on it, and I’m sorry for hurting you in the meantime.”

“Damn,” Sammy admitted. “Or-”

I chuckled. “Go ahead, we don’t need to anymore,” I told her.

She nodded. “Damn,” she repeated. “Okay, so, maybe we should just avoid, like, public stuff for a while. Not because I don’t want to, but like, yeah, if I knew no one was around for a fact, we might have just done it right then and there.”

“Hell of a way to lose my virginity,” I commented lightly.

She looked at me intently. “Oh wow, right,” she murmured. “Uh, no. Let’s make it more special.”

“What would make it special is doing it with you,” I told her.

That felt like some people would take it as this big revelation, as if it was a taboo to admit you wanted to have sex with your own girlfriend after seeing her shirtless. Luckily, Sammy just smirked. “Sap.”

“Am I still doing irreparable harm to our relationship?” I joked.

Her face fell slightly. “Hey, I-”

“Not… didn’t mean to like, use that against you. I was just kidding.”

“It still feels like you using my words against me…”

“Okay, I’m sorry,” I conceded. Jeez, this was going to be new ground for me. Clearly if she says something to me, I kinda have to… forget about it…

…Wait, that didn’t sound fair.

“But also, like, you said that, and it affected me, go figure. Like, I get that I shouldn’t keep referencing something if it hurts you. But what happens to the fact that what you said hurt me in the first place? If I can only process it by talking about it, what happens if I can’t?”

Sammy sat back in the driver’s seat, not saying anything for a while. “Valid,” she finally mumbled. 

“Cool,” I replied. “Anything else from you?”

“Be gentle with me if I’m upset. Please don’t yell at me for interrupting you or whatever if I’m, like, trying to get back under control. It really didn’t help,” she replied.

“Okay, also valid,” I acknowledged.

“Thanks.”

“Nah, no need to thank me. I’m glad we’re – are we okay?”

“I think so,” Sammy concluded.

“So what happens now, are you taking me home?” I asked. I was kind of dreading going from one fight to an inevitable other, but whatever. If Sammy was upset and needed time to cool off, maybe that’s what being a good boyfriend was all about. 

“…Aren’t your parents still pissed at you?” Sammy asked, a little surprised.

“When are they not?” I asked, almost humorously. 

Sammy grabbed the wheel and tapped it with her thumbs in thought for a few seconds. Finally, she wordlessly shifted into drive and began to go. “So…” I began awkwardly. “Are you taking me home or not?”

“In a manner of speaking I am,” she told me with a smile. “We’re going back to my place.”

***

“Hey!” Sammy called into the house. “Didja get my text?”

“I did… not,” Mr. Turner’s voice rang back from inside. “Uhh…” He mumbled some barely audible words to himself. “Well, if he’s here now, we’re not going to say no!”

Sammy turned to me and gave me a cute, bubbly smile. “Ka-chow,” she interjected in victory. 

I just laughed at whatever sound that was and took off my shoes. Sammy’s shoes were already off and she was bounding into the kitchen. “What up, daddio?” she asked her dad both casually and affectionately. “How was your day?”

“Oh, fine, I guess,” he replied casually. I walked into the kitchen to see him already preparing some kind of supper. “Ooh, right. I’ll need to prepare to make a little more-”

“Oh, it’s all good. I won’t be staying for supper,” I admitted. I didn’t want to impose.

“Oh, oka-”

“Whoops! Jason’s mistaken, dad. He is staying for supper,” Sammy casually retorted. She winked at me, daring me to correct her. All I could do was smile.

“My mistake,” I said softly.

The three of us made polite casual conversation for a bit. Sammy as usual led the discussion, with her dad going back and forth between riffing with her and focusing on the food. It was kind of crazy – he was focused on what he was doing, but he was never mad when she interrupted him. He was, if anything, happy. Eventually, Sammy excused us from the conversation to go to her room. Once we were inside, she shut the door behind her, and smirked at me.

I looked at the shut door behind us. “Ooh, what kind of talk are we having this time?” I asked, half-nervously.

“No talk!” Sammy exclaimed chipperly. “Just unfinished business.” Before I could even process the word ‘business,’ my back was up against the door and Sammy’s body was pressed up against mine. I didn’t even have the processing power to chuckle against her lips – it was like her touch was a drug. It spread from my lips throughout my entire body, and before I knew it, I’d looped my hands around her back, grabbed her by the shoulders, and thrown her against the wall, trading places with her.

Nobody felt like Sammy did. Kissing her was intoxicating, and only made me want more. And from the way she was reacting, I highly doubted I was the only one. My primal brain took over and I started grinding against her, with her hips moving against mine and her lips hungrily mashing against mine in turn. We made each other want it so badly, and we both knew it. 

Sammy’s hands almost clumsily made their way across my body, caressing my pecs and my arms, making their way around my neck. Of course, where her hands went, her lips soon followed, and pretty soon, I was panting needily feeling my fucking girlfriend’s magical lips on my neck, almost definitely leaving marks as she went. I had no clue my neck would be this sensitive – I probably blushed realizing that, but even so, my cock was throbbing, and begging for release.

“I w- I w-want you…” I couldn’t help moaning. 

I felt like a bit of a pussy when I first moaned it – it was higher-pitched than I wanted and plus, guys don’t moan, right?

Yeah – wrong. Sammy took her lips off my neck and I swear I could see hearts in her eyes when she looked into mine, although those may have just been dilated pupils. “Oh my God, I fucking love it when you moan, baby,” she purred for me in a lust-stricken drawl. She moved her hand down to my pants and squeezed my cock through my jeans, looking me in the eye the whole time. “You’re so fucking hot.”

“You’re so fucking hot,” I countered, slipping my hands underneath her shirt. She didn’t hesitate, and started taking it off like it was on fire. After she shirt was off, we went back to kissing, with her squeezing my cock and me cupping one of her boobs through her turquoise bra.

I somehow managed to part my lips from hers and lightly laughed at the sight of her bra. “Even though you only own one bra,” I added dryly.

“I own way too many bras,” Sammy laughed, looking down. “I just happened to wear this one on both dates with you.”

“I like it,” I told her, smiling and giving her another kiss. “Feel free to keep wearing it.”

Sammy gave me a playful look. “That’s funny. I thought you were about to tell me the opposite.”

My expression turned to confusion. “You thought I was going to ask you to stop wearing it when we date…?”

Sammy gave me a slightly condescending smirk. “I thought you were going to tell me to take it off, Jason,” she sang. 

“Ohhhh,” I admitted out loud, then blushed. “Um, yeah, I – yeah. Take it off.”

Sammy chuckled but didn’t hesitate, reaching behind her. “Think you’re up to leaving a few marks of your own?” she teased.

“We’ll see what happens,” I teased back, my eyes glued to her breasts. The turquoise fell, and the objects of my adoration practically sprang into view. I wasted no time and dived in, and Sammy arched her back, giving me full access to her sensitive nipples. She started moaning immediately and shamelessly as I used everything I knew to please her.

Sammy was full-on stroking me through my pants at this point, and clearly seemed to have enough. “Please let me touch it,” she begged in a husky needy tone. “I can just reach in. Just tell me I can.”

“Touch me, baby,” I took my mouth off of her long enough to say. I started kissing and sucking the areas around her nipples, fulfilling my promise to leave her with marks – although I doubted I could have left marks half as strong as hers. I couldn’t see what she was doing but soon I felt her hand reach in and wrap her hand around my shaft. I didn’t care if the angle was awkward and she couldn’t do much – she was touching me. She was touching my cock. I hastily undid my button and unzipped my fly, ensuring she had as much room to touch me as possible, without ever stopping my efforts on her beautiful hypnotic tits. 

By the time Sammy pushed me gently away from her bust, both tits had a good few marks on them. I smiled both at my handiwork and in pure lust, and looked at Sammy, who did not dare to let go of my cock. Instead, she got on her knees and pulled my pants down, a steely yet nervous determination on her face. 

“Lean back against the wall,” she commanded in a small voice. “I, um, don’t do this a lot, but I r-really want… I want to taste you.” I could barely lean back against the wall before she took her first long lick from base to tip, closing her mouth and moaning at our first contact. 

“Oh my fucking…” I moaned, covering my face with my hands.

“Is it good, baby?” Sammy asked in a higher-pitched voice. 

“It’s so fucking good, sweetheart,” I moaned back. Damn, I just said ‘sweetheart.’ Wild.

Nervously and yet with the experience of a girl who knew what she was doing, she curled her lips around her teeth and took me into her mouth, letting her tongue rest on the underside of my cock so that she could get it good and wet with her saliva. As my cock became wetter, she took more and more of me in, until it was easily sliding in and out of her mouth with ease. Fuck, I thought I knew what a good blowjob was like, but this was something else – and the hottest girl in the world was giving it to me. Sammy’s eager eyes looked up from my cock to me, and I could feel her smile on me when she saw just how out-of-control the blowjob was making me. I was fidgeting in place, moving my hands around, bracing myself against the wall and shifting back and forth.

And who could blame me? The sensations I felt all around my body were driving me insane, and Sammy was showing zero signs of making this slow and easy for me. My blush deepened – I did not want to cum so soon, but it just felt too good. “Ah- anh – S-Sammy, you should slow d-down if you want this to last longer…”

“Mmmmm…” Sammy moaned on my dick, then popped it out of her mouth and started stroking it like a slut with her hand. “And what, my handsome boyfriend, if I just want you to fucking cum right now? What If I want you to shoot your cum into my mouth, baby?”

I couldn’t respond with words, and Sammy knew that. She giggled and took me back into her mouth, and if anything, went faster and harder. She was cruel. I couldn’t stop myself from making grunts and even whimpers, knowing I was battling the inevitable… and as the name implies, the inevitable was winning. 

My hands started opening and closing desperately, my grunts turned into little stutters, and as best as I could I communicated what was happening… though I couldn’t help but feel as though Sammy somehow knew it even better than I did. She gripped my hips and sucked me down, somehow knowing the exact moment I would spurt and taking the full thing, to the extent my balls were touching her chin, right at the moment my massive orgasm arrived. I couldn’t help but lock my legs, knowing that if they bent, I’d collapse to the floor and pass out. My head leaned back and I let out an airy grunt, feeling a load bigger than any I’d shot in recent memory go right into my girlfriend’s mouth. 

Heaven. Fucking heaven. That’s what Sammy’s mouth was. I could barely hold onto the wall until I had the ability to actually think properly again. I let her do her thing, and boy oh boy did she fucking have a handle on it. She took my entire load like a champion and kept sucking and suckling, tickling all the right nerves to keep me panting and wincing throughout the whole thing. Nothing felt like Sammy’s mouth. Nothing.

Eventually I came back to Earth, almost feeling tears coming to my fucking eyes. When I made eye contact with her, Sammy took her mouth off of me.

“What do you think?” she asked innocently.

The only thing that prevented me from tackling her to the bed right then and there was the fact that if I did, my knees may have given out on the way to the bed. So instead, I breathlessly told her, “Get your pants off right fucking now.”

“Oh yeah?” Sammy asked me, batting her eyes innocently. “Pray tell, why?”

“Because I am returning the fucking favor, that’s why,” I growled.

At that, she blushed. “R-returning the favor? Like…”

“I wanna eat you out, yeah,” I told her like it was obvious, and quickly added, “If you want.”

“No, yeah, I… yeah. I’d, uh, like that. A lot. I’d fucking like that,” she replied with a blush. “Um…” She didn’t move.

After giving a slutty blowjob like that, she was still so shy. It was really adorable. I couldn’t help but smirk as I pushed myself off the wall and took her by the arm, lifting her to stand up with me. Her blush deepened, and I lifted her chin to look at me. I kissed her neck and worked on autopilot, trusting my body to do whatever felt natural. No thinking, just doing.

I trailed my free hand down her shirtless stomach until it went inside her pants. Her body jerked slightly as if she felt a shock, and then she moaned deeply. I touched her clit, and clearly, Sammy had a very sensitive one. On instinct, I started rubbing around her clit, causing her to start whimpering and practically vibrating in place.

“Be carefu- careful,” she urged, causing me to retract slightly. She nervously chuckled and added, “It’s super sensitive. Smaller touches, okay?”

“Okay,” I nearly whispered, beginning again with smaller, gentler movements. I was still touching her clit, just bearing in mind that the smaller the touch, the crazier it’ll drive her. And from the way her body was reacting, my theory was pretty spot-on.

Even though it was fun to work on my theory in real time, touching her clit through her pants wasn’t my end goal. I gently guided her back and laid her back to sit on the bed, with her feet still on the floor. It was my turn to be on my knees, and I smiled to myself as I slid her pants down her legs. She was laying down on the bed so I couldn’t look her in the eyes, but I could hear her labored breathing.

“You good, Sammy?” I asked in as dominant a voice as I could muster.

“Nervous,” she replied quickly, then added, “But not in a bad way. Keep going.”

I nodded, breathing in and out and lowering her underwear. I luckily had experience in this department but my heart was still beating out of my chest. This was my girlfriend’s pussy, and of course, as it came into view, it was obvious that it was as perfect as the rest of her. Her sensitive clit was almost visually throbbing, perched atop a pair of beautiful puffy pussy lips which were practically begging for me to dive in. Her wetness made her pussy glisten and shimmer invitingly, and she kept her hair modest and well-trimmed, but still clearly there. It framed her pussy beautifully. This was my girlfriend, and I wanted her, badly.

I gently pushed her legs open and felt some resistance. I hesitated, and Sammy felt the response. “Nervous response,” she admitted. “G-go ahead and push them open. I’ll tell you if anything makes me uncomfortable. I want this, baby.”

That was all the reassurance I needed. I pushed her legs open and dove in, extending my tongue and keeping in mind how sensitive her cute little clit was. Even still, I used my tongue well, lepping up her slit and going gentler as I went, ensuring I was starting strong but still just teasing her clit by the end of each lick upwards. 

“Oh my g- unghh,” Sammy moaned in a way that could only be described as undignified. It was weirdly hot. She was so composed normally, but even from a first lick, it was clear she was a needy little slut. From the sounds she was making, it sounded like she was covering her mouth with her hands. I kept up my efforts, holding her legs open and feeling the smooth skin of her thighs, learning in real-time how to make her moan again and again.

“Fuckin’ nnngh~” she moaned, then I felt sometihng on the bed shift. I looked up to see her clearly take a pillow and mash it against her face. I smirked internally at my handiwork, keeping up my oral assault on her pussy whilst the muffled slutty moans filtered through her pillow. 

Her body started moving – at first, in time with my movements, but soon they got more erratic and spontaneous. Her body was absolutely writhing, and her hands desperately came down to grab bunches of my hair, grabbing and caressing and, if the sounds were any indication, accepting that if nothing was holding the pillow in place, it was slipping off.

“Mmmmh, a-haaaha, ahhhng, Jason, Jasonnnn~” she moaned needily, gripping my head and pushing me in.

I couldn’t resist fueling the fire. I took my mouth off of her, replacing my tongue with a finger going in and out of her slick hole – she was more than wet enough to make it easy – and growled, “That’s a good girl.”

She nearly laughed deliriously in response, moving my head back in so I could continue to tongue her. The rhythm was getting to her, and her moans, no longer muffled by the pillow, got more desperate. Sammy was practically whining, continuously, for my tongue. I had full control over her, just as she had full control over me mere moments ago. We were mad for each other. We wanted each other so badly… and I wanted so badly to make her cum.

Good things come to those who are patient, and so I kept up my actions for minutes, ignoring the way my tongue was getting tired just so my girlfriend could have an earth-shattering climax. And sure enough, right as I thought I wasn’t going to be able to hold out too much longer, it clearly arrived. Sammy’s whines got higher and higher pitched, and she started to pant, “Oh yes, that’s it, oh baby, don’t stop, don’t fucking stop, you’re the best, I want you, I want you so bad, yes, fucking yes, babyyy, nnngh~!”

She let go of my head and desperately grabbed the pillow again, mashing it to her face barely in time to nearly scream into the pillow in rapture. She thrust her sex into my face and there was an unmistakable convulsing of her muscles, combined with a surge of her juices. I happily let them paint my face and kept up my tongue’s work, letting my girlfriend ride my face until she was satisfied.

And jeez, I thought ten seconds was long when we were fighting, but try around thirty when your girlfriend is moaning in bliss and you can barely breathe. It was only when her body went limp and her noises were reduced to satisfied pants that I dared to retract my face and finally, finally let my sore-ass tongue go back in my mouth.

“I… can’t… fuckin’… believe…” Sammy panted, still laying back on the bed. “Holy fuck. Holy shit. You’re perfect. I’m fucking keeping you.”

I stood up, but quickly elected to join her, lying next to her on her bed, both of our pants still around one or both our ankles. “I, uh, feel the same way,” I admitted. “It never felt like that befo-”

“I never felt that, fucking ever,” she admitted. “I only had two guys eat me out before, and – Jason, I’ll be so real. I just figured I didn’t like oral. I was so, fucking, wrong.”

I laughed beside her, and just let the moment take us over. “I can’t wait until we – I mean, if that’s okay to say -”

“We’re dangerous together,” Sammy giggled. “We definitely shouldn’t today though.”

“Oh, totally, sure,” I conceded quickly.

“But! God am I going to think about it. A lot. All fucking day. School is gonna be hell now,” she giggled. “This changes everything.”

“I’m gonna think about fucking you all day,” I admitted.

“I’m gonna think about fucking you all day too,” she quietly admitted, then turned to look at me. “Oops, you have a slut girlfriend. Guess you’re gonna have to do something about that, aren’t you~?”

“Guess so,” I replied, kissing her on the lips. 

“Mmh, we just tasted each other,” she giggled sluttily. “God, I bet I’m going to have such good dreams tonight.”

“Yeah, me too,” I laughed.

***

It was a dream, so it wasn’t all coherent, but it still felt just as good. Her pussy was absolutely perfect, like it was made to take me and only me. She moaned and whimpered as I thrust in and out of her, mashing herself back against me. Both of my palms were on the bed and I was doing everything my hips could do to make her take the full thing, as deep and as hard as possible. She was wet as hell for me. She wanted it. She needed it.

“Fuuuuck,” I moaned, keeping up my efforts. “God, you feel so fuckin’ good.”

“So do you,” she moaned back. “You’re such a stud.”

“And you’re such a slut,” I rebutted.

“Only for you,” she moaned, thrusting back against me. “Our little secret.”

I could feel myself grin, and my eyes met hers. Rose smirked, thrusting her hips against mine. “Fuck yes,” she moaned, looking between us, watching me impale her on my cock. Her tight little six-pack looked so fucking sexy. I couldn’t help but readjust myself so I could grab her tight little waist, drilling her harder and faster.

“Fuck, I love when you take control,” Rose moaned, going limp and letting her head fall back. “Give it to me. Give it to me, Jason. Fuck me like I’m yours.”

“You are mine, Rose,” I growled. 

Even in the dream, she just chuckled. “You wish,” she laughed. “Sammy is yours. I’m just your lil’ side piece.”

“Then tell me to stop,” I teased.

“Not in a million years. Now make me cum,” she giggled.

“Gladly,” I giggled back, and we both started going harder.

I didn’t awake with a gasp or any of that cheesy shit. I didn’t sit up in bed, or even… feel guilt. I couldn’t control what I was dreaming. Hell, if I was being honest… it was hot. Plus, this was my third dream like this. I already had plenty of time to get the guilt shit out of my system.

It didn’t change anything. Rose and me were still good friends, and of course I would never tell her this shit, but, it was still annoying that I didn’t even have one dream about Sammy. It wasn’t like I liked Rose more or anything – dreams are dreams. I probably just wanted what I couldn’t have or some shit. Sammy was still my girlfriend, and like, yeah, I was head over heels for her, but it didn’t mean I didn’t love the Rose dreams. 

I just had to accept that I wanted to fuck Rose. Did Sammy need to hear that if it didn’t lead to anything? No. Just as Sammy said, I was allowed to find Rose attractive, and I was never going to do anything in real life with her – not that Rose would have wanted me, or probably any guy, anyway. I sighed and closed my eyes again, wondering if I even wanted to have a dream about Sammy when Rose dreams were a thing. After all, I was going to get to fuck Sammy soon anyways. Maybe real life was for my girlfriend, so dreams could be for my best friend. My hot hothead best friend. Like Dream Rose said: our little secret.

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